Zwingli & Calvin in Switzerland; d'Etaples & de Coligny in France

By Phil Newton

Reformed Christianity finds its roots in French scholar/pastor who spent most of his life in Geneva, Switzerland - John Calvin. Calvin is so identified with Geneva's history and with the Reformation that he is honored by a prominent statue, along with William Farel, Theodore Beza, and John Knox, all of who hailed Geneva as the center of the Reformation's spread.

 

Zwingli

Calvin was not the first reformer in Switzerland. Ulrich Zwingli, twenty-five years Calvin's senior, (born 1484) was a contemporary of Martin Luther in the work of reformation. At the age of 22 he became a priest (1506), and in 1519, was invited to Zurich to be a preacher in the church. He accepted on the condition that he could freely preach the pure gospel. Zwingli studied the Scripture, writings of the church fathers, and those of early reformers Wycliffe and Huss. While Luther came to strikingly different views of the Roman Church, Zwingli did the same. And when he came to Zurich, a beautiful city in northern Switzerland along Lake Zurich with mountains in the background, he preached God's Word with great power. People flocked to hear him preach and reformation began in Zurich.

Zwingli loved his flock, staying in the city when the plague killed 2500 out of its 17,000 citizens. He also became ill but eventually recovered to continue leading the city's spiritual life. Zwingli spoke out against the Roman view of fasting during Lent, which put him into contention with the bishop of Constance. The public debate highlighted Zwingli's dependence upon Holy Scripture rather than tradition, precisely what Luther did as well against Eck. Though the bishop sought to suppress Zwingli's preaching, the city favored the reformer and supported his preaching. Reformation grew in Zurich and spread beyond in Switzerland.

Luther and Zwingli knew each other, and in many respects doctrinally, were kindred brethren. But at the conference at Marburg, initiated by Philip of Hesse in 1529, the two reformers agreed on every essential doctrine except that of the Lord's Supper. Both held tenaciously to their positions: Luther to that of consubstantiation and Zwingli to that of symbolism. Both claimed their positions to be the teaching of Scripture. S. M. Houghton gives a summary of how it ended:

With ears in his eyes Zwingli said, 'There are no people on earth with whom I would rather be in harmony than with the Wittenbergers' (that is, with the followers of Luther). But Luther would not bend to Zwingli's teaching and would only receive the Swiss reformer and his followers as friends, not as brethren and members of the Church of Christ. He said to Zwingli, 'You have a different spirit' [Sketches from Church History, 100].

Put off by the Lutherans, the Swiss formed "the Reformed Church" in distinction from the Lutheran Church. The Reformed Church dominated several of the Swiss cantons though the nemesis of Catholicism still strongly opposed them. The Catholics who refused to recognize them in their cantons put many of the Reformed Protestants to death. Here we find a distinct difference between Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli. Zwingli and his fellow Reformed Protestants took up arms against the Catholics. Before war broke out the Catholics promised tolerance toward Protestants in their cantons. But they did not keep their vow, allowing persecution to take place. Civil war ensued, with a Catholic army of 8000 invading Zurich who had put together a much smaller army of 2700. Zwingli joined them as a chaplain. During the battle at Kappel in 1531, as Zwingli cared for the wounded and dying, with most every prominent family in Zurich affected, 500 died. During the battle, Zwingli took a spear in the leg and was struck by a stone in the head. As he lay dying, a Catholic took what appeared to be a kindly position, offering to call a priest to hear his last confession. Though "unable to speak, Zwingli shook his head." The soldier told him, 'Then pray to the Mother of God, and call upon the saints, that God in his grace may accept you.' Again, the Reformer shook his head, proving to mark him as a Protestant to the Catholic soldiers. As more crowded around the scene, one took vengeance upon Zwingli, striking him with his sword and killing him. As with the custom with "heretics," they quartered his body, mixed it with dung and burned his remains, scattering his ashes to the wind.

