John McNeil, Ph.D.: History and Character of Calvinism. Ch. 10--Calvin’s...

10. Calvin’s Strasbourg Period, 145-158. Calvin spent three productive years in Strasbourg, a city that had had a reformation-efforts since 1524. Calvin would be a Pastor, lecturer, and leader for those three years, would gain a wife, and would return in 1541 to Geneva. This three-year stint in Strasbourg was more than a mere interruption to his first service in Geneva. Bucer, 18 years his senior, and Capito were in Strasbourg. Schooled by both Senior Mentors, they were teachers, friends and colleagues of Calvin. Calvin was appointed Pastor of the French-refugee parish of some 500 members. We’ve previously noted the varied editions of the Institutes of on-going editions. For those thinking Calvin was not liturgical, Calvin produced a “book of music” (1539)—Psalms, canticles, Apostles Creed, Ten Commandments, and more—augmented by Clement Marot’s Psalms (Marot and Calvin went back to the court in Ferrara). Calvin, like Luther, profoundly appreciated the power of music to teach and inspire; this would follow him to Geneva later. He produced: The Form of Prayer and Manner of Ministering the Sacrament according to the use of the Ancient Church (1540). Dr. McNeil discusses this alongside Bucer’s own liturgy. Also, he wrote Little Treatise on the Holy Supper of our Lord (1540) in French in 60 chapters—Luther got a copy and said, “I might have entrusted the whole affair of this controversy to him [Calvin] from the beginning. If my opponents had done the life, we should soon have been reconciled” (153). He's not a Ubiquitarian, but he hold exalted views of Christology. His service of Holy Communion is a very liturgical service. Calvin wrote his commentary on Romans (1539), noting his approval of commentaries by Melancthon, Bullinger and Bucer, although the latter was too recondite for laymen. He approved of Capito, Zwingli, Luther and Oecolampadius on Isaiah. Also, Cardinal Sadoleto, at Paul III’s urging, was making moves on Geneva for a recovery for Popery. To remedy and answer Sadoleto, Geneva seeks Calvin’s pen, though in Strasbourg, he pens his rebuttal on 1 Sept 1539. While in Strasbourg, he attends varied theological conferences elsewhere: Hagenau and Worms (1540) and Regensburg (1541) in which Imperial efforts are made for Luthero-Reformed-Papal rapproachments. Justification and the Eucharist, among corollary doctrines, were featured. Calvin noted the studied ambiguities as convenient constructs employed by Bucer and Melancthon—too cute-by-half for the clear-eyed Frenchman. In 1540, he married Idellete de Bure. Bucer implores Calvin to remain at Strasbourg, but Geneva had issued a recall to Geneva which Calvin accepts. He left Strasbourg with tears in his eyes, but arrived “with public acclaim” in Geneva on 13 September 1541.