CALVINISM
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CALVINISM
were mostly French. When Beza was rector it had
nearly 1500 students of various grades.
Geneva now sent out pastors to the French con- gregations and was looked upon as the Protestant Rome. Through Knox, "the Scottish champion of the Swiss Reformation", who had been preacher to. the exiles in that city, his native land accepted the discipline of the Presbytery and the doctrine of pre- destination as expounded in Calvin's "Institutes". The Puritans in England were also descendants of the French theologian. His dislike of theatres, dancing and the amenities of society was fully shared by them. The town on Lake Leman was described as without crime and destitute of amusements. Calvin declaimed against the "Libertines", but there is no evidence that any such people had a footing inside its walls. The cold, hard, but upright disposition char- acteristic of the Reformed Churches, less genial than that derived from Luther, is due entirely to their founder himself. Its essence is a concentrated pride, a love of disputation, a scorn of opponents. The only art that it tolerates is music, and that not instru- mental. It will have no Christian feasts in its calen- dar, and it is austere to the verge of Manicha>an hatred of the body. When dogma fails the Calvinist, he be- comes, as in the instance of Carlyle, almost a pure Stoic. "At Geneva, as for a time in Scotland," says J. A. Froude, "moral sins were treated as crimes to be punished by the magistrate." The Bible was a code of law, administered by the clergy. Down to his dy- ing day Calvin preached and taught. By no means an aged man, he was worn out in these frequent con- troversies. On 25 April, 1564, he made his will, leav- ing 225 French crowns, of which he bequeathed ten to his college, ten to the poor, and the remainder to his nephews and nieces. His last letter was ad- dressed to Farel. He was buried without pomp, in a spot which is not now ascertainable. In the year 1900 a monument of expiation was erected to Ser- vetus in the Place Champel. Geneva has long since ceased to be the head of Calvinism. It is a rallying point for Free Thought, Socialist propaganda, and Nihilist conspiracies. But in history it stands out as the Sparta of the Reformed churches, and Calvin is its Lycurgus.
For Bibliography see article Calvinism.
William Barky.
Calvinism. — No better account of this remarkable (though now largely obsolete) system has been drawn out than Mohler's in Ins "Symbolism or Doctrinal Differences" (tr. by J. B. Robertson). The "Insti- tutes of the Christian Religion", in which Calvin de- picted his own mind, were never superseded by creed or formulary, though the writer subscribed, in 1540, at Worms to the Confession of Augsburg, i. e. the sec- ond revised edition. To take his bearings in theology we must remember that he succeeded Luther in point of time and was committed to a struggle with Zwingli's disciples at Zurich and elsewhere, known as Sacra- mentarians, but who tended more anil more towards a Christianity without mysteries. In 1549 he and Farel entered with Bullinger into a moderate view as regarded the Eucharist, the "Consensus Tigurinus", or compact of Zurich, which Bucer also accepted. Another compact, of the "pastors of Geneva", strengthened his hands, in 1552, on the subjects of predestination, against Jerome Bolsec, whom he re- futed .-11111 east into prison. Bolsec finally returned to the Catholic Church. In 1553 a controversy between
the German Lutherans about the Lord's Supper led Calvin to declare his agreement with Melanchthon
(the Philippists); but Melanchthon kepi ill :
Further complications ensued when Beza, softening the real doctrine of Geneva, drew nearer still to the Lutheran belie! on this head. Bullinger and Peter Martyr cried down Beza'S unauthorized glosses; but-
Calvin supported liis favourite. Nevertheless, that
"declaration" was dropped by Beza when, in com-
pany with Farel, he put together a " Confession of the
French Church", and fell back on the creed of Augs-
burg issued in 1530, while not assenting to its 10th
article. The Eucharist was to be more than a sign;
Christ was truly present in it, and was received by
Faith (compare the English Prayer Book, which re-
produces his conception). Beyond these, on the
whole, abortive efforts toward a common understand-
ing, Calvin never went. His individual genius de-
manded its own expression; and he is always like
himself, unlike any other. The many creeds fell into
oblivion; but the "Institutes" were recognized more
and more as the sum of Reformed Theology. Calvin,
it was said after 1560, by St. Peter Canisius, the Jes-
uit, appeared to be taking Luther's place even among
Germans. Three currents have ever since held their
course in this development of Protestantism: the
mystic, derived from Wittenberg; the logical-ortho-
dox, from Geneva; and the heterodox-rationalist,
from Zurich (Zwingli), this last being greatly in-
creased, thanks to the Unitarians of Italy, Ochino,
Fausto, and Lelio Socino. To the modern world,
however, Calvin stands peculiarly for the Reforma-
tion; his doctrine is supposed to contain the essence
of the Gospel; and multitudes who reject Christianity
mean merely the creed of Geneva'.
Why does this happen? Because, we answer, Cal- vin gave himself out as following closely in the steps of St. Paul and St. Augustine. The Catholic teaching at Trent he judged to be Semi-Pelagian, a stigma which his disciples fix especially on the Jesuit schools, above all, on Molina. Hence the curious situation arises, that, while the Catholic consent of the East and West finds little or no acknowledgement as an historical fact among assailants of religion, the views which a single Reformer enunciated are taken as though representing the New Testament. In other words, a highly refined individual system, not trace- able as a whole to any previous age, supplants the public teaching of centuries. Calvin, who hated Scholasticism, comes before us, as Luther had already done, in the shape of a Scholastic. His "pure doc- trine" is gained by appealing, not to tradition, the "deposit" of faith, but to argument in abstract terms exercised upon Scripture. He is neither a critic nor a historian; he takes the Bible as something given; and he manipulates the Apostles' Creed in accordance with his own ideas. The " Institutes" are not a history of dogma, but a treatise, only not to be called an essay because of its peremptory tone. Cal- vin annihilates the entire space, with all its develop- ments, which lies between the death of St. John and the sixteenth century. He does, indeed, quote St. Augustine, but he leaves out all thai Catholic founda- tion on which the Doctor of ( trace built.
The "Institutes of the Christian Religion" (tr. by John Allen, London, 1S44) are divided into four books and exhibit a commentary on the Apostles' Creed. Book I considers God the Creator, the Trinity, revela- tion, man's first estate and original righteousness. Book II describes the Fall of Adam, and treats of ( 'luist i he Redeemer. Book III enlarges on justifying faith, election, and reprobation. Book IV gives the Presbyterian idea of the Church. In form the work differs from the "Summa" of St. Thomas Acjtiinasby Using exposition where the Angelic Doctor syllo
but the st vie is close, the language eood Latin of the Renaissance, and the tone elevated, though often
bitter. Arguments employed are always ostensibly grounded on Scripture, the authority of which rests not upon fallible human reasoning, but on the inter- nal persuasion of the Holy Spirit. Yet Calvin is em- barrassed at the outset by '•unsteady men" who
declare themselves enlightened of the same spirit and
in no want of Scripture. He endeavours to refute
