Who was John Calvin?

John Calvin, a Frenchman by birth, was a second-generation reformer. His name and theology are frequently denoted by the terms 'Calvinism,' 'Reformed Faith,' and 'Presbyterianism.'

My experience has been that most people who are critical of Calvin have never personally read his writings and know very little of the man or his life. In about 1533 he was personally converted to Christ and adopted the ideas of the Reformation. He then gave up his Roman Catholic benefits (income from three parishes, though he was never ordained as a priest; his father, secretary to a bishop, obtained these for Calvin, the first when he was aged six).

With the help of William Farel, Calvin brought his understanding of the Reformation to Geneva, Switzerland, and it spread from there. He emphasized, at the risk of me being overly brief, the sovereignty of God, the total spiritual depravity of the human race, the complete authority of the Bible, and salvation completely as a work of God.

His extant writings total 57 volumes in one printing. Both Calvin and Luther encouraged education, and the later Calvinistic Puritans established many of the oldest colleges and universities in North America. One of the countries into which the Calvinistic Reformation spread was his homeland of France.

One of the students at that time in the college of La Marche was John Calvin. He was born at Noyon in Picardy, on July 10, 1509. His father's name was Gerard, and his mother's maiden name was Jane Lefranq. John was now sixteen years old. Austere in his manner, he kept apart from the mass of scholars, and joined but little in their games. His pale aspect and piercing eye drew from them a measure of respect, which was heightened by the seriousness of his conversation and his rebukes of their sins. Perhaps one thing that contributed to this was that though so young his head was shaven as a priest's. His father had devoted him to the church, and about twelve years of age he had been made chaplain of La Gesine! This was done by his father, we suppose, for the sake of the income, as he and his family were poor. Calvin's progress was so rapid at college that he was removed from the classes and taken singly to the higher branches of study. As he was to be a priest, he went from La Marche to the college of Montaigu.

During the August of 1536, amongst the crowds of exiles who were daily arriving at the gates of Geneva, one presented himself, a Frenchman, a native of Picardy, young, being only in his twenty-eighth year, of slender figure, and pale face; he had come to rest for the night and depart on the morrow. This man was John Calvin. But though young, and of a modest bearing, he was not without celebrity, both as a scholar and a divine, nor untried as a friend of the Reformation. He was on his way from Rome, with the intention of fixing his permanent residence at Basle or Strasburg, but the war, which was then raging between France and the Empire compelled him to take a circuitous route by Geneva. But the energetic Farel thought that the author of the Christian Institutes was just the man for Geneva, and urged him to remain. The God of all goodness, he thought, had sent him at that critical moment.

Calvin replied that his education was yet incomplete; that he required still further instruction and application before he should be qualified for so difficult a position as the state of Geneva presented, and begged to be allowed to proceed to Basle or Strasburg. On this, Farel raised his voice as with the authority of a direct messenger from God, and said, "But I declare to you on the part of God, that if you refuse to labour here along with us at the Lord's work, His curse will be upon you; since, under the pretence of your studies, it is yourself that you are seeking, rather than Him." Calvin had hitherto thought that his proper sphere was his library, and the main instrument of work his pen; but feeling overwhelmed by so authoritative a declaration of the will of God, proceeding from so illustrious an apostle of the Reformation, he did not dare to decline the yoke of the ministry evidently imposed on him by the Lord. He gave his hand to Farel, and his heart to the work of the Lord in Geneva. "He was immediately appointed professor of theology, and soon afterwards minister of one of the principal parishes. This double occupation afforded space enough for the display of his great qualities, and opened the path to that singular influence, which he afterwards acquired, both in church and state." Here he laboured for twenty-eight years-with the exception of a brief banishment-and became the great leader in the cause of Protestantism, and the most illustrious chief of the Reformation.

The Early History of Calvin

In 1536 Calvin was appointed pastor and professor at Geneva. The religious, moral, intellectual, and even political revolution he brought into that city with him, is beyond the limits of our "Short Papers." His life and labours have been often written. We will notice that which enters into the plan of this history.

