Calvinism
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No better account of this remarkable (though now largely obsolete) system has been drawn out than Möhler's in his "Symbolism or Doctrinal Differences." The "Institutes of the Christian Religion," in which
Calvin
depicted his own mind, were never superseded by creed or formulary, though the writer subscribed, in 1540, at Worms to the Confession of Augsburg, i.e. the second revised edition. To take his bearings in
theology
we must remember that he succeeded
Luther
in point of time and was committed to a struggle with
Zwingli's
disciples at
Zurich
and elsewhere, known as Sacramentarians, but who tended more and more towards a
Christianity
without mysteries. In 1549 he and Farel entered with Bullinger into a moderate view as regarded the Eucharist, the "Consensus Tigurinus," or compact of
Zurich
, which
Bucer
also accepted. Another compact, of the "pastors of
Geneva
" strengthened his hands, in 1552, on the subjects of
predestination
, against
Jerome Bolsec
, whom he refuted and cast into
prison
.
Bolsec
finally returned to the
Catholic
Church
. In 1553 a controversy between the German
Lutherans
about the Lord's Supper led
Calvin
to declare his agreement with
Melanchthon
(the Philippists), but
Melanchthon
kept silence. Further complications ensued when Beza, softening the real
doctrine
of
Geneva
, drew nearer still to the
Lutheran
belief
on this head. Bullinger and Peter Martyr cried down Beza's unauthorized glosses; but
Calvin
supported his favourite. Nevertheless, that "declaration" was dropped by Beza when, in company with Farel, he put together a "Confession of the French Church," and fell back on the creed of
Augsburg
issued in 1530, while not assenting to its 10th article. The Eucharist was to be more than a sign; Christ was truly present in it, and was received by Faith (compare the
English
Prayer
Book, which reproduces his conception). Beyond these, on the whole, abortive efforts toward a common understanding,
Calvin
never went. His individual genius demanded its own expression; and he is always like himself, unlike any other. The many creeds fell into oblivion; but the "Institutes" were recognized more and more as the sum of Reformed Theology. It was said after 1560, by the
Jesuit
St. Peter Canisius
, that
Calvin
appeared to be taking
Luther's
place even among Germans. Three currents have ever since held their course in this development of
Protestantism
:
To the modern world, however,
Calvin
stands peculiarly for the
Reformation
, his
doctrine
is supposed to contain the essence of the Gospel; and multitudes who reject
Christianity
mean merely the creed of
Geneva
.
Why does this happen? Because, we answer,
Calvin
gave himself out as following closely in the steps of
St. Paul
and
St. Augustine
. The
Catholic teaching
at
Trent
he judged to be
Semi-Pelagian
, a stigma which his disciples fix especially on the
Jesuit
schools
, above all, on Molina. Hence the curious situation arises, that, while the
Catholic
consent of the East and West finds little or no acknowledgement as an historical fact among assailants of religion, the views which a single Reformer enunciated are taken as though representing the
New Testament
. In other words, a highly refined individual system, not traceable as a whole to any previous age, supplants the public teaching of centuries.
Calvin
, who
hated
Scholasticism
, comes before us, as
Luther
had already done, in the shape of a
Scholastic
. His "pure
doctrine
" is gained by appealing, not to tradition, the "deposit" of
faith
, but to argument in abstract terms exercised upon Scripture. He is neither a critic nor a historian; he takes the
Bible
as something given; and he manipulates the
Apostles' Creed
in accordance with his own
ideas
. The "Institutes" are not a history of
dogma
, but a treatise, only not to be called an essay because of its peremptory tone.
Calvin
annihilates the entire space, with all its developments, which lies between the death of St. John and the sixteenth century. He does, indeed, quote
St. Augustine
, but he leaves out all that
Catholic
foundation on which the Doctor of Grace built.
The "Institutes of the Christian Religion" are divided into four books and exhibit a commentary on the
Apostles' Creed
.
- Book I considers
God the Creator
, the Trinity, revelation, man's first estate and original righteousness.
- Book II describes the Fall of Adam, and treats of Christ the Redeemer.
- Book III enlarges on justifying
faith
, election, and reprobation.
- Book IV gives the
Presbyterian
idea
of the
Church
.
In form the work differs from the "Summa" of
St. Thomas Aquinas
by using exposition where the
Angelic Doctor
syllogizes; but the style is close, the language good Latin of the
Renaissance
, and the tone elevated, though often bitter. Arguments employed are always ostensibly grounded on Scripture, the authority of which rests not upon fallible human reasoning, but on the internal persuasion of the Holy Spirit. Yet
Calvin
is embarrassed at the outset by "unsteady men" who declare themselves enlightened of the same spirit and in no want of Scripture. He endeavours to refute them by the instance of
St. Paul
and other "primitive believers," i.e. after all, by
Catholic tradition
. It will be obvious, moreover, that where the "Institutes" affirm
orthodox
tenets they follow the Councils and the Fathers, while professing reliance on the
Bible
alone. Thus we need not rehearse those chapters which deal with the Nicene and Chalcedonian formulas.
