John Calvin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portrait of John Calvin.
Signature of John Calvin

Johannes Calvin [joˈhanəs kalˈviːn] ( Latinized : Ioannes Calvinus, from this re-Gallicized Jean Calvin ( [ʒɑ̃ kalvɛ̃] ), also Johan Calvin, actually Jehan Cauvin ( [ʒɑ̃ koːvɛ̃] ); * July 10, 1509 in Noyon , Picardy ; † May 27, 1564 in Geneva ) was a reformer of French descent and the founder of Calvinism . He is considered a representative of a kerygmatic theology .

Life

Institutio Christianae Religionis, Calvin's main work

Johannes Calvin was the second of four sons of the married couple Gerard Cauvin and Jeanne nee. Le Franc. Calvin's father came from a family of sailors, but had made it up to the General Procurator of Bishop Charles de Hangest and the cathedral chapter of Noyon . Calvin's mother was the daughter of an innkeeper from a Flemish family. The mother in particular raised little Jean in Roman Catholic piety. She died when he was only five years old.

Calvin's father made sure that his son attended the Latin school of his hometown Noyon, the Collège des Capettes , so that he could study one day. Through his father's contact with the noble de Hangest-Montmort family , he had contact with their sons of the same age from 1520 onwards. He was allowed to take part in their home lessons and thus also learned aristocratic manners.

From 1521 Calvin received a quarter of the income of a chaplain at Noyon Cathedral as a benefice , with which he was able to finance his studies himself. In the middle of the summer of 1523 he set off for Paris to study. At first he lived with his uncle, the locksmith and blacksmith Richard Cauvin; then he found a place at the Collège de la Marche . He began with the undergraduate degree, the study of the seven liberal arts (septem artes liberales): grammar, rhetoric , dialectics , arithmetic , geometry, music and astronomy. But after just a few months, the cathedral chapter in Noyon decided that he should transfer to the Collège de Montaigu at the Sorbonne . In 1528 he acquired the title of Magister artium .

After this, his father asked him not to study theology, but law. Meanwhile, was in fact these come into conflict with his religious employers about the management of two inheritances, during which the little excommunication was imposed on him. In 1528 Calvin went to Orléans , 130 km south of Paris, to study Roman law . There Melchior Volmar from Rottweil , a teacher of Greek and a follower of Luther, succeeded in getting him excited about humanistic studies. Calvin later moved to Bourges . He was an avid student with a unique memory, who also read and worked at night. Thanks to his knowledge, he gained great recognition from his professors and fellow students. He graduated with a licentiate in law. The faculty offered him the title of doctor, which he refused.

His father died in the spring of 1531. Calvin, who had rushed to the dying man, had to witness how he, who had been in the service of the Church for decades , was refused the funeral mass because he was under an exile. He then went back to Paris. He gave up the legal profession and turned completely to the trend in humanistic studies. He ran this at the Collège des trois langues (college of the three languages: Hebrew, Greek, Latin) founded by King Francis I in 1530 , which had been established as a counterweight to the conservative Sorbonne , which persisted in the spirit of scholasticism .

In the house of his landlord, the rich cloth merchant Étienne de la Forge († 1535), who spread Martin Luther's thoughts, a group of “Protestant” Christians met secretly . This included Gérard Roussel , preacher at the king's court. Calvin, who attended these meetings, studied Reformation doctrine.

In April 1532, as the first fruit of his humanistic studies, he published a commentary on Seneca's De clementia ("On Mildness"), which criticized the great humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam , but was naturally only intended for a small audience.

In 1533 the king's sister, Margaret of Navarre , ran the affairs of state in Paris for several months for her brother, who was imprisoned in Madrid. She was close to evangelical teaching. Thousands of people attended the biblical sermons of their confessor, court preacher Gérard Roussel.

Calvin's friend Nicolas Cop had been appointed the new rector of the university. For All Saints Day 1533 there was an inaugural address before the representatives of the university and before church dignitaries. Calvin and his friend developed this inaugural address together, in which the traditional scholasticism was described as " heresy ", the Lutheran teaching was presented as orthodox and openly called for acceptance of the ostracized evangelicals. Calvin was "at least partly responsible for this text, which shows the influence of Erasmus and Luther." The result was a tumult among the audience and a complaint against cop at the highest court in Paris, the Parlement . Cop was charged and fled to Basel. Calvin also left Paris; For him a time of traveling followed, whereby the individual stations can hardly be brightened up.

St. Nicholas in Strasbourg , where Calvin preached from 1538

As the fruit of his studies, many conversations and deep reflections on what he had experienced so far, Calvin's conscious decision in favor of the Reformation evidently emerged during this time. Calvin first fled to Angoulême to his former fellow student Louis du Tillet , who had meanwhile become pastor and canon at the cathedral of Angoulême , and hid under the code name Charles d'Espeville . He was able to use a very good library in Angoulême. In the seclusion of his exile, he began to systematize his views and did preparatory work for the later institute .

An important step was that Calvin officially returned his benefices in Noyon on May 4, 1534. Apparently behind this was the decision to no longer strive for ordination. To do this, he went shortly to Noyon. From there he went to the small court of Margaret of Navarre in Nérac . In the meantime, other Reformation-minded personalities had found refuge here, such as Gérard Roussel and the humanist and Luther expert Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (Faber Stapulensis), translator of the Latin Bible ( Vulgate ) into French and formerly the center of a Reformation-minded circle in Paris.

