“…that all things are ours, to serve, not to lord over us, but that we are Christ’s only, and must obey him in all things without exception.”[1] John Calvin to Francis I, King of France (1536)
In 1536 Calvin wrote in his 1st edition of Institutes, a Prefatory Address to Francis I, King of France. He did so boldly, wielding truth and humility together without fear. Nicolas Cop and John Calvin fled France in 1533 after their All Saints’ Day address angered Francis I.[2] Therefore, Calvin knew his words would either miraculously persuade the King of France, or to further the king’s fury. Unfortunately, Francis I’ fury pervaded, and Calvin’s efforts were quenched when Parisian parlement demanded his Institutes be surrendered to authorities.[3] Calvin’s boldness is founded on the preeminence of Christ’s kingship above all other authorities on heaven or on earth. Neither the Roman Catholic Church or kings of nations are above His’ rule and authority. Calvin’s first order of business lies in defending Reformation teaching from slanderous wicked men who give false testimony to King Francis I. Calvin and his countrymen are excommunicated, imprisoned, persecuted and slaughtered. To which he conveys, writing:
“For so far have the wicked prevailed, that the truth of Christ, if not utterly routed and dispersed, lurks as if it were ignobly buried; while the poor church, either wasted by cruel slaughter or driven into exile, or intimidated and terror-struck, scarcely ventures to breathe. Still her enemies press on with their wonted rage and fury over the ruins which they have made, strenuously assaulting the wall, which is already giving way. Meanwhile, no man comes forth to offer his protection against such furies.”[4]
Desperation is at hand. Calvin is writing a king who has already shown his true colors toward Reformation teaching. Nevertheless, without relinquishing his ultimate hope in Christ for the salvation of the church, Calvin pleas with the Francis I to consider his position, to put an end to Roman Catholic persecution and martyrdom of those seeking to know God apart from Rome. Furthermore, Calvin does not withhold calling the king to consider his kingly role before God, writing, “The characteristic of a true sovereign is, to acknowledge that, in the administration of his kingdom, he is a minister of God. He who does not make his reign subservient to the divine glory, acts the part not of a king, but a robber.”[5] It is most helpful to read works such as Calvin’s Institutes with historicity in mind. For the words penned by Calvin are not delivered through a vacuum; rather, Calvin’s vernacular is more like a torrent. Meaning, his understanding of theology and its application are subservient to the centrality of Jesus’ Word. Such is the water which he pours down in effort to quench the blazing fires of Roman Catholicism. It is from this place of devotion to Christ, amidst persecution, to which his pen seeks to bring glory to God.
In this Prefatory Address Calvin defends seven points, which are a response to Catholic accusation. The Roman Catholic approach was to discredit the Reformation, insisting it was a “new” religion. Furthermore, Roman Catholic’s insisted their doctrines agreed with the Church Father’s, to which Calvin must insist they are mistaken. The intent here is not to exhaust these seven defenses. Rather, let us look minutely.
I. Up first is the general idea that Reformation teaching was a new religion, of which ignored the Church Father’s teachings. Calvin replies with few words, simply stating that Reformation theology is at its core a rediscovery of the believer’s justification by faith in Christ (referencing Romans 4:25). Furthermore, Reformation theology is not new, or fabricated for that matter. Rather, it is the impiety of the Roman Catholic Church which lost such important Gospel truth; and furthermore, Reformation teaching is none other than looking back to the Word of God, and to the Father’s, unto the grace and glory of the true Gospel.[6] Reformation doctrine, in Calvin’s understanding, is simply a return to right Christian relationship and piety with God.
II. Calvin here briefly points out their error of trusting too much in their own doctrines. Roman Catholicism cares little for the transforming power and freedom in Christ by the power of the Word of God. Calvin references Isaiah 1:3, insisting the ox knows its master more than the Roman religion knows God. His pithy statement sums the matter aptly, “Very different is our confidence-a confidence which is not appalled by the terrors of death, and therefore not even by the judgement-seat of God.”[7] Meaning, God’s Word in Christ is worth more than this temporary physical body; and, we have Gospel confidence in the God who saves us from the judgement to come. Salvation in Christ is sure and will be completed by promise.
