I hope that many of our readers took advantage of the fantastic of­fer that the Trust made available during 2009 – the Calvin 500th Anniversary year – and are now happily leafing through the pages of John Calvin Tracts and Letters. Speaking personally, I have greatly enjoyed reading through Beza’s Life of Calvin and Calvin’s Correspond­ence with Cardinal Sadoletto. It has been good also to dip into the four volumes of letters (what treasures are to be found buried in this fascinat­ing correspondence!), and I have been struck by Calvin’s insights in his various writings on basic Christian doctrine and church reforms, which can be found in volume 2 of that set, not least his ‘Forms of Prayer’ and instruction on ‘The Visitation of the Sick’.

But of particular interest for me has been the discovery of Calvin’s tract, ‘On the Necessity of Reforming the Church’. Although this is a historic document, written in 1544 and addressed to the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the German Princes who were to meet at the Diet of Speyers, it has much timely application to offer to our own times. Indeed, as we ‘look forward’ to September, and what will be the second visit of a Roman Pontiff to the United Kingdom; as we observe the media and political establishment fawning upon him and hanging on his every word, it will be vital for us not to succumb to what is likely to be another bout of national amnesia. Somehow – I can’t explain exactly how or when it happened – the religious sympathies of the ‘Christian’ people of Great Britain became decidedly Roman Catholic and anti-Protestant. Sometimes one wonders whether the last 450 years of British history have been wiped from the national consciousness! If we should hear mention made of the Reformation outside our circles, it is usually in negative terms – it being a colossal mistake and a monu­mental failure and something the Christian churches need to put right in our own day. The added pressure arising from the fear of ‘the Christian church’ being increasingly marginalised in our ‘secular’ society has led many (some of whom should surely know better!) to regard ‘our en­emy’s enemy as our friend’. This adoption of what our Puritan forbears would have labelled ‘carnal policy’ should not take us by surprise. After all, there were some Protestants in Reformation times who sought com­mon agreement and a healing of the breach with Rome by dialogue and joint communiqués, in the vain hope that a form of words could recon­cile truth with error or nurture the fellowship of light with darkness.

Did you know that Calvin witnessed a similar condemnation of the Reformation that we often hear in our own day? Indeed one of the charges brought against the reformers was that they had brought unnecessary and sinful division and had shattered the peace of the Church. This is one of the many charges against the Reformation that Calvin answers in his tract ‘On the Necessity of Reforming the Church’. I found his response very helpful; his words provide faithful gospel ministers with bucket-loads of encouragement to press on in their work despite the loud and threatening condemnation of powerful voices in fierce opposition, and, like Calvin himself, to commit their way to the One who alone ‘gives the increase’.

The Charge against the Reformers⤒🔗

Having answered the charge that the reformers were heavy-handed and over-zealous in the measures they introduced to correct the errors and clean up the abuses of the Church, Calvin highlights a further charge levelled against him and his reforming brethren:

What have you reformers gained from your meddling in the affairs of the Church? You have filled the Christian world – which was in a state of peace – with internal discord. So far from bringing a change for the better, your measures have made matters far worse! Of all those who have embraced your doctrine, only a few have been made better. The vast majority have taken their cue from your criticism of the Church to throw off all restraint and live as they please.

Calvin Answers the Charge←⤒🔗

I, for my part, deny not that when impiety reigned, her kingdom was disturbed by us. But if, at the moment when the light of sound and pious doctrine beamed upon the world, all, as in duty bound, had spontaneously, and with ready mind, lent their aid, there would at the present day be no less peace and quietness in all the churches, (the king­dom of Christ flourishing,) than in the days when Antichrist tyrannised. Let those who, it is manifest, impede the course of truth, desist from waging war with Christ, and there will instantly be perfect concord; or let them desist from throwing upon us the blame of dissensions, which they themselves excite. For it is certainly most unfair, while they refuse all terms of peace unless Antichrist be permitted, after putting the doc­trine of piety to flight, and as it were again consigning Christ to the tomb, to subjugate the Church; it is most unfair not only to boast as if they themselves were innocent, but also to insult over us; and that we, who desire nothing else than unity, and whose only bond of union is the eternal truth of God, should bear all the blame and odium, as much as if we were the authors of dissension.

In regard to the allegation, that no fruit has been produced by our doctrine, I am well aware that profane men deride us, and allege that in probing sores which are incurable, we only enlarge the ulcer. For their opinion is, that the desperate condition of the Church makes it vain to attempt remedies, there being no hope of cure; and they hence conclude that the best course is not to meddle with an evil well fixed. Those who speak in this way understand not that the restoration of the Church is the work of God, and no more depends on the hopes and opinions of men, than the resurrection of the dead, or any other miracle of that description. Here, therefore, we are not to wait for facility of actions either from the will of men, or the temper of the times, but must rush forward through the midst of despair. It is the will of our Master that his gospel be preached. Let us obey his command, and follow whithersoever he calls. What the success will be it is not ours to inquire. Our only duty is to wish for what is best, and beseech it of the Lord in prayer; to strive with all zeal, solicitude, and diligence, to bring about the desired result, and, at the same time, to submit with patience to whatever that result may be.

Groundless, therefore, is the charge brought against us of not hav­ing done all the good which we wished, and which was to be desired. God bids us plant and water. We have done so. He alone gives the in­crease. What, then, if he chooses not to give according to our wish? If it is clear that we have faithfully done our part, let not our adversaries require more of us: if the result is unfavourable, let them expostulate with God.

But the pretence that no benefit has resulted from our doctrine is most false. I say nothing of the correction of external idolatry, and of numerous superstitions and errors; though that is not to be counted of no moment. But is there no fruit in this, that many who are truly pious feel their obligation to us, in that they have at length learned to worship God with a pure heart, and to invoke him with a calm conscience, have been freed from perpetual torments, and furnished with true delight in Christ, so as to be able to confide in him?

But if we are asked for proofs which every eye can see, it has not fared so unhappily with us that we cannot point to numerous sources of rejoicing. How many who formerly led a vicious course of life have been so reformed as to seem converted into new men? How many whose past lives had been free from censure, nay, who were held in the highest estimation, have, instead of retrograding, been able to testify by their conduct that our ministry has proved neither barren nor unfruitful? Our enemies, no doubt, have it in their power to traduce and lacerate us by their calumnies, especially among the ignorant; but this they can never wrest from us, namely, that in those who have embraced our doctrine, greater innocence, integrity, and true holiness, are found, than in all who among them are deemed of greatest excellence.

But if there are any (and we confess the number is but too great) who pervert the gospel, by giving loose reins to their passions, the cir­cumstance, assuredly, is not new; and if it was (not new), how can we be made to bear the blame of it? It is admitted that the gospel is the only rule of a good and holy life; but in the fact that all do not allow them­selves to be ruled by it, and that some, as if set free from restraint, even sin more presumptuously, we recognize the truth of Simeon’s saying, that Christ ‘is set up, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed’ (Luke 2:35). If God sees meet to kindle the light of the gospel, in order that the hidden iniquity of the wicked may be exposed, out of this to concoct a charge against the ministers of the gospel, and their preaching, is the utmost stretch of malice and effrontery. But I do them no injury when I retort upon them the very thing out of which they attempt to rear up a charge against us. For where do the despisers of God learn their daring licentiousness, except it be from imagining, amid the uproar of dissensions, that there is nothing which they are not licensed to do? In this, therefore, let them recognize it as their own crime, namely, that by retarding the course of truth, they encourage the wicked with hopes of impunity.