Calvin's Geneva: 1550–1564

I have endeavored, both in my sermons and also in my writings and commentaries, to preach [God’s] Word purely and chastely, and faithfully to

interpret His sacred Scripture.

—John Calvin, in his will

Calvin’s Geneva

f course, simply recounting the establishment of institutions

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that would help insure the long-term success of the Reformation in Geneva and the detailing of Calvin’s work as pastor makes it sound as if the Reformation in Geneva was an easy process. It was not. Especially in the 1540s and into the 1550s, politicians would criticize Calvin’s work, and theologians and teachers would question his theology. Calvin thought of himself as a latter-day David at times (David is traditionally held to have written the Psalms in the Bible). In the language of some of the Psalms of lament, Calvin would ask how long he had to withstand the attacks of evildoers.

Calvin continued to fight for the things he thought the church needed, often in the face of a hostile town council. One of these was the power to enforce excommunication, to exclude wayward Christians from the Lord’s Supper as a means of discipline. There continued to be conflict over whether the Consistory could exercise this power on its own, or whether the right to do so lay with the council. Moreover, the council directed, to some extent, how the church would be ordered. Calvin still, after all these years, could not have the Eucharist celebrated as often as he would have liked.

In the first half of the 1550s, Calvin thought a number of times that he would be removed from his post because of his stand against the ruling authorities. The council elections were such that the number of anti-Calvinists grew. As T.H.L. Parker has pointed out, however, these council members did not want Calvin’s removal so much as they wanted a “subservient” Calvin.²¹ As it turned out, though, not only did they not dismiss Calvin, but the council often either supported him or worked behind the scenes to diffuse difficult situations.

THE CASE OF JEROME BOLSEC Jerome Bolsec moved to a city near Geneva in 1550 and served as physician to nobility. He had a keen interest in theological matters. He had left the Catholic Church and became a Reformed Protestant. He was most interested in the JOHN CALVIN

teachings of Calvin, and he often traveled into Geneva to hear him.

On many points, Bolsec agreed with Calvin’s religious teachings. On one matter, however, they disagreed: that of predestination. Calvin had developed a notion of salvation that pointed to God’s act of absolute grace as the foundation of redemption. In other words, God chose those who would be saved; moreover, Calvin believed that God actively rejected those who would not be saved. In theological terms, this is called double predestination.

Bolsec disagreed with Calvin on this point, and he publicly argued with Calvin about this doctrine. Calvin brought heresy charges against Bolsec. The city council wrote other Reformed churches and theologians for their opinions. Some sided with Calvin; others did not.

This presented a dilemma for the council. If they found in favor of Bolsec, it would be as if they were saying that Calvin taught false doctrine; and Calvin was, after all, employed by the council itself to teach and interpret the Bible. It would be as if the council were condemning itself. Unfortunately, this mindset that one could only be absolutely right or absolutely wrong in matters of essential doctrine characterized much sixteenthcentury thinking.

Bolsec thus found himself banished for life from the city of Geneva. Though he wandered from place to place in Switzerland for a time, he eventually found his way back to France, where he joined himself once again to the Catholic Church.

Although Calvin may have won this battle with the express backing of the town council, this may be a case of a victory won too dearly. Bolsec later wrote a biography of Calvin that has helped to cast Calvin, historically, as a villain—the tyrant of Geneva.

THE CASE OF PHILIBERT BERTHELIER Though personalities are involved in this case, they are representative of larger problems in Geneva. Philibert Berthelier

Calvin’s Geneva

had been excommunicated by the Consistory. As the quarterly celebration of the Lord’s Supper approached in September 1553, however, he directly requested that the council reinstate him to full communion with the church so that he might take the Eucharist. The council did so, although they asked Berthelier not to partake of the Lord’s Supper that particular Sunday.

On the communion Sunday in September 1553, Calvin directly forbade those excommunicated by the Consistory from partaking of the Eucharist. He stated in the strongest terms that those who had not shown true repentance to the Consistory could not be reinstated by the council. He expected to be fired for such a stance, and that afternoon he preached a farewell sermon.

Calvin was not, however, forced from the pulpit by the council. Instead, they chose to study the problem, examining the ecclesiastical ordinances of 1541. Here again, the council ended up supporting Calvin, deciding that the council should not nullify excommunication when the person who had been excommunicated showed no sign of repentance before the Consistory.

The question dragged on, however, for the next two years. At points, the council claimed the right to decide excommunication itself. At other times, it softened its stance. New elections in 1555 finally pushed the matter in the Consistory’s favor.

The Berthelier case, however, is representative of a larger conflict taking place in Geneva. The seeming hostility between Calvin and the council, between Calvin and the city of Geneva, has been characterized in a variety of ways. From Calvin’s point of view, it was a matter of taking seriously the Bible’s ethical injunctions, and he labeled those who were frustrated under his religious leadership as immoral. Yet, it is clear the council also had interest in maintaining moral standards within the city. From the point of view of some of Calvin’s opponents, the problem was that Calvin wanted to rule the city, and this image is what helped contribute to the notion that Calvin was a theocrat, that is, was a religious leader who ruled with an iron fist over society. This stereotype, however, cannot be upheld by the historical JOHN CALVIN

evidence any more than Calvin’s insistence that it was simply the general immorality of Genevans that was the point of conflict.

