WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.120 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are conducting 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:06.719 what I think is going to be a bit of a forensic 00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:09.539 audit. A forensic audit. I like that. Yeah, we're 00:00:09.539 --> 00:00:11.619 looking at a reputation that has been, you know, 00:00:11.619 --> 00:00:14.960 set in stone, essentially fossilized for about 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:17.239 500 years. At least. We're tackling a figure 00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:20.859 who looms over Western history like a massive 00:00:20.859 --> 00:00:25.679 gray skyscraper. You can't miss him, yet somehow... 00:00:25.929 --> 00:00:28.649 Most people only ever see the shadow he casts. 00:00:28.769 --> 00:00:31.309 Right. Never the actual building itself. Exactly. 00:00:31.489 --> 00:00:34.090 We were talking about the man, the myth, the 00:00:34.090 --> 00:00:37.520 lawyer, the theologian. John Calvin. It's good 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:39.579 to be here. And you are absolutely right about 00:00:39.579 --> 00:00:41.119 that shadow. I think if we were to walk down 00:00:41.119 --> 00:00:43.280 the street right now and ask 10 random people 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:45.159 what comes to mind when they hear John Calvin, 00:00:45.299 --> 00:00:47.600 I guarantee nine of them would give you the exact 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:49.500 same cluster of words. Oh, I can hear them now. 00:00:49.619 --> 00:00:52.079 You'd hear joyless. You'd hear severe. You definitely, 00:00:52.159 --> 00:00:55.640 definitely hear predestination. Yes. Or my personal 00:00:55.640 --> 00:00:58.710 favorite, the big one, theocratic dictator. Oh, 00:00:58.729 --> 00:01:01.590 absolutely. The mental image is immediate. I 00:01:01.590 --> 00:01:05.370 picture a guy in a severe black robe, maybe a 00:01:05.370 --> 00:01:08.650 fur collar, just frowning at a child for laughing. 00:01:08.969 --> 00:01:11.390 Banning dancing. Banning dancing, canceling Christmas, 00:01:11.590 --> 00:01:13.390 and telling everyone they're going to hell and 00:01:13.390 --> 00:01:14.870 there's absolutely nothing they can do about 00:01:14.870 --> 00:01:18.870 it. Right. It's the ultimate frozen, chosen caricature. 00:01:19.150 --> 00:01:21.129 It's almost like he's the villain in a Footloose 00:01:21.129 --> 00:01:23.510 movie. Yeah. But, you know, set in the 16th century. 00:01:24.379 --> 00:01:26.879 That's a perfect image. And to be fair, it's 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:28.840 one that his enemies and frankly, some of his 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:31.060 stricter followers have helped cultivate over 00:01:31.060 --> 00:01:33.620 the centuries. Sure. But our mission today is 00:01:33.620 --> 00:01:36.340 to take a sledgehammer to that marble statue. 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:40.200 We want to peel back layers of centuries of bad 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:42.980 PR and find the actual human being underneath 00:01:42.980 --> 00:01:45.859 because the reality is so much messier and honestly, 00:01:45.939 --> 00:01:47.859 infinitely more interesting. We aren't talking 00:01:47.859 --> 00:01:50.799 about a statue. We're talking about a French 00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:54.980 refugee. A brilliant humanist lawyer, and this 00:01:54.980 --> 00:01:56.959 is the part that always shocks people, a man 00:01:56.959 --> 00:01:58.859 who never actually wanted to be a pastor in the 00:01:58.859 --> 00:02:01.599 first place. That is the hook for me. The idea 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:03.620 that one of the most influential religious leaders 00:02:03.620 --> 00:02:06.500 in history, the guy who has an entire ism named 00:02:06.500 --> 00:02:08.340 after him. Calvinism, yeah. Wasn't just like 00:02:08.340 --> 00:02:11.879 dragged kicking and screaming into the job. So 00:02:11.879 --> 00:02:14.580 our goal today is to explore how a guy who just 00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:17.479 wanted a quiet life of books, a little wine, 00:02:17.620 --> 00:02:20.560 and some