On the one hand, as with Martin Luther, it was the message of God's justifying grace in Jesus Christ that had been a liberation for him too. He himself later said:

“Whenever I immersed myself in myself or my heart rose to you, I was gripped by an insane fear of which no atonement or penance could cure me. The closer I looked, the sharper the spikes hit my conscience. In the meantime a form of teaching that deviated considerably from this came to light, which did not divert us from Christian tradition, but which led us back to its source. She gave the doctrine of salvation back its original shape like a figure cleansed of mud.

On the other hand, Calvin hesitated (possibly out of respect for the church as an institution) to part with it.

“The reverence for the church made me particularly restrained here. When I finally opened my heart to the new teaching, I saw that there was no need to fear that the majesty of the church should be harmed. "

After the excitement about the cop affair subsided, Calvin went back to Paris and visited the circle of Reformation-minded people he knew from before. The Spanish doctor Michael Servetus also asked him to meet, but did not appear himself. Calvin always resented that.

No sooner had Calvin turned resolutely towards the Reformation than people flocked to hear him. He traveled around. In Crotelles he, who was neither an ordained priest nor a qualified theologian, first distributed the Lord's Supper - and in both forms (bread and wine).

On October 18, 1534, anti-Catholic and at the same time Lutheran-critical posters were discovered all over Paris and in the bedchamber of the king who was just staying in Amboise:

"Truthful articles on the hideous, great and intolerable abuse of the papal mass."

The consequence of this so-called poster affair was the persecution of the Evangelicals. Parliament conducted numerous heretic trials; soon after, people were being burned at stakes everywhere , including Calvin's previous host, Étienne de la Forge . Calvin left Paris again. With his friend Louis du Tillet he came to Strasbourg , at that time a Free Imperial City , and was received there by Martin Bucer , the city's reformer.

On his escape he came to Protestant Basel in 1535 . He took up an apartment under the code name Martianus Lucianus . Here, in Basel, he met Nikolaus Cop again. He took lessons from the humanist Simon Grynäus , an outstanding Greek teacher of the time; three years later he dedicated his commentary on Romans to him in gratitude . Calvin was honing his Hebrew skills at the same time. He got to know Heinrich Bullinger and Guillaume Farel and got back in touch with his cousin Pierre-Robert Olivétan , who had translated the Bible into French ( Bible de Genève ). Olivetan asked him to add a preface to his translation of the Bible. The preface was not Calvin's first theological publication, as he had previously written a treatise on psychopannychia .

Mainly, however, he worked at his Institutio Christianae Religionis (Eng. "Teaching in the Christian religion"). Calvin was moved by the persecution of his co-religionists in France and wanted to demonstrate that they were by no means heretics and inciters, but serious innovators of biblical faith and the true church. He dedicated the institute to the French king Franz I. Calvin completed the institute , which initially comprised six chapters, on August 23, 1535. In March 1536, it was printed and published by the Basel book printer Thomas Platter . Until 1559, the institute was continuously expanded, grew into an important textbook of the Christian faith in the Reformation sense and was translated first into French, then later into many other languages.

In the winter of 1535/36 Calvin moved to Ferrara . The educated Duchess Renata of Ferrara , sister-in-law of the French king, supported his humanistic and reformatory efforts. She and Calvin remained on friendly terms on a permanent basis.

Calvin's catheter in Strasbourg
Calvin's chair in Geneva Cathedral

In May 1536 Calvin was back in Basel. The institute had meanwhile made him known. Since King Francis I had declared the persecution of the evangelicals over, Calvin traveled again to Noyon, settled the remaining affairs and started the return journey with his younger brother Antoine and his step-sister Marie, who came from the father's second marriage. To avoid acts of war in Savoy, he wanted to travel to Strasbourg via Geneva. The Reformation preacher Guillaume Farel held him in Geneva and implored him to stand up for the cause of the Reformation there.

Calvin worked out a parish order with strict church discipline , not yet a church order (which was only created in 1541), but a series of articles that resulted in the Geneva Catechism of 1537. The order, a summary, a kind of personal commitment to be personally signed, aroused strong opposition from the citizens. The magistrate of Geneva was re-elected in 1538 and decided for political reasons to take over the liturgy of the city of Bern. The preachers had been passed over and were unwilling to work by these guidelines. This was followed by a ban on preaching which they did not adhere to; the preachers, on the other hand, refused to hold a sacrament service on Easter in this conflict. In 1538, he and Farel were expelled from Geneva for refusing the sacrament of the entire congregation. Thereupon Calvin and Farel were expelled from Geneva.

Farel turned to Neuchâtel, Calvin to Strasbourg. Here he held a biblical professorship and looked after the French refugee community. It was a relatively calm and fruitful phase of life. Calvin took part in the religious talks of Hagenau, Worms and Regensburg, where he became friends with Philipp Melanchthon . The Institutio appeared in an expanded version in 1539. In 1540, the commentary to the Romans appeared, a major work within Calvin's biblical interpretations.

Through contact with the resident Martin Bucer , Calvin's theology was shaped, for example in the doctrine of predestination , understanding of the Lord's Supper, pneumatology, ecclesiology and federal theology. Calvin preached and held services in the churches of St. Nicholas , St. Magdalena and the Dominican Church . In 1539 he received citizenship.

John Calvin in later years

However, in order to stabilize the ecclesiastical and political order, the city council of Geneva asked Calvin in 1540 to return to the city. The Curia Cardinal Sadolet had sent an invitation to Geneva to return to the bosom of the Roman Church, and the Genevans wanted this offer to be abruptly rejected, but on a theological level: for that you needed Calvin. This then also delivered a brilliant pamphlet. In lengthy negotiations, Calvin obtained concessions for his return, including the promise to introduce a church order , a catechism and church discipline.

