Calvin up on charges

Calvin dedicated his preface to the Institutes to the French King, Francis. In it he defends the Reformation against Roman Catholic charges. I am reminded of Cardinal Henry C. Newman’s, Apologia Pro Vita Sua in which he defended Roman Catholicism and his move to that church against certain Anglican opponents. Comparing that work with Calvin's Preface is fascinating. By Newman's day the Roman Church had reformed too.

Below, in point form I have summarized the reading for today.

1. Calvin admonished the King to examine the persecution the Reformers had experienced at the hands of the Roman Church to determine if they were just. To close his ears or his mind to the situation would be to disregard the glory and truth of God.

2 The Roman Church brought Calvin up on three charges. a. The newness of the Reformed doctrines. b. The uncertainty of these doctrines. They had not been tried yet. c. There were no miracles to verify these new doctrines. Calvin refutes the charges, of course. He says the doctrines are not new, they are derived from Scripture. They are not uncertain, they are the doctrines of God. And as to miracles, Calvin does not permit a miracle to establish the truth of Scripture.

3. The Roman Church also accused the Reformers for opposing the church fathers. Calvin clearly asserts "we do not despise them; in fact , if it were to our present purpose, I could with no trouble at all prove that the greater part of what we are saying today meets their approval.”
Calvin then goes on to scathe his accusers for not listening to the Church Fathers. "But if our opponents want to preserve the limits set by the fathers according to their understanding of them, why do they themselves transgress them so wilfully as often as it suits them?” In an attempt to expose the pomp and misuse of wealth of the Roman Church, Calvin asserted that the same said Church closed their ears to the doctrine of the Church Fathers on giving. He wrote, “Why? (Why did they not follow the Fathers in this)…because their belly is their God, and their kitchen their religion; and they believe, that if these were away they would not only not be Christians, but not even men. For although some wallow in luxury, and others feed on slender crusts, still they all live by the same pot, which without that fuel might not only cool, but altogether freeze. He, accordingly, who is most anxious about his stomach, proves the fiercest champion of his faith. In short, the object on which all to a man are bent, is to keep their kingdom safe or their belly filled; not one gives even the smallest sign of sincere zeal.”

Seems to me Protestantism in the West needs to hear this criticism today. Our “kitchen” is not St. Peter’s in Rome, but materialsm. We have not learned to give to others either. We keep ourselves insulated from works of justice and mercy in suburbia.

4. The Roman Church also attacked the Reformers in saying they denied "customs" (traditions). Calvin's lets this accusation stand for he clearly asserts that no long-standing custom has authority in the Kingdom of God. "In the Kingdom of God His eternal truth must alone be listened to and observed".