THE PROVENANCE OF JOHN CALVIN'S EMPHASIS ON THE ...

Working this same thought some years hence, when composing his second defense of
the Consensio mutua, Calvin avers "the sacraments are not empty figures, but true
pledges of spiritual grace, and living organs of the Holy Spirit, 261 which offer nothing to
the eyes that God does not efficaciously effect within."
Calvin defends his instrumental view in his ensuing correspondence with
Bullinger, all the while reaching toward conciliation for political as much as theological
gain. Upon receiving a long reply 262 to his critique of Bullinger's little book, Calvin
writes back to Bullinger,
I responded at your request . . . . [I]n whatever way I may affirm greater
communication of Christ in the Sacraments than you express in words, let us not
on that account, cease to hold the same Christ, and to be one in him. Someday,
perhaps, it will be given us to unite in fuller harmony of opinion." 263
An expression of unity, the Consensio mutua itself, did eventually come about,
but it was devoid of Calvin's robust view of the "communicatio Christi in
sacramentis." 264 Although Calvin preferred calling the sacraments instrumenta, he
260 CO 12:482. Letter 880. Trans. Rorem, Calvin and Bullinger, 23.
261 Tracts and Treatises 2:307 to this point (emphasis added), but my translation to the end of
this quote. Beveridge's translation omits the last line for some reason. The full Latin text is: "sacramenta
non inanes esse figures, sed vera spiritualis gratiae pignora, vivaque spiritus sancti organa, quae nihil
oculis offerunt, quod non intus efficaciter Deus praestet" (CO 9:91).
262 Regrettably, this reply is not extant.
263 Trans Rorem, Calvin and Bullinger, 29. "Feceram id tuo rogatu . . . . Verum utcunque maior
Christi communicatio mihi in sacramentis constet, quam verbis tuis exprimas, non tamen proptera
desinemus eundem habere Christum et in ipso unum esse. Aliquando forte in consensum pleniorem
coalescere dabitur" (CO 12:666).
264 See Rorem, Calvin and Bullinger, 41ff; Davis, Clearest Promises,e.g., 49-50; Janse, "Calvin's
Eucharistic Theology," 41. Upon receiving Bucer's negative assessment of the Consensio, which Calvin
had sent to Bucer along with his newly proposed texts, Calvin wrote to his kindred sprit now exiled in
England, "You devoutly and prudently desire that the effect of the sacraments and what the Lord confers
to us through (per) them be explicated more clearly and more fully than many allow. Indeed it was not
my fault that these items were not fuller. Let us therefore bear with a sigh that which cannot be corrected"
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