Calvin's Return to Geneva and the Establishment of a Reformed Church: 1541–1549
For we should understand, that not only has [God] called us one day to possess his heavenly inheritance, but that by hope he has already in some measure
installed us in possession; that not only has he promised us life, but already transported us into it, delivering us from death, when by adopting us as his children, he begot us again by immortal seed, namely, his word imprinted on our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
—John Calvin, Short Treatise on the Holy Supper
Establishment of a Reformed Church
n September 1541, Calvin stood before the congregation of
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St. Peter’s in Geneva, the same place he had refused to celebrate the Lord’s Supper on Easter in April 1538. As the service unfolded, Calvin picked up and started preaching where he had left off in 1538.
Even more surprising, perhaps, is that the man who was booted out of town by the council had been wooed back by the council, and when he arrived in 1541, it was with an official city escort. The city had sent a wagon for his family, and they provided a home for the minister and his household.
The period of initial harmony between Calvin and the council was short lived. Conflict erupted from time to time; it simply simmered at others, yet Calvin lived out the rest of his days in Geneva. Why did he come back, and why did he stay? More than anything, perhaps it was a sense of responsibility that settled over him. He had matured in Strasbourg, and he had learned to lead and to organize. He became convinced that God had called him to ministry in Geneva; hence he would serve.
One can see, despite hard feelings over having to leave the city, that Calvin carried with him into exile a sense of obligation for the work he had begun in Geneva. Even before his reluctant return to the city, there appeared a clear sign that he would not simply abandon the city to whatever fate befell it.
REPLY TO CARDINAL SADOLET Once Farel and Calvin had been exiled, there were those both within and without Geneva that hoped to bring the city back into the Catholic fold. The city’s fate appeared unsure.
In the spring of 1539, Cardinal Jacob Sadolet officially wrote to the city council, inviting Geneva back to the Roman church. In an elegant plea, Sadolet asked the Genevans not to turn their backs on the traditions of their fathers for a new religion that was barely decades old. Sadolet not only had the authority of the Catholic Church behind him; he was also known as a man of high character, a scholar, and one who sought to root out abuses in the church.
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The council, realizing that it could not answer the letter on its own, sought help. They eventually turned to Calvin. By September 1539, they received Calvin’s Reply.
“The safety of [a] man,” Calvin wrote, “hangs by a thread whose defence turns wholly on this: that he has constantly adhered to the religion handed down to him from his forefathers.”15 Calvin’s response to Sadolet served as a defense of the Reformation in Geneva as he refuted Sadolet’s letter point by point. He especially emphasized that Protestants, in fact, were not new; they had simply returned to the source of Christianity, Christ and the Scripture that witnessed to him.
The council, certainly, was swayed by the contents of the letter. Never again did there appear to be serious consideration of returning to the Catholic Church.
Again, Calvin exhibited a sense of responsibility in this work he did for Geneva. His own words foreshadow his return to the city, as he wrote to Sadolet, “For though I am for the present relieved of the charge of the Church of Geneva, that circumstance ought not to prevent me from embracing it with paternal affection—God, when he gave it to me in charge, having bound me to be faithful to it forever.”16
Little did Calvin realize, when he wrote these words, how prophetic they would be.
CALVIN’S RETURN TO GENEVA Of course, much of what had happened over the course of Calvin’s absence related to politics. Parties came into power; parties fell out of favor. Several who had opposed Calvin’s work of reform in his first Genevan period were ousted from power in 1539. This explains the willingness of the council to extend a hand to Calvin, asking for his help; essentially, it was not the same council (in terms of the people serving) that had kicked him out.
Indeed, some began to think that it had been a mistake to send Calvin into exile. Certainly, in the interim, his reputation had advanced. What is more, he had learned practical pastoral skills
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in Strasbourg. Geneva, it turned out, wanted him back. By September 1540, the council had sent representatives to invite Calvin to return.
He shuddered at the thought. In his letters, his rhetoric took flight: He referred to Geneva as “a gulf and a whirlpool which I have already found to be so dangerous and destructive.”17 In another place, he declared, “It would have been far preferable to perish once for all than to be tormented again in that place of torture.”18 After a year of negotiations—Calvin wanted there to be no misunderstanding about how he understood the task of reform—he found himself back in Geneva. At first, he thought he would simply be “on loan” to Geneva for six months, after which time he would return to Strasbourg. There would be, however, no going back.