study, ended up reshaping our views 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:24.879 on work, government, capitalism, and even the 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:28.719 human soul. And to do that, we have a massive 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:31.080 stack of sources. We aren't just skimming Wikipedia 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:35.340 here. Right. We are pulling from historical biographical 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:39.000 data his huge collection of correspondence letters 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:41.259 to other reformers like Philip Melanchthon, where 00:02:41.259 --> 00:02:43.500 he really lets his guard down and complains about 00:02:43.500 --> 00:02:45.460 his health and his enemies. So the juicy stuff. 00:02:45.879 --> 00:02:47.740 The really human stuff. We have records from 00:02:47.740 --> 00:02:49.939 the Geneva City Council, which read like a legal 00:02:49.939 --> 00:02:53.199 drama. And of course, his magnum opus, The Institutes 00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:54.840 of the Christian Religion. Which I assume is 00:02:54.840 --> 00:02:57.159 a light bee treat, something to take on vacation. 00:02:57.419 --> 00:02:59.360 It's about as light as a concrete block, but 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:01.139 it's essential. It's one of those books that 00:03:01.139 --> 00:03:03.219 built the modern world. And for you, the listener, 00:03:03.379 --> 00:03:06.120 here's the value proposition, the why should 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:08.990 I care factor. Yeah, why does this matter? Whether 00:03:08.990 --> 00:03:11.810 you are religious or an atheist, whether you 00:03:11.810 --> 00:03:13.930 identify as a Calvinist or you run the other 00:03:13.930 --> 00:03:16.189 way when you hear the name, Calvin's ideas on 00:03:16.189 --> 00:03:18.030 checks and balances in government, the Protestant 00:03:18.030 --> 00:03:20.930 work ethic, and the value of universal education 00:03:20.930 --> 00:03:23.870 have likely shaped the society you live in. Wow. 00:03:24.330 --> 00:03:26.150 You can't really understand the architecture 00:03:26.150 --> 00:03:28.530 of the modern Western world without grappling 00:03:28.530 --> 00:03:31.330 with this lawyer from Noyon. So let's not bury 00:03:31.330 --> 00:03:33.210 the late. Let's go back to the source. You mentioned 00:03:33.210 --> 00:03:35.210 he was a lawyer from Noyon. Let's set the scene. 00:03:35.270 --> 00:03:39.039 The year is 1509. The world is changing. Where 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:41.539 does the John Calvin story begin? We're in the 00:03:41.539 --> 00:03:44.379 Picardy province of France in a town called Noyon. 00:03:44.500 --> 00:03:47.759 It's an old cathedral town, very steeped in the 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:50.639 medieval way of doing things. And on July 10th, 00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:54.560 1509, a boy named Jean Calvin is born. Jean Calvin. 00:03:54.620 --> 00:03:56.939 So John Calvin is just the anglicized version 00:03:56.939 --> 00:03:59.939 we use today. Correct. And to understand John, 00:04:00.099 --> 00:04:02.740 you really have to understand his father, Gerard 00:04:02.740 --> 00:04:05.419 Covan. Girard was not a warm and fuzzy figure. 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:08.860 He was a self -made man, very ambitious. He was 00:04:08.860 --> 00:04:13.139 a cathedral notary and a registrar for the ecclesiastical 00:04:13.139 --> 00:04:15.719 court. Okay, let's pause and translate that into 00:04:15.719 --> 00:04:18.819 modern terms. What does a cathedral notary actually 00:04:18.819 --> 00:04:21.980 do? It sounds like he just stamps papers. You 00:04:21.980 --> 00:04:24.959 should think of him more as a... A high level 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:28.019 administrator or maybe a corporate lawyer for 00:04:28.019 --> 00:04:31.100 the church. He wasn't a priest. He was a bureaucrat. 00:04:31.100 --> 00:04:33.339 He knew where the money was. He knew how the 00:04:33.339 --> 00:04:35.500 patronage system worked and he knew where all 00:04:35.500 --> 00:04:37.540 the skeletons were buried. So he was a fixer. 