Day 07 — Institutes I.3.§2 [직강]

Here it comes — the objection you've heard a thousand times, five centuries early. "Religion? Invented by crafty politicians to keep the masses in line." Critias said it in ancient Athens, Machiavelli was saying it in Calvin's own lifetime, and your seatmate said it last week. Today Calvin takes the strongest version of the debunking argument and flips it: even the manipulation of religion proves religion is natural. You can't counterfeit a coin nobody trusts. And then he marches in Exhibit A — the emperor Caligula, loudest God-mocker in Rome, hiding under the bed at thunder. This is courtroom Calvin at his sharpest.

Grammatically? Today is comparison day. Calvin's translator stacks three of the highest-yield comparative structures in the language into one section.

Today's 3 Big Points — mark them now:

1. Inverted conditional: "had the minds of men not been previously imbued" — no if anywhere. Had + S + (not) + p.p. IS the if-clause. Miss this and S2 reads like nonsense.
2. Negative + comparative = superlative: "there was nothing which they less believed than the existence of a God" — nothing less believed = believed LEAST of all. The pattern fires three times today (S1, S5 twice). It's a meaning-flip machine.
3. The proportional comparative: "smites their consciences the more strongly the more they endeavour to flee" — the X-er, the Y-er. Two the's, locked ratio: more flight, harder strike.

Three points. Lock them in. Now read.

It is most absurd, therefore, to maintain, as some do, that religion was devised by the cunning and craft of a few individuals, as a means of keeping the body of the people in due subjection, while there was nothing which those very individuals, while teaching others to worship God, less believed than the existence of a God. I readily acknowledge, that designing men have introduced a vast number of fictions into religion, with the view of inspiring the populace with reverence or striking them with terror, and thereby rendering them more obsequious; but they never could have succeeded in this, had the minds of men not been previously imbued with that uniform belief in God, from which, as from its seed, the religious propensity springs. And it is altogether incredible that those who, in the matter of religion, cunningly imposed on their ruder neighbours, were altogether devoid of a knowledge of God. For though in old times there were some, and in the present day not a few are found who deny the being of a God, yet, whether they will or not, they occasionally feel the truth which they are desirous not to know. We do not read of any man who broke out into more unbridled and audacious contempt of the Deity than C. Caligula, and yet none showed greater dread when any indication of divine wrath was manifested. Thus, however unwilling, he shook with terror before the God whom he professedly studied to condemn. You may every day see the same thing happening to his modern imitators. The most audacious despiser of God is most easily disturbed, trembling at the sound of a falling leaf. How so, unless in vindication of the divine majesty, which smites their consciences the more strongly the more they endeavour to flee from it. They all, indeed, look out for hiding-places where they may conceal themselves from the presence of the Lord, and again efface it from their mind; but after all their efforts they remain caught within the net. Though the conviction may occasionally seem to vanish for a moment, it immediately returns, and rushes in with new impetuosity, so that any interval of relief from the gnawing of conscience is not unlike the slumber of the intoxicated or the insane, who have no quiet rest in sleep, but are continually haunted with dire horrific dreams. Even the wicked themselves, therefore, are an example of the fact that some idea of God always exists in every human mind.

Twelve sentences. The skeleton is a rebuttal that ends as a counter-proof:

[OBJECTION]   "Religion = invention of crafty politicians"        (S1)
[CONCEDE+TURN] Fictions? Granted. But deception only works on
              minds ALREADY seeded with belief                    (S2~S3)
[EVIDENCE]    Even deniers feel the truth against their will      (S4)
  [EXHIBIT A]  Caligula: loudest contempt, greatest dread         (S5~S7)
  [GENERALIZE] Every despiser trembles at a falling leaf;
              conscience strikes harder the more they flee        (S8~S10)
[CLINCHER]    Suppressed conviction always floods back —
              a drunkard's sleep, not peace                       (S11)
[QED]         The wicked THEMSELVES prove the sense of Deity      (S12)

Examiner's Eye: the concession in S2 is the trap field. Calvin agrees that designing men introduced fictions into religion — he never denies priestcraft. An option reading "Calvin denies that religious leaders ever practised deception" is a fabricated denial; he concedes it readily. His actual claim is narrower and sharper: manipulation cannot explain the origin of religion, because it presupposes the very belief it exploits. Second trap, same as yesterday: the terror of Caligula and the atheists is evidence FOR the sense of Deity, not proof that mockery extinguishes it. Direction-flippers will be waiting at S5.

