Having to flee because of this disclosure of his beliefs, Calvin spent the first half of 1534 in Angouleme, where he lived with Louis du Tillet. He had to disguise himself and so changed his name to Charles d'Espe-ville. After visiting Noyon to resign his benefices in the cathedral, he traveled to Basel, a center of Reformation scholarship and publishing. It was there he finished the first edition of the Christianae Re-ligionis Institutio, in 1536, with a prefatory letter to Fran-cis I in defense of the Reformation.
First Stay at Geneva
Again forced to flee, Calvin headed to Strassburg, but was apprehended by the fiery William Farel while traveling through Geneva. Farel challenged him to give up the quiet scholar's life and to aid the reformation at Geneva (illustration below). As a result, on September 5, 1536, the Council of Geneva appointed Calvin to be lec-turer at the cathedral.
The citizens of Geneva had sworn allegiance to the Reformation in May of that year, but the city was far from being Reformed. On the contrary, many of the citizens only wanted liberty from the bishop and the duke of Savoy. Hence, the real work of reforming was yet to begin.
To this end Calvin drew up his first catechism, followed by a confession of faith. In 1537 the Council decided that the citizens should be required to subscribe to the confes-sion. But many of them refused. To permit only professing Christians to the Lord's Supper, Calvin and Farel demanded the right to excommunicate the unrepentant. Strong opposi-tion rose against them, supported by the authorities at Bern on both religious and political grounds. In April of 1538, the Reformers refused to adopt the Bernese church ceremonies and denied the right of the govern-ment to determine matters of worship. On Easter Sunday they refused to admin-ister the Lord's Supper, maintaining the right of the church in matters of disci-pline. They paid for their "crime" by being ban-ished from Geneva.
Content at Strassburg
Farel shifted his labors to Lausanne, and Calvin went to Strassburg where he joined the German Reformer, Bucer. He became pastor of the French refugees and lectured in theology. In 1539 the second and greatly enlarged edi-tion of his Institutes appeared which was followed in 1540 by his remarkable commentary on Romans.
The happiest years of Calvin's life were those lived among his flock in Strassburg. He ministered at four services during the week, with two on Sun-day. Every month the Lord's Sup-per was administered. In 1542 he pub-lished the first liturgy of the Reformed churches. Not without success he tried to convert Anabaptists, and in 1540 he married the widow of one of them, Idelette de Bure. In 1542 she gave birth to a son, who died shortly after being baptized. Later on, when mocked for being childless, he gave the famous answer that "he had offspring in thousands over the whole of Christendom." Indeed, he yet has sons to this day.
In the meantime the cunning Cardinal Jacopo Sadoleto had invited the citizens of Gen-eva to return to Mother Church in a very persuasive letter. At the request of the Genevan council, Calvin wrote his famous reply to the cardinal, in which he so deftly defended the cause of the Reformation that Luther declared that he read it with extraordinary pleasure.
Back to Geneva
Political troubles with Bern and changes in city government caused the Genevan leaders in October 1540 to beg Calvin to return. But he hesitated. He had at-tended the Reformation conferences held at Frankfort, Hagenau, and Worms, had befriended Melanchthon, and preferred his present peaceful situation to an uncertain future in the turmoil of Geneva.
But again the "thunders" of Farel prevailed over his reluctance, and in September of 1541, he re-entered Geneva. The first thing to be done was establishing the discipline of the church. Soon a new ecclesiastical consti-tution was approved in which, remarkably for that time, the principle of the autonomy of the church from civil government in matters of faith and morals was established. It constituted four offices in the church: pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons. The pastors and teachers formed the "Venerable Company," which met every Friday for the exposition of Scripture. The teachers were to instruct the young, the deacons to visit the sick and help the poor, while the elders were responsible for the discipline. This was the beginning of what we now call Presbyterian government. In a very short time Calvin drafted his second catechism, known as the Geneva Cate-chism, and a new liturgy.
