The Life of the Characters in john calvin's Works

/kloc-At the beginning of the 6th century, the religious reform movement initiated by Martin Luther gave up halfway, and Lutheranism actually became a tool in the hands of German rulers, and the efforts to unify the country ended in failure. However, as a bourgeois movement, the religious reform continued to develop in depth.

Soon, in Zurich and Geneva, Zwingli and Calvin continued to advocate the Reformation. The religious reform of Ciwenli had little influence, mainly confined to Switzerland. Calvin, on the other hand, won the Reformation in Geneva and established the first Protestant bourgeois republic in Europe, which had a great influence on the revolutionary movement in Europe.

Calvinism is a major branch of Protestantism, which has great influence in Britain, America and Switzerland, with about 40 million followers. Calvin's thoughts have great influence in Holland, Scotland and England. He accepted a large number of European Protestant refugees to Geneva, making Geneva an international center of authenticity.

Calvin became the father of the most heroic French Huguenots, Dutch beggars, English Puritans, Scottish Pleaders and Puritans in New England. They are all famous for sacrificing anything in the world because of their freedom of conscience.

Calvin made great contributions to the development of Protestantism and laid the foundation for returning to orthodoxy in theory. His theological masterpiece is Christian Essentials, which is called "the father of faith" in America. Calvin1July 509 10 was born in Novell, Piccadilly in northern France. My father used to be the bishop's secretary, which was quite famous. My mother, the daughter of an innkeeper in Cambray, died unfortunately. Calvin was enlightened in a noble family in Nualon.

1523 In August, the Nualon plague was prevalent, and Calvin took his aristocratic children to Paris to study at Marcy College of Paris University. Later, he went to rabelais to study at montague College of Paris University. At this time, the wind of Luther's religious reform has blown into the ancient school campus, and some people expressed their support, while the college leaders opposed it, and the struggle was fierce.

1529, a student leader who supported Luther was burned to death. Calvin can't help but be affected by this struggle.

From 65438 to 0528, Calvin graduated with a Master of Arts. He wanted to study theology, but his father forced him to study law.

1528 In March, Calvin entered the University of Orleans, studied under the famous jurist Ray Thouvard, and began to study law from the perspective of humanism.

1in the autumn of 529, the Italian humanist jurist Alkatie came to France to give lectures, and Calvin traveled long distances to Bourges to attend lectures. He is still obsessed with theology, learning Greek, and studying the New Testament with Wilma, a German teacher and supporter of Luther.

153 1 in may, Calvin's father died and he decided to go to Paris to specialize in theology. He studied the Bible in Greek, Hebrew and Latin in Paris, and asked the Roman church to reform according to the face of ancient Christianity, and gradually tended to religious reform.

Calvin finally became a Protestant no later than the autumn of 1534. There are two things to prove. One thing is that 1533, 1 1 June, 2008 10, Calvin's close friend Pu Ke gave a speech at the University of Paris, publicly quoting Derry Lasmo and Luther to defend the salvation of faith. The Paris authorities suspected Calvin was the drafter and ordered the pursuit and confiscation of property. Calvin had to flee Paris. Another thing is that Calvin's cousin, Protestant olivier Tang, translated the Bible into French and published it in early 1535. 1in the autumn of 534, Calvin prefaced and publicly supported the persecuted Protestants.

1534 10, Calvin fled to Basel and continued to study Lutheran works and the Bible under the pen name Lucanius. Basel is known as the Athens of Switzerland because of its developed business and numerous scholars.

1536 In March, Calvin published his masterpiece The Essence of Christianity in Basel. When this book was first published, there were only six chapters, and finally it reached 80 chapters when it was revised by 1559, which was five times that of the first edition. Although Calvin is still not satisfied with the final version, it is a comprehensive summary of his lifelong study of Protestantism and his religious and political activities in Geneva, and it is the most influential Protestant encyclopedia during the Reformation. 1536 In April, Calvin visited Italy. As the war between French King Francois I and German Emperor Charles V broke out again, Calvin planned to make a detour back to Basel or Strasbourg and arrived in Geneva on July 1536. Calvin happened to meet his old friend Falar here, and stayed after being persuaded by his old friend, so Geneva, which was just passing by by by chance, later became the base camp of Calvin's religious reform activities. After that, except for more than three years (April1538-August 154 1), Calvin was forced to leave because the conservatives among the citizens seized power and opposed radical religious reform, except as a priest among French immigrants in Strasbourg.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the European bourgeoisie was just emerging, and it was not strong enough to establish an ideology that was completely compatible with its class status. It needs to borrow religion as its ideological cloak. The bourgeoisie once found Lutheranism as its ideological cloak, but it was not ideal. After Luther rebelled, the bourgeoisie continued to look for a religious cloak that really suited its own class interests, and Calvinism came into being.

