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Calvin: A Prophet without a Prophecy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Max Engammare
Max Engammare
Affiliation:
Max Engammare is director of Librairie Droz S.A. and associated researcher at the Institut d'Histoire de la Réformation, both in Geneva
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Extract

Only a few months after Calvin's death, August 1564 to be precise, Theodore Beza composed a preface for the posthumous French edition of Calvin's commentary on the book of Joshua: it took the form of a brief biography of the reformer. Describing the death of Calvin, Beza recalled the sadness that invaded Geneva on the announcement of the death of the prophet of God: “The following night, and the day after as well, there was much weeping in the city. For the body of the city mourned the prophet of the Lord, the poor flock of the Church wept the departure of its faithful shepherd, the school lamented the loss of its true doctor and master, and all in general wept for their true father and consoler, after God.”

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Articles
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Church History , Volume 67 , Issue 4 , December 1998 , pp. 643 - 661
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Copyright © American Society of Church History 1998

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References

I thank very much Francis Higman, who translated kindly and so precisely this paper.

1. Peter, Rodolphe and Gilmont, Jean-François, Bibliotheca Calviniana: Les CEuvres de Jean Calvin publiées au XVIe siècle, vol. 1, bk. 2, Écrits theologiques, litteraires et juridiques, 1555–1564, Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance 281 (Geneva: Droz, 1994), 1053–55, 1070–73 (no. 64/4; Latin ed. no. 64/9).Google Scholar

2. Calvini opera (abbreviated hereafter as CO) 21, cols. 45–46. This passage is frequently quoted in the secondary literature, most recently by Bernard Cottret, Jean Calvin: Biographie (Paris: Jean-Claude Lattès, 1995), 267.Google Scholar

3. “Lecons de M. Jean Calvin sur les vingt premiers chapitres du Prophète Ezechiel” (1565), fol. *2–*5, in Correspondance de Théodore de Bèze, ed. Aubert, Hippolyte et al. , Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance 103 (Geneva: François Perrin, 1970), 6:15–25 (no. 373). I am most grateful to Alain Dufour for having drawn my attention to this text.Google Scholar

4. Beza, , “Leçons,” in Correspondance de Bèze, 6:20.Google Scholar

5. Beza, , “Leçons,” in Correspondance de Bèze, 6:20.Google Scholar

6. Advertissement contre l'astrologie judiciaire, ed. Millet, Olivier, Textes littéraires français 329 (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1985).Google Scholar

7. The preface to Beza, “Leçons,” in Correspondance de Bèze, 6:20.Google Scholar

8. Beza regularly associated them, for example in the dedication to Renée de France, in Beza, , “Leçons,” in Correspondance de Bèze, 7:100 (no. 468).Google Scholar

9. Institutio religionis christianae 2.15.2 (an addition in 1559–1560); see also a passage in sermon 86 on Genesis (Gen. 18:16–21), dated 18 April 1560: “prophecies ended at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (MS Bodleian, Oxford, fol. 574 v); or again, the passage from the commentary on Romans quoted below (note 55).Google Scholar

10. In Calumniae nebulonis cuiusdam, quibus odio et invidia gravare conatus est doctrinam Johannis Calvini de occulta Dei providentia: Johannis Calvini ad easdem responsio, the third calumny begins, “Contra tertium de differentia voluntatis et permissionis hoc dicunt: Calvinus dicit se esse prophetam Dei et nos dicimus Calvinum esse prophetam diaboli” (cf. CO 9, col. 276). In his reply Calvin did not refute the statement that he was a prophet!

11. It is interesting to note that Fritz Büsser, in his study Calvins Urteil über sich selbst (Zurich: Zwingli-Verlag, 1950), does not mention the equation Calvin-prophet.Google Scholar

12. Ganoczy, Alexandre, Le Jeune Calvin: Genèse et évolution de sa vocation réformatrice, Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für europäische Geschichte Mainz 40 (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1966), 336–68; position defended in his general conclusion, 362 f.Google Scholar

13. Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie 118 (1986): 161–77, especially 172–77.Google Scholar

14. Ganoczy, “Conscience de réformer,” 176.

15. Stauffer, Richard, “Les Discours à la première personne dans les sermons de Calvin,” in Interprètes de la Bible: Études sur les Reformateurs du XVIe siècle, Théologie historique 57 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1980), 183–223, especially 185–93.Google ScholarOriginally published in Revue d'histoire et de philosophic religieuse 45 (1965): 46–78.Google Scholar

