The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Calvin, John
CALVIN (modified from the French form Cauvin or Caulvin), John, Swiss reformer of the 16th century; b. Noyon, Picardy, 10 July 1509; d. Geneva, Switzerland, 27 May 1564. Though born in humble condition, his father, as procureur-fiscal of the district of Noyon and secretary of the diocese, was able by personal influence to further the interests of his family. Calvin's mother, Jeanne Lefranc, was distinguished alike by personal beauty and piety. Even as a lad Calvin was deficient in physical vigor, but gave early tokens of more than ordinary intellectual powers, a circumstance that attracted to him the regards of a noble family at Noyon who received him under their care and gave to him the same opportunities of schooling as were enjoyed by their own children (1523). It was his father's original intention to fit him for the priesthood and in pursuance of that object he was sent to the Collège de la Marche at Paris; then to the Collège Montaigu where he was trained in logic by a learned Spaniard who afterward directed the education of Ignatius Loyola while a student at the same school. He easily stood in the front rank of his fellow-students but was little disposed to affiliate with them, and from a certain unsocial severity of bearing acquired among them the nickname of the “Accusative Case.” At the age of 12 he received part of the chapel revenue of Noyon in return for some services there. In 1527 his father secured for him the curacy of Saint Martin de Martinville, from which he resigned in 1529, in favor of his younger brother, and in the same year exchanged the curacy for that of Pont l'Evêque, his father's birthplace.
Then his father changed his plans with reference to John and determined to have him prepared for the profession of law, putting him for that purpose under instruction at Orléans (1528), where he studied with Pierre d'Etoile and Bourges (1530), where he applied himself to his studies with the same assiduity evinced at Paris, and attained immediate distinction, though at the expense of impaired health. Without confining himself strictly to the curriculum of the school he devoted himself at the same time to the study of Greek under the German professor, Melchior Wolmar, whose Protestant views strengthened the bias toward the new faith already existing in his pupil's mind, for his attention had previously been drawn to the careful study of the Scriptures by his kinsman Olivetan, the first Protestant translator of the Bible into French. When Calvin was 22 his father died, whereupon the young man gave up his law studies and returned to Paris, where he met Lefèvre and Farel, studied theology, issuing soon after his first publication, an annotated edition of Seneca's ‘De Clementia.’ Up to this point it is safe to presume that his interests and ambitions were purely those of a humanist, and whatever thought he may have had in regard to the need of reform in the matters of Church doctrine and discipline, he doubtless felt with Erasmus and Reuchlin that all the reforms that might be required would come about as the result of completer knowledge.
It was not long after this that he experienced what he calls his “sudden conversion.” He writes: “After my heart had long been prepared by the most earnest self-examination, on a sudden the full knowledge of the truth, like a bright light, disclosed to me the abyss of errors in which I was weltering, the sin and shame with which I was defiled.” His experience is near of kin to that of Luther, and we are set thinking also of the "great light" that shone upon Saul as he was nearing Damascus. Yet with all the profound disclosure thus made to him, he still felt no special call to the work of preaching the reformed doctrine and sought only for the undisturbed retirement that would permit him farther prosecution of his serious studies.
His friend Nicholas Cop had been elected to the rectorship of the University of Paris and at his request Calvin prepared for him an inaugural address which was substantially a defense of the reformed doctrine (1533). To the Sorbonnists this was intolerable, and Calvin was obliged to escape. He returned for a while to his native place, resigned the preferment he held in the Roman Catholic Church and for nearly three years led a wandering life. We find him at Saintonge; at Nérac, the residence of the Queen of Navarre; at Angoulême, with his friend Louis Tillet; then in Paris again. To escape persecution in France, he fled to Basel, where in 1536, at the age of 26, he published his “Institutes.” This remarkable work was intended to be a vindication of the Protestant doctrine, and its dedication to the reigning king, Frances I, sought to create royal sympathy for the cause and for its persecuted adherents. It has been claimed that no other work, written at so early an age, has produced such a marked influence upon the opinions and practices both of contemporaries and posterity. Although the book as then composed was but the germ of what it was subsequently developed into, yet the line initially laid down in it Calvin never swerved from. By his Catholic opponents his work was styled the “Koran of the heretics.”
