Worship in Geneva

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W.C. Dean

Puritan Board Sophomore
Can someone recommend some resources on what worship was like in Calvin's church(es) in Geneva? There is an old thread where Rev. Glaser posted something, but his link no longer works.
 
Was everything in his services done in French?
A lot was French but I don't know about "everything." In those days, Latin was still a written (also spoken), scholarly lingua franca but the point of Protestantism was vernacular worship. Calvin worked to equip francophone ministers elsewhere in Europe, particularly France. I don't remember ever reading that he was fluent in German, English or Italian though major cities in that part of Europe would have speakers in all of those languages.
 
All indication is that, in keeping with the core Protestant value of conducting worship in the vernacular, everything in the Genevan service was in French. During his time in Strasbourg Calvin had created a French service book (formal prayers, sacraments, etc.), which upon his return to Geneva was only slightly adapted for use there. Calvin also created a French language psalter for use in his church. Extant sermon transcripts/paraphrases all indicate he preached in French. Some have insisted that while in his sermons he read out scripture in French, Calvin likely translated on the spot from Hebrew and Greek texts.

When he lectured at the Genevan Academy or other formal settings it was typically in Latin. His written works were initially published in either French or Latin, and then subsequently translated into the other. The language into which his original works have been most translated is by far English.

See:
Karin Maag, Lifting Hearts to the Lord: Worship with John Calvin in Sixteenth-Century Geneva
T.H.L. Parker, Calvin's Preaching
Wulfert Greef, The Writings of John Calvin: An Introductory Guide
 
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