16. Stauffer, “Discours à la première personne,” 187.

17. Millet, Olivier, Calvin et la dynamique de la parole: Étude de rhétorique réformée, Bibliothèque littéraire de la Renaissance, 3d ser., 28 (Paris: Champion, 1992), especially 268–79, 324–29.Google Scholar

18. Millet, , La Dynamique de la parole, 135, 315.Google Scholar

19. Millet, , La Dynamique de la parole, 447–49. The quotation from Amos 5:10 is, “Odio habuerunt corripientem in porta, et loquentem recta abominati sunt.”Google Scholar

20. Millet, , La Dynamique de la parole, 449.Google Scholar

21. Several works by Peter could be cited, including his edition of the sermons on Jeremiah (Sermons sur les livres de Jérémie et des Lamentations, ed. Peter, Rodolphe, Supplementa Calviniana 6 [Neukirchen: Neukirchener Verlag, 1971], xiv–xvi). Peter quotes a remark of Calvin's in 1552: “If it is claimed that I am not the prophet Jeremiah, that is true. But nonetheless I bear the same word which he announced, and I can protest before God that I serve him faithfully, according to the measure of his Spirit which he has given me” (xiv).Google Scholar

22. Cottret, , Jean Calvin, 268.Google Scholar

23. Johannis Calvini Commentarius in epistolam Pauli ad Romanos, ed. Parker, T. H. L., Studies in the History of the Christian Church 22 (Leiden: Brill, 1981), 270;Google ScholarCommentaires de M. Jehan Calvin sur toutes les Epistres de I'Apostre S. Paul… Item sur les Epistres Canoniques (Geneva: Conrad Badius, 1556), 1:135.Google Scholar

24. Commentarius in epistolam Pauli and Commentaires sur toutes les Épistres. Calvin also defined, a little later, what he understood by “the rule of faith”: “By the word ‘faith’, [Paul] understands the first bases and principal maxims of religion, with which all doctrine which is found not to be in accord will by this means be denounced and declared false” (271 [Latin]; 1:135 [French]). The analogy of faith was indeed a doctrinal rule: any difficult or delicate passage was aligned with the generality of doctrine defined elsewhere.

25. Commentarius in epistolam priorem ad Corinthios (12:28) (CO 49, col. 506); Commentaires sur toutes les Epistres, 1:292.

26. The reference is to 1 Cor. 14:29. Cf. Locher, Gottfried, Die Zwinglische Reformation im Rahmen der europäischen Kirchengeschichte (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1979), 161–63;Google ScholarRoussel, Bernard, “Des auteurs,” ch. 6 in Le Temps des réformes et la Bible, ed. Bedouelle, Guy and Roussel, Bernard, Bible de tous les temps 5 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1989), 219 f.;Google ScholarHimmighöfer, Traudel, “Die Prophezie,” ch. 8 in Die Zürcher Bibel bis zum Tod Zwinglis (1531):Google ScholarDarstellung und Bibliographie, Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für europäische Geschichte Mainz im Auftrag der Abteilung Religionsgeschichte 154 (Mainz: von Zabern, 1995),213–35.Google Scholar

27. Himmighöfer, , Die Zürcher Bibel, 180–84.Google Scholar

28. Novum instrumentum (1516; reprint, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Fromann Holzboog, 1986), 477. Himmighöfer made the connection earlier, in Die Zürcher Bibel, 181 f. (quoting the Ratio seu methodus and the note on 1 Cor. 14:1).Google Scholar

29. In Latin, “prophetiam non esse vaticinandi donum.” Cf. CO 49, col. 517; Commentaires sur toutes les Epistres, 1: 298.

30. Cf. CO 41, col. 335. The italics are of course mine.

31. The fifth sermon on Ezekiel is quoted by Stauffer, “Les Discours à la première personne,” 196 and n. 45, for the reference and the parallel passage; the quotation is repeated by Cottret, Jean Calvin, 205. But the reference to the twenty-first sermon on Daniel is incorrect.

32. The thirtieth sermon on the Harmonie évangélique, on Luke 2:26 (CO 46, col. 370; sermon preached in 1559 or 1560).

33. Joel 2:28: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. ”In his commentary, Calvin referred this prophecy “to the reign and coming of Jesus Christ.” He also played down the general import of the prophecy: “he [Joel] therefore does not affirm precisely that all will participate in this gift, but in relation to the ancient Church that this grace will be as it were common, as is fairly obvious” (Calvin, Petis Prophètes: Joel, 37; CO 42, col. 567). It is thus surprising that Calvin generalized the prophet's statement and applied it to the present time. If it was true that the danger of enthusiasm was less marked in Geneva than it was in Zurich or Strasbourg, this reference was rare in the discourse of the reformer. On the contrary, Calvin distrusted those who constantly had the word “spirit” in their mouth, and he denounced their audacity. See, for example, Responsio ad Sadoleti epistolam, CO 5, col. 393; Contre la secte phantastique etfurieuse des libertins qui se nomment spirituelz, CO 7, col. 176; Commentarius in epistolam priorem ad Corinthios, CO 49, col. 506.