After completing this work he went for a short time to Italy to visit Renée, the Duchess of Ferrara. Finally he made a visit to his native town; and after selling the paternal estate, which had devolved on him at the death of his eldest brother, set out with his brother and sister for Strassburg. The direct road being dangerous, they went through Geneva. The situation, political and religious, which he there confronted, however, vetoed his plans and really determined his entire subsequent career. That situation briefly outlined is as follows: The Duke of Savoy, unable to secure the submission of Geneva, had by the aid of Pope Leo X forced upon the city the reluctant acceptance of John, the Bastard of Savoy, as bishop, it being stipulated that the civil administration of the city should be vested in the Duke. The Genevese revolted under the lead of Berthelier and Bonnivard, but were defeated, Berthelier was executed and Bonnivard became the “Prisoner of Chillon” (1530-36). Defeat did not, however, extinguish the spirit of revolt. Of the two parties into which the Genevese were divided, the Confederates (“Eidgenossen,” a word from which perhaps comes the word Huguenot) looked for relief to the Swiss, and the Mamelukes favored supporting the Duke. The Confederates prevailed, the Duke was worsted and all power both military and civil passed into the hands of the people. This was in 1533.
To this civil overturning succeeded an ecclesiastical revolution. Protestant tendencies had established themselves in Bern, and from there had extended themselves to Geneva. The struggle in the latter place was a severe one, but Protestantism gained ground till under the leadership of Farel and with the assistance of Bern an ecclesiastical reconstruction was effected, the bishop driven out, Protestantism established and Geneva left independent. This meant not only a new form of doctrine and mode of worship, but a reformed system of morals, and thereby a strain put upon the large profligate element of the population that soon worked a reaction strenuously encouraged by the Savoyards and the Catholic priests. The entire city was in this way wrought into a condition of tumultuous faction, and it was just in the midst of this warring of civil, moral and ecclesiastical elements that Calvin arrived at Geneva as already stated, and took lodgings for the night with the distinct intention of going on to Basel the next day. Farel, who was in charge of the Protestant movement, learned of Calvin's presence in the city, through Louis du Tillet, got into communication with him and in an interview graphically described by Calvin in the preface to his ‘Commentary on the Psalms’ (a work especially rich in autobiographical references), entreated him to remain and help work out the problem of Protestantism in Geneva, denouncing upon him the curse of God if he refused. Calvin was awe-stricken by what seemed to him the prophetic deliverance of Farel and yielded to his Elijah-like expostulation, so that the dictum is well justified that “Farel gave Geneva to the Reformation and Calvin to Geneva.”
He prefaced his work in Geneva by introducing and setting in operation a system of stringent regulations relative to doctrine, discipline and daily conduct. Amusements like dancing and card-playing were punishable offenses, not because in his judgment inherently wrong, but because so abused that the only safe course was to prohibit them altogether. The stringency of this policy excited a revolt led by the Libertines, so styled, and participated in even by many of the same “Eidgenossen” that bad helped wrest Geneva from the grasp of the Duke. The opposition culminated in an act of Council expelling Calvin and Farel from the city (l538) the latter going to Neuchâtel, and Calvin to Strassburg, where with a sense of relief, he thought to find himself free to gratify his tastes and resume his studies. Here again, however, as at Geneva, he was stirred by an intimidating call and applied himself to the work of ministering to the French refugees there gathered. It was during his stay in Strassburg that he married a lady of admirable character, Idelette de Bure, widow of Jean Strodem of Liége, with whom he lived in relations of tender attachment till her death nine years later, their only child, a son, dying in early infancy.
In Geneva, in the meantime, matters had been going from bad to worse, till by the united voice of government and people Calvin was called. Crime and vice had become rampant. Catholics were planning for the restoration of the old faith. Cardinal Sordelet had addressed to the people a flattering and cajoling letter calculated to win them back to the Catholic Church. To that letter Calvin while still in Strassburg had published a reply both sagacious and masterly. Bern was suspected of having ambitious political designs on the city. The local government was too weak to maintain itself amid such a storm of conflicting elements and so after three years the people turned again helplessly to the man they had exiled. He fought against the overtures tendered him but was overborne by their earnestness and unanimity and came back to Geneva to make there his life-long home (1541}.
