12. The Swiss Reformation: Zwingli, Calvin, and Company

I consider myself part of the Reformed family of faith. For good or for ill, John Calvin is the recognized “father” of this movement. His influence, however, goes far beyond the tens of millions of Reformed Christians worldwide found in such diverse places as France; Scotland; Korea; South Africa; Orange City, Iowa; and Grand Rapids, Michigan. And Calvinists are found in Baptist and Bible and Pentecostal churches as well.

Calvin’s ideas also permeated secular culture. The Pilgrims and Puritans were largely descendants of Calvin. The Geneva experiment was carried to the American colonies, and even today American culture cannot fully escape the influence by Calvin.

The five-hundred-year anniversary of Calvin’s birth in 2009 drew attention to his important place in religion and culture. It also drew light-hearted reflections on this most serious Reformer—humor that reminded me of a spoof years ago in the Calvin College student publication. A popular party game was “Servetus,” named for the well-known heretic burned at the stake in Geneva. The object was “to think of a new excuse why JC was justified in giving Servetus the torch…. If you give a reason that is ethically equivalent to saying ‘everyone in the 16th century was doing it’ then the whole table has to drink a shot of tequila…. That’s the party equivalent of a home run.”

In honor of Master Calvin’s big 500, I added my own attempt at humor with a rewrite of a familiar nursery rhyme that begins with an allusion to the Heidelberg Catechism, which is still widely used today:

Heidel, diddle diddle

The catechism and the Bible;

Old Calvin jumped over the flames.

Servetus scowled to see such sport,

Simultaneously dissed and mooned.

A touch of humor perhaps to disguise shame I bear when I look back at my Reformed heritage.

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.

BARBARA TUCHMAN

For anyone who reads and wonders about times gone by, it is difficult to imagine an era without books. Books are indeed the carriers of civilization, and they paved the way for religious reform in the sixteenth century. Among all previous reform movements there was no similar opportunity to make use of the printing revolution. The printed page allowed religious opinions to be circulated much more rapidly in the marketplace of ideas. Controversies caused a whirlwind of excitement that pressed toward the future while drawing from the deep well of the past.

While Martin Luther is the Reformer most associated with the printing revolution, the sixteenth-century book that made the greatest impact on the period and the succeeding generations was John Calvin’s The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536).

Calvin stands out among Reformed churchmen, but before he rose in stature others, including Ulrich Zwingli and Heinrich Bullinger, had laid the groundwork. His work also interfaced with the ministry of women such as Renee of Ferrara.

The Swiss Reformation was also influenced by Luther and his colleagues. With the success and staying power of Luther’s challenge to the church — unlike that of Wycliffe and Hus — reform was encouraged elsewhere, each successive development with its own theological slant. Issues relating to the Lord’s Supper and baptism took center stage in the sixteenth century, much as debates about the Trinity were critical in the fourth century, and biblical authority and women’s ordination in the twentieth century. The nature of the church was also a key matter of doctrine for Reformers. Should the church be sanctioned by the state, or is it to be entirely separate and free from government oversight?

By the time Calvin came to the fore, the first generation of Reformers had laid the theological foundation. Thus his work was largely that of consolidation. His grappling with what constitutes the church and its role in society, however, had a significant impact on others. Likewise his concerns for practical everyday matters of Christian living were critical. Geneva was his laboratory, and what transpired there had implications for succeeding generations.

PARADE OF HISTORY

As the parade of the Reformation winds its way through Switzerland, it picks up Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and others who add to the color and texture of the developing Protestant mind. But Zwingli at forty-five marches into battle and returns in a body bag. Fearing not enemy soldiers but Geneva citizens and council members, Calvin, after having been coerced into settling in Geneva in the first place, marches out of the city gates in a huff on his way to Strasbourg. But three years later, persuaded by perks and by contrite council members, he returns. Soon thereafter, a messenger of state is dispatched to escort his wife, Idelette, in a horse-drawn carriage fit for a princess. As the parade approaches Geneva, officials and townspeople alike give her a royal welcome.

Unlike the German Reformation, the Swiss Reformation was not marked by a larger-than-life fiery personality. But like the German Reformation, it has its own claim to shame. Luther’s verbal attacks on Jews were equaled by Zwingli’s involvement in the execution of Anabaptists and Calvin’s tacit approval of the burning of Servetus and others. Yet, amid the agitation of executions and theological disputations, Swiss Reformers, like their German counterparts, focused on the family and spiritual formation.

But the second phase of the Reformation, as represented by Calvin, also exhibited a pragmatic flare in the economic realm. Max Weber’s famous thesis argued that the Protestant ethic was a key factor in the rise of capitalism. Although his ideas have been largely discredited by scholars in recent years, there remains some truth to the theory. Calvin was more open and attuned than Luther to ownership of private property and economic development — early concepts of a free-market economy. He did not condemn lending institutions as dishonest promoters of usury, as some had, provided there were ethical standards in place. He likewise emphasized the honor of work, identifying any “calling,” be it ministry or farming or woodworking as respectable God-ordained labor. All spheres of activity, he said, are vocations by which an individual can fully serve God.

Ulrich Zwingli: Swiss Soldier and Reformer

A contemporary of Luther, Ulrich Zwingli (1484 – 1531) was overshadowed by the giant from Wittenberg. He is often referred to as the third man of the Reformation behind Luther and Calvin. Zwingli fought bitterly against Luther over the issue of the Lord’s Supper, viewing it as a symbolic meal, a position later adopted by a large segment of Protestantism. In other areas his legacy is more dubious. His brutal hostility toward the Anabaptists resulted in the death penalty by drowning — “the cruelest joke of the Reformation.”