We shall best apprehend
Calvin's
master-thought if we liken it to modern systems of the Unconscious, or of physical predetermination, wherein all effects lie folded up, as it were, in one First Cause, and their development in time is necessitated. Effects are thus mere manifestations, not fresh acts, or in any way due to
free will
choosing its own course. Nature, grace, revelation,
Heaven
, and
Hell
do but show us different aspects of the eternal energy which works in all things. There is no
free will
outside the Supreme.
Zwingli
argued that, since
God
was
infinite
being, He alone existed there could be no other being, and secondary or created causes were but instruments moved entirely by Divine power.
Calvin
did not go to this length. But he denies freedom to creatures, fallen or unfallen, except it be
libertas a coactione
; in other words,
God
does not compel man to act by brute force, yet he determines irresistibly all we do, whether
good
or
evil
. The Supreme is indeed self-conscious not a blind Fate or
Stoic
destiny; it is by "decree" of the sovereign Lawgiver that events come to pass. But for such decrees no reason can be rendered. There is not any cause of the Divine will save Itself. If we ask why has the Almighty acted thus and thus, we are told, "Quia ipse voluit" it is His good pleasure. Beyond this, an explanation would be impossible, and to demand one is impiety. From the human angle of sight, therefore
God
works as though without a reason. And here we come upon the primal mystery to which in his argument
Calvin
recurs again and again. This Supreme Will fixes an absolute order, physical,
ethical
, religious, never to be modified by anything we can attempt. For we cannot act upon
God
, else He would cease to be the First Cause. Holding this clue, it is comparatively simple to trace
Calvin's
footsteps along the paths of history and revelation.
Luther
had written that man's will is enslaved either to
God
or to
Satan
, but it is never free.
Melanchthon
declaimed against the "impious
dogma
of Free Will," adding that since all things happen by necessity according to
Divine predestination
, no room was left for it. This was truly the article by which the
Reformation
should stand or fall.
God
is sole agent. Therefore creation,
redemption
, election, reprobation are in such sense His acts that man becomes merely their vehicle and himself does nothing.
Luther
, contending with
Erasmus
, declares that "God by an unchangeable, eternal, infallible will, foresees purposes and effects all things. By this thunderbolt Free Will is utterly destroyed."
Calvin
shared
Luther's
doctrine
of necessity to the full; but he embroiled the language by admitting in unfallen Adam a liberty of choice. He was likewise at pains to distinguish between his own teaching and the "nature bound fast in Fate" of the
Stoics
. He meant by liberty, however, the absence of constraint; and the Divine wisdom which he invoked could never be made intelligible to our understanding. What he rejected was the
Catholic
notion of the self-determining second cause. Neither would he allow the
doctrine
laid down by the Fathers of
Trent
(Sess. VI Canon 16), that
God
permits
evil
deeds, but is not their author. The condemnation struck expressly at
Melanchthon
, who asserted that the betrayal by
Judas
was not less properly
God's
act than the vocation of
St. Paul
. But by parity of reasoning it falls upon Calvinism. For the "Institutes" affirm that "man by the righteous impulsion of
God
does that which is unlawful," and that "man falls, the
Providence of God
so ordaining" (IV, 18, 2; III, 23, 8). Yet elsewhere
Calvin
denied this impulse as not in accordance with the known will of the Almighty. Both he and
Luther
found a way of escape from the moral dilemma inflicted on them by distinguishing two wills in the Divine Nature, one public or apparent, which commanded good and forbade
evil
as the Scripture teaches, the other just, but secret and unsearchable, predetermining that Adam and all the reprobate should fall into
sin
and perish. At no time did
Calvin
grant that Adam's transgression was due to his own
free will
. Beza traces it to a spontaneous, i.e. a natural and
necessary
, movement of the spirit, in which
evil
could not fail to spring up. He justifies the means
sin
and its consequences by the holy purpose of the Creator who, if there were no one to punish, would be incapable of showing that he is a righteously vindictive
God
. As, however, man's intent was
evil
, he becomes a sinner while his Creator remains holy. The Reformed confessions will not allow that
God
is the author of
sin
and
Calvin
shows deep indignation when charged with "this disgraceful falsehood." He distinguishes, like Beza, the various intentions concurring to the same act on the part of different agents- but the difficulty cannot well be got over, that, in his view, the First Cause alone is a real agent, and the rest mere instruments. It was objected to him that he gave no convincing reasons for the position thus taken up, and that his followers were swayed by their master's authority rather than by the force of his
logic
. Even an admirer, J. A. Froude, tells us:
To represent man as sent into the world under a curse, as incurably wicked—wicked by the constitution of his nature and wicked by eternal decree—as doomed, unless exempted by special grace which he cannot merit, or by any effort of his own obtain, to live in
sin
while he remains on earth, and to be
eternally
miserable when he leaves it—to represent him as born unable to keep the commandments, yet as justly liable to everlasting punishment for breaking them, is alike repugnant to reason and
conscience
, and turns existence into a hideous nightmare. (Short Studies, II, 3.)
