Calvin, Zwingli and Other Reformers
(A.D. 1517 - A.D. 1648)

Hear in Real Audio format

Download free Real Player G2
Or right click History11.rm and select "save link as" to direct download the file (5655 KB).
You will then need to open it in Real Player.

---

Last lesson we focused on the man who instigated the Reformation, Martin Luther, and in this lesson we will focus on three others who spurred on the reformation of the church; Calvin, Zwingli and Knox.

John Calvin (A.D. 1509-1564)

Calvin prepared for a career in the church and studied form 1523 to 1528 in Paris. His opinions gradually turned to disagreement with the Roman Catholic position, and he demonstrated ability to debate others which led him in 1528, at his father's insistence, to study law at Orléans and Bourges. After his father's death in 1531 he returned to Paris, where he pursued his own desires, the study of the classics and Hebrews. He experienced c. 1533 what he later described as a "sudden conversion," and he turned all his attention to the cause of the Reformation.

As a persecuted Protestant, Calvin found it necessary to travel from place to place, and at Angoulême in 1534 he began the work of systematizing Protestant thought in his "Institutes of the Christian Religion.," considered one of the most influential theological works of all time. Completed at Basel in 1536 and later frequently revised and supplemented, the original work contained the basic Calvinist theology. In the "Institutes" Calvin diverged from Catholic doctrine in the rejection of papal authority and in acceptance of justification by faith alone, but other positions, including the fundamental doctrine of predestination, had been foreshadowed by Catholic reformers and by the protestant thought of Martin Luther.

In 1536, Calvin was persuaded by Guillaume Farel to devote himself to the work of the reformation at Geneva, and there Calvin instituted the most thoroughgoing development of his doctrine. At first the Genevans were unable to accept the austere reforms and departures from established church customs, and in 1538 the opposition succeeded in banishing Farel and Calvin from the city. Calvin went to Basel and then to Strasbourg, where he spent three fruitful years preaching and writing. By 1541 the Genevans welcomed Calvin and he immediately set himself to the task of constructing a government based on the subordination of the state to the church. Once the Bible is accepted as the sole source of God's law, the duty of humans is to interpret it and preserve the orderly world that God has ordained. This goal Calvin set out to achieve through the establishment of ecclesiastical discipline, in which the magistrates had the task of enforcing the religious teachings of the church as set forth by the synod. The Genevan laws and constitution were recodified; regulation of conduct was extended to all areas of life. Church discipline was supplemented by a systematized theology, with the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper given to unite believers around the fellowship of Christ.

Calvin wrote extensively on all theological and practical matters. He was involved in many controversies. Among them were his violent opposition to the Anabaptists; his disagreement with the Lutherans over the Lord's Supper, which resulted in the separation of the Evangelical Church into Lutheran and Reformed; and his condemnation of the anti-Trinitarian views of Michael Servetus, which ended in the trial and the burning of Servetus in 1553.

John Knox (1514-1752)

Little is recorded of his life before 1545. He probably attended St. Andrews University, where he may have become acquainted with some of the new Protestant doctrines. He entered the Roman Catholic priesthood, however, and from 1540 to 1544 was engaged as an ecclesiastical notary and as a private tutor. By late 1545 Know had attached himself closely to the reformer George Wishart. When, after Wishart's execution (1546), a group of Protestant conspirators took revenge by murdering Cardinal David Beatson, Knox, now definitely a Protestant, took refuge with them in St. Andrews Castle and preached in the parish church. Attacked by both Scottish and French forces, the castle was eventually surrendered (1547), and Knox served 19 months in the French galleys before his release (1549) through the efforts of the English government of Edward VI. Knox spent the next few years in England, preaching in Berwick and Newcastle as a licensed minister of the crown and serving briefly as a royal chaplain. He helped to prepare the second Book of Common Prayer, but he declined an appointment as an Anglican bishop.

