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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 January 2009
Baptism is a subject which finds considerable attention in the writings of John Calvin. It features more generally in chapter 14 of the 1559 Institute, on Sacraments, and specifically in chapters 15 and 16. It features in the Instruction in Faith and the later Genevan Catechism, and throughout his commentaries both with reference to passages where baptism is explicit, as well as where Calvin believed it to be implicit. Other references occur in sermons and his occasional writings. Yet in contrast with his eucharistic teaching, there have been far fewer studies on his theology of baptism. Amongst the contributions of English speaking scholars, the studies of R. S. Wallace, Calvin's Doctrine of the Word and Sacraments, 1953 and T. F. Torrance's discussion in the 1957 Church of Scotland report on baptism remain invaluable. Both Wallace and Torrance present a systematic survey of the Reformer's baptismal theology as it is found in the 1559 Institute, the commentaries and sermons, pinpointing his important emphases. In an article in 1962 E. Grislis gave a comprehensive summary of the teaching on baptism in the 1559 Institute, drawing attention to a tension between election and instrumentality. More recently still Jill Rait examined the teaching on infant baptism in the 1559 Institute, suggesting that it needs to be understood in the light of three inter-related principles, viz:
1 Wallace, R. S., Calvin's Doctrine of the Word and Sacrament, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh and London 1953.Google Scholar
2 Interim Report of the Special Commission on Baptism. May 1957 in Reports to the General Assembly, Edinburgh 1957, pp. 647–705Google Scholar. ‘Calvins Lehre von der Taufe’ in Moltmann, Jürgen ed., Calvinstudien 1959, Neukirchen, Neukirchener Verlag 1959, pp. 95–129.Google Scholar
3 Grislis, E., ‘Calvin's Doctrine of Baptism’, in Church History, 31 (1962), pp. 46–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4 Raitt, Jill, ‘Three Inter-related Principles in Calvin's Unique Doctrine of Infant Baptism’, in Sixteenth Century Journal 11 (1980), pp. 51–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 Institutes of the Christian Religion 1536 edition, translated and annotated by Battles, Ford Lewis, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1975, reprinted 1989, p. xxi.Google Scholar
6 Rigg, J. W., ‘The Development of Calvin's Baptismal Theology 1536–1560’, unpublished Ph.D. Notre Dame Indiana, 1985.Google Scholar
7 Discourse d'adieux aux ministres April 28, 1564. C.O. ix, 894.
8 Battles, op. cit., p. 87. Quotations are from this edition.
9 Thesis, pp. 106–8.
10 Balke, Willem, Calvin and the. Anabaptists, trans. Heyiien, William J., Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1981, p. 54.Google Scholar
11 Fuhrmann, Paul T., Instruction in Faith (1537), Lutterworth Press, London 1949.Google Scholar
12 Ibid., pp. 40–41.
13 Ibid., pp. 68–9.
14 Pannier, Jacques, Institution de la Religion Chrestienne, Les Textes Francais, Societe Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1938.Google Scholar
15 Balke, pp. 97ff.
16 Thesis, p. 118ff.
17 Ibid.
18 Cf. 1559 4:15:6.
18a Cited by Balke, p. 105.
19 Rigg, Thesis, pp. 132ff.
20 Iohannis Calvini Commentarius in Epistolam Pauli ad Romanos, ed. Parker, T. H. L., E.J. Brill, Leiden 1981, pp. 52–53Google Scholar; ET. Mackenzie, Ross, The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Romans and to the Thessalonians, Calvin's Commentaries (eds. Torrance, David W. and Torrance, Thomas F.) Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh and London 1961, p. 55.Google Scholar
21 Ibid. Parker, p. 122; Mackenzie, p. 123.
22 In Tracts and Treatises on the Doctrine and Worship of the Church, trans Beveridge, H., reprinted, ed. Torrance, T. F., Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh and London 1958, vol. 2, pp. 85–89.Google Scholar
23 Rigg, Thesis, p. 194.
24 Maxwell, W. D., The Liturgical Portions of the Genevan Service Book, second impression, Faith Press, London 1965, p. 48.Google Scholar
25 The text of La Maniere et fasson was discovered by J. G. Baum and published by him at Strasbourg in 1859.
26 See Guillaume Farel 1489–1565, Editions Delachaux and Niestle N.A., Neuchatel and Paris, 1930Google Scholar. J. Meyhoffer, ‘L'Evangelisation par le plume: Les Ecrits Redigres A Montbeliard’, pp. 139–145.
27 Charles Schnetzler, ‘Les Ecrits Du Reformateur’, ibid., pp. 36–47.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid., p. 186.
30 Old, H. O., The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite in the Sixteenth Century, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1992, has suggested that this was based upon the 1528 Zurich rite, but later suggests that the 1528 Zurich rite was simply an edition of the Berne rite published in ZürichGoogle Scholar. This is probably correct, since later Zurich rites conform to 1525 not 1528, pp. 151ff.
31 Ibid., p. 153.
32 Ibid., p. 162.
33 I have used Baum's edition.
34 The 1540 edition has not survived. It is known through a 1542 edition.
35 Jacobs, Elfriede, Die Sakramentslehre Wilhelm Farels, Theologischer Verlag Zurich 1978Google Scholar. Cf. Heyer, Henri, Guillaume Farel. An Introduction to His Theology, ET. Reynolds, Blair, Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter, 1990.Google Scholar
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37 Ibid., p. 341.
38 Ibid., p. 345ff.
39 Weir, D. A., The Origins of the Federal Theology in Sixteenth Century Reformation Thought, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
40 For the marriage rite, see Spinks, B. D., ‘The Liturgical Origins and Theology of Calvin's Genevan Marriage rite’ in Ecclesia Orans 3 (1986), pp. 195–210.Google Scholar
41 Barth, Karl, The Knowledge of God and the Service of God, according to the teaching of the Reformation, Hodder, London 1938, p. 191.Google Scholar
42 4:15:1.
43 3:2:7.
44 3:13:5.
45 Kendall, R. T., Calvin and English Calvinism to 1659, OUP, Oxford 1979.Google Scholar
46 4:15:1.
47 4:15:6.
48 Old, op. cit., pp. 264ff.