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

Now, it cannot be declared definitively that Calvin adopted his expression from
Erasmus. But the parallelism is strking: the parallelism of the terminology and of the
singular reference to Romans 8. Could it not be that Calvin was assimilating the
terminology and textual reference of Erasmus into his assimilation of the thought of
other of his contemporaries? Could it not be that Calvin engaged Erasmus' popular
catechism perhaps when he resided in Basel in the mid 1530s, and perhaps again in
anticipation of the Lausanne Disputation? Could it not be that Calvin's expression here
exhibits a coalescence of his appropriation of Erasmus' catechetical locution on the
doctrine of the Trinity with his concurrent study and exegesis of Paul's letter to the
Romans, with his rumination on what transpires in the holy sacrament of the Lord's
Supper? 988
As mentioned in chapter three, Calvin was certainly well familiar with Erasmus
and his works early in his career. After all, Calvin's first published work was an
ambitious commentary on Seneca's De Clementia, the stated intent of which—
according to Calvin himself—is to "correct" here and there some exegetical
indiscretions on the part of Erasmus. 989 Wendel notes that, ever after, Calvin's method
988 In September 1536, soon after Calvin arrived in Geneva, he was appointed sacrarum
literarum doctor at the Cathedral of Saint Pierre. He immediately took up instruction in the epistles of
Paul, likely beginning with the epistle to the Romans. See de Greef, Writings of John Calvin, 29;
Gilmont, Calvin and the Printed Book, 28 and 45; Steinmetz, Calvin in Context, 11; Ganoczy, Young
Calvin 109.
989 De Greef, Writings of John Calvin, 85. See also Muller, The Unaccommodated Calvin,
199n60 regarding Calvin's "Erasmian" aim for the genre commentarius. "Calvin learned from Budé and
Erasmus the importance . . . of interpreting texts in light of their literary, linguistic, and cultural contexts
so that their genuine meaning would emerge from that context. He first applied this method to Seneca's
treatise De clementia . . . . In the work, Calvin's clear preference for Budé over Erasmus comes to light, a
preference that would remain in evidence to the end of his life" (Zachman, "The Life and Work of John
Calvin," in John Calvin as Teacher, 16-17).
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