Journal: Puritan Reformed Journal
Volume: PRJ 04:2 (Jul 2012)
Article: The Reformation Manifesto Of John Calvin: An Overview Of "The Necessity Of Reforming The Church"
Author: Kevin C. Carr

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PRJ 4:2 (July 2012) p. 43

The Reformation Manifesto Of John Calvin:
An Overview Of The Necessity
Of Reforming The Church

Kevin C. Carr

The Apostle Paul admonished Timothy, “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us” (2 Tim. 1:13-14). Jude spoke of contending “for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3-4). These and other like Scriptures are the impetus behind the need for reformation in the church. They recognize that the Bible presents a baseline of truth from which the sinful heart is prone to wander. They call the church to return to “the form of sound words”—“the good thing”—that was her original trust. This was the essence of the sixteenth-century Reformation.

John Calvin is indisputably one of the church’s greatest Reformers. Shortly after his return to Geneva, he wrote his Reformation “manifesto” entitled The Necessity of Reforming the Church (1544). The treatise was addressed to Emperor Charles V on the occasion of the Diet of Spires held in 1543. Theodore Beza, Calvin’s colleague, successor, and biographer notes, “I know not if any writing on the subject, more nervous [i.e., vigorous] or solid, has been published in our age.”1 In it, Calvin divides the concept of reforming the church into three parts. He addresses 1) what particular things need reforming; 2) what actions have been taken by the church; and, 3) why immediate reform is necessary. The tract is symphonic in structure. He draws attention to his major Reformation themes and returns repeatedly to them throughout the “movements,” or major parts, of the work.

PRJ 4:2 (July 2012) p. 44

In Calvin’s view, there were four cardinal issues driving the need for Reformation. “[T]he question is not, whether the church labors under diseases…but whether the diseases are of a kind the cure of which admits not of longer delay.”2 These were matters where “slow remedies” were not an option. Calvin is clear concerning which areas he regards as urgently requiring reform. Targeting worship, justification, sacraments, and church government, he makes the following claims:

We maintain, then, that…those heads of doctrine in which the truth of our religion, those in which the pure and legitimate worship of God, and those in which the salvation of men are comprehended, were in great measure obsolete. We maintain that the use of the sacraments was in many...

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