John Calvin and Attendance at Mass¹

A Review Article by Roy Middleton

Sometime during the night of Saturday 17 October and Sabbath 18 October 1534 a highly-organised clandestine network plastered broadsheets or “placards” throughout north-central France condemning the idolatry of the Roman Catholic mass. Even King Francis I awoke to find a “placard” posted outside his bedchamber at the Chateau of Amboise. The effect of the placards on Paris was tremendous. Although the placards were intended to warn of the dangers of idolatry, they were perceived by the French authorities as a sign of the dangers of an organised Protestantism. The Government reaction was swift and brutal and several Protestants were publicly burned.

The affair of the “placards” was a watershed in the history of the French

¹A review of Faith Unfeigned, by John Calvin, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, hardback, 208 pages, £14.50. All references in brackets refer to this volume. It is available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.

Reformed Church, and one of its negative consequences was that the persecution of Protestants increased in France, creating a climate of fear. This intensification of persecution produced not only martyrs but refugees. Among those driven out of France in the first wave of persecution was John Calvin (1509-1564), then aged around 25.²

Besides those who suffered and fled into exile, there were many that stayed in France who were broadly sympathetic to Reformation principles but refused to make a clean break with Roman Catholicism. This rather diverse group of people, whose behaviour was at first wholly motivated by fear, were called by Calvin and his associates “Nicodemites” (from Nicodemus who followed the Lord secretly at first). Theodore Beza explains the background in these terms: “The consequence was that, from that time, the name Nicodemite was held in detestation by all good men. This name of Nicodemite was applied to those who pretended to find a sanction for their misconduct in the example of that most holy man Nicodemus.”³

The developed Nicodemite theology stated that an idol had no reality, that it was not really a god. Hence they claimed it was quite possible to serve the Lord inwardly whilst outwardly appearing to be idolaters by performing all the Romish rites, such as bending the knee and bowing the head before the “consecrated host”. Calvin was horrified at such behaviour; he writes about it: “They assemble with a multitude known to entertain a pernicious veneration of the mass. So little do they pity this blindness and superstition that they outwardly imitate it. The bread, which they know to be an idol to others, they concur with them in venerating, by using the same gestures.”⁴

Calvin’s battle with Nicodemism was a lifelong contest in which his pen was ever active in exposing conduct that necessarily involved compromise with Popery.⁵ His first distinct anti-Nicodemite tract was written three years after the “placard affair”, to his former room-mate Nicholas du Chemin, who had accepted an appointment to the Popish bishopric of Le Mans. Calvin’s last tract on the topic was written just two years before his death.

Besides a series of tracts on the subject, Calvin’s anti-Nicodemite polemic

²For details of the persecution that followed the “Placard affair”, see R J Knecht, Francis I, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp 248-252, 390-407.

³Theodore Beza, Life of John Calvin, in John Calvin, Tracts and Treatises, Baker Book House, 1983, vol 1, p xlix.

⁴John Calvin, Tracts and Treatises, vol 3, p 397.

⁵For a detailed history of Calvin’s opposition to Nicodemism, see Carlos M N Eire, War Against the Idols: The Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to Calvin, Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp 166-275. See also Eire’s article, “Prelude to Sedition? Calvin’s Attack on Nicodemism and Religious Compromise”, in Archiv für Reformationgeschichte, vol 76, 1985, pp 120-145.

pervades his treatment of idolatry, in his correspondence and throughout his extensive series of Biblical expositions. His main tracts written directly against Nicodemism are as follows:

1. 1536: On Shunning the Unlawful Rites of the Ungodly, a letter/tract to Nicholas du Chemin. Printed in John Calvin, Tracts and Treatises, vol 3, pp 357-411.
2. 1537: Letter to Gerard Roussel, De Sacerdotio Papace.
3. 1540: Letter to some friends. This letter was later published as an appendix to item 5 below.
4. 1541: Letter to the Duchess of Ferrara, written from Geneva and reprinted in Letters of John Calvin, ed Jules Bonnet, vol 1, pp 295-306.
5. 1543: A short treatise setting forth what a faithful man must do when he is among papists and knows the truth of the gospel, First English translation 1548.
6. 1544: Answer of John Calvin to the Nicodemite Gentlemen concerning their complaint that he is too severe.
7. 1545: Items 5 and 6 were re-issued together, along with the opinions of other Reformers on the issue of compromise, with the title De Vitandis Superstitionibus. This volume was reprinted in 1549 and 1550.
8. 1552: Four sermons from John Calvin treating matters which are very useful to our times with a brief exposition of Psalm 87.
9. 1562: A Response to a certain Dutchman⁶, who under pretence of making Christians really spiritual, suffers them to defile their bodies in all sorts of idolatries.

The volume under review is a new translation by Robert White⁷ of item 8 in the above list. In addition, Appendix 2 is a new translation of item 3, and Appendix 3 reprints item 1 from the Calvin Translation Society edition of Calvin’s Tracts and Treatises. The Banner of Truth is to be commended for re-issuing this valuable material. However, Faith Unfeigned contains less of Calvin’s anti-Nicodemite material than the volume published in 2001 by Kevin Reed entitled Come out from Among Them (Protestant Heritage Press,

⁶George Hunston Williams in his volume, The Radical Reformation, Westminster Press, 1962, pp 603, 774-775 has identified the Nicodemite Dutchman as Dirk Volkerts Coomhert.

⁷Dr White, who formerly taught in the Department of French Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia, is the translator of three other Calvin works published by the Banner of Truth. These are Sermons on the Beatitudes, Songs of the Nativity and A Guide to Christian Living. In an article written by Dr White in the November 2000 issue of the Calvin Theological Journal (vol 35, pp 282-296) he draws attention to a valuable overlooked anti-Nicodemite letter of Calvin’s dating from 1541 but not included in the list above. Besides providing a most interesting introduction and detailing the background and content of the letter, first published in 1906, Dr White retranslates the document on pages 290-296.

Dallas, 2001). The latter volume contains newly translated editions of items 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9.

In Calvin’s preface to the four sermons he observes, “In earlier years I wrote two fairly full treatises⁸ to demonstrate that no Christian familiar with pure gospel teaching and living under papal rule should ever pretend to assent or adhere to the abuses, superstitions and idolatry which prevail there. Yet every day there are people who seek advice all over again, as if I had never said a word on the subject” (p 1). It was in response to these requests that Calvin issued these four sermons, which he reworked for publication. Dr White points out in his introduction that it was Calvin’s practice to preach twice each Sabbath, and in 1549 he was expounding Hebrews in the morning and the Psalms in the afternoon. The four sermons, three from the Psalms and one from Hebrews, are therefore contemporaneous and were preached in Geneva just three years prior to their publication.

The first sermon is an exposition of Psalm 16:4 “Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips”.⁹ In it Calvin sets out the duty of Christians to flee from idolatry rather than “defile themselves with popish abominations which are completely opposed to the Christian religion, since in doing so they disown, so far as they can, the Son of God who has redeemed them” (p 2).

The sermon is a condensation of the ground covered in the two larger treatises referred to in his preface (items 5 and 6 in the above list). Throughout the sermon Calvin stresses that believers are to devote both their body and soul to the Redeemer. This was in opposition to the Nicodemites, who asserted that they could adhere to the truth in their minds whilst their bodies were at the idolatrous mass. Calvin retorts that the godly man will keep himself pure in body and soul. In the Psalm, David asserts he would never take part in idolatrous sacrifices. The section of the sermon on pages 10-12 is a majestic refutation of Nicodemism. One citation must suffice, “How can it be right for our bodies to be defiled before idols, since they are promised a crown of life in heaven? Is wallowing in Satan’s brothel the way we enter God’s heavenly kingdom?” He then shows that Israel was forbidden to witness the abominations practised by the Chaldeans and concludes with a section showing that presence at a mass, in whatever form, is a denial of Christ.