ORGANIZING A CHURCH Almost immediately upon his return to Geneva, Calvin began to work on the fundamentals of the church. He penned ordinances for the running of the church (matters of leadership, structure, etc.), and he developed the service of worship. He wrote a catechism in order to instruct the people in the essentials of the type of Christianity he propounded. Finally, he established a fourfold model of church authority and leadership, outlined in the ecclesiastical ordinances.
In the worship service, Calvin encouraged the singing of Psalms. Prayers were said, the Scripture read, and a sermon preached on the text of Scripture. Calvin himself also believed that the Lord’s Supper should be celebrated whenever the Word of God was preached, but he never achieved that ideal in the churches of Geneva. So, once per quarter in each of the city churches (which worked out so that communion was celebrated once per month somewhere in Geneva), the minister oversaw communion. Of course, the entire service was conducted in French, the language that the people in Geneva spoke. This was quite a change; everyone had grown up in a church that conducted its service in Latin, which only the educated understood.
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Calvin instituted a serial method of Scripture readings and sermons for the churches. Since Reformation leaders valued the Bible as the final source and authority for true Christianity, they thought it best for Scripture to be as fully expounded on and understood as possible. Hence, the sermon “series”; this meant preaching through books of the Bible. Thus, for example, when Calvin started preaching on the book of Job, he started at chapter one verse one, taking a few lines at a time for each sermon, and then he proceeded through the entire book. He ended up preaching 202 sermons on Job.
In his catechism, Calvin taught the fundamentals of faith: the nature of God, the role of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit. He emphasized the authority of the Bible. He taught, of course, the fundamental Reformation principle: that one is saved by the grace of God alone, through faith. In other words, salvation, in Calvin’s thought, is a pure and undeserved gift, something that can only be received through faith and not through good works. Calvin’s catechism also taught how one should understand baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both, he said, are ways God imprints on human senses (by sound, touch, sight, taste, smell) what is promised by the Word of God. Word and sacrament reinforce each other.
Finally, Calvin oversaw the development of a fourfold system of ministry. In his plan, a church should have preachers, teachers, elders, and deacons. Preachers preach, administer the sacraments, and provide pastoral care to the people (e.g., visit during times of illness and offer prayers). Teachers educate, promoting true doctrine and expelling errors (although pastors did this as well), lecturing on the Bible, and teaching the catechism. Elders (lay people, not clergy) helped in the work of overseeing the church, especially its discipline. Finally, deacons oversaw the work of helping the poor.
Early in Calvin’s tenure, these items—ordinances, worship service, catechism—were presented to the council for its approval. They were accepted (though not without some revision), and
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Calvin spent the rest of his life striving to serve the ideals set forth in these documents.
THE COMPANY OF PASTORS Calvin, of course, was but one man. There were several churches within the city of Geneva proper. Since it was a republic that took in a larger area than just Geneva, however, there were other churches that required pastors: Small towns and rural parishes needed ministers.
THE THREE SOLAS
Much of the writing from the sixteenth century was in Latin; this is especially true of scholarly or academic writing. In Latin, the word sola means “alone” or “only.” A survey of the major Protestant Reformers makes it clear that there were three solas at the heart of their program for religious reformation.
Sola fide is Latin for “by faith alone.” People such as Martin Luther and John Calvin taught that salvation from God is received “by faith alone,” apart from the performance of good works. For them, trust in God’s promises and God’s word of salvation was the key to new life in Christ. Indeed, they believed that humans were incapable of performing the kind of good works that would force God to grant salvation.
Sola gratia means “by grace alone.” Because, according to the reformers, human beings could not earn salvation, it had to be given as a free gift from God—that is, one is saved “by grace alone.” This concept, for the Reformers, placed the ultimate responsibility for salvation in the hands of God, not human beings. That is why many of them developed doctrines of predestination, the notion that God, apart from human merit, chooses who will be saved. Though they emphasized this belief, it had long been a part of Catholic teaching.
Sola scriptura is translated as “by Scripture alone.” For the Reformers, the final and ultimate source of authority was the Bible. Thus, true Christian teaching had to be judged “by Scripture alone” apart from the institutions and traditions of human beings (such as the pope or a council of bishops).
For those who study the Reformation, the three solas represent much of what the early Protestants were all about.