Calvin entered at once upon his office of administrative head of the city, considered in both its ecclesiastical and civic character. Though combining the two in his own person he was no Erastian, and Church and State stood to him as theoretically distinct, and yet contributing, each, to the interests of the other, the Church infusing its spirit into the State and the State in turn furnishing authoritative support to the Church. Civil authority, previously widely distributed, he made more oligarchic and vested it primarily in what was known as the “Little Council of Twenty-five.” The code devised for the city bears everywhere the marks of Calvin's authorship. For this his legal training especially qualified him. Larger and smaller matters alike came under his purview. Like the English Alfred the Genevese legislator braced his system of enactments by a liberal infusion of the Mosaic letter and spirit. Ecclesiastical discipline was delegated to the Consistory, composed at first of 18 members, 6 clerical and 12 lay, with Calvin as its president. The city was divided into districts or parishes and a system of vigilance so thoroughly organized that every family was at least once a year visited by responsible parties for purposes of censure, counsel or relief.
Although introducing his administration with a measure of moderation, its animus soon evinced itself in a way that made evident to the lawless and vicious classes what it was they had to contend with, and a wide-reaching opposition began immediately to organize itself. This opposition included the Libertines and the “Patriots,” which latter class bitterly opposed the close aristocratic lines with which the previous popular government had been replaced and regarded with jealousy the foreigners that in great numbers were coming to make their home at Geneva. The enmity toward him and his administration was still further fomented by the irrational and merciless severity shown in the punishment of small offenses, such as the beheading of a child for striking its mother, the committal of heretics to the flames, the eliciting of testimony by torture. His rule was one of terror and he was both feared and hated. Mobs attempted to intimidate him. Dogs in the street were named after him. To antagonize Calvin was a crime, as Castellio found to his cost, and to speak disrespectfully of predestination, as did Bolsec, a felony. But cases like these two are quite eclipsed by the instance of Servetus.
Servetus was a Spaniard, a scholar of independent thought, who convinced himself of the groundlessness of papal claims, but without cordially accepting the theology of Protestantism. In 1531 he published a book entitled ‘The Errors of the Trinity.’ Irritated by Calvin's treatment of him and his speculations he retorted upon him and the Reformed doctrine flatly and acrimoniously. Though out of sympathy with the Roman Catholic Church Servetus continued for 20 years in outward conformity with its doctrine and discipline and then wrote another volume under the title ‘The Restoration of Christianity.’ This was issued by him during his residence at Vienne and resulted in his arrest at the instance of the archbishop. A copy of the work came under Calvin's eye, who declared that if Servetus were to come to Geneva he should not get away alive if his authority was sufficient to prevent it. Having escaped from Vienne Servetus did come to Geneva, where his presence soon reached the knowledge of Calvin, who ordered his arrest. Thirty-eight heretical propositions were alleged against him, among others the rejection of the Trinity and speculation leaning toward pantheism; and, although he conducted his defense with vigor and with a degree of acuteness, he was condemned and, to the disgrace of the Protestant cause, was burned a little way out from Geneva on 27 Oct. 1553. It is claimed in behalf of Calvin that he tried to mitigate the severity of the penalty. However that may be, he was set on pursuing Servetus to the death, and it is on record that he wrote as follows to Farel two months before the execution, — “I hope the sentence will be capital but desire the atrocity of the punishment to be mitigated.” It has to be remembered however that all of this was in keeping with the barbarism of the age and that so gracious-spirited a man as Melancthon gave to it his assent. After the execution of Servetus and the expulsion of the Libertines two years later, Calvin's power in Geneva was firmly established. He used his influence vigorously for the defense of Protestantism throughout Europe. By the mediation of Theodore de Bèza he made his influence felt in France in the great struggle going on there between the hierarchical party with the Guises at its head and the Protestants led by Condé and Coligny. In 1561, his energies began to fail, and after much bodily suffering, he died.
