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Although Calvin is as fallible as anybody, in reading Calvin one can be fairly confident he has not, for the most part, exposed himself to the errors of Rome. This passage from Calvin, often quoted on RC Apologist web sites, almost never is given in the sort of context that gives the true sense of scale in the several honors bestowed on Mary. If one were to stop with the phrase "God conferred the highest honor on Mary," one could get a very wrong impression of what he was saying. To set this right, we must look to Calvin's Harmony of the Gospels, from which this passage comes. Unfortunately, the original is in Latin, and the Latin I have not yet found on the web.

However, even without the Latin, we may reverse engineer to discover whether the relative superlative "highest honor" is in fact the same as "hyperdulia." It is not. If one wants to say "highest honor" in Latin, the expression is "summum honorem." This is an important distinction, because dulia is not derived from "honor" but "servitude," as in Greek doulos, slave. Now no doubt a slave honors their master, and this is how the concept has transferred. But again, as Calvin is writing this in Latin, and not in favor of Roman error, we cannot suppose he used here the Roman technical expression for veneration of Mary, but rather describes that highest of honors that can be given to any human mother, to carry in her womb Jesus the Savior.

But if we were to stop the analysis there, we would still fall short of understanding Calvin. To set the table for this, here is the passage he is commenting on:

And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
(Luke 11:27-28)

And here, as evangelicals have done for centuries, Calvin is going to demonstrate in this passage, not the Roman sense of doulos, servitude to Mary, but Jesus' teaching that a spiritual servitude to the word of God, and a willingness to keep it, is by comparison an even greater blessing than that highest of honors, being Jesus' earthly mother. With that in mind, note the fuller text:

Luke 11:27. Blessed is the womb. By this eulogium the woman intended to magnify the excellence of Christ; for she had no reference to Mary, 154 whom, perhaps, she had never seen. And yet it tends in a high degree to illustrate the glory of Christ, that she pronounces the womb that bore him to be noble and blessed. Nor was the blessing inappropriate, but in strict accordance with the manner of Scripture; for we know that offspring, and particularly when endued with distinguished virtues, is declared to be a remarkable gift of God, preferable to all others. It cannot even be denied that God conferred the highest honor on Mary, by choosing and appointing her to be the mother of his Son. And yet Christ’s reply is so far from assenting to this female voice, that it contains an indirect reproof.

Nay, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God. We see that Christ treats almost as a matter of indifference that point on which the woman had set a high value. And undoubtedly what she supposed to be Mary’s highest honor was far inferior to the other favors which she had received; for it was of vastly greater importance to be regenerated by the Spirit of God than to conceive Christ, according to the flesh, in her womb; to have Christ living spiritually within her than to suckle him with her breasts. In a word, the highest happiness and glory of the holy Virgin consisted in her being a member of his Son, so that the heavenly Father reckoned her in the number of new creatures.

Calvin's Harmony of the Gospels, Volume 2

So we see Calvin speaking of that "highest honor" of giving birth to Jesus being inferior to those other, greater favors which she had received, namely, to be counted among those regenerated by God's Spirit, to have Christ living spiritually within her, in being a fellow member of the body of Christ, and therefore among God's new creations, as can be said of all who have come to true faith in Christ. So then any simple sinner who has come to Christ in faith and repented of their sin and honors the word of God in word and deed is holding a greater treasure in their hand than the "highest honor" ever bestowed on Mary for giving birth to Jesus.

In sum, trying to take that one expression and turn it into Calvin supporting Rome's false view of Mary is to put words in Calvin's mouth he would never say, in Latin or any other language, and certainly did not say here..

Peace,

SR