In September 1541 Calvin returned to Geneva, and in the same year the Geneva Church Ordinance was drawn up under his leadership . The second Geneva catechism followed in 1542 . Calvin now had various opportunities to influence the Geneva population:

  • Sermons: He preached on Sundays and weekdays, incorporating current remarks into his interpretation of the scriptures and occasionally criticizing the city government openly.
  • Consistory: This was a disciplinary authority, half elders and half pastors, handled complaints against people who, for example, B. continued to adhere to Catholic religious practices, cases of quarrels, adultery, gaming, dancing, alcohol consumption, economic offenses (fraud, usury), defamation, etc. Most of the time the proceedings ended with a warning from Calvin himself to those affected. If that didn't work, the Excluded from the sacrament until he or she showed improvement. Sometimes public reparation had to take place.
  • Legislation: The legally trained Calvin became an advisor to the Geneva city government. Result were z. B. Laws that forbid unsuitable names during child baptism (and thus interfere with the parents' right to choose a name), Sunday sanctification, entertaining outside guests in restaurants (grace, availability of Bibles), punishments against blasphemy, fornication, drunkenness, vagrancy, etc. .

In the period that followed, tensions arose again and again between the city council and Calvin because he demanded more independence for the church than the council wanted to allow. Much happened in consensus, not least the banishment of theologians who represented a doctrine that was wrong from the point of view of Calvin and the council. In a month-long process, Calvin pushed for the execution of the Spanish doctor Michael Servetus , who was sentenced to death by decision of the city council in October 1553 for rejecting the Trinity and the doctrine of predestination in his book Christianismi Restitutio ("Re-establishment of Christianity") . As in numerous other cases of exile and death sentences, Calvin was clearly the person primarily responsible for Servetus' public execution in Geneva; he later claimed to have campaigned in vain for a "mild" form of execution. Servetus was burned at the stake.

On August 10, 1540, Calvin and Idelette de Bure married . She was a member of the Strasbourg refugee community, was recently widowed and brought two children into the marriage. Their son Jacques, who was born on July 28, 1542, died at the age of about four weeks. Idelette de Bure died in Geneva on March 29, 1549.

In 1552 and 1553 Calvin campaigned for the release of the Five Martyrs of Lyons , five reformed-minded theologians imprisoned in the Roman Catholic Lyons who had recently completed their studies in Lausanne and Geneva, and also took care of them by letter: their teaching corresponded to his own. They died at the stake on May 16, 1553.

Calvin's work was gradually recognized not only in Geneva, although it was still highly controversial until 1555. After this time, however, he was extremely influential in church circles. Since Calvin was still a French citizen for a long time, he could not belong to any political body, but ultimately exercised dictatorial power based on his overwhelming authority, which enabled him to make the political bodies submissive. “For fourteen years Calvin fought with the council and the political authorities of the city [Geneva] for power [...]. He was able [...] to bring both the clergy and the superior authority of the consistory, which was omnipotent in ecclesiastical matters, behind him. He could also count on the devotion of the [...] religious refugees. He also knew how to respect some of the city's politicians. With this house power, he gradually brought down individual persons and smaller groups of his political opponents from the Old Genevan ruling class, via the church's moral regiment, church discipline. In the year of the Augsburg Religious Peace, 1555, its supporters won a majority in the decisive political bodies of the city-state. Since then, Calvin has been the most powerful man in Geneva. After the turnaround of 1555, his supporters made rigorous use of the power they had legally seized against political and ecclesiastical opposition. They banished their opponents, passed death sentences and confiscated the property of the unpopular. Members of the wealthy classes left the city in large numbers. "

The death sentence passed against Michael Servetus in 1553 had already come about under the decisive influence of Calvin, whom the Geneva Council called upon "as prosecutor and, as in other cases, as legal and theological expert at the same time". The complaint had undoubtedly been made by Calvin's private secretary Nicolas de la Fontaine on behalf of his master. Significantly, he was released after just one day from pre-trial detention, which Geneva procedural law also provided for the prosecutor, on the basis of a guarantee from Calvin's brother Antoine Calvin.

In 1559 Calvin founded the Geneva Academy , which became the College of Calvinism.

After years of illness, he died in Geneva in 1564. His grave is on the Cimetière des Rois in the Plainpalais district of Geneva.

Calvin's theology

Excerpt from a letter from Calvin to Philipp Melanchthon of January 21, 1545

As a second generation reformer, Calvin was theologically influenced by Luther , Melanchthon , Zwingli and Bucer . However, he also clearly set his own accents. He was deeply religious, stricter than Luther in his outlook and strong-willed. With keen intellect, he created with his Institutes of the Christian Religion the most closed systematic work of the Reformation. He saw the whole of Europe as his field of activity. He maintained extensive correspondence and taught thousands of theology students who came from all over to the Geneva Academy, founded in 1559.

The question of whether man can know God had become a problem that Calvin addressed. In his view, man gains a certain knowledge of God from contemplating nature, history and himself, but he is at the same time a sinner who is far from God. That is why he depends on God revealing himself to him through his word, in the center of which Christ stands. This happens in both the Old and the New Testament, albeit in different ways (Luther's sola scriptura , (through) Scripture alone). Calvin follows the Church Father Augustine in his understanding of sin as original sin , a complete, culpable separation of man from his Creator, which only God can overcome. Jesus Christ ( solus Christ , Christ alone), through his person and his redeeming work, abolishes this separation and through the Holy Spirit gives the believer communion with himself and the Father. (Calvin thinks strictly Trinitarian.) Thus the believer who gratefully accepts this gift is justified and sanctified ( sola fide , solely through faith). "According to Calvin, life in faith is characterized by repentance, self-denial, prayer, contemplation of the future life and is in everything" under Christian freedom.

