John Calvin is unquestionably the second best known figurehead of the Protestant Reformation behind Martin Luther, and arguably left an even greater imprint upon the Protestant psyche than his German predecessor. His efforts to send ministers from Geneva were of paramount importance when it came to propagating the Protestant Reformation, and his legacy is reflected in the heritage of the Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed denominations, as well as the ongoing significance of his Reformed Theology in many Protestant circles.[i]
Hailing from Picardy, France, Calvin was born into a middle-class family with a devout Catholic mother and a father who practiced law.[ii] Calvin attended the University of Paris for a few years to prepare for priesthood, but then, at the behest of his father, changed course and pursued law from 1528-1533.[iii] “Exposed to the evangelical humanism of Erasmus” and other renaissance figures, many university students incurred the ire of the French government by advocating for a return to the study of the Bible in its original languages; Calvin, who had converted to Protestantism, wrote an oration concerning the student movement that was delivered at the University of Paris on All Saints Day.[iv] The backlash this address garnered forced Calvin to flee Paris.[v]
Calvin spent the next few years a fugitive, and settled briefly in Basel, Switzerland, where he wrote his magnum opus, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, in March of 1536.[vi] This work earned him more ire than before from Catholic leaders, such that upon settling his recently deceased father’s affairs in Paris in the Summer of 1536, Calvin again fled Paris, this time for the city of Strasbourg.[vii] En route to Strasbourg, Calvin spent a night in Geneva; William Farel, a fellow reformer, convinced him to stay in Geneva.[viii] In May of 1538, the Genevan city council banished Calvin and Farel for their unwavering belief that ministers possessed the right to excommunicate.[ix] For the next three years, Calvin served as a preacher to a congregation in Strasbourg until he was invited back to Geneva. The Genevan town council then organized the city according to provisions Calvin had set forth in his Ecclesiastical Ordinances, thus laying the foundations for a theocracy that would govern Geneva.[x] A consistory of pastors and elders sought to abolish Catholic “superstition,” enforce sexual morality, and enact measures against dancing, gambling, and swearing.[xi] Many inhabitants of Geneva resented the restrictions enacted by the consistory, while John Knox, the father of Presbyterianism, referred to Geneva as “the most perfect school of Christ that ever was on Earth since the days of the Apostles.”[xii] Deacons were in charge of maintaining social welfare, and were reportedly so effective that Geneva was free from beggars.[xiii] Geneva became a hub for the Protestant Reformation as Calvin welcomed religious refugees, provided them with ministerial training, and sent them forth to propagate the Protestant message.[xiv]
In the fall of 1553, conflict between Calvin and the city council rose once more to a pitch when the libertines, who lived licentious lifestyles, were joined by the city council in when they insisted that they have access to the Lord’s Table; Calvin adamantly opposed their demand, and stood in front of the Lord’s Table at a service where libertines were expected to partake and declared, “These hands you may crush, these arms you may lop off, my life you may take, my blood is yours, you may shed it; but you shall never force me to give holy things to the profaned, and dishonour the table of God.”[xv] The libertines, however, were not in attendance, and conflict was thereby avoided.[xvi]
Sadly, Calvin’s legacy is often defined by the execution of Michael Servetus, who burned at the stake, in Geneva.[xvii] As Bruce Gordon notes, “From the sixteenth century to this day detractors have seized this moment as a confirmation of his tyrannical, intolerant character.”[xviii] This assessment, however, is a totally unfair characterization. That Calvin considered Servetus, who denied the doctrine of the trinity and other bedrock theological dogmas, to be a heretic, is not what is up for debate here. The theological gulf between the two was wide and deep. Furthermore, when Servetus showed up in Calvin’s church on August 13 of 1553, Calvin did take it upon himself to report Servetus, who had already been condemned as a heretic by the Catholic Inquisition, to the Genevan authorities.[xix] However, Calvin’s role in Servetus’ trial was limited to that of a “technical expert,” whereas the decision to pronounce the judgment of execution belonged to the city council.[xx] Furthermore, it was Calvin’s desire that Servetus recant, and not die.[xxi] Servetus, however, steadfastly clung to his heretical ideas to the end, so Calvin was not opposed to the administration of the death penalty.[xxii] However, he sought to change the mode of execution so that Servetus would suffer a less painful death.[xxiii] While it is not unreasonable to criticize Calvin for his mistaken views on how heresy ought to be dealt with, the Servetus affair underscores a general problem in Europe that plagued Protestants and Catholics alike.[xxiv] As one historian put it, “Servetus’s execution in Geneva is less attributable to Calvin as a particularly bad actor than to Europe’s sixteenth-century culture as a temporal manifestation of our world’s broken stage.”[xxv]
Calvin’s final years of life were marked by bouts of illness followed by seasons of recovery. He nonetheless managed to preach regularly, translate a final edition of his Institutes into French, and write a commentary on the Pentateuch. As his hour drew near, he requested to be buried in an unmarked grave, “hoping to prevent pilgrims from coming to see his resting place and engaging in the kind of idolatry he’d spent his lifetime standing against.”[xxvi] It is likely, therefore, that Calvin would disapprove of how his name has been inextricably associated with the some of the doctrines he expounded, namely the Five Points of Calvinism. By identifying as “Calvinists,” people arguably idolatrize a man who had no desire to be made much of. It is safe to say that Calvin hoped his strivings would point beyond himself “to the One who saved him and was his greatest joy—the only One most worthy of being made much of.”[xxvii]
[i] http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/john-calvin.html
[ii] http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03195b.htm
[iii] William J. Bouwsma, “Explaining John Calvin,” The Wilson Quarterly 1 (1989): 69.
[iv] David Mathis, “Introduction: Divine Glory and the Daily Grind” in With Calvin in the Theater of God: The Glory of Christ and Everyday Life ed. John Piper (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 154.
[v] Bouwsma, “Explaining John Calvin,” 69.
[vi] Bouwsma, “Explaining John Calvin,” 69.
[vii] http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03195b.htm; http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/john-calvin.html
[viii] http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/john-calvin.html
[ix] Bouwsma, “Explaining John Calvin,” 70.
[x] Bouwsma, “Explaining John Calvin,” 70.
[xi] Bouwsma, “Explaining John Calvin,” 70.
[xii] Bouwsma, “Explaining John Calvin,” 70-71.
[xiii] http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/john-calvin.html
[xiv] Bouwsma, “Explaining John Calvin,” 71.
[xv] Mathis, 159.
[xvi] Mathis, 159.
[xvii] Bruce Gordon, Calvin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 217.
[xviii] Gordon, 217.
[xix] Mark R. Talbot, “Bad Actors on a Broken Stage: Sin and Suffering in Calvin’s World and Ours” in With Calvin in the Theater of God: The Glory of Christ and Everyday Life ed. John Piper (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 148-149.
[xx] Talbot, 149.
[xxi] Gordon, 220.
[xxii] Gordon, 224.
[xxiii] Gordon, 223.
[xxiv] Talbot, 151.
[xxv] Talbot, 152.
[xxvi] Mathis, 161.
[xxvii] Mathis, 159.