From July 6 to 22, 2012, Connie Wardle participated in a pilgrimage through countries touched by the Protestant Reformation—France, Switzerland and Scotland. This is the fourth of a series of reflections on the journey.
I can see why John Calvin wanted to come to Strasbourg. Today the island at the heart of the city is an UNESCO world heritage site. Its streets are lined with picturesque buildings and its bridges with flower boxes. Churches seem to emerge around every corner. Although it is now part of France, in Calvin’s day it was a free city that embraced the Reformed faith.
Calvin described himself as “a man of the country and a lover of shade and leisure.” He was seeking, he wrote, a place where he could enjoy, “unknown, in some corner, the quiet long denied me.”
As he prepared to leave France forever, I wonder if his future unfolded in his mind’s eye—a life of quiet reading, study and writing, perhaps punctuated by friendly debates with intelligent people. It was a simple, unambitious dream. Yet it was dashed before he saw the tower of Strasbourg Cathedral.
It was the fault of a friend, of course. (Or a man who would become a friend.) So many of life’s great changes are. In 1538, as Calvin journeyed from France toward Strasbourg, he discovered the most direct road was blocked by the movement of French troops. He was forced to make a detour to the city of Geneva. He only planned to stay for one night.
It was William Farel, an ardent reformer working with the church in that city, who sought Calvin out and tried to convince him to stay and take on a public ministry. He did so, Calvin said, “not so much with advice or urging as by command, which had the power of God’s hand laid violently upon me from heaven.” When Farel realized Calvin was “determined to study in privacy in some obscure place,” Calvin said, “he descended into cursing, and said that God would surely curse my peace if I held back from giving help at a time of such great need.”
I wonder if Calvin resented that curse at first. He stayed, of course, and although he had no formal training as a teacher or a pastor, he became one and then the other. Perhaps he saw in Farel the Holy Spirit shaking him from his slumber, telling him there was work to be done. Perhaps many of us could use a friend to curse our peace and push us toward a calling.
Together Calvin, Farel and their fellow church leaders worked in the city, struggling constantly in religious and political turmoil. A dispute between the church leaders and the city council over the sacrament of communion proved to be the last straw. The pastors refused to administer communion during an Easter service. There was a riot. The next day, the council kicked them out of Geneva.
Calvin wrote he was “more pleased than was fitting” at that development. Once again, he dreamed of living quietly in relative obscurity. And once again he was hauled back into the pulpit.
This time it was by Martin Bucer in Strasbourg; he came armed with the story of Jonah and urged Calvin not to flee from the task set before him by God.
Although Calvin’s faith in his pastoral abilities was probably shaken, he remained in Strasbourg. He became pastor of a congregation of French refugees and spent some of the happiest years of his life here. He preached, taught, wrote and debated theology. He married Idelette de Bure, a widow, and became a father to her two children. His time in this city proved to be, in its way, a peaceful interlude.
It must take a great deal of courage to abandon your plans and follow a call someone else has discerned. Calvin’s time in Strasbourg may not have been what he dreamed it would be, but I hope it offered him some of the peace he craved.
