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

defended the evangelical position, revealing "himself as one who had diligently studied
the early fathers." 430 In sum, he presented—from memory—a series of lengthy
quotations from the fathers, citing specific passages in works of Cyprian, Tertullian, and
the "unfinished commentaries on Matthew which are attributed to John Chrysostom,"
and six specific passages in six different works of Augustine. 431 In the midst of this
same discourse, which concerns the Lord's Supper, Calvin first speaks of the Holy Spirit
as the one by whom, or through whom, Christ himself effects the very communion by
which believers are made "truly participant of his body and blood." This communion is
manifested not "naturally," but "spiritually," that is, "by the bond of his Spirit," "par le
lien de son esprit." 432
On the return trip to Geneva, Calvin accompanied Farel and Viret to Bern for a
synodical meeting of nearly three-hundred Swiss ministers. They had gathered to
only once more, and briefly, during the remaining three days of the disputation" (Bruening, Calvinism's
First Battleground, 141n29).
430 Lane, Student of the Church Fathers, 26; also 72. Lane further writes: "Here we see many of
the hallmarks of Calvin's use of the fathers throughout his life. He does not simply make remarks about
them or make sweeping claims about their teaching but he quotes them at length. The power of his
memory is evidenced by the detail that he is able to include . . . . He endeavors to distinguish genuine
from pseudonymous wiritngs, a concern by no means universal among his contemporaries . . . . He takes
care to set each passage in its context in the writing from which it is taken and the circumstances of that
writing. Calvin's scholarly standards would not satisfy twentieth-century criteria but by the standards of
sixteenth-century polemics they were thorough" (Lane, Student of the Church Fathers, 27-28).
431 As noted in the previous chapter, Lane writes: "In keeping with the humanist principle of ad
fontes Calvin read widely in the works of the fathers themselves. Examination of his quotations at
Lausanne makes it clear that this was already his practice by that stage. They are placed in context and
their position within specific homilies is given, clearly indicating that Calvin had read the originals. There
is no serious doubt that Calvin's knowledge of the fathers came overwhelmingly from his own reading of
their writings" (Lane, Student of the Church Fathers, 47, with reference to Todd, Function of the Patristic
Writings, 128-30; and Hughes Oliphant Old, The Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship, PhD thesis
(Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 1975), 153.
432 For further discussion in this study of the two discourses, Chapter 2 above. The accounts of
Calvin's orations themselves were not published until sometime in 1537, under the title Deux discours de
Calvin au colloque de Lausanne (see CO 9:877-86). For an English translation, see Calvin: Theological
Treatises, 38-46.
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