# Who ordained Calvin?



## Whit (Jul 9, 2019)

My Roman Catholic friend doesn’t think John Calvin was a lawfully ordained minister of the gospel. How do we respond to this? Was he ordained? If so, by whom? 


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## Tom Hart (Jul 9, 2019)

Guillaume Farel

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Farel

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## Guido's Brother (Jul 9, 2019)

There's not a lot of discussion on this in Calvin's biographies. The only exception I've come across is Herman J. Selderhuis, John Calvin: A Pilgrim's Life. He writes: "Calvin's situation, however, posed no problem given that the Reformation was seen by its followers as nothing but a continuation of the existing church. Already existing church offices, including the office of chaplain, remained valid. Thus, even though Calvin had formerly renounced the income of his chaplaincy, he was nevertheless in the eyes of others an experienced and viable holder of church office." (page 66)

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## alexandermsmith (Jul 10, 2019)

God.

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## TylerRay (Jul 10, 2019)

Whit said:


> My Roman Catholic friend doesn’t think John Calvin was a lawfully ordained minister of the gospel. How do we respond to this? Was he ordained? If so, by whom?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


He was tonsured at age 12, and served as a chaplain afterward.

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## Scott Bushey (Jul 10, 2019)

TylerRay said:


> tonsured



tonsure | ˈtän(t)SHər | a part of a monk's or priest's head left bare on top by shaving off the hair. • [in singular] an act of shaving the top of a monk's or priest's head as a preparation for entering a religious order. [with object] (often as adjective tonsured) shave the hair on the crown of. ORIGIN late Middle English: from Old French, or from Latin tonsura, from tondere ‘shear, clip’.

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## Tom Hart (Jul 10, 2019)

Tom Hart said:


> Guillaume Farel
> 
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Farel


It appears that this is incorrect, or at best incomplete. I thought I had read it in Williston Walker's biography of Calvin, but perhaps not.

Apparently there's no very hard evidence one way or the other, but there are references to Calvin being "authorized" by the presbytery, and Calvin himself thought highly of the importance of ordination. Also, from what I've read, nowhere among Sadoleto's criticisms of Calvin is any mention of lack of ordination.

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## Logan (Jul 10, 2019)

Almost certainly the Presbytery of Geneva.

https://www.logcollegepress.com/blog/2018/7/25/was-john-calvin-ordained

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## Contra_Mundum (Jul 10, 2019)

Related to the above from Logan, here is Th.Smyth's comments, see from p.84
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/590be125ff7c502a07752a5b/t/5a03d3bf0d9297d316867eef/1510200271427/Smyth,+Thomas,+Calvin+and+His+Enemies.pdf

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## Whit (Jul 10, 2019)

Thank you so much for this!


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