Sixteenth-Century Geneva Research Articles

"Church" at the Time of the Reformation: Invisible Community, Visible Parish, Confession, Building … ? ed. by Anna Vind and Herman J. Selderhuis

Reviewed by: "Church" at the Time of the Reformation: Invisible Community, Visible Parish, Confession, Building … ? ed. by Anna Vind and Herman J. Selderhuis Thomas R. Farmer "Church" at the Time of the Reformation: Invisible Community, Visible Parish, Confession, Building … ? Edited by Anna Vind and Herman J. Selderhuis. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021. 480 pp. The Reformation was a stimulus to ecclesiology, forcing theologians to articulate their definitions more precisely in the face of competing confessional claims. Theologians and historians continue to ponder the resulting controversies. This book, containing the proceedings of the Sixth Annual Reformation Research Consortium Conference (held May 26–28, 2016, in Copenhagen), provides scholars with a selection of the fruits of these studies. Collections of essays can sometimes be incoherent, with strong individual essays that do not form an integrated whole. That is not the case here. The wide variety of perspectives in this collection enables readers to approach the topic of ecclesiology in the Reformation from many angles. The book is divided into four parts: "'Church' at the Time of the Reformation" (six essays), "Church and Art" (five), "Church and Ecclesiology" (eight), and "Church and Unity" (six). Thirteen essays deal with Reformed churches, while five essays discuss Lutheran ecclesiology. In addition, five essays examining Eastern Europe, a region often ignored in Reformation studies, are welcome inclusions. This review focuses on two essays of particular interest. Frank Ewerszumrode (249–55) compares Calvin's ecclesiology with that which the Second Vatican Council articulated in Lumen Gentium. The latter specifically describes the Church as "like a sacrament," which might strike some Protestants as claiming that the Church can "do what God alone is capable of doing" (250). But Ewerszumrode notes that Calvin, in his Institutes, refers to the Church as a "tool," which Calvin also uses of the sacraments. Ewerszumrode argues that [End Page 365] for Calvin, the Church functions as an external means to create faith, in a manner similar to the sacraments. The author then points out that Lumen Gentium holds that the Church is an instrument of salvation, not the source thereof. Ewerszumrode thus concludes that Protestants ought not to be unduly suspicious of Lumen Gentium's use of the word "sacrament" to describe the Church, because it uses that term to mean that the Church is an instrument—as Calvin did in the Institutes. Although Calvinist and Roman Catholic theology are usually thought of as being distant, Ewerszumrode's essay suggests that they are not so very far apart. For this reviewer, the most impressive essay was "Does Calvin's Church Have a History?" by Michelle C. Sanchez (440–60). Her goal is much larger than simply describing "the structure and operations of the church in sixteenth-century Geneva" (440); rather, she wants to read Calvin as a theorist and explore how his theory of the Church can subvert arbitrary distinctions between theology and history. Sanchez notes Calvin's claim that the marks of the true Church are the right preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the sacraments; if one accepts this, she argues, then it follows that the history of Calvin's church extends much earlier than sixteenth-century Geneva, thus making the boundary between the medieval and the modern less secure than one usually assumes and demonstrating the potential of theology to offer historians new insights. Readers will value Sanchez's insightful and thought-provoking essay. Singling out these two essays, does not imply that the others are lacking. On the contrary, scholars (particularly theologians) will find these essays relevant and useful. This book will be a worthwhile addition to seminary and research libraries. [End Page 366] Thomas R. Farmer Belmont Abbey College Belmont, North Carolina Copyright © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

