Theo 273 Modern Church History Giacomo Martina, S.J.

Chapter V: John Calvin and Calvinism

A. Calvin: His Life (1509-1564)

- Jean Cauvin (John Calvin) – in Italian: Giovanni Calvino
- Born in Noyon, Picardy (between Paris and Belgium)
- Studied in Paris and other cities: Letters and Jurisprudence; due
to his father’s wishes, took the license in law
- Temperament pulled him in other directions however; letters in
Paris, came under the influence of the French evangelism of
such as Le Fevre d’Etaples and Guillaume Briçonnet
- At the same time, Ignatius of Loyola would begin his own studies
at the Sorbonne; but it seems that the two never really met and
encountered each other
- Calvin, because of a desire to go back to the life and praxis of
the early Church, converted to Protestantism; this meant he had
to leave Parish and at Basel he published in 1536 the first
edition of his work, still rather limited and modest, “The
Institute of the Christian Religion,” which the author himself
would expand and translate from Latin into French.
- On a brief visit to Italy, the young reformer exercised a
noteworthy influence on Renate of France, daughter of Louis XII
and wife of Ercole d’Este, Duke of Ferrora.
- Passing through Geneva, he was prevailed upon by Guillaume
Farel to stop in the city and to sustain the incipient reform
there; introducing various religious and civil innovations, he
soon engendered strong opposition and had to leave the city with
Guillaume Farel
- For three years, he exercised the pastoral ministry at
Strassburg, but in 1541, the friends of Farel begged him to
return and take up once again his task as pastor at Geneva.
- There he remained for the rest of his life, applying in an organic
and definitive way his principles of reform and exercising an
absolute dominion over the city and from here extending his
influence over the rest of Europe.

B. Calvin: His Character

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- Profoundly different from Luther, gave the impression of a

totally antithetical life; he never knew the anguished struggle of
the Augustinian against temptations nor his latter’s exuberant
fantast; where Luther was usually surrounded by friends with
whom he willingly engaged in prolonged cordial conversations in
which were mixed invective and curses, Calvin remained
essentially a solitary man who, in order to give a good example
and to fulfil his duty, married a widow who already had two
children.
- Today as then, not many find Calvin a sympathetic figure, but
for the wrong reasons; a false legend had grown around his
personality, as recently recognized by scholars.
- Rather acknowledged today: the impassioned search for that
God revealed and hidden at the same time; for the God of the
Bible and of the prophets, pervaded his works; his desire for the
greatest glory of God brings him near particularly, in some ways,
to St. Ignatius of Loyola
- The exigency for an absolute authenticity in the encounter with
God would find parallels in the more intransigent expressions of
Cistercian and Carmelite mysticism.
- Calvin believed himself to be called by the “invincible God,” who
had in his hands the destiny of humankind, for a special
mission to which he totally devoted himself.
- This conviction would enable him to draw the energy to
overcome his timidity, which could have made him content to
remain willingly among his books, and the tenacity of will to see
through to its conclusion what he considered to be his mission,
with an absolute disinterest which allowed him to accept
without regrets poverty.
- This profound religiosity is imprinted in a unique (?) method,
extraordinarily lived and clear, and brought to an organic
systematization of various questions, arrived at through a
patient and continuous work, which affected his rather bad
health, but arrested by his tremendous memory and by his
facility in writing.

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- Though he admitted Pascal’s “reasons of the heart,” intelligence

and logic, clarity and sobriety remained his most profound
talents
- His more than 4,000 letters demonstrate to us an affective and
friendly human being, rich in sensibility, faithful to his friends,
while his works reveal the vast range of his interests, from
classical literature to the economy, law and politics…
- It was perhaps this vast work which enabled him to exercise a
worldwide influence; he was certainly a marvellous organizer,
gifted with leadership.
- The picture drawn of him by such historians as Daniel Rops as a
cold judge who looked primarily to conquer the soul of a crowd
or as one of those incorruptible men who committed atrocities in
the name of their principles (like Robespierre, Saint Just or
Lenin) was certainly false and unjust; he was rather a man who
knew how to bring to himself a vast network of disciples and
friends and who could count on their unlimited dedication
because he followed them and their destinies closely; from his
room issued letters to collaborators and friends from as far as
Scotland to Poland, Scandinavia to Italy (and this too brings him
close to St. Ignatius who form his room near the Church of
Santa Maria della Strada would write letters to his sons spread
all over the world, directly and controlling their activity).
- Calvin, however, like all human beings, had his own human
limitations and frailties
o As a man, a bit unilateral in his views, too attached in
considering only one aspect of reality, allowing himself to
sideline the Classics and to undervalue the importance of
the fine arts (although not of music, but this considered
nonetheless only in its religious function, i.e., as a way of
drawing religious sentiment)
o The same unilateral character brings him to paint a
concept of God in which the image of an omnipotent and
omniscient Lord, severe judge of humans, absolute arbiter
of their destinies, obscures that of the Redeemer Christ

