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

might have been picked up from Brenz, as noted above, namely, that while the mouth
eats bread, "der geyst aber den leib christi durch den glauben." 904 Der geyst, the spirit,
the soul—of the participant. Were this referred to as a "spiritual" partaking, "spiritual"
would be well taken to mean "not physically," "non-corporeally," but not necessarily to
mean something God in Christ accomplishes specifically by the person and work of the
Holy Spirit. Nearly six years later, in January and February 1536, Bucer and Capito
assisted delegates of the Swiss Confederation, gathered in Basel, to prepare the
confederacy's first unifying confession: The First Helvetic Confession, also known as
the Second Confession of Basel. 905 (Incidentally, Calvin was in Basel at this time, likely
rubbing shoulders with these delegates even as he sought a publisher for his first
theological work, the 1536 Institutio.) Though not formally delegates themselves, Bucer
and Capito are taken to have influenced especially the three articles on the sacraments:
"Of the Power and Efficacy of the Sacraments," "Baptism," and "The Eucharist."
Strikingly, a derivative of spiritus or Geist appears but once in these sacramental
Reformer [Leiden: Brill, 1975], 160). Kittelson's conclusion does not necessarily seem to follow,
however, since for Capito as for Calvin, in Calvin's words, "It is one thing to offer and another to
receive." Christ's offer of his body and blood, but the power of the Holy Spirit, is objective. Christ is
present. Faith does not make Christ present anymore than lack of faith makes Christ absent. Faith is the
instrument by which that which is objectively present is received, but if that instrument is lacking, then
the objectively offered gift simply cannot be received. Interestingly, Zwingli was "critical of the
Tetrapolitan Confession, with its reference to Christ's truly giving his true body as food for the soul"
(Stephens, "The Sacraments in the Confessions," 57, with reference to Zwingli in Huldreich Zwingli's
Sämtliche Werke, ed. Emil Egli et al., (Zurich: 1905) 11:340-41.
904 See footnote 891 above.
905 The First Confession of Basel was ratified in 1534 and binding upon only that city. This
confession, The First Helvetic Confession, was prepared principally by Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575),
Simon Grynaeus (1493-1541), Oswald Myconius (1488-1552), Leo Jud (1482-1542), and Kaspar
Megander (1495-1545). For the First Helvetic, or Second Basel, Confession: A new English translation of
the Latin text is found in Dennison, Reformed Confessions, 342-352. A standard English translation of
Leo Jud's expanded German text may be found in Cochrane, e.d., Reformed Creeds, 97-112. Since Calvin
would not have been able to read the German text, and likely only availed of himself the Latin text, the
Latin text is considered here.
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