Luther was shocked to hear about the 47 year old Reformer's death, and commented that God's displeasure was shown against the Swiss for resorting to armed defense. Henry Bullinger succeeded Zwingli, leading the Swiss to sign the Helvetic Confession, a confession recognized and signed by John Knox, other Scottish ministers, and reformed churches in Poland and Hungary. Zwingli laid a foundation in Switzerland for reformation that John Calvin, who admired him, would build upon [Houghton's material served to form this portion of my notes, 99-102].

 

John Calvin

Beginning his college studies at the age of 14, John Calvin seemed destined for the Catholic priesthood. His father, a notary and ecclesiastical registrar, apparently made arrangements for his son to train for the priestly duties. But after graduating with his Masters degree, Calvin's father fell out with the bishop of Noyon, so Calvin moved toward a career in law, studying at Orleans and Bourges. After his father's death, Calvin dropped his law career and pursued the life of a scholar, studying classics at the University of Paris. While there, Calvin came under the influence of the Reformation that was spreading across Europe. Everything changed by what he called, an "unexpected conversion." His first brush with God's sovereignty left him smitten with the intrusion of grace. Though Calvin is rarely personal in his writings, here's how he records it:

My father had intended me for theology from early childhood... the, changing his mind, he set me to learn law... until God at last turned my course in another direction by the secret rein of his providence. By a sudden [or translated "unexpected"] conversion he tamed to teachableness a mind too stubborn for its years, for I was so strongly devoted to the superstitions of the papacy that nothing less could draw me from such depths of mire [Houghton, 103 and Bruce Shelley,  Church History in Plain Language, updated 2nd edition, 258].

This would have been around 1532 or 1533. In the fall of 1533, Calvin's close ally, Nicholas Cop had taken the rector's helm at the university. His inaugural address attacked Roman Catholicism and supported the Protestant position. Many thought that Calvin had helped him to write the speech. Whether or not that was the case, Cop was pursued by King France I officers for charges of heresy, so both he and Calvin, now allied with him, fled to Basel, a leading city of reformation work near the French and German border in Switzerland.

It was in Basel in 1536 that Calvin published his most influential work, Institutes of the Christian Religion, or better known to us as Calvin's Institutes. For one so young in the faith, it was a remarkable explanation of the Christian faith written to clarify Protestant doctrine. Calvin addressed King France in his preface, explaining his rationale for the book. He sought to give clarity to the doctrines being taught in Protestant circles and to ensure the King that the rumors circulated about Protestants mounting attacks on churches was untrue. He also appealed to the King to intervene in bringing the severe persecutions against evangelicals to an end, especially that levied against the Waldensians. He wrote, "Now, that king who in ruling over his realm does not serve God's glory exercises not kingly rule but brigandage," a warning similar to one issued by Augustine in his City of God. "Furthermore, he is deceived who looks for enduring prosperity in his kingdom when it is not ruled by God's scepter, that is, his Holy Word; for the heavenly oracle that proclaims that "where prophecy fails the people are scattered [Prov. 29:18] cannot lie. And contempt for our lowliness ought not to dissuade you from this endeavor" [Calvin's Institutes, vol. 1, 12]. Calvin begins by asserting that the knowledge of God and ourselves are connected: "In the first place, no one can look upon himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplation of God, in whom he "lives and moves" [Acts 17:28]. For, quite clearly, the mighty gifts with which we are endowed are hardly from ourselves; indeed, our very being is nothing but subsistence in the one God" [Calvin, 35]. And so Book One addresses "The Knowledge of God the Creator," while Book Two, "The Knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ, First Disclosed to the Fathers Under the Law, and Then to Us in the Gospel." Book Three expounds, "The Way in Which We Receive the Grace of Christ: What Benefits Come to Us from It, and What Effects Follow," while Book Four adds, "The External Means or Aids by Which God Invites Us into the Society of Christ and Holds Us Therein."

Calvin continued to revise the Institutes until the end of his life. Shelley explains, "The work was the clearest, most logical, and most readable exposition of Protestant doctrine that the Reformation age produced, and it gave its youthful author European fame overnight. Calvin labored on its elaboration nearly all his active life. Twenty years later it was a much larger work but its interpretation of Christian truth remained essentially the same" [259].