Another way to define the Reformed
theology
would be to contrast its view of
God's
eternal decrees with that taken in the
Catholic
Church
, notably by
Jesuit
authors such as Molina. To
Calvin
the ordinances of Deity seemed absolute, i.e. not in any way regardful of the creature's acts, which they predetermined either right or wrong; and thus reprobation the supreme issue between all parties followed upon
God's
unconditioned fiat, no account being had in the
decree
itself of man's merits or demerits. For
God
chose some to glory and others to shame everlasting as He willed, not upon foreknowledge how they would act. The
Jesuit
school
made foreknowledge of "future contingencies" or of what creatures would do in any possible juncture, the term of Divine vision
"scientia media"
which was
logically
antecedent (as a condition not a cause) to the scheme of
salvation
. Grace, said
Catholic
dogma
, was offered to all men; none were excluded from it. Adam need not have transgressed, neither was his fall pre-ordained. Christ died for the whole
human race
; and every one had such help from on high that the reprobate could never charge their ruin upon their Maker, since he permitted it only, without an absolute
decree
. Grace, then, was given freely; but eternal life came to the
saints
by merit, founded on correspondence to the Holy Spirit's impulse. All these statements
Calvin
rejected as
Pelagian
, except that he would maintain, though unable to justify, the imputation of the sinner's lapse to
human
nature
by itself.
To be consistent, this
doctrine
requires that no prevision of Adam's Fall should affect the eternal choice which discriminates between the
elect
and the lost. A genuine Calvinist ought to be a supralapsarian; in other terms, the Fall was decreed as means to an end; it did not first appear in
God's
sight to be the sufficient cause why, if He chose, He might select some from the
"massa damnata,"
leaving others to their decreed doom. To this subject
St. Augustine
frequently returns in his anti-Pelagian treatises, and he lays great emphasis on the consequences to
mankind
as regards their final state, of
God's
dealing with them in fallen Adam. But his language, unlike that of
Calvin
, never implies absolute rejection
divorced
from foreknowledge of man's guilt. Thus even to the African Father, whose views in his latter works became increasingly severe (see "On the Predestination of the Saints" and "On Correction and Grace") there was always an element of
scientia media
, i.e. prevision in the relation of
God
with His creatures. But, to the Reformer who explained Redemption and its opposite by sheer
omnipotence
doing as it would, the
idea
that man could, even as a term of
knowledge
, by his free acts be considered in the Everlasting Will was not conceivable. As the
Arian
said, "How can the Eternal be begotten?" and straightway denied the generation of the Word, in like manner
Calvin
, "How can the contingent affect the First Cause on which it utterly depends?" In the old dilemma, "either
God
is not
omnipotent
or man is not self determined," the "Institutes" accept the conclusion adverse to liberty. But it was, said
Catholics
, equally adverse to
morals
; and the system has always been criticised on that ground. In a word, it seemed to be
antinomian
.
With
Augustine
the Geneva author professed to be at one. "If they have all been taken from a corrupt mass," he argued, "no marvel that they are subject to condemnation." But, his critics replied, "were they not antecedently
predestined
to that corruption?" And "is not
God
unjust
in treating His creatures with such cruel mystery?" To this
Calvin
answers, "I confess that all descendants of Adam fell by the Divine will," and that "we must return at last to
God's
sovereign determination, the cause of which is hidden" (Institutes, III, 23, 4). "Therefore," he concludes, "some men are born devoted from the womb to certain death, that His name may be glorified in their destruction." And the reason why such necessity is laid upon them? "Because," says
Calvin
"life and death are acts of
God's
will rather than of his foreknowledge," and "He foresees further events only in consequence of his
decree
that they shall happen." Finally, "it is an awful
decree
, I confess [
horribile decretum, fateor
], but none can deny that
God
foreknew the future final fate of man before He created him and that He did foreknow it because it was appointed by His own ordinance."
Calvin
, then, is a supralapsarian; the Fall was
necessary
; and our
first parents
, like ourselves, could not have avoided
sinning
.
