9. La Genève de Calvin 1555-1564 - Calvin's Geneva, 1555-1564

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En provenance du cours de University of Geneva

Calvin - Histoire et réception d'une Réforme

58 notes

University of Geneva

Calvin - Histoire et réception d'une Réforme

58 notes

Course in French with English subtitles -- Ce cours introduit à la vie et à la pensée du réformateur Jean Calvin (1509-1564) ainsi qu’à son influence sur le monde moderne et contemporain. La démarche proposée se veut critique, il ne s’agit ni de canoniser ni de condamner Calvin, mais de comprendre sa pensée avec toute la distance requise et d’en analyser les enjeux. Au cours de la première semaine, nous explorerons les principales étapes de la vie de Calvin. Les semaines 2 et 3 seront consacrées à l’étude de sa pensée théologique et de son éthique. Enfin, lors des semaines 4 et 5, nous nous interrogerons sur la diffusion du calvinisme dans le monde et la pertinence actuelle de la pensée de Calvin. -- This course is an introduction to the life and thought of the reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) and to his influence on the modern and contemporary world. The approach we develop is critical: we intend neither to canonize nor to condemn Calvin or his thought. Our goal, rather, is to avoid any rash evaluation in order to understand his thought and analyze the issues at stake in it. During five weeks, we will explore together the life and work of the Reformer. During the first week, we will study the main aspects of Calvin’s life. Weeks 2 and 3 will focus on his theology and his ethics. During the last two weeks (weeks 4 and 5), we will ponder how Calvinism became a worldwide phenomenon and ask ourselves what kind of relevance Calvin’s thought may still have today.

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La vie de Calvin - Calvin's life

Bienvenue dans cette première semaine de cours ! Après avoir défini le concept de réforme comme idéal de retour à un passé meilleur, et avoir situé d’une part les mouvements réformateurs en Europe (Luther, Zwingli, le réformisme français), d’autre part la Réforme à Genève, nous allons faire connaissance de Calvin: sa formation, son premier séjour à Genève (1536-1538), son étape strasbourgeoise (1538-1541), enfin l’établissement à Genève (de 1541 à sa mort en 1564). Nous verrons comment Calvin entend y construire la Réforme, grâce à des instruments institutionnels propres: le Consistoire, la Compagnie des pasteurs, l’Académie notamment. L’affaire Servet (du nom du médecin espagnol condamné à mort à Genève en 1553) fera l’objet d’une séquence entière, tout comme la période 1555-1564, la seule dont on puisse légitimement parler comme de la «Genève de Calvin». Cette première semaine devra permettre de faire le point sur le contexte historique et d’initier les étudiant-e-s à la biographie de Calvin. A la fin de cette semaine, les étudiant-e-s devraient connaître les grandes étapes de sa vie et être capables de situer Calvin au sein des mouvements de réforme du 16e siècle. Welcome in this first module of the course! After defining the concept of reform, looking at it as the ideal of a return to a (purer) past, we will attempt to provide a map of various reformatory movements in continental Europe (Luther, Zwingli, French reformatory movements). Only then will we begin focusing on the reformation in Geneva and the personality of John Calvin. We will consider his education, his first stay in Geneva (1536-1538), his years in Strasbourg (1538-1541) and his long activity, during the rest of his life, in Geneva (1541 until his death in 1564). We will see how Calvin sought to establish a reformation, through new institutional bodies, especially the Consistory (Consistoire), the Compagnie des pasteurs and the Academy. The Servetus case (Servetus was a Spanish doctor and intellectual who was executed as a heretic in Geneva in 1553) will be studied, as will be the final decade of Calvin's life, during which Geneva became "Calvin's Geneva". The goal of this first module is to introduce you to the historical context and to provide basic information about Calvin's biography. At the end of this module, you will have a good sens of the main stages of his life and you will be able to locate Calvin among other reformatory movements of the 16th century.

8. La Réforme de Calvin et l’instruction - Calvin's Reform and Education11:03

9. La Genève de Calvin 1555-1564 - Calvin's Geneva, 1555-156410:15

Rencontrer les enseignants

Christophe Chalamet
Professeur de théologie systématique
Faculté de théologie
François Dermange
Professeur d'éthique
Faculté de théologie
Michel Grandjean
Professeur d'histoire du christianisme
Faculté de théologie
Sarah Nicolet
Collaboratrice scientifique
Faculté de théologie

Calvin. History and Reception of a Reformation

Week 1. Calvin's Life Sequence 9. Calvin's Geneva (1555-1564)

Welcome to this sequence, where we'll be looking at the last 10 years of Calvin's life in Geneva, from 1555 until 1564.

I am standing in the "rue Jean Calvin" ("John Calvin street").

This little street, located near Geneva's City Hall, was so named because Calvin lived in the house directly behind me.

The building currently standing here was built in the beginning of the 18th century.

But prior to that, Calvin was given a small house by the Council (the street was named "rue des Chanoines" at the time), and lived in it from 1543 until his death in 1564.

Historians all agree: the last ten years of Calvin's life were extraordinary.

E. William Monter, for instance, named one of his outstanding books "Calvin's Geneva."

And it is the decade from 1555 to 1564 that best exemplifies what exactly Calvin's Geneva really was.

Indeed, that was the decade of Calvin's "triumph in Geneva," to use Monter's phrase.

Calvin's greatest accomplishment in his time -- the accomplishment that did most to attract the attention and recognition of his contemporaries (as Philip Benedict has pointed out) -- was his construction of Geneva.

The years 1555 to 1564 constitute the zenith of Calvin's career -- the zenith of his construction.

