The Necessity of Reforming the Church

His propositions are equally scriptural. For anyone unsure of the necessity of Biblical worship, this volume is essential. Amazing how much Calvin writes about that applies to our day: This was a good book. It took me to another place that looked very similar. Jul 01, Daniel rated it it was amazing. Perhaps what may be most surprising to some is that Calvin placed the importance of right worship before salvation.

The Necessity of Reforming the Church (1543)

Sep 04, David Biser rated it it was amazing. A great book by a great man.

Well worth every Christian reading to remind them of why the Reformation was needed and then to apply those circumstances to our day of multi denominational madness! Kasper Justesen rated it really liked it Mar 02, Ben Smith rated it liked it Nov 19, Angel Roman rated it it was amazing Dec 12, Gregory rated it it was amazing Dec 18, Travis rated it really liked it Oct 11, Connor Longaphie rated it it was amazing May 15, Aaron rated it really liked it Apr 02, Jared Havener rated it it was amazing May 11, Dirk rated it liked it Feb 10, James Iorga rated it really liked it Jun 16, Alexander rated it it was amazing Mar 25, Andrew Myers rated it it was amazing Mar 13, Ana rated it it was ok Jun 18, Cecilia Dunbar Hernandez rated it it was amazing Dec 10, Kenneth rated it really liked it Jul 05, There are no discussion topics on this book yet.

He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around After religious tensions provoked a violent uprising against Protestants in France, Calvin fled to Basel, Switzerland, where in he published the first edition of his seminal work Institutes of the Christian Religion. In that year, Calvin was invited by William Farel to help reform the church in Geneva.

The city council resisted the implementation of Calvin and Farel's ideas, and both men were expelled. At the invitation of Martin Bucer, Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg, where he became the minister of a church of French refugees. He continued to support the reform movement in Geneva, and was eventually invited back to lead its church. Following his return, he introduced new forms of church government and liturgy.

Following an influx of supportive refugees and new elections to the city council, Calvin's opponents were forced out. Calvin spent his final years promoting the Reformation both in Geneva and throughout Europe. Calvin was a tireless polemic and apologetic writer. He also exchanged cordial and supportive letters with many reformers including Philipp Melanchthon and Heinrich Bullinger.

In addition to the Institutes, he wrote commentaries on most books of the Bible as well as theological treatises and confessional documents, and he regularly gave sermons throughout the week in Geneva.

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Calvin was influenced by the Augustinian tradition, which led him to expound the doctrine of predestination and the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation. Calvin's writing and preaching provided the seeds for the branch of theology that bears his name. The Presbyterian and other Reformed churches, which look to Calvin as a chief expositor of their beliefs, have spread throughout the world.

Calvin's thought exerted considerable influence over major religious figures and entire religious movements, such as Puritanism, and some have argued that his ideas have contributed to the rise of capitalism, individualism, and representative democracy in the West. Books by John Calvin. What measures were essential to achieve genuine reformation? Of course, the differences between the Papists and the Protestants produced a colossal struggle over the doctrine of justification.

Nevertheless, the battle over justification was not the only struggle between the reformers and Rome. Calvin declares the wider scope of the Reformation: If it be inquired, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity: When these are kept out of view, though we may glory in the name of Christians, our profession is empty and vain.

The Genevan reformer next mentions the sacraments and the government of the church, which were instituted for the preservation of doctrine. In setting forth the necessity of reformation, Calvin defends Protestants against the charge of schism. Whenever men lift a voice for reform, corrupt religious leaders defame the reformers as schismatics, and corrupt assemblies appropriate to themselves the name of the church.

In a corruption of sound doctrine so extreme, in a pollution of the sacraments so nefarious, in a condition of the church so deplorable, those who maintain that we ought not to have felt so strongly, would have been satisfied with nothing less than a perfidious tolerance, by which we should have betrayed the worship of God, the glory of Christ, the salvation of men, the entire administration of the sacraments, and the government of the church.

1 The Necessity of Reforming the Church

This would be not meekness, but indifference about things to which all others ought to be postponed. If religious corruptions required reformationthen, similar corruptions demand serious reform today. This is, indeed, a grievous evil. But still worse is the superstition which applies this work to the living and the dead, as a procuring cause of grace.

In this way the efficacy of Christ's death has been transferred to a vain theatrical show, and the dignity of an eternal priesthood wrested from him to be bestowed upon men. If, at any time, the people are called to communion, they are admitted only to half a share. Why should this be? Christ holds forth the cup to all, and bids all drink of it.

