Under the header of “Warfare and Prayer: Entreating the Lord of Hosts for Victory over the Godless Enemy,” Jon Balserak wrote of Calvin and his self-understanding as a prophet raised up by God thusly:
With his prayers—with
which he concluded each of his lectures on the prophets, covering a period of
almost ten years—Calvin sought the support of God for himself, his ministerial
charges, and the pious remnant in France for the warfare in which they were
engaged. . . . While these prayers of Calvin touch on a wide range of topics
(as one would expect), they are nonetheless full of requests related to war;
indeed requests that refer patently to waging a military campaign which, while
spiritual in nature, is also unmistakably temporal; i.e. it finds and
expression in armed conflict. . . . He prays, for example, at the end of a
lecture on Zechaiarh 9:12 that “today” they would not look for a redeemer to
save them from their miseries but that they “would carry on warfare under his
cross” (tantum militamus sub cruce eius)” (Calvin, Praelectiones in
duodecim Prophetas minores, 677). Similarly, in his prayer following his
lecture on Jonah 1:13-17, he requests that they learn to subject their thoughts
to God, have regard to God’s will, and undertake nothing except what he
approves, “so that we may fight under your command” (sub tuisauspiciis)”
(Calvin, Praelectiones in duodecim Prophetas minores, 344). He also,
incidentally, uses these phrases in the body of the lectures themselves—as when
he declares (when treating Hosea 9:17), “[w]e may then lawfully reprove the
papists, and say that God is opposed to them, for we fight under his
banner”—but such phrases were more common on his prayers. . . . Calvin also
refers in these prayers to strife, conflict, assaults, violence, and the like.
He asked in a prayer at the end of his lecture on Daniel 3:8-18: “When we have
learned what worship pleases you, may we constantly persist to the end and
never be moved by any threats, or dangers, or violence, . . .” (Calvin, Praelectiones
ioannis calvini in librum prophetiarum danielis, 36v-37r).
He prays at the end of his twenty-seventh lecture on Daniel a prayer which
includes the sentiment that “we mahy proceed under the protection of your
support against the malice of humankind; and that whenever Satan besieges us
from every side and the wicked lay traps for us and we are attacked by the
fierceness and wild beasts, may we remain under your protection, and evenif we
must endure one hundred deaths, may we learn to live and die to you” (Calvin, Praelectiones
ioannis calvini in librum prophetiarum danielis, 71v). Likewise,
he describes his remnant church as “in danger every day and every moment, not
only from the threat of a single raging tyrant, but from the devil who arouses
the whole world against us, arming this world’s princes and impelling them to
destroy us” (Calvin, Praelectiones ioannis calvini in librum prophetiarum
danielis, 16r).After his last lecture on the prophet Joel, he
asks God to grant to them that they would “persevere in this contest” as they
have “in this world, to fight continually, not only with one kind of enemy but
with innumerable enemies and not only with flesh and blood but also with the devil,
the prince of darkness” (Calvin, Praelectiones in duodecim Prophetas minores,
222). He prays at the end of a lecture on Zephaniah 2:15:
Grant, almighty, God, as
you test us in the warfare of the cross (sub militia crucis) and arouse
the most powerful enemies whose ferociousness might justly terrify and greatly
alarm us if we did not depend on your aid—grant, that we may call to mind how
wonderfully you delivered your chosen people in the past (olim), and how
promptly you brought them help, when they were oppressed and completely
overwhelmed, so that we may learn today to flee to your protection, and not to
doubt that when you show your favor to us, there is in your sufficient power to
preserve us and to overthrow our enemies (hostes nostros), no matter how
much they may now exult and think that they triumph above the heavens, in order
that they may, ultimately, understand by experience that they are earthly and
frail, whose life and condition is like the mist which soon vanishes; and may
we learn to long for that blessed eternity, which is laid up for us in heaven
by Christ our Lord. Amen. (Calvin, Praelectiones in duodecim Prophetas
minores, 554)
Quoting a full prayer
provides us with an opportunity to glimpse in a richer way how Calvin addresses
warfare in these prayers—again, all of the just cited prayers were prayed
prior to the Massacre at Vassy.
As the question of
meaning is delved into, we should notice two senses of continuity in these
prayers. The first relates to the character of war as referred to by Calvin.
Examining these prayers, it becomes clear that Calvin does not only have
spiritual warfare in mind. Though he unmistakably does have spiritual
warfare in mind, he also conceives of it as possessing a temporal aspect. He
and the Huguenots . . . have an Old Testament perspective . . . This
perspective dominants his approach to war in these lectures, and it can be seen
particularly clearly in these prayers. It is anchored in the Covenant bond
which, according to Calvin, links the Églises Réformées de France with the
old covenant remnant. So even prior to the commencement of hostilities in March
1562, his prayers reflect the belief that God would support God’s people in
such hostilities; that God would fight for his people and God’s people would
fight. The above quotations should make this sufficiently clear, but,
unsurprisingly, it becomes clearer when the prayers after the initiation of
armed hostilities are examined.
Once military conflict
commences, Calvin betrays an intensity which is striking and is focused
squarely upon waging war. Calvin’s prayers after the beginning of hostilities
cover a range of relevant interests. The following entreaty comes at the end of
his lecture on Jeremiah 51:32.
Grant, almighty God, as
of old (olim) you testified your favor towards your Church by not
sparing the greatest Monarchies (tantae Monarchiae), that we today also
might know you to be the same (eundem) towards all your faithful people
who call upon you. And because the power and cruelty of our enemies are so
great, raise up your hand against them, and show that you are the perpetual
defender of your Church, so that we may have reason to give glory to your
goodness through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen. (Calvin, Praelectiones in
Librum prophetiarum Ieremiae, et Lamentationes . . . [Geneva: apud I.
Crispinum, 1563], 387r)
For God to be the
defender of the church is plainly for God to fight and win the battle for the
Huguenots after the manner of, inter alia, Psalm 18 . . . Here the idea
of tyrannicide is explicitly addressed, with God’s past actions in relation to
a tyrannical monarch being recalled as a way to plead to him to behave in the
same manner in this present contest. Here Calvin’s God is a God of war, who
will crush the church’s enemies now, just as in the days of Moses, David, or
Elijah. Calvin could declare, in direct relationship to the military conflict in
which the Huguenots were engaged, that “Satan . . . [is] . . . the captain of
our enemies” (Calvin, Praelectiones in Librum prophetiarum Ieremiae, et
Lamentationes, 376v). And he could also, in the very next prayer,
pray that their enemies would be confounded just as God used to confound the
enemies of his people, Israel.
Grant almighty God, that
since you were formerly (olim) so solicitous concerning the salvation of
your people that you undertook war for their sake (bellum eius causa
susceperis) against the most powerful nation we today may also know
that we will be safe and secure under the protection (praesidio) of your
hand, and that our enemies will be confounded . . . (Calvin, Praelectiones
in Librum prophetiarum Ieremiae, et Lamentationes, 382v)
The sense of covenantal
continuity is profound (a point which is also true of the earlier-cited prayer
from Calvin’s lectures on Zephaniah 2). (Jon Balserak, John Calvin as Sixteenth-Century Prophet [Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2014], 166-69)
Calvin gives Jedediah Morgan Grant and Brigham Young a run for their money in terms of violent rhetoric (compare and contrast the sermons delivered during the "Mormon Reformation" that taught "Blood Atonement"--except, of course, Calvin and his followers killed more as a result).