William Naphy, a professor at the University of Aberdeen, has suggested that, based on the historical evidence of social changes in Geneva, the problem centered on the shift in demographics. Native Genevans frequently “protested against the increasing size and influence of the French refugee community.”²² Berthelier was connected to the native families of Geneva who had helped Geneva break free of the rule of Savoy. Certain people in Geneva grew to resent the influence of foreign ministers such as Calvin. Moreover, because of the influx of French refugees (caused by religious persecution)—many of whom became strong supporters of Calvin—the political balance began to shift away from the old Geneva families. Thus, as much as a religious problem, Berthelier’s stance against Calvin was a political statement against the rule of foreigners.

These tensions continued to show up in, of all places, conflicts over the naming of children at the time of baptism. Calvin favored biblical names for children, and so he rejected many of the traditional names (often the names of Catholic saints) that parents wanted to give their children. Although this issue arose in the 1540s, it had reached crisis proportions by 1550. Riots broke out. Arrests were made. This problem that Calvin perhaps saw blindly as a religious one makes evident the same fear noted earlier: “Many Genevans saw this baptismal policy as an attempt to force a foreign practice on them.”²³ This inflamed anti-Calvin and anti- French sentiment. And yet, as close as dismissal seemed at times for Calvin, the council never took such drastic action. It would not be long before the possibility of such action disappeared.

THE EXECUTION OF SERVETUS Perhaps nothing is more ironic, in a way, in the study of Calvin than the affair of Michael Servetus. In his own century, the capture, trial, and execution of Servetus won for Calvin international acclaim. In later centuries, the affair has been used to paint Calvin as a depraved and despicable man, one whose

Calvin’s Geneva

theology naturally led to such abominable behavior as the execution of a man over a simple difference of opinion. In reality, however, Calvin acted in a way consistent with the behavior of most people of the sixteenth century. People were, in fact, executed by civil governments for religious heresy in part, from the governmental perspective, to maintain civil order.

Zurich saw multiple executions related to what were considered baptismal heresies; the government of France routinely burned heretics; in Spain, there was the Inquisition. Martin Luther wrote a tract (“Against the Thieving and Murderous Hordes of Peasants”) that encouraged the princes to slay those

THE LIFE OF MICHAEL SERVETUS

Probably born about the same time as John Calvin (around 1509), Michael Servetus well represented what came to be known as the “Renaissance man.” He had a well-rounded education, and he ably participated in several realms of scholarly inquiry. For example, he wrote a book on the ancient geographer Ptolemy, and the book had enough influence that it is still included in histories of geography. He, like so many Renaissance figures (such as Leonardo da Vinci), had an interest in science. He had studied human anatomy, and his work anticipated the work of William Harvey, who published his famous theories in 1628 on the circulation of the blood.

It is in the area of religion, however, that Servetus is most remembered. He advanced a view of God that denied the traditional Christian doctrine of the Trinity. He taught, instead, that God expressed himself through a variety of names, and each manifestation under a particular name was meant to teach a certain message about God. Jesus and the Holy Spirit were two of the many names by which the one God could be known.

Servetus fully engaged the humanist spirit of the time. With the motto of the humanists, “Back to the Sources,” as his principle, he sought to show how his views on God and Christ reconstructed the beliefs of earliest Christianity.

Though executed as a heretic in his own time in Calvin’s Geneva, Servetus’s thought was influential in the eventual development of Unitarianism, the belief that there is only one God and that the doctrine of the Trinity is indefensible.

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who rebelled against the established order. England, under Queen Elizabeth I, witnessed the execution of hundreds of religious dissenters. It is interesting that Calvin seems to bear the brunt of contemporary objections to the execution of religious dissenters. This has happened despite the fact that Servetus represents the sole execution for religious causes in Geneva during Calvin’s time there. Certainly, killing someone for a difference in religious opinion should not be sanctioned, yet it happened routinely in the sixteenth century. What is extraordinary is that it happened only once in Calvin’s Geneva.

In 1553, Michael Servetus came through Geneva. He was known throughout Europe as an infamous heretic. He was best known as an anti-trinitarian; that is, he did not believe the traditional Christian doctrine that God is one God, yet also three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He had already been arrested in another city, but he escaped; his sentence there was to be executed by fire.

Calvin recognized Servetus while he was in Geneva and filed heresy charges against him, and Servetus was arrested in mid-August. It is important to note, however, that this trial took place under the guidance of the city council because, as Alister McGrath has pointed out so ably, the council’s “persecution of Servetus... was intended to demonstrate their impeccable orthodoxy, as a prelude to undermining Calvin’s religious authority within the city. The Consistory... was bypassed altogether by the council in its efforts to marginalize Calvin from the affair.”²⁴

The council did call Calvin in as chief theological expert. Servetus found himself, for the second time, condemned to death for his theological beliefs. Calvin attempted to have the more humane method of execution—beheading—applied to Servetus, but the city council insisted instead that Servetus be slowly burned to death.

