§ 112. The Calvinistic System.
Comp. § 78, pp. 327-o-t3, and the exposition of the Augustinian System and the Pelagian controversy in vol. III. §§ 146-158, pp. 783-856. — Dorner : Geschichte der protestantischen TAeo/o^iV, pp. 374-404. — Loofs : Dogmengeschichte, 2d ed., pp. 390-401.
Calvin is still a living force in theology as much as Augustin and Thomas Aquinas. No dogmatician can ignore his Institutes any more than an exegete can ignore his Comvientaries. Calvinism is embedded in several confessions of the Reformed Church, and dominates, with more or less rigor, the spirit of a large section of Protestant Christendom, especially in Great Britain and North America. Calvinism is not the name of a Church, but it is the name of a theological school in the Reformed Churches. Luther is the only one among the Reformers whose name was given to the Church which he founded. The Reformed Churches are indepen-
^ Comp. vol. VI. 36 sqq.
§ 112. THE CALVINISTIC SYSTEM. 539
dent of personal authority, but all the more bound to the teaching of the Bible.
Calvinism is usually identified with Augustinianism, as to anthropology and soteriology, in opposition to Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism. Augustin and Calvin were intensely religious, controlled by a sense of absolute dependence on God, and wholly absorbed in the contemplation of his majesty and glory. To them God was everything ; man a mere shadow. Blessed are the elect upon whom God bestows all his amazing mercy ; but woe to the reprobate from whom he withholds it. They lay equal emphasis on the doctrines of sin and grace, the impotence of man and the omnipotence of God, the sinfulness of sin and the sovereignty of regenerating grace. In Christology they made no progress. Their theology is Pauline rather than Johannean. They passed through the same conflict with sin, and achieved the same victory, by the power of divine grace, as the great Apostle of the Gentiles. Their spiritual experience is reflected in their theology. But Calvin left us no such thrilling record of his experience as Augustin in his Confessions. He barely allndes to his conversion, in the preface to his Commentary on the Psalms and in his Answer to Sadolet.
The profound sympathy of Calvin with Augustin is shown in the interesting fact that he quotes him far more frequently than all the Greek and Latin fathers combined, and quotes him nearly always with full approbation.^
But in some respects Augustin and Calvin were widely different. Augustin wandered for nine years in the laby-
1 According to the Index of the List of Authors quoted in Calvin's Institutes, which is appended to Beveridge's translation, Edinburgh, 185G, vol. III. 626-663, the number of his quotations from the principal fathers is as follows : 228 from Augustin ; 39 from Pope Gregory I. ; 27 from Chrysostom ; 23 from Bernard; 18 from Ambrose; 14 from Cyprian; 12 from Jerome; 11 from Hilary ; 7 from TertuUian. Of classical authors there are, in the Institutes, 7 quotations from Plato; 5 from Aristotle; 9 from Cicero; 3 from Seneca; t from Plutarch, etc. The Index theologicus in Opera, XXII. 136-143, gives 7 columns of quotations from Augustin. This does not include the commentaries.
640 THE llEFOKMATION IN FllENCH SWITZERLAND.
rinth of the Manichsean heresy, and found at hist rest and peace in the orthodox Catholic Church of his day, which was far better than any philosophical school or heretical sect, thouo-h not much ])urer than in the sixteenth century. He became the chief architect of scholastic and mystic theology, which ruled in the Middle Ages, and he still carries more weight in the Roman communion than any of the ancient fathers. Calvin was brought up in the Roman Catholic Church, but lied from its prevailing corruptions to the citadel of the Holy Scripture, and became the most formidable enemy of the papacy. If Augustin had lived in the sixteenth century, he might, perhaps, have gone half way with the Reformers ; but, judging from his high estimate of visible church unity and his conduct towards the schismatic Donatists, it is more probable that he would have become the leader of an evangelical school of Catholicism within the Roman Church.
The difference between the two great teachers may be briefly stated in two sentences which are antagonistic on the surface, though reconcilable at bottom. Augustin says : "I would not believe the gospel if it were not for the Church." ^ Calvin teaches (in substance, though not in these words) : " I would not believe the Church if it were not for the gospel." The reconciliation must be found in the higher principle : I believe in Christ, and therefore I believe in the gospel and the Church, which jointly bear witness of him.
As to the doctrines of the fall, of total depravity, the slavery of the human will, the sovereignty of saving grace, the bishop of Hippo and the pastor of Geneva are essentially agreed ; the former has the merit of priority and originality ;
1 Contra Ep. ]\fanichcei (juam vocani Fundamenti, c. 5 : "Efjo evangelio non crederem nisi vie moreret ecclesi(V auctoritas." This famous anti-Manichaean passage is often quoted by Roman Catholics against Protestants. Calvin discusses it at length in his Inst. (Bk. I. eh. VII. § 3), and tries to deprive it of its anti-Protestant force, but he admits it in the sense that "the authority of the Church is an introduction to prepare us for the faith of the gospel."