Ulrich Zwingli

Born in a small village in a Swiss mountain valley, one of nine children, Zwingli was just seven weeks younger than Luther. From his early schooling through his university training, his most influential teachers are Renaissance humanists. Erasmus is to him “the greatest philosopher and theologian” — a man whose books he reads every night before retiring. In 1506, at the age of twenty-two, he is ordained and appointed priest in the city of Glarus, reportedly having had to pay for the position. He is initially known as a humanist and statesman more than as a religious scholar. His conversion is a slow process that began while he was ministering in Glarus, coming to full flowering during his early pastoral ministry in Zurich. His change of heart is prompted in part by a scandal that surfaces when he is being considered as the preacher of the prestigious cathedral in Zurich.

EVERYDAY LIFE

Sixteenth-Century Christian Music

Music is as old as recorded history, though always marked by differences across cultures and centuries. Religious themes often predominate even in what is viewed as “secular” music. In late medieval times amateur guilds of singers arose in Germany — guilds that performed in monthly competitions. The songs typically featured a religious or moral topic with a more wholesome set of lyrics than those which might be sung in bars or on the street. The most celebrated Meistersinger was Hans Sachs, who became a follower of Luther and dedicated his talents to the Reformed cause.

Antiphonal singing was standard in the early church, but as harmony, rhythm, melody, and Latin lyrics became more complicated, the role of music-making fell to professional musicians. The rebirth of congregational singing was one of the marks of the Reformation. Luther wrote his great hymn “A Mighty Fortress is our God” (Psalm 46) for congregational singing. Indeed, this was a time when devotional singing was encouraged, at home and in church.

Village dance

Ulrich Zwingli was one of the most musically inclined Reformers. Known for his instrumental prowess, he entertained both children and adults, though never during a worship service He played the harp, violin, dulcimer, flute, and hunting horn His performances delighted the children, but critics ridiculed him as “the evangelical lute-player and fifer.” Yet he stood firm in his opposition to church music The organist reportedly wept when the grand organ, with his sanction, was destroyed Organ music, and professional music of any form, he argued, distracted people from their worship of God Antiphonal psalms, however, were permitted.

MUSIC AS PUBLIC PRAYER

As to public prayers, there are two kinds: the one consists of words alone; the other includes music. And this is no recent invention. For since the very beginning of the church it has been this way, as we may learn from history books. Nor does St. Paul himself speak only of prayer by word of mouth, but also of singing. And in truth, we know from experience that song has a great power and strength to move and inflame the hearts of men to invoke and praise God with a heart more vehement and ardent…. For even in our homes and out of doors let it be a spur to us and a means of praising God and lifting up our hearts to Him, so that we may be consoled by meditating on His virtue, His bounty, His wisdom, and His justice. For this is more necessary than one can ever tell.

John Calvin

John Calvin more than other Reformers promoted singing as the proper way to pray and worship God The Genevan Psalter was first published under Calvin’s supervision in 1539. Using the Psalms as the lyrics, appropriate tunes were composed for congregational singing in unison Complicated harmony was considered distracting embellishment that did not aid the Christian in worshiping God The complete Psalter, offering a different tune for every one of the one hundred fifty psalms, was published in 1562 After many translations and revisions Genevan texts and tunes are still sung today.

Rumors are rife that he had seduced the daughter of a prominent official. It is widely known that Renaissance popes had mistresses and children and that the Swiss Bishop of Constance earned hundreds of florins a year by fining his priests four florins for every child they fathered. Yet the leaders at Zurich are disinclined to extend a call to a preacher whose moral life is the subject of gossip. In response to their questions, Zwingli frankly admits his lapses, but he emphasizes that “shame always restrained me within certain limits and … I did it so secretly that even my intimates noticed practically nothing.” He further emphasizes: “My principle was to inflict no injury on any marriage … and not to dishonour any virgin nor any nun.” Indeed, he has proof: “I can call to witness all those among whom I have lived.”

Zwingli stresses that he is remorseful and that he had made a pledge in 1515 to abide by Paul’s admonition “not to touch women.” He upheld the vow for more than a year, but then he became entangled with a young woman — not a virgin, as was alleged — who had previously brought disgrace on herself. “I have fallen again,” he lamented, “and am become like the dog of which the apostle Peter speaks, returning to his own vomit. “ The guilt that Zwingli suffers is largely due to his increasing regard for Scripture: “In the year 1516,” he later remembered, “I began to preach in such wise that I never mounted the pulpit without taking personally to heart the Gospel for the day and explaining it with reference to Scripture alone.”

Despite misgivings, the leaders in Zurich invite him to be their preacher. When they discover that the other candidate they were considering has six children, his sins do not seem so glaring. He begins in 1518 and continues until his death twelve years later. “Though I was young, ecclesiastical duties inspired in me more fear than joy because I knew, and I remained convinced, that I would have to give account of the blood of the sheep which would perish as a consequence of my carelessness.”

BLACK DEATH: THE PLAGUE HYMN

Help me, O Lord,

My strength and rock;

Lo, at the door

I hear death’s knock.

Uplift thine arm,

Once pierced for me,

That conquered death

And set me free.

Yet, if thy voice,

In life’s midday

Recalls my soul,

Then I obey.

In faith and hope

Earth I resign,

Secure of heaven

For I am Thine….

Lo! Satan strains

To snatch his prey;

I feel his grasp;

Must I give way?

He harms me not,

I fear no loss,

For here I lie

Beneath thy cross….

The event that initiates the Swiss Reformation is often referred to as the “Affair of the Sausages.” It occurred in 1522 during the Lenten season (when meat eating is forbidden). A local printer who is preparing Zwingli’s manuscript on Paul’s epistles invites him to his home for dinner. The main course is sausage. Zwingli reportedly does not partake, but for his part in hosting the dinner, the printer is arrested.

Zwingli, however, would have the last word. He preaches a sermon the following Sunday entitled “On the Choice and Freedom of Foods.” Here he takes the side of freedom. Sausage is Zwingli’s ninety-five theses.