So far, the scheme presents a cast-iron
logic
at whatever expense to
justice
and morality. When it comes to consider
human
nature
, its terms sound more uncertain, it veers to each extreme in succession of
Pelagius
and
Luther
. In
St. Augustine
, that nature is almost always viewed historically, not in the abstract hence as possessed by unfallen Adam it was endowed with
supernatural gifts
, while in his fallen children it bears the burden of
concupiscence
and
sin
. But the French Reformer, not conceding a possible state of pure nature, attributes to the
first man
, with
Luther
(in
Genesis 3
), such perfection as would render
God's actual grace
unnecessary, thus tending to make Adam self-sufficient, as the
Pelagians
held all men to be. On the other hand, when
original sin
took them once captive the image of
God
was entirety blotted out. This article of "total depravity" also came from
Luther
, who expressed it in language of appalling power. And so the "Institutes" announce that "in man all which bears reference to the blessed life of the
soul
is extinct." And if it was "natural" in Adam to
love
God
and do
justice
, or a part of his very essence, then by lapsing from grace he would have been plunged into an abyss below nature, where his
true
moral and religious being was altogether dissolved. So, at any rate, the German
Protestants
believed in their earlier period, nor was
Calvin
reluctant to echo them.
Catholics
distinguish two kinds of beatitude: one corresponding to our nature as a rational species and to be acquired by virtuous acts; the other beyond all that man may do or seek when left to his own faculties, and in such wise
God's
free gift that it is due only to acts performed under the influence of a strictly
supernatural
movement. The confusion of grace with nature in Adam's essence was common to all the Reformed
schools
; it is peculiarly manifest in
Jansenius
, who strove to deduce it from
St. Augustine
. And, granting the Fall, it leads by direct inference to man's utter corruption as the unregenerate child of Adam. He is
evil
in all that he thinks, or wills, or does. Yet
Calvin
allows him reason and choice, though not
true
liberty. The heart was poisoned by
sin
, but something remained of grace to hinder its worst excesses, or to justify
God's
vengeance on the reprobate (over and above their original fault inherited). On the whole, it must be said that the "Institutes" which now and then allow that
God's
image was not quite effaced in us, deny to
mankind
, so far as
redemption
has not touched them, any moral and religious powers whatsoever. With
Calvin
as with his predecessor of
Wittenberg
,
heathen
virtue is but apparent, and that of the non-Christian merely "political," or secular. Civilization, founded on our common nature, is in such a view external only, and its
justice
or benevolence may claim no intrinsic value. That it has no
supernatural
value
Catholics
have always asserted; but the
Church
condemns those who say, with
Baius
, "All the works of unbelievers are
sinful
and the virtues of the
philosophers
are vices." Propositions equivalent to these are as follows: "Free Will not aided by
God's grace
, avails only to commit
sin
," and "
God
could not have created man at the beginning such as he is now born" (Props. 25, 27, 55, censured by
St. Pius V
, Oct., 1567, and by
Urban VIII
, March, 1641).
Catholic
theology
admits a twofold
goodness
and righteousness the one natural, as
Aristotle
defines it in his "Ethics," the other
supernatural
inspired by the Holy Ghost.
Calvin
throws aside every middle term between justifying
faith
and corrupt desire. The integrity of Adam's nature once violated, he falls under the dominion of
lust
, which reigns in him without hindrance, save by the external grace now and again preventing a deeper degradation. But whatever he is or does savours of the
Evil One
. Accordingly the system maintained that
faith
(which here signifies trust in the
Lutheran
sense) was the first interior grace given and source of all others, as likewise that outside the
Church
no grace is ever bestowed.
We come on these lines to the famous distinction which separates the
true
Church that of the
predestined
, from the seeming or visible, where all
baptized
persons
meet. This falls in with
Calvin's
whole theory, but is never to be mistaken for the view held by Roman authorities, that some may pertain to the
soul
of the
Church
who are not members of its body. Always pursuing his
idea
, the absolute
predestinarian
finds among
Christians
, all of whom have heard the Gospel and received the
sacraments
, only a few entitled to life everlasting. These obtain the grace which is in words offered to every one; the rest fill up the measure of their condemnation. To the reprobate, Gospel ordinances serve as a means to compass the ruin intended for them. Hereby, also, an answer is made possible when
Catholics
demand where the Reformed Church was prior to the
Reformation
.
Calvin
replies that in every age the
elect
constituted the flock of
Christ
, and all besides were strangers, though invested with dignity and offices in the visible communion. The reprobate have only apparent
faith
. Yet they may feel as do the
elect
, experience similar fervours, and to the best of their judgment be accounted
saints
. All that is mere delusion; they are
hypocrites
"into whose minds
God
insinuates Himself, so that, not having the adoption of sons, they may yet taste the
goodness
of the Spirit." Thus
Calvin
explained how in the Gospel many are called believers who did not persevere; and so the visible Church is made up of
saints
that can never lose their crown, and sinners that by no effort could attain to
salvation
.