Like the other reformers, Calvin only accepted baptism and the Lord's Supper as sacraments: “This is an effective sign. In him Christ is present and active through the Holy Spirit ”(“ Spiritual Presence ”). The sermon has a sacramental character, because it enables believers to participate in communion with God (Luther: Fides ex auditu, faith comes from hearing; Rom 10:17  LUT ). Calvin could not get his way with the suggestion that the Lord's Supper should be celebrated every Sunday. It was then celebrated four times a year in Geneva. The interior of the churches was kept very simple so as not to distract people from the essentials - reading scriptures, sermons, prayer, singing together. Calvin promoted the hymn, mainly psalms, which were put into stanzas and verse and set to music. In 1539 he published the Geneva Psalter for the first time .

Calvin's doctrine of predestination emphasizes that faith is God's undeserved gift ( sola gratia , by grace alone). God's free choice of grace is his secret. Man does not find certainty of election in himself, but only in looking at Jesus Christ ( Rom. 8-9  EU ). Despite his own warning against speculation about God's will, Calvin himself succumbed to this temptation by teaching God's conscious damnation of the other as a logical counterpart to the election of the one (“double predestination”).

For Calvin, the church is the “mother” of believers. For in the Church they encounter the word of God in the sermon and the sacraments. It was important to Calvin that the Church should be independent from secular authorities. In his church ordinance of 1541 he introduced the office of elders ( anciens ) based on the example of the early Christian communities . These elders were also members of the secular council of Geneva. Together with the pastors ( pasteurs, ministres ), who were responsible for the life of worship, they formed the consistory ( consistoire ), i.e. a synod, i.e. H. an independent church leadership. Other offices were held by the teachers (docteurs ), who took care of church teaching, and the deacons ( diacres ), who cared for the poor.

Calvin practiced strict church discipline, which should be understood by the person concerned not as a punishment, but as an aid. Depending on the severity of the case, the measures ranged from warning to banishment and execution. Their harshness may have been partly motivated by the large influx of refugees. Around 15,000 refugees, mostly Huguenots, were added to the approximately 10,000 inhabitants of Geneva within 30 years. The problems that this high increase in population brought with it favored the decision to use special and tough measures, which the city council and the Konsistorum each enforced for themselves. Calvin was deeply concerned about the harsh persecution of his Huguenot compatriots and the Waldensians in southern France who had joined the Reformation. Catholics were not imprisoned or executed in Geneva. Unlike the Catholic Church and some Lutherans and Reformed people, Calvin is said to have also refused to execute Anabaptists. Whether Calvin should be seen as a pioneer of modern totalitarian regimes is controversial. Although there was no mass incarceration, torture or killing of dissidents in the dimension of Robespierre's reign of terror in the French Revolution , there was a terror regime through massive use of repressive methods, controlled processes, the increased use of torture, corporal punishment, exile and death sentences and a clearly recognizable endeavor to suppress freedom and consistently monitor the individual.

Calvin worked for the unity of the church. That is why he also worked with Catholic theologians when attempting unification. After the Council of Trent (1545–1563) had sharply demarcated itself against the Reformation, Calvin limited his efforts to bring about an unification of the Protestant churches.

The concrete life of the Christian happens especially in the profession, where he is connected with his neighbor and serves him. Certain ideas of justice and righteousness are “innate” in man. Just as Calvin approaches natural theology in his knowledge of God, so in ethics he approaches natural law without in either case making an explicit doctrine from it. These rudimentary ethical ideas are confirmed and reinforced by the Ten Commandments and the Christian love command (social ethical principles). For Calvin it follows that a number of rights are inviolable and must be the basis of all state laws. "These rights include the right to freedom to profess true faith in accordance with the Scriptures, to personal freedom [...], to personal life and property, to preservation of natural inequality against all equalization coercion with all equality of people before God and the law". However, these freedoms do not entitle to individualistic arbitrariness, rather they must serve the community.

In addition to the church, for Calvin the state has important socio-ethical functions. The rulers are “representatives” of God and their task is to guarantee “peace, religion and honesty” through laws and justice. In order to rule out abuse of political power, government organs of different ranks must be created that support each other but also control each other. Calvin is of the opinion that no form of government can be derived from the Bible. But he holds a kind of constitutional aristocracy, i. H. the union of democracy and aristocracy, for the best form of government. Calvin knew the high value of democracy: "It is an invaluable gift when God allows a people to have the freedom to choose heads and authorities". The people are obliged to serve in just defense wars. It also has to endure tyrants. To overthrow these is the right and duty of the lower authorities (e.g. nobility, estates). Only in borderline cases is the right of resistance also permitted for the individual, namely when the authorities command disobedience to God.

State and church are separate, although both must work together for the good of the people. A Christian authority has to ensure that the church can carry out its ministry in freedom. In extreme cases, the authorities have to banish or execute dangerous false teachers. However, it must not try to force the adoption of the evangelical faith.

Agriculture assumed Calvin as a natural economic activity. He judged trade and financial affairs more generously than Luther, although, like Luther, he firmly condemned usury and other forms of price gouging. If necessary, the authorities have to intervene to regulate. Interest taking is allowed. Wealth and capital are work become money. Like Luther, Calvin understood work as human thanks for the redemption given by God in Christ and as service to one's neighbor. They refused purely meditative contemplation, as they saw it as not attested in the New Testament. They rejected idleness and begging. The idea of ​​understanding economic success or the ability to perform the strictest duties as a sign of divine election only played a marginal role for Calvin. It only gained increasing importance in later, secular forms of Calvinism and thus became the starting point for Max Weber's theses on the emergence of capitalism (“ The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism ”, 1904). Today, however, these are controversial. A large number of Protestant institutions, to which Weber attaches a decisive role in the process of industrialization, already existed at the secular level. Empirical results show that in many of the regions mentioned by Weber there is no connection between economic development and Protestantism. For example, Amsterdam's prosperity was largely in Catholic hands. The early industrialized Rhineland was also dominated by Catholics (see Delacroix 1996).

