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John Calvin's Use of Erasmus Erasmus Studies 37 (2017) 176–192 brill.com/eras John Calvin’s use of Erasmus* Max Engammare University of Geneva [email protected] Abstract It is well known that Calvin made important use of Erasmus—the most quoted author in Calvin’s Commentaries on the New Testament—although he criticized him and contested his position more than regularly. This paper is focusing on a philological use of Erasmus by Calvin in his commentaries to the Canonical Epistles, particularly in the first Epistle of John with the Comma Joanneum (chapter 5). Two questions emerge. First, in which places (loci) did Calvin quote Erasmus in an exegetical or philological way of commenting the New Testament? Second, what did Calvin take and leave from Erasmus’s annotations? At the end of the demonstration, Max Engammare proves that Calvin did not read 1John 5 with Erasmus’ help. The Reformer was well acquainted both with the problem and Erasmus’ solution, but he accepted the Comma Joanneum without any reservation as something good, even excellent for Christians. Keywords Erasmus – Jean Calvin – New Testament – commentary – Trinity – Olivetan In September 1539, Christophe Fabri, pastor in Thonon, at that time a posses- sion of Bern, wrote to John Calvin in Strasbourg. Olivetan, the translator of the first French reformed Bible, who died during the summer in Italy, had given him and his brother Antoine half of his library.1 Olivetan owned a copy of the New * This paper was part of a session on Erasmus at the Sixteenth Century Studies and Conferences in Bruges in August 2016, organized by my good and long friend Christopher Ocker, I thank him, and Riemer Faber too for his comment. 1 See A.-L. Herminjard, Correspondance des réformateurs dans les pays de langue française,9 volumes, Geneva-Paris, 1866–1897, vol. 6, 1883, Nr. 816, 13–27. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/18749275-03702008Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:11:49PM via free access john calvin’s use of erasmus 177 Testament in Greek, published by Simon de Colinæus (Colines) in 1534, and a copy of Erasmus’ bilingual edition of the New Testament with his annotations. However Calvin did not want Fabri to keep for him any of these editions, and he simply asked him to keep the Hebrew Bible in two volumes (“Biblia Venetiana”) and to sell all other books.2 It appears to me as evident that Calvin in Fall 1539 already had his own copy of Erasmus’ Latin-Greek edition of the New Testa- ment with annotations. Which one? It is difficult to answer: with the secondary literature, I guess either the fourth (1527) or the fifth (1535). If Parker considered Calvin’s indebtedness to Erasmus in his Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, but also in his own critical edition of Romans,3 he did not consider in detail that 1539 letter.4 It struck me that Parker and other scholars have thought that Calvin could have owned Colinæus’ Greek edition and the fourth or the fifth edition of Erasmus’ New Testament with translation and annotations, without consid- ering that 1539 letter.5 Nevertheless, Faber non Stapulensis—if I may invent this humanist joke—has shown that Calvin preferred to use the 1535 edition of Eras- mus in his Galatians Commentary, open on his desk, and considered that the Genevan Reformer discontinued use of the 1534 Colinæus edition of the Greek text in the 1540s.6 On the other side, Helmut Feld does not think that Calvin ever used the Colinæus edition.7 With that single example, we may affirm that exploring the biblical relations between Erasmus and Calvin requires reading an entire library, because so many studies, articles and books have chosen to compare both monstres sacrés of the sixteenth century.8 It is well known that Calvin made important use 2 Ibid., letter Nr. 818, by the end of September 1539, 29–32, here 30–31. Olivetan had numbered all verses of the Psalter (“Scio enim psalterium a majori volumine abesse. Causa hæc est meæ cupiditatis, quod Olivetanus diligenter omnes versus suis numeris notavit.”) 3 See Ioannis Calvini opera exegetica volumen xiii: Commentarius in Epistolam Pauli ad Roma- nos, ediderunt T.H.L. Parker and D.C. Parker (Calvini opera denuo recognita ii/13); Geneva, 1999, xli–li. 4 See T.H.L. Parker, Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, London, 1971, n. 1, p. 105f. (with some inaccuracies). 5 See T.H.L. Parker, Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, London, 1971, 93–123. 6 See Riemer A. Faber, “The Influence of Erasmus’Annotationes on Calvin’s Galatians Commen- tary,”Dutch Review of Church History 84 (2004), 268–283, here 271. 7 See Ioannis Calvini opera exegetica volumen xi/1: In Evangelium secundum Johannem com- mentarius pars prior, edidit Helmut Feld (Calvini opera denuo recognita ii/11/1); Geneva, 1997, xxii (“Ob er [Calvin] dagegen auch das griechische Neue Testament von Simon Colinæus (de Colines; Paris 1534) herangezogen hat, scheint fraglich”). 