John Calvin

John Calvin
Portrait of Jean Calvin (date unknown).
Activity (s)	Theologian Religious reformer Man of letters Polemicist
Birth	10 July 1509 Noyon ( Picardie )
Deaths	27 May 1564 Geneva
Writing language	Latin and French
Movement (s)	Protestant Reformation Calvinism
Genre (s)	Test Sermon Lampoon
Major works
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536 to the Latin version, 1541 for the French version, 1561 for the last edition) Treaty of scandals (1550)

John Calvin, whose real name Jehan Cauvin ^Biography

Childhood, Initiation and reformed humanist

He is the son of the prosecutor of the Cathedral of Noyon and a mother who died in 1515 when he was 6 years . He was raised in religion Catholic and is primarily intended for the Church. For this, he took his first lessons in Latin grammar and rhetoric to Noyon , the College of Capets . It is then sent to 14 years in College Walk in Paris , he attended a few months . He then decided to enroll in the College de Montaigu , where he was educated by John Storm and Noel Beda. These students put their guard against the Greek and Lutheran humanist ideas, while still practicing the scholastic nominalist. It is within this establishment has known and loved Calvin St. Augustine. At the end of this cycle of studies, Calvin knows the new and controversial ideas circulating in Paris, mostly in the form of pamphlets. But it does not seem to be tempted and then formed a humanistic classical studies as his background in theology intended .

But he left that career for the right in 1525 , and will study at Orleans , which teaches Pierre L'Estoile. There he finds his cousin, Pierre Robert said Olivtan , which will be the first to publish a Bible "Protestant" in French in 1535. He then went to Bournemouth to study under the direction of Alciat. Its master of Greek Melchior Wolmar , who introduced him to both Lutheran and humanism. It was then that his father, ruined and excommunicated, died .

Return to Orleans, where he graduated in law in 1532, he published his first book, a commentary on the book De Clemencia of Seneca.

Travel in Europe and the formation of his ideas

First conflict with the church, conversion and flight

Initially intended for a legal career, having linked with several supporters of Martin Luther , he soon embraced the principles of the Reformation and then, towards 1531 , to convert and develop theories of reform, starting from 1532 to the spread in Paris. The first reason is suspected it will be the speech of Nicolas Cop , rector of the University of Paris, delivered during the academic year. This speech, including a commentary on the Beatitudes , he co-wrote, or at least heavily inspired ^, , aroused great excitement among Catholics the most fiercely opposed to the Reformation. This case forces him to hide, then quit Paris in 1533.

His conversion is affected by the conflict between his father and brother and the chapter of Noyon. The latter excommunicated the two men to push a compromise strongly in favor of the ecclesiastical establishment. John Calvin, who appreciates his father, is marked by the means used by monks to succeed in a financial case . His conversion is probably between August 1533 and May 1534. At the first date, he still participates in a procession of the chapter of Noyon against plague. In the second, it terminates the profits he had to avoid being linked to the Catholic institution.

Note that the term conversion is anachronistic, like that of Protestants. For Calvin, it is no less than to convert to another religion as spiritual reform the functioning of society to be good Christians. It also defines himself primarily as a Christian.

In November 1533 , he took refuge near Angouleme in the name of Charles d'Espeville, with his friend the canon Louis Tillet , pastor of Claix , then Nerac with Marguerite de Navarre , which promotes the Protestants. After the affair of the Placards and persecution carried out against the Protestant French (also known as Huguenots ), he moved to Ferrara , Strasbourg and Basel , where he published in March 1536 , the Institutes of the Christian religion , which contains most of his ideas on law, faith, preaching, sacraments and the relationship between Christians and civil authority. This is a statement of Reformed doctrine, which he himself translated into French, and that becomes the catechism of reforms in France. One of the major changes introduced by him relating to the sacraments: it recognizes no more than two - the baptism and communion. Pastors are now elected by the faithful, and each church Calvinist is led spiritually by an elected board. This book will have an enormous impact.

First attempt at reform Geneva

When Calvin arrived in Geneva, the city has already gained wide reform. The first evangelical worship is celebrated on Good Friday 1533. In January 1534, a public controversy is struggling Guillaume Farel and a Dominican, Guy Furbity. October ^1, 1535, the population is hunting last bishop of the city, Pierre de la Baume , bishop of the city since 1522. During the same year, the reversal is taking place slowly, the authorities temporarily suspending flights Mass, while regular orders are gradually leaving the city. For a time, the spiritual operation of the city was entirely in the hands of Farel. Then, the authorities organized the tilting of the city in the reform early 1536. Are forbidden to pastors, canons, etc.. Catholics to celebrate the rites, they are required to swear allegiance to the evangelical doctrines. Finally, Sunday, May 21, 1536, the people met in General Council declared its unanimous support to the religious reformation.

