CALVIN, JOHN (1509–1564) French and . It became one of the most important Protestant reformer and theologian. was single summaries of Protestant theology. the most prominent spokesperson for the Reformed Calvin then made quick trips to , where he variety of sixteenth-century , 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 , 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 . Geneva had been assisted in this revo- education for the priesthood. He went to 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 , 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 . 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 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 . 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. From the beginning, however, called the Consistory, charged with examining local he had hoped that an institution of higher education residents suspected of misbelief or misbehavior. Its could be created to take on this task on a more con- presiding officer was one of the four syndics chosen certed basis. Finally in 1559, the College of Geneva every year as supreme magistrates of the republic. was duly created, with * as its rector, Calvin attended its meetings regularly and was often and chairs of Hebrew and Greek as well as other called to administer the “remonstrances” or public relevant disciplines added. Calvin’s lectures then be- scoldings that ended most of its cases. came a part of its curriculum. This college eventually The deacons also met once a week to act on re- evolved into the present University of Geneva. quests for assistance and to regulate the General Hos- Calvin’s success in Geneva was made possible by pital. Calvin did not take an active role in their activ- great numbers of religious refugees who came flood- ities, but he did take an active role later in the group ing into the city, most whom were from France, Italy, of deacons created from among French refugees to and other countries. Some of the local residents re-

2 CALVIN, JOHN (1509–1564) sented the influence and the power of these refugees survival and spread of Calvinist Protestantism. It and tried to restrict them. They were led by a some- made it possible for Geneva to maintain the formal time captian-general of Geneva’s armed forces named alliance with Zwinglian Bern that was necessary to Ami Perrin (?–1561). The issue between the followers guarantee its survival against Savoy. It also made it of Calvin and Perrin centered around the powers of the possible for the ideas and examples of Calvin and Consistory and its right to excommunicate unrepen- Bullinger to spread throughout Europe, creating the tant sinners. The Perrinists wanted this right limited new form of Protestantism called Reformed Protes- and subject to reversal on appeal by the city govern- tantism. ment. The Calvinists insisted that only the Consistory When Calvin died on 27 May 1564, his form of had the power to levy and to lift sentences of excom- Protestantism was on the ascendant throughout Eu- munication. A showdown occurred in 1555 and the rope. Ironically, it was not to be very successful in the Perrinists were decisively defeated; some of them long run in his French homeland. It rather won its were put to death but most escaped into exile. From greatest success in other areas like Britain, including then on, Calvin’s power in Geneva was without any the British colonies of North America, in the NETHER- effective challenge. LANDS, in parts of GERMANY, and in HUNGARY. In all of This made it possible for Geneva to provide inter- these areas, Calvinist movements survive to the national leadership to a new branch of Protestantism. present. Men trained to be Protestant ministers fanned out from Geneva into many other countries in Europe to spread References and Further Reading the message of the new faith. Most of them went to France, but significant numbers went to Britain, in- Primary Sources: cluding *John Knox, the reformer of Scotland; to Barth, Petrus, and Guilielmus Niesel, eds. Opera Selecta. Mu- Germany, including Caspar Olevianus, the reformer of nich: 1962–1952. the palatinate; and the Marnix brothers, lay leaders of Baum, Guilielmus, Eduardus Cunita, and Eduardus Reuss, eds. the Reformation in the Netherlands. In all of these Ioannis Calvini Opera quae supersunt omnia. Brunswick, countries, Calvin’s followers adopted, often in consul- 1863–1900. tation with Calvin himself, confessions of faith and International Congress on Calvin Research. Ioannis Calvini Opera Omnia. Geneva: Droz, 1992. Updated version of books of discipline designed to replicate those used in Baum, et al., Ioannis Calvini Opera quae sipersunt omnia. Reformed Churches of the type favored by Calvin. Geneva also became a major center of printing during Calvin’s ministry, attracting a couple dozen Secondary Sources: printers, including Robert Estienne, who had been Bergier, Jean-Franc¸ois, and Robert M. Kingdon, eds. “Regis- royal printer to the king of France. Calvin became the tres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Gena´S˘a´ve au temps de best-selling author of the works these printers pub- Calvin.” Geneva: Droz, 1962, 1964. Bouwsma, William J. John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Por- lished including further editions of Calvin’s Institutes, trait. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. Bible editions and commentaries in which he had a Doumergue, Emile. Jean Calvin: Les Hommes et les choses de role, liturgical guides and catechisms he had drafted, son temps. Lausanne: Bridel and Neuilly-sur-Seine, Edi- and a significant number of religious polemics aimed tions de “La Cause,” 1899–1927. at Catholics, religious radicals, and, increasingly, Lu- Ganoczy, Alexandre. Le jeune Calvin: Gene`seete´volution de sa vocation reformatrice. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1966. theran extremists. Lambert, Thomas A., and Isabella W. Watt, eds., under the Calvin also served during these triumphant years as supervision of Robert M. Kingdon. “Registres du Consis- an adviser to political leaders, particularly those rep- toire de Gena´S˘a´ve au temps de Calvin.” Geneva: Droz, resenting the Protestant party in France. In these dip- 1996. lomatic initiatives he coordinated his activities closely Ra´ a´ckert, Hanns, et al., eds. Supplementa Calviniana: Sermons ine´dits. Neukirchener-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag des Er- with those of Henri Bullinger, Swiss religious re- zeihungsverins, 1936– . former ’s (1484–1531) successor as Wendel, Franc¸ois. Calvin: Sources et e´volution de sa pense´e leader of the Reformed Church in Zurich. Indeed a religieuse. Paris: Presses universitairesde France, 1950. Geneva-Zurich understanding became crucial to the ROBERT M. KINGDON

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