# Looking for a Calvin Quote



## C. Matthew McMahon (May 19, 2008)

For you Calvin buffs......

Anyone have a quote where Calvin says that the Roman Catholic Church is the Synagogue of Satan, or thereabouts? 

I've been doing some searching on that.

Let me know if you have anything.


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## Presbyterian Deacon (May 19, 2008)

In his Reply to Sadoleto (Tracts I:28) Calvin calls "The Court of Rome, that forge of all craft and trickery."


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## Presbyterian Deacon (May 19, 2008)

Calvin referred to "Popery" as "patches sewed together, taken out of every kind of superstitions, not only geathen and Jewish, but likewise such as have been recently contrived by Satan." Is. IV:416


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## MW (May 19, 2008)

Calvin distinguished between the Roman Church and the Roman See. He didn't deny churches to exist amongst them in the form of true believers, but denied the church in communion with the Roman pontiff to be the true church. So in the Necessity of Reforming the Church he wrote, "I deny that see to be apostolical, wherein nought is seen but a shocking apostasy."


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## Presbyterian Deacon (May 19, 2008)

> Anyone have a quote where Calvin says that the Roman Catholic Church is the Synagogue of Satan...



Calvin's "venemous pen" was not so much directed at the Church of Rome as it was against the institution of the Papacy.

Calvin wrote: "Although the devil has long reigned in the Papacy, yet he could not altogether extinguish God's grace: nay, a church is among them."

"The Papacy...has nothing in common with the ancient form of the Church." Antidote to the Council of Trent (Tracts III:264).


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## Presbyterian Deacon (May 19, 2008)

armourbearer said:


> So in the Necessity of Reforming the Church he wrote, "I deny that see to be apostolical, wherein nought is seen but a shocking apostasy."



 That was the next quote I was going to post!


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## Presbyterian Deacon (May 19, 2008)

And my favorite quote from Calvin on this topic comes from Brief Confession of Faith (Tracts II:134):

"The Popish hierarchy I execrate as diabolical confusion, established for the very purpose of making God Himself to be despised, and of exposing Christian religion to mockery and scorn."


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## Presbyterian Deacon (May 19, 2008)

Oh, in his commentary on Ephesian he says that Papists "...have a diabolical synagogue..." 

.


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## DTK (May 19, 2008)

C. Matthew McMahon said:


> For you Calvin buffs......
> 
> Anyone have a quote where Calvin says that the Roman Catholic Church is the Synagogue of Satan, or thereabouts?
> 
> ...



*John Calvin commenting on John 9:22-23:* In short, nothing can be more certain than that those who, we see, are not subject to Christ are deprived of the lawful power of excommunicating. Nor ought we to dread being excluded by them from their assembly, since Christ, who is our life and salvation, is banished from it. So far are we from having any reason to dread being thrown out, that, on the contrary, if we desire to be united to Christ, we must, of our own accord, withdraw from *the synagogues of Satan*. See _Calvin’s Commentaries_, Vol. XVII, trans. William Pringle (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, reprinted 1979), p. 381.

*John Calvin commentating on Eph 4:14:* They will attack us, indeed, but they will not prevail. We are entitled, I acknowledge, to look for the dispensation of sound doctrine from the church, for God has committed it to her charge; but when Papists avail themselves of the disguise of the church for burying doctrine, they give sufficient proof that *they have a diabolical synagogue.* _Calvin’s Commentaries_, Vol. XXI, trans. William Pringle (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, reprinted 1979), p. 285.

*John Calvin:* And namely he saith, thy word made unto thy servant, to the end he would declare to every of us that every man should apply the promises of God particularly unto himself. And not to use the manner of the Papists, to say, It is very true that God hath promised this and that, but we know not whether the same belongeth unto us or not. And these are no fools, which say thus, but this is the doctrine which they teach in *all their Satanical and devilish Schools and Synagogues.* Lo here the very doctrine of popish doctors, that the promises of God are uncertain, and that we must receive them as things hanging in the air, not to take them generally, to say, I doubt not but that GOD speaketh the same unto me. But contrariwise, we must conclude as David here doth, and say O Lord let it be done unto thy servant according to thy word. He saith not, according to thy word, I know not to whom, nor unto such men of which number I am not, so that I cannot build upon it: but he saith, according to thy promise O Lord, made unto me. Let us then learn by his example, that when we desire the Lord God to assist us, to charge him with his promises, yea and let us apply them unto ourselves, and believe that they are also spoken to every of us in particular, and generally unto all: I mean unto all the faithful. _The Tenth Sermon on the Hundredth and Nineteenth Psalm_, Psalm 119:73-80.

*John Calvin:* No doubt but the Papists will brag enough of their multitude: yea, but we see that the Prophet laugheth all of them to scorn. And why? We must always discern which are the [true] children. For what else are all the Churches of the Papists than *Brothel houses of Satan?* All things are infected, nothing is there but filthiness, God’s service is there utterly marred, and to be short, there is no soundness at all in them. The Papists therefore for all that ever they can pretend to make themselves God’s Church, are but misbegotten Bastards, as they that are tied to the Brothel house with *their mother that Synagogue of hell.* _The Thirtieth Sermon on Galatians_, Galatians 4:26-31. 