34. The fifty-eighth sermon on Genesis (Gen. 12:16–20: Abraham has lied to Pharaoh about Sarah, passing her off as his sister, and the Lord punishes Pharaoh by crushing his armies), MS Bodl. 740, Bodleian Library, Oxford, fol. 403r.

35. The same expression is found in the lesson on Ezek. 2:8: “None is called to the office of minister or teacher, except insofar as he has profited in the school of God. This is why those who wish to be considered true pastors must have been pupils of God” (Leçons de M Jean Calvin sur le prophète Ezechiel [Geneva, 1565], fol. 21 v).Google Scholar

36. The twenty-third sermon on Gen. 4:8–10 (MS Bodl. 740, fol. 134 r). Already in his “Reply to Sadoleto,” Calvin wrote “that one must listen to the pastors of the Church as if to Christ himself, that is to those who truly carry out the office entrusted to them (audiendos ergo fatemur, non secus ac Christum ipsum, ecclesiasticos pastores, sed qui munus sibi injunctum exsequamur)” (CO 5, col. 404); Calvin, Jean, Œuvres choisies, ed. Millet, Olivier (Paris: Gallimard, Folio, 1995), 102.Google Scholar See also the first sermon on 1 Timothy, in September 1554: “if we wish to obey God, we must receive his word which is preached to us by those to whom he has entrusted this charge and office… For the rest he [Paul] also shows that, if we wish to pay homage to God, if we wish to be his subjects, we must receive his word, when it is preached to us by the mouth of those whom he has sent” (CO 53, col. 6); or the thirty-fifth sermon on the same epistle: “So do we wish to be governed by God? Let us know that we must take special care to choose ministers who are faithful and fit to exercise their office” (CO 53, col. 422).

37. Calvin, , Commentaires sur toutes les Epistres, 593.Google Scholar

38. Calvin, , Commentaires sur toutes les Epistres, 594.Google Scholar

39. Col. 2:14 f.

40. Sermon 261 on Isaiah (Isa. 52:13–53:1), dated 18 June 1558, MS London Huguenot Church, fol. 462v; see also CO 35, col. 602.

41. Indeed, in the commentary we find: “Triumphing over them in it. It is true that the Greek text could be read: ‘in himself,’ but the context of the passage entirely requires that we read it as we have said; for what would be coldly said of Christ can be very aptly applied to the cross. For just as, earlier, he had compared the cross to magnificent spoils, or a noble instrument of triumph by which Christ led his enemies, now also he compares it to a triumphant chariot, in which he shows himself in great splendor. For, although there was only a curse in the cross, nonetheless it was so swallowed up in the power and strength of the son of God that it had in a sense put on a new nature, for there is no judicial seat as magnificent, there is no royal throne as excellent, there is no instrument of triumph as noble, there is no chariot as outstanding, as is this gibbet, on which Christ subjugated death and the devil, the prince of death, and altogether shattered them under his feet” (Calvin, , Commentaires sur toutes les Epistres, 594).Google Scholar

42. See my article, “Calvin connaissait-il la Bible? Les Citations de l'Écriture dans ses sermons sur la Genèse,” Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire du protestantisme français 141 (1995): 163–84.Google Scholar

43. Matt. 2:6 combines Mic. 5:6 and 2 Sam. 5:2.

44. Commentaires de Jean Calvin sur la Concordance ou Harmonie, composée des trois Evangelistes … item … sur le second livre de sainct Luc, dit les Actes des Apostres, Blanchier, Michel, Geneva, 1563 (original ed. in 1555), in-fol., 52.Google Scholar

45. Quoted by Godin, André, Erasme lecteur d'Origène, Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance 190 (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1982), 171.Google Scholar

46. Godin, , Erasme, 504.Google Scholar

47. Godin, , Erasme, 504 f., and second part (Acts), 20. But Calvin did recognize that the text on the death of Judas was an interpolation.Google Scholar

48. In the preface to his commentary on Isaiah, Calvin gave his clearest explanation of Old Testament prophecy (Commentaires sur le Prophète Isaïe [Geneva: Adam and Jean Riveriz,1552], fols. 6r–8v;Google ScholarJoannis Calvini commentarii in Isaiam Prophetam, in CO 36, cols. 19–24), a point clearly noted and analyzed by Olivier Millet, La Dynamique de la parole, 268–71. To give simply one significant extract from this preface, developing the triple task of the prophets: “The prophets therefore explain more at length and more fully the doctrine which is briefly contained in the two tables [of the Law], and teach what is principally required by the Lord. As regards the threats and promises which Moses indicated in general, they apply them to their own time, and give them specific relevance. Finally, what is said somewhat obscurely in Moses concerning Christ and his grace, they declare more openly, giving fuller and more abundant evidence” (fol. 6r; CO 36, col. 19).

