John Calvin was born July 10, 1509, at Noyon,
France, an ancient cathedral city about seventy miles northeast of Paris. His
father, a man of rather hard and severe character, held the position as
apostolic secretary to the bishop of Noyon, and was intimate with the best
families of the neighborhood. His mother was noted for her beauty and piety,
but died in his early youth.
He received the best education which France
at that time could give, studying successively at the three leading
universities of Orleans, Bourges, and Paris, from 1528 to 1533. His father
intended to prepare him for the legal profession since that commonly raised
those who followed it to positions of wealth and influence. But not feeling
any particular calling to that field, young Calvin turned to the study of
Theology and there found the sphere of labor for which he was particularly
fitted by natural endowment and personal choice. He is described as having
been of a shy and retiring nature, very studious and punctual in his work,
animated by a strict sense of duty, and exceedingly religious. He early showed
himself possessed of an intellect capable of clear, convincing argument and
logical analysis. Through excessive industry he stored his mind with valuable
information, but undermined his health. He advanced so rapidly that he was
occasionally asked to take the place of the professors, and was considered by
the other students as a doctor rather than an auditor. He was, at this time, a
devout Cathode of unblemished character. A brilliant career as a humanist, or
lawyer, or churchman, was opening before him when he was suddenly converted to
Protestantism, and cast in his lot with the poor persecuted sect.
Without any intention on his part, and even
against his own desire, Calvin became the head of the evangelical party in
Paris in less than a year after his conversion. His depth of knowledge and
earnestness of speech were such that no one could hear him without being
forcibly impressed. For the present he remained in the Catholic Church, hoping
to reform it from within rather than from without. Schaff reminds us that "all
the Reformers were born, baptized, confirmed, and educated in the historic
Catholic Church, which cast them out; as the Apostles were circumcised and
trained in the Synagogue, which cast them out."1
The zeal and earnestness of the new Reformer
did not long go unchallenged and it soon became necessary for Calvin to escape
for his life. The following account of his flight from Pads is given by the
Church historian, Philip Schaff: "Nicholas Cop, the son of a
distinguished royal physician (William Cop of Basel), and a friend of Calvin
was elected Rector of the University, Oct. 10, 1533, and delivered the usual
inaugural oration on All Saints' Day, Nov. 1, before a large assembly in the
Church of the Mathurins. This oration, at the request of the new Rector, had
been prepared by Calvin. It was a plea for a reformation on the basis of the
New Testament, and a bold attack on the scholastic theologians of the day, who
were represented as a set of sophists, ignorant of the Gospel .... The
Sorbonne and the Parliament regarded this academic oration as a manifesto of
war upon the Catholic Church, and condemned it to the flames. Cop was warned
and fled to his relatives in Basel. (Three hundred crowns were offered for his
capture, dead or alive.) Calvin, the real author of the mischief, is said to
have descended from a window by means of sheets, and escaped from Paris in the
garb of a vine-dresser with a hoe upon his shoulder. His rooms were searched
and his books and papers were seized by the police .... Twenty-four innocent
Protestants were burned alive in public places of the city from Nov. 10, 1534,
till May 5, 1535....Many more were fined, imprisoned, and tortured, and a
considerable number, among them Calvin and Du Tillet, fled to
Strassburg . . . For nearly three years Calvin wandered as a fugitive
evangelist under assumed names from place to place in southern France,
Switzerland, and Italy, till he reached Geneva as his final destination."2
Shortly after, if not before, the first
edition of his Institutes appeared, in March, 1536, Calvin and Louis Du Tillet
crossed the Alps into Italy where the literary and artistic Renaissance had
its or/gin. There he labored as an evangelist until the Inquisition began its
work of crushing out both the Renaissance and the Reformation as two kindred
serpents. He then bent his way, probably through Asota and over the Great St.
Bernard, to Switzerland. From Basel he made a last visit to his native
town of Noyon in order to make a final settlement of certain family
affairs. Then, with his younger brother Antoine and his sister Marie, he left
France forever, hoping to settle in Basel or Strassburg and to lead there the
quiet life of a scholar and author. Owing to the fact that a state of war
existed between Charles V. and Francis I., the direct route through Lorraine
was closed, so he made a circuitous journey through Geneva.