Consoling the Huguenot Refugees in Late Sixteenth-Century Geneva

Consoling the Huguenot Refugees in Late Sixteenth-Century Geneva

Justice and Equity: Calvin’s 1550 Sermon on Micah 2:1

This paper examines a new English translation of John Calvin’s sermon on Micah 2:1 by the author, and it explores the sermon’s themes of justice and equity within Calvin’s historical context of Geneva in 1550. An exploration of homiletical influences on the sermon includes consideration of Calvin’s development of “plain sense” preaching. “Plain sense” preaching in Calvin’s writing denotes a rhetorical and exegetical style that draws upon his careful study of John Chrysostom’s sermons, and his attempt in his French-language 1541 Institutes to relate covenant theology to preaching of Old Testament texts. The judgments of the prophet Micah demand the same repentance from ancient Israel, sixteenth-century Geneva, and even contemporary hearers. The paper concludes with reflection on how Calvin’s “plain sense” preaching speaks to matters of justice with respect to mistreatment of immigrants and refugees in a contemporary North American context.

The Marital Covenant in John Calvin’s Geneva

ABSTRACT This article, prepared for a symposium issue on the impact of the Protestant Reformation, analyzes John Calvin’s reformation of Western family law in sixteenth-century Geneva. Calvin depicted marriage as a sacred and presumptively enduring union, but also a conditional and breakable covenant with distinct and discernible goods and goals that couples and communities alike had to support. This covenantal framework gave Calvin new rationales for old rules concerning marital and non-marital sex and cohabitation, courtship and weddings, procreation, nurture, and education of children, and the punishment of adultery, polygamy, and “unnatural” sex within and beyond the marital bed. But Calvin also set out new teachings on the proper communal formation and maintenance of the marital covenant, and introduced into Genevan law the rights of husbands and wives alike to divorce and remarry in cases of hard fault.

Lifting Hearts to the Lord: Worship with John Calvin in Sixteenth-Century Geneva, by Karin Maag

Lifting Hearts to the Lord: Worship with John Calvin in Sixteenth-Century Geneva, by Karin Maag

Aid for Refugees: Religion, Migration, and Poor Relief in Sixteenth-Century Geneva

ABSTRACTDuring the sixteenth century, migration of mainly French Protestants into Geneva resulted in a significant refugee community dedicated to discipline and poor relief. This article examines the ongoing impact of migration on the formation of religious communities and their correlation with the development of poor relief funds in a leading Reformation city. The social dislocation of religious refugees fostered a high commitment to their new identity as advocates of the Reformed religion and proponents of poor relief for foreigners. John Calvin, chief minister and French immigrant, articulated his ideals for establishing a truly Christianized community through the institutions of the church, the consistory and the Bourse française (French Fund) to support the formation of a distinctive religious identity. This article argues that aid for the refugees became an integral part of establishing this religious and social reformation from the 1540s to the 1560s as waves of refugees landed in Geneva.

Lifting hearts to the Lord. Worship with John Calvin in sixteenth-century Geneva. By Karin Maag . (The Church at Worship: Case Studies from Christian History.) Pp. xiv + 209 incl. 22 ills. and 1 map. Grand Rapids, Mi–Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2016. £18.99 (paper). 978 0 8028 7147 3

Lifting hearts to the Lord. Worship with John Calvin in sixteenth-century Geneva. By Karin Maag . (The Church at Worship: Case Studies from Christian History.) Pp. xiv + 209 incl. 22 ills. and 1 map. Grand Rapids, <scp>Mi</scp>–Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2016. £18.99 (paper). 978 0 8028 7147 3

Lifting Hearts to the Lord: Worship with John Calvin in Sixteenth-Century Geneva by Karin Maag

Lifting Hearts to the Lord: Worship with John Calvin in Sixteenth-Century Geneva by Karin Maag

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Disciplining Song in Sixteenth-Century Geneva