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o More than personal love for Christ, Calvin underlines the

Lord of Glory, to which all belongs and to which everything
is referred.
o His morality tended towards a severity unusually excessive
and almost inhuman, to the point of condemning not only
vices but also harmless distractions.
o The same rigor he applied to the political field, installing –
after condemning Roman intolerance – a regime totally
intolerant, which nevertheless, through a paradoxical turn,
after his death would open itself to unexpected
developments…

C. Calvin: His Doctrine

- Calvin’s merit lies not in his originality but in the organic
systematization of the theses of preceding reformers usually
disorganized and at best juxtaposed.
- Thus, the Institutio Christianae religionis has constituted this
systematization in the Protestant camp what Thomas Aquinas’
Summa represented for the Catholic camp
- On the Eucharist: oscillating between the Lutheran
“consubstantiation: and the Zwinglian “mere symbol,” Calvin
presents a nuanced and complex solution
o Bread and wine are instruments through which we enter in
communion with the substance of Christ, participating
really in the benefits of the incarnate God.
- The center of the Calvinist system: the doctrine of predestination
o God from eternity with a positive act of his will,
independently from the prevision of original sin, elects
some to eternal happiness and others to eternal damnation
o The pessimism of Luther thus reaches an extreme and
despairing conclusion
o But an improvised and unexpected psychological
conversion prevents this pessimism from falling into
fatalism and inertia; if our works do not contribute to our
salvation, these nevertheless give glory to God, and we
have to do them in order to demonstrate to God our
respect and to execute his will

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o Calvin explains well his thought in Institutio, III, ch. XIV, n.

18: “The saints, having to found and stabilize their
salvation, must fix their eyes on the unique goodness of
God, without considering their own works. And not only
must they do this before everything else, as the foundation
of their beatitude, but considering them also as their
fulfilment, they completely consent to it and rest in it.
When conscience is thus founded, guided and confirmed, it
could also strengthen itself by considering their works:
insofar as these are testimonies that God inhabits and
reigns in us… the Christian soul should not consider the
merit of works as a refuge of salvation, but to rest entirely
in the gratuitous promise of justification… Nonetheless we
do not prohibit humans to sustain themselves and to take
comfort from all the signs of the benediction of God […]
the good works that (God) has given us should serve to
demonstrate that the spirit of adoption has been given to
us…”
o This Calvinist doctrine, which can be harmonized with
Catholic doctrine, would however undergo an evolution
post-Calvin, a degeneration in contrast with the origins:
the reformers put the accent on the soul abandoning itself
in God, on the theology of the cross; after Calvin, due to a
complex of reasons not traceable here, a certain vulgar
Calvinism would end at considering external success and
material wealth as indexes or signs of divine blessing and
of predestination o to salvation…
o Thus, distinction between Calvin and Calvinism on this
point: Calvinism, distancing itself from Calvin in a
perspective more typical of the Old Testament rather than
the New, sure of divine help also in matters of business, is
impeded to confront with courage the inevitable risks of
commerce: dynamism and proselytism become proper
characteristics of the new religion
o If the dignity of labor is upheld in this way, in opposition to
the mentality then common, there is opened nonetheless
the way to depreciating the poor, who, in the light of the
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doctrine of the election and divine protection of the elect,

now appear as an accursed people, rejected by the Lord
also in this life…
- On the Church:
o The Church does not have temporal power; nevertheless
civil authority must not only respect the Church but must
really contribute to the realization of the Kingdom of God
on earth, punishing the evil-doers and rewarding the good,
according to the design of the Church…
o The state thus is reduced to the status of an instrument of
the Church and in clear contrast with the modern
tendency to autonomy and distinction of the two camps,
thus returning to a concept of full theocracy.
o If Luther recognized the right of the state to reform the
Church, Calvin attributes to the Church the right to
impose on the state her own moral principles, her own
laws and her own organization…