For the reformers, the God-given redemption led to a way of life that, in their view, corresponds to God's will: honesty, diligence, thrift, discipline and, especially with Calvin, renouncing pleasure and luxury. As a result, 60 to 80 percent of a commercial enterprise's profit could be invested in expanding production and the latest and most effective machines and manufacturing methods. In this way, business, science and technology, which Calvin valued highly, strengthened each other. This led - to the greater glory of God - to a further growth in profit, i.e. increasing prosperity, not only for the master craftsmen and entrepreneurs, but also for their workers, who had to be enabled by higher wages to take advantage of the ever-increasing supply To be able to buy products and services. Otherwise the economic cycle would have collapsed. At the same time, increased income from taxes and duties enabled the state to continuously improve the education system and infrastructure. The omnipotence of God, which Calvin believes man experiences in faith, does not paralyze him. On the contrary, it gives the believer self-confidence and sets him in motion, knowing that all efforts to realize God's will in the world remain piecemeal, but move towards perfection through God.

Just as Calvin incorporates church “tradition” into Reformation thought and transforms it according to it, so on the other hand, thanks to the European expanse of his field of vision, the emerging modern world, which he has decisively shaped through his theology, opens up to him. [...] Calvin's theology unfolded its strength above all in the combination of intellectual sharpness and practical-ethical formation and worked far beyond the Reformed churches ”.

Calvin and the persecution of people of different faiths

During Calvin's work in Geneva there were repeated corporal punishments, expulsions or even executions of people of different faiths , of which 38 cases of alleged sorcery have been documented for the years 1542 to 1546 alone. Against this background, the question of what personal part Calvin played in these persecutions has been the subject of fierce controversy since his lifetime. Defense lawyers point out that Calvin was not on any of the decision-making bodies that made these rulings. In addition, Calvin's own statements have been received, in which he testifies to having sought mitigation of sentences. His accusers, such as Stefan Zweig in his book Castellio versus Calvin , refer to the minutes of the council and transcripts of sermons that testify that Calvin, who was repeatedly heard at meetings of the various council bodies involved in the judgments, spoke and written personally vehemently for prosecution and conviction of other faiths began and in his Sunday sermons council members excommunication threatened if they did not vote in his spirit.

In the case of the most famous victim, the doctor and theologian Michael Servetus, who was handed over to the secular authorities by Calvin after his discovery and who was burned at the stake in 1553, theological and political reasons played a role for his condemnation in addition to the personal dislike between Servetus and Calvin. Calvin's role in the trial was that of the expert who claimed to prove Servetus' heresy . The secular authorities in Geneva feared political difficulties if they had allowed a non- Trinitarian creed , but they also refused an extradition request from Vienne . That is why they insisted on harshness and felt strengthened by the statements obtained from other Reformed cities. Calvin himself later defended himself by saying that he did not speak out in favor of the cremation but in favor of the beheading of Servetus. It is undisputed that he was absolutely convinced that the condemnation was in itself right. The condemnation of Servetus, who had already been burned in effigie (Latin in the picture) in Vienne after his escape from the prison of the Inquisition , was not a disciplinary procedure, but the judgment in a criminal trial based on imperial law, which denied the Trinity equated with atheism what was for a long time generally judged that way.

Calvin's behavior can in part be explained by the fact that the principles of universal human rights or religious tolerance towards those of different faiths had not yet achieved general recognition in the 16th century. Above all from circles of humanistic scholars, such as the lawyer Matteo Gribaldi , but also from reformers such as the leader of the Anabaptist movement David Joris , the reformer of the County of Mömpelgard Peter Tossanus and the Basel reformer and Antistes Simon Sulzer came more or less open criticism. The reaction in the rest of the Protestant camp was similar. Only the former Calvin supporter Sebastian Castellio , who emigrated to Basel, publicly accused Calvin of lust for power, abuse of power and betrayal of his own principles formulated in his commentary on Seneca's De Clementia . On the other hand, even Luther's comrade Philipp Melanchthon congratulated Calvin in writing on the execution of Servetus. But when Calvin let his critic Castellio persecute, Melanchthon kept his distance from Calvin.

Calvin and the witch hunt

Literally following the statements from Ex 22.17  EU , “You should not let a witch live”, Calvin advocated the persecution of witches and their execution. He called for “witches” to be tracked down and mercilessly “exterminated”. In his sermons on the first book of Samuel, he therefore rebuked those who opposed the burning of witches and called for them to be banished from society as despised of the divine word.

Calvin's attitude to the Peney witch trials is particularly well documented . Calvin believed that for three years men and women in Geneva spread the plague through the arts of magic, and held all self-accusations suppressed through torture to be true, but retrospectives were untrue. In 1545, within a few months, 34 unfortunate people were burned to death in front of the houses that they had allegedly bewitched with the plague.

reception

Calvin window in the Strasbourg Church of the Redeemer

The Reformation marked the end of the monopoly of Catholicism, both in religious terms and in terms of attitudes towards world reality. The Protestant territories and states created a new power factor, especially since the Reformation had the greatest impact on all areas of life: marriage and family, education, economy, science and art. Lutheranism remained essentially limited to Germany and the Scandinavian countries.