Song was frequently disciplined in the sixteenth-century Consistory of Geneva as part of the broad program of social Reform led by Calvin. Between 1542 and 1552, more than one hundred cases involving illicit singing came before the Consistory court. These cases reveal the Consistory’s persistent attempt to control the singing of all members of Genevan society regardless of social status or situation. They also offer a new field of evidence for exploring the boundaries between proper (honneste) and improper (deshonneste) singing in Reformed communities. The bulk of the cases surveyed from this period involved charges of illicit singing alongside other immoral behaviors, such as gambling and fornication. These cases directly linked indecent singing to other forbidden acts—a connection that worked out a neo-Platonic view of music in juridical process and provided the rationalization for the entire project of disciplining song in the courts. Concerns over improper song leading to illicit behavior and ultimately to social disorder were dramatically illustrated in a cluster of Consistory cases related to the famous Bolsec affair that exploded in Geneva near the end of the year 1551. Bolsec’s contrafactum on the tune of Psalm 23 from the Geneva Psalter—written during Bolsec’s lengthy stay in prison—spread his dissenting theology to his supporters and enacted the dangerous potential of song to disrupt the unity of the Reformed city.

Calvin's Company of Pastors: Pastoral Care and the Emerging Reformed Church, 1536–1609. By Scott M. Manetsch. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. xi + 428 pp. $74.00 cloth.

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Calvin's Company of Pastors: Pastoral Care and Emerging Reformed Church, 1536-1609 . By Scott M. Manetsch . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford : Oxford University Press , 2013. xi + 428 pp. $74.00 cloth.Book Reviews and NotesWhat was life of a reformed pastor like in sixteenth-century Geneva? This deceptively simple question is, as Scott Manetsch demonstrates, a crucial element in understanding trajectory of Genevan Reformation. While ideas of John Calvin and his colleagues have received immense scholarly scrutiny over centuries, contours of their lives as pastors have not. Manetsch address this lacuna with a thoroughly researched, lucid account of lives and work of reformed Genevan pastors from 1536 to 1609, with particular goal of comparing work of pastorate during Calvin's lifetime with its experiences after Calvin's death in 1564. His book is based on extensive work with records of Genevan Consistory and Company of Pastors, as well as personal correspondence, published writings, personal devotionals, catechisms, and sermons of reformed Genevan clergy. Using this wealth of sources, Manetsch reconstructs daily lives of Geneva's pastors during first seven decades of Reformation, thus forwarding ongoing efforts to examine how ideals of Reformation were put into practice.This book is, in a way, a group biography of Reformed pastorate in Geneva. One of Manetsch's main goals is to elucidate ideas and assumptions that shaped identity and self-awareness, (2) in order to better understand their interactions with Genevan laity and city authorities. He begins this exploration with an eloquent recounting of Genevan Reformation, followed by an analysis of Venerable Company of Pastors, including profiles of individual ministers, an overview of their recruitment and training, and discussion of structure and functioning of company. Particularly crucial to Manetsch's undertaking is chapter 3, Pastoral Vocation, which explicates reformers' understanding of office and examines how that concept undergirded their preaching, process of ordination, and struggles with city magistrates. He then constructs a detailed picture of pastors' domestic lives, providing a vital link between theology and practice. The following chapter explores duties, illustrating Manetsch's assertion that pastoral ministry in sixteenth-century was inseparable from rigorous study and regular proclamation of Christian Scripture (124).Having laid out broader patterns of pastors' activities, chapter 6 focuses on practice of preaching, including pastors' theological principles, preaching styles, and reception of their teachings. Here Manetsch examines ways that preaching did and did not change after Calvin's death, ultimately asserting that the pulpit stood at epicenter of controversy and change in reformed Geneva (146). Chapter 7, Ministry of Moral Oversight, provides an impressive compilation of statistics on consistory's activities both before and after Calvin's death--a goldmine of information for future studies of Genevan Reformation and consistories more generally. Manetsch's primary goal here is to demonstrate, rightly, that work of consistory was a core element in Genevan ministers' work of care. …

Daring Insolence toward God? The Perpetuation of Catholic Baptismal Traditions in Sixteenth-Century Geneva

Daring Insolence toward God? The Perpetuation of Catholic Baptismal Traditions in Sixteenth-Century Geneva

Spirituality as the Performance of Desire: Calvin on the World as a Theatre of God's Glory

