Zwingli, Calvin and the Reformed

A second reformation

Luther's was not the only Reformation. In Switzerland and southern Germany, a second movement grew up, related to Luther's but different in tone. It became the Reformed tradition, often called "Calvinist" after its most famous theologian. Carlos Eire's chapter in the Oxford Illustrated History of the Reformation calls it a "reform of the Reformation," because it pushed further than Luther in reshaping worship and society [check].

Zwingli in Zürich

Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) was a humanist priest, a devoted student of Erasmus, and a Swiss patriot who had served as an army chaplain and come to hate the mercenary trade. In 1519 he became the "people's priest" at the Great Minster in Zürich. He began preaching straight through the Gospel of Matthew, chapter by chapter, instead of following the traditional readings. It was a revolutionary act.

His break came in 1522, when some of his friends publicly ate sausages during Lent. Zwingli defended them, arguing that fasting rules had no basis in Scripture. In 1523 the city council held a public debate and decided in favor of Zwingli's reforms. Zürich showed a new pattern: the city council, guided by the preacher and Scripture, carried out the Reformation.

Zwingli's reform was more thorough than Luther's. Luther kept whatever Scripture did not forbid. Zwingli removed whatever Scripture did not command. In 1524 images, statues and relics were removed from Zürich's churches, and the walls were whitewashed. Organs were silenced. In 1525 the Mass was replaced by a simple Communion service around a table. Monasteries were closed and their wealth used for schools and poor relief.

The Lord's Supper: the great divide

The deepest disagreement between Zwingli and Luther was about the Lord's Supper. What did Jesus mean when he said, "This is my body"?

• Luther insisted that Christ's body and blood are truly present "in, with and under" the bread and wine. The word "is" means is. He rejected transubstantiation's philosophy, but not the real presence.
• Zwingli argued that "is" here means "signifies," as when Jesus said "I am the vine." Christ's risen body is in heaven at God's right hand, so it cannot be on many altars at once. The Supper is a memorial, a thanksgiving, and a pledge of the community's faith. Christ is present to faith spiritually, not bodily in the elements.

In 1529 Philip of Hesse, hoping to unite the Protestants politically, brought Luther, Zwingli and their colleagues together at his castle at Marburg. They agreed on fourteen of fifteen articles. On the fifteenth, the Supper, they could not agree. Luther reportedly chalked Hoc est corpus meum ("This is my body") on the table and refused to budge. He told the Swiss they had "a different spirit." Protestantism was permanently split.

What happens at the Lord's Supper? Five answers

	Catholic (Trent)	Lutheran	Calvin / Reformed	Zwingli	Anabaptist
Is Christ present?	Yes, bodily: bread and wine become his body and blood	Yes, bodily: truly present "in, with and under" the bread and wine	Yes, spiritually: believers are lifted by the Spirit to feed on Christ	Present to the faith of the community; the elements are signs	A memorial; Christ present in the gathered body of believers
Key term	Transubstantiation	"Sacramental union" (often called consubstantiation, a term Lutherans dislike)	Real spiritual presence	Memorial / symbol ("is" = "signifies")	Memorial; sign of commitment
Is it a sacrifice?	Yes: the sacrifice of Calvary made present	No (a gift received, not offered)	No	No	No
Do unbelievers receive Christ?	Yes (to their harm)	Yes (to their harm)	No, only the sign	No	Only believers should take part
Worship style	Latin Mass at an altar	German service; altar, vestments kept	Simple table; sermon central	Plain table, seated congregation	Simple meal; often with foot-washing

Zwingli died in 1531, killed as a chaplain fighting with Zürich's army against the Catholic Swiss cantons at Kappel. His enemies quartered and burned his body. His successor, Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575), led the Zürich church wisely for over forty years. He corresponded with reformers all over Europe and wrote influential confessions.

John Calvin

The Reformed tradition's greatest figure belonged to the second generation. John Calvin (1509–1564) was born in Noyon, France, and trained as a lawyer and humanist scholar. Around 1533 he experienced what he called a "sudden conversion." When persecution of Protestants intensified in France, he fled.

In 1536, aged just 26, he published in Basel the first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, a clear, systematic summary of Protestant faith. He kept expanding it for the rest of his life. The final edition (1559) is a masterpiece of theology and of French and Latin prose, and it became the textbook of Reformed Protestantism.