00:04:37.579 --> 00:04:40.000 He was a man who understood the machinery of 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:42.939 the institution. And Gerard had a very specific 00:04:42.939 --> 00:04:45.560 plan for his sons. He wanted them to climb the 00:04:45.560 --> 00:04:48.279 social ladder. He didn't want them to be peasants. 00:04:48.279 --> 00:04:51.139 He wanted them to be power players. the classic 00:04:51.139 --> 00:04:53.699 ambitious dad living vicariously through his 00:04:53.699 --> 00:04:56.459 kids You're going to be a doctor, or in this 00:04:56.459 --> 00:04:58.379 case, you're going to be a bishop. Precisely. 00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:00.720 Originally, the plan for John was the priesthood, 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:03.899 not because Gerard was particularly pious, necessarily, 00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:07.199 but because the church was the best career path 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:10.259 for a bright boy from the middle class. And in 00:05:10.259 --> 00:05:12.759 fact, Calvin was something of a child prodigy. 00:05:12.819 --> 00:05:15.839 He was incredibly precocious. By the age of 12, 00:05:15.959 --> 00:05:18.079 he was already employed as a clerk by the local 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:21.220 bishop. Wait, employed at 12? I was barely managing 00:05:21.220 --> 00:05:23.259 a paper route at 12, and I wasn't very good at 00:05:23.259 --> 00:05:25.680 it. How does a 12 -year -old work for a bishop? 00:05:25.980 --> 00:05:28.860 It was a patronage system. It's called a benefice. 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:32.259 Basically, you get a title and a salary, often 00:05:32.259 --> 00:05:35.339 funded by the revenue of a specific parish, and 00:05:35.339 --> 00:05:37.399 that money is supposed to support your education. 00:05:37.759 --> 00:05:39.629 So it's a scholarship. It was a scholarship, 00:05:39.670 --> 00:05:41.769 but it came with ecclesiastical strings attached. 00:05:42.170 --> 00:05:44.850 He even received the tonsure at that age. The 00:05:44.850 --> 00:05:46.589 tonsure, that's the haircut, right. The friar 00:05:46.589 --> 00:05:49.189 tuck look with the bald spot. Exactly. They shaved 00:05:49.189 --> 00:05:52.069 the crown of the head. It was a rite of passage 00:05:52.069 --> 00:05:55.129 symbolizing that you were now, in a sense, property 00:05:55.129 --> 00:05:57.490 of the church. You were a cleric in the making. 00:05:57.670 --> 00:05:59.730 That's intense for a 12 -year -old. It gave you 00:05:59.730 --> 00:06:02.310 legal status. You were now under church law, 00:06:02.470 --> 00:06:07.329 not civil law. So picture this. At 12 years old. 00:06:07.709 --> 00:06:10.170 John Calvin is walking around with a bald spot 00:06:10.170 --> 00:06:13.290 on purpose, marked out for the priesthood. He 00:06:13.290 --> 00:06:15.629 goes off to the University of Paris, specifically 00:06:15.629 --> 00:06:18.230 the Collège de Montague, which was famous for 00:06:18.230 --> 00:06:21.189 being incredibly strict. Part of that place. 00:06:21.490 --> 00:06:23.329 Erasmus went there and complained about the bad 00:06:23.329 --> 00:06:25.990 eggs and the harsh discipline. Calvin, however, 00:06:26.230 --> 00:06:29.209 thrived. He was a grinder. He was a serious student. 00:06:29.490 --> 00:06:31.329 So he's on the fast track to becoming a bishop 00:06:31.329 --> 00:06:33.949 or a high -ranking theologian. He's got the haircut. 00:06:34.089 --> 00:06:36.449 He's got the scholarship. But then there's a 00:06:36.449 --> 00:06:39.060 pivot. The outline says his father changed his 00:06:39.060 --> 00:06:41.740 mind. Yes, and this is a crucial turning point. 00:06:41.860 --> 00:06:44.779 A few years later, his father, Gerard, had a 00:06:44.779 --> 00:06:46.879 falling out with the church authorities in Noyon. 