Calvin intended to stop only a night in
Geneva, but Providence had decreed otherwise. His presence was made known to
Farel, the Genevan reformer, who instinctively felt that Calvin was the man to
complete and save the Reformation in Geneva. A fine description of this
meeting of Calvin and Farel is given by Schaff. Says he: "Farel at once called
on Calvin and held him fast, as by divine command. Calvin protested, pleading
his youth, his inexperience, his need of further study, his natural timidity
and bashfulness, which unfitted him for public action. But all in vain. Farel,
'who burned of a marvelous zeal to advance the Gospel,' threatened him with
the curse of Almighty God if he preferred his studies to the work of the Lord,
and his own interest to the cause of Christ. Calvin was terrified and shaken
by these words of the fearless evangelist, and felt 'as if God from on high
had stretched out His hand.' He submitted, and accepted the call to the
ministry, as teacher and pastor of the evangelical Church of Geneva."3
Calvin was twenty-five years younger than
Luther and Zwingli, and had the great advantage of building on the foundation
which they had laid. The first ten years of Calvin's public career were
contemporary with the last ten of Luther's although the two never met
personally. Calvin was intimate with Melanchthon, however, and kept up a
correspondence with him until his death.
At the time Calvin came upon the scene it
had not yet been determined whether Luther was to be the hero of a great
success or the victim of a great failure. Luther had produced new ideas;
Calvin's work was to construct them into a system, to preserve and develop
what had been so nobly begun. The Protestant movement lacked unity and was in
danger of being sunk in the quicksand of doctrinal dispute, but was saved from
that fate chiefly by the new :impulse which was given to it by the Reformer in
Geneva. The Catholic Church worked as one mighty unit and was seeking to stamp
out, by fair means or foul, the different Protestant groups which had arisen
in the North. Zwingli had seen this danger and had tried to unite the
Protestants against their common foe. At Marburg, after pleadings and with
tears in his eyes, he extended to Luther the hand of fellowship regardless of
their difference of opinion as to the mode of Christ's presence in the Lord's
Supper; but Luther refused it under the restraint of a narrow dogmatic
conscience. Calvin also, working in Switzerland with abundant opportunity to
realize the closeness of the Italian Church, saw the need for union and
labored to keep Protestantism together. To Cranmer, in England, he wrote, "I
long for one holy communion of the members of Christ. As for me, if I can be
of service, I would gladly cross ten seas in order to bring about this unity."
His influence as exerted through his books, letters, and students, was
powerfully felt throughout the various countries, and the statement that he
saved the Protestant movement from destruction seems to be no exaggeration.
For thirty years Calvin's one absorbing
interest was the advancement of the Reformation. Reed says, "He toiled for it
to the utmost limit of his strength, fought for it with a courage that never
quailed, suffered for it with a fortitude that never wavered, and was ready at
any moment to die for it. He literally poured every drop of his life into it,
unhesitatingly, unsparingly. History will be searched in vain to find a man
who gave himself to one definite purpose with more unalterable persistence,
and with more lavish serf-abandon than Calvin gave himself to the Reformation
of the 16th century."4
Probably no servant of Christ since the days
of the Apostles has been at the same time so much loved and hated, admired and
abhorred, praised and blamed, blessed and cursed, as the faithful, fearless,
and immortal Calvin. Living in a fiercely polemic age, and standing on the
watchtower of the reform movement in Western Europe, he was the observed of
all observers, and was exposed to attacks from every quarter. Religious and
sectarian passions are the deepest and strongest, and in view of the good and
the bad which is known to exist in human nature in this world we need not be
surprised at the reception given Calvin's teachings and writings.