During his first year of his ministry in Zurich, the plague strikes, leaving a third of the population dead. Away at the time, Zwingli hurries back to serve the sick and dying. He contracts the illness himself and is not expected to live. When he arises from his deathbed and continues his ministry of preaching and service, he is hailed with great affection.

Following in the footsteps of Luther, Zwingli also draws up theses — sixty-seven in his case — that denounce purgatory, indulgences, the Mass, prayers to saints, celibacy, and monasticism. The theses are straightforward and direct, as the eighteenth illustrates: “Christ, Who offered Himself once on the cross, is the sufficient and perpetual sacrifice for the sins of all believers. Therefore the Mass is no sacrifice, but a commemoration of the one sacrifice of the cross.”

Within a few years Zwingli and his supporters give Zurich a makeover. Monasteries are closed, images destroyed, pilgrimages banned, and relics and rituals outlawed. In fact, those who attend Mass are punished with a fine. Another law requires citizens to eat meat rather than fish on Friday — again, enforced by a fine. Preaching against enforced celibacy comes natural to Zwingli, and through his persistent petitioning, permission is granted in 1522 by a church official in Lucerne for priests to marry. Zwingli himself keeps house with Anna Reinhart, a widow with three children, and secretly marries her before the birth of their own child. He tries hard to avoid scandal, but the story gets out and critics howl.

In Zurich he presides over a theocracy of sorts, similar to that which Savonarola sought to establish in Florence and Calvin would institute in Geneva. Adulterers and fornicators pay fines, as do those committing other sins. City offices are reserved for Protestants only. In fact, simply being a Catholic is enough to warrant a fine, and so is staying home from church on Sunday. But Zwingli does not focus on negatives only. He delivers lively sermons, and his preaching more than anything else advances the cause of reform in Zurich. Many priests had virtually dispensed with the sermon in favor of the Mass, but Zwingli makes his expository sermons the showpiece of the worship. His sermons sometimes extend to an hour, but surely not before a sleeping crowd. He is the best entertainment in town. He speaks fast and embellishes the text with his natural humor and homespun anecdotes.

Zwingli finds himself defending the faith on three fronts. Not only does he struggle to identify the reform against the Catholics on the right and Anabaptists on the left, but against Luther, with whom his reform is most often associated. “Why don’t you call me a Paulinian since I am preaching like Saint Paul,” he demands of a critic. “I do not want to be labeled a Lutheran by the Papists, as it is not Luther who taught me the doctrine of Christ, but the Word of God. If Luther preaches Christ, he does the same thing as I do. Therefore, I will not bear any name save that of my chief, Jesus Christ, whose soldier I am.” Although Luther accuses him of sympathizing with the radicals, Zwingli upholds the concept of a state church, arguing that separation is not the solution to the spiritual and moral corruption within the church. In Zurich, however, there are many so-called radicals who want no part of a marriage between church and State.

Closely tied to the issue of a “pure church” separated from the world is that of infant baptism. The so-called Radical Reformers — more properly identified as Anabaptists — insist that only true believers should be baptized. Zwingli initially seeks to persuade them of their errors through argument, but when that method fails, he turns to more drastic measures. Leading Anabaptists are arrested and warned by officials that if they do not turn from their “heresy” they will face death by drowning — “He who dips, shall be dipped.” Six men are bound and thrown into the river. Zwingli himself does not carry out the executions, but neither does he prevent them.

PREACHING ON “ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL”

But man is not alone the offspring of God; all creatures are so…. They are by birth of God and in God…. Do not the creatures of the species of rodents proclaim the wisdom and providence of the Godhead? The hedgehog when with its spines he most cleverly carries a large quantity of fruit to its dwelling place, by rolling over the fruit and planting its spines in it. Alpine rats or marmots, which we now call the mountain rats, station one of their number upon an elevation, that, as they run about intent upon their work, no sudden danger may fall upon them without his timely cry of warning, while meantime the rest of the band carry off the softest hay from all around. And since they have no wagons, they turn themselves into wagons by turns, one lying upon his back and holding fast with all his feet the hay loaded upon his stomach and chest, while another seizes by the tail his comrade thus transformed into a wagon, and drags him with the plunder to their dwelling place to enable them to sleep through the inclemency of the harsh winter season.

Ulrich Zwingli, “On the Providence of God.”

ULRICH ZWINGLI’S PROTESTANT DEATH

On the battlefield, not far from the line of attack, Mr. Ulrich Zwingli lay under the dead and wounded. While men were looting … he was still alive, lying on his back, with his hands together as if he was praying, and his eyes looking upwards to heaven. So some approached who did not know him and asked him, since he was so weak and close to death (for he had fallen in combat and was stricken with a mortal wound), whether a priest should be fetched to hear his confession. Thereat Zwingli shook his head, said nothing and looked up to heaven. Later they told him that if he was no longer able to speak or confess he should yet have the mother of God in his heart and call on the beloved saints to plead to God for grace on his behalf. Again Zwingli shook his head and continued gazing straight up to heaven. At this the Catholics grew impatient, cursed him and said that he was one of the obstinate cantankerous heretics and should get what he deserved. Then Captain Fuckinger of Unterwalden appeared and in exasperation drew his sword and gave Zwingli a thrust from which he at once died. So the renowned Mr. Ulrich Zwingli, true minister and servant of the churches of Zurich, was found wounded on the battlefield along with his flock (with whom he remained until his death).

Heinrich Bullinger

Despite such atrocities, Zwingli’s success in Zurich is remarkable By 1524 the Reformation in that city is far more complete than it is in Luther’s Wittenberg This achievement inspires him to move beyond Zurich to other Swiss cantons in the hope of igniting the Reformation there Some of the cantons follow him, but others form a Catholic League in opposition He sends missionaries to these cantons, and when one of the missionaries is burned at the stake, the Zurich city council declares war. A temporary peace is negotiated, but in 1531, after Protestants declare an economic blockade, Catholic armies march against them Outnumbering them by more than five to one (8,000 to 1,500), the Catholics forces quickly overwhelm their opponents, and Zwingli is one of the five hundred Protestants killed in battle.

