JOHN CALVIN

(1509 to 1564)

Calvin: An Overview

His Life and Works

His Major Ideas

His Legacy

Calvin's Writings

Calvin was a Frenchman, schooled in the new humanist tradition and prepared at the university to be a lawyer.  He fell in with a circle of French humanists who read with great interest the writings of Luther. Then, somewhere in the period 1532-1534 Calvin experienced a "sudden conversion" (the details of which unfortunately he never discussed publicly.)  From this point on his well organized mind was given over to theology rather than the law. At the same time his theological associations became very dangerous to an increasingly suspicious French king, Francis I. In 1536, Calvin felt compelled to write, with all respect to his monarch, a reply to Francis' suspicions about the "protestants": The Institutes of the Christian Religion.  It was Calvin's hope that Francis, through this long essay, would come to understand that the protestants posed no threat to his rule – but only sought to revitalize the original Christian ideal on which the whole Christian realm ought to be properly based. Though it was the most compelling theological treatise explaining the protestant position – it did not have its intended effect of swaying the views of Francis. Calvin was compelled to leave France – arriving in the summer of 1536 at Geneva, where the protestant reformer Farel prevailed upon Calvin to stay in the city and help him with the reformed movement which was growing rapidly there.  But for Calvin, this proved to be a stormy proposition.  Geneva was an unruly city, and Calvin's natural bent toward orderliness and discipline made him many enemies in the city.  In the spring of 1538 Calvin and Farel were both banished from Geneva. Calvin made his way to Bucer's Strasbourg where he spent a happy three years, marrying and helping out with the reformed movement there.  He wrote a revised edition of his Institutes and began his very important series of biblical commentaries with his study of Romans. But in 1541, the old group partisan to Calvin urgently requested his return to Geneva.  Calvin somewhat reluctantly decided to make his return – but on his terms. Upon his return, Calvin organized (accepting many compromises with the city Council) the religious life of the city around his new Ordinances – the foundation of "Reformed" polity.  He also founded there a training school for protestant (i.e., "Reformed") theologians, which would in time become the University of Geneva.