D. Calvin in Geneva: Realization of Calvinist Doctrine

- Geneva: free city-state but part of the German Empire
- Had defended successful its independence from the dukes of
Savoy and the bishops, who would have extended their power
and influence over the city as willing instruments of the Savoy
nobility
- Economically favoured by its location in the crossroad of lines of
communication, the city enjoyed economic prosperity and was
therefore less than enthusiastic about the new pastor’s (i.e.,
Calvin’s) austere directives; not lacking therefore were acts of
resistance and difficulties put in the way of Calvin’s reform
program for the city.
- Nevertheless, the strong personality of the reformer was able to
overcome this resistance, not least because of his rigorous
method and his willingness to punish his adversaries.
- The city would accept 5,000 refugees from other parts, thus
increasing its 15,000 population, of which refugees were a firm
support for the reform; also, the city was afraid that the defeat of
Calvin would mean the victory of the Savoy and duke.

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- 1541 – Calvin was able to introduce his “Ecclesiastical

Ordinances,” which stipulated the setting up of four
ecclesiastical offices:
1. The deacons – for works of charity
2. The doctors – for instruction in the schools
3. The elders – for the surveillance on customs and the piety of
the people
4. The pastors – for predication and the administration of the
sacraments
o Quick to gain prominence were the elders, for their full
authority over the aspects of public and private life and for
their assiduous control over the whole city.
o Every week, the elders and pastors came together for a
consistory, listened to the denunciations, and pronounced
judgment; according to the gravity of the offence, fines
were inflicted or punishment meted out (imprisonment,
excommunication [or the exclusion from the Supper,
celebrated four times every year], or the death penalty)
- Geneva, pro9ud of its independence (from external enemies),
thus lost its liberty: lectures, games, songs, meals, everything
was controlled by the elders, and everyone (by love or by force)
had to practice the virtues
o Thus, many examples of interventions by the elders,
rigorous to the point of being ridiculous, which prohibited
dances, card games, the reading of romances; they
controlled haircuts, luxuries, the frequency of public
ceremonies, and burned books like the L’Amadigi, a
romance
o From 1542 to 1546, 70 persons were exiled and 60
condemned to death.
 Example of Mejuiel Servet (Servite) who in his book
Christianismi restitution, published in secret in
Vienne in 1553, had denied the dogma of the Trinity
and of Original Sin; he had escaped from the prison
of Inquisition at Lyon, but had the unfortunate idea
that he would find refuge at Geneva, when he was
immediately recognized, arrested, and, by the

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consensus of a large majority, which considered

Calvin too moderate, was condemned to death by
burning because of his tenacity in holding to his
ideas…
- The Servet case would cause a split in the ranks, with several
accusing Calvin of an excessive severity
o Calvin would defend himself and his methods in his
Declaratio orthodoxai fidei, reminding his readers that, for
the honor of God, if it is necessary, one would not hesitate
to destroy whole populations and cities…
o Sebastien Castulion would intervene in the controversy
with his own work, De haeretics, an sint persequendi,
provoking in his turn an acrimonious reply from one of
Calvin’s most faithful disciples, Theodore de Bize (Teodoro
Beza)…
- But it must be said, tolerance was hardly practiced in the 1500s,
not by the Catholics, not by the Protestants
- The ideas of Erasmus, of several humanists, the behaviour of
the Polish authority and of the German duchy of Clive on the
Rhine – all this was an exception to the rule.
- Geneva was considered special; it remained and had to remain
the citadel of reform, to which those who in every part of Europe
abandoned Catholicism could seek refuge, and where pastors
were trained (in the theological academy run by Beza) and from
which they were sent out to propose the new religion in various
countries (1,500 young pastors educated in the academy)
- Given this atmosphere of war, one could understand if not
justify, the intolerance of Calvin and his supporters…

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