CALVIN, JOHN (1509–1564) French and Latin
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CALVIN, JOHN (1509–1564) French and Latin. It became one of the most important Protestant reformer and theologian. John Calvin was single summaries of Protestant theology. the most prominent spokesperson for the Reformed Calvin then made quick trips to Italy, where he variety of sixteenth-century Protestantism, as distin- visited the court of the Duchess of Ferrara, Rene´e de guished from the variety led by MARTIN LUTHER France (daughter of a former king of France), who had (1483–1546). a great interest in Protestantism, and to France where he helped settle his parents’ estate. On his way back Background toward GERMANY, Calvin stopped in Geneva, a city that had just revolted against the rule of its prince- Calvin was born in Noyon, France, 10 July 1509, the bishop and his ally, the Duke of Savoy, and had son of a notary who worked for the local bishop. As a declared its independence and its adoption of the boy he was awarded a benefice to make possible his Reformation. Geneva had been assisted in this revo- education for the priesthood. He went to Paris in 1523, lution by the Swiss Protestant republic of Bern, then where he studied first at the Colle`ge de la Marche and committed to Zwinglian Protestantism. Bern had sent then at the Colle`ge Montaigu, famous for the rigor of William Farel to Geneva to lead the campaign to make its training in the classical humanities. When he fin- that city Protestant. Farel visited Calvin in his lodg- ished that relatively elementary course, however, his ings and insisted that Calvin remain help in the work father directed him to go on to study law, and he of reforming the local church. Calvin hesitated but dutifully moved on to Orleans where he completed finally agreed and was appointed a public lecturer in requirements for a degree in law, with a brief period of religion 5 September 1536. For the next two years legal study in Bourges as well. He then returned to Calvin assisted Farel in the work of creating a truly Paris and began advanced study in the classical hu- Reformed Church. Their efforts irritated the bourgeois manities, primarily with French scholar Guillaume ruling the city, however, and both were thrown out on Bude´ (1467–1540; an adviser and librarian to King short notice in 1538. Farel moved to Neuchatel, where Francis I; 1494–1547), who was a great authority on he spent the rest of his life superintending its Re- the Greek versions of Roman law. Calvin soon pub- formed Church. Calvin moved to Strasbourg, where lished a commentary on Seneca’s De clementia, which he became minister of the Church of French Protestant was a typical exercise in Renaissance humanistic refugees. There he became well acquainted with MAR- scholarship, closely examining the text of this classi- TIN BUCER (1491–1551) and other local religious lead- cal essay, lingering over details in Seneca’s use of ers. He had a chance to see how Strasbourg had rhetoric and pointing out details in its composition that organized its Reformed Church and to experiment in had been overlooked by the great Erasmus. ways of organizing the community of Frenchmen During these years Calvin became interested in there. He also attended a number of inter-confessional Protestantism and became active in a circle of French- conferences in various parts of Germany and met men who shared this interest, including Nicolas Cop, other Protestant leaders, most notably PHILIPE ME- rector of the University of Paris, who created a sen- LANCHTHON (1497–1560). sation with his inaugural address in 1533 endorsing a Protestant approach to Christianity. That was followed in 1534 by the “affair of the placards,” in which Geneva posters attacking the Roman Catholic Mass, with con- siderable virulence, were distributed all over France, Meanwhile Geneva had been drifting without well- provoking a major crackdown by the government on qualified clerical leadership, subjected to pressures to all Protestants. This led Calvin to abandon his bene- return to Catholicism. Most notably Jacopo Sadoleto, fice and leave the country, moving to the Protestant the reforming Catholic bishop of Carpentras, had writ- city of Basel and plunging into the systematic study of ten a public letter to the Genevans begging them to theology, apparently for the first time. There he vora- return to the bosom of the Holy Mother Church. ciously read the writings of Protestant Reformers, Genevan political leaders asked Calvin to publish a most notably Luther, and the writings of the church considered reply to Sadoleto’s letter, and it became fathers, most notably Augustine. The end result was one of the best early summaries of his entire doctrinal the publication, in 1536, of a first Latin edition of the