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

Bucer's rhetorical set-up of this climactic liturgy, which itself bears evidence of
his influence, is richly pneumatological. Following the synod of 1539, Bucer prepared a
report for the parishes, urging them to adopt this most recent liturgical directory. As
Bornert notes, Bucer offers a doctrinal argument to legitimate this new orientation
toward liturgical unity: In the first sentence of that report, Bucer claims that "the cult,
ordained by the Holy Spirit and celebrated at his inspiration, requires a certain
uniformity, even as God is one in his nature and in his action." 1155 According to
Bornert's interpretation, Bucer is advocating not an absolute uniformity, but a relative
unity of practice arising from the singing of the psalms and the exercise of the forms for
worship found in a sanctioned service book. 1156
The form for the celebration of the Lord's Supper found in that sanctioned
service book proceeds, as would be expected, in a manner similar to the form attributed
to Calvin, already discussed above. The Strasbourg liturgy of the late 1530 was, after
all, Calvin's prototype. The following commentary on the Strasbourg form for the
celebration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper attends in particular to its
pneumatological expression. 1157
As with Calvin's liturgy, the celebration of the sacrament ultimately cannot be
separated from the elements of the Sunday service that preceded, namely, the
1155 "Le culte, ordonné par l'Esprit-Saint et célébré sous son inspiration, exige une certaine
uniformité, de même que Dieu ext un dans sa nature et dans son action" (Bornert, La Réforme
Protestante, 183).
1156 Bornert, La Réforme Protestante, 183.
1157 This reading relies on the work of Drömann, "Strassburger Abendmahls ordnungen," Coena
Domini I, 299ff; and especially the English introduction to and translation of Bucer's liturgy in
Thompson, Liturgies, 159-184.
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