Calvinism became even more powerful in history than Lutheranism. After 1555 it rose to "a world power" through its establishment in all of Western Europe. Soon after Calvin's death, its center shifted from Switzerland to the Netherlands on the one hand, to Scotland and England on the other, and from there to its colonies in the course of the expansion of the English and British empire. Calvin's beliefs and thought not only shaped Presbyterians and Congregationalists , but also had a profound influence on the Church of England and its Creed, the 39 Articles, as well as Quakers , Baptists , Methodists and a number of other churches, particularly in the United States. Despite differing views, mainly in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper and predestination, as well as the church constitution , there was a very broad basis of common Protestant convictions and behaviors and diverse cross-connections, also with the Lutherans.

From the beginning of the 17th century, Calvinist Protestantism opened up "on the path of colonization a new, immense area of ​​land which two centuries later would do an excellent job of asserting its world position: North America ." While the Netherlands under Calvinist leadership from the end of the In the 16th century, after England, they were by far the most liberal country in Europe, especially in the Anglo-American region the strong liberal structures in Calvin's theory of constitutional and resistance law were implemented in the creation of modern democracy and human rights . Important actors and events on this path were in particular Johannes Coccejus ( Federal Theology ), Hugo Grotius , Samuel Pufendorf , Thomas Helwys , John Smyth , the Pilgrim Fathers ( Mayflower Treaty ), Roger Williams , Thomas Hooker , William Penn , Oliver Cromwell , John Milton , John Locke , the Glorious Revolution (with English Bill of Rights ), the American Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution (including the American Bill of Rights ), Declaration of Human and Civil Rights ( Marquis de Lafayette , French Revolution ), Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . The German Imperial Constitution of 1849, the Weimar Constitution and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany are also based heavily on the American constitution (democratic, republican and federal form of government, catalog of basic rights, Federal Constitutional Court, etc.).

A statue of John Calvin stands on the main building of Geneva University ( Geneva Reformation Monument ).

The Prussian historian Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886) saw Calvin as the real founder of the USA.

Remembrance day

Promotions on the occasion of Calvin's 500th birthday

To commemorate Calvin's work, Switzerland and Germany issued special postage stamps in 2009 on the occasion of his 500th birthday.

The German Historical Museum in Berlin dedicated a separate exhibition to Calvin in the summer of 2009 ( Calvinism. The Reformed in Germany and Europe ).

Colloquia and study trips, courses, exhibitions, lectures and reflections took place in various cities in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands on the occasion of the Calvin festival year. An overview of the many relevant offers can be found on websites for Switzerland and Germany that were set up especially for the Calvin Year.

See also

Works (complete and selected editions as well as newer editions)

literature

Introductions

Single topics

  • Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer : Luther against Eck, Luther against Erasmus, Castellio against Calvin. The normal form of Reformation disputes and the derailment of an internal Reformation dispute . In: Marc Laureys , Roswitha Simons (ed.): The art of arguing. Staging, forms and functions of public disputes from a historical perspective. V - & - R-Unipress, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-89971-793-8 , pp. 167-218.
  • Josef Bohatec : Calvin and the law. Buchdruck- und Verlags-Anstalt, Feudingen 1934; Reprint: Scientia, Aalen 1991, ISBN 3-511-00767-4 .
  • Josef Bohatec: Calvin's doctrine of state and church with special consideration of the concept of the organism (= investigations into German state and legal history. Old series. Vol. 147). M. & H. Marcus, Wroclaw; [Fernau, Leipzig] 1937; Reprint: Scientia, Aalen 1961.
  • Josef Bohatec: Budé and Calvin. Böhlau, Graz 1950.
  • Achim Detmers : Reformation and Judaism. Teachings of Israel and attitudes towards Judaism from Luther to early Calvin (= Judaism and Christianity. Vol. 7). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 2001, ISBN 3-17-016968-8 .
  • Hermann-Peter Eberlein : "To exterminate this breed". Calvin as a witch hunter. Self-published, Wuppertal 2009.
  • Eva-Maria Faber : Symphony of God and Man. The responsory structure of mediation in the theology of Johannes Calvin. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1999, ISBN 3-7887-1722-X .
  • Jörg Haustein : Martin Luther's position on magic and witchcraft (= Munich Church History Studies. Vol. 2). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-17-010769-0 (also dissertation University of Kiel 1988).
  • Marijn de Kroon: Martin Bucer and Johannes Calvin. Reform perspectives. Introduction and texts. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1991, ISBN 3-525-55337-4 .
  • Heiko A. Oberman : Two Reformations. Luther and Calvin - old and new world. Siedler, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-88680-793-2 .
  • Peter Opitz : Calvin's theological hermeneutics. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1994, ISBN 3-7887-1489-1 .
  • Peter Opitz (ed.): Calvin in the context of the Swiss Reformation. Historical and theological contributions to Calvin research. Theological Publishing House, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-290-17252-X .
  • Oskar Pfister : Christianity and fear. Artemis, Zurich 1945.
  • Oskar Pfister: Calvin's intervention in the witchcraft and witch trials of Peney 1545 according to its significance for history and the present. Artemis Zurich 1947.
  • Uwe Plath: Calvin and Basel in the years 1552–1556 (= Basel contributions to historical studies. Vol. 133). Basel / Stuttgart 1974; New edition with a new foreword, ed. by Wolfgang Stemmler. Alcorde, Essen 2014, ISBN 978-3-939973-63-8 .
  • Kurt Samuelsson: Religion and Economic Action: The Protestant Ethic, the Rise of Capitalism, and the Abuses of Scholarship. University Toronto Press, Toronto 1993.
  • Dieter Schellong : What about the “thesis” about the connection between Calvinism and the “spirit of capitalism”? (= Paderborn University Speeches. Vol. 47). Comprehensive University, Paderborn 1995.
  • Hans Scholl (eds.): Karl Barth and Johannes Calvin. Karl Barth's Göttingen Calvin lecture from 1922. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1995, ISBN 3-7887-1551-0 .
  • Wilhelm Schwendemann : Body and soul with Calvin. The epistemological and anthropological function of the Platonic body-soul dualism in Calvin's theology (= work on theology. Vol. 83). Calwer, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-7668-3427-4 .
  • Albrecht Thiel: In God's school. Calvin's ethics as reflected in his sermons on Deuteronomy. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1999, ISBN 3-7887-1735-1 .
  • Stefan Zweig : Castellio against Calvin or a conscience against violence. Frankfurt am Main 1936 and Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt 1996, ISBN 3-596-22295-8 .

