Reforms in the Christian world can be traced back to Apostle Paul who after conversion from Judaism wrote a considerable amount of epistles to various churches. These epistles gave clear directions regarding the manner of life each Christian ought to live. The reforms were often met with opposition and persecution especially from the mainstream religious faction. Central to these reforms is the doctrine that man cannot find salvation in works of the law but only through faith in God. On realizing that Paul’s version of Christianity had been compromised through the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church, a 15th century reformer named John Calvin who had so much in common with Apostle Paul undertook the task of leading the church back into its true roots. So how did his leadership style differ from that of Apostle Paul? And did his mission succeed? Apparently most Protestants do not know about Calvin and his contributions towards the secession of Protestantism from the Roman Catholic Church.
John Calvin was born in the year 1509 in France. Among the three siblings, John was much intelligent and at the age of 12 he had managed to convince a local bishop to hire him as a clerk. As a clerk, he had his hair cut signifying his resolve to absolutely commit himself to church service. His acts of devotion landed him a favor with Montmors, who were a rich family. This family went ahead and sent Calvin to a prestigious college in France called college de la Marché that taught Latin (Helm 2004, 81). Here, he met an outstanding Latin teacher who enhanced his proficiency in the language. Later, he studied philosophy from a college in Paris. Discontented with the kind of education that Calvin was receiving from the benevolent family, Gerard recalled his son from the philosophy college and took him to pursue law at the Orleans University.
During the year 1529, Calvin undertook to study Greek, a language that was a requisite to comprehending the New Testament. It was after these events that he got converted or rather broke away from the Roman Catholic Church. He joined forces with those pushing for protestant reforms. He especially became outstanding for having pioneered reformed tradition, which was one of the prime branches of Protestantism. His distinguishing characteristics are composed of his dogmatic moral and religious views and for having formed a radical theocratic authority in Geneva that suppressed any perceived dissident. Apparently, his background in law enabled him to write elaborate manuscripts that formed the basis for his protestant systems(Bouwsma 1988, 77). In 1533, Calvin sought refuge in Switzerland in a city called Basel following an outbreak of persecution of evangelists by the Roman Catholic Church. Here, he laid down the salient Institutes of Christian Religion (Helm 2004, 81).
The development of French language is attributed to this magnificent piece of work and so is Protestantism in France. While still in Geneva, he came across like minded reformers who happened to exercise authority over the town council. Calvin saw an opportunity to propagate his doctrines by putting down stringent rules that required all and sundry to submit to the stipulated council faith based rules. People resented him because of this. Fearing for his life, he hastily abandoned Geneva and he only came back when a letter of invitation was sent to him during the year 1541.
Several events happened during the period of 1536 to 1537. Calvin was sanctioned as a pastor. This naturally accorded him the duty of overseeing church functions such as weddings and baptisms among other things. The document drafted jointly by Calvin and his fellow reformer Farel gave directions regarding how and when the Eucharist was to be administered (Hessenik 2004, 25). It also gave provisions for excommunication and provided for the amendment of laws regarding marriage. It was for this reason that the council banished Calvin and Farel. Following these events, Wolgang Capito and Martin Bucer extended a helping hand to Calvin by asking him to come over to Strasbourg and minister to a church reserved to a group of around 500 French refugees.
On accepting the invitation to get back to Geneva in 1541, he undertook the mission of reevaluating the moral and social values of the local community with the intention of subjugating it under Mosaic Law. It followed that all manner of indulgence including games, dancing and gambling were banished and severe action was proposed to deal with any one who went against the new rules, not even trivial religious offenses were tolerated (Hessenik 2004, 25). Grievous offense occurred when a person fell into entropy by acknowledging once more the catholic faith then regarded as a superstition long after the individual had denounced it. Regardless of Calvin’s lack of political power, he nevertheless exercised a considerable amount of influence on the decisions arrived at by the council, this dismisses the notion that he was a dictator.
During the period 1511-1553, the radical aspect of Calvin’s system of religion came to be witnessed. This followed the slow and painful execution through burning of one Servetus Michael who consistently opposed Calvin. This character, a physician by profession, and also a writer of theological and political matters could not fathom the idea of a state that was governed through religion. This opinion that he consistently defended saw his life come to an abrupt end marking the beginning of subsequent religious executions. As a pastor in Strasbourg in 1538-1541, Calvin continued preaching to his congregation of French refugees. On the side, he would keep upgrading his institutes’ work which eventually got published at the beginning of 1540 the same year when his work commonly known as commentary on Romans was published.
In 1541, ecclesiastical ordinances were put in place by the council inline with orders given by Calvin. The ordinances defined duties that each cadre of church leaders such as deacons, teachers, doctors, pastors, and elders was to play. Some ministers were given the mandate of passing judgments pertaining to church matters. However, the government felt threatened by this power and it reclaimed back the sentencing power. While maintaining the tight relationship that existed between him and his fellow reformers such as Farel and Montmor, Calvin delivered approximately two thousand sermons in 1542 (Bouwsma 1988, 77).
During the period 1546 to 1553, opposition mounted against Calvin’s work. The political elite and the opulent staged a bitter opposition against Calvin labeling him a Picard and a heretic who spread erroneous doctrines. The pressure from syndics and the libertines as the groups were called almost made Calvin to resign. However, his resilience saw him prevail against his adversaries.
During the period 1555 to 1564, Calvin and Calvinism grew in fame. In Geneva, exiles seeking refuge were provided a safe haven by Calvin and on their return to England they built up churches that revolved around Calvin’s doctrines and ideologies. Before his death on May 27, 1564, Calvin sent numerous books to France which he had written and ministers who were to head hundreds of churches and schools which he had helped to build.
References
Bouwsma, William James. 1988. John Calvin: A sixteenth-Century Portrait. New York: Oxford University Press.
Helm, Paul Fredrick. 2004. John Calvin’s Ideas. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hessenik, Ian John. 2004. The Cambridge companion to John Calvin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.