00:06:47.079 --> 00:06:49.319 It was a financial dispute involving the administration 00:06:49.319 --> 00:06:51.839 of an estate, and suddenly he looked at the changing 00:06:51.839 --> 00:06:54.339 world and made a pragmatic calculation. Okay. 00:06:54.379 --> 00:06:56.660 He pulled John out of his theology studies and 00:06:56.660 --> 00:06:58.600 told him to go to law school instead. Why the 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:01.279 switch? Did John lose his faith? Was there some 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:03.879 kind of scandal? No, it was purely about the 00:07:03.879 --> 00:07:06.480 wallet. According to Calvin's own account later, 00:07:06.660 --> 00:07:09.459 his father realized that lawyers made a lot more 00:07:09.459 --> 00:07:12.300 money than priests. You have to remember the 00:07:12.300 --> 00:07:14.800 nation state was rising. The king of France was 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:17.660 consolidating power. Bureaucracies were growing. 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:21.560 Law was the new boom industry. It was the tech 00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:24.100 sector of the 1520s. Some things never change. 00:07:24.379 --> 00:07:26.879 Forget the soul, son. Look at the billable hours. 00:07:26.980 --> 00:07:30.290 Exactly that. So dutiful son that he was, Calvin 00:07:30.290 --> 00:07:32.149 packs his bags and goes to the University of 00:07:32.149 --> 00:07:35.250 Orleans and later Borge to study law. And I cannot 00:07:35.250 --> 00:07:37.970 stress this enough. This is the key to understanding 00:07:37.970 --> 00:07:41.269 who he became. How so? He wasn't just memorizing 00:07:41.269 --> 00:07:43.810 statutes or loopholes. He was immersed in the 00:07:43.810 --> 00:07:46.850 intellectual movement of the day. Humanism. OK, 00:07:46.910 --> 00:07:49.829 we need to pause on that word humanism. When 00:07:49.829 --> 00:07:52.230 we hear that today, we think of secular humanism, 00:07:52.290 --> 00:07:55.050 atheism, putting humans at the center of the 00:07:55.050 --> 00:07:57.069 universe instead of God. But that's not what 00:07:57.069 --> 00:07:59.209 it meant in the 1520s, right? Not at all. It's 00:07:59.209 --> 00:08:01.490 almost the opposite of secularism. Renaissance 00:08:01.490 --> 00:08:03.410 humanism was an intellectual movement that was 00:08:03.410 --> 00:08:06.310 all about a Latin phrase, ad fontes. Ad fontes. 00:08:06.449 --> 00:08:10.579 It means to the sources. The idea was that the 00:08:10.579 --> 00:08:13.180 Middle Ages had been a period of darkness, fog, 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:16.180 and corruption where layers of tradition and 00:08:16.180 --> 00:08:18.899 bad translations had obscured the truth. Okay. 00:08:18.980 --> 00:08:22.079 The humanists wanted to bypass the medieval clutter, 00:08:22.259 --> 00:08:25.100 the middlemen, and go back to the original texts 00:08:25.100 --> 00:08:27.939 of antiquity. They wanted to read Roman law in 00:08:27.939 --> 00:08:30.500 the original Latin Greek philosophy in the original 00:08:30.500 --> 00:08:33.320 Greek, and most importantly, the Bible in its 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:35.919 original languages. So it's like textual archaeology. 00:08:36.059 --> 00:08:38.720 Yeah. Digging through the mud to find the original. 00:08:38.860 --> 00:08:41.600 artifact that is a perfect analogy and calvin 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:44.159 fell in love with this he learned coin greek 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:46.840 which was a dangerous skill at the time why dangerous 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:49.179 because it allowed you to read the new testament 00:08:49.179 --> 00:08:52.019 in the original rather than relying on the latin 00:08:52.019 --> 00:08:54.019 vulgate which the church had used for a thousand 00:08:54.019 --> 00:08:56.600 years and if you can read the original you can 00:08:56.600 --> 00:08:58.200 start to see where the church might have gotten 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:00.539 things wrong you start to see that the word for 00:09:00.539 --> 00:09:02.759 due penance in the vulgate is actually repent 00:09:02.759 --> 00:09:05.879 or change your mind in the greek that changes 00:09:05.879 --> 00:09:08.460 the theology entirely so he's building this toolkit. 00:09:08.659 --> 00:09:11.200 He has the logic of a lawyer, the critical thinking 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:14.080 of a scholar, and the language skills of a linguist. 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:17.039 He's becoming a weaponized intellectual. Yes. 00:09:17.139 --> 00:09:19.519 In fact, his first published book wasn't about 00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:22.279 the Bible at all. It was published in 1532, a 00:09:22.279 --> 00:09:24.460 commentary on Seneca's De Clementia. Seneca. 