III. Up next is an accusation which insists that the Roman Catholic Church has a rich history of miracles, which they say prove as a sign for their legitimacy. This is also proof of a continuation from the Father’s for Roman Catholicism. Calvin simply turns the accusation on its head. To NOT exhaust beyond my means, I’ll address Calvin’s beliefs about the continuation/discontinuation of supernatural gifts in another place. Important now is Calvin’s approach, which insist, “Those things which we are told are seals of the gospel, shall we pervert to the subversion of the gospel? What was destined only to confirm the truth?”[8] The core issue with Roman Catholic miracles, according to Calvin, is their tendency to elevate gift above giver. Calvin, by this, charges them, saying, “And it becomes us to remember that Satan has his miracles, which, although they are tricks rather than true wonders, are still such as to delude the ignorant and unwary,”[9] and, “Our opponents tell us that their miracles are wrought not by idols, not by sorcerers, not by false prophets, but by saints: as if we did not know it to be one of Satan’s wiles to transform himself “into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14).”[10] Calvin’s thinking comes down to making much of the glory of God. Christian miracles, though glorious as they be to behold, are a sign to draw human hearts toward faith in Christ. To him, Roman Catholicism has abandoned glorifying God, making much robbery of common folk who are enslaved by Rome’s hard hand for money. Calvin rightly calls what they ascertain as miracles, merely false subversion of the gospel, to fill men’s bellies. In defense of the true biblical nature of godly miracle, he conveys, “We, then, have no lack of miracles, sure miracles, that cannot be gainsaid; but those to which our opponents lay claim are mere delusions of Satan, inasmuch as they draw off the people from the true worship of God to vanity.”[11] In short, Roman Catholicism uses the miraculous as an idolatrous means to rob the bellies of the poor, while true, biblical miracles make much of Jesus and attest to the great gift of grace and salvation which Christ has given freely to humankind.
IV. Calvin’s fourth point is his longest of the seven. Calvin detests the Roman Catholic accusation which insists Reformation teaching opposes the teachings of the Church Father’s; to which Calvin calls a slander and degradation of the Reformation character.[12] Calvin goes as far as to incite Rome with a false representation of the Fathers, meaning, for Calvin Roman Catholicism uses the Fathers to rule and lord over its subjects, while a true representation of the Fathers leads to freedom in Christ. He writes, “…that all things are ours, to serve, not to lord over us, but that we are Christ’s only, and must obey him in all things without exception.”[13] Roman Catholicism, not unlike the religious system of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, starts with the truth of God’s Word, then reconstructs its requirements to serve its priestly components, rather than serving Christ’s free gospel to all who would hear and receive God’s salvation by grace through faith in Christ. Calvin list the Roman errors of transubstantiation to forced ministerial celibacy, and of relics and everything in between to be a grotesque perversion of God’s free gift of grace through Christ.[14] Bottom line, Rome insists the Fathers are on their side; Calvin uses the Fathers to insure Rome of their hypocrisy in poorly citing the Fathers for their agenda.
V. Calvin’s fifth point is more directed at the general impiety of Roman Catholicism’s priest and her proponents. He spends some time discoursing briefly on the state of her depravity, naming Christ as her only cure. Fundamental is Calvin’s determination to show that just because the general public is accustomed to certain degrees of impiety, it does not mean it is okay to follow suit. He writes, imploring, “Be it so that public error must have a place in human society, still, in the kingdom of God, we must look and listen only to his eternal truth, against which no series of years, no custom, no conspiracy, can plead prescription…In short, depraved custom is just a kind of general pestilence in which men perish not the less that they fall in a crowd.”[15] Those who worship Christ put their faith in Christ and Christ alone is their Lord and ruler. Church leadership is nothing more than an aid to this end. When sin and corruption abound, those who put their faith in Christ look to trust in His leadership, even against the status quo of the crowd.