Faith, which means assurance of election, grace, and glory, is then the heritage of none but the
predestined
. But, since no real secondary cause exists man remains passive throughout the temporal series of events by which he is shown to be an adopted
son of God
. He neither acts nor, in the
Catholic
sense co-operates with his Redeemer. A difference in the method of conversion between
Luther
and
Calvin
may here be noted. The German mystic begins, as his own experience taught him, with the terrors of the
law
. The French divine who had never gone through that stage, gives the first place to the Gospel; and repentance, instead of preceding
faith
, comes after it. He argued that by so disposing of the process,
faith
appeared manifestly alone, unaccompanied by repentance, which, otherwise, might claim some share of merit. The
Lutherans
, moreover, did not allow absolute
predestination
. And their confidence in being themselves justified, i.e. saved, was unequal to
Calvin's
requirements. For he made assurance inevitable as was its object to the chosen
soul
. Nevertheless, he fancied that between himself and the sounder
medieval
scholastics no quarrel need arise touching the principle of justification namely, that "the sinner being delivered gratuitously from his doom becomes righteous."
Calvin
overlooked in these statements the vital difference which accounts for his aberration from the ancient system.
Catholics
held that fallen man kept in some degree his moral and religious faculties, though much impaired, and did not lose his
free will
. But the newer
doctrine
affirmed man's total incompetence, he could neither freely consent nor ever resist, when grace was given, if he happened to be
predestinate
. If not, justification lay beyond his grasp. However, the language of the "Institutes" is not so uncompromising as
Luther's
had been.
God
first heals the corrupt will, and the will follows His guidance; or, we may say, cooperates.
The one final position of
Calvin
is that
omnipotent
grace of itself substitutes a good for an
evil
will in the
elect
, who do nothing towards their own conversion but when converted are accounted just. In all the original
theology
of the
Reformation
righteousness is something imputed, not indwelling in the
soul
. It is a legal fiction when compared with what the
Catholic
Church
believes, namely, that
justice
or sanctification involves a real gift, a quality bestowed on the spirit and inherent, whereby it becomes the thing it is called. Hence the
Council of Trent
declares (Sess. VI) that
Christ
died for all men, it condemns (Canon XVII) the main propositions of
Geneva
, that "the grace of justification comes only to the
predestinate
," and that "the others who are called receive an invitation but no grace, being doomed by the Divine power to
evil
." So
Innocent X
proscribed in
Jansenius
the statement: "It is
Semipelagian
to affirm that
Christ
died for all men, or shed His blood in their behalf." In like manner
Trent
rejected the definition of
faith
as "confidence in being justified without merit"; grace was not "the feeling of
love
," nor was justification the "forgiveness of
sin
," and apart from a special revelation no man could be infallibly sure that he was saved. According to
Calvin
the
saint
was made such by his
faith
, and the sinner by want of it stood condemned, but the Fathers of
Trent
distinguished a dead
faith
, which could never justify, from
faith
animated by charity and they attributed merit to all
good
works
done through
Divine inspiration
. But in the Genevese
doctrine
faith
itself is not holy. This appears very singular; and no explanation has ever been vouchsafed of the power ascribed to an act or mean, itself destitute of intrinsic qualities, neither morally good nor in any way meritorious, the presence or absence of which nevertheless fixes our eternal destiny
But since Christ alone is our righteousness,
Luther
concluded that the just man is never just in himself; that
concupiscence
, though resisted, makes him
sin
damnably in all he does, and that he remains a sinner until his last breath. Thus even the "Solid Declaration" teaches, though in many respects toning down the Reformer's truculence. Such guilt, however,
God
overlooks where
faith
is found the one unpardonable
sin
is want of
faith
. "Pecca fortiter sed crede fortius" this
Lutheran
epigram, "Sin as you like provided you believe," expresses in a paradox the contrast between corrupt
human
nature
, filthy still in the very highest
saints
, and the shadow of
Christ
, as, falling upon them, it hides their shame before
God
. Here again the
Catholic
refuses to consider man responsible except where his will consents; the
Protestant
regards impulse and enticement as constituting all the will that we have. These observations apply to
Calvin
but he avoids extravagant speech while not differing from
Luther
in fact. He grants that
St. Augustine
would not term involuntary desires
sin
; then he adds, "We, on the contrary, deem it to be
sin
whenever a man feels any desires forbidden by
Divine law
and we assert the depravity to be
sin
which produces them" (Institutes, III, 2, 10). On the hypothesis of determinism, held by every
school
of the
Reformers
, this
logic
is unimpeachable. But it leads to strange consequences. The sinner commits actions which the
saint
may also indulge in; but one is saved the other is lost; and so the entire moral contents of
Christianity
are emptied out.
Luther
denominated the
saint's
liberty freedom from the
law
. And
Calvin
, "The question is not how we can be righteous, but how, though unworthy and unrighteous, we may be considered righteous." The law may instruct and exhort, but "it has no place in the
conscience
before
God's
tribunal." And if
Christians
advert to the
law
, "they see that every work they attempt or
meditate
is accursed" (Institutes, III, 19, 2, 4).
