CALVIN'S GENEVA - post 1555

Nota:

• By 1560 in evangelical eyes as the very model of a reformed community, and in Catholic eyes the most dangerous lair of apostasy in Europe - Benedict.

1. Reformation of Manners

   Nota:

   • Collaboratively between church and state that transfomed the political culture of the city and inhabitants' behaviour
   1. Measures between 1550 and 1562 increased penalties for blasphemy, gambling and drunkenness
   2. 1566 law

      Nota:

      • Imposed new penalties for sexual relations outside of marriage mandating the death penalty for cases of adultery involving two married people
   3. Benedict - Chronicler after 1555

      Nota:

      • Everbody devoted themselves to the service of God. The city's parish registers reveal astinishingly low rates of illegitimate births and prenuptial conception - 0.12% and 1% respectively
      • 30% of childrens' names drawn from the OT
   4. City Fathers reformed

      Nota:

      • Benedict - from carefree demagogues into the grave and painfully honest stereotype of Calvin's ideal magistrate
   5. Benedict - reputation in evangelical eyes as the very model of a reformed community - 1560
      1. Catholics - the greatest lair of apostasy
   6. Regulations were made more strict
      1. Ministers were to have their dwellings throughout the city, in order to watch over vice more effectively
      2. In 1558, edicts were issued that closely regulated clothing and food, to repress the extravagance that had prevailed in these areas
      3. In 1561, the Ecclesiastical Ordinances of the Church of Geneva of 1541 were revised in such a way as to conform more closely to Calvin's wishes
         1. Press censored by ministers
         2. Remaining crosses removed from church spires
2. Discipline
   1. Musculus - 'always a drawn bow'
   2. High estimation of the ministerial calling
   3. CONSISTORY
      1. Power backed by state authority

         Nota:

         • 1560, c. 200 excommunications per annum; roughly one in eight summoned before the tribunal each year
      2. Italian Jesuit in 1580 - never heard swearing, blasphemy or indecent language
      3. Calvin its leading figure
      4. KINGDON - 3 ROLES
         1. Educational Institution
            1. Elementary level of Reformed Christianity

               Nota:

               • Lord's Prayer and Apostles' Creed in the vernacular, and people praying solely to God, not the saints
            2. Making sure people understood the RIGHT message
         2. Counselling Service
            1. Sessions to resolve issues and disputes
               1. 'Public service of reconciliation'
         3. Court of Hearings
            1. Divorce decrees
               1. Considerable power - collection of evidence
   4. Ecclesiastical Ordinances 1561

      Nota:

      • Excommunicates who did not seek to mend their ways were subject to civil penalties including banishment.
   5. Benedict - collaborative reformation of manners between state and church
      1. Transformed political culture of Geneva
3. 1555 SHOWDOWN
   1. Purging of the Council of Two Hundred
      1. 38 immigrants admitted to the status of bourgeois

         Nota:

         • Increased voting strength of the faithful
         1. More refugees admitted to the bourgeoisie over the coming months
      2. Calvin's supporters convinced of a treasonous conspiracy
         1. Used ensuing investigation into tumult to complete defeat of rivals
            1. Uncovered a large conspiracy 'overturning ecclesiastical discipline and the holy Reformation'
            2. Anti-Calvin group removed from office

               Nota:

               • Those speaking against actions removed from office or even citizenship
   2. Measures silenced opposition within Geneva

      Nota:

      • Lost much Swiss support however, and his role in these events damaged his reputation - said to have attended the torture sessions
4. GENEVAN ACADEMY
   1. Institute of higher learning to train future generations of pastors

      Nota:

      • Bernese expulsion of the partisans of independent ecclesiastical discipline from the Pays de Vaud brought a contingent of experienced teachers from Lausanne
      1. Swamped with Frenchmen (Benedict)

         Nota:

         • Eager to gain a measure of theological information so that they could return home and pastor to the churches springing up across the homeland
         • Beza- in 5 years, it had enrolled c. 300 students
      2. Followed by universities of Leiden and Heidelberg

         Nota:

         • Became more prestigious centres of Reformed higher education
   2. Opened after all of Calvin's opponents quashed

      Nota:

      • Opened under Beza's rectorship - chairs in Hebrew, Theology and Philosophy
   3. Desired for since 1541 Ecclesiastical Ordinances
      1. Special rank of teachers in the church
   4. Modelled on Strasbourg, developed by humanist Johann Sturm
      1. Accordingly in two parts

         Nota:

         • the college (schola privata), and the academy itself (schola publica), which was a university, devoted chiefly to training ministers
   5. LEWIS - Beza and C's followers felt they had a providential calling fo vigilance against false doctrine

      Nota:

      • God's providence given the chief credit for the Academy's Opening - 'republica scholastica where it will be possible to acquire an education in rational disciplines' - Beza
      1. Beza - "philosophy to pursue virtue'
   6. LEWIS
      1. Calvin wanted a fraternal solidarity among company of pastors
      2. Academy 'uncompromising'

         Nota:

         • In its opposition to papist superstition, anti-Trinitarian heresy and Lutheran error
      3. To bring about a more complete harmony of Confession among the Reformed - FLEXIBILITY and TOLERANCE
5. FRENCH REFUGEES
   1. Much more sympathetic to cause - massive increase in vote for Calvin's part in '55 election
   2. Murdock - common Calvinist experience of life as a refugee

      Nota:

      • Led to lasting international connections between individuals and communities
   3. Arrival of printers

      Nota:

      • Importance of the written word was to disseminate a reformed ideology as critical
   4. Influx of religious zealots

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      • Thousands reaching Geneva by 1555 - gave the 1559 academy a truly international aspect
6. STRENGTH
   1. Correspondents and Informants

      Nota:

      • Inside and outside the city permitting him to remain abreast of events unfolding in Geneva's governing circles and to rally support from outside at sensitive moments.
      1. January 1557 - Positive relations with Bern

         Nota:

         • Treaty of Combourgeoisie - Bernese common interest with Geneva in resisting Savoyard claims
   2. Benedict
      1. Newly-independent city

         Nota:

         • Geneva lacked long-established traditions of self rule and civic morals
      2. Collective Sanctification

         Nota:

         • Era when many believed collective sanctification brought divine protection, gave an added urgency to the quest for moral purification = reflected in the city’s police regulations [purity of life]
   3. Respect from the State
      1. Treated with great reverance
      2. Granted his requests
      3. Consulted on matters of public policy
      4. 1559 - asked to accept citizenship
   4. Geneva also became the center of a great missionary activity
7. Calvin the man
   1. Perceived tyranny
      1. After he had gained ascendancy in Geneva, the citizens were punished or reprimanded for criticizing his preaching
      2. Punished for greeting him without calling him "Master."
      3. He displayed a vindictiveness toward his enemies

         Nota:

         • which did not rest until they were crushed and humiliated.
   2. WRITTEN WORKS - heroic amount of texts
      1. Institutes of the Christian Religion. He published commentaries on every book of the New Testament except the Apocalypse
      2. Every week he regularly gave three lectures on theology and preached several times
   3. To his friends he could be kind and affectionate, taking a deep personal interest and helping them in their affairs
      1. Living under God his central tenet
         1. No act, no word, no thought or impulse was indifferent; an account must be rendered for all of them to the great Taskmaster whose eye is always upon each one of His servants.