The city of Zurich mourns the loss of lives in battle, particularly the loss of their beloved pastor He is succeeded by Heinrich Bullinger, who recognizes his predecessor as the founder of the Swiss Reformation and as a heroic martyr But Luther proclaims “good riddance “ It is God’s will that his theological enemy should be silenced once and for all.

Heinrich Bullinger: More Calvinistic than Calvin

Following Zwingli’s death, Heinrich Bullinger (1504 — 1575), leaves the monastic school in Cappel where he has been studying and relocates in Zurich to carry on with reform Like many others, he enters the Reformed ministry having served as a Catholic cleric He is also the son of a priest who had grown up in a rectory with four boisterous brothers Under the lenient rules of some Swiss bishops, married priests merely pay fines to maintain family life His father would remain a loyal Catholic until old age, when he too confessed the Reformed tenets his son is preaching.

Like Erasmus and Luther and Thomas à Kempis, Bullinger is educated by the Brethren of the Common Life, and like Luther he earns his keep by singing Moving on to the University of Cologne, he studies scholastic theology but soon gravitates to the church fathers and to Scripture itself. At the same time, he is intrigued with Luther’s teachings. With a master’s degree, he returns to his homeland at age eighteen to teach at the monastic academy at Cappel. But realizing his weakness in Greek and Hebrew, he travels to Zurich to study under Zwingli. In the tradition of his father, he marries and pays his fines. His wife Anna, a former nun, makes a smooth transition as minister’s wife, raising sons who will follow their father into ministry.

In Zurich, Bullinger preaches seven times a week and ministers to those afflicted by the recurring plague. He also serves as the chief administrator of the local schools and seminary and helps formulate the Helvetic Confessions adopted by Swiss churches. To a friend he writes: “I almost sink under the load of business and care, and feel so tired that I would ask the Lord to give me rest if it were not against his will.” Yet the Bullinger household (which now includes Zwingli’s widow and children) welcomes refugees and is known for its good times.

John Calvin

Challenging Calvin, Bullinger strongly objects to double predestination. “For we must not imagine that in heaven are laid two books, in the one whereof the names of them are written that are to be saved, and so to be saved, as it were of necessity, … and that in the other are contained the names of them which cannot … avoid everlasting damnation.” In fact, his issues with predestination go further. To Calvin, he writes: “However many men are saved, they are saved by the pure grace of God the saviour; those who perish do not perish by fated, compelled necessity, but because they willingly reject the grace of God. For there is not any sin in God; that the blame of our damnation inheres in us.” But Bullinger flip-flops under pressure. In order to keep peace among various factions, he agrees to sign on to Calvin’s definition of predestination. But he soon takes it back, insisting God desires that all will be saved.

In 1565, ten years before his own death, his wife and three daughters are cut down by the plague. His final years are wracked with ill health and loneliness, but he carries on his conciliatory efforts to the very end.

John Calvin: Reform Far Beyond Geneva

After five centuries, John Calvin (1509 – 1564) remains an enigma. By nature he tended to be a timid and less-than-commanding figure. Over the centuries, however, he has acquired the reputation of a harsh authoritarian bent on stern discipline. Quiet and unassuming, he was described by friends and enemies alike as scholarly, melancholy, fastidious, and old before his time.

At the time of Calvin’s birth in 1509, Luther and Zwingli are both well on their way to establishing their careers. Young “Jean” grows up in a strict Roman Catholic environment in Noyon, France, the youngest of four sons. His mother dies when he is very young. His father, an official in the local cathedral, sends him away for schooling In his teens he enrolls at the University of Paris, where he studies law. After his father’s death in 1531, he shifts to classics and biblical languages and devours the humanist teachings of Erasmus.

SECOND ONLY TO LUTHER

Few figures in Christian history have been esteemed so highly or despised so meanly as the shy French lawyer born 500 years ago.

John Calvin became not only the greatest theological genius of the Reformation, second only to Luther, but also, as French historian Émile G. Léonard dubbed him, “the founder of a new civilization.” Some have gone so far as to depict Calvin as both the greatest teacher of Christian doctrine since Paul and a near-infallible guide in every arena of human endeavor, from art and architecture to politics and economics.

Timothy George,

“John Calvin: Comeback Kid.”

Although initially alarmed by the deep rift Luther has created in the church, Calvin is himself converted to the cause: “God himself produced the change He instantly subdued my heart to obedience “ Through Scripture he finds the true essence of salvation. “Only one haven of salvation,” he writes, “is left open for our souls and that is the mercy of God in Christ. We are saved by grace — not by our merits, not by our works.”

The humanist influence in France briefly opens the way for new ideas But any attack on the church quickly brings down the wrath of the state On All Saints Day, November 1, 1533, Nicolas Cop, the newly elected rector of the University of Sorbonne, delivers his inaugural address. A close friend of Cop, Calvin helped prepare the address, denouncing theologians who “teach nothing of faith, nothing of grace, nothing of justification “ University and government officials respond with threats of severe punishment, and Cop and Calvin flee town Calvin reportedly escapes through an upstairs window by tying bed sheets together Disguising himself as a peasant, he passes through the streets unnoticed.

He returns to Paris the following year only to face even greater danger Posters denouncing the “horrible, great, intolerable abuses of the popish Mass” begin appearing in public places, and one finds its way into the very chambers of King Francis I, who is so incensed that he orders mass imprisonments and executions Burning at the stake is not severe enough Those accused are slowly suspended and raised in the flames to prolong the torture Some two dozen Protestants are publicly executed Fearing for his life, Calvin flees to Strasbourg.

