 Calvin 's first published work was a commentary of Seneca the Younger 's De Clementia . Published at his own expense in 1532 , it showed that he was a humanist in the tradition of Erasmus with a thorough understanding of classical scholarship . His first theological work , the Psychopannychia , attempted to refute the doctrine of soul sleep as promulgated by the Anabaptists . Calvin probably wrote it during the period following Cop 's speech , but it was not published until 1542 in Strasbourg . 