When only twenty-six years of age Calvin
published in Latin his "Institutes of the Christian Religion." The first
edition contained in brief outline all the essential elements of his system,
and, considering the youthfulness of the author, was a marvel of intellectual
precocity. It was later enlarged to five times the size of the original and
published in French, but never did he make any radical departure from any of
the doctrines set forth in the first edition. Almost immediately the
Institutes took first place as the best exhibition and defense of the
Protestant cause. Other writings bad dealt with certain phases of the movement
but here was one that treated it as a unit. "The value of such a gift to the
Reformation," says Reed, "cannot easily be exaggerated. Protestants and
Romanists bore equal testimony to its worth. The one hailed it as the greatest
boon; the other execrated it with the bitterest curses. It was burnt by order
of the Sorbonne at Paris and other places, and everywhere it called forth the
fiercest assaults of tongue and pen. Florimond de Raemond, a Roman Catholic
theologian, calls it 'the Koran, the Talmud of heresy, the foremost cause of
our downfall.' Kampachulte, another Roman Catholic, testifies that 'it was the
common arsenal from which the opponents of the Old Church borrowed their
keenest weapons,' and that 'no writing of the Reformation era was more feared
by Roman Catholics, more zealously fought against, and more bitterly pursued
than Calvin's Institutes.' Its popularity was evidenced by the fact that
edition followed edition in quick succession; it was translated into most of
the languages of western Europe; it became the common text-book in the schools
of the Reformed Churches, and furnished the material out of which their creeds
were made."5
"Of all the services which Calvin rendered
to humanity," says Dr. Warfield, " — and they were neither few nor small —
the greatest was undoubtedly his gift to it afresh of this system of
religious thought, quickened into new life by the forces of his genius."6
The Institutes were at once greeted by the
Protestants with enthusiastic praise as the clearest, strongest, most logical.
and most convincing defense of Christian doctrines since the days of the
Apostles. Schaff characterizes them well when he says that in them "Calvin
gave a systematic exposition of the Christian religion in general, and a
vindication of the evangelical faith in particular, with the apologetic and
practical aim of defending the Protestant believers against calumny and
persecution to which they were then exposed, especially in France."7
The work is pervaded by an intense earnestness and by fearless and severe
argumentation which properly subordinates reason and tradition to the supreme
authority of the Scriptures. It is admittedly the greatest book of the
century, and through it the Calvinistic principles were propagated on an
immense scale. Albrecht Ritschl calls it "the masterpiece of Protestant
theology." Dr. Warfield tells us that "after three centuries and a half it
retains its unquestioned preeminence as the greatest and most influential of
all dogmatic treatises." And again he says, "Even from the point of mere
literature, it holds a position so supreme in its class that every one who
would fain know the world's best books, must make himself familiar with it.
What Thucydides is among Greek, or Gibbon among eighteenth-century English
historians, what Plato is among philosophers, or the Iliad among epics, or
Shakespeare among dramatists, that Calvin's 'Institutes' is among theological
treatises."8 It threw consternation into the Roman Church
and was a powerful unifying force among Protestants. It showed Calvin to be
the ablest controversialist in Protestantism and as the most formidable
antagonist with which the Romanists had to contend. In England the Institutes
enjoyed an almost unrivaled popularity, and was used as a text book in the
universities. It was soon translated into nine different European languages;
and it is simply due to a serious lack in the majority of historical accounts
that its importance has not been appreciated in recent years.
A few weeks after the publication of the
Institutes, Bucer, who ranks third among the Reformers in Germany, wrote to
Calvin: "It is evident that the Lord had elected you as His organ for
the bestowment of the richest fulness of blessing to His Church." Luther wrote
no systematic theology. Although his writings were voluminous, they were on
scattered subjects and many of them deal with the practical problems of his
day. It was thus left to Calvin to give a systematic exhibition of the
evangelical faith.
Calvin was, first of all, a theologian. He
and Augustine easily rank as the two outstanding systematic expounders of the
Christian system since St. Paul. Melanchthon, who was himself the prince of
Lutheran theologians, and who, after the death of Luther, was recognized as
the "Preceptor of Germany," called Calvin preeminently "the theologian."
If the language of the Institutes
seems harsh in places we should remember that this was the mark and weakness
of theological controversy in that age. The times in which Calvin lived were
polemic. The Protestants were engaged in a life and death struggle with Rome
and the provocations to impatience were numerous and grievous. Calvin,
however, was surpassed by Luther in the use of harsh language as will readily
be seen by an examination of the latter's work, The Bondage of the Will which
was a polemic written against the free-will ideas of Erasmus. And furthermore,
none of the Protestant writings of the period were so harsh and abusive as
were the Roman Catholic decrees of excommunication, anathemas, etc., which
were directed against the Protestants.
