Translators Note
Preface
To the Reader
Psychopannychia
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE for PSYCHOPANNYCHIA; OR, THE SOUL'S
IMAGINARY SLEEP.
The title of PSYCHOPANNYCHIA derived from Greek words which signify "the sleep of the soul;" the object of the
Tract being to show, partly from reason, but more especially from Scripture, that there is no such sleep. It was
published in 1534, when CALVIN was twenty-five years of age, and is, consequently, with the exception of the
Commentary on the Clementia of Seneca, published in 1532, the earliest of all his writings, and two years earlier than
the Institutes, the first known edition of which appeared in 1536. It thus possesses, especially to those who delight to
trace the progress of a master mind, an interest additional to that which its merit gives it.
The figment which it refutes is said by CALVIN to be of Arabian origin, but was first brought prominently into notice
by some of the wildest fanatics among the ANABAPTISTS, for whom everything new and monstrous appears to have
had an irresistible attraction. In more modern times, attempts have been made to give it a philosophical shape, as a
necessary corollary from the dogma of Materialism advocated by Priestley and others.
It would seem that the figment, wild and irrational though it is, had made considerable progress at an early period of
the Reformation, and counted numerous converts, not merely among the fanatics who had revived it, but in more
respectable quarters, where better things might have been expected.
One is puzzled to understand why it should have been received with so much favor; for the idea which it suggests, so
far from being attractive, is naturally revolting. It was probably welcomed, not so much for its own sake, as for the
great assistance which it was supposed capable of giving in THE POPISH CONTROVERSY. Were it once established
that the soul falls asleep at death, and will not awake to consciousness till again united to the body at the resurrection,
THE POPE would forthwith be excluded from the larger half of his domain, and deprived of the most lucrative
branches of his trade! There would neither be SAINTS to whom divine honors could be paid, nor PURGATORY out of
which poor souls might be delivered with more or less expedition, according to the number of well-paid masses that
were said for them!
If the cordial reception given to the dogma was owing to the collateral benefit thus supposed to be derived from it, it
only adds another to the many instances in which blind man would arrogantly give lessons to his Maker, and arrange
the world on a better plan than His infinite wisdom has devised. Because it would furnish a triumphant refutation of
Popish legends and fictions - the soul must be made to perish with the body, and a common ruin overtake both!
It would appear that the subject had attracted attention in England, for we find that the TRACT was translated in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth. The title-page is as follows: - "A Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul, by which it is proved
that souls after the departure of the bodies are awake and do live: against those that think they do sleep. By JOHN
CALVIN. Translated out of French by Tho. Stocker." It was "Imprinted by John Day. London, 1581."
In the PSYCHOPANNYCHIA, CALVIN, knowing the kind of people he had to deal with, accommodates himself to their
capacities; and instead of entering largely into speculative disquisitions which the subject seems to suggest, and to
which the metaphysical cast of his own mind must have strongly inclined him, dwells chiefly on THE SCRIPTURAL
ARGUMENT - carefully examining all the passages which the advocates of the dogma had adduced as favorable to
their view, and adducing others by which it is completely overthrown. If by the adoption of this plan, the TRACT loses
somewhat in point of philosophical exactness, it gains much in richness of scriptural illustration; and proves that, even
at this early period, in writing his first theological publication, CALVIN gave promise of the almost unrivaled
excellence to which he ultimately trained as a COMMENTATOR.
Henry Beveridge
May 1851.