Calvin
The European World
Recap:
 Luther


& Zwingli split on the issues of:
The ‘presence’ of Christ in the Eucharist.
The legality (or not) of images.
 Protestantism
diverged into ‘Lutheran’ &
‘Reformed’ traditions.
 A ‘Swiss’ rather than a ‘German’ event?
 1525 – Zwingli could have been the man
we remember.
Captain Grumpy to the
rescue:
Many suggest that Calvin ‘saved’ Protestantism
after Luther died/ remaining Lutherans split
between Melanchthon and others/ Zwingli’s
Zurich blocked from expanding by surrounding
cantons.
The Majesty of God:
‘Our wisdom…..consists almost entirely of
two parts: the knowledge of God and of
ourselves….. man never attains true selfknowledge until he has contemplated the
face of God, and come down after such
contemplation to look into himself’.

‘The miserable ruin into which the revolt of the first
man [Adam & Eve] has plunged us, compels us to
turn our eyes upwards [where]….being aroused by
fear may learn humility. For as there exists in man
something like a world of misery, and ever since
we were stript of the divine attire our naked shame
discloses an immense series of disgraceful
properties every man, being stung by the
consciousness of his own unhappiness, in this way
necessarily obtains at least some knowledge of
God. Thus, our feeling of ignorance, vanity, want,
weakness, in short, total depravity and corruption,
reminds us that in the Lord, and none but He, dwell
the true light of wisdom, solid virtue, exuberant
goodness’.

‘Hence that dread and amazement with
which holy men were struck and
overwhelmed whenever they beheld the
presence of God. When we see those who
previously stood firm and secure so quaking
with terror, that the fear of death takes hold
of them, nay, they are, in a manner,
swallowed up and annihilated, the inference
to be drawn is that men are never duly
touched and impressed with a conviction of
their insignificance, until they have contrasted
themselves with the majesty of God’
Three pre-requisites to
understanding Calvin:

1) Humanity is fundamentally unworthy of God:

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2) God is all knowing and all powerful:

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

Augustine – ‘lump of perdition’
That God is prepared to save ANY person is a remarkable testament to his
mercy.
Humans are not capable of understanding HIM
Attempts to do so partial, limit His majesty and therefore insult HIM.
Images = idolatry.
3) Salvation is predestined – human will is constrained
and powerless to help:


Idea that human action have any merit with God offensive to Him.
Catholic rituals, mediating Grace, not just unscriptural but anti-Christian
 To suggest that people can work towards salvation through their own merits
insults Christ
 Implies that his death on the Cross was not enough.
Why is Calvinism important?
 1)
‘Counter Reformation’ well under way.

 2)

Catholicism was resurgent:
Luther dead in 1546:
Lutheran movement splits.
 3)
More transportable than Lutheranism –
more akin to a ‘bottom up’ Reformation.


Exist independently of the state.
Practical and coherent statement of belief/
Church structure to help Protestantism flourish
into fully-fledged ‘Churches’.
Lecture Structure:
 John
Calvin
 The Genevan Reformation
 International Calvinsim
 ‘Calvinism’ or ‘The Reformed’?
 Calvin & Beyond
John Calvin

Initial difficulties:



Hostility within Geneva,
riddled with factions.
1536 – invited to join
French preacher
Guillaume Farel
 Expelled in 1538.
 Strasbourg with
Martin Bucer.
 Invited back by the
city council during
1541
Hostility to foreign
pastors remained:

But huge numbers of
French refugees arrive in
the 1540s – doubling
Geneva’s population assured Calvin’s
ascendency by the
mid-1550s.
John Calvin:
•
What marked Calvin out from Luther was his
education in theology AND law.
•
Rhetorical and analytical skills which later put
to good use in sermons/ and formation of
Church structure.
•
Statements on theology and structure precise
and systematic.
•
Helped with the dissemination to other areas
& becoming most successful form of
Protestantism.
Differences from Luther:
Double Predestination




Salvation for elect;
Damnation for reprobate.
No way of knowing.
Problem: was this not dangerously close to making
God the author of evil in the world?


If predestined to salvation and reprobation, was not
God a tyrant and an author of sin?
Other Protestants – like Philip Melanchthon –
concerned that double predestination was
very close to pagan heresies like Stoicism
and Manichaeism
Double Predestination
 For
Calvin, predestination tied to the allembracing providence of God in every
aspect of human life and experience.



Why, after two decades, had the
Reformation not swept all before it?
God had surely planned it that way?
God had given a model for how he chose
His people in the Old Testament –
relationship with Israel.