Later in 1536, passing through Geneva, which had just adopted the Reformation, Calvin planned to stay one night. The fiery reformer William Farel told him God would curse his studies if he did not stay and help. Calvin stayed. In 1538 the city council expelled both men over their demands for strict church discipline. Calvin spent three happy years in Strasbourg with the reformer Martin Bucer, pastoring French refugees and marrying a widow, Idelette de Bure. In 1541 Geneva begged him to return, and he spent the rest of his life there.

Calvin's theology

Calvin agreed with Luther on justification by faith. His distinctive emphases included:

• The sovereignty and glory of God: God rules every detail of the world by his providence. The purpose of human life is to know and glorify God.
• Knowledge of God and of ourselves: The Institutes begins by saying that nearly all wisdom consists of these two, and they are bound together.
• Scripture as the "spectacles" through which we see God clearly, confirmed in our hearts by the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.
• Predestination: Following Augustine, Calvin taught that God, before creation, chose some for salvation and passed over others ("double predestination"). He called it a "dreadful decree" but insisted it was biblical, and that it should comfort believers, since salvation depends on God, not on our weakness. Later Calvinists made this doctrine more central than Calvin himself did.
• The Lord's Supper: Calvin took a middle path between Luther and Zwingli. Christ's body remains in heaven, but by the power of the Holy Spirit believers are truly lifted up to feed on Christ spiritually. The Supper is not an empty sign.
• The "third use" of the law: God's law is a guide for grateful Christian living, not just a mirror showing our sin.

Geneva: a model Christian city

Calvin's Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1541) organized the Genevan church with four offices: pastors to preach, teachers (doctors) to instruct, elders (lay leaders) to oversee morals, and deacons to care for the poor and sick. Pastors and elders met weekly in the Consistory to discipline members for offenses ranging from adultery and drunkenness to dancing, gambling and naming children after Catholic saints. Discipline was meant to restore offenders, but it could be intrusive.

Geneva became a magnet for Protestant refugees from France, England, Scotland, Italy and the Netherlands. The Scottish reformer John Knox called it "the most perfect school of Christ that ever was on earth since the days of the apostles." The Geneva Academy (1559), led by Calvin's successor Theodore Beza, trained pastors who returned home to spread Reformed faith. Geneva also produced the English Geneva Bible (1560), with study notes, the Bible of Shakespeare and the Pilgrims.

The Servetus affair

Geneva's darkest moment came in 1553. Michael Servetus, a brilliant Spanish physician (who correctly described the circulation of blood through the lungs) and theologian, denied the Trinity. Already condemned by the Catholic Inquisition in France, he escaped and, for reasons that remain unclear, came to Geneva. He was recognized, arrested and tried. With the approval of other Swiss Protestant churches, he was burned at the stake. Calvin had argued for a quicker, more merciful beheading. Most Christians of the time, Catholic and Protestant, agreed that obstinate heretics deserved death. But the execution provoked the humanist Sebastian Castellio to write one of the first great defenses of religious tolerance: "To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine; it is to kill a man."

The Reformed world

Unlike Lutheranism, which stayed mostly in Germany and Scandinavia, Reformed Protestantism became an international movement:

• France: The Huguenots, perhaps 10 percent of the population by the 1560s and including many nobles such as Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, fought a series of religious wars (see Wars of Religion).
• The Netherlands: Calvinism fueled the Dutch revolt against Catholic Spain, led by William of Orange. The Dutch Reformed Church became the public church of the new Dutch Republic.
• Scotland: Knox led a Reformation in 1560, creating the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, governed by elders and assemblies instead of bishops (see Britain's Reformations).
• Germany: The Palatinate became Reformed, producing the warm and widely loved Heidelberg Catechism (1563), which begins by asking what is your only comfort in life and in death.
• Eastern Europe: Reformed churches took root in Hungary and Transylvania, and for a time in Poland and Lithuania.
• England: Calvinist theology shaped the Church of England and inspired the Puritans, who carried it to New England (see Puritans, Baptists and Quakers).

Disputes within Calvinism about predestination led to the Synod of Dort (1618–1619) in the Netherlands. It rejected the views of Jacob Arminius, who taught that God's election is based on foreseen faith and that grace can be resisted. Dort's decisions are often summarized as the "five points of Calvinism" (in English, the acronym TULIP). "Arminianism" lived on, especially later among Methodists.