VI. On the sixth point Calvin answers the Roman Catholic accusation that Reformation teaching promotes schism and division. Calvin answers, writing, “With the church we wage no war, since, with one consent, in common with the whole body of the faithful we worship and adore one God, and Christ Jesus the Lord, as all the pious have always adored him.”[16] Therefore, Roman Catholic “justification” for persecuting and martyring proponents of Reformation theology, for Calvin is injustice. Though they are not afraid to lay down their lives for the truth of the Gospel, let it not ne said Reformer’s merely want schism and division. For Calvin and the Reformer’s, the Protestant Reformation is not a mere debate of nonessentials, “they (Roman Catholic Church) themselves err not a little from the truth.”[17] The Roman Catholic Church insist that the true Church must always be “visible and apparent…placing this form in the see of the church of Rome and its hierarchy.”[18] To which Calvin replies, saying, “We, on the contrary, maintain, both that the church may exist without any apparent form, and moreover, that the form is not ascertained by that external spender which they foolishly admire, but by a very different mark, namely, by the pure preaching of the word of God, and the due administration of the sacraments.”[19] Calvin would rather humbly embrace lowly estates rather than all the splendid cathedrals of Rome-if by any means he may honor God and serve people true gospel freedom in Christ. He then gives a long consideration to correlate the Roman Catholic Church with the religious types who crucified Jesus. Calvin writes, “Was not like splendor displayed in that council when the chief priest, scribes, and Pharisees assembled to consult how they might put Jesus to death?”[20] And furthermore, he adds, “But it had never been discovered before that the church is not tied to external pomp, we are furnished with a lengthened proof in their own conduct, in proudly vending themselves to the world under the specious title of church, notwithstanding that they are the deadly pests of the church.”[21]Therefore, Calvin’s insistence for the validity of Protestant Reformation church’s hinges not on division and schism, rather, it is a return to the true representation and demonstration of God’s Word through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. His words may seem harsh, therefore, let us remember that the Roman Catholic Church is persecuting and martyring many in the Protestant church.
VII. And finally, Calvin’s seventh point, and concluding words to Francis I, King of France. Here Calvin honed in to turn Rome’s accusations against Reformation teaching back on their own heads. He demonstrates effectively the errors of the Roman Church, and proves rather, it is the Roman Catholic Church who is guilty of the very things which they accuse the Reformer’s of. Calvin emphasizes, saying to the king, “It is not we who disseminate errors or stir up tumults, but they who resist the mighty power of God.”[22] Furthermore, Calvin concludes with two important factors. (1) He assures the King of France that even his defense and rebuke of such Roman calumny is not his primary agenda for Institutes. Rather, he writes with gracious ambition to encourage and equip common persons with a true description of the Gospel, and its subsequent call to repent and live in the free grace of God given to those who believe.[23] And (2) Calvin aims to relieve the King of France of any worry that true proponents of Reformation teaching have no ambition of “the subversion of kingdoms.”[24] Rather, true Christian virtue is to be expected. Which Calvin names, “nor (thank God) have we profited so little in the gospel that our life may not be to these slanderers an example of chastity, kindness, pity, temperance, patience, moderation, or any other virtue.”[25] Calvin then beseeches Francis I, King of France to look upon the injustice committed by the Roman Catholic Church, to put an end to the persecution and martyrdom of many innocent persons. He then closes the letter by reassuring the king of their commitment to civil integrity and of blessing upon the kingdom.
When I picked up Calvin’s Institutes, I was oblivious of his Prefatory Address to Francis I, King of France. Like many others, I have often thought of Calvin merely as the man behind Calvinism. The truth is, reducing Calvin to Calvinism is reductionistic, and plainly, like an ignorant man who refuses to open a treasure chest for fear of a curse. We have irrationally put Calvin in the attic, leaving him to collect dust. Viewing Calvin merely through a lens of Calvinism robs us of understanding what Calvin offers modern Christianity. To the best of my ability and the grace of God, I am approaching Calvin’s Institutes not through an agenda to strengthen my personal convictions on the sovereignty and providence of God in the life of believers. Whatever has been extracted from Calvin in the making of Calvinism as a system is in and of itself an isolated extraction, sifted from a wider context. Therefore, I am to set a course through Institutes, not ignoring God’s sovereignty and providence, rather, assuming Calvin’s “Calvinism” is already in place. Starting here seemed best. As I delve into Calvin’s Institutes it seems best to regard the historical occasion for which Calvin is writing in the first place. Summarily, as we have seen above, Calvin’s age is an age marked by extravagant persecution from the Roman Catholic Church. Francis I, King of France is playing a strong arm by believing Roman deception. Calvin is writing Francis I that the King of France will see through Roman calumny which they charge Reformation teaching. And yet, Calvin’s aim is not primarily an attack against Roman Catholicism, rather, it is also an encouragement of the true doctrine of God in Christ to strengthen proponents of Reformation theology.