The celebrated John Calvin was then in the zenith of his reputation and usefulness. Knox was affectionately received by him as a refugee from Scotland, and an intimate friendship was soon formed between them. The two great Reformers of that day were now together, nearly of the same age, very similar in their sentiments as to doctrine and the government of the church, and not unlike as to the more prominent features of their character. "Knox was a rough, unbending, impassioned, impetuous man, but full of humour: Calvin was calm, severe, often irritable, but never impassioned; rising in pure intellect above all his compeers, like Mont Blanc among the mountains, touching the very heavens, yet shrouded in eternal snows. There is no doubt but that Calvin exercised a great influence upon the mind of his fellow-Reformer. Knox was but beginning his work; Calvin's work was done; Knox was but rising into fame; Calvin was giving laws to a large section of Christendom."*

In the narrative by Beza, a fellow reformer, we get this reference to Calvin: "He lived fifty-four years, ten months, and seventeen days; half of which time he spent in the sacred ministry. His stature was of a middle size, his complexion dark and pale, his eyes brilliant even unto death, expressing the acuteness of his understanding. He lived nearly without sleep. His power of memory was almost incredible; and his judgment so sound, that his decisions often seemed oracular. In his words he was sparing, and he despised an artificial eloquence; yet was he an accomplished writer, and, by the accuracy of his mind, and his practice in dictating to an amanuensis, he attained to speak little differently from what he would have written. . . . Having given with good faith the history of his life and of his death, after sixteen years' observation of him, I feel myself warranted to declare, that in him was proposed to all men an illustrious example of the life and death of the Christian, so that it will be found as difficult to emulate as it is easy to calumniate him."

Calvin's Work

In the midst of the many conflicts in which Calvin was engaged, he was unwearied in his pastoral labours, and in his endeavours to expose and to counteract errors both in church and state, and to diffuse light and truth in all the churches. "Through the fame and the influence of this distinguished theologian, the Geneva church rapidly increased in numbers, and was looked upon as the centre of the Reformed cause. At his suggestion a college was established by the senate in 1558, in which he and Theodore Beza, along with others of great erudition and high talents, were the teachers. This seat of learning soon acquired so great fame that students resorted to it from England, Scotland, France, Italy, and Germany, in pursuit of sacred as well as secular learning." By this means, the principles of the Reformation spread widely over the various countries of Europe. "To John Calvin the Protestant churches must ever owe a deep debt of gratitude, and, among Presbyterians in particular, his memory will be embalmed, as having given to their system of church polity the weight of his influence and name." Along with this beautiful notice from "Faiths of the World," we are bound to add a line from the very solid Mr. Fry, an episcopalian historian: "Geneva soon sunk in estimation with the church of England, because of the countenance she gave to the Presbyterian form of church government, and of the violent attack by some of her divines upon the ancient episcopal government, which was still retained with considerable splendour in England and in Ireland."-Page 487.

Calvin became more and more the man of the Reformation. From all parts of Europe, where any question arose, the opinion of Calvin was sought. Refugees and messengers were constantly arriving to seek his help and advice, while his nights were often spent in corresponding with those who sought his council.

The words had the desired effect upon the young theologian. Calvin abandoned his intention of proceeding to Strasbourg to continue his studies, and settled at Geneva. He was at once appointed a professor of theology, and commenced an arduous ministry of twenty-eight years, as pastor of one of the most prominent churches of the city: and from this place his influence presently extended to all the countries of Europe. "His relation to the ancient church," says Ludwig Hausser, "was peculiar. He was more bitterly opposed to it than any one else. Passionate and cutting things had indeed been said of Rome, but nothing so crushing had been urged against the Curia in the whole range of polemics as the attempt to prove that the church of Rome, in its origin and growth, was utterly opposed to the true church of Christ. Never had the hierarchical principle of the mediaeval Romish church been the subject of a fiercer attack than by Calvin's unimpassioned and cool-blooded assertion, that it was utterly opposed to the original idea of the constitution of the church, and he was therefore regarded by Rome as a more dangerous and implacable enemy than Luther."

Calvin proceeded to Basle and thence to Strasburg, to which he had been earnestly invited by the pastors of that city, Bucer and Capitol. He was immediately appointed a professor of divinity, and pastor of a congregation composed of French refugees. Nothing could speak more solemnly of the fierceness of the persecution which was at that time raging in France than the fact that about fifteen thousand French exiles gathered around Calvin to hear the gospel in their native tongue. And if fifteen thousand were found in Strasburg alone, what numbers besides must have fled to England, Germany, and other places! Here Calvin laboured in preaching and writing for three years. The advanced state of society, a more polished congregation than the one he had left in Geneva, suited his taste, and was as balm to his wounded heart. He republished his Institutes, much enlarged, wrote his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, and a treatise on the Lord's supper.