Originally, John Calvin hoped for an ecclesiastical career in France, and became acquainted with humanism. When his father (who helped Calvin gain two ecclesiastical posts early on) had a falling out with the bishop of Noyon, Calvin pursued law, studying under two of the most famous jurists of the time. While it is not clear what caused Calvin to abandon Catholicism, Calvin left his ecclesiastical posts, and when King Francis I of France became more intolerant towards Protestants in 1535, Calvin fled to the primarily Protestant city of Basel, Switzerland. He eventually settled in Geneva after an eventful 6 years in which he wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion, was kicked out of Geneva by the bourgeoisie-led government after being persuaded to build a church there, and pastored in Strasbourg, where he got married and wrote a second edition of Institutes. Finally, in Geneva, he composed the Ecclesiastical Ordinances, in which he proposed an organization of the ministry of the church in a way that reflected the New Testament. In the Ordinances, Calvin envisioned a society that is driven by communal piety and rules that Calvin thought reflected God’s law and the “Christian” lifestyle. Strict rules were set on church life and procedures, as well as temporal matters of churchgoers. Sermon attendance was compulsory, along with requirements including timeliness and attentiveness (215). Violators of these rules were punished through fines and, in extreme cases, imprisonment (215-217). Prohibition of quarrels between churchgoers, “outrageous” songs and dance, and drunkenness were all features of Calvin’s ordinances (217). Calvin also specified certain procedural things regarding baptism and communion.
These guidelines for Calvin’s ideal Christian community reflect Reformation concepts that circulated around Europe in the early-to-mid 16th century. There are only two sacraments discussed: baptism and communion, which is in agreement with Luther’s theology. Also, there seems to be a consensus among early reformers on the importance of resisting excesses, and we see this same idea in the Ordinances with the regulations regarding drink, song and dance, sexual immorality, and games with large quantities of money at stake (217). Like Calvin, many reformers condemned the abandonment of moderation under the Catholic Church, whose frivolous spending habits and lavish lifestyles of its clergy contradicted the humble life Jesus advocated for in the Gospels. Also, in the section “Superstitions,” Calvin lists several actions for which the offender should be admonished (216). Among these are idolatry, pilgrimage, and observation of the “papistical feasts,” for all of which the person at fault should be at the very least admonished, and in some cases, imprisoned or fined (216). Here, Calvinist doctrine explicitly departs from Catholic doctrine. Pilgrimage to holy sites and icons was encouraged by the Church, and pious acts like these were a significant monetary boost to the papal treasury, which funded the very extravagant building projects the reformers disapproved of. Next, any person who contradicts the Word of God is to be admonished, writes Calvin, and in some cases, where a scandal erupts, the matter is turned over to the local lord (217). There are two important ideas here. The reformers consistently accused the Catholic Church of deviating from the Bible and inserting rules into doctrine that are unsupported by scripture. In addition, the local lord (along with ministers and in some cases, guardians) ultimately had power over temporal matters, which is opposite of the Catholic Church, where religious authority had power over all matters, regardless of whether they were church business or not. For them, this represents an improvement over the previous Catholic society. Lastly, a common punishment was a fine, ranging from 3 sous (roughly the daily wage of an artisan) to 60 sous (215-217). These were relatively large quantities of money, and since there were no indulgences to purchase, the offender had no choice but to pay his fine and face the consequences of not being able to feed him/herself or his/her family. This was likely a great deterrent to breaking Calvin’s rules, which. In Calvin’s eyes, improved the cohesiveness and “Christian-ness” of society that was not apparent during Catholic times.
Ordinances gives us a glimpse into Calvin’s theology and his concept of an ideal, Christian community. It took a considerable amount of time for his ideas to be accepted in Geneva, as he still faced opposition for many of the same reasons as he did previously in Geneva. Eventually, in 1549 Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli’s successor Heinrich Bullinger signed the Zurich Consensus, a doctrinal agreement that sought to unite Protestant Switzerland.