The story of how Calvin got to Geneva bears retelling! Calvin thought that he would be able to settle into the life of a scholar, that is, until he met William Farel. Farel was another French reformer who had been doing reformation work in Geneva. While Calvin intended to return to France by moving to Strasburg, a French city near the German border, he took a very circuitous route by intending to go south, spend one night in Geneva, and then make his way north to Strasburg. But while there, Farel used the strongest language, spiked with divine invectives, if Calvin failed to remain with him to minister in Geneva. Houghton tells it in Calvin's words.

Farel, who burned with an extraordinary zeal to advance the gospel, immediately strained every nerve to detain me. And after he had learned that my heart was set upon devoting myself to private studies, and finding that entreaties were in vain, he went on to say that God would curse my retirement and the peace of study that I sought, if I withdrew and refused him my help when the need for it was so urgent. I was so terror-stricken that I abandoned the journey I had planned; but I was so sensible of my natural shyness and timidity that I would not bind myself to accept any particular office [104-105].

For nearly two years, Calvin and Farel labored tirelessly in Geneva, seeking to conform the laws of the city to the laws of God. They tied citizenship to a confession of faith, required attendance at divine worship, and excommunicated those not conforming to spiritual standards from participating in the Lord's Supper. In April 1538, the city council orders them to leave, their efforts apparently failed.

So, John Calvin finally made it back to Strasburg where he began to serve as pastor to French refugees and where he was free to institute biblical standards in his church. While there he married a widow with two children, Idelette de Bure, who with him had a son, Jacques, who only lived a few days. Idelette lived for nine more years, caring for the unhealthy John Calvin until her death in March 1549.

Calvin was involved in the regular exposition of Scripture, both in Geneva and Strasburg. That was really the focus of his energies and strength. Calvin was a mighty expositor of Holy Scripture, leaving us a legacy of commentaries on most of the books of the Bible. When he and Farel were forced out of Geneva, Calvin had been preaching through a book of the Bible. Upon his return to Geneva three years later, Calvin picked right back up in the same book and passage that he was due to preach next three years earlier!

Though the happiest time of his life was in Strasburg, Calvin did return to Geneva, this time by request from the city council that was now dominated by his friends. He agreed to their call upon condition that church order be established. He called for the church to recognize four offices: pastor, doctors (teachers), elders, and deacons. He also insisted on the practice of church discipline being instituted and followed. Meanwhile, Farel was doing the same in Neuchatel, 75 miles north of Geneva. Calvin admired Farel's wisdom and zeal but found difficult his inflexibility. So he wrote, "We only desire earnestly that, in so far as your duty will admit, you will accommodate yourself more to the people. There are, as you know, two kinds of popularity: the one, when we hunt after favour from motives of ambition and the desire of pleasing; the other, when, by fairness and moderation, we gain upon their esteem, so as to make them willing to be taught by us.... With reference to this particular point, we perceive that you do not give satisfaction even to some good men" [Robert Godfrey, Reformation Sketches, 70-71].

Calvin set immediately to work in Geneva, establishing clear lines of authority between church and state. The state could not have power to dictate the affairs of the church. The church, however, by its teaching and discipline, should have great impact upon the moral climate of the state. The church regulated society through the lives of its members with the Genevan government freely accepting the laws of the church as common for the city. Some, obviously, had distaste for living according to the Scripture. But most found it quite agreeable and helpful to the whole atmosphere of the city. John Knox, who along with many others found refuge from the Protestant persecution taking place throughout Europe, commented on Geneva as, "the most perfect school of Christ that ever was on earth since the days of the Apostles" [Shelley 260]. Calvin thought of Geneva as a refuge for the persecuted as well as a training center for sending ministers throughout Europe and beyond. The city, divided into three parishes, had five ministers, three assistant ministers, and 12 elders. Services were conducted daybreak, noon, and afternoon at St. Pierre Cathedral, and additionally, services were held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Calvin preached twice on Sundays, and at first, 3 times during the week, and later every day on alternating weeks [Houghton 106].