Calvin also advocated the salvation of faith, but interpreted it as Calvin's fate. He believes that fatalism is the core of his whole religious view, and denying fatalism means denying God. Calvin said, "It is God's eternal will to decide what he wants to achieve for everyone in the world." . Because human beings are born with the same fate; For some people, immortality is doomed, but for others, it is an eternal sin. "

It turns out that in Calvin's view, success and failure, eternal life and crime, and even the honor and disgrace of the rich and the poor are all predetermined by God, and people's will cannot be changed. It is of positive significance to deny the long-standing blind belief in the Pope in the Middle Ages and the origins and privileges of the feudal main classes. Calvin described the prosperity of the bourgeoisie and the poverty and bankruptcy of the working people as God's predestination, but concealed the exploitative relationship of capitalism. He also repeatedly accused the working people and the anabaptists of being tempted by the devil.

Therefore, the first conclusion is that the bourgeoisie opposes the feudal system and is also a tool to enslave the working people.

Calvin described predestination as mysterious, saying that it is the most secret place of God's wisdom, which can only be worshipped, not understood, and not allowed to investigate and explore. It is foolish to try to know things other than God's Word, just like walking into a dead end. He said that we can only understand the first conclusion according to the Bible. As soon as God stops talking, we should stop talking and ask questions. Calvin's description of predetermination is so mysterious, which makes sense. In the sixteenth century, the world market began to appear, the changes in commerce and prices were unprecedented, and colonial plunder had begun. At that time, wealth and bankruptcy, success and failure were not determined by individual will or action, but by unknown economic forces. People believe that people put forward that God is the economic law of commodity production and commodity exchange, that is, the law of value. It makes some people with better production conditions and those who have cheap goods by colonial plunder get rich in a favorable position in the competition; Make another part of people with poor production conditions poor and bankrupt. That is, a few capitalists get rich and most workers are poor and bankrupt. Because people didn't know its secret at that time, they could only explain it with the help of God.

Calvin advocated greatly simplifying the church organization and stipulating that the teaching staff should be democratically elected from the believers, thus completely reforming the church organization. He subtracted five from the seven complicated rituals of Catholicism (redemption, atonement, anointing, ordination and wedding), and was not allowed to watch mass, worship idols, make pilgrimage and fast. In his view, in a real church, only four kinds of people, namely, priests, teachers, elders and deacons, are indispensable, while others are streamlined. Priests are responsible for carrying out sacred commandments, sacraments and admonitions. The teacher is responsible for interpreting the Bible. Deacons manage the donations of believers and the income of the church, which is used to pay the salaries of teaching staff, repair the church and help the poor. The duty of elders is to supervise everyone's behavior and give advice to "people who do bad things or lead disorderly lives". They are also members of powerful religious courts. So in Calvinism, the position of elders is very prominent. People call it the police of the Reformation, and Calvinism is also called Presbyterian Church. Sometimes, prestigious teachers and priests are also called elders. Calvin asked the elders to be noble and perfect, to fear God above all else, and to be mentally thoughtful. The above four kinds of people, also called "supervision", are all elected by believers. According to Calvin, the ancient Christian church was originally such a democratic and simple organization, which was destroyed after the emergence of the papacy. The urgent task is to restore this ancient church system. Of course, he didn't really want to repair the ancient church intact when he raised the banner of repairing it. The picture of the ancient church he carefully described was actually the opposite of the complicated and decadent Roman church at that time, and it was a cheap church that the bourgeoisie liked. Democratic elections are not unlimited, and candidates must undergo strict examination. As a result of democratic elections and simplified organization, a Calvinist church controlled by bourgeois elements has emerged. Therefore, Calvinism is covered with the sacred cloak of the ancient church, but its content is a new chapter in history.