In addition to the Institutes,
Calvin wrote commentaries on nearly all of the books of both the Old and New
Testaments. These commentaries in the English translation comprise fifty-five
large volumes, and, taken in connection with his other works, are nothing less
than marvelous. The quality of these writings was such that they soon took
first place among exegetical works on the Scriptures; and among all the older
commentators no one is more frequently quoted by the best modern scholars than
is Calvin. He was beyond all question the greatest exegete of the Reformation
period. As Luther was the prince of translators, so Calvin was the prince of
commentators.*
Furthermore, in order to estimate the true
value of Calvin's commentaries, it must be borne in mind that they were based
on principles of exegesis which were rare in his day. "He led the way," says
R. C. Reed, "in discarding the custom of allegorizing the Scriptures, a
custom which had come down from the earliest centuries of Christianity and
which had been sanctioned by the greatest names of the Church, from Origen to
Luther, a custom which converts the Bible into a nose of wax, and makes a
lively fancy the prime qualification of an exegete."9 Calvin
adhered strictly to the spirit and letter of the author and assumed that the
writer had one definite thought which was expressed in natural everyday
language. He mercilessly exposed the corrupt doctrines and practices of the
Roman Catholic Church. His writings inspired the friends of reform and
furnished them with most of their deadly ammunition. We can hardly
overestimate the influence of Calvin in furthering and safeguarding the
Reformation.
Calvin was a master of patristic and
scholastic learning. Having been educated in the leading universities of his
time, he possessed a thorough knowledge of Latin and French, and a good
knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. His principal commentaries appeared in both
French and Latin versions and are works of great thoroughness. They are
eminently fair and frank, and show the author to have been possessed of a
singular balance and moderation in judgment. Calvin's works had a further
effect in giving form and permanence to the then unstablized French language
in much the same way that Luther's translation of the Bible moulded the German
language.
One other testimony which we should not omit
is that of Arminius, the originator of the rival system. Certainly here we
have testimony from an unbiased source. "Next to the study of the Scriptures,"
he says, "I exhort my pupils to pursue Calvin's commentaries, which I extol in
loftier terms than Helmick himself (Helmick was a Dutch theologian); for I
affirm that he excels beyond comparison in the interpretation of Scripture,
and that his commentaries ought to be more highly valued than all that is
handed down to us by the library of the fathers; so that I acknowledge him to
have possessed above most others, as rather above all other men, what may be
called an eminent gift of prophecy."10
The influence of Calvin was further spread
through a voluminous correspondence which he carried on with church leaders,
princes, and nobles throughout Protestant Christendom. More than 300 of these
letters are still preserved today, and as a rule they are not brief friendship
exchanges but lengthy and carefully prepared treatises setting forth in a
masterly way his views of perplexing ecclesiastical and theological questions.
In this manner also his influence in guiding the Reformation throughout Europe
was profound.
Due to an attempt of Calvin and Farel to
enforce a too severe system of discipline in Geneva, it became necessary for
them to leave the city temporarily. This was two years after Calvin's coming.
Calvin went to Strassburg, in southwestern Germany, where he was warmly
received by Bucer and the leading men of the German Reformation. There he
spent the next three years in quiet and useful labors as professor, pastor,
and author, and came into contact with Lutheranism at first hand. He had a
great appreciation for the Luthern leaders and felt closely allied to the
Lutheran Church, although he was unfavorably impressed with the lack of
discipline and with the dependence of the clergy upon the secular rulers. He
later followed the progress of the Reformation in Germany step by step with
the warmest interest, as is shown in his correspondence and various writings.
During his absence from Geneva affairs reached such a crisis that it seemed
that the fruits of the Reformation would be lost and he was urgently requested
to return. After repeated urgings from various sources he did so and took up
the work where he had left off before.
The city of Geneva, located on the shores of
a lake which bears the same name, was Calvin's home. There, among the
snow-capped Alps, he spent most of his adult life, and from there the Reformed
Church has spread out through Europe and America. In the affairs of the
Church, as well as in the affairs of the State, the little country of
Switzerland has exerted an influence far out of proportion to its size.