Leo X
had condemned
Luther's
thesis, "In every good work the just man
sins
."
Baius
fell under censure for asserting (Props. 74, 75) that "concupiscence in the
baptized
is a
sin
, though not imputed." And, viewing the whole theory,
Catholics
have asked whether a sinfulness which exists quite independent of the will is not something substantial, like the darkness of the
Manichæans
, or essential to us who are finite beings.
At all events
Calvin
seems entangled in perplexities on the subject, for he declares expressly that the regenerate are "liable every moment at
God's
judgment-seat to sentence of
death
" (Instit., III, 2, 11); yet elsewhere he tempers his language with a "so to speak," and explains it as meaning that all human virtue is imperfect. He would certainly have subscribed to the "Solid Declaration," that the
good
works
of the
pious
are not
necessary
to
salvation
. With
Luther
, he affirms the least transgression to be a mortal
sin
, even involuntary
concupiscence
and as this abides in every man while he lives, all that we do is worthy of punishment (Instit., II, 8, 68, 59). And again, "There never yet was any work of a religious man which, examined by
God's
severe standard would not be condemnable" (Ibid., III, 14,11). The
Council of Trent
had already censured these axioms by asserting that
God
does not command impossibilities, and that His children keep His word.
Innocent X
did the like when he proscribed as
heretical
the fifth proposition of
Jansenius
, "Some
commandments of God
are impossible to the just who will and endeavour; nor is the grace by which they should become possible given to them."
Two important practical consequences may be drawn from this entire view: first, that conversion takes place in a moment and so all evangelical
Protestants
believe; and, second, that
baptism
ought not to be administered to infants, seeing they cannot have the
faith
which justifies. This latter inference produced the
sect
of
Anabaptists
against whom
Calvin
thunders as he does, against other "frenzied"
persons
, in vehement tones. Infant
baptism
was admitted, but its value, as that of every ordinance, varied with the
predestination
to life or to death of the recipient. To Calvinists the
Church
system was an outward life beneath which the Holy Spirit might be present or absent, not according to the dispositions brought by the
faithful
, but as grace was decreed. For
good
works
could not prepare a man to receive the
sacraments
worthily any more than to be justified in the beginning. If so, the
Quakers
might well ask, what is the use of
sacraments
when we have the Spirit? And especially did this reasoning affect the Eucharist.
Calvin
employs the most painful terms in disowning the
sacrifice of the Mass
. No longer channels of grace, to
Melanchthon
the
sacraments
are "Memorials of the exercise of
faith
," or badges to be used by
Christians
. From this point of view,
Christ's real presence
was superfluous, and the acute mind of
Zwingli
leaped at once to that conclusion, which has ever since prevailed among ordinary
Protestants
. But
Luther's
adherence to the words of the Scripture forbade him to give up the reality, though he dealt with it in his peculiar fashion.
Bucer
held an obscure
doctrine
, which attempted the middle way between
Rome
and
Wittenberg
. To
Luther
the
sacraments
serve as tokens of
God's
love
;
Zwingli
degrades them to covenants between the
faithful
.
Calvin
gives the old scholastic definition and agrees with
Luther
in commending their use, but he separates the visible element proffered to all from the grace which none save the
elect
may enjoy. He admits only two
sacraments
, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Even these neither contain nor confer spiritual
graces
; they are signs, but not efficacious as regards that which is denoted by them. For inward gifts, we must remember, do not belong to the system, whereas
Catholics
believe
in ordinances as acts of the
Man-God
, producing the effects within the
soul
which He has promised, "He that eateth Me shall live by Me."
When the
Church's
tradition was thrown aside, differences touching the
Holy Eucharist
sprang up immediately among the
Reformers
which have never found a reconciliation. To narrate their history would occupy a volume. It is notable, however, that
Calvin
succeeded where
Bucer
had failed, in a sort of compromise, and the agreement of
Zurich
which he inspired was taken up by the
Swiss
Protestants
. Elsewhere it led to quarrels, particularly among the
Lutherans
, who charged him with yielding too much. He taught that the Body of Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, and that the believer partakes of it that the elements are unchanged, and that the
Catholic
Mass was
idolatry
. Yet his precise meaning is open to question. That he did not hold a real objective presence seems clear from his arguing against
Luther
, as the "black
rubric
" of the
Common Prayer Book
argues
Christ's
body, he says, is in
heaven
. Therefore, it cannot be on earth. The reception was a spiritual one; and this perfectly
orthodox
phrase might be interpreted as denying a
true
corporal presence. The Augsburg Confession, revised by its author
Melanchthon
, favoured ambiguous views at last he declared boldly for
Calvin
, which amounted to an acknowledgment that
Luther's
more decided language overshot the mark. The "Formula of Concord" was an attempt to rescue German Churches from this concession to the so-called Sacramentarians; it pronounced, as
Calvin
never would have done, that the unworthy communicant receives
Our Lord's Body
; and it met his objection by the strange device of "ubiquity" namely, that the glorified Christ was everywhere. But these quarrels lie outside our immediate scope.