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Over the course of years, Calvin tried to form a competent group of pastors. Indeed, it became a formal gathering: The Company of Pastors. The company met together for prayer, Bible study, mutual examination of their lives as ministers, and arguments for the correction of errors of thought or life. Calvin held the office of pastor to a high standard.
In a sense, Calvin thought all pastors should be like him. Ideally, he believed a minister should be educated and trained in ancient languages and have the skills to properly interpret the Bible. Calvin expected, moreover, a pastor be adept in the use of language and oratory in order to make the message of the Bible come alive to the congregation. The pastor should be a man called by God, and one whose call is recognized by the congregation and the council. The personality of the pastor should be such that he can be compassionate when needed but forthright in the condemnation of sin when required.
When he first came back to Geneva, the group of pastors there did not meet these expectations. In his zeal for reform, Calvin was harsh at times in his assessment of the ministers, and he did not seem to get along well with the initial group. Over the years, however, through reassignments, outright dismissals, and death, Calvin brought together a group that, eventually, came closer to his ideal. The company became, as a whole, a competent group of ministers.
THE CONSISTORY The elders, mentioned earlier, together with the Company of Pastors, formed the Consistory. The 12 elders were chosen from among the three city councils, and there were to be representatives from each quarter of the city. The purpose of the Consistory was to enforce church discipline.
Though much has been written about the Consistory over the years, it has been only recently that the records of the Consistory have been made available through the work of a team of scholars. Although stereotyped as an oppressive and intrusive body, willing to punish over the slightest
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offense, the records show the Consistory to have been something different.
More than anything else, the Consistory sought to create a civil society in which the members of Genevan society could live in peace. Of course, it was assumed all good citizens would attend worship and partake of communion, because these people believed in the possibility of a Christian society. Based on that assumption (which is not, of course, shared by most modern-day Americans), people were therefore called before the Consistory to explain their absence from church.
More than that, however, the Consistory’s work appears, based on the records now available, to be that of overseeing good conduct. A variety of cases were brought before the Consistory: those who abused their spouses were admonished; grown sons and daughters who battered their elderly parents were told to behave; parents who severely beat their children found themselves in front of the Consistory. The ideal of Christian society was that all would live in harmony, and the Consistory sought to enable that ideal.
What is more, the Consistory, during Calvin’s time, was mostly advisory in its function. The city council never gave it the right to punish; all cases requiring punishment were handed to the civil government. Indeed, not only was the Consistory forbidden to impose civil or criminal penalties on offenders, but it often could not even administer church discipline apart from the sanction of the council. Calvin for years argued that the church and its disciplinary body, the Consistory, should have the right, as a religious punishment, to exclude notorious sinners from the Eucharist. The council fought this idea. The process of excommunication had to go through the civil authorities. For many years, it was the power of persuasion that Calvin and the Consistory exercised rather than direct power over the lives of Genevans.
SOCIAL SERVICES Pastors preached; teachers taught; elders, along with the pastors, exercised church discipline. The deacons, the final part JOHN CALVIN
of Calvin’s fourfold model of church organization, played a vital role in developing social services in early modern Geneva.
Calvin believed, and it is clear both from his Institutes and his biblical commentaries, that there was a clear mandate for Christians to take care of the poor and needy. Several books have been written on the development of this aspect of the Genevan Reformation, and the model of Geneva inspired other Calvinist churches in other parts of Europe to follow suit. For example, scholars have studied the “bread rolls” of certain seventeenthcentury French Calvinist communities, where families who were able took responsibility for providing daily rations of bread to poor families.
Though centuries later some sociologists would argue that in Calvinism there is a spirit that causes capitalism to flourish, there is really nothing in Calvin himself or in Geneva that reflected the notion of a cut-throat capitalism that leaves everyone to fend for himself or herself. Christians were to care for one another, according to Calvin, both spiritually and physically.
DAILY LIFE AS A PASTOR IN GENEVA Upon his return to Geneva in 1541, Calvin established a work pattern that he would follow until the end of his life in 1564. He preached and lectured on the Bible several times a week; he wrote commentaries on books of the Bible and produced treatises on various theological controversies. He continued to work on his Institutes of the Christian Religion, revising and expanding the work that would constitute his chief theological legacy. He engaged in pastoral care; worked with the Consistory and Company of Pastors; and argued with, cajoled, and persuaded the town council on religious matters. He may have also served as town lawyer on occasion.