00:09:24.740 --> 00:09:27.059 The Roman Stoic. The Roman Stoic philosopher, 00:09:27.399 --> 00:09:30.139 yes. Calvin wanted to make a name for himself 00:09:30.139 --> 00:09:33.019 as a classical scholar, like Erasmus. He wanted 00:09:33.019 --> 00:09:34.840 to be the smartest guy in the literary world. 00:09:34.980 --> 00:09:37.379 That is fascinating. So if you met John Calvin 00:09:37.379 --> 00:09:40.580 at a dinner party in his early 20s, he wouldn't 00:09:40.580 --> 00:09:43.600 be lecturing you on predestination. He'd be boring 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:46.480 you with nuances of Roman legal theory and Stoic 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:48.840 philosophy. Precisely. He was an intellectual 00:09:48.840 --> 00:09:51.940 snob, essentially. He approached faith with the 00:09:51.940 --> 00:09:53.940 logic of a lawyer and the linguistic precision 00:09:53.940 --> 00:09:57.110 of a scholar. But then something happened. The 00:09:57.110 --> 00:09:59.250 timeline is a bit fuzzy, but somewhere between 00:09:59.250 --> 00:10:02.750 1532 and 1534, the lawyer becomes the believer. 00:10:02.929 --> 00:10:05.490 He breaks from the Roman Catholic Church. The 00:10:05.490 --> 00:10:08.070 conversion. Now, in the notes, it says there's 00:10:08.070 --> 00:10:10.789 a bit of a mystery here. Most famous religious 00:10:10.789 --> 00:10:14.370 figures have a clear road to Damascus moment. 00:10:14.870 --> 00:10:17.389 Luther had the lightning storm. Augustine had 00:10:17.389 --> 00:10:20.750 the child singing, pick up and read. What was 00:10:20.750 --> 00:10:23.259 Calvin's moment? It depends on which text you 00:10:23.259 --> 00:10:25.259 read, and this speaks to Calvin's personality. 00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:28.820 He was notoriously private about his inner life. 00:10:29.019 --> 00:10:31.299 He almost never wrote about himself. Why not? 00:10:31.419 --> 00:10:33.759 He believed that talking about his own experiences 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:36.440 was a form of vanity. But we have two main accounts. 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:39.419 In the preface to his commentary on the Psalms, 00:10:39.419 --> 00:10:42.690 written much later, he writes that God by a sudden 00:10:42.690 --> 00:10:46.090 conversion, subita conversio, subdued his mind 00:10:46.090 --> 00:10:48.750 to docility. Sudden conversion, that sounds dramatic, 00:10:48.889 --> 00:10:50.710 like a lightning bolt. It does. He describes 00:10:50.710 --> 00:10:52.610 his mind as being hardened like a beast, and 00:10:52.610 --> 00:10:54.549 God had to break it open. But then we have a 00:10:54.549 --> 00:10:56.309 letter he wrote to Cardinal Satellito, we'll 00:10:56.309 --> 00:10:58.190 talk about him later, where he describes a much 00:10:58.190 --> 00:11:00.570 longer, more painful process. Okay. He talks 00:11:00.570 --> 00:11:02.409 about being alarmed at his spiritual misery, 00:11:02.750 --> 00:11:05.250 trying to find peace in Catholic rituals and 00:11:05.250 --> 00:11:07.809 failing, and eventually condemning his past life 00:11:07.809 --> 00:11:12.549 with groans and tears. Groans. And tears. That 00:11:12.549 --> 00:11:14.750 sounds agonizing. Sounds like a mental breakdown 00:11:14.750 --> 00:11:17.090 or a deep depression. Yeah. So which was it? 00:11:17.129 --> 00:11:20.110 The lightning bolt or the slow burn? Most modern 00:11:20.110 --> 00:11:22.470 scholars, like the biographer Bruce Gordon, argue 00:11:22.470 --> 00:11:25.330 they aren't contradictory. The sudden part might 00:11:25.330 --> 00:11:27.370 refer to the final decision to break away at 00:11:27.370 --> 00:11:29.899 the moment the decision was made. while the groans 00:11:29.899 --> 00:11:32.519 and tears describe the long period of wrestling 00:11:32.519 --> 00:11:34.779 that led up to it. I see. You have to remember, 00:11:34.940 --> 00:11:37.659 leaving the Catholic Church in 1530s, France 00:11:37.659 --> 00:11:40.000 wasn't just changing denominations. It wasn't 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:42.139 like moving from a Baptist church to a Methodist 00:11:42.139 --> 00:11:45.320 one. It was treason. It was heresy. It was risking 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:48.139 being burned alive. And that danger became real 00:11:48.139 --> 00:11:51.360 very quickly, right? I'm looking at the cop incident 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:54.379 in 1533. This sounds less like a theological 00:11:54.379 --> 00:11:56.779 dispute and more like a scene from a spy thriller. 