As
Calvin
would not grant the Mass to be a sacrifice, nor the
ministers
of the Lord's Supper to be
priests
, that conception of the
Church
which history traces back to the earliest Apostolic times underwent a corresponding change. The
clergy
were now "Ministers of the Word," and the Word was not a tradition, comprising Scripture in its treasury, but the printed Bible, declared all-sufficient to the mind which the Spirit was guiding. Justification by
faith
alone, the
Bible
, and the
Bible
only, as the
rule of faith
such were the cardinal principles of the
Reformation
. They worked at first destructively, by abolishing the Mass and setting up private judgment in opposition to
pope
and
bishops
. Then the
Anabaptists
arose. If
God's
word sufficed, what need of a
clergy
? The
Reformers
felt that they must restore creeds and enforce the power of the
Church
over dissidents.
Calvin
, who possessed great constructive talent, built his presbytery on a democratic foundation the people were to choose, but the
ministers
chosen were to rule.
Christian
freedom consisted in throwing off the yoke of the Papacy, it did not allow the individual to stand aloof from the congregation. He must sign formulas, submit to discipline, be governed by a committee of elders. A new sort of
Catholic
Church
came into view, professing that the
Bible
was its teacher and judge, but never letting its members think otherwise than the articles drawn up should enjoin. None were allowed in the
pulpit
who were not publicly called, and
ordination
, which
Calvin
regarded almost as a sacrament, was conferred by the presbytery.
In his Fourth Book the great
iconoclast
, to whom in good
logic
only the
Church
invisible should have signified anything, makes the visible Church supreme over
Christians
, assigns to it the prerogatives claimed by
Rome
, enlarges on the guilt of
schism
, and upholds the principle,
Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
. He will not allow that corrupt
morals
in the
clergy
, or a passing eclipse of
doctrine
by
superstition
, can excuse those who, on pretence of a purer Gospel, leave it. The
Church
is described in equivalent terms as indefectible and
infallible
. All are bound to hear and obey what it teaches.
Luther
had spoken of it with contempt almost everywhere in his first writings; to him the individual guided by the
Holy Spirit
was autonomous. But
Calvin
taught his followers so imposing a conception of the body in which they were united as to bring back a
hierarchy
in effect if not in name. "Where the ministry of Word and Sacraments is preserved," he concludes, "no moral delinquencies can take away the
Church's
title." He had nevertheless, broken with the communion in which he was born. The
Anabaptists
retorted that they did not owe to his new-fashioned presbytery the allegiance he had cast away the
Quakers
, who held with him by the Inward Light, more consistently refused all
jurisdiction
to the visible Church.
One sweeping consequence of the
Reformation
is yet to be noticed. As it denied the merit of
good
works
even in the regenerate, all those
Catholic
beliefs
and ordinances which implied a
Communion of Saints
actively helping each other by
prayer
and self-sacrifice were flung aside. Thus
Purgatory
, Masses for the dead, invocation of the blessed in
Heaven
, and their intercession for us are scouted by
Calvin
as "Satan's devices." A single argument gets rid of them all: do they not make void the Cross of Christ our only Redeemer? (Instit., III, 5, 6). Beza declared that "prayer to the
saints
destroys the unity of
God
." The
Dutch
Calvinists affirmed of them, as the
Epicureans
of their
deities
, that they
knew
nothing about what passes on earth. Wherever the
Reformers
triumphed, a wholesale destruction of shrines and
relics
took place. Monasticism, being an ordered system of
mortification
on
Catholic
principles, offended all who thought such works needless or even dangerous it fell, and great was the fall thereof, in
Protestant
Europe
. The Calendar had been framed as a yearly ritual, commemorating
Our Lord's
life and sufferings, with
saints'
days filling it up.
Calvin
would tolerate the
Swiss
of
Berne
who desired to keep the Gospel festivals; but his
Puritan
followers left the year blank, observing only the
Sabbath
, in a spirit of Jewish legalism. After such a fashion the
Church
was
divorced
from the political order the living
Christian
ceased to have any distinct relation with his departed friends; the
saints
became mere memories, or were suspected of Popery; the churches served as houses of preaching, where the
pulpit
had abolished the altar; and
Christian art
was a thing of the past.
The
Reformers
, including
Calvin
, appealed so confidently to
St. Augustine's
volumes that it seems only fair to note the real difference which exists between his
doctrine
and theirs.
Cardinal Newman
sums it up as follows:
The main point is whether the Moral Law can in its substance be obeyed and kept by the regenerate.