In addition to these duties, Calvin held dear the value of an education, and he worked toward establishing an educated clergy. This interest would eventually bear fruit in the creation of the Genevan Academy, which has survived to this day in the form of the University of Geneva. Calvin believed that those
Establishment of a Reformed Church
who preached should be able to draw upon the wellspring of the evangelical faith, the Scripture, and be able to do so in the original languages and knowing something of the context of the times.
Calvin also maintained an international correspondence, advising friends and other reformers how to move forward in the reformed faith and to work for the establishment of congregations: how to structure them and how to provide for worship, preaching, and teaching. In fact, Calvin’s connections were so extensive that, it has been said, Calvin was better informed of events throughout Europe than some kings.
CALVIN ATTEMPTS TO MEDIATE A CONFLICT In addition to mentoring those who had adopted his view of reform in the organization of churches, Calvin played a hand in trying to mediate the differences of belief that had emerged among the Protestants.
No document, perhaps, best illustrates both Calvin’s desire to mediate conflict and the divisive nature of the century as the Agreement of Zurich. Calvin worked with the chief pastor of the city of Zurich, Heinrich Bullinger, to develop an understanding of the Eucharist upon which all Protestants could agree.
Calvin had already shown his desire for such an understanding when he wrote his Short Treatise on the Holy Supper in 1541. Though the Protestant movement had already begun to splinter in the 1520s, those religious reformers who worked through the civil authorities to bring about change (these are called magisterial reformers because they worked through magistrates) fell broadly into two camps: Lutheran (those who closely followed Martin Luther’s theology; to learn more about Lutheranism, enter the keywords “lutheranism church” into any Internet search engine and browse the listed websites) and Reformed (representatives of this more diverse movement are Ulrich Zwingli, who was pastor in Zurich before Bullinger; Martin Bucer, the chief pastor of Strasbourg during Calvin’s time there; and, a little later, Calvin himself). Calvin’s 1541 JOHN CALVIN
work represented Calvin’s first attempt to mediate between Lutheran and Reformed factions.
By the mid-1540s, however, there were concerns about the relationship between Zurich and Geneva. The result of negotiations on the Eucharist between Calvin and Bullinger was the Agreement of Zurich. Though Calvin and Bullinger certainly did not completely agree on how they understood the Eucharist (Calvin thought the Eucharist a process by which one was put in communion with Christ’s true body and blood; Bullinger believed that the primary function of the sacred meal was as a memorial to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross), there was common ground that could be a foundation for an agreement, Calvin thought.
The Agreement of Zurich, signed by the parties in 1549, reflected a way of speaking about the Lord’s Supper that was flexible in the way it could be read, and this was intended. Each side could hold to their own understanding of the Eucharist while exercising Christian charity in accepting that the other side would not necessarily read the document in the same manner.
The agreement did serve to unite the Swiss Reformed; it did not, however, help sway the Lutherans. Indeed, many Lutherans read the agreement only in the way Bullinger understood it, which, to them, meant a rejection of their view, which was that Christ was present in the Eucharist and was not merely a memorial to Christ’s death. For a few years, Calvin continued to try to sway the Lutherans to read the document as something that could possibly express their beliefs. The Lutherans, with their founder having died several years before, believed anything that deviated from Luther’s words on the Eucharist was a betrayal of Luther himself.
What began as an attempt at reconciliation among religious parties ended up producing some of the most vicious rhetoric in all the sixteenth century—that between Calvin and the Lutherans. It created a divide that would not be healed.
CALVIN’S HEALTH AND HOME The emotional and physical strain of Calvin’s work began to take its toll. By the end of the decade, Calvin had started to develop
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ailments that would increasingly make his physical existence painful: His health problems included gout, kidney stones, chronic pulmonary tuberculosis, pleurisy, rheumatism, and migraine headaches.19 Because Calvin thought his calling came from God, however, throughout the decade he never allowed his pace to lag.
In addition, Calvin’s home experienced its share of sadness. He and his wife had at least one son, and maybe more children,20 but they all died in infancy. Idelette, never really recovering from childbirth, remained sickly for some years, then died in 1549. Calvin continued to care for Idelette’s two sons from a previous marriage, but they also preceded Calvin in death. Moreover, one gets the feeling that, though having lived in Geneva for years, Calvin never felt at home. He continued to think of himself as an exile from his homeland. Despite this, he labored on, because he felt God had called on him to do so.