During the entire course of his conflict with heresy and the Libertines, Calvin was actively engaged in preaching and lecturing. He had crowds of hearers from all parts of Europe. Protestant refugees were in attendance upon his lectures and discourses and went back carrying with them the impression made upon them by his doctrines and personality. Thus was he able to stamp himself ineffaceably upon the religious thought of his own and aftertimes, and to cause Geneva to sustain to the Latin nations in particular a relation similar to that subsisting between Wittenberg and the Germanic. The weight and permanence of the influence he exerted was due partly to his own idiosyncrasies. Both his mode of thinking and his policy of action were measurably determined by his natural temperament and his physical debility. He was composed principally of will and brain, with too little of the tenderer sensibilities to sweeten the action of the one or to rectify the aberrations of the other. Naturally enough then he made the doctrine of God's sovereignty the keystone of his system, and could conceive of heresy as being none other than the unpardonable sin. The same combination of volitional and intellectual genius made him also a born organizer, enabling him to compact and mature the reform tendencies of the times into a corporate whole where before everything had been incipient and sporadic.
Calvinism is Augustinianism in its developed and Protestant form, the two theologians coinciding in their views of predestination, sin and grace, though differing in the matter of justification and other less important matters. The keynote of Calvinism is not predestination, as is sometimes claimed, but divine sovereignty, out of which, understood as Augustine and Calvin understood it, predestination issues as a necessary corollary. Predestination so derived carries with it perforce the notion that those who are elected to be saved are so elected by the arbitrary action of the divine will; — “He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” The motive therefore leading to God's exercise of grace in specific cases has its inexplicable grounds in the mind of God, and is nowise referable to any condition existent in the sinner. “Infralapsarianism,” “Permissive Decree,” etc., are merely philosophical attempts to relieve divine arbitrariness from the charge of immorality.
Among Calvin's most important works are ‘Christinæ Religionis Institutio’ (1536); ‘De Necessitate Reformandæ Ecclesiæ’ (1544); ‘Commentaires sur la concordance ou harmonie des Evangelistes’ (1561); ‘In Novum Testamentum Commentarii’; ‘In Libros Psalmorum Commentarii’; ‘In Librum Geneseos Commentarii.’ The first edition of Calvin's whole works is that of Amsterdam (1671, 9 vols, fol.), but this has been superseded by the definitive and critical edition begun by J. W. Baum, E. Cunitz and E. Reuss, and finished by Lobstein and Erichson (59 vols., Brunswick and Berlin 1863-1900). By the Calvin Translation Society, his works have been collected, translated into English and issued in 51 volumes (1843-55). Consult for biography Beza, T. de (Geneva 1564, new ed., 1869), the original life written a few months after Calvin's death; Bolsec, J. (Lyons 1577; new ed., 1875), written from the Roman Catholic standpoint; Henry, P. (3 vols., Hamburg 1835-44), English translation abridged and altered by Stebbing (London 1851); Dyer, T. H. (London 1850); Bungener, F. (Paris 1863, English trans., Edinburgh 1863); Staehelin, E. (Elberfeld 1863); Pierson, A, (Amsterdam 1883-91); Walker, W. (New York 1906); all of which are written from a Protestant point of view. A very impartial and valuable book from a Roman Catholic is that by Kampschulte, F. W., ‘Johann Calvin, seine Kirche und sein Staat in Genf’ (Leipzig 1869-99). An exhaustive work is that by Doumergue, E. (Lausanne 1899-1908), containing many original drawings, facsimiles, etc., and is the work of a lifetime. For detailed history of the life of Calvin, consult d'Aubigné, Merle, ‘History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin’; Fisher, G. P., ‘The Reformation’; Schaff, Philip, in ‘History of the Christian Church’ (Vol. VII, pp. 257-844, New York 1892); article on “Calvin” in the ‘Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.’ A very complete bibliography is given in Schaff's ‘Creeds of Christendom.’ See Institution of the Christian Religion.