⁸This is a reference to items 5 and 6 in the list above of Calvin’s anti-Nicodemite treatises.

⁹All direct Scripture citations in this review article are from the Authorised Version. The translator does not use the Authorised Version. In his introduction he notes, “Where Scripture is directly cited, I have followed Calvin’s French text, not that of any standard English version” (p xiii).

The second sermon is based on Hebrews 13:13: “Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach”. The sermon deals with the problem of persecution and is an exhortation to faithfulness in the face of persecution or martyrdom. Calvin details the purpose of the sermon in his preface: “I have added a second sermon to encourage all believers to value God’s honour and service more than their own life and to strengthen them against every trial” (p 2). In the sermon he observes, “We should recognise how precious in God’s sight is the profession of our faith. We fail to understand how much it means to God when we place a higher value on our lives, though they are nothing” (p 33). For Calvin, fear of persecution and death did not serve as an excuse for participation in idolatry. The martyrs of old have left eloquent testimony how it is better to suffer as the Lord’s witnesses than deny the faith through acts of idolatry. Calvin goes on to stress that God will disown those who have denied Him before men. The sermon is full of encouraging words, promises of eternal life and admonitions to remember the martyrs.

The third and fourth sermons are from Psalm 27:4,8: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple . . . When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek”. Both these sermons deal with the great privilege of being in the true Church of God, where there is freedom to worship God purely. The Nicodemites were denigrating the value of scriptural worship and gospel churches by being present at corrupt worship. Their behaviour kept them safe from persecution within the communion of the Papacy.

These last two sermons provide a corrective by showing that the godly hold to right worship and also that the Church is exceedingly precious. The requirement to worship God purely made it necessary for those living under papal rule either to establish gospel churches, or to emigrate as Calvin had done himself. Both sermons stress the need to leave Roman Catholic countries in order to worship God as He ought to be worshipped. Elsewhere in his anti-Nicodemitic writings Calvin cites Genesis 12:1 as the basis for this advice: “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee”.¹⁰

In the fourth sermon he deals at length with objections that could be made to this advice.¹¹ The establishment of refugee churches throughout the con-

¹⁰Cited in Eire, War Against the Idols, p 260.

¹¹Calvin’s call to exile had dramatic results: thousands of French Protestants fled their homeland in search of religious freedom. Nearly 5000 came to Geneva. See Eire, War Against the Idols, p 264.

tinent in the sixteenth century owes much to Calvin’s uncompromising stance against idolatrous Roman Catholic worship. If the path of emigration was not followed, then Calvin urged that believers must abstain from idolatry at all costs – even if this means persecution or loss of life. Robert White observes, “What underlies the Nicodemite controversy, and what, after four centuries, gives it continuing relevance, is the question of how Christ is to be confessed before men. For Calvin, light that cannot be seen is not light.”¹²

We highly recommend both this volume and the earlier one published by Protestant Heritage Press. At least one of these volumes should be in Free Presbyterian homes as they provide the Biblical ground for the action taken by the Southern Presbytery and the Synod in 1988 and 1989 when those bodies disciplined the then Edinburgh elder Lord Mackay of Clashfern for being present at two requiem masses. Since those events of 23 years ago, a generation of young people has grown to maturity that needs to understand the Biblical and theological basis for the action of the Free Presbyterian Synod in standing firm for Reformation principles; Calvin’s anti-Nicodemite writings provide this basis.

In Calvin’s 1540 letter to some friends, printed as Appendix 2 to Faith Unfeigned, he makes this statement: “Likewise we should abstain from all rites which are associated with superstition and error, such as attendance at services for the dead, participation in masses, and processions and other observances held in honour of saints, as is done today” (p 120).