The exile from his homeland affords him time to write and think The result is his masterpiece of theology, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, which would stand for centuries as an enduring monument to the Protestant Reformation. His motivation is straightforward: “to lay down some elementary principles, by which inquirers on the subject of religion might be instructed in the nature of true piety” Quickly recognized as a Protestant standard of faith, it becomes a second bible to some and is burned by others The first edition sells out within a year, and succeeding editions are expanded, the final one exceeding one thousand pages.

As a second generation Protestant, Calvin depends heavily on Luther: “I have often said that even though he were to call me a devil, I would nevertheless hold him in such honor that I would acknowledge him to be a distinguished servant of God.” He is not, however, above criticizing his hero To Bucer he writes that although he is “perfectly convinced of Luther’s piety,” he disdains his “haughty manner and abusive language,” his “ignorance and most gross delusions,” and his “insolent fury.” He also criticizes Luther’s sloppy scholarship, a factor that does not escape the meticulous Frenchman.

Guillaume Farel

During this time Calvin, disguising himself and going under an assumed name, is also traveling. In 1536 he arrives in Geneva— an unscheduled visit that changes the course of his life. Here William Farel, a Reformer twenty years his senior whom he much admires, is striving to plant the evangelical faith. He needs assistance, as Calvin later relates:

Farel, who burned with an extraordinary zeal to advance the gospel, immediately strained every nerve to detain me. And after having learned that my heart was set upon devoting myself to private studies, for which I wished to keep myself free from other pursuits, and finding that he gained nothing by entreaties, he proceeded to utter an imprecation that God would curse my retirement and the tranquility of the studies which I sought, if I should withdraw and refuse to give assistance when the necessity was so urgent. By this imprecation I was so stricken with terror that I desisted from the journey I had undertaken.

In 1535, a year before his arrival, city officials had banned Catholic worship. Statues were removed from churches, and monasteries were closed. Farel had initiated the changes, but he now needs Calvin to administer the reform. Calvin reluctantly agrees, but he faces stiff opposition. Many townspeople defy his efforts to control their social life and religious activities. After an explosive council meeting, an angry mob gathers outside his residence and shouts obscenities. That night he awakes to gunshots and pounding on his door. As the months pass, the situation worsens. When he refuses communion to the troublemakers on Easter Sunday in 1538, the die is cast. He and Farel are ordered out of town. “Well and good,” is Calvin’s parting retort.

After leaving Geneva, he returns to Strasbourg, settling into ministry and pondering his single status. “I am none of those insane lovers who embrace also the vices of those with whom they are in love, where they are smitten at first sight with a fine figure,” he writes to Farel. “This only is the beauty which allures me, if she is chaste, if not too fussy or fastidious, if economical, if patient, if there is hope that she will be interested about my health.”

Although he is widely respected for his intellect and leadership capabilities, Calvin is not the Reformation’s most eligible bachelor. He has a particular woman in mind — a wealthy supporter from Germany whose brother is the go-between. To Farel he writes, “We look for the bride to be here a little after Easter.” Her financial status, he concedes, is a mixed blessing. “I cannot call a single penny my own. It is astonishing how money slips away.” But he has apprehensions. “You understand, William, that she would bring with her a large dowry, and this could be embarrassing to a poor minister like myself. I feel, too, that she might become dissatisfied with her humbler station in life.” Because of these and other factors, the plan fizzles.

Farel suggests another woman, but Calvin is not willing to consider a wife fifteen years older than he. With another new prospect in mind, he asks Farel to arrange someone to officiate at his marriage not “beyond the tenth of March,” fearing for the worst. “I make myself look very foolish if it shall so happen that my hope again fall through.” But again his efforts are thwarted.

Disheartened, he laments to Farel, “I have not found a wife and frequently hesitate as to whether I ought any more to seek one.” Then one day he notices a woman in his own congregation, Idelette de Bure, a young widow with two children who, with her husband, converted from Anabaptist beliefs under his preaching. In the spring of 1540, while Calvin was still seeking a wife, her husband had died of the plague. Shortly thereafter, Calvin marries her. He had hoped that marriage might improve his financial status, but Idelette’s children are her only “fortune.” Married life is filled with complications and frustrations. In addition to his duties as a pastor in Strasbourg, Calvin is a teacher and houseparent at his own boarding school. Home for Idelette and her children thus becomes the hectic life of a boarding school. To make matters worse, both suffer ill health.

During his absence from Geneva disorder reigns in the streets and in the city council. In fact, the four council members responsible for expelling Calvin and Farel are all involved in criminal activity — one arrested on a capital charge of murder. In the midst of this disarray, the reorganized council sends a plea for Calvin to return. Life is relatively peaceful in Strasbourg, and Calvin is adamant: “Rather would I submit to death a hundred times than to that cross, on which one had to perish daily a thousand times over.” But the pressure from Farel and others mounts. In 1541, three years after he was expelled, he returns to Geneva on a trial basis, leaving Idelette and the children behind.

With his return, the council sweetens the deal with gifts, including a fur-trimmed black velvet robe. They promise help in relocating Idelette “and her household,” escorting her in a two-horse carriage with the honor accorded royalty. Their residence is the abbey on Rue de Chanoines overlooking Lake Geneva with a backdrop of the towering Alps. He succumbs to their pleas, but he has no time for lightheartedness. If townspeople had expected him to make references to his absence, they were mistaken. Although he has been away for three years, he methodically begins his expository preaching precisely where he left off.

Calvin’s most bitter enemies in Geneva continue to be Libertines who oppose his strict regulations. What right does he have to interfere in their personal lives? They are not lawless. “In short, everyone who maliciously and voluntarily hurts another deserves to be punished,” Jacques Gruet argues. “But suppose I am a man who wants to eat his meals as he pleases, what affair is that of others? Or if I want to dance, or have a good time, what is that to do with the Law? Nothing.” Gruet’s resistance to the new laws, his petitioning the king of France to intervene, and his unorthodox beliefs result in his execution in 1547.