Specialist dictionaries

Web links

Commons : Johannes Calvin  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: John Calvin  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Willem van't Spijker: Calvin , Göttingen 2001, p. J110.
  2. ^ Willem van't Spijker: Calvin , Göttingen 2001, p. J112.
  3. ^ A b Willem van't Spijker: Calvin , Göttingen 2001, p. J113.
  4. ^ A b Francis Higman: Johannes Calvin. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . September 17, 2009 , accessed June 5, 2019 .
  5. ^ Paul-Henry Gerber : The life of Johann Calvin the great reformer; Drafted using the handwritten documents, primarily from the Geneva and Zurich libraries, along with an appendix to previously unprinted letters and other documents. Friedrich Perthes, Hamburg 1835, p. 49 ( [1] on books.google.de)
  6. ^ According to the statement of the church historian Richard Stauffer. In: Rüdiger Achenbach: Spiritual father of reformed Protestantism. Part 1 of a five-part series about Johannes Calvin in the series Tag für Tag des Deutschlandfunk , manuscript of the broadcast of January 2, 2012, seen on June 19, 2014.
  7. ↑ a b c Willem van't Spijker: Calvin , Göttingen 2001, p. J118.
  8. ^ A b Christian Link: Johannes Calvin: Humanist, Reformer, Teacher of the Church , Zurich 2009, p. 14.
  9. ^ Willem van't Spijker: Calvin , Göttingen 2001, p. J119.
  10. ↑ Did the Reformation have to be? Calvin's answer to Cardinal Sadolet , translated and introduced by Günter Gloede. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009, p. 45.
  11. ↑ Did the Reformation have to be? Calvin's answer to Cardinal Sadolet , translated and introduced by Günter Gloede. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009, p. 45f.
  12. ^ Willem van't Spijker: Calvin , Göttingen 2001, p. J178.
  13. ↑ Thomas Schirrmacher : Preliminary remark on the German edition of the 'Institutio' from 1536: The Anabaptist Question. In: Johannes Calvin: Christian Doctrine of Faith. First edition of the 'Institutio von 1536.' Edited by Thomas Schirrmacher. Reformatorische Verlag Beese / Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft, Hamburg / Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-938116-58-6 , p. XVIII ( pdf; 3.8 MB ).
  14. ^ Willem van't Spijker: Calvin , Göttingen 2001, p. J123f.
  15. ^ Willem van't Spijker: Calvin , Göttingen 2001, pp. J124f.
  16. ^ Philip Benedict: Calvin and the transformation of Geneva . In: Martin Ernst Hirzel, Martin Sallmann (Ed.): 1509 - Johannes Calvin - 2009: His work in church and society . TVZ, Zurich 2008, p. 13ff., Here p. 15f.
  17. ↑ a b Christian Link: Johannes Calvin: Humanist, Reformer, Teacher of the Church , Zurich 2009, p. 17.
  18. ^ Christian Link: Johannes Calvin: Humanist, Reformer, Teacher of the Church , Zurich 2009, p. 17f.
  19. ^ Christian Link: Johannes Calvin: Humanist, Reformer, Teacher of the Church , Zurich 2009, p. 18.
  20. ^ A b Philip Benedict: Calvin and the transformation of Geneva . In: Martin Ernst Hirzel, Martin Sallmann (Ed.): 1509 - Johannes Calvin - 2009: His work in church and society . TVZ, Zurich 2008, p. 13ff., Here p. 16.
  21. ↑ Thomas Kaufmann : Reformers . V&R Kleine Reihe, Göttingen 1998, p. 97-
  22. ^ Calvin and Strasbourg. Archives de la ville et de l'Eurométropole de Strasbourg, archived from the original on September 8, 2013 ; Retrieved April 17, 2018 (French).
  23. ↑ Christian Link: Johannes Calvin: Humanist, Reformer, Teacher of the Church , Zurich 2009, p. 18f.
  24. ↑ a b Reiner Rohloff: Getting to know Calvin. 2., through Edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-525-56967-2 , p. 30 f., Urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-201406109483 ( preview in Google book search).
  25. ^ Philip Benedict: Calvin and the transformation of Geneva . In: Martin Ernst Hirzel, Martin Sallmann (Ed.): 1509 - Johannes Calvin - 2009: His work in church and society . TVZ, Zurich 2008, pp. 13ff., Here pp. 18–20.
  26. ↑ Cf. Theologisches Universal = Lexicon, second volume, published by R. L. Friderichs, Elberfeld 1874, p. 1251.
  27. ↑ Heribert Smolinsky : Church history of the modern times. Volume I, 2nd edition. Patmos, Düsseldorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-491-70420-6 , p. 85.
  28. ^ Letter from Calvin to the prisoners in Lyons. In: Glaubensstimme.de, accessed on May 16, 2013.
  29. ^ Ernst Walter Zeeden : Propylaea history of Europe. Vol. 2: Hegemonic wars and religious struggles 1556–1648. 2nd edition Propylaeen, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1980, p. 40.
  30. ↑ On the role of Calvin, cf. Uwe Plath: The Servet case and the controversy about freedom of belief and conscience. Castellio, Calvin and Basel 1552–1556. Alcorde Verlag, Essen 2014, pp. 55–88, especially pp. 75–77.
  31. ↑ Eberhard Busch (ed.): Calvin study edition. Vol. 4: Reformation and theological clarifications. Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2002, p. 152.
  32. ↑ Uwe Plath: The Servet case , p. 76.
  33. ^ Karl Heussi: Compendium of Church History , 11th edition (1957), p. 323 ff.
  34. ↑ See Ernst Bizer : Fides ex Auditu (1958) (on Luther's Reformation discovery).