Augustine
says, that whereas we are by nature condemned by the Law, we are enabled by the
grace of God
to perform it unto our justification;
Luther
[and
Calvin
equally] that, whereas we are condemned by the
law
, Christ has Himself performed it unto our justification
Augustine
, that our righteousness is active;
Luther
, that it is passive;
Augustine
, that it is imparted,
Luther
that it is only imputed;
Augustine
, that it consists in a change of heart;
Luther
, in a change of state.
Luther
maintains that
God's commandments
are impossible to man
Augustine
adds, impossible without His grace;
Luther
that the Gospel consists of promises only
Augustine
, that it is also a law,
Luther
, that our highest wisdom is not to
know
the Law,
Augustine
says instead, to
know
and keep it
Luther
says, that the Law and Christ cannot dwell together in the heart.
Augustine
says that the Law is Christ;
Luther
denies and
Augustine
maintains that obedience is a matter of
conscience
.
Luther
says that a man is made a
Christian
not by working but by hearing;
Augustine
excludes those works only which are done before grace is given;
Luther
, that our best deeds are
sins
;
Augustine
, that they are really pleasing to
God
(Lectures on Justification, ch. ii, 58).
As, unlike the
Lutheran
, those Churches which looked up to
Calvin
as their teacher did not accept one uniform standard, they fell into particular groups and had each their formulary. The three Helvetic Confessions, the Tetrapolitan, that of Basle, and that composed by Bullinger belong respectively to 1530, 1532, 1536. The
Anglican
42 Articles of 1553, composed by Cranmer and Ridley, were reduced to 39 under Elizabeth in 1562. They bear evident tokens of their Calvinistic origin, but are designedly ambiguous in terms and meaning. The
French Protestants
, in a Synod at
Paris
, 1559, framed their own articles. In 1562 those of the
Netherlands
accepted a profession drawn up by Guy de Bres and Saravia in French, which the Synod of Dort (1574) approved. A much more celebrated meeting was held at this place 1618-19, to adjudicate between the High Calvinists, or Supralapsarians, who held unflinchingly to the
doctrine
of the "Institutes" touching
predestination
and the Remonstrants who opposed them. Gomar led the former party; Arminius, though he died before the synod, in 1609, had communicated his milder views to Uytenbogart and Episcopius, hence called
Arminians
. They objected to the
doctrine
of election before merit, that it made the work of Christ superfluous and inexplicable. The Five Articles which contained their
theology
turned on election, adoption, justification, sanctification, and sealing by the
Spirit
, all which Divine acts presuppose that man has been called, has obeyed, and is converted. Redemption is universal, reprobation due to the sinner's fault and not to
God's
absolute
decree
. In these and the like particulars, we find the
Arminians
coming close to
Tridentine
formulas. The "Remonstrance" of 1610 embodied their protest against the
Manichaean
errors
, as they said, which
Calvin
had taken under his patronage. But the Gomarists renewed his
dogmas
; and their
belief
met a favourable reception among the
Dutch
, French, and
Swiss
. In
England
the dispute underwent many vicissitudes. The
Puritans
, as afterwards their
Nonconformist
descendants, generally sided with Gomar; the High Church party became
Arminian
. Wesley abandoned the severe views of
Calvin
; Whitefield adopted them as a revelation. The Westminster Assembly (1643-47) made an attempt to unite the Churches of Great Britain on a basis of Calvinism, but in vain. Their Catechism the Larger and the Smaller enjoyed authority by Act of Parliament.
John Knox
had, in 1560 edited the "First Book of Discipline," which follows Geneva, but includes a permissive ritual. The "Second Book of Discipline" was sent out by a congregation under Andrew Melville's influence in 1572, and in 1592 the whole system received Parliamentary sanction. But James I rejected the doctrines of Dort. In
Germany
the strange
idea
was prevalent that civil rulers ought to fix the creed of their subjects,
Cujus regio, ejus religio
. Hence an alternation and confusion of formulas ensued down to the Peace of
Westphalia
in 1648. Frederick III, Count Palatine, put forward, in 1562, the Heidelberg Catechism, which is of
Calvin's
inspiration. John George of Anhalt-Dessau laid down the same
doctrine
in 20 Articles (1597). Maurice of Hesse-Cassel patronized the Synod of Dort; and John Sigismund of Brandenburg, exchanging the
Lutheran
tenets for the Genevese, imposed on his
Prussians
the "Confession of the Marches." In general, the reformed
Protestants
allowed dogmatic force to the revised Confession of Augsburg (1540) which
Calvin
himself had signed.
About this page
APA citation.
Barry, W.
(1908).
Calvinism.
In
The Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03198a.htm
MLA citation.
Barry, William.
"Calvinism."
The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Vol. 3.
New York: Robert Appleton Company,
1908.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03198a.htm>.
Transcription.
This article was transcribed for New Advent by Tomas Hancil.
Ecclesiastical approbation.
Nihil Obstat.
November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.
Imprimatur.
+John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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