His Youth John Calvin was born in 1509 Jean Cauvin or Calvus, second son of a minor lawyer, Gérard, in the employ of the Lord of Noyon in the region of Picardy (northern France).  We have no details of his early youth – only the mention that he early served the noble family of Hangest de Montmor and was educated for an ecclesiastical career.  In 1521 he received a position with the chaplaincy in the cathedral of Noyon.  Two years later he traveled to Paris with the Hangests to undertake study at the Collège de la Marche under the direction of Mathurin Cordier.  Here he was quickly recognized for his skills in logical presentation.  Here also he established friendships with Nicholas and Michael Cop, sons of the king's personal physician, and with the sons of the Hangests, especially Claude. His cousin (only 3 years older), Pierre Robert Olivétan, was also there ... and came to be a strong influence on John. The End of a Career Track with the Church In 1527 young John (only 18) became a curé and seemed destined to begin a brilliant move upward in an ecclesiastical career.  But his father, Gérard, not desiring that his son should take up the full priesthood, instead pressed his son to take up the more profitable career as lawyer.  In part Gérard Cauvin was also motivated by the knowledge that he was slipping from favor among the ecclesiastical circles of Noyon and his son's ecclesiastical career might thus itself be in jeopardy.  Furthermore, the Protestant Reformation was at that point well underway – and John, who (with the encouragement of his cousin Pierre Robert) had been drawn into scriptural debates about the true character of the church, was beginning to have doubts of his own about the Roman church.  Thus it was that in 1528, John and his cousin Pierre Robert moved to Orléans, John to begin law studies under the highly esteemed jurist, Pierre Taisan de l'Étoile.  But Pierre Robert soon moved on to Strasbourg ... to develop further his strong interest in the Bible – not the Latin version, but the original Hebrew and Greek bible (which he would then publish in 1535 as France's first French Protestant Bible, known also as the "Olivétan Bible"). From Law to the Humanities In Orléans, the young John actually found himself more attracted to the broader realm of humanism – which along with the Protestant Reformation was percolating through intellectual circles in Northern Europe at that time.  Thus in 1529 he moved to Bourges to study the humanities under Andrea Alciati.  A year later one of Calvin's friends from Orléans, Melchior Wolmar, joined him in Bourges.  It was Wolmar that taught Calvin Greek, and opened up to him the study of the New Testament in the original Greek. But his father's death in 1531 again changed Calvin's course – for he moved back to Paris, and into an environment of intellectual upheaval.  Classic latin scholastic study was rapidly being overthrown by broader investigations into other classic languages, the humanities, and wide-ranging socio-political speculation.  In Paris Calvin continued his studies of Greek – and now took up the study of Hebrew.  Also, in 1532 Calvin first demonstrated his writing skills – in publishing a commentary on Seneca's De clementia. Being Drawn into the Reformation Debates The period 1532-1534 was a major turning point theologically for Calvin.  He experience a personal conversion in his Christian faith – though we do not know the exact nature of that conversion.  It was also a time he was on the move – from Paris, to Orléans, to Noyon, back to Paris – moves that seemed to give him a clearer sense of a call to a place of leadership within the Reformation movement.  It was also a time of growing Protestant sentiments in Paris – due in part to the humanist influence there of Margaret of Angoulême, sister of French king Francis I. The Catholic party in Paris was not likely to take such developments lying down.  When during this time Calvin's old friend Nicolas Cop was elected rector of the University of Paris and delivered an innaugural address that was tinged with Protestant sentiments, he was ordered to appear before the Parliament of Paris.  Cop sensed his danger and fled to Basel in Switzerland.  Calvin was understood to have been influential in the preparation of that address and an order was issued that he be seized.  Calvin fled to Noyon and remained there until proceedings were dropped against him.  He then returned to Paris for a period, until he was invited in early 1534 to Angoulême by Louis du Tiller, a canon of the cathedral there. Calvin's Split with the Roman Church It was during this period in Angoulême that Calvin began research which ultimately undergirded his Institutes of the Christian Religion.  He was deeply interested in the reform of the Christian religion – sensing that this was going to be his call in life.  But the question remained:  was he going to try to reform the Roman church from within, or was he going to join the reform movement of the independent Protestants?  In early May of 1534 he announced his decision by resigning his old position of curé of Noyon and rector of Pont l'Évèque.  Soon thereafter he was arrested and imprisoned briefly on two separate occasions – though nothing came of either arrest, the case against him not being sufficiently strong.  Thereafter he continued his movements among such cities as Paris, Orléans and Poitiers.  In Poitiers he performed his first eucharist (holy communion) in the new Evangelical church of France. As the Reformation was a time of  breakdown of the old Catholic unity of Christian Europe, it was also the time of emergence of new Christian theological groupings.  One of the more radical of these new groupings were the Anabaptists.  Calvin was just as interested in addressing their theologies as he was the old church's  Thus during this time he began another work entitled Psychopannychia, addressing the Anabaptist belief in the slumber of the human soul after death.  This work brought attention to Calvin within the community of Reformers.  But it also brought more attention from the Catholic authorities as well.  So it was that Calvin decided to leave France with his friend from Angoulême, Louis du Tiller, to join the community of Protestant reformers in Basel. The First Edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion Now in Switzerland, Calvin took up a new challenge in 1535:  to write a treatise on the reformers' theology, the Institutes of the Christian Religion, a work designed to persuade French King Francis I that the reformers' beliefs were in fact more authentically Christian than those of the Roman Church.  Francis had seemed to be willing to show some degree of tolerance of the Lutheran branch of the Reformation.  Calvin thus hoped to persuade him to extend that toleration to the French and Swiss Reformers.  But it was politics, not theology, that had decided Francis' policy.  Francis was tolerant of the German Reformation only because it had the support of the princes of Northern Germany – and he needed their support in his contest for power with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.  Thus in the end, Calvin failed to achieve the purpose for which he ostensibly had written the Institutes.  Nonetheless, its clear statement on the beliefs of the reformers immediately made it a major theological rallying point for the Reformers of France and Switzerland – and moved Calvin into a position of leadership within the movement. Geneva: 1536-1538 Calvin made a return trip to France to close out his life in that country with the intention of then returning to Switzerland to settle permanently in Basel – or Western Germany at Strasbourg, where the Swiss Reformation had been accepted.  But because of a war between Francis I and Charles V, Calvin was forced to detour Eastern France and come into Switzerland by moving up the Rhone River from Lyons. But in then entering Switerland at Geneva, William (Guillaume) Farel, who had recently brought the reformed movement to that city, pounced on Calvin as a God-given opportunity to offer leadership to the movement in that city.  That was hardly on Calvin's agenda.  But Farel was so adamant in his entreaties that Calvin agreed to stay – at least for a while. In Geneva the momentum behind acceptance of the reformed movement was vastly more political than religious – and Calvin thus had his work cut out for him in bringing the citizens around to a true consent in their hearts with the ideas that he now lived for.  The citizens had accepted the movement mostly as a means of providing justification for revolt against the Duke of Savoy, whose rule over the city was widely unpopular.  It was now Calvin's purpose to bring them to a true understanding of the issues challenging the world of Christianity.  