position. These leaders then asked Calvin, alone, to INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, a general sum- return to Geneva and take over responsibility for cre- mary of the entire Protestant theological position, ba- ation of a truly Reformed Church in their city. On sically an expansion of Luther’s catechisms. Calvin 1541 Calvin did return to Geneva, now accompanied spent much of the rest of his career enlarging and by a new wife (who soon died), and remained in that revising this book, translating it back and forth into city for the rest of his life. 1 CALVIN, JOHN (1509–1564) One of Calvin’s first responsibilities was to write supervise the granting of welfare to their indigent sets of laws for the new republic. He first drafted the countrymen. Ecclesiastical Ordinances, which created a kind of Calvin served as both a pastor and a doctor. He constitution for the Reformed Church. These were gave formal talks almost every day on the Holy Scrip- adopted by the city government, with only a few tures, either sermons in French intended for the gen- minor amendments, late in 1541. Calvin also helped eral population or lectures in Latin intended primarily draft, as a member of a small committee, a set of for students. He used the method of lectio continuo in ordinances on offices and officers, which created a his speaking, choosing one book of the Bible and kind of constitution for the state. They were also going through it verse by verse, pericope by pericope, adopted by the city government, with some more often taking the better part of a year to complete the substantial amendments, in 1543. Both “constitutions” analysis of it. He spoke on books of the New Testa- committed Geneva to collective leadership, resisting ment and the Psalms on Sundays, interrupting his the notion common at that time that the most efficient lectio continuo method on special feast days such as government was the type that vested supreme power Christmas and Easter, with sermons based on biblical in one individual. texts of relevance to the events in the life of Christ Calvin’s Ecclesiastical Ordinances created four or- those days commemorate. He spoke on books of the ders of ministry for the Reformed Church. The first Old Testament on weekdays and delivered his talks order was of pastors, whose job it was to proclaim the from memory without prepared texts. The city soon Word of God by preaching and to administer the two hired secretaries to copy them down verbatim; many remaining sacraments of communion and baptism. of these copies survive, although a few of them have The second order was of doctors, who studied the disappeared. Some of them were prepared for publi- Holy Scriptures and to instructed others in their con- cation during Calvin’s own lifetime, but others were tent and meaning. Both pastors and doctors were full- never published and were not edited until the twenti- time employees of the city of Geneva. The third order eth and twenty-first centuries. Over the course of his career, Calvin prepared commentaries on almost every was of elders, who helped the pastors in maintaining book of the Bible. The one most obvious omission Christian discipline. The fourth order was of deacons, was the book of Revelations in the New Testament. who administered charity. Most of the elders and Calvin found it obscure and deliberately decided not deacons were laymen who worked in these capacities to comment on it. on only a part-time basis. One deacon, however, did Calvin also helped institute and regularly attended become a full-time city employee. He became the public “congregations,” or adult Bible classes. One or director of the General Hospital, the main center for another of the pastors would present a commentary on charitable activity in Geneva, and lived with his wife a pericope drawn from Holy Scripture and laymen in its building. In later years, when the city became would be invited to ask questions and present their flooded with refugees with their own special needs, own views of the passage. It was at one of these additional deacons were selected from among refu- congregations in 1551 that Jerome Bolsec attacked gees of wealth and prominence, who then helped take Calvin’s view of predestination, provoking an enor- care of their less fortunate fellows. mous uproar and a trial ending in Bolsec’s expulsion The pastors and doctors met once a week in a body from the city. called the Company. Calvin became its moderator, Through much of his career, Calvin was the only presiding over its meetings and presenting its recom- public lecturer charged with instructing Genevans mendations to the councils that actually ruled the city. (and a growing number of religious refugees) on the The elders and pastors met once a week in a body meaning of their faith.