If well-crafted discursive speech is the coin of the realm in theology, metaphor is quintessentially the language of spirituality. John Calvin in sixteenth-century Geneva knew the value of both. His favorite metaphor in speaking of the natural world and its beauty was to describe it as a theatre of God's glory. Every human being, he said, is "formed to be a spectator of the created world and given eyes that he might be led to its author by contemplating so beautiful a representation." 1 Moreover, the principal actor in this vast theatrical production is none other than God alone, evoking desire by "showing himself in the visible splendor of his apparel." 2 As Calvin understood it, the contemplation of God's beauty on the great stage of nature is a performance that absorbs the whole of creation. It is the end toward which everything is made. 3

Seminary or University? The Genevan Academy and Reformed Higher Education, 1560-1620 by Karin Maag

BOOK REVIEWS333 who appeared before the Consistory, regardless of the specific accusation, was asked to demonstrate a sufficient knowledge of correct Christian doctrine, always in the vernacular. The priorities of the new institution had emerged clearly by the end of 1542. During November and December (pp. 134-159), sixty-four people appeared before it. Only six of them were involved in matrimonial issues, whUe forty (twothirds of them women) were examined about doctrine and/or church attendance.The remainder were admonished about such things as quarrelling (six), blasphemy, gambling, or immoral songs (six), fornication (three), superstitious charms (two), or disobedience to parents. Vestiges of Köhler's agenda remained, but Zeeden's had triumphed. Further volumes wiU trace the Consistory's subsequent evolution from a doctrinal tribunal to a morals tribunal . Wiujam Monter Northwestern University Seminary or University? The Genevan Academy and Reformed Higher Education , 1560-1620. By Karin Maag. [St Andrews Studies in Reformation History] (Brookfield, Vermont: Scolar Press, Ashgate PubUshing Co. 1995. Pp. x, 210.) Back in 1900, Charles Borgeaud pubUshed a monumental history of Geneva's Academy of Calvin, in a meticulously detaUed and sumptuously produced foUo volume, the first of several in a general history ofwhat was to become the University of Geneva. In this useful new book, Karin Maag has retold a part of Borgeaud's story, but sets it in a much larger context. Her book begins with three sharply defined chronological chapters, recounting the history of the GenevaAcademy, with special attention to its scholapublica for advanced tramUig on a professional level,from 1559 to 1572, from 1572 to 1586, and from 1586 to 1620. Much of this represents gleaning from Borgeaud's work, updated where necessary by use of the considerable volume of scholarly work on sixteenth-century Geneva in this century, checked Ui a number of places by consultation of unpubUshed manuscripts in the Geneva University Library and State Archives. Maag then presents four geographical chapters, connecting the GenevaAcademy to Reformed communities in France, Zurich, Heidelberg, and Leiden.The chapter on France details the continuing importance of Geneva to the Reformed Churches in France as the most important single source of education for their pastors.The other chapters compare the Geneva Academy to the Lectorium in Zurich and to the universities in Heidelberg and Leiden.The Zurich Lectorium was exclusively for the training of local pastors, and Zurich thus felt obUged to send many of its best students elsewhere to complete their educa- 334book reviews tion.The universities of Heidelberg and Leiden were autonomous institutions that granted degrees and that devoted as much energy to training lawyers, bureaucrats , and physicians, as to training ministers for Reformed (Calvinist) churches.There were significant exchanges of students and a few exchanges of professors among the four institutions. Geneva made occasional attempts to expand its Academy into a fuU university , notably by adding advanced instruction on law. But this instruction was frequendy interrupted; the Academy never granted degrees, and it never gained independence from the local Company of Pastors and the city government. Its most important function remained the training of Reformed pastors, particularly for France but also for other parts of Europe, supplying them with not only necessary academic training but also with a degree of practical experience, aU in a tightly disciplined and thoroughly orthodox setting. Maag has drawn upon correspondence among ecclesiastical authorities and by students to provide some striking detaUs about individuals working in these institutions. I found particularly fresh and interesting information gathered from unpublished letters returned to Zurich from students whom that city had sent elsewhere. Altogether this book makes an important contribution to our knowledge of higher education Ui Europe during the period of confessionalization . Robert M. Kingdon University ofWisconsin-Madison A City in Conflict: Troyes during the French Wars ofReligion. By Penny Roberts . (Manchester: Manchester University Press. Distributed by St. Martin's Press, NewYork. 1996. Pp. xi, 228. $79.95.) Penny Roberts has, in a series of articles pubUshed over the past half-dozen years, estabUshed herself as a leading authority on the Reformation and confessional strife at Troyes in the eastern French province of Champagne. She now weaves the rich materials into a major interpretative study. Her...

