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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2016
One of the traditional puzzles in Calvin studies has been Calvin’s proposed and supposedly French edition of the sermons of the Greek Church Father, John Chrysostom. The date, circumstances, and precise scope of this project have always been uncertain, chiefly because the only evidence for the plan is a substantial fragment of a prefatory introduction in Calvin’s own hand. As yet, no mention of or allusion to it has been found in any other contemporary source. The fact that all we have is a preface, or the first draft of one, suggests that the scheme was abortive. At any rate, no such work was published by Calvin, though that does not prove that he never actually got round to translating the Homilies. It is just as conceivable that no publisher would take it on. But it is likely that the combination of Calvin’s other extensive literary commitments and the heavy demands and vexations of what was a pioneering local and cosmopolitan ministry simply hindered him from realizing his intention.
1 Literature on Calvin and the Fathers in general, or on Calvin and Chrysostom in particular: Lane, A. N. S., ‘Calvin’s use of the Fathers and Medievals’, Calvin Theological Journal, 16 (1981), pp. 149–203Google Scholar; Old, H. O., The Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship (Zurich, 1975), pp. 141–9Google Scholar; Polman, P., L’Elément historique dans la controverse religieuse du XVle siècle (Gembloux, 1932), pp. 65–94Google Scholar; Réveillaud, M., ‘L’autorité de la tradition chez Calvin’, La Revue réformée (1958), pp. 24–45Google Scholar; Koopmans, J., Das alt kirchliche Dogma in der Reformation, tr. Quistorp, H. (Munich, 1955), pp. 36–41Google Scholar; Gancozy, A and Müller, K., Calvins handschriftliche Annotationen zu Chryso stom (Wiesbaden, 1981)Google Scholar; Walchenbach, J. R., ‘John Calvin as Biblical commentator. An investigation into Calvin’s use of John Chrysostom as an exegerical tutor’ (Pittsburgh, Ph.D. dissertation, 1974), pp. 23–35, 201–6Google Scholar; Mooi, R.J., Het kerk-endogmahistorisch element in dewerken van Johannes Calvijn (Wageningen, 1965), pp. 13–14, 30–8, 90–4, 273–80, 344–6Google Scholar; Calvinus ecclesiae Genevensiscustos, ed. Neuser, W. (Frankfurt, 1984), pp. 163–4Google Scholar.
2 The publishers of the second edition of the Institutes (1539) had complained that it was not selling well: see Correspondance des réformateurs dans le pays de langue française, ed. Herminjard, A-L. (Geneva, 1866-97), 6, p. 156Google Scholar.
3 Earlier humanists had had a special interest in Chrysostom; cf. Stinger, C. L., The Renaissance in Rome (Bloomington, 1985), pp. 226–34Google Scholar..
4 For decisive assistance in this matter I am grateful to friends and former colleagues at Geneva, Irena Backus, Alain Dufour, and Professor Pierre Fraenkel; and to Professor R. Lyall in Glasgow.
5 See Ganoczy, and Müller, , Annotationtn, p. 19, who refer to Calvin’s ‘paränetischaszetische Motiv’Google Scholar.
6 Fols 161V-2V.
7 Especially illuminating on Calvin’s application of this notion is Bouwsma, W.J.. John Calvin: a Sixteenth-Century Portrait (New York, 1988), pp. 113–27Google Scholar; cf. Stauffer, R., Dieu, la creation et la providence dans la prédication de Calvin (Berne, 1978), pp. 54–6Google Scholar.
8 ln John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. 1536 edition, ed Battles, F.L., rev.edn(London, 1986), appendix IV, pp. 373–7Google Scholar.
9 Cf. Ganoczy, A, The Young Calvin, a. Foxgrover, D. and Provo, W. (Edinburgh, 1988), pp. 308ffGoogle Scholar.
10 Cf. Kraus, H.-J., ‘Calvins exegetische Prinzipien’, ZKG, 79 (1968), pp. 329–41Google Scholar; Ganoczy, A. and Scheld, S., Die Hemeneutik Calvins. Geistesgeschichtliche Vomussetzungen und Grundzüge (Wiesbaden, 1983), pp. 90ff.Google Scholar
11 See Tischreden, WA, 2, p. 516; 4, pp. 286, 652.
12 Cf. Krüger, F., Bucer und Erasmus. Eine Untersuchung zum Einfiuss des Erasmus auf die Theologie Martin Bucers (bis zum Evangelienkommentar von 1530) (Wiesbaden, 1970), pp. 3–68Google Scholar; Peremans, Nicole, Erasme et Bucer d’aprèsleur correspondance (Paris, 1970), pp. 28—33Google Scholar. On certain aspects of Calvin’s indebtedness to Erasmian humanism see Boyle, Marjorie O’Rourke, Rhetoric and Refom:Erasmu’s Civil Dispute with Luther (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), pp. 43–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
13 Cf. A. Schindler, Zwingli und die Kirchenvä’ter (Zurich, 1984), p.61.
14 Cf.n.11.
15 Cf. Bohatec, J., Budé und Calvin. Studien zur Cedankenwelt des französischen Frühhumanismus (Graz, 1950), pp. 127–30Google Scholar.
16 Cf. Ganoczy, J., The Young Calvin, pp. 85, 178–81Google Scholar.
