While the Synergists, in answering the question why only some are saved,
denied the _sola gratia_ and taught a conversion and predestination
conditioned by the conduct of man, John Calvin and his adherents, on the
other hand, made rapid progress in the opposite direction, developing
with increasing clearness and boldness an absolute, bifurcated
predestination, _i.e._, a capricious election to eternal damnation as
well as to salvation, and in accordance therewith denied the
universality of God's grace, of Christ's redemption, and of the
efficacious operation of the Holy Spirit through the means of grace. In
his "_Institutio Religionis Christianae_, Instruction in the Christian
Religion," of which the first edition appeared 1535, the second in 1539,
and the third in 1559, Calvin taught that God created and foreordained
some to eternal life, others to eternal damnation. Man's election means
that he has been created for eternal life, man's reprobation, that he
has been created for eternal damnation. We read (_Lib_. 3, cap. 21, 5):
"_Praedestinationem vocamus aeternum Dei decretum, quo apud se
constitutum habuit, quid de unoquoque homine fieri vellet. Non enim pari
conditione creantur omnes; sed aliis vita aeterna, aliis damnatio
aeterna praeordinatur. Itaque prout in alterutrum finem quisque conditus
est, ita vel ad vitam, vel ad mortem praedestinatum dicimus_." (Tholuck,
_Calvini Institutio_ 2, 133.) In the edition of 1559 Calvin says that
eternal election illustrates the grace of God by showing "that He does
not adopt all promiscuously unto the hope of salvation, but bestows on
some what He denies to others--_quod non omnes promiscue adoptat in spem
salutis, sed dat aliis, quod aliis negat_." (Gieseler 3, 2, 172.) Again:
"I certainly admit that all the sons of Adam have fallen by the will of
God into the miserable condition of bondage, in which they are now
fettered; for, as I said in the beginning, one must always finally go
back to the decision of the divine will alone, whose cause is hidden in
itself. _Fateor sane, in hanc qua nunc illigati sunt conditionis
miseriam Dei voluntate cecidisse universos filios Adam; atque id est,
quod principio dicebam, redeundum tandem semper esse ad solum divinae
voluntatis arbitrium, cuius causa sit in ipso abscondita_." (173.)
Calvin's successor in Geneva, Theodore Beza, was also a strict
supralapsarian. At the colloquy of Moempelgard (Montbeliard), 1586, in
disputing with Andreae, he defended the proposition "that Adam had
indeed of his own accord fallen into these calamities, yet,
nevertheless, not only according to the prescience, but also according
to the ordination and decree of God--_sponte quidem, sed tamen non modo
praesciente, sed etiam iuste ordinante et decernente Deo_." (186.)
"There never has been, nor is, nor will be a time," said he, "when God
has wished, wishes, or will wish, to have compassion on every individual
person. _Nullum tempus fuit vel est vel erit, quo voluerit, velit aut
voliturus sit Deus singulorum misereri_." (Pieper, _Dogm_. 2, 25. 50.)
In foisting his doctrine of election on the Reformed churches, Calvin
met with at least some opposition. The words in the paragraph of the
_Formula of Concord_ quoted above: "Yet, since this article [of
predestination] has been brought into very painful controversy in other
places," probably refer to the conflicts in Geneva and Switzerland.
October 16, 1551, Jerome Bolsec [a Carmelite in Paris, secretly spread
Pelagianism in Geneva; sided with the Protestants in Paris and Orleans
after his banishment from Geneva; reembraced Romanism when persecution
set in; wrote against Calvin and Beza, died 1584] was imprisoned in
Geneva because of his opposition to Calvin's doctrine of predestination.
Melanchthon remarks in a letter of February 1, 1552: "Laelius [Socinus]
wrote me that in Geneva the struggle concerning the Stoic necessity is
so great that a certain one who dissented from Zeno [Calvin] was
incarcerated. What a miserable affair! The doctrine of salvation is
obscured by disputations foreign to it." (_C. R._ 7, 932.) Although the
German cantons (Zurich, Bern, Basel) advised moderation, Bolsec was
banished from Geneva, with the result however, that he continued his
agitation against Calvin in other parts of Switzerland. In Bern all
discussions on predestination were prohibited by the city council.
Calvin complained in a letter of September 18, 1554: "The preachers of
Bern publicly declare that I am a heretic worse than all the Papists."
(Gieseler 3, 2, 178.) January 26, 1555, the council of Bern renewed its
decree against public doctrinal discussions, notably those on
predestination--"_principalement touchant la matiere de la divine
predestination, qui nous semble non etre necessaire_," etc. (179.) Later
on the doctrine of Calvin was opposed by the Arminians from
Semi-Pelagian principles.