Those who want to find "dirt" on John Calvin inevitably bring up the name of Michael Servetus. He was a Spanish physician, well-known in for his medical work, but also known for criticizing Constantine's union of church and state as "a great apostasy," but with that, he considered the doctrine of the Trinity formulated at the Council of Nicea to be offensive to God. He escaped imprisonment during the Inquisition, destined for burning as a heretic by the Catholics. While passing through Geneva he was recognized and arrested. The Protestants charged him with heresy as well with all of the Swiss cantons agreeing to the charge and a death sentence. Heresy required burning, though Calvin sought to find a less cruel form of execution, that of beheading. Calvin's role in the whole affair has often been criticized but as Justo Gonzalez reminds us, "at that time all over Europe both Protestants and Catholics were acting in similar fashion against those whom they considered heretics. Servetus himself was condemned by the French Inquisition, which had not burned him only because he had escaped" [The Story of Christianity, vol. 2, 67-68]. "Calvin was not free from the errors of his times," wrote S.M. Houghton. "It has been rightly remarked that 'although in the 16th century thousands of Protestants suffered the same fate at the hands of Roman Catholic persecutors Calvin has been constantly vilified for his part in this single execution'. Perhaps God allows blemishes in his own children, while on earth, in order that men should not idolize them and put them, as it were, on pedestals" [Houghton 109].

Calvin's reformation work shaped the future of "all Presbyterians, Dutch and German Reformed Churches, and many Baptists and Congregationalists" [Shelley 257]. He has been wrongly accused of playing a "one-string guitar" on the subject of predestination. While he championed that doctrine, Luther taught it in the same way as well. Instead, Calvin's underlying theological foundation was God's sovereignty - "the assurance of the impregnability of God's purpose" [as Shelley put it, 257]. While some of the reformers sought ways to compromise with Roman Catholicism for the sake of unity in the church, Calvin remarked, "So far as I understand, if we could be content with only a half Christ, we might easily come to understand one another" [Godfrey 72]. Robert Godfrey offers a good summary to Calvin's teaching on the subject of Christian unity, principles that are still as important in the 21st century as they were in Calvin's 16th century.

First, the source of authority for truth in the church must be recognized as the Scriptures. Truth, and unity grounded in the truth, must be based on the Bible. That conviction cannot be compromised. Second, the Scripture functions as our authority as we study its particular teachings. We cannot vaguely appeal to the spirit of the Bible. We must derive biblical truth by studying and comparing the various texts of Scripture. Third, the unity and truth of the church today must be related to the ancient church. Unity and truth are not just contemporary concerns but also historic ones. We must be unified in truth with the church of the ages. Modern innovations are likely to be heretical or schismatic. Fourth, we must be honest and straightforward. Unity and truth are not served by devious ambiguity. Only when we honestly state our views can we determine whether we can be united in truth [73]

 

The Huguenots

France took the lead as the cruelest oppressors of Protestants during the 16th and 17th centuries. The brilliant Jacques LeFevre d'Etaples (1450-1536) is credited as being "the Father of the Reformation in France." His writings remain a tribute to his theological kinship with Calvin and Luther. But his spiritual heirs paid a heavy price for reformation. At first, Francis I, France's king, patronized the spread of "Lutheranism," hoping that it would undermine Charles' V's rule over Europe. He even tolerated it in France for a while. Though Calvin had written in an appeal to Francis in his Institutes, it fell on deaf ears. By 1545, persecution grew in France with thousands killed and many others sent to slavery on the galleys, and twenty-two Huguenot towns and villages destroyed.

