DLMRS Events

Of all John Calvin's many opponents, arguably the one he feared most was the Savoyard humanist Sebastian Castellio. They had briefly been friends in the early 1540s, but their relationship turned to enmity when Calvin scorned the man who was his only real rival when it came to learning. The two men clashed over Castellio's translations of the Bible into Latin and French, which the reformer of Geneva thought were horrific in their paganizing of scripture. When the Spaniard Michael Servetus was put to death, Castellio produced his work on toleration, which was aimed directly at Calvin. Until their deaths, only months apart, these two men were locked in venomous struggle over the nature of the Christian faith.

What lay behind it, however, was the fate of France and its Reformation. Calvin and his colleagues in Geneva conceived of reform in the kingdom in terms of the purification of religion. The true followers of the Gospel should be prepared to face exile or martyrdom as the only authentic responses to persecution. Many Frenchmen and women did not heed that call. They chose another path, one of conformity to the Catholic church while harboring Protestant views. This was much more in line with the teaching of Castellio, who emphasized the spiritual nature of religion. Calvin's vitriol against Castellio was all the more fierce because he understood that the Savoyard's arguments were so persuasive and more attractive. It was a battle for the soul of French Protestantism.

This lecture will examine the nature of their debate at this crucial moment in the history of France as the religious wars commenced. The differences between the two men not only cast light on the diversity of views within the Reformation, but also on the emergence of new forms of early-modern thought.

ABOUT BRUCE GORDON

Bruce Gordon is Professor of Reformation History at Yale Divinity School. He is a recognized leading authority on late-medieval and early-modern religious history, in particular the Swiss and German Reformations. His award-winning The Swiss Reformation (Manchester University Press, 2002) marked the first comprehensive study of the subject. In May of this year his biography of John Calvin appeared with Yale University Press. His first book, Clerical Reformation and the Rural Reformation (1992), examined the creation of the Protestant ministry in Zurich in the sixteenth century. He has edited books on the development of Protestant historical writing, (Protestant History and Identity in Sixteenth Century Europe, Ashgate, 1996); on death and dying (The Place of
the Dead in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, with Peter Marshall, Cambridge University Press, 2000); and the Swiss Reformer Heinrich Bullinger (Architect of Reformation, with Emidio Campi, Baker, 2004). He currently heads a project on the Protestant Latin Bible of the sixteenth century funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the United Kingdom. He is preparing a translation and commentary on
Ludwig Lavater’s De spectris, the principal sixteenth-century Protestant work on ghosts. He serves on the editorial board of two monograph series: St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History (Ashgate), and Zürcher Beiträge zur Reformationsgeschichte (Theologischer Verlag Zürich).

Co-sponsored by the Department of History, the Institute for the Study of Religion and Culture, the Group for Early Modern Studies (GEMS), and the UA Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation Committee (UAMARRC).

Noon-1:15 pm, Louise Foucar Marshall Building, Room 490
Lecture is free and open to the public.

SAVE THE DATE • Wednesday, March 24, 2010

PROFESSOR DR. HEINZ SCHILLING
Professor of History, Humboldt University, Berlin
Winner of the 2002 Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize for History
Honorary Doctor of Theology, University of Göttingen, 2009

Two of his most recent monographs are:
• Early Modern European Civilisation and its Political and Cultural Dynamics (Hanover und London : Brandeis University Press of New England/Historical Society of Israel, 2008)
• Konfessionalisierung und Staatsinteressen. Internationale Beziehungen, 1559-1660 [Confessionalization and State Interests: International Relations, 1559-1660] (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2007)

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1987	Krister Stendahl, Dean, John Lord O'Brian Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School
1986	Jürgen Moltmann, Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Tübingen
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