§ 73. CALVIN'S CALL. 313
§ 73. Calviris Call.
As in the case of Paul, Calvin's call to his life-work coincided with his conversion, and he proved it by his labors. '' By their fruits ye shall know them."
We must distinguish between an ordinary and an extraordinary call, or the call to the ministry of the gospel, and the call to reform the Church. The ordinary ministry is necessary for the being, the extraordinary for the well-being, of the Church. The former corresponds to the priesthood in the Jewish dispensation, and continues in unbroken succession ; the latter resembles the mission of the prophets, and appears sporadically in great emergencies. The office of a reformer comes nearest the office of an apostle. There are founders of the Church universal, as Peter and Paul ; so there are founders of particular churches, as Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox, Zinzendorf, Wesley; but none of the Reformers was infallible.
1. All the Reformers were born, baptized, confirmed, and educated in the historic Catholic Church, which cast them out; as the Apostles were circumcised and trained in the Synagogue, which cast them out. They never doubted the validity of the Catholic ordinances, and rejected the idea of re-baptism. Distinguishing between the divine substance and the human addition, Calvin said of his baptism, " I renounce the chrism, but retain the baptism." ^
The Reformers were also ordained priests in the Roman Church, except Melanchthon and Calvin, — the greatest theologians among them. A remarkable exception. Melanchthon remained a layman all his life ; yet his authority to teach is undoubted. Calvin became a regular minister ; but how ?
He was, as we have seen, intended and educated for the Roman priesthood, and early received the clerical tonsure.^
1 "Je renonce le cresme, et retient jiion Baptesme." Colladon, in Op. XXI. 53.
2 The value of the tonsure was differently estimated, but it was generally
314 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
He also held two benefices, and preached sometimes in Pont I'Eveque, and also in Lignieres, a little town near Bourges, where he made the impression that " he preached better than the monks." ^
But he never read mass, and never entered the higher orders, properly so called.
After he left the Roman Church, there was no Evangelical bishop in France to ordain him; the bishops, so far, all remained in the old Church, except two or three in East Prussia and Sweden. If the validity of the Christian ministry depended on an unbroken succession of diocesan bishops, which again depends on historical proof, it would be difficult to defend the Reformation and to resist the claims of Rome. But the Reformers planted themselves on the promise of Christ, the ever-present head of the Church, who is equally near to his people in any age. They rejected the Roman Catholic idea of ordination as a divinely instituted sacrament, which can only be performed by bishops, and which confers priestly powers of offering sacrifice and dispensing absolution. They taught the general priesthood of believers, and fell back upon the internal call of the Holy Spirit and the external call of the Christian people. Luther, in his earlier writings, lodged the power of the keys in the conexcluded from the lower orders. Calvin says (Inst. IV. eh. 19, § 22) : " Some represent the clerical tonsure to be the first order of all, and episcopacy the last; others exclude the tonsure, and place the archiepiscopal office among the orders." Pieter the Lombard distinguishes seven orders, corresponding to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (Isa. 11 : 2, 3), — beadles, readers, exorcists, acolytes, subdeacons, deacons, priests. He regards the episcopate, not as a separate ordo, but only as a dignity with four grades, — patriarch, archbishop, metropolitan, bishop. Several schoolmen and canonists reckon eight or nine ordines, including bishops and archbishops. The Council of Trent defined the three ordines majores, — bishops, priests (presbyters), and deacons.
1 CoUadon, Op. XXI. 55 : " II prescha (while he studied at Bourges) quelquefois en une petite ville du pays de Berry, nomme'e Lignieres, et eut entree en la maison du seiqneur du lieu qui estoit pour tors: lequel . . . disait . . . qu'il lui semhlait que M. Jean Calvin preshoit mieux que les moines." His preaching at Pont I'Eveque is mentioned by Colladon, ibid. fol. 54, and by Beza, fol. 121. See above, p. 301.