49. What Calvin says of the prophets—“Thus when the prophets talk about behavior, they bring in nothing new [nihil novi], but declare things which were poorly understood in the Law” (Commentaires sur le Prophète Isaïe, fol. 7r; in Isaiam, col. 21)—can also be said of Calvin in relation to doctrines: he never introduced a new one.

50. Pliny, , Histoire Naturelle, ed. de Saint-Denis, E. (Paris: Belles-Lettres, 1961), 10.59 (page 48); in taking over the example of the crane that holds a pebble to prevent it from going to sleep, Calvin displaced the pebble from the feet to the beak of the bird, which makes the exercise more ascetic; see sermon 5 on Genesis, MS Lambeth Palace, London, fol. 25r.Google ScholarSee also Irena Backus, “Calvin's Judgment of Eusebius of Caesarea: An Analysis,” Sixteenth Century Journal 22 (1991): 419–37; here with the example of Eusebius of Caesarea, Backus's study shows that these discrepancies do not stem only from a deficient memory, but from an intention to achieve proof.CrossRefGoogle ScholarAn earlier version of her article appeared in Calvinus Sacrae Scripturae Professor, ed. Neuser, W. H. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994), 233–36.Google Scholar

51. Montaigne, , Essais, 2d ed. (Paris: Villey-Saulnier, 1992), 3.12 (page 1056).Google ScholarPassage quoted by Jeanneret, Michel in Perpetuum mobile: Métamorphoses des corps et des œuvres de Vinci à Montaigne (Paris: Macula, 1997), 267.Google Scholar

52. Montaigne, , Essais, 3.12.Google Scholar

53. See the subtle analysis of the epistle “Au Roy de France” in Millet, Olivier, La Dynamique de la parole, 464–77; the surprising absence of a grandiose preamble is stressed (469).Google ScholarSee also Gilmont, Jean-François, Jean Calvin et le livre imprimé, Cahiers d'Humanisme et Renaissance 50 (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1997), 269 f.Google Scholar

54. Calvin, John, “Epistre au Roy,” in Institution de la religion chrestienne, ed. Benoît, J.-D. (Paris: Vrin, 1957), 30.Google Scholar

55. Calvin, , “Epistre au Roy,” 31.Google Scholar

56. See the French translation and the Latin text edited by Bernard Roussel, in Le Livre et la Réforme, ed. Peter, Rodolphe and Roussel, Bernard (Bordeaux: Revue française d'Histoire du livre, 1987), 243–61.Google Scholar

57. Letter 1422 (CO 13, cols. 669–74); Commentaires sur le Prophète Isaïe.

58. Commentaires sur le Prophète Isaïe, fol. 4r–5r.

59. See my “Calvin monarchomaque? Du soupçon à l'argument,” forthcoming in Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte.

60. Viret, Pierre, Remonstrances aus fideles qui conversent entre les papistes, et principalement à ceus qui sont en cour et qui ont offices publiques, touchant les moiens qu'ils doivent tenir en leur vocation à l'exemple des anciens serviteurs de Dieu (1547; Geneva: Jean Rivery, 1559), 28 f.Google Scholar

61. For example, Choisy, Eugène, L'État Chrétien calviniste à Genève au temps de Théodore de Bèze (Geneva: Eggimann, 1902), 470–3, and the references given in 470 n. 1.Google Scholar

62. See Leçons de M. Jean Calvin sur le prophète Ezechiel, fol. 22v. The same idea was developed in the lesson on Jer. 15:16 (Jeremiah eating the words of God), Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, having both attended “the school of the Holy Spirit” (Leçons ou commentaires et expositions de Jean Calvin, tant sur les Revelations que sur les Lamentations du Prophète Jeremie [Lyon: Claude Senneton, 1565], 356).Google Scholar

63. Divi Joannis Chrysostomi archiepiscopi Constantinopolitani opera (Paris: Claude Chevallon, 1536), 1: fol. lr–135r.Google ScholarThese notes have recently been published by Ganoczy, Alexandre and Müller, Klaus, Calvins handschriftliche Annotationen zu Chrysostomus: Ein Beitrag zur Hermeneutik Calvins, Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für europäische Geschichte 102, (Mainz: Steiner, 1981).Google Scholar

64. “Je dis que nous ignorons le lieu où furent enterrés les prophètes et les apôtres, a l'exception de quelques-uns” (Divi Joannis Chrysostomi, 1: fol. 131 v).