THE PROPHET JEREMIAH AND IMPIOUS POPISH BLASPHEMY

Here [in Jeremiah] is the refutation of that impious popish blasphemy which prattles that not only the law but even the gospel is obscure. But Paul claims that the gospel is plain except to those who are perishing (2 Cor. 4:3); over them a veil is thrown because they deserve to be blind (2 Cor. 3:14 – 15). But, as we see, Jeremiah here affirms that the law, even though it is less clear than the gospel, is set plainly before the eyes of all, and that all may learn from it exactly what pleases God and what is right.

John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah

The most publicized execution in Geneva during Calvin’s tenure is that of Michael Servetus. A brilliant Spanish physician who is also educated in mathematics and law, Servetus thrives on theological disputations. In Errors About the Trinity he defends his thesis with Scripture. But such issues are not open to debate. Both Catholics and Protestants consider him a heretic. In fact, before he visits Geneva, Catholic officials have judged him guilty in absentia and sentenced him to burn at the stake. Considering the consequence of promoting heresy, he appears to have been brazenly taunting Calvin by coming to Geneva. Arrested in the fall of 1553, he is burned at the stake. Such punishment, according to Calvin, is necessary to uphold God’s honor:

Whoever shall maintain that wrong is done to heretics and blasphemers in punishing them makes himself an accomplice in their crime and guilty as they are. There is no question here of man’s authority; it is God who speaks…. Wherefore does he demand of us a so extreme severity … so that we spare not kin, nor blood of any … when the matter is to combat for His glory.

Religious toleration is not in vogue in the sixteenth century, but there are dissenting voices, and some of the most outspoken are women. Katherine Zell renounces the burning of the “poor Servetus.” And Renee of Ferrara strongly opposes carnage against religious dissenters.

CALVIN’S SUNDAY SPORT

Although many straight-laced Reformed Christians in the generations after Calvin held to tight Sunday restrictions on leisure-time activities, he often engaged in lawn bowling—even on Sundays!

Throughout his life, Calvin maintains an active correspondence with dozens of religious and political leaders, staying abreast of reform in France and Germany and Italy. During his second tenure in Geneva he lectures and preaches daily sermons and is involved in church discipline, administration, and writing, aided by secretaries who take dictation and help prepare commentaries and other manuscripts for publication. His busy life often leaves him no more than four hours of sleep.

After less than a decade of marriage Idelette dies, leaving him to rear her own children. None of her children by Calvin came to full term or survived infancy. “Although the death of my wife has been bitterly painful to me, yet I restrain my grief as well as I can,” Calvin writes to a friend. “I have been bereaved of the best companion of my life…. As long as she lived she was the faithful helper of my ministry.” He vows “to henceforth lead a solitary life,” concerned about an affliction that would make him unsuitable for marriage: “I know my infirmity, that perhaps a woman might not be happy with me.”

Like Luther, Calvin struggles with doubt. Indeed, for Calvin “doubt and anxiety are thus the most terrible adversaries of every Christian, even the most faithful,” including himself: “Every one of us knows only too well, from his own experiences, our difficulty in believing,” he observed. “Everyone’s weakness certainly witnesses to many doubts that steal upon us.” The most committed Christians, in fact, “frequently stagger in unbelief.” Faith is constantly attacked by Satan’s stirring “many occasions for incredulity.”

PREACH PREDESTINATION

Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which as nothing useful and necessary to be known has been omitted, so nothing is taught but what it is of importance to know. Every thing, therefore delivered in Scripture on the subject of predestination, we must beware of keeping from the faithful, lest we seem either maliciously to deprive them of the blessing of God.

John Calvin, The Institutes

of the Christian Religion

Most people know Calvin more for his theology than for his exegesis, but the two disciplines come as a package. The Bible is the foundation for his theology, and his theology informs his biblical commentaries. Having studied both Greek and Hebrew and having read widely among the church fathers and later commentators, he is an impressive scholar, and his work has stood the test of time. Rejecting the allegorical method, he wrote:

I acknowledge that Scripture is a most rich and inexhaustible fountain of all wisdom, but I deny that its fertility consists in the various meanings which any man at his pleasure may put into it. Let us know, then, that the true meaning of Scripture is the natural and obvious meaning; and let us embrace and abide by it resolutely.

With Paul and Augustine, he affirms God’s sovereignty, original sin, and saving grace bestowed on the elect. Indeed, the doctrine of predestination, or election, becomes the doctrine for which he is most associated. Only those elected by God will enjoy eternal bliss in the life hereafter. All others are doomed to eternal suffering in hell. This perspective is laid out in book 3 of the Institutes. Here he argues that those who are Christians are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, chosen before creation—before the foundations of the world. Salvation comes not by works or by choice but solely by the grace of God. Good works demonstrate who the saved likely are, and in Calvin’s theological system they seek to transform the world—thus the experiment in Geneva of the elect in community showing forth godly living.

Calvin’s later years are filled with loneliness and difficulties, including scandal in his own family. Several years after Idelette’s death his stepdaughter is convicted of adultery. So humiliated is Calvin that he remains behind closed doors for days. He suffers from painful headaches, kidney stones, gout, and pulmonary hemorrhaging. Yet he continues preaching, sometimes being carried into church and other times lecturing while students surround his bed. Why not just retire, his friends ask. “What!” he snaps. “Would you have the Lord find me idle when he comes?.”

Renee of Ferrara: Friend of Calvin

Daughter of King Louis XII of France, Princess Renee of Ferrara (1510–1575) was Calvin’s staunchest supporter in Italy. As a girl she had been influenced by Marguerite of Navarre (sister of King Francis I), nearly twenty years her senior. Marguerite was a Protestant in all but name. Having read Jacques Lefevre’s commentary on Paul’s epistles she held to justification by faith alone. Her views on women were controversial among both Catholics and Protestants. “Do not follow the opinion of wicked men who take a passage of Scripture for themselves,” she warns her readers. “If you have read St. Paul all the way to the end, you will find that he recommends himself to the ladies who have worked very hard with him in the Gospel.”