1555 saw the election to the Council of members favorable to Calvin, thus putting an end to a twenty-year period during which Calvin had faced a series of opponents within Geneva itself.

Indeed, having spent the 1520s and 1530s in a hard-fought struggle for emancipation from the Roman Catholic bishop and the Duchy of Savoy, Genevans were hardly about to allow a French expatriate and his followers to come in unimpeded and dictate their behavior to them.

In today's political vocabulary, we would refer to these people as forming a populist movement.

Who were they? Their leader was named Ami Perrin, and so they acquired the nickname "perrinistes."

They liked to refer to themselves as "children of Geneva"; Calvin, for his part, took to calling them -- pejoratively -- "libertines."

In 1555, local opposition in Geneva was crushed.

And so began a period of ten years, for Calvin, of unparalleled power -- or rather, of unparalleled authority. Indeed, Calvin was in no way the political leader of Geneva.

E. William Monter cites the example of a letter written in the 1560s by a Frenchman, in which he addresses Calvin as the "bishop and syndic (mayor) of Geneva."

This could not have been further from the mark: Calvin never wielded any kind of political or episcopal power in Geneva.

His authority, as Monter has expertly pointed out, was entirely intellectual and ethical in nature.

Yet Calvin's authority extended far beyond Geneva's city limits.

In 1550s Europe, Calvin occupied the place of a virtually uncontested leader.

Luther had died in 1546; Bucer in 1551.

Melanchthon, who was based in faraway Wittenberg, Saxony (in the northern part of Germany), was probably the only theologian in Europe capable of contending with Calvin.

Otherwise, there were no major theologians in Bern, and even Zurich's Bullinger was no match for Calvin's intellectual prowess.

Calvin, then, was a towering intellectual and ethical figure towards whom many were drawn.

How exactly was the Reformation made to flourish as it did in Geneva? For the most part, through the use of three different instruments (some of which we've already briefly discussed).

The first of these was Calvin's Catechism, published in 1541 and which, by 1555, was known to virtually the entire population of Geneva.

In fact, as early as the mid-1550s, the Geneva Catechism, as it was often called, constituted for many an important social marker, a symbol of Genevan identity.

The second instrument was preaching.

In the 16th century, sermons represented the single most important and effective vector of communication.

And suffice it to say that in Calvin's Geneva, much preaching took place.

In the three churches where services were held -- namely, the temple of Saint Peter (the former cathedral), the temple of the Madeleine and, on the other side of the Rhône river, the temple of Saint Gervais -- sermons were delivered on a daily basis.

Calvin himself preached quite regularly -- every other week at the very least.

Every Sunday in Saint Peter, one sermon was delivered in the morning and another one in the afternoon. In short, the entire population of Geneva had ample and frequent opportunity to hear the Word of God, both read and commented.

The third instrument of Calvin's triumph in Geneva was the Consistory.

Much has been said about the Consistory. In some respects, it operated much in the same way as the apparatus of a totalitarian regime, particularly since Genevans were exhorted to denounce their neighbors -- but this comparison is spurious and needs to be dispelled.

Indeed, unlike the totalitarian governments of the 20th century, the Consistory almost never imposed punitive measures.

When Genevans were convoked by the Consistory, they were admonished, exhorted to behave better, exhorted to attend church services, or exhorted to treat their servants better.

But they were not punished. Only in a few rare cases did the Consistory become involved in situations that led to a death sentence -- and even in those cases, the authority to pronounce the death sentence belonged exclusively to Geneva's political body, the Council of Geneva.

We've already seen the case of Michael Servetus. There were a few other instances, but they were relatively rare for a city of Geneva's size.

Among those put to death were blasphemers, such as Jacques Gruet, and various witches. But in these cases, regardless of whether one was Protestant or Catholic, there existed in 16th century Europe a social consensus regarding the crimes in question: everyone agreed that they were worthy of the death penalty.

The Consistory's mission, by contrast, was to exhort people to lead a better life.

It was also during the last ten years of Calvin's life that the Academy and the College were created.

In 1559, Calvin published the last version of his "Institutes of the Christian Religion," in Latin, followed by a French version in 1560.

And this last version is what truly elevated Calvin to the ranks of the very greatest theologians of his time.

Calvin died here, in his home, in May of 1564.

A few weeks prior, the residents of the rue des Chanoines had noticed two solemn processions.

The first was made up of the members of the Small Council, who came to pay their respects to Calvin on his deathbed.

The Council's register kept a record of this unique and emotional visit. Even more emotional, we may surmise, was the ministers' visit on the very next day.

As recorded by the secretary of the Company of Pastors, Calvin delivered a short address summarizing the essential points of his life.

He warned the ministers: you are here in the midst of a perverted, evil and corrupt nation -- that is why I've done everything I've done.

Calvin also admitted that he had not always displayed what we would call today "a nice personality."

And he exhorted the ministers not to change any aspect of what had been accomplished.

He exhorted his colleagues to continue upbilding the Reformation in Geneva.

The Company's register notes that, with much emotion and the occasional shedding of tears, each of the ministers, one by one, shook Calvin's hand one last time.

Calvin passed away a few days later.

He was only 55 at the time.

The city he left behind would now follow a destiny that surely would have been very different, had Calvin not established residence within its walls.

Calvin endowed Geneva with a powerful symbol: the construction of the Reformation.

Throughout Europe, Calvin's legacy was that of a man who, through his writings as well as other concrete accomplishments, contributed to the birth and growth of a Church.

These are matters which we'll be discussing in greater detail in the upcoming weeks of this course.

We've reached the end of this sequence. Thank you for your attention.

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