Francis died in 1547, succeeded on the throne by his son, Henry II who married the Italian, Catherine de Medici, part of the famed Florence de Medici family. Three of her sons were to sit on the throne following their father's death. Catherine labored to make sure her children ruled France and did so with Catholic favor. Henry II had a special committee in the Parliament known as La Chambre Ardente (the Burning Chamber) that carried on the destructive work begun by his father. Many young Frenchmen that had escaped to Geneva for refuge, returned, armed with the gospel and training spread Reformation, and often met with death. Henry II sought to stop the spread of Reformation by stifling literature distribution, religious discussions, and inspecting packages crossing his borders from outside the country. But his efforts failed. Henry died during a tournament as a lance pierced his temple as he failed to deflect its blow. Francis II, the first of his three sons to serve as king followed him to the throne, though as a young boy, the powerful Guise family "ruled in his name" [Gonzalez 104].

But Catherine de Medici loathed the influence and control of the Guise brothers, France and Cardinal Charles. The staunchly Catholic Guise family sought to rid France of Protestantism. Opposing them was the house of Bourbon who was French Protestants, at least by inclination, better known as Huguenots. Catherine sought to use the Protestants as a tool against the Guise family, hoping to undermine their influence. So, when France II died, she took the title of regent when her 10-year old son Charles IX ascended the throne. Freeing the Huguenots that the Guise family had imprisoned and limiting the Guise (or house of Lorraine as they were also known), helped to strengthen Catherine's hold on France. Her efforts were for political expediency not religious persuasion, as the unfolding future would reveal. Catherine took part in the 1562 Edict of St. Germain that gave limited freedom of worship to the Huguenots, though denied them privilege of owning churches, gathering without permit, and collecting funds. The Guises refused to follow the Edict, unleashing a vicious attack on a group of Huguenots worshiping in a stable in the village of Vassy. This began a series of religious wars lasting 30 years between Catholic and Protestant armies.

The Protestant Bourbon family held the throne of Navarre, a small nation between France and Spain. They were also heirs to the French throne should any of the heirs of Henry II not survive to reign. With cunning, Catherine pledged her daughter, Margaret Valois to the Protestant prince Henry Bourbon, who became King of Navarre by the time of their wedding in 1572. Catholics and Protestants were joined together in this wedding celebration to the effect that the Protestants became overconfident by the reception of the royal family. By this time, Catherine's, Charles IX, sat on the throne. He was young and naive, having earlier found the renowned Huguenot Admiral Gaspard de Coligny to be admirable. But Catherine tricked him into killing the Huguenots who had come to Paris for the wedding by telling him that they plotted to overthrow his throne. Catherine joined forces with the Guises to carry out the St. Bartholomew's Day attack, August 24, 1572. Admiral de Coligny's room was raided; he was struck in bed, thrown out the window, and then kicked by the Duke of Guise. With his head severed, his body was dragged through the streets of Paris for 3 days until it was later embalmed and sent to Pope Gregory XIII as a gift of triumph. Two thousand more Huguenots met their death, with the vicious killing spreading throughout France, taking tens of thousands of victims. While the Pope and King Charles of Spain rejoiced, Elizabeth I mourned, as did Protestants throughout Europe.

God's providence ruled in spite of the atrocities. Coligny's chaplain, who he had urged to leave when he realized that a surprise assault was underway, escaped by climbing onto a rooftop. As he crept along, he fell through one roof into a mound of hay. Fearing to leave or identify himself, he stayed for several days, surviving on an egg that a chicken laid near him each day. Many others escaped and continued to preach the gospel in France.

Eventually, Charles IX died, followed by Henry III who died the same year, and no more heirs remained to the throne. Next in line was Henry of Navarre, the Protestant. Though lacking the spiritual convictions admirable in Protestants, Henry (IV) did eventually proclaim the Edict of Nantes in 1598 that gave Huguenots definitive rights in religion and in property ownership and control over their cities. The Revocation of the edict came in 1685 under Louis XIV, which eventually led to probably 300,000 Huguenots escaping France. They were France's best craftsmen and most diligent workers, so Louis XIV "ruined his country in the name of religion" [Houghton 137]. French Protestantism never fully recovered from that blow. The effects in France can still be felt today in their spiritual, moral, economic, and political practices.

 

[Gonzalez 102-109 and Houghton 129-137]

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