  35. ↑ Georg Plasger: The sacraments as divine pedagogy. In: reformiert-info.de. Spring 2009, accessed April 2, 2010.
  36. ^ Karl Heussi: Compendium of Church History. 11th edition (1957), p. 324.
  37. ^ The Ordonnances Ecclésiastiques (1541) 1561. In: Eberhard Busch (Hrsg.): Calvin study edition. Vol. 2: Shape and order of the church. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1997, ISBN 3-7887-1554-5 , pp. 227-279.
  38. ↑ Heussi, p. 325.
  39. ↑ Achim Detmers: Review of Volker Reinhardt Tyrannei der Virtue. Calvin and the Reformation in Geneva (2009), last section, accessed April 2, 2010.
  40. ↑ a b Heinrich Bornkamm :  Tolerance: in the history of Christianity . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume 6, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1962, Sp. 939.
  41. ↑ Cf. Uwe Plath: The Servet case and the controversy about freedom of belief and conscience. Castellio, Calvin and Basel 1552–1556. Alcorde Verlag, Essen 2014.
  42. ↑ See Samuelson 1993, Tawney 1926.
  43. ^ Eduard Heimann :  Capitalism . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume 3, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1959, Sp. 1136.
  44. ↑ According to Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer: Luther versus Eck, Luther versus Erasmus, Castellio versus Calvin, p. 187, note 69, 20 of the 58 executions documented in the period in question were committed to ordinary criminality.
  45. ↑ Earl Morse Wilbur: Life of Servetus. In: Harvard Theological Studies XVI, The two Treatises of Servetus on the Trinity. Cambridge Harvard University Press 1932 and Kraus Reprint Co., New York 1969, pp. 23-28.
  46. ^ Oskar Pfister: Calvin's intervention in the witchcraft and witch trials of Peney 1545 according to its importance for history and the present. Zurich 1947.
  47. ^ Karl Heussi: Compendium of Church History, p. 322.
  48. ↑ Calvin corresponded with King Edward VI. and English theologians, including the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer . Karl Heussi: Compendium of Church History, p. 329.
  49. ^ Karl Heussi: Compendium of Church History, pp. 329, 330, 382, ​​422–424.
  50. ^ Karl Heussi: Compendium of Church History, pp. 386–387.
  51. ^ Karl Heussi: Compendium of Church History, p. 396 ff.
  52. ^ W. Breach of values:  Human rights . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume 4, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1960, Sp. 869.
  53. ^ René Voeltzel:  France: Church history . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume 2, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1958, Sp. 1039.
  54. ^ Gotthard Jasper :  United Nations . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume 6, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1962, Sp. 1328-1329.
    G. Schwarzenberg:  International Law . In: Religion Past     and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume 6, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1962, Sp. 1420-1423.
  55. ^ Karl Kupisch:  Frankfurt Parliament . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume 3, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1959, Sp. 1024-1028.
    W. Breach of values:  human rights . In: Religion Past     and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume 4, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1960, Sp. 870-872.
    W. Weber:  Constitutions of the FRG and GDR . In: Religion Past     and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume 6, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1962, Sp. 1336-1339.
    Douglas K. Stevenson, American Life and Institutions. Stuttgart 1987, p. 34.
  56. ^ Ranke did a lot of research in the field of Reformation; His five-volume work, German History in the Age of the Reformation , was published from 1839 to 1847 .
  57. ^ David W. Hall: The Genevan Reformation and the American Founding. Lexington Books, Lanham MD 2003;
    Loraine Boettner (1901–1990): The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. Original title (1932: Reformed Doctrine of Predestination ), chapter 18, subsection 7 , footnote 335.
  58. ↑ Johannes Calvin in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints , accessed on June 19, 2014.
  59. ↑ a b Jean Calvin ( memento of June 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), later at johannes-calvin.org ( memento of June 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on February 15, 2017.
  1. ↑ a b p. 1596.
  2. ↑ a b p. 1598.
  3. ↑ p. 1597.
  4. ↑ p. 1594.
  5. ↑ pp. 1594 and 1598.
  • Jan Weerda: Article Calvin. In: Evangelisches Soziallexikon (1954), Sp. 207–212.
  1. ↑ p. 209.
  2. ↑ p. 209 f.
  3. ↑ Quoted in Weerda, p. 210.
  4. ↑ a b c p. 211.
  5. ↑ p. 211 f.
personal data
SURNAME Calvin, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Calvinus, Ioannes (Latin); Calvin, Jean (French); Calvin, Johan; Cauvin, Jehan (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss reformer of French descent and founder of Calvinism
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1509
PLACE OF BIRTH Noyon , Picardy
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 1564
Place of death Geneva