From his pulpit at St. Peter's Cathedral, Calvin began to preach from the letters of the Apostle Paul. But Calvin had an even more ambitious plan to bring the Genevans to full alignment with the reformation.  He (with Farel) compiled a statement of faith of 21 articles – and had the citizens in groups of 10 study and swear alliegance to these 21 articles as an undergirding for the building of a new Christian religious-moral order in Geneva.  Also, to further strengthen the underpining of this Christian commonwealth, Calvin set up schools in the city and designed a school curriculum which included strong doses of religious-moral instruction. This was a time of political and doctrinal turmoil in Europe.  Leadership within the reformed movement was fluid – as were its basic ideas.  Reformers could be as hostile to each other as to the Catholic church.  It was inevitable that Calvin should be drawn into this conflict (he had, after all on several occasions led the attack against the Anabaptists.)  Calvin himself was accused by Pierre Caroli, leader of the reform movement in nearby Lausanne, of being an Arian or Unitarian – and a Sabellian or Modalist.  Thus in 1537 Calvin had to defend himself before a synod in Berne Switzerland – where he was eventually vindicated and Caroli was banished from Lausanne. In the meantime, Calvin's theocratic austerity imposed over the free-spirited Genevois grew increasingly resented by voices among the latter.  Calvin was uncompromising in his insistence on these "Christian" standards – and a blow-up finally occurred when Calvin tried to discipline the citizens by witholding communion on Easter Sunday.  In the explosion, Calvin and his patron Farel were expelled from Geneva.  They appealed their cause to a synod in Zurich, offering to grant the Genevans a more traditional communion liturgy – which was a matter claimed by Calvin to be adiaphora or of actual indifference to him, provided that Calvin's opponents did not try to make the matter one of importance.  At the same time, Calvin pressed for synod approval of a number of administrative procedures designed to tighten the polity or ecclesiastical order among pastors and in the design of the worship services. At first Calvin's position was accepted by the synod.  But the opposition of the Bernese party was such that things moved against him – and a second banishment was issued.  Farel and Calvin thus moved on – Calvin eventually to Strasbourg and Farel to Neuchatel. Strasbourg: 1538-1541 Almost in the same measure that the Genevan years were very difficult for Calvin, the Strasbourg years were easy – yet still very productive.  Here Calvin met and married in 1540 widow Idelette de Bure, which proved for Calvin to be a very blessed union – though their only child born in 1542 lived only a few days and though Idelette herself died in 1549.  These were busy times for Calvin – writing, speaking and serving as type of Protestant diplomat at various gatherings.  During his Strasbourg years he rewrote and expanded the Institutes.  He also compiled a commentary on Paul's letter to the Romans.  In 1539 he, along with Bucer from Strasbourg, attended a conference sponsored by Emperor Charles V – who was trying to formulate some kind of Christian reunion between Catholics and Protestants.  Calvin also attended the diets of Hagenau, Worms and Regensburg. Return to Geneva Calvin was horrified to receive a request from Geneva in 1540 for him to return to their city. But in the end he agreed to explore the possibilitiy ... as he knew that the city was having difficulty fending off the political return of Catholicism, worship itself had diminished since his departure. Thus Strasbourg agree to a temporary 6-month loan of Calvin to Geneva. Thus in September, 1541 he and Bucer headed to Geneva. He would then stay in Geneva ... to reshape deeply the Reformed Movement. He got the city council to agree to an order of various church officers (pastors, teachers or "doctors", elders to govern, and deacons to serve the oor and needy). He developed a psalter to include music in worship ... writing some of the hymns himself. And of course he preached regularly ... on Sunday and then a few times in the week – with no notes (and few recordings of those sermons before 1549). He preached some 2,000 sermons in those Geneva years ... mostly lectio continua (preaching through a particular book of the Bible, verse by verse). A group defiant of Calvin and his teachings did develop in Geneva ... termed the "Libertines" ... because they believed that having received salvation by way of God's grace through their faith (something Calvin in fact taught) this qualified them to no longer be under the authority of any civil or religious rule or discipline ... sort of an early version of the American Boomers! And they even went so far as to claim that Calvin preached a false doctrine ... and dedicated themselves to the removal of Calvin from the Geneva pulpit. Unfortunately, the city council itself gradually became split over the matter, making life very complicated for Calvin. It was at this point that a huge incident was to blow up in the face of Calvin. The Michael Servetus Affair – 1553 Much controversy has developed over the years about Calvin's role in the execution in Geneva of the Spanish Unitarian Michael Servetus. It is, of course, important to understand the political-social context of the times. Servetus, a quite brilliant medical doctor, also engaged himself in theological debate, claiming that those that continued to support Trinitarianism (belief in God as one-in-three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) were actually caught – innocently or purposefully – in evil. He made this quite clear in his 1531 publication, Errors of the Trinity. Then oddly enough, he even went on to claim in his 1553 book, The Restitution of Christianity, that he possessed a special insight into such matters, being something of the Michael described in the Book of Revelation ... someone called to fight the antichrist and thus bring on the End Times. At this point he had already engaged himself in a debate with the now well-known Calvin ... sending him in 1546 a copy of his Errors of the Trinity work. The correspondence between the two at first was polite. But over time the accusations and counter- accusations grew increasingly bitter ... which brought Calvin to simply end the correspondence. But Servetus then proceeded to announce to the larger world that Calvin and the Pope were both antichrists, needing to be brought down in order to restore Christianity to its original character. Then oddly enough, on a trip he was making – escaping France (where he had been tried and was sentenced to die ... but was able to escape imprisonment) and heading to Italy – he stopped in Geneva (August 1553). He was recognized and arrested ... and then requested by French authorities to be returned to France for his execution. But instead he was tried in a Genevan court (October) – with much of the Christian world following the event closely. Presumably both Calvin and his friend Farel visited Servetus in prison and tried to get him to recant of his Uniterian beliefs. But this he refused to do. Meanwhile, the Libertines" that oposed Calvin in Geneva did what they could to drag out the trial ... in order to embarrass Calvin. Thus the times were very hot politically. Ultimately the case resulted in an unsurprising sentence: as a heretic, death by being burned at the stake ... though Calvin had tried to get the sentence carried out as a beheading. Three days later the court's sentence was carried out. Moving On Calvin was supported by some and criticized by others for his role in the affair ... for his lack of mercy shown Servetus. Undoubtedly the fact that Calvin was having problems with the town council over their differing views on town governance pushed Calvin to appear to be no less tolerant of heretics than the town council. In any case, it would take him two more years to get Geneva shaped into the kind of social order he felt was required of a Christian people ... finally overriding the Libertines and getting his own people on the city's governing council. From that point on, Calvin found his position in Geneva quite secure. He and Luther did not agree on the matter of the exact character of the Eucharist or Holy Communion ... Calvin taking the Zwinglian positon in seeing the changing of wine into Christ's blood as spiritually symbolic, not materially factual. But he would continue to work with Luther's followers in the effort to bring some degree of unity to the Reform movement ... and even with the English church under Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (although royal politics brought that effort to an end).

