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The Democratic Element in Calvin's Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

John T. McNeill
Affiliation:
Union Theological Seminary, New York

Extract

Calvin's political interests had a beginning in his humanistic studies, before his conversion, or commitment to Protestantism. His Commentary on Seneca's De Clementia appeared April 4, 1532. The date of his conversion is much disputed, but there is fairly good evidence for placing it almost exactly two years later, about the time of his visit to Lefèvre in April, 1534. His own statements here must be given more weight than those made by Beza after Calvin's death. If, as is probable, he was inwardly half convinced of the Protestant position in 1532, he was, nonetheless, still clinging tenaciously—in his own words “obstinately devoted (adonné)”—to the papacy and had apparently not definitely discarded any of his traditional assumptions with respect to religion.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1949

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References

1 Cf. Breen, Quirinus, John Calvin: a Study in French Humanism (Grand Rapids, 1931), 4055.Google Scholar

2 In an extended study of Badé's treatise, M. Triwunatz holds that it was written before that of Erasmus appeared. According to Budé, the king has no right to do what is dishonorable, or to abrograte a law that expresses the divine justice. Even if kings were free from all obligations, they ought, in their own interests, to subject themselves to the laws of their states. Guillaume Budés De l'institution du prince (Erlangen and Leipzig, 1903), 44Google Scholar; 54ff. Cf. Delaruelle, L., Guillaume Budé, les origines, les debuts, les idées maitresses (Paris, 1907)Google ScholarCalvin, , Opera, V, 23, 67Google Scholar. On Budé see also Breen, , John Calvin, 113ff.Google Scholar, and McNeill, J. T., Christian Hope for World Society (Chicago, 1937), 90ff.Google Scholar. On the relation of the law and the prince, Erasmus, , in Institutio principis Christiani (1516)Google Scholar, ch. vi, has a statement more in accord with Calvin's later teaching: “A state is happy when all the citizens obey the prince, the prince obeys the laws, and the laws are just and honorable and conducive to the public welfare.”

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15 Cf. Augsburg Confession, 18: “some liberty to work a civil righteousness.”

16 Institutes, II, ii, 1417Google Scholar. Cf. his Commentary on Titus: “They are superstitious who dare not borrow anything from profane writers. For since all truth is from God, if anything has been aptly or truly said by those who have not piety, it ought not to be repudiated, for it came from God. Since, then, all things are of God, why is it not right to refer to his glory whatever can properly be applied to that end¶” Opera III, 414f., on Titus 1:12.

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