Monday, November 1, 2021

Antoine Fumée (1511-1587) and Theodore Beza (1519-1605) Affirming their Belief in John Calvin Being a Prophet of God

  

Antoine Fumée, a contemporary and friend of Calvin, refers to him as a prophet in an undated letter to the reformer. Jean Morley calls Calvin a prophet in his Traicté de la discipline & police chrestienne ([Olivier] Millet cites an undated letter from Fumée to Calvin in which he calls Calvin a prophet, “plus grand propète de notre époque.”). Moreover, Theodore Beza writes the following about Calvin in August 1564 after his passing.

 

The following night, and the day after as well, there was much weeping in the city. For the body of the city mourned the prophet of the Lord, the poor flock of the Church wept the departure of its faithful shepherd, the school lamented the loss of its true doctor and master, and all in general wept for their true father and consoler, after God. (CO [Corpus Reformatorum: Ioannis Calvini Opera quae supersunt omnia], 21:45-6)


. . . Calvin self-identifies with the Old Testament prophets, who were (he believed) scriptural reformers. He could—it is, of course within the realm of possibility—have believed himself to be a prophet who received revelation and was able to predict the future, like, for example, his countryman Michel de Nostredame or the German prognosticator, Johann Lichtenberger, who famously predicted the 1525 Peasants’ War. And interestingly, Beza, in his reflections on Calvin’s life, points to an occasion when (he believes) Calvin engaged in just such prophesying. In Calvin’s lectures on Daniel, says Beza, he interpreted the prophet, “but, in the dedication, he also became a prophet, predicting impending storms at the very time when the meeting of the bishops was held at Poissy” (CO 21:91). (Jon Balserak, John Calvin as Sixteenth-Century Prophet [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014], 5, 92-93)

 

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