FOUR hundred years ago there was issued from the press one of the most important theological books which was ever published. This was The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin. It was first published in Latin at Basle, in March, 1536, under the title Christianae Religionis Institutio. The book has passed through many editions since then and has been translated into Arabic, Bohemian, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish and Japanese (as lately as this year). It has exercised an extraordinary influence on the theological thinking of the Reformed Church in particular. Apart altogether from this extraordinary influence the work is remarkable coming from a young man who was not yet 26 years of age when the book was written. “The Institutes of Calvin,” says Dr. Cunningham, “is the most important work in the history of theological science, that which is more than any other creditable to its author, and has exerted directly or indirectly the greatest and most beneficial influence upon the opinions of intelligent men on theological subjects. It may be said to occupy in the science of theology, the place which it requires both the Novum Organum of Bacon and the Principia of Newton to fill up in physical science—at once conveying, though not in formal didactic precepts and rules, the finest idea of the way and manner in which the truths of God’s Word ought to be classified and systematized, and at the same time actually classifying and systematizing them, in a way that has not yet received any very material or essential improvement” (The Reformers and Theology of the Reformation, p. 295). It would not be difficult to fill pages of tributes couched in terms of the highest praise of the splendid merits of the Institutes but our purpose is to give a brief history of the book and to indicate the substance of its contents. The famous Epistle Dedicatory to Francis, King of France, is dated August, 1535. This Epistle was printed as a preface to the Institutes and was written sometime after the book itself and from a sentence in the Epistle one may infer that the book was written in 1535. However, as already stated, the first edition was published in 1536. Calvin himself gives the reason for undertaking the work. Many of the witnesses to the truth were being put to death. Lying charges were brought against them, they were classed with the Anabaptists and seditious persons. Calvin’s spirit was stirred within him. “Observing,” he says, “that the object which these instruments of the court aimed at by their disguises was not only that the disgrace of shedding so much innocent blood might remain buried under the false charges and calumnies which they brought against the holy martyrs after their death, but also that afterwards they might be able to proceed to the utmost extremity in murdering the poor saints without exciting passion toward them in the breasts of any, it appeared to me, that unless I opposed them to the uttermost of my ability, my silence could not be vindicated from the charge of cowardice and treachery. This was the consideration which induced me to publish my Institutes of the Christian Religion. My objects were, first, to prove that these reports were false and calumnious, and thus vindicate my brethren, whose death was precious in the sight of the Lord; and next, that as the same cruelties might very soon after be exercised against many unhappy individuals, foreign nations might be touched with at least some compassion toward them and solicitude about them.”* It was this noble purpose which was the propelling force urging Calvin to write his famous work. In estimating the nature of this performance Dr. Warfield calls attention to the fact that Calvin’s book had practically no predecessors. It broke out a new path for itself. The book in its first edition was only the first stage of what it was afterwards to be. Calvin had a very poor estimate of his work though his readers thought differently. The second edition was almost twice the size of the first. From Calvin’s words it is evident that he now wished his work to be a doctrinal introduction to the study of the Scriptures—his aim, to use his own words, was “to prepare and train candidates in sound theology for the reading of the divine Word that they might both have an easy introduction to it and proceed in it with unfaltering step.” Calvin continued revising each edition until the definitive one of 1559—the eighth edition—was issued. This edition was about five times the size of the first edition and the arrangement was changed to the order in which it has come down to the present time. This edition was divided into four books. These treat in turn the doctrine of the Scripture on the Father, Son and Holy Ghost and the Holy Catholic Church—”of the knowledge of God the Creator”—”of the knowledge of God the Redeemer”—”of the mode of receiving the grace of Christ” and “of the external means of salvation.” This sequence was suggested by the order in the Apostles’ Creed. Notwithstanding the elaboration of the Institutes as the various editions appeared the first edition contained the substance of what appeared in the 1559 edition.† Dr. Cunningham says: “It is a most extraordinary proof of the maturity and vigour of his mind, of the care with which he had studied the Word of God, and of the depth and comprehensiveness of his meditations upon divine things, that though the work was afterwards greatly enlarged, and though some alterations were even made in the arrangement of the topics discussed, yet no change of any importance was made in the actual doctrines which it set forth. The first edition produced at that early age contained the substance of the whole system of doctrine which has since been commonly associated with his name—the development and exposition of which has been regarded by many as constituting a strong claim upon the esteem and gratitude of the Church of Christ, and by many others as rendering him worthy of execration and every opprobrium” (The Reformers and Theology of the Reformation, p. 294).
The Institutes was also published in French in 1541—translated by John Calvin himself from the Latin edition. In his preface he says: “And first I wrote in Latin that it might be serviceable to all studious persons, of what nation soever they might be; and afterwards, desiring to communicate any fruit that might be in it to my French countrymen, I translated it into our own tongue.” Various editions of the French translation were issued—during Calvin’s lifetime a new edition of the Institutes in French was almost an annual affair. Calvin had begun to make a new translation of the 1559 Latin edition but it was not completed. “Had he completed this new version,” says Dr. Warfield, “no doubt his place in the history of French letters and in the development of the French language might have been much more distinguished than it is . . . . Even on the basis of the French Institutes of 1541 alone, however, Calvin takes his place in the first rank of French prose writers” (Calvin and Calvinism, p. 397). A French literary critic assigns to it the place of “the first of our books which we can call classic.”
The Institutes has thrice been translated into English—by Thomas Norton (1561 and often afterwards); John Allen (1839 and often afterwards); Henry Beveridge (1845-6: 2nd edition 1863; another edition in 2 vols. was published in 1879). In addition to these versions there have been four or five abridgements. Dr. Warfield in reference to the three main translations into English says: “So far as one may judge from so brief an extract, it would seem that Allen’s version is entirely independent of Norton’s, and that Beveridge worked with his predecessors’ versions before him, indeed, but with a conscious effort to give a fresh rendering of the original. Any one of the three would appear to provide a plain and sufficiently clear and faithful rendering of the original, while the ‘perfect version,’ or the version which conveys the sense of delight and satisfaction with which Calvin’s Latin affects the reader, is yet to seek” (Calvin and Calvinism, p. 427).
*Works (Calvin Translation Society), vol. i., p. xli, xlii.
†It is true, however, that Calvin says of the 1559 edition that “it could almost be considered a new work.”—Editor.