Star scale: ★★★ exam-critical, conquer it. ★★ know the structure. ★ one point and move.

Formula 1. Inverted conditional — the amputated if

If + S + had (not) + p.p.  →  Had + S + (not) + p.p.
"had the minds of men not been imbued" = if the minds had not been imbued
Warning① clause-initial Had + S is NOT a question — check for the comma + main clause
Warning② negative stays AFTER the subject: Had they not been (never "Hadn't they been" in formal style)
Warning③ works with had / were / should: Were he alive ... / Should it happen ...

Drill: "사람들이 이미 하나님을 믿고 있지 않았더라면, 그 속임수는 통하지 않았을 것이다" → Had men not already believed in God, the deception never could have succeeded.

Formula 2. Negative + comparative = superlative

nothing ... less believed than X   = X was believed LEAST of all
no man ... more unbridled than C   = C was the MOST unbridled
none showed greater dread          = he showed the GREATEST dread
Warning: always convert before answering — direction-flip options live here.
  ("nothing less believed than X" ≠ "X was firmly believed" — it's the OPPOSITE)

Drill: "칼빈이 우상숭배보다 더 미워한 것은 없었다" → There was nothing which Calvin hated more than idolatry. (= he hated it most of all)

Formula 3. The proportional comparative — the ... the ...

the + 비교급 (clause A), the + 비교급 (clause B)  →  locked ratio A ∝ B
"smites the more strongly the more they endeavour to flee"
Warning① either clause may come first — find BOTH the's, then draw the arrow
Warning② don't drop a "the": "more they flee, the harder it smites" ✗

Drill: "도망치려 애쓸수록 양심은 더 크게 외친다" → The more they strive to flee, the more loudly conscience cries out.

The objection has a pedigree. "Religion was invented to control the masses" is not a modern edge — it's ancient. The fragment attributed to Critias (5th c. BC) has a clever man inventing the gods so fear would police men in secret; Polybius praised Roman religion as splendid crowd-control; and in Calvin's own century Machiavelli coolly advised princes to exploit religion for statecraft. When Calvin writes as some do, his first readers knew exactly who. So understand what Calvin is doing: he picks the strongest, most fashionable debunking argument available and answers it head-on.

The shape of the answer — concede, then undercut. Calvin's move is elegant: he grants the entire data set (yes, priests invented fictions; yes, rulers exploited fear) and then asks the one question the theory can't survive: why did it work? Forgery presupposes genuine currency. You can only sell fake religion to minds already wired for the real thing. The manipulation thesis explains religion's corruptions, never its existence. Note this is the same argumentative shape as yesterday's idolatry argument — corruption as counter-evidence turned star witness.

Exhibit A, from Suetonius. Caligula — who declared himself a god, mocked Jupiter, and (Suetonius, Life of Caligula 51) would leap from his bed and hide under it at thunder and lightning. The emperor with the loudest contempt and the weakest nerves. Calvin's readers, drilled in the classics, would have grinned at the citation.

Where this lands later. The "projection/control" theory of religion returns with Feuerbach, Marx ("opium of the people"), and Freud — and so does Calvin's rejoinder, in modern dress: a suppression account of unbelief. Plantinga's Reformed epistemology leans on exactly this section: the sensus divinitatis keeps firing even in those who deny it; atheism is not the absence of the signal but resistance to it. The "terrors of conscience" theme also feeds straight into Calvin's pastoral theology — the difference between servile dread (Caligula's) and filial fear (Day 05's etiamsi nullus esset infernus) is the whole gospel distance.

Over-reading guardrail. Calvin is NOT claiming every atheist is consciously lying, every moment. His claim is dispositional: the conviction occasionally surfaces (occasionally feel the truth, S4; now and then breaks forth, §3 will say). Don't sharpen "suppression" into "24/7 conscious bad faith" — that's scope-overreach, and §3's own wording will refute you.