65. Commentaries de M. Jean Calvin sur les cinq livres de Moyse (Geneva: François Estienne, 1564), 714 f. (second pagination). Note that Celsus also quotes this text from Deuteronomy (Origen, Contre Celse, 2.54).Google Scholar

66. Ignorance of the place where Moses was buried becomes the central argument in favor of the authenticity of the epistle: “Now no one was ignorant why his tomb was hidden, that is, so that the Jews should not offer his body as an object of superstition. So should we be astonished that Satan has tried to show the body of this saint which God had hidden? But the angels resisted, as they are always ready to do service to God. And in fact, we see that in all ages Satan has tried to turn the bodies of faithful servants of God into idols for the poor ignorant and ill-advised; so because of this witness we should not view this epistle with suspicion, although this witness is not found in scripture” (Commentaires de M. Jehan Calvin sur les Epistres canoniques de s. Pierre, s. Jehan, s. Jaques et s. Jude, lesquelles sont aussi appelées catholiques [ Geneva: Conrad Badius, 1556], 164).Google Scholar

67. Calvin, John, Three French Treatises, ed. Higman, Francis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967);Google Scholarand Calvin, , Œuvres choisies, 190, 247.Google Scholar

68. “Testament de Calvin,” in “Thesaurus epistolicus Calvinianus,” no. 4103, CO 20, col. 300.

69. “Vie de Calvin,” revised and augmented by Nicolas Colladon, in CO 21, col. 106.

70. Certain ancient sages were no more concerned about their tombs, or even about being buried, as Cicero says about Diogenes (cf. Tusculanes, 1.43.104). Calvin's gesture did not, however, stem from this sagacity.

71. Confessions et catéchismes de la foi réformée, ed. Fatio, Olivier et al. (Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1986), 125.Google Scholar

72. Les premières Centuries ou propheties (edition by Bonhomme, Macé, 1555), with commentary on the “Epître à César” and the first 353 quatrains by Pierre Brind'amour, Textes littéraires français 468 (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1996), q. 47, 117.Google Scholar A quatrain from the second century also prophesied a famine in Geneva (Les premières Centuries, q. 164, 286).

73. Montaigne, Essais, “Des prognostications,” 1.11.44. Montaigne also said (in 1.30.208A, “Des cannibales”), that “divination is a gift of God.”

74. I have consulted the preface of the Recueil des opuscules: C'est à dire Petits traictez de M. Jean Calvin (Geneva: Baptiste Pinereul, 1566), dedicated to Renée de France;Google Scholareven if in these pages Beza defended Calvin's forcefulness, there was no reference to prophecy (Correspondance de Théodore de Bèze, Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance 136 [Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1973], 7: 97–103 [no. 468]);Google Scholarthe dedicatory epistle to Frederick III, Elector Palatine, for the Epistolae et responsa of 1575 (Correspondance de Théodore de Bèze, ed. Dufour, Alain, Nicollier, Beatrice and Bodenmann, Reinhard, Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance 273 [Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1993], 16:18–20 [no. 1116]);Google Scholaror, from the following year, the preface to Tractatus theologici omnes dedicated to William of Orange (Correspondance de Théodore de Bèze, Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance 286 [Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1994], 17: 74–85 [no. 1193]).Google Scholar

75. Cf. Hazlett, W. I. P., “ ‘Jihad’ against Female Infidele and Satan: John Knox's First Blast of the Trumpet,” in Calvin: Erbe und Auftrag: Festschrift für Wilhelm Neuser, ed. Van't Spijker, W. (Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1991), 285;Google Scholar see also Peter Auksi,“ ‘God shall alwayes raise up some’: John Knox, the Reformer as Prophet” (paper presented at “The Laws and Prophets in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,” University of Western Ontario, April 1997).

76. Himmighöfer, , Die Zürcher Bibel, 184;Google ScholarBüsser, Fritz, “Der Prophet: Gedanken zu Zwinglis Theologie,” in Würzeln der Reformation in Zürich: Zum 500. Geburtstag des Reformators Huldrych Zwingli (Leiden: Brill, 1985), 49–59.Google Scholar

77. Jeanneret, , Perpetuum mobile, 240f.Google Scholar