John Calvin’s aversion to being remembered
Of all the 16th-century Reformers, John Calvin (1506–1564) was the most reluctant to discuss details of his life in works destined for public consumption.
As he told Cardinal Jacopo Sadoleto: ‘I am not eager to speak about myself.’ He had, as historian Heiko Oberman once aptly put it, a ‘dislike of self-disclosure.’