*John Calvin:* For we see that all the horned Prelates, and all the route of the Popish Clergy, have no more but the bare title. For where is the said word of God? They think that that were a stain to their state: it is enough for them to do their Ceremonies and gewgaws [trinkets, showy trifles], and they bear themselves in hand that they have very well discharged their duty, when they have so played an interlude: and so those Hypocrites do nothing else but fill the world full of their abuses and Illusions. Therefore let us learn to discern God’s true Church, from *all the Synagogues that Satan hath builded in the world*, and wherewith he dazzleth our eyes nowadays. That is to wit, when God’s word is preached faithfully, let us conclude that God also doth both know and acknowledge the flock that is assembled there. _Fortieth Sermon on Galatians_, Gal 6:6-8.

And for good measure, something similar from the ancient father Ambrose...

*Ambrose (c. 339-97)* commenting on _‘And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide.’_ (Lk. 9:4): So the faith of the Church must be sought first and foremost; if Christ is to dwell therein, it is undoubtedly to be chosen. *But lest an unbelieving people or heretical teacher disfigure its habitation, it is enjoined that the fellowship of heretics be avoided and the synagogue shunned.* The dust is to be shaken off your feet [cf. St. Luke 9:5], lest when the drynesses of barren unbelief crumble the sole of your mind it is stained as if by a dry and sandy soil. For a preacher of the Gospel must take upon himself the bodily weaknesses of a faithful people, so to speak, and lift up and remove from his own soles the worthless actions like to dust, according as it is written: “Who is weak, and I am not weak?” [II Corinthians 11:29]. Thus, any Church which rejects faith and does not possess the foundations of Apostolic preaching is to be abandoned, lest it be able to bespatter some stain of unbelief. This the Apostle also clearly affirmed, saying, “A man that is an heretic after the first admonition reject” [Titus 3:10]. Saint Ambrose of Milan, _Exposition of the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke_, trans. Theodosia Tomkinson (Etna: Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 1998), Book VI, §68, pp. 216-217.
*Latin text:* Fides igitur imprimis Ecclesiae quaerenda mandatur, in qua si Christus habitator sit, haud dubie sit legenda. Sin vero perfidus populus, aut praeceptor haereticus deformet habitaculum, vitanda haereticorum communio, fugienda Synagoga censetur. Excutiendus pedum pulvis, ne fatiscentibus perfidiae sterilis siccitatibus, tamquam humi arido arenosoque mentis tuae vestigium polluatur. Nam sicut corporeas infirmitates populi fidelis suscipere in se debet Evangelii praedicator, et tamquam propriis inania gesta pulveri comparanda, allevare atque abolere vestigiis, juxta quod scriptum est: Quis infirmatur, et ego non infirmor (II Cor. XI, 29)? Ita si qua est Ecclesia quae fidem respuat, nec apostolicae praedicationis fundamenta possideat; ne quam labem perfidiae possit aspergere, deserenda est. Quod Apostolus quoque evidenter asseruit dicens: Hoereticum hominem post unam . . . . correptionem devita (Tit. III, 10). _Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam_, 6.68, PL 15:1686.

DTK


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## Presbyterian Deacon (May 19, 2008)

In His Reply to Sadoleto Calvin describes the Roman Catholic Church during his time this way:

"The light of divine truth had been extinguished, the Word of God buried, the virtue of Christ lrft in profound oblivion, and the pastoral office subverted...Impiety so stalked abroad, that almost no doctrine of religion was pure from admixture, no ceremony free from error, no part of divine worship untarnished by superstition."


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## staythecourse (May 19, 2008)

*Calvin and Knox quotes*

I found two quotes:



> John Calvin (1509-1564)
> “Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman pontiff Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt…I shall briefly show that (Pauls words in 2 Thessalonians 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy” John Calvin, Tracts, Vol. 1, pp. 219,220. John Calvin, Institutes.





> John Knox (1505-1572)
> He preached that Romish traditions and ceremonies should be abolished along with “that tyranny which the Pope himself has for so many ages exercised over the church" and that he should be acknowledged as "the son of perdition, of whom Paul speaks." In a public challenge he declared: "As for your Roman Church, as it is now corrupted… I no more doubt but that it is the synagogue of Satan, and the head therof, called the Pope, to be the man of sin of whom the apostle speaketh." Knox, The Zurich Letters, p.199


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## larryjf (May 19, 2008)

From Calvin's sermon on Gal. 4:26-31 entitled, "On Discerning Who Belongs to the True Church"...



> ...the Papists, though they call themselves ‘the church of God’, are born illegitimate, and belong to the brothel, along with their mother and all the synagogue of Satan.



Just to throw it in the mix, i here is John Knox (whom i really like)...


> "I no more doubt but that it [Roman Church] is the synagogue of Satan, and the head therof, called the Pope, to be the man of sin of whom the apostle speaketh." The Zurich Letters, p.199


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## Rev. Todd Ruddell (May 19, 2008)

In Calvin's letter to the Ministers of Friesland:

How much more necessary is it now, in this fearful devastation of the Christian world, that the few churches which duly worship God, and they too scattered and hedged round on all sides by the profane synagogues of Antichrist, should mutually give and receive this token of holy union, that they may thereby be incited to that fraternal embrace of which I have spoken?

In his sermon on Psalm 119.73-80:

And not to use the manner of the Papists, to say, It is very true that God hath promised this and that, but we know not whether the same belongeth unto us or not. And these are no fools, which say thus, but this is the doctrine which they teach in all their Satanical and devilish Schools and Synagogues. Lo here the very doctrine of popish doctors, that the promises of God are uncertain, and that we must receive them as things hanging in the air, not to take them generally, to say, I doubt not but that GOD speaketh the same unto me. 

In his sermons on Galatians:

The Papists therefore for all that ever they can pretend to make themselves God’s Church, are but misbegotten Bastards, as they that are tied to the Brothel house with their mother that Synagogue of hell.

Hope that helps.


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