Having read both the apostle Paul and Marguerite, Renee had similar issues with those who sought to interpret Paul negatively on women’s roles. She recognized early her second-class status in the royal family. Indeed, gender made all the difference. Her words are biting: “Had I had a beard I would have been the king of France. I have been defrauded by that confounded Salic Law” (denying women succession to the throne). Born in 1510, Renee was a year younger than Calvin. Her father was a devout Catholic, known as “the Father of the People” for his tax and legal reforms. Her mother, Anne the Duchess of Brittany, was a shrewd administrator, a devoted mother, and the richest woman in Europe. She intended for Renee to succeed her but died before Renee turned four, and Brittany came under French control.

Renee, Princess of Ferrara, daughter of King of France Louis XII

CALVIN’S COLLEAGUES

William Farel (1489–1565): More than any other Reformer, Farel wielded persuasive power over Calvin, convincing him with threats and curses to initially join him in Geneva and later to return after they had been driven out. A fellow Frenchman and fiery preacher, Farel was one of the first Protestants brought into the fold by the biblical teaching of Jacques Lefever d’Etaples, who remained a priest and Catholic Reformer.

Martin Bucer (1491–1551): Converted to Reformed teachings while listening to Luther debate at Leipzig, the French-born Dominican monk Martin Bucer (also spelled Butzer), had a major impact on Calvin. He emphasized the continuity between the Old and New Testaments, harmonized by Christology, and insisted the Mosaic law was not abolished altogether, giving Calvin a very different biblical perspective from that of Luther. He succeeded Mathew Zell as the leading Protestant minister in Strasbourg.

Theodore Beza (1519–1605): A disciple of Calvin, Beza also hailed from France. More than anyone else, he supplemented Calvin’s writing during his lifetime and for four decades after his death. He has been accused of making Calvin’s theology more Calvinistic than Calvin himself did—particularly on the matter of predestination. He edited the first compilation of Calvin’s letters and defended him on controversial matters, including Geneva’s church polity and the burning of Servetus. In addition he wrote theological and political treatises, an annotated Greek New Testament, and a Greek grammar and still had time for satires, dramas, and devotional works. After his friend died, he wrote, “Now that Calvin is dead, life will be less sweet and death less bitter.”

Renee has every reason to be miffed by the Salic Law that makes her third cousin, Francis, king after her father dies. Since none of her father’s three wives bore a son, his nephew inherits the throne. But the value of a daughter is nevertheless significant. In foreign policy, Louis XII was an expansionist, and Renee, by her arranged marriage to an Italian duke, is a prized pawn. The process of matchmaking had begun when she was a young girl. At seventeen she was married to Ercole II, the son of Lucrezia Borgia, the femme fatale of the Italian Renaissance. Lucrezia, however, had died in 1519 when Renee, living in France, was only nine. Nevertheless, Renee surely must have been aware of the gossip surrounding this most celebrated and scandalous woman whose life has since been widely portrayed in art and literature and films.

When Renee arrived in Ferrara to marry Duke Ercole, she entered Renaissance high culture. The refinement of Ferrara features not only palatial living, dazzling dresses, and jewels but also the finest art and music the Renaissance has to offer. Ercole’s family is a premier patron of music, art, and architecture.

Portrayed by contemporaries as strong-willed, Renee vigorously challenges the authority of her husband, and religious beliefs quickly become a serious source of contention. Back in France the news—perhaps conveyed by her friend and cousin Marguerite of Navarre—is alarming. Protestants are being hunted down, some fleeing to Ferrara to find refuge. Among these heretics is none other than John Calvin (in disguise and using the alias Charles d’Espeville). He arrives in the spring of 1536 and stays for a month. By the time he leaves, Renee is even more committed to Reformed teachings, though she will never be a submissive student of Calvin or anyone else. Yet from his correspondence it is clear that a budding friendship has developed. “If I address you, madam,” he writes, “it is not from rashness or presumption, but pure and true affection to make you prevail in the Lord.”

JOHN CALVIN AND GENDER ISSUES

For both sexes were created according to the image of God…. But when he [Paul] is speaking about image here, he is referring to the conjugal order. Accordingly, it has to do with this present life; it does not pertain to the conscience. The straightforward solution is this, that Paul is not dealing here with innocence and holiness, which women can have just as well as men, but about the pre-eminence which God had given to the man, so that he might be superior to the woman.

John Calvin, Commentary on

1 Corinthians 11:7

Indeed, Calvin seems to have been somewhat awed by his newfound connections at court. “When I consider the pre-eminence in which He has placed you,” he writes to Renee of Ferrara, “I think that, as a person of princely rank, you can advance the kingdom of Jesus Christ.” He goes on to praise her spiritual maturity: “I observe in you such fear of God, and such a real desire to obey Him, that I should consider myself a castaway if I neglected the opportunity of being useful to you.”

But when Renee continues to give the public pretence of being a faithful Catholic, Calvin is incensed. “I have heard that your domestics have been scandalized by the word of a certain preacher who says that one may go both to Mass and to the Lord’s Supper,” he writes, alluding to her as well. “I cannot suffer a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I esteem the word of this preacher no more than the song of a jackdaw. The Mass is an execrable sacrilege and an intolerable blasphemy.”

But the Catholic side is no less adamant. In 1544 King Henry II of France writes to his “only aunt,” whom he “loved and esteemed.” He expresses his grief in learning of her apostasy and begs her to be “restored to the bosom of our holy mother church, cleansed and purified from those cursed dogmas and reprobate errors.” He tells her that he will be sending the Inquisitor Ori to counsel and teach her and threatens that if this does not work he will bring her “to reason by severity.” A letter is also sent to her husband, Ercole, who now discovers how deep her religious convictions are. On September 17, 1544, she is forcibly placed under house arrest away from the palace in solitary confinement with her attendants. Her daughters Lucrezia and Leonora are placed in a convent. She is distraught, and in less than a week sends for a priest in order to confess and take communion. With this she gets what she most wants—her girls back under her own care.