Calvin was well-known for his support of the idea of "predestination" ... that it is ultimately God's actions, not human achievement, that brings personal salvation. Actually Calvin did did not invent the idea ... for it was clearly laid out in Paul's Letter to the Romans (chapters 8 and 9). And Calvin did not go into much detail on the matter until future editions of his masterwork, Institutes of the Christian Religion. For Calvin it was extremely important to bring believers away from the idea that it is their particular works, supervised by a religious hierarchy, that brings salvation ... something he saw Catholicism deeply immersed in ... as if it were priests and their dispensations, rather than personal faith, that brought (or "purchased") personal salvation. And like all reformers, he felt that if religious practice lacked Scriptural support (such as the worship of Mary and the saints, the basing of worship on the performance of priestly rites rather than just Scriptural teachings, the holding of the church's many holy days beyond simply Sunday's role as a holy day) then they were to be dismissed in Christian life. Indeed, for Calvin, Sunday worship was about Biblical instruction from the pulpit, not religious ritual performed at an altar. Calvin stayed with the idea of infant baptism ... seeing it as a form of dedication by a family to the careful Christian development of a child. To Calvin, baptism at any age (especially adult baptism) was not itself the saving act that Baptists believed it to be ... but simply (yet importantly) a symbolic testimony or expression of thanks to God for God's salvation ... by divine grace that brings human faith. To Calvin, it is faith itself – active in life – that saves ... not some religious act that we humans perform.