Although Cal-vin's influence was very great, he was by no means the dictator of Geneva. As a matter of fact, before 1554 he did not get all that he desired in matters of discipline and had to struggle continuously for the church's right to excommunicate unworthy mem-bers. It is also unjust to describe Calvin's Geneva as a tyranny of the church. Many moral and religious corruptions had to be corrected, but generally speaking, the consistory of Geneva simply ruled the church in the same way as all later Reformed consistories did, "so that true doctrine may have its course, that errors may be corrected and suppressed, and the poor and all who are in affliction may be helped in their necessities" (French Confession, art. 29)
The accusation that Calvin was overly strict and prohibited all pleasures, such as dancing and games, is his-torically untenable since gambling and dancing were already forbidden in Geneva before Calvin's arrival. Many of the moral regulations of Geneva were also found in other cities of this time, quite independent of the Calvinistic reformation. There was only one difference: in previous times and in other cities these regulations were dead letters, but in Calvin's Geneva they were strictly maintained.
Fighting the Good Fight
Toward the end of 1543 the rector of the college, the ‘Reformed' humanist Castellio, asked to be ad-mitted as minister. He was rejected because he refused to accept the Genevan Confession's interpretation of Christ's descent of into hell. Bitterly attacking the ministry of Geneva, he was dismissed by the Council in 1544.
Soon, Pierre Ameaux, a former maker of playing cards and a member of the little Council, attacked Calvin by say-ing that he was not only a bad man but also preached false doctrine. Ameaux was condemned by the Council to repent publicly. During this time two city leaders, the captain--general Perrin and the syndic Corna were sent to jail be-cause they had danced at a marriage- party. Perrin never forgot this ‘offense' and became Calvin's bitter opponent.
In 1547 the free-thinker Jacques Gruet was beheaded by the magistrates, after having affixed to the pulpit a placard threatening a re-volt. The following years brought more tulmult. In fact Calvin declared that scarcely a week went by without some conflict.
In 1549 Calvin's beloved wife, Idelette, died. Moreover Perrin, Calvin's enemy, was elected Syndic and a group of discontents who considered themselves the authentic Genevans showed their contempt for the minis-ters and especially for Calvin.
In 1551 the ex--Carmelite monk, Jérome Bolsec attacked the Reformed doctrine of predestination. Although he was banished, and the Little Council in 1552 declared Calvin's doctrine to be "holy," nevertheless Bolsec sup-porters in the city continuted to stir up trouble on such key theological issues.
In 1553 Geneva was visited by the anti-trinitarian Michael Servetus, who had written his cleverly-titled Chris-tianismi Restitutio as a retort against Calvin's In-stitutio and played with the idea of taking Calvin's place. But he was arrested and after a long trial burned at the stake by the civil rulers.
This death sentence has been a black spot indeed not only on Calvin and his regime, but on the Reformed movment. All the leaders of Protestantism at that time were agreed in justifying this action. Serve-tus had already been burned by the Roman Catholics in effigy. Blasphemy of the holy Trinity had to be punished by capital punishment according to the the law of the German em-pire. In 1903 members of Reformed churches erected a monument in Geneva, charging Calvin with "an error which was that of his century." It is yet to be seen what God's judgment of this execution shall be.
The Reformed
Faith Established
As a result of the faithful and per-sistent work of Calvin and the consis-tory, the influx of French Reformed immigrants, and changes in the political situation, Calvin's vision of the Reformation became dominant in Geneva. One of Calvin's greatest victories was that in 1555 the long-disputed right of the con-sistory to excommunicate was granted. In the same year the opposition failed in its attempt to seize power, and its leaders had to flee the city. From then on Geneva was a Reformed citidel. John Knox, the Scottish Reformer called it "the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the Apostles. In other places I confess Christ to be truly preached; but manners and religion to be so seriously reformed, I have not yet seen in any other place besides."
The work of the Reforma-tion received its crown in the foundation of the University of Geneva in 1559, and Theodore Beza, Calvin's friend and successor, was the first rector. Stu-dents flocked there from all European coun-tries, and in the year of Calvin's death there were 1,200 junior and 300 senior students enrolled.
In 1559 the last and definitive edition of the Institutes appeared, very carefully corrected and completed. Several other books followed. Calvin stated to the pastors during his last speech on his deathbed: "God has given me the power to write. I have done it as well as I could and I have not, as far as I know, corrupted or twisted any passage of Scripture." He died May 27th, 1564, at the age of 55 and, accord-ing to his wishes, no stone marked his resting place.
This sketch is adapted from an article in The Encylopedia of Christianity (1968). A Reformed historian, Praamsma wrote a biography of Calvin in Dutch (1956).
