§ 99. Calvin's idea of the holy catholic church. 451
favor of God, and the peculiar testimony of the spiritual life, are restricted to his flock, to teach us that it is always fatally dangerous to be separated from the Church. " i
So strong are the claims of the visible Church upon us that even abounding corruptions cannot justify a secession. Reasoning against the Anabaptists and other radicals who endeavored to build up a new Church of converts directly from the Bible, without any regard to the intervening historical Church, he says : ^ —
" Dreadful are those descriptions in which Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Habakkuk, and others, deplore the disorders of the Church at Jerusalem. There was such general and extreme corruption in the people, in the magistrates, and in the priests that Isaiah does not hesitate to compare Jerusalem to Sodom and Gomorrah. Religion was partly despised, partly corrupted. Their manners were generally disgraced by thefts, robberies, treacheries, murders, and similar crimes.
"Nevertheless, the Prophets on this account neither raised themselves new churches, nor built new altars for the oblation of separate sacrifices ; but whatever were the characters of the people, yet because they considered that God had deposited his word among that nation, and instituted the ceremonies in which he was there worshipped, they lifted up pure hands to him even in the congregation of the impious. If they had thought that they contracted any contagion from these services, surely they would have suffered a hundred deaths rather than have permitted themselves to be dragged to them. There was nothing, therefore, to prevent their departure from them, but the desire of preserving the unity of the Church.
" But if the holy Prophets were restrained by a sense of duty from forsaking the Church on account of the numerous and enormous crimes which were practiced, not by a few individuals, but almost by the whole nation, it is extreme arrogance in us, if we presume immediately to withdraw from the communion of a Church, where the conduct of all the members is not compatible either with our judgment or even with the Christian profession.
" Now what kind of an age was that of Christ and his Apostles ? Yet the desperate impiety of the Pharisees, and tlie dissolute lives everywhere led by the people, could not prevent them from using the same sacrifices, and assembling in the same temple with others, for the public exercises of religion. How did this happen, but from a knowledge that the society of the wicked could not contaminate those who, with pure consciences, united with them in the same solemnities.
" If any one pay no deference to the Prophets and the Apostles, let him at least acquiesce in the authority of Christ. Cyprian has excellently remarked :
1 " Ut semper exkialis sit ab ecclesia discessio."
2 Ibid. IV. ch. 1, §§ 18, 19.
452 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
'Altliough tares, or impure vessels, are found in the Church, yet this is not a reason why we should withdraw from it. It only behooves us to labor that we may be the wheat, and to use our utmost endeavors and exertions that we may be vessels of gold or of silver. But to break in pieces the vessels of earth belongs to the Lord alone, to whom a rod of iron is also given. Nor let any one arrogate to himself what is the exclusive province of the Son of God, by pretending to fan the floor, clear away the chaff, and separate all the tares by the judgment of man. This is proud obstinac}', and sacrilegious presumption, originating in a corrupt frenzy.'
" Let these two points, then, be considered as decided : first, that he who voluntarily deserts the external communion of the Church where the Word of God is preached, and the sacraments are administered, is without any excuse ; secondly, that the faults either of few persons or of many form no obstacles to a due profession of our faith in the use of the ceremonies instituted by God ; because the pious conscience is not wounded by the unworthiness of any other individual, whether he be a pastor or a private person ; nor are the mysteries less pure and salutary to a holy and upright man, because they are received at the same time by the impure."
How, then, with such high churchly views, could Calvin justify his separation from the Roman Church in which he was born and trained? He vindicated his position in the Answer to Sadolet, from which we have given large extracts.^ He did it more fully in his masterly work, " On the Necessity of Reforming the Church," which, " in the name of all who wish Christ to reign," he addressed to the Emperor Charles V. and the Diet to be assembled at Speier in February, 1544. It is replete with weighty arguments and accurate learning, and by far one of the ablest controversial books of that age.'^ The following is a passage bearing upon this point : ^ —
1 See § 91, pp. 404 sqq.
^ Supple.r exhortatio ad Ccesarem Carolum V. de necessitate reformandce Ecclesiai, 1543, in Opera, VI. 453—534. English Version by Henry Beveridge, Calvin's Tracts, I. 123-237. The Strassburg editors call it a " libellus et ab argumenti gravitate et a stili elegantia prce cceteris commendandus, hodieque lectu dignissimus." Proleg., p. xxviii. Calvin wrote this book at the request of Bucer, who urged him to do so in a letter of Oct. 25, 1543. It appeared also in French.
3 Opera, VI. 518 sqq. ; Beveridge, I.e., 211 sqq. Compare the Institutes, IV. oh. II. §§ 6-12.