In opposition to this, men interdict the assembly of the faithful from touching the cup. Thus the signs, which by the authority of Christ were connected by an indissoluble tie, are separated by human caprice. Besides, the consecration, both of baptism and of the mass, differs in no respect whatever from magical incantations. For by breathings and whisperings, and unintelligible sounds, they think they work mysteries.

As if it had been the wish of Christ, that in the performance of religious rites his word should be mumbled over, and not rather pronounced in a clear voice. There is no obscurity in the words by which the gospel expresses the power, nature, and use of baptism. Then, in the supper, Christ does not mutter over the bread, but addresses the apostles in distinct terms, when he announces the promise and subjoins the command, "This do in remembrance of me.

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The first thing we complain of here is, that the people are entertained with showy ceremonies, while not a word is said of their significance and truth. For there is no use in the sacraments unless the thing which the sign visibly represents is explained in accordance with the word of God. Therefore, when the people are presented with nothing but empty figures, with which to feed the eye, while they hear no doctrine which might direct them to the proper end, they look no farther than the external act.

Hence that most pestilential superstition, under which, as if the sacraments alone were sufficient for salvation, without feeling any solicitude about faith or repentance, or even Christ himself, they fasten upon the sign instead of the thing signified by it. And, indeed, not only among the rude vulgar, but in the schools also, the impious dogma everywhere obtained, that the sacraments were effectual by themselves, if not obstructed in their operation by mortal sin; as if the sacraments had been given for any other end or use than to lead us by the hand to Christ.

Then, in addition to this, after consecrating the bread by a perverse incantation, rather than a pious rite, they keep it in a little box, and occasionally carry it about in solemn state, that it may be adored and prayed to instead of Christ. Accordingly, when any danger presses, they flee to that bread as their only protection, use it as a charm against all accidents, and, in asking pardon of God, employ it as the best expiation; as if Christ, when he gave us his body in the sacrament, had meant that it should be prostituted to all sorts of absurdity.

For what is the amount of the promise? This do in remembrance of me. Those, therefore, are deceived who imagine that, apart from the legitimate use of the sacrament, they have anything but common and unconsecrated bread. Then, again, there is a profanation common to all these religious rites: Nor is this traffic conducted secretly or bashfully; it is plied openly, as at the public mart. It is known in each particular district how much a mass sells for.

Other rites, too, have their fixed prices. In short, any one who considers must see that churches are just ordinary shops, and that there is no kind of sacred rite which is not there exposed for sale. Were I to go over the faults of ecclesiastical government in detail, I should never have done. I will, therefore, only point to some of the grosser sort, which cannot be disguised. And, first, the pastoral office itself, as instituted by Christ, has long been in desuetude. His object in appointing bishops and pastors, or whatever the name be by which they are called, certainly was, as Paul declares, that they might edify the church with sound doctrine.

According to this view, no man is a true pastor of the church who does not perform the office of teaching. But, in the present day, almost all those who have the name of pastors have left that work to others. Scarcely one in a hundred of the bishops will be found who ever mounts the pulpit in order to teach.

And no wonder; for bishoprics have degenerated into secular principalities. Pastors of inferior rank, again, either think that they fulfill their office by frivolous performances altogether alien from the command of Christ, or, after the example of the bishops, throw even this part of the duty on the shoulders of others. Hence the letting of sacerdotal offices is not less common than the letting of farms. What would we more? The spiritual government which Christ recommended has totally disappeared, and a new and mongrel species of government has been introduced, which, under whatever name it may pass current, has no more resemblance to the former than the world has to the kingdom of Christ.

If it be objected, that the fault of those who neglect their duty ought not to be imputed to the order, I answer, first, that the evil is of such general prevalence, that it may be regarded as the common rule; and, secondly, that, were we to assume that all the bishops, and all the presbyters under them, reside each in his particular station, and do what in the present day is regarded as professional duty, they would never fulfill the true institution of Christ. They would sing or mutter in the church, exhibit themselves in theatrical vestments, and go through numerous ceremonies, but they would seldom, if ever, teach.

According to the precept of Christ, however, no man can claim for himself the office of bishop or pastor who does not feed his flock with the word of the Lord. Then while those who preside in the church ought to excel others, and shine by the example of a holier life, how well do those who hold the office in the present day correspond in this respect to their vocation! At a time when the corruption of the world is at its height, there is no order more addicted to all kinds of wickedness. I wish that by their innocence they would refute what I say.