Calvin's influence in Geneva gives us a fair
sample of the transforming power of his system. "The Genevese," says the
eminent church historian, Philip Schaff, "were a light-hearted, joyous people,
fond of public amusements, dancing, singing, masquerades, and revelries.
Recklessness, gambling, drunkenness, adultery, blasphemy, and all sorts of
vice abounded. Prostitution was sanctioned by the authority of the State, and
superintended by a woman called the Reine de bordel. The people were ignorant.
The priest had taken no pains to instruct them, and had set them a bad
example." From a study of contemporary history we find that shortly before
Calvin went to Geneva the monks and even the bishop were guilty of crimes
which today are punishable with the death penalty. The result of Calvin's work
in Geneva was that the city became more famed for the quiet, orderly lives of
its citizens than it had previously been for their wickedness. John Knox, like
thousands of others who came to sit as admiring students at Calvin's feet,
found there what he termed "the most perfect school of Christ that ever was on
the earth since the days of the Apostles."
Through Calvin's work Geneva became an
asylum for the persecuted, and a training school for the Reformed Faith.
Refugees from all the countries of Europe fled to this retreat, and from it
they carried back with them the clearly taught principles of the Reformation.
It thus acted as a center emanating spiritual power and educational forces
which guided and moulded the Reformation in the surrounding countries. Says
Bancroft, "More truly benevolent to the human race than Solon, more
self-denying than Lycurgus, the genius of Calvin infused enduring elements
into the institutions of Geneva and made it for the modern world the
impregnable fortress of popular liberty, the fertile seed-plot of democracy."11
Witness as to the effectiveness of the
influences which emanated from Geneva is found in one of the letters of the
Roman Catholic Francis de Sales to the duke of Savoy, urging the suppression
of Geneva as the capital of what the Romish Church calls heresy. "All the
heretics," said he, "respect Geneva as the asylum of their religion.... There
is not a city in Europe which offers more facilities for the encouragement of
heresy, for it is the gate of France, of Italy, and of Germany, so that one
finds there people of all nations — Italians, French, Germans, Poles,
Spaniards, English, and of countries still more remote. Besides, every one
knows the great number of ministers bred there. Last year it furnished twenty
to France. Even England obtains ministers from Geneva. What shall I say of its
magnificent printing establishments, by means of which the city floods the
world with its wicked books, and even goes the length of distributing them at
the public expense? ....All the enterprises undertaken against the Holy See
and the Catholic princes have their beginnings at Geneva. No city in Europe
receives more apostates of all grades, secular and regular. From thence I
conclude that Geneva being destroyed would naturally lead to the dissipation
of heresy."12
Another testimony is that of one of the most
bitter foes of Protestantism, Philip II of Spain. He wrote to the king of
France: "This city is the source of all mischief for France, the most
formidable enemy of Rome. At any time, I am ready to assist with all the power
of my realm in its overthrow." And when the Duke of Alva was expected to pass
near Geneva with his army, Pope Pius V asked him to turn aside and "destroy
that nest of devils and apostates."
The famous academy of Geneva was opened in
1558. With Calvin there were associated ten able and experienced professors
who gave instruction in grammar, logic, mathematics, physics, music, and the
ancient languages. The school was remarkably successful. During the first year
more than nine hundred students, mostly refugees from the various European
countries, were enrolled, and almost as many more attended his theological
lectures preparing themselves to be evangelists and teachers in their native
countries and to establish churches after the model which they had seen in
Geneva. For more than two hundred years it remained the principal school of
Reformed Theology and literary culture.
Calvin was the first of the Reformers to
demand complete separation between Church and State, and thus he advanced
another principle which has been of inestimable value. The German Reformation
was decided by the will of the princes; the Swiss Reformation, by the will of
the people; although in each case there was a sympathy between the rulers and
the majority of the population. The Swiss Reformers, however, living in the
republic at Geneva, developed a free Church in a free State, while Luther and
Melanchthon, with their native reverence for monarchial institutions and the
German Empire, taught passive obedience in politics and brought the Church
under bondage to the civil authority.
