Calvin was born July 10, 1509, in Noyon, France. He began his studies in
Paris, 1523 preparing for theology. In 1529 his father induced him to
take up law in Orleans and Bourges. In 1531 he returned to his
theological studies in Paris. Here he experienced what he himself
describes as a "sudden conversion." He joined the Reformed congregation,
and before long was its acknowledged leader. In 1533 he was compelled to
leave France because of his anti-Roman testimony. In Basel, 1535, he
wrote the first draft of his _Institutio Religionis Christianae_. In
Geneva where he was constrained to remain by William Farel [born 1489;
active as a fiery Protestant preacher in Meaux, Strassburg, Zurich,
Bern, Basel, Moempelgard, Geneva, Metz, etc.; died 1565], Calvin
developed and endeavored to put into practise his legalistic ideal of a
theocratic and rigorous puritanical government. As a result he was
banished, 1538. He removed to Strassburg, where he was held and engaged
by Bucer. He attended the conventions in Frankfort, 1539; Hagenau, 1540;
Worms, 1540; and Regensburg, 1541. Here he got acquainted with the
Lutherans notably Melanchthon. September 13, 1541, he returned to
Geneva, where, woefully mixing State and Church, he continued his
reformatory and puritanical efforts. One of the victims of his
theocratic government was the anti-Trinitarian Michael Servetus, who,
at the instance of Calvin, was burned at the stake, October 27, 1553.
In 1559 Calvin established the Geneva School, which exercised a
far-reaching theological influence. He died May 27, 1564.
Calvin repeatedly expressed his unbounded admiration for Luther as a
"preeminent servant of Christ--_praeclarus Christi servus_." (_C. R._
37, 54.) In his _Answer_ of 1543 against the Romanist Pighius he said:
"Concerning Luther we testify without dissimulation now as heretofore
that we esteem him as a distinguished apostle of Christ, by whose labor
and service, above all, the purity of the Gospel has been restored at
this time. _De Luthero nunc quoque sicut hactenus non dissimulanter
testamur, eum nos habere pro insigni Christi apostolo, cuius maxime
opera et ministerio restituta hoc tempore fuerit Evangelii puritas_."
(Gieseler 3, 2, 169.) Even after Luther had published his _Brief
Confession_, in which he unsparingly denounces the Sacramentarians
(deniers of the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's
Supper), and severs all connection with them, Calvin admonished
Bullinger in a letter dated November 25, 1544, to bear in mind what a
great and wonderfully gifted man Luther was, and with what fortitude,
ability, and powerful teaching he had shattered the kingdom of
Antichrist and propagated the salutary doctrine. "I am frequently
accustomed to say," he declared, "that, even if he should call me a
devil I would accord him the honor of acknowledging him to be an eminent
servant of God." In the original the remarkable words of Calvin read as
follows: "_Sed haec cupio vobis in mentem venire, primum quantus sit vir
Lutherus, et quantis dotibus excellat, quanta animi fortitudine et
constantia quanta dexteritate, quanta doctrinae efficacia hactenus ad
profligandum Antichristi regnum et simul propagandam salutis doctrinam
incubuerit. Saepe dicere solitus sum, etiamsi me diabolum vocaret, me
tamen hoc illi honoris habiturum, ut insignem Dei servum agnoscam, qui
tamen, ut pollet eximiis virtutibus, ita magnis vitiis laboret_."
(Gieseler 3, 2, 169; _C. R._ 39 [_Calvini Opp._ 11], 774.)
However, though he admired the personality of Luther, Calvin, like
Zwingli and Oecolampadius at Marburg 1529, revealed a theological spirit
which was altogether different from Luther's. In particular, he was
violently opposed to Luther's doctrines of the real presence in the
Lord's Supper and of the majesty of the human nature of Christ.
Revealing his animus, Calvin branded the staunch and earnest defenders
of these doctrines as the "apes" of Luther. In his _Second Defense_
against Westphal, 1556, he exclaimed: "O Luther, how few imitators of
your excellences, but how many apes of your pious ostentation have you
left behind! _O Luthere, quam paucos tuae praestantiae imitatores, quam
multas vero sanctae tuae iactantiae simias reliquisti!_" (Gieseler 3, 2,
209.)
True, when in Strassburg, Calvin signed the _Augsburg Confession_ (1539
or 1540), and was generally considered a Lutheran. However, in his _Last
Admonition_ to Westphal, of 1557 and in a letter of the same year to
Martin Schalling, Calvin wrote: "Nor do I repudiate the _Augsburg
Confession_, to which I have previously subscribed, _in the sense in
which the author himself_ [Melanchthon in the _Variata_ of 1540] _has
interpreted it. Nec vero Augustanam Confessionem repudio, cui pridem
volens ac libens subscripsi, sicut eam auctor ipse interpretatus est._"
(_C. R._ 37, 148.) According to his own confession, therefore, Calvin's
subscription to the _Augustana_, at least as far as the article of the
Lord's Supper is concerned, was insincere and nugatory. In fact Calvin
must be regarded as the real originator of the second controversy on
the Lord's Supper between the Lutherans and the Reformed, even as the
first conflict on this question was begun, not by Luther, but by his
opponents, Carlstadt, Zwingli, and Oecolampadius. For the adoption of
the _Consensus Tigurinus_ in 1549, referred to above, cannot but be
viewed as an overt act by which the Wittenberg Concord, signed 1536 by
representative Lutheran and Reformed theologians, was publicly
repudiated and abandoned by Calvin and his adherents, and whereby an
anti-Lutheran propaganda on an essentially Zwinglian basis was
inaugurated. Calvin confirmed the schism between the Lutherans and the
Reformed which Carlstadt, Zwingli, and Oecolampadius had originated.