00:11:57.129 --> 00:11:59.690 It really does. So Calvin is in Paris. He's hanging 00:11:59.690 --> 00:12:01.429 out with these underground reformist circles. 00:12:01.830 --> 00:12:04.929 His good friend, Nicholas Copp, is elected rector 00:12:04.929 --> 00:12:07.129 of the University of Paris. A big deal. A very 00:12:07.129 --> 00:12:10.029 prestigious position. Copp has to give an inaugural 00:12:10.029 --> 00:12:13.629 address on All Saints Day, November 1st, 1533. 00:12:14.049 --> 00:12:16.870 High profile gig. All the faculty are there. 00:12:16.929 --> 00:12:19.529 The dignitaries. Exactly. And usually you'd give 00:12:19.529 --> 00:12:21.730 a boring speech thanking the faculty and praising 00:12:21.730 --> 00:12:25.370 the king. Instead, Copp gives a speech that quotes 00:12:25.370 --> 00:12:29.190 Erasmus. and Luther. He calls for reform and 00:12:29.190 --> 00:12:31.730 renewal in the church and he attacks the conservative 00:12:31.730 --> 00:12:34.809 theologians of the Sorbonne, calling them sophists. 00:12:35.129 --> 00:12:38.090 That is a bold move. Too bold. It was a declaration 00:12:38.090 --> 00:12:41.610 of war. The faculty denounced it as heresy immediately. 00:12:42.350 --> 00:12:45.210 Kopp had to flee Paris that very night to avoid 00:12:45.210 --> 00:12:47.870 arrest. Wow. And because Calvin was such a close 00:12:47.870 --> 00:12:49.730 friend, the authorities assumed he was involved. 00:12:50.049 --> 00:12:52.350 The casual rumor is that Calvin helped write 00:12:52.350 --> 00:12:54.190 the speech or at least influenced it heavily. 00:12:54.409 --> 00:12:56.830 So the police came for him, too. So he's on the 00:12:56.830 --> 00:12:59.070 run. Legend has it he escaped out of a window 00:12:59.070 --> 00:13:01.370 using bed sheets, though that might be apocryphal. 00:13:01.389 --> 00:13:03.549 But he definitely went into hiding. He used aliases. 00:13:03.710 --> 00:13:06.750 He was Charles Despaville for a while. He went 00:13:06.750 --> 00:13:09.110 to Angoulême and sheltered in the library of 00:13:09.110 --> 00:13:11.850 a friend, Louis Dutille. He was effectively a 00:13:11.850 --> 00:13:14.110 fugitive, moving from safe house to safe house, 00:13:14.149 --> 00:13:17.169 relying on a network of sympathizers. And the 00:13:17.169 --> 00:13:19.450 heat got turned up even higher with the affair 00:13:19.450 --> 00:13:22.629 of the placards in 1534. What was that? That 00:13:22.629 --> 00:13:24.879 was the tipping point. Up until then, the king 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:26.820 of France, Francis the Serf, had been somewhat 00:13:26.820 --> 00:13:28.820 tolerant of the humanists because his sister, 00:13:28.980 --> 00:13:32.159 Marguerite Navarre, liked them. Okay. But on 00:13:32.159 --> 00:13:36.039 the night of October 17, 1534, radical Protestants 00:13:36.039 --> 00:13:39.220 put up anti -Catholic posters or placards all 00:13:39.220 --> 00:13:41.980 over Paris, Orleans, and other cities, and these 00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:44.639 posters were incredibly offensive to Catholics. 00:13:44.919 --> 00:13:47.460 They attacked the mass, calling it gross abuse 00:13:47.460 --> 00:13:50.299 and idolatry. So this wasn't a polite request 00:13:50.299 --> 00:13:52.500 for dialogue. This was graffiti warfare. It was 00:13:52.500 --> 00:13:55.340 a massive... provocation. And one of these placards 00:13:55.340 --> 00:13:57.740 was even found on the door of the king's bedroom 00:13:57.740 --> 00:14:00.860 at the Chateau d 'Amboise. Whoa. That is a massive 00:14:00.860 --> 00:14:02.779 security breach. That's like finding a threatening 00:14:02.779 --> 00:14:04.539 note on the president's bedside table inside 00:14:04.539 --> 00:14:07.279 the White House. Exactly. King Francis panicked. 00:14:07.320 --> 00:14:09.100 He felt his authority was being challenged. He 00:14:09.100 --> 00:14:11.019 cracked down hard. He started burning people. 00:14:11.379 --> 00:14:13.539 Dozens were arrested. Several were executed. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:16.320 Calvin realized there was no future for him in 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:19.179 France. The environment had shifted from cautious 00:14:19.179 --> 00:14:22.340 tolerance to active persecution. He had to get 00:14:22.409 --> 00:14:24.370 out. He fled to Basel, Switzerland, which was 00:14:24.370 --> 00:14:27.350 a Protestant safe haven. So he's a refugee. He's 00:14:27.350 --> 00:14:30.210 left his home, his career path as a lawyer, his 00:14:30.210 --> 00:14:33.389 country. He's stripped of everything. And this 00:14:33.389 --> 00:14:35.269 brings us to what the notes call the accidental 00:14:35.269 --> 00:14:38.250 pastor. Because at this point, sitting in Basel, 00:14:38.370 --> 00:14:40.690 he still doesn't want to lead a church, right? 00:14:40.809 --> 00:14:43.289 He just wants to write. Not at all. In Basel, 00:14:43.289 --> 00:14:45.960 he keeps his head down. He writes the first edition 00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:47.879 of the Institutes of the Christian Religion. 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:51.740 It was published in 1536. But even then, he viewed 00:14:51.740 --> 00:14:54.299 it as a handbook and, crucially, as an apology, 00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:57.559 a defense for the faith to the King of France. 00:14:57.799 --> 00:15:00.299 He wanted to prove that Protestants weren't anarchists 00:15:00.299 --> 00:15:02.639 or rebels, just faithful Christians. But his 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:04.759 personal ambition hadn't changed. He wanted to 00:15:04.759 --> 00:15:08.169 be a writer. A scholar. He wanted to go to Strasbourg, 00:15:08.269 --> 00:15:10.809 which was a German free city, find a quiet corner, 00:15:10.970 --> 00:15:13.990 and write books. The introverted dream. Just 00:15:13.990 --> 00:15:17.549 me and my library. But then comes the detour. 00:15:17.570 --> 00:15:20.230 The detour that changes Western history. It is 00:15:20.230 --> 00:15:23.230 one of those great what -if moments. In July 00:15:23.230 --> 00:15:26.309 1536, Calvin is trying to get to Strasbourg. 00:15:26.350 --> 00:15:28.750 But there are military maneuvers happening. King 00:15:28.750 --> 00:15:31.049 Francis I is fighting the Holy Roman Emperor 00:15:31.049 --> 00:15:34.090 Charles V. The direct road is blocked by troops. 00:15:34.350 --> 00:15:36.600 So he has to go around. He has to take a detour 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:39.740 south. He decides to stay for one single night 00:15:39.740 --> 00:15:42.720 in Geneva. One night? Just a stopover? Just a 00:15:42.720 --> 00:15:45.860 layover. He stays at an inn, probably under an 00:15:45.860 --> 00:15:48.559 assumed name, but... Someone spots him. We don't 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:50.639 know who. Maybe a former student, maybe someone 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:52.820 who had read the Institutes. Because the Institutes 00:15:52.820 --> 00:15:54.820 had made him a minor celebrity by now. Yes, it 00:15:54.820 --> 00:15:56.659 was a bestseller in the underground market. So 00:15:56.659 --> 00:15:59.220 word gets to William Farrell. Now we need to 00:15:59.220 --> 00:16:01.460 talk about Farrell. Okay, who's Farrell? Farrell 00:16:01.460 --> 00:16:05.259 was this fiery, red -headed, explosive French 00:16:05.259 --> 00:16:08.460 reformer who had been trying to turn Geneva Protestant. 00:16:09.019 --> 00:16:11.299 Geneva had just thrown out its Catholic bishop 00:16:11.299 --> 00:16:13.799 and declared itself independent, but the city 00:16:13.799 --> 00:16:16.500 was in religious chaos. Right. Farrell was a 00:16:16.500 --> 00:16:18.879 great agitator. He could start a riot. But he 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:21.320 wasn't a great organizer. He was drowning in 00:16:21.320 --> 00:16:23.580 the details. He needed a brain. So Farrell hears 00:16:23.580 --> 00:16:26.360 the brain is in town for one night. Does he send 00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:29.299 a polite invitation? A fruit basket? Farrell 00:16:29.299 --> 00:16:32.360 didn't do polite. He storms into the inn. He 00:16:32.360 --> 00:16:34.620 confronts Calvin and demands that he stay and 00:16:34.620 --> 00:16:36.799 help reform the church in Geneva. And Calvin 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:40.240 says? Calvin refuses. He says, look, I'm 27 years 00:16:40.240 --> 00:16:43.919 old. I'm a scholar. I'm shy. I'm not healthy. 