Calvin looked at
Israel and drew a
different conclusion:






Israel = OT equivalent
of the True Church.
Had been
covenanted (joined
with God).
Everyone in Israel
Elect – ‘general
Election’.
But not all of them
followed God’s
commandments.
Some had clearly
been rejected by
God.
Because OT Church
of God mixed, so
would NT.
Double
Predestination:
•
•
Israel helped Calvin to
develop his view of the
Church.
Radicals - a state
sponsored Church could
not possibly be a True
Church because gathered
Elect and Reprobate.
Differences with Luther –
Sacraments & Ecclesiology:
Sacraments:

Sacraments: only two –
Baptism and Eucharist.
Ecclesiology:

Ecclesiology:




‘Receptionist’ view of the
Eucharist.
 Christ present in the
Elect.
 Not dependent upon
the power of the Priest
to change matter.
More concerned with structures than
Luther
Emphasis on sanctification of the
Elect.
Process of becoming a ‘saint’.





Regular access to and consideration
of God’s word
Almost daily sermons
Demanding for laity – but could be
seen as rewarding.
Part of the covenant with God –
although actions/good works not
actually ‘earn’ salvation, duty bound
to perform them.
Unlike Luther, prepared to
countenance limited right of
resistance.
Calvin & the Genevan
Reformation
Calvin & the Genevan
Reformation:

Small city state reformed by Calvin and Guillaume Farel 1536.

Calvin wrestled for control of the Church with the city
authorities.

Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1541) written in response to state
encroachment:



Created decision-making and disciplinary bodies for the
Genevan Church
A hierarchy of authorities alongside those of the city.
Practical application of Luther’s ‘Two Kingdoms’:

Protect Church freedom from misguided rulers.


Not appropriate for the Church to exercise worldly government
Or for secular princes to rule the Church.

New Testament
indicated four
functions of ministry:

Pastors


Doctors


Teaching – from
pastoral to
university level.
Church Structure:
•

Disciplinary work of
the Church.
i.e. policing moral
behaviour.
Deacons


Communal
charity.
Christ’s love in
action.
Essentially borrowed from Martin Bucer in
Strassbourg:
•
Elders


General ministry.
•
Cerebral religion?
•
•
Bucer had been prevented from
implementing the model by the city
council there.
Also a faith in which ‘everyday’ activities
were intimately connected with acts of
Christian worship.
Elders, pastors, doctors meet in a citywide committee – ‘the Consistory’.
•
•
Not a court like a secular court.
Rather, advise and guide people in
broken relationships, whether neighbourly
or in marriage.
The Consistory:
Why was Calvin successful?
Context is all:


Changing dynamic of Geneva.
Upsurge of immigration:


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
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Council of 24 (major officers):

Genevans only.
Councils of 60 and 100:

Open to non-Genevans.
Less powerful officers – open to
‘bourgeois’, who could be nonnatives
Role within the Church afforded
immigrant ‘habitants’ – who had no
civil rights – a place in the city.
‘Two kingdoms’ in practice:

Calvin’s Church hierarchy stood in
parallel to the civic hierarchy:


1540-1594 – not a single Genevan
minister actually from Geneva.
Sense of God’s chosen.
Sturdy self-confidence in Calvin’s form
of Church structure.
Civil government headed by
a small elite of native-born
Genevans.
Church was headed by a
small exiled group of
Frenchmen:


Supported by ‘godly’
refugees.
KEY POINT: this was oddly Catholic –
a ministry separate from the state,
ministering to all of the population,
and taking the moral authority to
criticise both.

Michael Servetus trial – 1553:


Denied the Trinity –
perpetually on the run.
Arrested by the Inquisition in
Lyon.




Proof of his guilt was in
Calvin’s filing cabinet!
Although he denied it, this
‘proof’ sound found its way
to Lyon
Servetus escaped – ran to
Geneva, stumbles into the
Church where Calvin was
preaching.
Calvin wanted a merciful death
for Severtus:


Eventually succumbed to
burning after sounding out
leading Protestant figures.
Strassbourg Protestants
unimpressed,


Accused Geneva of
proclaiming ‘its good news
with flames’.
Basel authorities used Servetus
as a model for why tolerance
should rule over persecution.
Opposition:
Long struggle with internal opposition:
Excommunication
Consistory; or civil authorities?
Protestants, not Catholics - Reform should
not have turned out this way
Before Calvin, Geneva had resented
being lorded over by a tyrannous Bishop:
Calvin was looking remarkably
similar to some.
Even control naming of children –
biblical names only!
The ‘Voice’ of
Protestantism:
By taking charge of case
against Servetus – Calvin
showed himself not to be one
reformer among many, but
the voice of Reformed
Protestantism.
International Calvinism
International Calvinism:

Spread of Calvinism:



Most ‘exportable’
form of
Protestantism.
Why? Because it did
not require the
good-will of the
political authorities.
Often built on a preexisting Lutheran
base.

