Unpack Calvin's thought of ambition?

[Ne Oublie]

In Calvin's thought on the Christian life, below the heading of Self-Denial, he mentions the oppression of ambition. Does anyone know what his meaning of this term is? Is this similar to vainglory? I have noticed that the translators of Calvin have used this word often other places as well.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

For some people, the drive for personal glory can feel at times like being in the grip of a monster. Whether every part of the mind wants it or not, he may break his body, may destroy his family, may alienate all his friends, and lose the most precious things in life--all for the gain of some transient, earthly glory that will inevitably fade. Like an addiction, he wants the success of his aim for the drug-like high it gives him. But, coming down off that high, the regrets and guilt of the cost of attaining it are often (not always, nor in every person) oppressive to the soul.

So also, it is analytically possible to identify the ambition that caused the whole trip to be identified as one major source of the oppression. Calvin (as a Christian) recognized that his early career as a scholar was marked by these signs. He knew he had gifts, and those gifts could bring him glory. As a young, brilliant lawyer and classics scholar, he was not subdued to God. He learned the peace that only conversion brings.

Some people accused Calvin of wanting to be a rival to the pope. He was alleged to promote himself in Geneva, where he attained a modest imitation of the pope's grandeur. It is hard to imagine a more ridiculous caricature. It wasn't ambition that brought Calvin (back) to Geneva. But a sense of duty, that he must follow this call, though he would never get any earthly benefit, much less glory, from the effort.