Calvin arrived in Geneva in the summer of 1536. So he did not participate in the conversion of the city itself.

In 1536 , he lives in Geneva where he was appointed professor of theology , and where reform has been adopted. It plays a role in both religious and political. In October 1536, he participated in the argument of Lausanne , intended to tip the city in the reform camp.

He writes with Farel Confessions of faith to try to organize the Church of Geneva. Officially released November 10, 1536, the text is the subject of a bitter debate with the authorities, who refuse to sign the 21 articles. There are so discussion on the frequency of communion, and to apply the severity of excommunication. These measures are in effect also political, since excommunication is equivalent to a stigma in a society that highly religious. Calvin also shows great discipline in the decision to ban the Anabaptists , in March 1537. In April, Calvin establishes a trustee responsible to travel from house to house to ensure that people subscribe to the confession of faith. But faced with resistance, this initiative bogged down.

Throughout the year 1537, Calvin leads with other intolerant continuous pressure on the hesitant and tepid. In the summer it is planned to question each Dizainier on his faith. He was asked to monitor the faith of people in his neighborhood. Then we asked each district to come to accept the confession of faith and swear allegiance to Geneva. On 30 October, are asked to publicly reluctant to subscribe to the confession of faith. On 12 November, the recalcitrant are banished from the city.

Gradually, the opponents of Calvin, or rather his fanaticism come together and become important. January 4, 1538, the General Council decides that no one should be prohibited from participating in communion. February 3, 1538, four new trustees are elected, all hostile to Calvin. The two most common criticisms are constant mix of spiritual and temporal power, and the fact that it is a foreigner who decides to banish from the city of Geneva. But in any case, this hostility to Calvin is a distrust vis--vis the reform. In March, the council Calvin amount not to deal with civil cases. The rising tone, he was imprisoned a month later. Note that when this escalation, Calvin is not alone and is fully consistent with Guillaume Farel.

Finally, for defying several banned Calvin and Farel were banished from Geneva in April 1538. He then retired to Strasbourg , where his arrival, he spread the new doctrines.

New exile and maturing of his ideas

He spent several years in Strasbourg as pastor of the Reformed Congregation French. It was here that he met the pastor Anabaptist Jean Stordeur (or Storder), a native of Liege, which he was expelled in 1533 with his wife Idelette (nee Idelette Bure ), because of membership Anabaptist. Calvin se lie d'amiti avec Stordeur et sa femme ; ceux-ci se rallient sa vision religieuse et se convertissent vite ses ides. Stordeur but fell seriously ill in the months that follow. He died of fever a few days, very early in the year 1540; Calvin remains a close friend of Idelette and her two little girls.

After several months of reflection, Calvin, who for some time, thinking marriage, decides to marry the widow Idelette has thirty-one, just like him. The wedding took place in Strasbourg on ¹ August 1540. This will, according to correspondence , a happy marriage based on mutual esteem. They have three children, who all three died in infancy: a first son was born in February 1542 , to die after two weeks, a second child, born in July 1543 , suffered the same fate, and a third child, 30 May 1544. Idelette, she will experience nine years of marriage to John Calvin, the second so admirable suffering from serious health problems, however she died 2 April 1549.

In September 1541 , Calvin returned to Geneva. Indeed, the Geneva State struggled since the departure of Calvin to reorganize the church life and suffered constant from Bern's only ally among the Confederation since religious differences with Fribourg. In addition, the party of "Farlliens" won the elections in Geneva, judges therefore decided to recall Calvin and Farel to the worsening situation. Calvin agrees to return only on condition that the church is now independent of the state.

The great "success" of Calvin's theocratic Geneva Republic

"He believed in texts and institutions. These were formulated in Geneva

Calvin's Thought

Calvin differed from Luther through a more radical reform, banning all worship and all subsequent Catholic hierarchy, not recognizing the higher the character of bishop and priest as pope, rejecting the church, the dogma of the Real Presence , the invocation of saints, etc.. And he taught double predestination of the elect and the reprobate.