Reversed the chronology of
the early Reformation:

Lutheran Reformation:
1520s-1530s – communities
decide to embrace the
Reformation message.
 Details of liturgy,
confessions and church
structure worked out
afterwards.
Calvinism, IKEA Protestantism:



Ideal-type model of reformed
Christianity was available to
be ‘flat-packed’ into any
region.


Varieties of Reform:
Not inevitably a Reformation ‘from below’/
or a revolution.


1560: nobles-led revolt against
ecclesiastical authorities and French
queen-regent.
Resulting national Church strengthened
rather than weakened the realm’s integrity


France the polar-opposite:


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Netherlands:

Scotland:



Protestant revolt against the Valois
monarchy
Intermittent religious civil war 1562-1598.





Initial dissent from Catholic Church soon
turned into public worship.
Duke of Savoy unable to over-power:
peace in 1561.
System of individual congregations,
provincial and national synods.
‘Opt-in’ principle of ‘gathered church’.


Destabilised authority
Rent communities in two.
Eastern Europe:


1555 -> Genevan missionaries active in
Alpine Valleys:

Reformation meshed with noble
complaints about Habsburg rule – aspire to
be free of dominion status.
Revolt under the house of Orange-Nassau
in 1566 – decades of bloody warfare.
Here – although a minority – Protestants
became a voice of a nascent
Netherlandish ‘national’ sentiment.
Reluctance to give up ‘gathered’ status
even after victory in war of independence
from Spain.
Poland, Hungary, Romania
Calvinism thrives in religious patchwork
(appeal to anti-German nobles).
Germany:


Calvinist ‘second reformation’,
Heidelberg after conversion of Elector
Frederick III 1563.
‘Calvinism’ or ‘The
Reformed’?
‘Calvinsim’ or ‘The Reformed’?

Geneva: a Protestant Rome?

Refugees: from 1550s:


England, France, Netherlands, Italy.
Melting pot: share ideas, gather resources,
consolation:
Intellectual/logistical centre by proxy.
 Inspiring – Calvin has a degree of moral ascendency
that other Reformers struggled to achieve.
 Moral discipline
 Excommunication

•
John Knox:
‘The most
perfect school
of Christ that
ever was since
the days of the
Apostles’.
Geneva monument:
‘Calvinism’ or ‘The Reformed’?

Geneva crucial for French
Reformation:



Production of books:
 Intense examination of God’s
word.
 Genevan Bible
 Robert Estienne –former official
printer of King of France – fled in
1551.
 189 sermons on Book of Acts
between 1549-1554.
 174 on Ezekiel between 15521554
 200 on Deuteronomy between
1555-6.






Reception of refugees:

Missionary pastors:
 A base for missionaries
 From 1559, Academy – school
and a seminar.
Condemnation of
‘Nicodemism’:
1540s – French Calvinists
hesitate on the side-lines of
the Reformation
Lived as token Catholics and
waiting for things to improve.
Calvin – dishonest and
offensive to Christ.
Supping with the devil in the
hope of safety.
Alternatives: EXILE, or to set up
reformed worship (even in a
hostile state) and face the
consequences.
Distinct from Luther in this
regard:

Luther had discouraged
initiatives by private
individuals to found private
Churches (respect for
authority/law)

Calvin little direct
control

Flexibility/adaptability
key to Calvinism’s
success:


Finds itself in very
different
environments.
England:
 Calvinist theology
and Catholic
ecclesiology –
Church of
England
 Tensions with
Puritans who cried
‘popery’.
Varieties of
Reformation:
•
‘Movement’ a problematic term:
•
•
•
•
Unified by core doctrinal tenets and
ideology:
•
•
•
Their Reformation was complete
Lutheran one was incomplete.
Internationalist
•
•
•
Churches had national or local
characteristics.
Decentralised and unofficial connections
Not run from Geneva.
Lutheran provincial interests
Calvinsim a ‘cause’.
‘Mark’ of a True Church – vigorous
ecclesiastical discipline
Social Discipline:
 If
actions of no benefit to salvation – why
bother?
 Covenant theology:


God’s wrath.
Providence.
 Types
of behaviour – dancing, drinking,
work on Sundays, swearing, fornication:

Policed in the consistory.
 Was
this against the will of the people?
Shame & Sanctification:
Repentance stool, St. Andrews
Holy Trinity Church.
Edinburgh, Grey
Friars.
Calvin & Beyond:
 Hard
to overstate importance of Calvin to
the Reformed movement.
 But not static/fixed:



Evolved after his death (1564).
Theodore Beza evolved pastoral elements.
Zurich under Bullinger remained crucial.
 Legacy

stretched into the next century
Exported to North America.
Concluding points:
 Key



points:
Survival of Protestantism after Lutheran
Church stalled.
Spread across Europe because no need for
state help.
Coherence/ form to Church.