Calvin loves the church and seeks to edify her with the true Gospel. A Gospel which glorifies the great mystery of God’s grace to wicked human beings through Christ, dwelling in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Tis such a grace which even earthly kings must consider of what and where their authority exists from. Christ is Lord, the head of the Church. And it is by such glorious, scandalous, and merciful mystery of God’s grace which frees the souls of humankind from the oppression of sin and death. A justification born from propitiatory penal substitution; Jesus is our wrath bearing God. And this grace has set us free, not to be lorded over us by corrupted priest who use legalistic sacraments and false miracles as an occasion to oppress her subjects. It is such an amazing grace which Institutes seeks to encourage and edify its readers. One may certainly read Calvin in hopes of strengthening their argument for Calvinism; ours is not of such intent.
In parting, it is my ambition to write a series of devotions from my reading through his Institutes this Summer. My hope is to encourage readers in a way I believe Calvin hoped to impress on readership in his own time. I think, too, given the uncertainty of our age, considering the perilous uncertainties in Calvin’s age, we may mutually be encouraged by one who wrote from the thick of it. We are surrounded daily more and more by wolves and outsiders who wish death upon what we hold most sacred in Christ Jesus. Alongside of Institutes, I am simultaneously reading a biography on Calvin, called John Calvin: For a New Reformation, Edited by Derek W. H. Thomas and John W. Tweeddale. With a devotional ambition in mind, the good news is whatever is produced, it will not be long. Grace and Strength.
Citations
[1]John Calvin. Translated by Henry Beveridge. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2008. P. XXV. Print.
[2]Derek W. H. Thomas and John W. Tweeddale. John Calvin: For a New Reformation. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2019. P. 207. Print.
[3]Ibid., Thomas and Tweeddale. P. 209: “As Alister McGrath notes, ‘On 1 July 1542, the Parisian parlement directed that all works containing heterodox doctrines, especially Calvin’s Institutes, were to be surrendered to authorities within three days.’”
[4]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXI: “The cause which I plead is the common cause of all the godly and therefore the very cause of Christ-a cause which, throughout your realm, now lies, as it were, in despair, torn and trampled upon in all kinds of ways, and that more through the tyranny of certain Pharisees than any sanction from yourself.”
[5]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXII: “But our doctrine must stand sublime above all the glory of the world, and invincible by all its power, because it is not ours, but that of the living God and his Anointed, whom the Father has appointed King, that he may rule from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the ends of the earth.”
[6]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXIV.
[7]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXIV.
[8]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXIV.
[9]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXV.
[10]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXV.
[11]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXV.
[12]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXV: “It is a calumny to represent us as opposed to the fathers (I mean the ancient writers of a purer age), as if the fathers were supporters of their impiety. Were the contest to be decided by such authority (to speak in the most moderate terms), the better part of the victory would be ours.”
[13]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXV.
[14]Ibid., Calvin. Pp. XXVI-XXVIII. Here Calvin gives fifteen errors of the Roman Catholic Church, refuting these errors by citing the early Church Fathers in his defense.
[15]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXVIII.
[16]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXIX.
[17]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXIX.
[18]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXIX.
[19]Ibid., Calvin., P. XXIX.
[20]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXX.
[21]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXXI.
[22]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXXI.
[23]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXXII.
[24]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXXII.
[25]Ibid., Calvin. P. XXXII.