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By Judith MacLeod
As various denominations worldwide mark the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, a Presbyterian scholar explores the softer side of this stern exemplar
of the Reformation.
IN THE common Presbyterian understanding, John Calvin is a dominant but not a
really sympathetic figure.
We think of a lawyer-like preacher, a clear but rigid theologian, and an
imposing but isolated man. We’d rather have coffee with Martin Luther.
Warm and caring
Calvin was indeed a great preacher, theologian and Bible commentator, but he was
not cold nor isolated. In fact he was a remarkable networker – and could be a warm and caring, if strict, pastor, mentor and colleague.
Nowhere do we see this more clearly than in his correspondence. The extent and
variety of Calvin’s correspondence is remarkable, particularly in view of the fact that until the
1550s all letters were written in his own hand.
“Some years ago,” Charles de Jonviller (who transcribed his sermons) explained: “I saw that Calvin was almost overwhelmed with the labour of writing letters
himself, without a secretary. I begged him to spare himself and said that his
letters would be no less acceptable if he signed them himself, no matter who
wrote them.
“He replied that he thought offense would be taken and he would be considered
careless unless he wrote with his own hand. When I gave good reasons to the
contrary, he gave way.”
Calvin corresponded with men and women, with the highborn and the lowly. To
Protestant rulers of the day he was both challenging and encouraging.
“Wherefore, sire, though I am aware that you have no need of my counsels,” he wrote to Henry of Navarre in 1561, “yet I do not cease to entreat and even exhort you, in the name of God, to be
pleased to take courage, in order to do combat courageously and more and more
overcome all the difficulties with which I know you are surrounded.”
He wrote with courtesy, tact and skill and was never self-seeking. It has been
noted that he was less condescending to female correspondents than others of
his day and – seeking to distance himself from John Knox’s First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women – even allowed in a 1559 letter to William Cecil, secretary of state and Lord
Treasurer of England, that some women rulers “had been raised up by the Providence of God.”
Many of the doctrines emphasized in his Institu
The Fountainhead
He writes to a student, William Rabot, in 1550: “You must first of all give detailed submission to the will of the Lord, and in
the next place, you must fortify yourself by His sacred doctrines . . . draw
from the fountainhead itself. For if you make a constant study of the Word of
the Lord, you will be able to guide your life to the highest excellence.”
Again in reply to what he regards as the mischievous questions of Laealius
Socinius: “Nothing shall ever hinder me from openly avowing what I have learned from the
word of God. It is my only guide and to acquiesce in its plain doctrines shall
be my constant wisdom.” tes of the Christian Religion are referred to in his letters, applying his principles in practical situations.
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Calvin was passionate for truth and exasperated by what he regarded as cowardly
hesitance. He reminded fellow reformer Melanchthon: “What! are you ignorant today what numbers are held floating in doubts in
consequence of the ambiguous manner of teaching to which you too timidly
adhere?”
But he was also concerned for unity. To his friend and colleague William Farel
he wrote: “Among Christians there ought to be so great a dislike of schism as they may
always avoid it as it lies in their power.”
His concern for suffering and bereaved friends is apparent. After Pierre Viret
had lost his wife, Calvin urged him to come to Geneva. Three years later, he
confided in Viret his feelings of grief over the death of his own wife. “Mine is no common source of grief. I have been bereaved of the best companion of
my life.”
But his friendship could include reproof as in the case of Farel’s late, and as Calvin thought, impolitic marriage. Other letters show Calvin
looking for houses and even for wives for his friends.
Obedience to God
His letters also reveal his own spirituality. “I submit my will and my affections, subdued and held fast, to the obedience of
God” he writes to Farel.
Without this, his advice would seem dictatorial and the elegant and polished
phraseology, which reflect his background in Renaissance humanism, might appear
hypocritical.
We are aware, however, that even when he seems harsh, Calvin is consistent. He
applies the same standards to himself. He also relies on the same source of
strength. In a self-revealing metaphor he writes to Farel:
“Although we may be severely buffeted hither and thither by many tempests, yet,
seeing that a pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us
to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds
would be overwhelmed with fear and weariness.”
Let us be encouraged, as were his contemporaries.
Judith MacLeod has taught at the Toronto French School and Tyndale Theological
Seminary. She is both spouse and mother of ministers of the Presbyterian Church
in Canada.
Courtesy of The Presbyterian Record.
June 2009
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