CALVIN'S GENEVA pre-1555

1. Monter - issue over baptism raised recurring debate over magistrates and ministers over who could excommunicate
   1. General Assembly decided ministers had exceeded their authority - Petit Counseil admonished the ministers to abide by the edicts
2. Separated secular and ecclesiastical government
   1. Authority of the Church

      Nota:

      • Extended over matters spiritual - charge was to combat sin, to aid believers in the process of their personal sanctification, and to guard the church against dishonour
   2. Secular authority

      Nota:

      • watched over outward forms of behaviour - theft, rape, murder, riots etc...
      • Obliged to follow both tablets of the Ten Commandments - obligated to punish idolatry, sacrilege and blasphemy
      • Duty of seeing that ecclesiastical discipline was upheld and the ministers of the word were not mocked.
3. Calvin's role of the Magistrates
   1. Maintenance of political and ecclesiastical order
   2. Provision of teaching of correct doctrine
   3. Use its right to coercion
   4. Ministers and magistrates committed to same task

      Nota:

      • Complementary responsibilities - agents and servants of God
      • Church discipline a matter of public concern, within the legitimate authority of the magistracy
4. Narrow Council, Council of Sixty and Council of Two Hundred
   1. Already reformed on Calvin's arrival
      1. GORDON - Calvin's work as a reformed only possible because of the support from the Swiss churches
         1. Calvin and Bullinger appreciated the importance of a united Swiss front
            1. This motive laid the basis for the dominance of Calvinism from 1550 on
   2. Political and Religious REVOLUTIONS

1. Political
   1. Monter - attacking Calvin for creating a theocracy and a regime of religious intolerance and moral terror
   2. Monter - Apologetics condemning Calvin's opponents as libertines and loose-living reprobates
   3. Libertines - couldn't tolerate the power that Calvin had obtained for the Church in Geneva

      Nota:

      • Specifically the Consistory's power of excommunication
   4. Loyalist Genevans - destested Calvin's authority (as a Frenchmen)
   5. Enfants de Geneva - led by prominent businessmen and Perrin
      1. Calvin seen as too radical

         Nota:

         • Imposing a new tyranny - believed inhabitants had the right to appeal consistory excommunications - Small Council
      2. 1549 Riot - Perrin's faction lose and punished/ exiled
   6. Naphy and Reyburn

      Nota:

      • Calvin's fear of political opponents is reflected in the very harsh way he treats them
   7. Punishments to political opponents much more humiliating - public shaming
2. Monter - in Geneva, excommunication was coupled with an enthusiasm to apply C16th morality to sumptuary laws effectively
   1. Maelstrom of complaint circulating Geneva in the period. Areas of contention rarely distinct against reformers
   2. Two distinct points of contention consistently raised through the period leading to 1555 expulsion of Perrin, Calvin's leading opponent
      1. Growing discontent to the large French refugee community within Geneva

         Nota:

         • their size and influence, of which the ministers were the visible influence
         1. Baptism issue; foreign ministers not understanding local concerns

            Nota:

            • and local people under greater stress from increased foreign influence
            1. Bandiere; "God take the preachers".

               Nota:

               • "The Devil can take all the foreigners..the foreigners want to rule over us".
               1. Locals resentful of foreign usurpation of authority and dictating to the rightful citizens of Geneva
            2. Baptism name issue rallying point for opposition to the French

               Nota:

               • coincided with increased anti-French attacks
               • their growing economic, social and political influence
      2. Genevan citizenry in repeated clashes with the ministers - regulation of names
3. Benedict - 1545

   Nota:

   • When anti-Guillermins exiled in 1541 were welcomed back in 1545 to fill the population void left by intermittent bouts of the plague, anti-Calvin sentiment grew
   1. Bons Genevoysiens

      Nota:

      • Resisted Calvin's ministerial efforts to regulate behaviour and to exercise ecclesiastical discipline without magisterial oversight.
      • Definitive triumph only after a decade of struggle
      1. Conflict began with the conflict over Baptism names
4. RELIGIOUS
   1. FEAR - infecting others with false doctrine
   2. Bolsec 1551

      Nota:

      • Continuously attacked Calvin over the issue of pre-destination and argued that it was a false picture of God as a tyrant eternally damning people
      1. Calvin contacted Basel and Zurich for theological defense

         Nota:

         • Bolsec punished for acting too audaciously and banished from the city
   3. Servetus 1545-53

      Nota:

      • Wrote to Calvin with a revised version of Calvin's 'Institutes' - how Servetus viewed the correct doctrine
      1. Condemned to death in '53