Paradoxically, Calvin drew from this course a lot of freedom and not slavery: since the salvation belongs to God, we are freed, "Embedded in this perspective of faith in Divine Providence is the antithesis of determinism. It enables the believer to assume the challenges of his life in the world in freedom, in a lucid serenity, recognizing the limitations given to it " .

Jacques Benignus Bossuet drew a parallel between the two roads and leaders of the Reformation, declaring that "carried by their success, they are both high above the authority of fathers." Bossuet, Catholic bishop of the ^seventeenth century , refers to the Church Fathers , men like Irenaeus or Augustine of Hippo. It was obvious to all that the reformers was the Bible which was to take first place, and it should be widely disseminated and be accessible to as many - which promote literacy Protestant countries. Neither Luther nor Calvin, however, are returned to the ideal of a separate church from state (as it existed at the time of Irenaeus or Tertullian from Carthage ), a Church which, accordingly, would take not the responsibility of watching over the morals of a city or would not work in this direction in association with temporal sovereigns. The ideal of a fully franked Church responsibilities will be embodied by the temporal branch of peaceful Anabaptists , with men such as Michael Sattler, Balthazar Hubmaier or Menno Simons who should not be confused with Thomas Muenzer and illuminated Mnster. As shown Cottret Bernard in his biography of Calvin, the Genevan reformer was also a man of his time so he yielded to some superstitions of his day, when accused of witchcraft, some residents of the city during the plague that ravaged Geneva 1545. It would nevertheless be incorrect to characterize only the teaching of Calvin or Luther as their statements on witchcraft, reflecting concerns inherited from the Middle Ages. If we consider all of their writings, Luther and Calvin helped fight against superstition, thus initiating the modern era. Thus, Calvin combat the astrology as a warning against judicial astrology (1548), as a result of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola .

The Theology of Calvin

Calvin is not a theologian systematic. He studied law and was immersed in the sacred science late in life, when his conversion. It is fully cons commentator of the Bible. This explains why it is difficult to isolate in its written guidelines strengths on which it will build a doctrine. "What constitutes the central points of this theology therefore remains a hot topic."

Moreover, after the death of Calvin, the great era of fixing schools of thought reformers, the Calvinist theology was seen as an alternative or an option different from the Lutheran Church. Many commentators have therefore systematically overestimated the differences that the two have, and what brings them together failed.

The double predestination

Calvin is the emblematic taking the theory of "double predestination ", linked to the notion Augustinian of sola gratia , salvation by grace alone God. According to the double predestination, God in His omnipotence, predestined some to salvation and others to perdition, pronouncing eternity judge the faith that has or has not been theirs, and the works result. This idea is not, as such, first at Calvin, which considers the angle almost absolute legal right as the creator towards his creature, and uses it a requirement to show reverence to God. However, given Catholicism and other Protestant communities or reformed, this idea of double predestination is what characterizes Calvinism.

The idea of divine majesty ineffable

A central point of thought is Calvinist and the attributes of God beyond anything the human mind can perceive and understand. Calvin continues to show the weaknesses of the human face of divine omnipotence. It exposes that the greatest intelligence devoted to the knowledge of God and the greatest faith in his whole destiny worship can never make him worthy tribute. "Could we do more to dishonor God, to want to include power to our senses? It's more that if a man wanted to close the sea and the earth in his fist, or hold it between two fingers, c ' Rabies is most excessive. " (Sermon on Job 26)

Christ, the center of a mystical community

In vis--vis the idea of an inaccessible God, Calvin poses as the second central point the invitation of the figure of Jesus Christ to participate in a communion mysticism. This idea makes it possible for a faithful reality of salvation in symbiosis with the symbolic redeemer. Jesus becomes a mediator, with whom he is spiritually united to achieve the salvation of his soul. Faith is conceived as a community of spirit with Christ, under the action of the Holy Spirit. In his Institutes of the Christian religion , the second half of the book is thus entirely devoted to his questions. This "mystical community" is not the Church as understood in Catholic and Orthodox, that the Bride of Christ, one, holy, catholic (universal, plenary) and apostolic.

Trust in God

While the first two aspects of Calvin's thought are not very far from those of Luther, a third more of the distinguished monk of Wittenberg. This is the fierce determination of absolute confidence in divine mercy. Luther always much feared the wrath of God and seeking the means to make righteous before God and attain grace , as Calvin serenely accepts the vagaries of the world is not looking in the world tangible signs of divine benevolence. For him, and this is reflected in many sermons and writings, pending the benefits of divine justice must not monopolize the attention of Christians, but their more permanent will be just right for God and their next.