Calvin died in the year 1564, at the early
age of fifty-five. Beza, his close friend and successor, describes his death
as having come quietly as sleep, and then adds: "Thus withdrew into heaven, at
the same time with the setting sun, that most brilliant luminary, which was
the lamp of the Church. On the following night and day there was intense grief
and lamentation in the whole city; for the Republic had lost its wisest
citizen, the Church its faithful shepherd, and the Academy an incomparable
teacher."
In a comparatively recent book Professor
Harkness has written: "Calvin lived, and died, a poor man. His house was
scantily furnished, and he dressed plainly. He gave freely to those in need,
but he spent little upon himself. The Council at one time gave him an overcoat
as an expression of their esteem, and as a needed protection against the
winter's cold. This he accepted gratefully, but on other occasions he refused
proffered financial assistance and declined to accept anything in addition to
his modest salary. During his last illness the Council wished to pay for the
medicines used but Calvin declined the gift, saying that he felt scruples
about receiving even his ordinary salary when he could not serve. When he
died, he left a spiritual inheritance of unestimated value and a material
estate of from fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars."13
Schaff describes Calvin as "one of those
characters that command respect and admiration rather than affection, and
forbid familiar approach, but gain upon closer acquaintance. The better he is
known, the more he is admired and esteemed." And concerning his death Schaff
says: "Calvin had expressly forbidden all pomp at his funeral and the erection
of any monument over his grave. He wished to be buried, like Moses, out of
reach of idolatry. This was consistent, with his theology, which humbles man
and exalts God."14 Even the spot of his grave in the cemetery at
Geneva is unknown. A plain stone, with the initials "J. C.," is pointed out to
strangers as marking his resting-place, but it is not known on what authority.
He himself requested that no monument should mark his grave. His real
monument, however, says S. L. Morris, is "every republican government on
earth, the public school system of all nations, and 'The Reformed Churches
throughout the world holding the Presbyterian System.'"
And again Harkness, although not always a
friendly writer, says this: "Those who see in Calvin only unfeeling sternness
overlook the almost feminine gentleness which he displayed in many of his
parish relationships. He grieved with his people in their sorrows and rejoiced
in their joys. Some of his letters to those who had suffered domestic losses
are masterpieces of tender sympathy. When a wedding occurred or a baby
came to grace a home, he took a warm personal interest in the event. It was
not unusual for him to stop on the street in the midst of weighty matters to
give a school-boy a friendly pat and an encouraging word. His enemies might
call him pope or king or caliph; his friends thought of him only as their
brother and beloved leader."15 In one of his letters to a friend he
wrote: "I shall soon come to visit you, and then we can have a
good laugh together."
We must now consider an event in the life of
Calvin which to a certain extent has cast a shadow over his fair name and
which has exposed him to the charge of intolerance and persecution. We refer
to the death of Servetus which occurred in Geneva during the period of
Calvin's work there. That it was a mistake is admitted by all. History knows
only one spotless being — the Savior of sinners. All others have marks of
infirmity written which forbid idolatry.
Calvin has, however, often been criticized
with undue severity as though the responsibility rested upon him alone, when
as a matter of fact Servetus was given a court trial lasting over two months
and was sentenced by the full session of the civil Council, and that in
accordance with the laws which were then recognized throughout Christendom.
And, far from urging that the sentence be made more severe, Calvin urged that
the sword be substituted for the fire, but was overruled. Calvin and the men
of his time are not to be judged strictly and solely by the advanced standards
of our twentieth century, but must to a certain extent be considered in the
light of their own sixteenth century. We have seen great developments in
regard to civil and religious toleration, prison reform, abolition of slavery
and the slave trade, feudalism, witch burning, improvement of the conditions
of the poor, etc., which are the late but genuine results of Christian
teachings. The error of those who advocated and practiced what would be
considered intolerance today, was the general error of the age. It should not,
in fairness, be permitted to give an unfavorable impression of their character
and motives, and much less should it be allowed to prejudice us against their
doctrines on other and more important subjects.
The Protestants had just thrown off the yoke
of Rome and in their struggle to defend themselves they were often forced to
fight intolerance with intolerance. Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries public opinion in all European countries justified the right and
duty of civil governments to protect and support orthodoxy and to punish
heresy, holding that obstinate heretics and blasphemers should be made
harmless by death if necessary. Protestants differed from Romanists mainly in
their definition of heresy, and by greater moderation in its punishment.