When Calvin hears the news, he is deeply offended, perhaps conveniently forgetting that he himself had gone into hiding and then fled France amid persecution. “I fear you have left the straight road to please the world,” he writes her. “And indeed the devil has so entirely triumphed that we have been constrained to groan, and bow our heads in sorrow.” He admonishes her to humble herself before God and come back to the faith—and, we may presume, to give up her daughters to the convent. The letter is signed “Your very humble servant, Charles d’Espeville.” The correspondence continues in the succeeding years.

When Duke Ercole dies in 1559, his son Alfonso succeeds him. Renee thinks she can now practice her Reformed faith more openly, but her son threatens to exile her. Soon after that she returns to France. The poor and needy of Ferrara reportedly weep at her departure for she is known as a generous benefactor to the dispossessed. In France, prodded by Calvin, she defends Reformed “heretics.” As in the past, however, she stands up to him. When her son-in-law is assassinated, she grieves, feeling she must defend her sorrow to Calvin, whom she accuses of consigning him to hell. She also complains to Calvin’s agent, Francois Morel, about not being given a role in church decision making. Morel writes to Calvin: “Renee wants to attend the meetings of the synod…. But if Paul thought that women should be silent in the church, how much more should they not participate in the making of decisions. How will the Papists and the Anabaptists scoff to see us run by women!.”

The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

Renee is not amused by Morel’s arguments, but her biggest concern is for Catholics who are enduring terrible atrocities perpetrated by Reformed Christians in France: “Monsieur Calvin, I am distressed that you do not know how the half in this realm behave. They even exhort simple women to kill and strangle. This is not the rule of Christ. I say this out of the great affection which I hold for the Reformed religion.” Calvin places the blame on others. Among his final letters are ones to Renee. She lives on for more than a decade, during which time Protestants of France suffer unspeakably, especially in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572. A plot to kill Protestants, believed to have been hatched by Catherine de’ Medici (a staunch Catholic and mother of the king), is carried out during a celebration following the marriage of the king’s sister to Henry III of Navarre, a Protestant. The initial attacks are aimed at prominent aristocrats, but in the end thousands are dead and the Protestant cause in France has been dealt a severe blow.

Old and perhaps in seclusion, Renee survives. When she dies, there is little to show for her sacrifices to the Reformed faith; none of her children confess the beliefs they had learned as little ones under her supervision.

Renee was not the only French princess courted by Calvin and his successors. Jeanne d’Albret (1528–1572), daughter of Marguerite of Navarre, was eighteen years younger than Renee. In 1560, in her early thirties, she publicly professed her allegiance to the Reformed faith. Unlike Renee, she was in the thick of religious violence in France. Her unflagging support of the Huguenots (Reformed Protestants in France) so infuriated her husband that he locked her up and took full custody of their eight-year-old son. Church officials—including her cousin Cardinal d’Armagnac—railed against her. You are “being misled by evil counselors who seek to plant a new religion,” he fumed. They are inciting “subjects to take up arms against kings and princes.”

She responds with resolve: “I am not planting a new religion but restoring an old one.” As to “evil counselors,” she is firm: “I follow Beza, Calvin and others only in so far as they follow Scripture.” Unlike Renee, who had called for religious toleration, Jeanne imposes restrictions on Catholics and rallies the troops to fight against the Catholic forces. Indeed, when a Huguenot general is killed in battle, she rides into the field to rally the troops. She dies several months before the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Her son turns away from his mother’s Reformed faith when he ascends the throne, but as Henry IV he is remembered for signing the Edict of Nantes (1598), granting religious toleration to the Huguenots for nearly a century.

The Swiss Reformation extended far beyond the borders of Switzerland. It naturally captured hearts and minds in France, Calvin’s homeland. But it also quickly made its way into the Netherlands and what is today Hungary and Romania and would have permeated Italy but for fierce opposition. In a matter of generations this Calvinist faith would find its way to the New World through English Puritans, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, and Dutch Reformed—and today is a worldwide branch of Protestantism.

What if….

What if Ulrich Zwingli had reached out a hand of reconciliation toward his Anabaptist students and colleagues rather than participating in that “cruel joke” of drowning them?

What if John Calvin had been arrested before he fled France in the face of persecution? Other Frenchmen identified with the Reformed views of Luther were tortured and burned alive. How different would Protestantism be today were it not for John Calvin’s conversion to the Protestant cause?

What if Renee of Ferrara and her aunt Marguerite and cousin Jeanne had remained faithful Catholics like the French male royals? They were strong and determined women whose influence went far beyond France. Had Renee been permitted by law to ascend to the throne in France, might the future of the French church have gone in a very different direction?

12. The Swiss Reformation: Zwingli, Calvin, and Company

12. The Swiss Reformation: Zwingli, Calvin, and Company

CHAPTER 12

The Swiss Reformation

Zwingli, Calvin, and Company

PARADE OF HISTORY

Ulrich Zwingli: Swiss Soldier and Reformer

EVERYDAY LIFE

MUSIC AS PUBLIC PRAYER

BLACK DEATH: THE PLAGUE HYMN

PREACHING ON “ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL”

ULRICH ZWINGLI’S PROTESTANT DEATH

Heinrich Bullinger: More Calvinistic than Calvin

John Calvin: Reform Far Beyond Geneva

SECOND ONLY TO LUTHER

THE PROPHET JEREMIAH AND IMPIOUS POPISH BLASPHEMY

CALVIN’S SUNDAY SPORT

PREACH PREDESTINATION

Renee of Ferrara: Friend of Calvin

CALVIN’S COLLEAGUES

JOHN CALVIN AND GENDER ISSUES

What if….

Further Reading