The past is a different country - they say things differently there

In the May-June Reformation Today there is an excerpt from Eric Wright's book on Missions which includes this: 'May God deliver preachers, missionaries and evangelists from the terrible thought that their wife and children are in the way of their ministry!' This brought to mind what Selderhuis in his excellent book on Calvin has to say about his - that is Calvin's - wife after her death: 'Calvin felt the need to add also that she never hindered him in his work'. Selderhuis comments: 'Still, although it is to be hoped that everyone might claim his or her partner was no hindrance, we might also wish that Calvin had simply dropped the remark.'

Perhaps. But we remember that Calvin lived at a time when Europe was dominated by Roman Catholicism whose priests were obligated to be celibate. Surely one reason which must obviously have been advanced in favour of celibacy over against the Reformers was that marriage hindered a priest from giving himself fully to the work of God. So Calvin after positive compliments to his wife, from his own experience denies the Roman contention: 'She never hindered me in my work!' Well, who knows? But the point is this; it is all too easy to judge the past in terms of our experience and understanding in the present.