Heresy was considered a sin against society, and in some cases as worse than
murder; for while murder only destroyed the body, heresy destroyed the soul.
Today we have swung to the other extreme and public opinion manifests a
latitudinarian indifference toward truth or error. During the eighteenth
century the reign of intolerance was gradually undermined. Protestant England
and Holland took the lead in extending civil and religious liberty, and the
Constitution of the United States completed the theory by putting all
Christian denominations on a parity before the law and guaranteeing them the
full enjoyment of equal rights.
Calvin's course in regard to Servetus was
fully approved by all the leading Reformers of the time. Melanchthon, the
theological head of the Lutheran Church, fully and repeatedly justified the
course of Calvin and the Council of Geneva, and even held them up as models
for imitation. Nearly a year after the death of Servetus he wrote to Calvin:
"I have read your book, in which you dearly refuted the horrid blasphemies of
Servetus .... To you the Church owes gratitude at the present moment, and will
owe it to the latest posterity. I perfectly assent to your opinion. I affirm
also that your. magistrates did right in punishing, after regular trial, this
blasphemous man." Bucer, who ranks third among the Reformers in Germany,
Bullinger, the close friend and worthy successor of Zwingli, as well as Farel
and Beza in Switzerland, supported Calvin. Luther and Zwingli were dead at
this time and it may be questioned whether they would have approved this
execution or not, although Luther and the theologians of Wittenberg had
approved of death sentences for some Anabaptists in Germany whom they
considered dangerous heretics, — adding that it was cruel to punish them, but
more cruel to allow them to damn the ministry of the Word and destroy the
kingdom of the world; and Zwingli had not objected to a death sentence against
a group of six Anabaptists in Switzerland. Public opinion has undergone a
great change in regard to this event, and the execution of Servetus which was
fully approved by the best men in the sixteenth century is entirely out of
harmony with our twentieth century ideas.
As stated before, the Roman Catholic Church
in this period was desperately intolerant toward Protestants; and the
Protestants, to a certain extent and in self-defense, were forced to follow
their example. In regard to Catholic persecutions Philip Schaff writes as
follows: "We need only refer to crusades against the Albigenses and Waldenses,
which were sanctioned by Innocent III, one of the best and greatest of popes;
the tortures and autos-da-fé of the Spanish Inquisition, which were celebrated
with religious festivities; and fifty thousand or more Protestants who were
executed during the reign of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands (1567-1573);
the several hundred martyrs who were burned in Smithfield under the reign of
bloody Mary; and the repeated wholesale persecutions of the innocent Waldenses
in France and Piedmont, which cried to heaven for vengeance. It is vain to
shift the responsibility upon the civil government. Pope Gregory XIII
commemorated the massacre of St. Bartholomew not only by a Te Deum
in the churches of Rome, but more deliberately and permanently by a medal
which represents 'The Slaughter of the Huguenots' by an angel of wrath."16
And then Dr. Schaff continues: "The Roman
Church has lost the power, and to a large extent also the disposition, to
persecute by fire and sword. Some of her highest dignitaries frankly disown
the principle of persecution, especially in America, where they enjoy the full
benefits of religious freedom. But the Roman curia has never officially
disowned the theory on which the practice of persecution is based. On the
contrary, several popes since the Reformation have indorsed it .... Pope Pius
IX., in the Syllabus of 1864, expressly condemned, among the errors of this
age, the doctrine of religious toleration and liberty. And this pope has been
declared to be officially infallible by the Vatican decree of 1870, which
embraces all of his predecessors (notwithstanding the stubborn case of
Honorius I) and all his successors in the chair of St. Peter," (p. 669). And
in another place Dr. Schaff adds, "If Romanists condemned Calvin, they did it
from hatred of the man, and condemned him for following their own example even
in this particular case."
Servetus was a Spaniard and opposed
Christianity, whether in its Roman Catholic or Protestant form. Schaff refers
to him as "a restless fanatic, a pantheistic pseudo-reformer, and the most
audacious and even blasphemous heretic of the sixteenth century."17
And in another instance Schaff declares that Servetus was "proud, defiant,
quarrelsome, revengeful, irreverent in the use of language, deceitful, and
mendacious"; and adds that he abused popery and the Reformers alike with
unreasonable language.18 Bullinger declares that if Satan himself
should come out of hell, he could use no more blasphemous language against the
Trinity than this Spaniard. The Roman Catholic Bolsec, in his work on Calvin,
calls Servetus "a very arrogant and insolent man," "a monstrous heretic," who
deserved to be exterminated.