Once again, it should be noted how differently this event was viewed in the sixteenth century. Vienna had requested Servetus’s extradition so that he could be put to death in that city.

Calvin’s Geneva

Congratulations came in from the surrounding Swiss towns and from other cities throughout the Holy Roman Empire. The event enhanced Calvin’s international reputation, and it helped to further establish him as one of the chief leaders of the Protestant movement.

GENEVA: A PRO-CALVIN TOWN Despite the Servetus affair, and perhaps the inadvertent elevation of Calvin’s reputation, there were those who still hoped to see Calvin removed. Philibert Berthelier once again brought his petition to be reinstated into the communion of the church in November 1553, and this time the council, after debate, decided that the Consistory, on its own, did not have the power to exclude the unrepentant from communion. Still, the debate continued.

Finally, in 1555, matters took a turn in Calvin’s favor. In January, after consultation with some of the other Swiss cities, the council decided once again that the ecclesiastical ordinances of 1541 should be followed, and the power of excommunication should be in the hands of the Consistory (which, after all, had representatives from the council sitting upon it). Then the February 1555 elections saw the overwhelming defeat of the anti-Calvinist party. Later, in the spring, a large number of French refugees were given citizenship. Some of the old guard—the “Geneva for Genevans” sort of group—objected to this action, and when their complaints fell on deaf ears, they began threatening to take power back. Though there was never really a rebellion as such, some of the ringleaders had caused enough of a stir that some people were arrested; others fled. From this point forward, Calvin no longer had to deal with an openly hostile council. The majority of the council and the leaders within the council were solidly in Calvin’s camp.

CALVIN’S WORK COMPLETED In this new atmosphere, Calvin simply continued his work as a reformer. He preached, taught, and wrote. The 1550s saw two JOHN CALVIN

major editions of the Institutes published. One appeared in 1550, but it was the 1559 edition, the final Latin edition, that would serve as the one book upon which so much of Calvin’s historical reputation would rest.

Two other events—one of a perhaps more private nature, one of a much more public nature—took place in 1559. For one whose identity is so connected to a city, it is surprising that Calvin did not become a citizen of Geneva until 1559, only five years before his death. Thus, Calvin served the city of Geneva without citizen status for approximately 19 of his 24 years in residence.

On a more public scale, 1559 finally saw the opening of the Genevan Academy. As early as 1541, Calvin encouraged the council to fund an educational system. Calvin believed very strongly that the church needed educated people to provide leadership. Finally, land was obtained and a building started in 1558. Though work would continue for some years on the physical structure, the opening ceremonies were held in July 1559 in St. Peter’s Church.

Calvin sought the best teachers he could get for his school. The person appointed to head the academy was a New Testament scholar named Theodore Beza, a man who would eventually succeed Calvin as chief pastor of the city of Geneva (to learn more about Calvin’s successor, enter the keywords “Theodore Beza Geneva” into any Internet search engine and browse the listed websites). This institution, over the years, would eventually be transformed into what is known today as the University of Geneva. Students came from all over Europe to study there, and this academy would continue for a very long time as one of the primary training grounds for ministers in the Reformed faith. This institution served, along with the Institutes, as the foundation for the continuation and development of Calvin’s theological program.

CALVIN’S DEATH John Calvin died on May 27, 1564. He had not quite reached his fifty-fifth birthday. He had been in ill health for years. At one

Calvin’s Geneva

point, he could not walk to St. Peter’s to preach, so people carried him. By February 1564, however, he could no longer preach at all. By April, he knew death was near, and at the end of the month he gave his last will and address to the magistrates and ministers of Geneva.

He made arrangements for the distribution of his very modest estate. He reflected on his ministry in Geneva. On the one hand, Calvin seems harsh on the Genevans. He spoke at length of their immorality and opposition to the gospel. On the other hand, he also acknowledged his own shortcomings, his impatience, and his lack of tact on numerous occasions.

In the end, however, Calvin threw himself and his ministry upon God’s grace, believing that “God is the Father of mercy [and] will show himself such a Father to me, who acknowledge myself to be a miserable sinner.”²⁵ Summarizing his life’s work, he said simply, “I have endeavored, both in my sermons and also in my writings and commentaries, to preach [God’s] Word purely and chastely, and faithfully to interpret His sacred Scripture.”²⁶ At his death, Calvin was buried in Geneva in an unmarked grave in accordance with his wishes. Its place was never disclosed. In a sense, then, it was as if his body at death simply disappeared from Geneva—it was nowhere to be found. Yet his spirit—through the influence of the institutions he helped to build, the books he wrote, the students he taught—not only filled Geneva but also inspired Reformed Christians throughout Europe and eventually the world.