Jean Calvin comme homme de souffrance: autobiographie spirituelle et biographie humaniste à la Renaissance
Jean Calvin as Suffering Man: Spiritual Autobiography and Humanist Biography during the Renaissance
Calvin spread his image as a suffering man, sacrificing his health and life for his position held as a man of the Church. After his death, this image was revived and systematized by the first biographers who paid tribute to the protestant reformer. The article locates three major sources of the way in which this suffering is represented, the way in which they relate to one another or to other biographical models existing in the Renaissance humanism, particularly related to Erasmus and Budé. Calvin’s autobiographical model is not a saint life but a humanist and heroic model (Hercule’s works) according to which the efforts experienced are the price to be paid for a great work. Calvin converts this view to make it beneficial for the religious cause to which he devoted himself.
Keywords: Reform, Calvin, humanism, suffering, autobiography
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