# Calvin training ministers



## daveb (Jan 31, 2006)

I was listening to David Wells give a lecture and he mentioned that Calvin would train some ministers up to 17 and 18 years because he did not feel that they were ready to enter the ministry.

Does anyone know where I might find more information regarding this?


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## R. Scott Clark (Feb 1, 2006)

> _Originally posted by daveb_
> I was listening to David Wells give a lecture and he mentioned that Calvin would train some ministers up to 17 and 18 years because he did not feel that they were ready to enter the ministry.
> 
> Does anyone know where I might find more information regarding this?



Having not heard the lecture I can't say how he was calculating things. 

I don't think the actual curriculum of the Genevan academy was that long. In fact, the academy (now the University of Geneva) per se didn't come into being until around '59 or '60, just a few years before Calvin's death.

The entire medieval curriculum was quite long from undergraduate to masters degree to doctoral degree it might take most of that time. I don't know, however, that the Geneva Academy shepherded students through that entire process (or that they offered more than a BA).

Calvin may have shepherded students in his congregation, through a sort of informal proto-type of what became the Geneva Academy (the "Academy of the River"). It is known from his correspondence that he did take a personal interest in some of them (the most famous being the missionaries/church planters who were jailed for preaching the gospel to whom Calvin wrote as they awaited martyrdom).

Without knowing exactly what DW has in mind (students in his catechism class who later matriculated in the Academy?), it is hard to say what this means.

rsc


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## daveb (Feb 1, 2006)

Thank you for your response. 

It was not clear from the lecture where this had happened or how it was calculated. Your idea of children raised up in the catechism and stayed for the Academy sounds plausible.


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## Dag Fish (Feb 1, 2006)

17 years sounds a bit much.... but it was Calvin afterall... 17 years around him would be special!


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## rmwilliamsjr (Feb 1, 2006)

> _Originally posted by daveb_
> I was listening to David Wells give a lecture and he mentioned that Calvin would train some ministers up to 17 and 18 years because he did not feel that they were ready to enter the ministry.
> 
> Does anyone know where I might find more information regarding this?



is the lecture available online?


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## daveb (Feb 1, 2006)

> _Originally posted by rmwilliamsjr_
> is the lecture available online?



Yes. The lectures were given at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and they are on "emergent spirituality". The Calvin quote was made in passing near the beginning of the Nov. 9th lecture.

http://sebts.edu/chapel/chapelMessages.cfm?filter_sortdirection=DESC&filter_semesterid=0&Page=2


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