         Nota:

         • Melanchthon greatly approved, wrote to Calvin "done a great service to the Reformed faith'
      2. Calvin - Refutation on the Errors of Servetus

         Nota:

         • Defended capital punishment against heretics
      3. Pettegree

         Nota:

         • More than any event, left a stain on Calvin's historical reputation
   4. Castellio - against Servetus' death sentence

      Nota:

      • Religious freedom and freedom of conscience the most important - purity of life more important than doctrinal orthodoxy
      1. Seen as ruining Geneva's reputation

         Nota:

         • 'That perfect school of Christ' Knox in 1559. Castellio saw Calvin as tyrannical and exerting too much power -
   5. Genevan authorities -dangerous teachings should not go unchallenged and authority should not be defied
   6. Beza - Calvin not so worried about religious opponents

      Nota:

      • His supreme knowledge of Scripture meant he could defend his own doctrine in the face of any difference in opinion

1. Legal training commended him to the legal authorities in Geneva

   Nota:

   • Benedict - Advised on matters of legal procedure and help in drafting the ecclesiastical ordinances  - legal exegesis avoided allegorical interpretation
2. THE CONSISTORY - 1542
   1. Ecclesiastical ordinances instructed the elders

      Nota:

      • Attend to those expressing contrary religious doctrines, negligent over church attendance and those engaged in vice or crime
      1. 1550 - 584 cases

         Nota:

         • 86 involved suspected magic or Catholic practice, failure to attend sermons and inadequate knowledge of the catechism
         1. Attention to reconciling interpersonal disputes

            Nota:

            • 238 cases
            • Family cases and domestic assaults
            1. Sexual improprieties - 160 cases
            2. Gambling, dancing and false business practices - 34 cases
            3. Marital issues of greatest concern
               1. Watt - seen as both a social and religious issue - DISCIPLINE
      2. 12 lay elders and members of Venerable Company of Masters

         Nota:

         • Met weekly on a thursday - to maintain ecclesiastical discipline
         • Early matters - marital problems; pastoral and legal problem
         1. Calvin's purpose

            Nota:

            • Guarantor of the discipline which Calvin's experience in Strasbourg had led him to recognise as essential to the survival of Reformed Christendom
            1. Punishing deviancy

               Nota:

               • Those posing a threat to the established religious order of Geneva
            2. Maintenance political and ecclesiastical order
            3. Provision of the teaching of correct doctrine
   2. Defended clerical authority
      1. Civic justice would reinforce ecclesiastical discipline, and the pastors could turn to the magistrates for authoritative support
         1. City council's jealousy

            Nota:

            • 'To take place in a manner that the ministers have no civil jurisdiction, not use anything but the spiritual sword of the word of God'
            • Civil power to remain unimpeded - McGrath
   3. Watt

      Nota:

      • 'the means by which morality and discipline were imposed upon the rank and file of Geneva’
   4. Kingdon

      Nota:

      • religious ignorance problems were because not fully informed about the Reformation and still using Catholic practices
      1. Discipline=social control & help
3. When I first arrived in this church there was almost nothing

   Nota:

   • On his deathbed - "they were preaching, and that is all" - a very basic level of reformation in his eyes

Nota:

• Church as a divinely founded body - endowed with 'spiritual power'

1. Influences

   Nota:

   • Lay church members and ministers  - Included in draft ordinances for Schwabisch Hall, Basel, Constance, Ulm and Strasbourg - magistrates of long-standing free cities all proved unwilling to give church bodies the final say in excommunication
   1. Visible church

      Nota:

      • Community of the Christian faithful, a visible group
      • Object of present experience
      1. Invisible church

         Nota:

         • Fellowship of the saints and the company of the elect - an invisible entity
         • Object of faith and hope
         1. Religious and Secular powers to be regarded as theoretically complementary
   2. Benedict - Farel's assistance in Geneva

      Nota:

      • A radically new order of service, arrangements for education in the faith as new defined, and provisions for discipline of those who misbehaved.
      1. Blueprint for 1541 Ecclesiastical Ordinances
2. Calvin's ecclesiastical Ordinance in 1537

   Nota:

   • Council accepted most of these measures, though communion restricted to four-yearly celebrations
   • Pastors - 'Instruction and Confession of Faith Used in the Church of Geneva' incorporated these Ordinances
   1. Monthly celebrations of the Lord's Supper
   2. Outline of the faith individuals needed to master
   3. Ecclesiastical discipline exercised by persons of 'upright life'

