The Creation of a Calvinist Identity in the Reformation Period

chapter 7 The Creation of a Calvinist Identity in the Reformation Period Ole Peter Grell Calvinism, as opposed to other Protestant confessions quickly developed a pan-European identity during the Reformation period – from the mid- sixteenth to the early seventeenth century. This early modern Reformed identity, including the theology which underpinned it, was shaped by the prolonged experience of persecution, exodus and subsequent exile which came to form the experience of an increasingly large number of influential Calvinist fami- lies. This chapter is concerned with how and why this came about and what it resulted in.1 First, an overview of the size and nature of Calvinist emigration and re- emigration together with a record of the principal places of settlement is provided. Then follows a discussion of the rationale for emigration amongst the wealthy, Calvinist merchants who came to constitute the spine of the exiled Reformed communities and to what extent it was determined by religious and/ or economic factors. This leads into an analysis of the raison d’être which Calvinist exiles applied to their own experiences of persecution, exile, and minority existence, focussing in particular on the role of providential history and the use of the Old Testament as a matrix for their personal experiences. A variety of contemporary sources illustrating the role of providential history and the use of texts from the Bible are quoted here. The second half of the chapter is focussed on the significance of the so- called ‘Weber thesis’ for explaining the success of the first three generations of wealthy Calvinist merchants-bankers who provided leadership for the exiled Calvinist communities across Europe. Here I emphasise the social experience of persecution, exodus, and minority existence as the constitutive forces behind a Calvinist identity rather than the theology of predestination. I argue that only with that experience could a sense of election and of belonging to God’s chosen people become meaningful and result in the strong providential- ism expressed by these emigrants. As opposed to Weber and his adherents I conclude that the aspects of Calvinist theology which Weber considered central to the emergence of the ‘spirit of capitalism’ and modernity, namely 1 Please note that I use the terms ‘Calvinist’ and ‘Reformed’ interchangingly in the chapter. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��6 | doi �0.��63/9789004303737_008 <UN> 150 GRELL predestination and the accompanying anxiety which this dogma is supposed to have generated among Reformed believers, had little effect among the exiled Calvinists merchants studied here. Instead they expressed little or no doubt about their personal election and salvation. The chapter draws on arguments presented in a number of my recent works,2 but especially on my new book about the significance of the European network of Calvinist refugee merchants, which was enhanced through inter- marriage and partnership in business and trade, and which forged the back- bone of international Calvinism in Reformation Europe.3 Patterns of Reformed Emigration It can be argued that John Calvin’s flight in 1536 from France to Basle in Switzerland and subsequent move to Geneva became emblematic for the large-scale, Reformed diaspora which followed later in the century. What began as a relatively small-scale emigration, primarily of Protestant ministers, eventually turned into mass migration in the second half of the sixteenth century of lay believers, consisting chiefly of wealthy merchants and highly skilled craftsmen. This later mass migration, however, differed from the earlier, small- scale emigration which had been broadly evangelical or Protestant in charac- ter, by being predominantly Reformed or Calvinist.4 The early emigration had been a consequence of the growing confessional- ization of European states and societies, such as the Habsburg Netherlands ruled by Charles v and France in the reign of Francis i. The city-states of Switzerland, especially Basle and Geneva, and Strasbourg in Germany, had provided asylum for these refugees. Among the famous Reformed ministers who like Calvin left France in the 1530s and 1540s and sought refuge in Geneva were Pierre Viret, Nicholas des Gallars and Theodore Beza, while Italians, such as Bernardino Ochino and Peter Martyr, fled to Strasbourg via Basle in the 1540s.5 A couple of years later Ochino and Martyr arrived in England on the invitation of archbishop Thomas Cranmer. In 1549 they were joined by their former Strasbourg hosts, Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius, who had decided to leave the city 2 See Grell 1994; Grell 1996; Grell 2009. 3 Grell 2011. 4 For the early emigration from the Netherlands, see Pettegree 1992, pp. 1–25; for France, see Greengrass 1987, pp. 24ff. For the mass emigration of Calvinists, see Briels 1978; Schilling 1972 and Schilling 1983. See also Israel 1989, pp. 35–37. 5 Grell 1994, pp. 255–256. <UN>.

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