Servetus had fled to Geneva from Vienne,
France; and while the trial at Geneva was in progress the Council received a
message from the Catholic judges in Vienne together with a copy of the
sentence of death which had been passed against him there, asking that he be
sent back in order that the sentence might be executed on him as it had
already been executed on his effigy and books. This request the Council
refused but promised to do full justice. Servetus himself preferred to be
tried in Geneva, since he could see only a burning funeral pyre for himself in
Vienne. The communication from Vienne probably made the Council in Geneva more
zealous for orthodoxy since they did not wish to be behind the Roman Church in
that respect.
Before going to Geneva Servetus had urged
himself upon the attention of Calvin through a long series of letters. For a
time Calvin replied to these in considerable detail, but finding no
satisfactory results were being accomplished he ceased. Servetus, however,
continued writing and his letters took on a more arrogant and even insulting
tone. He regarded Calvin as the pope of orthodox Protestantism, whom he was
determined to convert or overthrow. At the time Servetus came to Geneva the
Libertine party, which was in opposition to Calvin, was in control of the city
Council. Servetus apparently planned to join this party and thus drive Calvin
out. Calvin apparently sensed this danger and was in no mood to permit
Servetus to propagate his errors in Geneva. Hence he considered it his duty to
make so dangerous a man harmless, and determined to bring him either to
recantation or to deserved punishment. Servetus was promptly arrested and
brought to trial. Calvin conducted the theological part of the trial and
Servetus was convicted of fundamental heresy, falsehood and blasphemy. During
the long trial Servetus became emboldened and attempted to overwhelm Calvin by
pouring upon him the coarsest kind of abuse.19 The outcome of the
trial was left to the civil court, which pronounced the sentence of death by
fire. Calvin made an ineffectual plea that the sword be substituted for the
fire; hence the final responsibility for the burning rests with the Council.
Dr. Emilé Doumergue, the author of Jean
Calvin, which is beyond comparison the most exhaustive and authoritative work
ever published on Calvin, has the following to say about the death of
Servetus: "Calvin had Servetus arrested when he came to Geneva, and appeared
as his accuser. He wanted him to be condemned to death, but not to death by
burning. On August 20, 1553, Calvin wrote to Farel: 'I hope that Servetus will
be condemned to death, but I desire that he should be spared the cruelty of
the punishment' — he means that of fire. Farel replied to him on September
8th: 'I do not greatly approve that tenderness of heart,' and he goes on to
warn him to be careful that 'in wishing that the cruelty of the punishment of
Servetus be mitigated, thou art acting as a friend towards a man who is thy
greatest enemy. But I pray thee to conduct thyself in such a manner that, in
future, no one will have the boldness to publish such doctrines, and to give
trouble with impunity for so long a time as this man has done.'
"Calvin did not, on this account, modify his
own opinion, but he could not make it prevail. On October 26th he wrote again
to Farel: 'Tomorrow Servetus will be led out to execution. We have done our
best to change the kind of death, but in vain. I shall tell thee when we meet
why we had no success.' (Opera, XIV, pp. 590, 613-657).
"Thus, what Calvin is most of all reproached
with — the burning of Servetus — Calvin was quite opposed to. He is not
responsible for it. He did what he could to save Servetus from mounting the
pyre. But, what reprimands, more or less eloquent, has this pyre with its
flames and smoke given rise to, made room for! The fact is that without the
pyre the death of Servetus would have passed almost unnoticed."
Doumérgue goes on to tell us that the death
of Servetus was "the error of the time, an error for which Calvin was not
particularly responsible. The sentence of condemnation to death was pronounced
only after consultation with the Swiss Churches, several of which were far
from being on good terms with Calvin (but all of which gave their consent)
.... Besides, the judgment was pronounced by a Council in which the inveterate
enemies of Calvin, the free thinkers, were in the majority."20