Calvin was an urban European, steeped in the bourgeois mindset of the rising European urban "middle class."  Calvin's interest in reform of the crumbling medieval moral-legal order involved importantly a vision of the new urban order as central to a purified Christianity.  And his interest in reform did not limit itself merely to matters of religious doctrine – as was the case for Luther.  Calvin truly was interested in a comprehensive reordering of every aspect of post-medieval life:  political, economic, and social as well as theological. Importantly, he gave a theological rationale for the independent-mindedness of the urban commercial class – arming them with Scriptural justification for going their own way within God's creation.  Indeed, he encouraged them to establish purified political-economic-social orders as a way of purging Christendom of its corruption and of bringing glory to God in Jesus Christ.  He made their soul-searching independent-mindedness a matter of the greatest importance in their standing before God.  They not only had the right to be accountable to God alone as sovereign over them – they had the Christian duty to see that this was the case.  The supposition was that any earthly lord who positioned himself between them and God was going to be problematic in their "purified" relationship with God and their covenantal life in the purified Christian commonwealth. The followers of Calvin attempted to convince the rich and powerful kings of Europe that their movement had no treasonous instincts – and that they planned to be good citizens in the realms where they lived.  The kings were not convinced.  And rightly so.  Everything about Calvinism pointed to the idea of these people being accountable to no earthly ruler but to God alone.  Switzerland, which was the birthplace of Calvin's Reformed Movement was well recognized for its independent mindedness and refusal to acknowledge the rule of any princely lord over the land.  No, Calvin's Reformed Movement, or "Calvinism" was destined to bring a clash with traditional princely and priestly rulers who claimed to rule by "divine rights."  That was exactly what the Calvinists claimed for their own "self-rule":  self-rule by divine right – even by divine imperative.   There was no way these two mind-sets were going to work cooperatively. For Calvin – and the many who came to take up his "Calvinism" – this became an all-important issue. It would influence deeply the Puritans, then the Congregationalists and Presbyterians who would follow the same Calvinist lead in deepening the social-moral foundations of the New England and Middle colonies (Virgiania, however, would long see itself as belonging quite properly under the priestly authority of the Church of England and its ruling monarch).

Calvin's major works or writings:

Go to the history section: The Reformation (Early 1500s to Mid 1600s)   Miles H. Hodges