      Nota:

      • Gave ministers the power to bar unrepentant sinners from the table - Benedict
3. Fourfold Ministry
   1. Specific Scriptural directions

      Nota:

      • The right order of ministry in the visible church, so a specific form of ecclesiastical order became an item of doctrine - ecclesiastical administration (McGrath)
      • Cyprian of Carthage - "you cannot have God as your father unless you have the church as your mother" & "Outside the church there is no hope of remission of sins nor any salvation"
4. Benedict - following Paul, stressed Christians should act as magistrates

   Nota:

   • Against Anabaptists, who stated true Christians should have nothing to do with government
   • Government was divinely ordained; to resist the lawful leader was to resist God
5. 1544 measure against blasphemy

   Nota:

   • Prohibition of dirty songs and forbade loitering in the streets during the sunday sermons
6. 1549 broad morals edict

   Nota:

   • new penalties for confirmed blasphemers, prohibited speaking ill of God's word or the city magistrates
7. 1541 ORDINANCE
   1. WITTE Jr. - Echoed Lutheran calls for liberty

      Nota:

      • Liberty of political officials from ecclesiastical power and privilege; of the individual conscience from canon law and clerical control; local clergy from papacy; of Prot. churches from state & church oppression
      1. Rooted in Bible and classical sources
      2. Each local polity be a uniform Christian commonwealth
   2. Two tracks of morality

      Nota:

      • Morality of Duty - demanded of ALL persons
      • Morality of Aspiration demanded of believers in reflection of their faith

Nota:

• Conditions in Geneva deteriorated: remaining Protestant preachers in Geneva were not capable of providing effective leadership

1. 1543 Institutes
2. Ordinances inspired
   1. Elders chosen by city officials

      Nota:

      • from members of various councils that made up the city government
      • Benedict - Genevan ordinances linked the consistory more closely to the city government than other Reformed church orders
   2. Deacon bestowed upon administrators of the city's hospital
   3. Weekly gatherings of ministers

      Nota:

      • Biblical passages to be discussed 'to preserve purity and agreement of doctrine' and quarterly sessions of fraternal correction
   4. Weekly catechism classes for children

      Nota:

      • No child admitted to communion until he/she could recite the catechism
   5. Oversight of ecclesiastical discipline
      1. Consistory of pastors and elders
3. Invited Back?
   1. Kingdon - had the skills Geneva needed at this juncture

      Nota:

      • Training as both a lawyer and a theologian - apt for dealing with the various councils of Geneva and generating the needed- reform
      • A first set of laws provided a kind of constitution for the Reformed Church of Geneva.
      • A second set of laws provided a kind of constitution for the Genevan state
      1. 'Servant' of Geneva

1. Zurich and Genevan Officials demanding his return in 1541

   Nota:

   • Stressed the town's location  and trade connections made it a place from which he could exercise wide influence
2. Benedict - Calvin never lost the feeling of refugee - importance of events beyond the city
   1. Wide influence across Europe
      1. Sought by many reformers and magistrates for advice
3. Letters to the HRE
   1. Saxony, Wurttemburg and the Palatinate

      Nota:

      • Princes to strive for a godly reformation
4. REFUGEE CHURCHES
   1. Frankfurt in 1556

      Nota:

      • to mediate a dispute with the French churches there
5. Patria; FRANCE
   1. Explosion of church-building in 1555-61

      Nota:

      • Calvin inundated with letters imploring him to send ministers to reap the harvest, seeking his counsel about matters of doctrine, worship and discipline
6. Survival of Calvinist groups

   Nota:

   • Dependent on a strong, well-disciplined church, capable of weathering the hostility of its milieu
7. Mistrustful of monarchs; prone to become tyrants

   Nota:

   • Tyrannical kings of the OT
8. Consensus Tigurinus 1547

   Nota:

   • Zurich agreement with Zwingli and Calvin
   1. "The ministers of the Church of Zurich and Calvin, Minister of the Church Geneva"
      1. Contemporarily viewed as the figurehead of the Church of Geneva

         Nota:

         • Clear clerical role, and the power he was deemed to exert

1. Geneva the birthplace and forge of the Calvinist model
2. Interplay between Calvin and Geneva

   Nota:

   • Which gave Calvinism many of its distinctive and idiosyncratic (individual) characteristics
3. Geneva
   1. Awash with patriotic passions
   2. Inflamed with revolutionary fervour
   3. Society in turmoil and political structure was ad hoc