Main works

Calvin left a large number of books written in French and noted for their style.

• The Institutes of Christian Religion , 1535 , he gave himself several editions. Originally published in Latin in 1536 , then in French in 1541 in the translation of Calvin himself . Reissued in March 2009, abridged version, published Olivtan, and connected by Kerygma editions.
• Confessions ( 1538 )
• Treatise on the Supper ( 1540 )
• Ecclesiastical Ordinances ( 1541 )
• Treaty of relics, ( 1543 ), Editions Ampelos
• Warning against judicial astrology (1548)
• Treaty of scandals ( 1550 )
• Comments on Scripture
• The sleep of souls
• Catechism of Geneva. Choose life ..., Publisher: Kerygma, ( ISBN 2-905464-20-8 )
• Instruct me in thy truth, Publisher: Excelsis, ( ISBN 2-911260-15-5 )
• Small treatise on the Lord's Supper, Publisher: Shepherds and Magi, ( ISBN 2-85304-132-8 )
• Spirituality with a human face, Publisher: Excelsis, ( ISBN 2-911260-81-3 )

Bibliography

Old Editions

He has published several editions of his works, the best quoted by the Dictionnaire Bouillet the ^nineteenth century is that of Amsterdam , 1667.

Its Latin letters were published by Theodore Beza , 1586 (translated by Antoine Teissier, 1702 ), his French Literature, by Jules Bonnet , 1854.

Contemporary Publishing

• Selected Works (contains the Epistle to Sadolet, the Treaty of relics, the prefaces to the Bible), Gallimard, coll. "Folio", 1995 (ed. by Olivier Millet) ( ISBN 2-07-039250-3 )
• Works, edition of Francis Higman and Bernard Roussel, Paris, Gallimard, coll. Bibliotheque de la Pleiade ", 2009, 1520 p. ( ISBN 978-2070114467 )

Studies Calvin

Classics

• His life was written by Theodore Beza , then by Jean-Marie Vincent Audin , Paris , 1841 , by Paul Henry, Hamburg , 1844 , and Felix Bungener, Paris, 1864.
• The life of John Calvin by Theodore Beza , 1993 , Publisher / Edition: Europresse, ( ISBN 2-906287-46-6 )

Contemporary Studies

• Olivier Abel, Calvin, Pygmalion, Paris, 2009.
• Cottret Bernard, Calvin, Payot, Paris, 1998.
• Denis Crouzet, Jean Calvin Fayard, Paris, 2000.
• Eric Fuchs, Morality according to Calvin, Cerf, Paris, 1986.
• Hirzel Ernst, Calvin and Calvinism: Five Centuries of influences on the Church and Society, Labor et Fides, Geneva, 2008.
• Carl A. Keller, Calvin Mystique - the heart of the thought of the Reformer, Labor et Fides, Geneva, 2001.
• Krumenacker Yves, Calvin. Beyond the legends, Bayard, Paris, 2009.
• Olivier Millet, Calvin and the dynamics of speech, H. Champion, Paris, 1992.
• Olivier Millet, Calvin: A man, a work, an author, Infolio, Paris, 2009.
• Jean-Luc Mouton , Calvin, Gallimard, Paris, 2009.
• Aim Richardt, Calvin, Editions Franois-Xavier de Guibert, Paris, 2009.
• Vial Marc, John Calvin: An Introduction to his theological thought, Labor et Fides, Geneva, 2008.
• Franois Wendel, Calvin, sources and evolution of his religious thought, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1950, reissued by Labor et Fides, Geneva, 1985.
• Stefan Zweig , 1936 Consciousness against violence. Calvin and cons Castellio An awareness against violence, Le Castor Astral, Paris 1997.

References

See also

Related articles

• Christianity
• Jules Bonnet
• International Museum of the Reformation

External Links

• Francis Higman, " John Calvin "in the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland online

Source partial

Marie-Nicolas Bouillet and Alexis Chassang (ed.), "John Calvin" in Universal Dictionary of History and Geography, 1878 [ detail editions ] ( Wikisource )

Calvinism
Origin and Background	Christianity Augustine of Hippo Reformation John Calvin Five Solas Synod of Dort
Features	Five Points Theology of the alliance Principle regulator of worship
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Influences	Theodore Beza John Knox Ulrich Zwingli Jonathan Edwards Princeton Theologians
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