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Calvin as an Ecumenical Churchman*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

John T. McNeill
John T. McNeill
Affiliation:
Divinity School, University of Chicago
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Extract

Many years ago, almost on my first acquaintance with Calvin, I was impressed by a phrase in that last brief letter of his to his old companion in labor and battle, William Farel:

Live mindful of our union which, as it has been useful to the Church of God, so its fruits await us in heaven.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , December 1963 , pp. 379 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1963

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References

1. Text in Kidd, B. J., Documents of the Continental Reformation (Oxford, 1911), p. 31.Google Scholar

2. John Quidort of Paris, De potestate regia et papali (1302¶), in Goldast, M., Monarchia sancti Romani imperii (1610), II, p. 339.Google Scholar

3. Calvin, , Reply to Sadoleto, in Calvini opera selecta, ed. P. Barth and G. Niesel, I, p. 485Google Scholar; trans. Reid, J.K.S., Calvin, Theological Treatises (Library of Christian Classics, XXII), p. 252.Google Scholar

4. Commentary on the Psalms, Ps. 113:7.

5. Commentary on the Psalms, Ps. 106:28.

6. Commentary on Isaiah, Is. 44:7.

7. Commentary on I Corinthians, 12:4.

8. Commentary on I Corinthians, 1:10.

9. Reply to Sadoleto, Calvini opera selecta, I, p. 466Google Scholar; trans. Reid, op. cit., p. 231.

10. Institutes, IV, i 3.

11. Institutes, III, i, 8.

12. Acta des Gesprächs zwischen Predicanten und Teuffbruederen inn der Stadt Bern (1538);. from the Bern Archives; film copy in Goshen College Library.

13. Institutes, IV, i, 16–17.

14. Institutes, III, xix, 7.

15. Street, T. Watson, John Calvin on Adiaphora, an Exposition, PhD. dissertation, Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1954.Google Scholar

16. Institutes, IV, x, 32.

17. Citations are given in McNeill, J. T., Unitive Protestantism (New York, 1930), p. 138, note 6.Google Scholar

18. January 14, 1538. Herminjard, A-L., Correspondance des Réformateurs, I, p. 342Google Scholar; trans. Bonnet, J., Letters of John Calvin, IV, p. 384.Google Scholar

19. Herminjard, op. cit., IX, p. 375. The paragraph containing this sentence was omitted in the text used by Bonnet, Cf. Letters, I, p. 434.Google Scholar

20. Opera omnia, XII, pp. 7–8Google Scholar; trans. Bonnet, , Letters, I. pp. 440ff.Google Scholar

21. Herminjard, op. cit., V, pp. 247–60; trans. Bonnet, , Letters, I, 116–28.Google Scholar

22. Herminjard, op. cit., V, pp. 267–73; trans. Bonnet, , Letters, I, 128–31.Google Scholar

23. For the evidence see Doumergue, E., Jean Calvin, les hommes et les choses de son temps, II, p. 572Google Scholar; McNeill, J. T., Unitive Protestantism, pp. 194ff.Google Scholar

24. Institutes, IV, xvii, 14, 20, 24.

25. Dulcida explicatio … de vera participatione carnis et Sanguis Christi (1561). Opera omnia, IX, p. 461Google Scholar; trans. H. Beveridge, The True Participation of the Body and Blood of Christ, in Calvin, , Tracts, II, p. 496.Google Scholar

26. Last Admonition to Westphal, Opera ommia, IX, p. 238Google Scholar; trans. Beveridge, , Tracts, II, p. 476Google Scholar. Readers of Dutch may examine Calvin's attitudes to Lutheran and other Reformation Churches with the aid of the careful study of Nijenhuis, W., Calvinus Oecumenicus: Calvin en de Eenheid der Kerk in het Licht van zijn Brief wisseling ('s-Gravenhage, 1958).Google Scholar

27. Opera omnia, XV, p. 212fGoogle Scholar.; trans. Bonnet, , Letters, III, p. 56Google Scholar. The date is 24th August, 1554.

28. Institutes, IV, vi, 16,

29. Sermons on Galatians, ch. 6:9–11; Opera omnia, LI, p. 105Google Scholar. Cf. Institutes, II, viii, 39: “The Lord has bound by a kind of unity the whole race of men.”

30. Wallace, R. S., Calvin's Doctrine of the Christian Life (Edinburgh, 1959), p. 150Google Scholar. Calvin's, “ecumenical humanism” is cogently affirmed by Biéler, André in L'Humanisme sociale de Calvin (Geneva, 1961), pp. 95ff.Google Scholar

31. Letter of 13th March, 1554; Opera omnia, XV, pp. 79–81Google Scholar; trans. Bonnet, , Letters, III, pp. 29–32.Google Scholar

32. Letter of 13th January, 1554; Opera omnia, XV, p. 394Google Scholar; trans. Bonnet, , Letters, III, p. 11f.Google Scholar

33. Letter of 5th December, 1554; Opera omnia, XV, pp. 329–36Google Scholar; trans. Bonnet, , Letters, III, pp. 99–109.Google Scholar

34. The dates of the letters concerned are not exactly determined. One may have been about 1550; a second is a reply to Cranmer's of March 20, 1552. Opera omnia, XIII, pp. 682ffGoogle Scholar.; XIV, pp. 312–14; trans. Bonnet, , Letters, II, pp. 345–ff, 356ff.Google Scholar

35. Opera omnia, XIV, p. 314Google Scholar; trans. Bonnet, , Letters, II, p. 358.Google Scholar

36. Opera selecta, ed. Barth and Niesel, I, p. 489Google Scholar; trans. Calvin, J. K. S. Reid, Theological Treatises (Library of Christian Classics, XXII), p. 256.Google Scholar