Calvin's view of state is conservative. Although he is quick to whip up the whip on religious issues, he is timid and hesitant on ethnic issues. He also limited himself to dividing Christians into spiritual and secular essence, limiting the freedom of Christians to spiritual prejudice, deifying all state power and officials, saying that they govern the country on behalf of God. People can only respect and obey officials, even tyrants, and never start riots by themselves. When encountering a tyrant, the masses must first "examine themselves" and see how they violate God's will. God uses distress to discipline people, turns a deaf ear to the tyrant's orders at most, and never "corrects tyranny" himself. Under special circumstances, the third-level meeting can exercise its power to oppose tyranny, because it is sent by God to protect people's freedom. As for how to eliminate tyranny, Calvin did not answer.

Since the kingdom of God has been democratized and harmonious, the kingdom on the earth cannot be subordinate to kings, bishops and lords, but must also be democratized and harmonious. Calvin's English followers soon finally said what he dared not say, that is, the source of kingship exists among the people, and kingship without the consent of the people is illegal! Originally, Geneva belonged to the feudal jurisdiction of the Duke of Sava and his agent, the Bishop of Geneva. 1536 in August, that is, one month after Calvin arrived in Geneva, Geneva, with the support of Bern, attacked the authority of the church, won the victory against the Duke of Savoy and became an independent republic. This gave Calvin a chance to practice his ideals in Geneva. 1540 In August, Calvin married the Baptist widow Idritt Stuart. Idrit brought a son and a daughter from her ex-husband. 1542 On July 28th, their eldest son Jacob was born and died two weeks later. Calvin said in a letter to his friend Willie that the Lord gave us a heavy and painful wound through the death of our youngest son. But the Lord himself is a father. He knows best what is good for his children. "Idrit has never recovered. They gave birth to two more children, both of whom died at birth or shortly after birth. 1549 On March 29th, Dritte died of tuberculosis.

In order to relieve his stomach trouble and migraine, Calvin only eats one meal a day and never adds meals. Sometimes I have to give lectures about 20 times a month and give 12 theological lectures, but I still have to take time to visit patients, encourage believers and take care of church affairs. 1537 1, Calvin proposed a new municipal government plan to the Geneva parliament, which was not adopted. 154 1 year1month, when Calvin returned to Geneva, the plan was passed by the parliament and became law. The plan advocates the establishment of a religious court composed of elders, city councillors and city officials to closely monitor everyone's life and actions. The bourgeois nature of Calvin's religious reform can also be clearly seen from the actions of the Inquisition. Calvin stipulated that when elders found people who did "bad things", they immediately reminded the rector to persuade them, and neighbors and relatives also had the responsibility to persuade them; If persuasion fails, a warning will be issued and announced to all believers; If it is still invalid, it will be excommunicated. Excommunicated people are considered to be under the control of the devil. They can preach and be educated, but they can't talk to believers casually. The plan stipulates that every resident must "declare and explain their beliefs" so that the elders can know "who is in favor of the gospel, who is not in favor of the gospel, and who loves the kingdom of the Pope more than the kingdom of Jesus Christ". The inquisition holds a regular meeting every Thursday, which is called "Thursday morning meeting". Its task is to check whether there are violations of law and discipline and discuss the remedial measures that should be taken. Although Calvin is not a formal member of the Inquisition, he often attends the regular meetings of the Inquisition and is the actual person in charge of the Inquisition. Although the inquisition suppressed the resistance activities of the Catholic Church, it also exercised strict control over the masses. If they don't obey, they give advice, fine, imprisonment, even deportation or burning alive. From Calvin's laws and regulations on rural areas in the suburbs of Geneva, we can see how much control we have over the masses. The law stipulates that on Sundays, unless someone needs to stay at home to take care of children or livestock, the whole family will attend the sermon. If someone attends the meeting after the sermon begins, give him a warning. If you don't correct it, you will be fined three coppers. It also stipulates that those who recite rosaries, worship idols, make pilgrimages, watch mass, hold Catholic fasts and observe religious festivals, and those who attack God's language or blaspheme God will be persuaded, imprisoned, fined or sent to court for punishment according to different circumstances. In order to advocate bourgeois frugality, Calvin stipulated that anyone who sang obscene and dissolute songs, danced Virola or any other dance would be imprisoned for three days and then sent to parliament. People who are drunk, gambling and quarreling are also treated in this way.

Many outstanding figures, including famous scholars, doctors and a large number of Baptists, were persecuted for criticizing Calvin's thoughts. Castillo, a famous humanist and teacher, was persecuted for a long time after criticizing Calvin and had to leave Geneva. Dr Polsek was deported because he publicly criticized this conclusion at the mass meeting on Friday.