Shortly after the accession (1553) of the Catholic Mary I to the English throne, Knox went into exile on the Continent, living chiefly in Geneva and Frankfurt. In Geneva he consulted with John Calvin on questions of church doctrine and civil authority. Meanwhile, through his frequent letters, he exerted considerable influence among Protestants in England and Scotland; in his "faithful Admonition" pamphlet of 1554 he began to urge the duty of the righteous to overthrow "ungodly" monarchs. In 1555-56 he visited Scotland, preaching in private and counseling the Protestant congregations. After his return to Geneva, where he served (1556-58) as pastor to the English congregation, he wrote the First Blast of the trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment [i.e. regimen] of Women. That fiery tract was directed against the Catholic Mary of Guise, regent of Scotland, and Queen Mary of England, but it alienated the Protestant Elizabeth I, who succeeded to the English throne in1 558.

In 1557 the Scottish Protestant nobles signed their First Covenant, banding together to form the group known as the lords of the congregation (see Scotland, Church of). When, in 1559, Mary of Guise moved against the Protestants, the lords of the congregation took up arms and invited Knox back from Geneva to lead them. Aided by England and by the regent's death in 1560, the reformers forced the withdrawal of the French troops that had come to Mary's aid and won their freedom as well as dominance for the new religion. Under Knox's direction, a confession of faith (Calvinistic) was drawn up (1560) and passed by the Scottish Parliament, which also passed laws abolishing the authority of the pope and condemning all creeds and practices of the old religion. All the acts of 1560 were eventually confirmed, thereby establishing Presbyterianism as the official religion.

Despite the ill health of his last years, Knox continued to be an outspoken preacher until his death. It has been said of Knox that "rarely has any country produced a stronger will." His single-minded zeal made him the outstanding leader of the Scottish Reformation and an important influence on the Protestant movements in England and on the Continent. His History of the Reformation in Scotland, finished in 1564, was published in 1584 after his death.

Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531)

Zwingli received a thorough classical education in Basel, Bern, and Vienna. In 1506 he was ordained and appointed pastor of Glarus; he also served (1513, 1515) as chaplain to Swiss mercenaries in Italy. In 1516 he became people's vicar at Einsiedeln. While there Zwingli began to formulate the ideas that were to lead him to renounce the church of Rome. Unlike Martin Luther, Zwingli experienced no acute religious crisis - he became a reformer through his studies. Later he was to adopt Luther's doctrine of justification by faith alone, but Zwingli's independent study of Scriptures had already led him to question the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

When he became vicar at the Grossmünster of Zürich in 1518 the real reformation of Switzerland began in 1519. Armed with Erasmus' 1516 edition of the Greek text he discarded scholastic commentaries and proclaimed the sole authority of the word of God as revelaed in Scripture. With his expression of opposition to Lenten observances in 1522 the Reformation in Zürich was well under way. In the same year, with the publication of Architeles, he made clear his belief in freedom from the control of the Roman hierarchy.

A public disputation with a papal representative was held before the general council of Zürich in 1523; Zwingli presented his doctrines in 67 theses. The council approved the Zwinglian position and instructed all priests in the canton to comply. The new practices were rapidly put into effect -- organs were destroyed, images were removed from churches, priests were allowed to marry, monasticism was abolished, the liturgy was simplified, and the sacrament of communion reduced to a commemorative feast. In 1524, Zwingli publicly celebrated his marriage, which he had illegally contracted two years previously. In 1525 the Catholic Mass was replaced by a reformed service at Zwingli's church in Zürich.

Although Bern adopted Zwingli's reforms in 1528, and Basel and St. Gall soon after, he faced agitation by the Anabaptists, who wanted even more radical reform, and the armed resistance of the Forest Cantons that had remained loyal to Rome. When Zürich imposed a trade embargo on these cantons they retaliated with war (1531), and at the battle of Kappel, Zwingle was killed. Zwingli's work in Zürich was carried on by his colleague and son-in- law, Heinrich Bullinger, but the Reformation in Switzerland passed into the hands of John Calvin. Calvin built his comprehensive theological system partly on the groundwork laid by Zwingli.