While Calvin thought it “good” to take time once a year to focus on the subject of Christ’s birth and all the good it brought to the world (Sermons on Micah, Thursday, December 25, 1550/1), he did not approve of the old pretended holy days of the RCC’s calendar, writing, “With respect to ceremonies and above all the observance of holy days [I offer the following]: Although there are some who eagerly long to remain in conformity with such practices, I do not know how they can do so without disregard for the edification of the church, nor [do I know] how they can render an account to God for having advanced evil and impeded its solution…” (Calvin’s Ecclesiastical Advice, 90).
Preaching a sermon that fell on the old day of observing the feast of Epiphany, Calvin preached,
“Calvin’s view from 1536 to as late as 1561 remained consistent. The feast days of the liturgical calendar were superstitious observances, and he actively campaigned throughout his ministry to remove them or curtail the superstitious nature of them as long as they were retained. Calvin’s advice to the Montbéliardians regarding the imposition of holy days occurred as he himself was involved in an effort to reform Genevan practice. To those that continue to try to adduce Calvin in defense of a cyclical liturgy built around such days, it must be queried as [George] Gillespie did: if Calvin believed that treating such days like the Lord’s Day made them superstitious; if pretended holy days are an idol from man’s imagination forged in God’s name; if we must “eliminate anything that might foster superstition;” if these days confirm error by their retention and use; if conformity to them is unedifying and an advancing of evil; if we should remove through the principle taught in Hezekiah’s destruction of the brazen serpent all superstitious filth from the church which stand in the way as a snare or covered pit to ever tempt back to idolatry and superstition; if it is not a good thing to have to put up with such “trifles,” as Calvin advised the Montbéliardians; and if once successfully removed as was done for centuries by Presbyterian churches, these observances should never be returned to use and should be ‘erased by disuse’—judge what approval, let alone endorsement, the observance of the old superstitious days of the liturgical calendar actually had from the Genevan Reformer.”From the conclusion of the editor’s introduction and background to the first time full translation of John Calvin’s ecclesiastical advice to the Reformed ministers of Montbéliard. “In Translatiōne: John Calvin’s Letters to the Ministers of Montbéliard (1543–1544): The Genevan Reformer’s Advice and Views of the Liturgical Calendar,” The Confessional Presbyterian 13 (2017): 210–212, 215–216.
Preaching a sermon that fell on the old day of observing the feast of Epiphany, Calvin preached,
If we would worship God as we should, then this passage [Micah 6:12–16] forces us to expend the effort to ground ourselves in the pure simplicity that God has set forth in his Word.
That constitutes a doctrine we cannot ignore. For no matter what pretext we might use, or how noble we find our own cause to be, all that is rejected and condemned by a single word, namely, “obedience.” For with good cause, God prefers it above all else, desiring that we worship him in simplicity and obedience. But when we surpass those limits, we corrupt our cause....
For although one might daily explain what has been done in order to worship God, the majority will continue to pursue their habitual course and old superstitions....
For example, how many people still regard Epiphany with high reverence?77 They even celebrate the festival as they have been accustomed to do....
... if you were to ask three hundred, or even a thousand Genevan inhabitants,78 if it were good to celebrate this festival [Epiphany], they would reply: “Why not? What harm can result from honoring God in this way?” That is the response that many would make, even though they are supposed to be instructed in the Word of God and know that such falsehood is nonsense. This is not how we should act. For if we hope to worship God in the manner that is acceptable to him, we must divest ourselves of all silly superstitions and frivolous inventions, renounce all idolatry in order to worship God in spirit and in truth (as God commands us), and cling to the simplicity that we observe in his Word.79
77. “In the French text, Calvin refers to this festival as ce jour des Rois—“the day of the King.” However, the Supplementa editors explain that since the Reformers had abolished the ecclesiastical calendar along with its festivals and special days, Sundays excepted, Epiphany (or January 6, the very day of this sermon) was no longer observed.” Farley, Sermons on the Book of Micah, ibid.
78. At the Reformation Geneva had a population of about ten thousand, and there were two thousand in the surrounding rural areas under the city’s control. Cf. Manetsch, 126, and Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition, v. 72, Companion to the Swiss Reformation, ed. Amy Nelson Burnett and Emidio Campi (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 366.
79. Sermons on the Book of Micah, 362–364.
That constitutes a doctrine we cannot ignore. For no matter what pretext we might use, or how noble we find our own cause to be, all that is rejected and condemned by a single word, namely, “obedience.” For with good cause, God prefers it above all else, desiring that we worship him in simplicity and obedience. But when we surpass those limits, we corrupt our cause....
For although one might daily explain what has been done in order to worship God, the majority will continue to pursue their habitual course and old superstitions....
For example, how many people still regard Epiphany with high reverence?77 They even celebrate the festival as they have been accustomed to do....
... if you were to ask three hundred, or even a thousand Genevan inhabitants,78 if it were good to celebrate this festival [Epiphany], they would reply: “Why not? What harm can result from honoring God in this way?” That is the response that many would make, even though they are supposed to be instructed in the Word of God and know that such falsehood is nonsense. This is not how we should act. For if we hope to worship God in the manner that is acceptable to him, we must divest ourselves of all silly superstitions and frivolous inventions, renounce all idolatry in order to worship God in spirit and in truth (as God commands us), and cling to the simplicity that we observe in his Word.79
77. “In the French text, Calvin refers to this festival as ce jour des Rois—“the day of the King.” However, the Supplementa editors explain that since the Reformers had abolished the ecclesiastical calendar along with its festivals and special days, Sundays excepted, Epiphany (or January 6, the very day of this sermon) was no longer observed.” Farley, Sermons on the Book of Micah, ibid.
78. At the Reformation Geneva had a population of about ten thousand, and there were two thousand in the surrounding rural areas under the city’s control. Cf. Manetsch, 126, and Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition, v. 72, Companion to the Swiss Reformation, ed. Amy Nelson Burnett and Emidio Campi (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 366.
79. Sermons on the Book of Micah, 362–364.
“Calvin’s view from 1536 to as late as 1561 remained consistent. The feast days of the liturgical calendar were superstitious observances, and he actively campaigned throughout his ministry to remove them or curtail the superstitious nature of them as long as they were retained. Calvin’s advice to the Montbéliardians regarding the imposition of holy days occurred as he himself was involved in an effort to reform Genevan practice. To those that continue to try to adduce Calvin in defense of a cyclical liturgy built around such days, it must be queried as [George] Gillespie did: if Calvin believed that treating such days like the Lord’s Day made them superstitious; if pretended holy days are an idol from man’s imagination forged in God’s name; if we must “eliminate anything that might foster superstition;” if these days confirm error by their retention and use; if conformity to them is unedifying and an advancing of evil; if we should remove through the principle taught in Hezekiah’s destruction of the brazen serpent all superstitious filth from the church which stand in the way as a snare or covered pit to ever tempt back to idolatry and superstition; if it is not a good thing to have to put up with such “trifles,” as Calvin advised the Montbéliardians; and if once successfully removed as was done for centuries by Presbyterian churches, these observances should never be returned to use and should be ‘erased by disuse’—judge what approval, let alone endorsement, the observance of the old superstitious days of the liturgical calendar actually had from the Genevan Reformer.”From the conclusion of the editor’s introduction and background to the first time full translation of John Calvin’s ecclesiastical advice to the Reformed ministers of Montbéliard. “In Translatiōne: John Calvin’s Letters to the Ministers of Montbéliard (1543–1544): The Genevan Reformer’s Advice and Views of the Liturgical Calendar,” The Confessional Presbyterian 13 (2017): 210–212, 215–216.