8 There is a huge bibliographical forest with Calvin and Erasmus. See among others: Vivianne Erasmus Studies 37 (2017) 176–192 Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:11:49PM via free access 178 engammare of Erasmus although he criticized him and contested his position more than regularly.9 Nevertheless, Calvin’s rhetoric was framed and shaped by the great Humanist, and Bouwsma has argued that “unlike Luther, [Calvin] rarely attacked Erasmus”.10 It is true, but unlike in Luther’s time, when Calvin wrote his pamphlets, Erasmus was dead. It was not necessary to write too many books against dead people. Bouwsma did not read many of Calvin’s biblical commen- taries, which may explain his clement judgment for his hero. What is the more adequate interpretation? Did Calvin criticize Erasmus or not? We have firstly to distinguish exegetical works from the Institutes of the Christian Religion, and dogmatic theology as well as ecclesiastical books to answer the question ade- quately. I would like to focus here on a philological use of Erasmus by Calvin in his commentaries to the Canonical Epistles, in particular the first Epistle of John with the Comma Joanneum (chapter 5). Two questions emerge. First, in which places (loci) did Calvin quote Erasmus in an exegetical or philologi- cal way of commenting the New Testament? Second, what did Calvin take and leave from Erasmus’ annotations? We know that Erasmus was the most quoted Mellinghoff-Bourgerie, “Calvin émule d’Erasme. L’irréductibilité d’une conscience humaniste” in Calvin et ses contemporains. Actes du colloque de Paris de 1995, Olivier Millet (éd.), Genève, 1998, 225–246; Michael Becht, Pium concensum tueri. Studien zum Begriff consensus im Werk von Erasmus von Rotterdam, Philipp Melanchthon und Johannes Calvin, Münster, 2000 (more juxtaposition than real comparison); id., “Rezeption oder Nachleben? Johannes Calvins Konzept der accommodatio und Erasmus von Rotterdam”, in Theologie aus dem Geist des Humanismus. Festschrift für Peter Walter, hrg. von Hilary A. Mooney, Karlheinz Ruhstorfer und Viola Tenge-Wolf, Freiburg im Breisgau, 2010, 13–41; Riemer Faber, “The Influence of Erasmus’ Annotationes on Calvin’s Galatians Commen- tary”, Dutch Review of Church History 84, 2004, 268–283; James Brashler, “From Erasmus to Calvin: Exploring the Roots of Reformed Hermeneutics”, Interpretation 63, 2009, 154– 166; A.N.S. Lane, “Anthropology: Calvin between Luther and Erasmus”, in Calvin—Saint or Sinner? Edited by Herman J. Selderhuis, Tübingen, 2010, 185–205; John L. Thompson, “John Calvin on Biblical Interpretation. Tradition and Innovation in Early Reformed Exe- gesis of 1Corinthians”, Coram Deo 1, 2010, 211–236 (and I thank very much my friend John to have sent me a pdf of his article); Kirk Essary, “The Radical Humility of Christ in the Sixteenth Century: Erasmus and Calvin on Philippians 2:6–7”, Scottish Journal of Theology 68, 2015, 398–420 (and I also thank the author for the provided pdf as well as others); etc. 9 See e. g. Vivianne Mellinghoff-Bourgerie, “Calvin émule d’Erasme”, here 227f.; Olivier Millet, Calvin et la dynamique de la parole. Etude de rhétorique réformée, Paris, 1992, in particular ch. 5, 153–181. 10 See William J. Bouwsma, John Calvin. A Sixteenth-Century Portrait, New York and Oxford, 1988, 13. ErasmusDownloaded Studies from 37 Brill.com09/23/2021 (2017) 176–192 02:11:49PM via free access john calvin’s use of erasmus 179 author in Calvin’s Commentaries on the New Testament.11 We might even say more used than simply quoted. Canonical Epistles Editing Calvin’s Commentarii in epistolas canonicas, Kenneth Hagen remarked: When he mentions Erasmus’s rendering, Calvin generally disapproves, sometimes with qualification (Prior sensus magis Erasmo placuit, neque ego illum improbo [disapprove]; secundus tamen videtur melius quadrare [to accord]) other times outright rejection (Erasmus male vertit). Once he approves (verior tamen est Erasmi interpretatio). This all on 1Peter.12 The question remains: what did Calvin disapprove? Calvin’s Latin commentary to the Canonicals was first published 1551 in Geneva by Jean Crespin with a second enlarged and corrected edition in 1556.13 Erasmus was quoted sixteen times by name, but he may also be involved in many other expressions like “non convenit inter omnes”,“qui … longe falluntur” or “hic secundus magis videtur congruere”, etc.14 In his Commentary on John, Calvin adopted Sermo not Verbum in 1, 1, but he did not quote there Erasmus, only later, to criticize Erasmus’ condemnation by theologastri, theologians who walk on their stomach.15 Which is to say that the method of only counting citations by name does not entirely hit the target. Moreover, my first amount shows another difficulty of the exercise. Parker numbered 148 citations of Erasmus in Calvin’s commentaries on the New 11 See T.H.L.
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