1. Rom 1:18 — "who hold [κατέχειν, katechein, hold down, suppress] the truth in unrighteousness." S4: they occasionally feel the truth which they are desirous not to know**. This is Calvin's engine room. Paul's κατέχειν is precisely "wanting not to know what you know" — Calvin has translated the participle into a psychology.
2. Lev 26:36 — "the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee." S8's trembling at the sound of a falling leaf is a near-verbatim lift from the covenant curses: terror so deep that foliage becomes artillery. Calvin quotes without quoting — the aphorism IS the verse.
3. Ps 139:7–12 (with Gen 3:8 behind it) — "Whither shall I flee from thy presence?" S10's hiding-places where they may conceal themselves from the presence of the Lord replays both Adam among the trees and the psalmist's no-exit map. Calvin adds the hunting net: the seekers of cover are already caught.
4. Jas 2:19 — "the devils also believe, and tremble [φρίσσουσιν, phrissousin, bristle/shudder]." The Caligula sequence (S5–S8) is this verse dramatized: belief without love produces precisely shuddering. Dread is a form of acknowledgment.
5. Isa 57:20–21 — "the wicked are like the troubled sea ... there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." S11's drunkard's sleep and ceaseless nightmares: Calvin's psychological image for Isaiah's oceanography of the godless conscience.

Method note, third day running: not one citation on the surface — the visible authorities are Suetonius and common observation. But the load-bearing beams (suppressed truth, the chasing leaf, the impossible hiding, demonic trembling, no peace for the wicked) are all Scripture. Calvin argues like Cicero and thinks in verses.

Q1. [Grammar] Which underlined part is wrong?

①That designing men have introduced fictions into religion, Calvin readily acknowledges; but ②had the minds of men not been imbued with belief in God, they never could have succeeded; for there was nothing which those deceivers ③less believed as the existence of a God; and conscience smites them ④the more strongly the more they endeavour to flee.

Answer: ③. The comparative less believed demands than, not as: less believed THAN the existence of a God. ① fronted object clause (Day 06, Formula 1) — fine. ② inverted conditional, Formula 1 today — fine. ④ proportional comparative with both the's — fine. Setter's intent: while you're busy admiring the fancy inversion in ②, the cheap as/than swap in ③ walks right past you. Check the boring suspects first.

Q2. [Comprehension] Which statement agrees with §2?

(A) Calvin denies that religious leaders ever introduced fictions or exploited the people's fear (B) Caligula's dread shows that persistent mockery can finally extinguish the sense of Deity (C) The success of religious manipulation presupposes a prior, uniform belief in God in human minds (D) Calvin argues that atheists enjoy untroubled peace of mind once they abandon religion

Answer: C — S2 nearly verbatim: deceivers never could have succeeded ... had the minds of men not been previously imbued with that uniform belief. (A) fabricated denial — Calvin readily acknowledges the fictions; he concedes the data and disputes the inference. (B) direction-flip: Caligula's dread proves the sense of Deity SURVIVES mockery (champion of contempt = champion of terror). (D) contradicted by S11 — their "peace" is the drunkard's sleep, haunted by dire dreams.

Q3. [Composition] Use Formula 1 (inverted conditional): "신 의식이 모든 사람의 마음에 새겨져 있지 않았더라면, 우상숭배는 결코 생겨나지 못했을 것이다."

Model answer: Had the sense of Deity not been inscribed on every human heart, idolatry never could have arisen. (Had + S + not + p.p., main clause with never could have + p.p. Resist starting with "If" — grammatical, but the formula under test is the amputated-if inversion. And keep the negative after the subject: Had the sense ... not been, never "Had not the sense been.")

One line: The "crafty politicians" theory dies on its own evidence — you can only counterfeit a currency people already trust, and the loudest despisers (Caligula, his modern franchise) tremble hardest, because conscience smites the more strongly the more they flee. Grammar trio: amputated-if conditional (Had + S + p.p.), negative + comparative = superlative, the-the proportional ratio.

Homework (10 min): 1. Without looking, restore S2's base pattern: rewrite had the minds of men not been previously imbued as a full if-clause, then re-amputate it. Both directions, from memory. 2. Formula 3 composition: "하나님을 더 알수록, 자신을 더 알게 된다" → The more we know God, the ... (finish it yourself — Day 01's circle, now in ratio form). 3. Tomorrow's preview, one line: §3 closes the chapter — Diagoras the scoffer, the "Sardonian grin," and the worm of conscience keener than burning steel; Calvin will tell you religion is the one lesson nobody learned at school.

Where we stopped: Book 1, Ch. 3, §2 끝. 다음은 §3.