In pro-Reformation placards were posted throughout France, and again Calvin was implicated. He traveled to Basel early in , then to Ferrara in the spring of By August 23, , Calvin had finished the first edition of his magisterial Institutes of the Christian Religion , first published in Latin in March of It would grow in subsequent Latin and French editions until reaching its full measure in In the summer of , at the age of 26, Calvin arrived in Geneva.
It was a republic surrounded on all sides and vulnerable to the duchy of Savoy, the kingdom of France, and other Swiss cantons. Three months later, the fiery Guillaume Farel persuaded Calvin, who was taking a detour on his way to Strasbourg, to stay and help with the reformation of the city of Geneva.
Though he enacted a number of reforms in Genevan social life, it must not be thought that he, any more than the other Reformers, was against the authority of the church.
Geneva renounced the Mass, destroyed its monasteries, and refused papal authority. Nevertheless, Calvin hoped for a more thorough reform. For example, he wanted each individual to subscribe to a Protestant confession of faith.
In April he was banished from Geneva and ended up in Strasbourg, where he worked with Martin Bucer. His principle ideas were never in question, but in style he became more urbane and polished, and deeply concerned for the life of the church. He married a widow, Idelette de Bure, in She came with two children, and together they had a son who died very young. Idelette died in , leaving Calvin a deeply bereft man. Calvin replied in what is perhaps his best piece of polemical writing.
Then, realizing how weak they were without a leader, the Genevan magistrates urged Calvin to return to their city, which he did in Calvin spent the rest of his life in Geneva. He led in the reform of church government, worship, and every part of the life of the city.
He preached several sermons per week. He established schools and the great university of Geneva. He cared deeply for his own native land, both by writing to French churches and ministers and by protecting the Huguenot refugees who came to Geneva.
It was a proud boast that there were no beggars in Geneva. Calvin not only organized the form of the church, he also played his full part in the day-to-day work. He preached twice every Sunday and every day of alternate weeks. In the weeks when he was not preaching, he lectured three times he was the Old Testament professor. He took his place regularly on the Consistory, which met every Thursday. And he was either on committees or incessantly being asked for advice about matters relating to the deacons.
It should not be thought that he was in any way the ruler or dictator of Geneva. He was appointed by the City Council and paid by them. He could at any time have been dismissed by them as he had been in He was a foreigner in Geneva, not even a naturalized citizen, until near the end of his life. That he was involved in so much that went on in Geneva, from the City constitution down to drains and heating appliances, was simply due to his outstanding abilities and sense of duty.
The burden of work and responsibilities was turned into crushing labor by his continual poor health. Overwork in his law-student days had impaired his digestion. This in turn, increased by his excitable and nervous disposition, brought on migraines.
Later his lungs became affected, perhaps through too much preaching and talking, and he was incapacitated by lung hemorrhages.
As if all this were not enough, he was tortured by bladder stones and the gout. And yet he drove his body beyond its limits. When he could not walk the couple of hundred yards to church, he was carried in a chair to preach. When the doctor forbade him to go out in the winter air to the lecture room, he crowded the audience into his bedroom and gave the remaining lectures on Malachi there. Would you have the Lord find me idle when he comes? The afflictions and pressures he endured were intensified by the opposition he faced.
It was not reasoned opposition raised in the course of debate. This opposition took the form of actual physical intimidation, of men setting their dogs on him, of the firing of guns outside the church during the service, of people trying to drown his voice or put him off by loud coughing while he preached, even of anonymous threats against his life.
Disaffection grew. Calvin, for his part, stuck to his guns admirably. At first he was patient, but gradually his patience was worn away. Even in his patience, he was too unsympathetic.
He may have remained always morally superior to his opponents, but he showed little understanding, little kindness, and certainly little sense of humor. On the other hand, we have to ask ourselves how much Calvin would have achieved in Geneva and in the world, if he had been an amenable sort of man.
His sympathy was for the needs of the Gospel; his kindness was for the Kingdom of God; in the situation he saw no comedy, only tragedy. We must remember that during all this turmoil, Calvin had not relinquished his many other responsibilities.
He continued preaching and lecturing, commentaries and other books were written, many hundreds of letters were dispatched to every part of the civilized world, and he had worked away at the Institutio. Never satisfied, Calvin made his greatest and final revision in the winter of , when severe illness gave him leisure from ordinary tasks. The work was greatly increased in bulk, the 21 chapters of now became What happened to the Institutio in its course from the six chapters based on the catechism to the four books on the creed?
Did it cease to be evangelistic and become purely theoretical theology? Above all, did it drift away from the teaching of Holy Scripture? Not at all. The Institutio remains what it always was, an evangelistic and pastoral work, a continual exposition of Holy Scripture. Only five years remained to him after They were years of increasing sickness and weakness—years, nevertheless, of unremitting toil.
He again translated the Institutio into French. He wrote the large commentary on the Pentateuch and translated that also. He continued to preach, lecture, and perform his ordinary duties until February of After this he quickly declined and died three months later. Parker is former professor at the University of Durham in England and author of the biographical work John Calvin, published by Lion.
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Christian History Archives Eras Home. Under his rule, Geneva became the center of Protestantism, and sent out pastors to the rest of Europe, creating Presbyterianism in Scotland, the Puritan Movement in England and the Reformed Church in the Netherlands. Calvin died on May 27, , in Geneva, Switzerland. It is unknown where he is buried. Today, Calvin remains widely credited as the most important figure in the second generation of the Protestant Reformation. We strive for accuracy and fairness.
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