How gladly would I at once retract. The noise of indecent revelry and dancing, the rage of gaming, and entertainments, abounding in all kinds of intemperance, are in their houses only ordinary occurrences, while they glory in their luxurious delicacies, as if they were distinguished virtues. To pass over other things in silence, what impurity in that celibacy which of itself they regard as a title to esteem! I feel ashamed to unveil enormities which I had much rather suppress, if they could be corrected by silence.

Nor will I divulge what is done in secret. The pollutions which openly appear are more than sufficient. How many priests, pray, are free from whoredom? Nay, how many of their houses are infamous for daily acts of lewdness?

The Necessity of Reforming the Church

How many honorable families do they defile by their vagabond lusts? For my part, I have no pleasure in exposing their vices, and it is no part of my design; but it is of importance to observe what a wide difference there is between the conduct of the priesthood of the present day, and that which true ministers of Christ and his church are bound to pursue. Not the least important branch of ecclesiastical government is the due and regular election and ordination of those who are to rule. The word of God furnishes a standard by which all such appointments ought to be tested, and there exist many decrees of ancient councils which carefully and wisely provide for every thing which relates to the proper method of election.

Let our adversaries then produce even a solitary instance of canonical election, and I will yield them the victory. We know the kind of examination which the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of Paul epistles of Timothy and Titus , requires a pastor to undergo, and that which the ancient laws of the fathers enjoin. At the present day, in appointing bishops, is anything of the kind perceived?

Nay, how few of those who are raised to the office are endowed even slenderly with those qualities without which they cannot be fit ministers of the church?

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We see the order which the apostles observed in ordaining ministers, that which the primitive church afterwards followed, and, finally, that which the ancient canons require to be observed. Were I to complain that at present this order is spurned and rejected, would not the complaint be just? What, then, should I say that everything honorable is trampled upon, and promotion obtained by the most disgraceful and flagitious proceedings? The fact is of universal notoriety. For ecclesiastical honors are either purchased for a set price, or seized by the hand of violence, or secured by nefarious actions, or acquired by sordid sycophancy.

Occasionally even, they are the hire paid for panderism and similar services. In short, more shameless proceedings are exhibited here than ever occur in the acquisition of secular possessions. And would that those who preside in the church, when they corrupt its government, only sinned for themselves, or at least injured others by nothing but by their bad example! But the most crying evil of all is, that they exercise a most cruel tyranny, and that a tyranny over souls.

Nay, what is the vaunted power of the church in the present day, but a lawless, licentious, unrestricted domination over souls, subjecting them to the most miserable bondage? Christ gave to the apostles an authority similar to that which God had conferred on the prophets, an authority exactly defined: Now, the invariable law is, that he who is entrusted with an embassy must faithfully and religiously conform to his instructions.

This is stated in express terms in the apostolical commission, "Go and teach all nations whatsoever things I have delivered unto you. If it is asked what the authority is with which their successors were invested, we have the definition of Peter which enjoins all who speak in the church to speak "the oracles" of God [1 Pet. Now, however, those who would be thought the rulers of the church arrogate to themselves a license to speak whatsoever they please, and to insist that as soon as they have spoken they shall be implicitly obeyed.

It will be averred that this is a calumny, and that the only right which they assume is that of sanctioning by their authority what the Holy Spirit has revealed. They will, accordingly, maintain that they do not subject the consciences of believers to their own devices or caprice, but only to the oracles of the Spirit, which, being revealed to them, they confirm and promulgate to others. Forsooth an ingenious pretext! No man doubts that in whatever the Holy Spirit delivers by their hands they are to be unhesitatingly obeyed.

But when they add that they cannot deliver anything but the genuine oracles of the Holy Spirit, because they are under his guidance, and that all their decisions cannot but be true, because they sit in chairs of verity, is not this just to measure their power by their caprice? For if all their decrees, without exception, are to be received as oracles, there is no limit to their power. What tyrant ever so monstrously abused the patience of his subjects as to insist that everything he proclaimed should be received as a message from heaven!

Tyrants, no doubt, will have their edicts obeyed, be the edicts what they may. But these men demand much more.

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We must believe that the Holy Spirit speaks when they obtrude upon us what they have dreamed. We see, accordingly, how hard and iniquitous the bondage is in which, when armed with this power, they have enthralled the souls of the faithful. Laws have been piled above laws, to be so many snares to the conscience. For they have not confined these laws to matters of external order, but applied them to the interior and spiritual government of the soul.