Women in Calvinist Geneva (1550-1800)

Previous articleNext article No AccessWomen in Calvinist Geneva (1550-1800)E. William MonterE. William Monter Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Signs Volume 6, Number 2Winter, 1980Studies in Change Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/493792 Views: 19Total views on this site Citations: 11Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1980 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:R. Ward Holder John Calvin in Context, 15 (Nov 2019).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108687447Elizabeth A. Lehfeldt Calvin and Women, (Nov 2019): 155–164.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108687447.019Michelle Chaplin Sanchez Calvin and the Resignification of the World, 21 (Mar 2019).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108631648Monica Martinat Bibliographie, (Jan 2018): 219–230.https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pul.32472 Bibliography, (Aug 2015): 151–166.https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666550881.151Sara McDougall The Transformation of Adultery in France at the End of the Middle Ages, Law and History Review 32, no.33 (Jul 2014): 491–524.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0738248014000212AMY LOUISE ERICKSON Married women's occupations in eighteenth-century London, Continuity and Change 23, no.22 (Aug 2008): 267–307.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416008006772Deborah Simonton Earning and learning: girlhood in pre-industrial Europe [1], Women's History Review 13, no.33 (Sep 2004): 363–386.https://doi.org/10.1080/09612020400200399Katrina Honeyman, Jordan Goodman Women's Work, Gender Conflict, and Labour Markets in Europe, 1500-1900, The Economic History Review 44, no.44 (Nov 1991): 608.https://doi.org/10.2307/2597804Jeffrey R. Watt Divorce in Early Modern Neuch?tel, 1547-1806, Journal of Family History 14, no.22 (Jul 2016): 137–155.https://doi.org/10.1177/036319908901400203 Auswahlbibliographie. 1980/81, Internationales Archiv für Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur (IASL) 7, no.11 (Jan 1982).https://doi.org/10.1515/iasl.1982.7.1.271

Historical Demography and Religious History in Sixteenth-Century Geneva

Historical Demography and Religious History in Sixteenth-Century Geneva One need not share the convictions of Chaunu, who seems to be using demographic data to periodize Western civilization, in order to agree that demography has become indispensable to serious students of European society. Its achievements have indeed been remarkable, but uneven.1 After paying homage, one must also acknowledge that historical demography has succeeded far better in raising new problems than in reinterpreting old ones. Using a new type of historical evidence, and working backwards from current population issues, demographers understandably have been concerned with breaking fresh territory rather than rehashing revered questions. Moreover, demography's triumphs have been uneven chronologically: we possess imaginative and pioneering studies on Renaissance Tuscany, and a mass of valuable work on seventeenthand eighteenth-century Europe and America; but few recent demographic studies have been devoted to sixteenth-century Europe.2 Most serious of all, there has been too little crossfertilization between demographers and specialists in traditional

Juan Pérez de Pineda (Pierius): a Spanish Calvinist minister of the Gospel in sixteenth-century Geneva

Since the work done by Usoz and Wiffen in Reformistas antiguos espanoles in the middle of last century, and that of Menendez Pelayo somewhat later, no-one has attempted to present a study of Juan P...

Juan Pérez de Pineda (Pierius): a Spanish Calvinist minister of the Gospel in sixteenth-century Geneva

Juan Pérez de Pineda (Pierius): a Spanish Calvinist minister of the Gospel in sixteenth-century Geneva