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.179 I need quiet. I can't do this public leadership 00:16:46.179 --> 00:16:48.600 thing. I'm not a politician. I can relate to 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:51.100 that. Please, just let me read my books. He's 00:16:51.100 --> 00:16:53.220 putting up boundaries. But Farrell wouldn't take 00:16:53.220 --> 00:16:56.220 no for an answer. And this is the cinematic moment. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:15.859 Farrell stands up. Wow. He literally curses Calvin's 00:17:15.859 --> 00:17:18.279 retirement. That is intense. A curse from a fiery 00:17:18.279 --> 00:17:20.480 preacher and a candlelit inn. That would terrify 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:23.720 me. It terrified Calvin. He later wrote in his 00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:25.779 introduction to the Psalms that he felt stricken 00:17:25.779 --> 00:17:28.779 with terror, as if God himself had reached down 00:17:28.779 --> 00:17:30.960 from heaven and laid his violent hand upon him 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:33.579 to stop him. So he actually believed it? He felt 00:17:33.579 --> 00:17:35.940 he had no choice. He was superstitious enough 00:17:35.940 --> 00:17:38.180 or faithful enough to believe this was a sign. 00:17:38.420 --> 00:17:41.119 He agreed to stay. Talk about being guilt -tripped 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:44.119 into a job. Nice soul you have there, be ashamed 00:17:44.119 --> 00:17:47.240 if God cursed it. Yeah. So he stays. He's the 00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:50.549 reluctant recruit. How does it go? Does the brilliant 00:17:50.549 --> 00:17:54.049 scholar lawyer fix Geneva overnight? It was an 00:17:54.049 --> 00:17:56.849 absolute disaster. A total flop. A total failure. 00:17:56.910 --> 00:17:58.950 You have to understand the dynamic. Geneva was 00:17:58.950 --> 00:18:01.769 a rowdy commercial city. They had just kicked 00:18:01.769 --> 00:18:03.690 out their Prince Bishop because they wanted political 00:18:03.690 --> 00:18:05.490 freedom. Right. They didn't want a new set of 00:18:05.490 --> 00:18:08.829 rules. Then here comes this young, serious French 00:18:08.829 --> 00:18:11.289 intellectual. And remember, the Swiss and the 00:18:11.289 --> 00:18:13.809 French have always had a bit of tension telling 00:18:13.809 --> 00:18:16.250 them they need to stop gambling, stop sleeping 00:18:16.250 --> 00:18:18.789 around, and sign a confession of faith. I can 00:18:18.789 --> 00:18:21.230 see the clash coming. It's the classic town versus 00:18:21.230 --> 00:18:24.549 gown problem. The academics versus the locals. 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:27.400 Exactly. Calvin and Farrell drew up these articles 00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:29.759 on organization. They wanted to excommunicate 00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:31.920 people for immoral behavior. They wanted the 00:18:31.920 --> 00:18:34.119 power to ban people from the communion table. 00:18:34.299 --> 00:18:36.039 And the city council. The city council looked 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:38.920 at this and said, who do you think you are? We 00:18:38.920 --> 00:18:40.779 didn't get rid of a bishop just to replace him 00:18:40.779 --> 00:18:43.059 with two pastors. And then there was the bread 00:18:43.059 --> 00:18:46.500 riot. The notes mentioned something about unleavened 00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:50.099 bread. Sounds so petty. The bread riot. It sounds 00:18:50.099 --> 00:18:52.440 silly to modern ears, but liturgy was political. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:56.119 The city of Bern was Geneva's powerful military 00:18:56.119 --> 00:18:59.960 ally. Bern used unleavened bread for communion 00:18:59.960 --> 00:19:03.319 like a wafer. Okay. Calvin and Farrell didn't 00:19:03.319 --> 00:19:05.380 really care about the bread per se. Calvin actually 00:19:05.380 --> 00:19:08.180 preferred ordinary leavened bread, but they didn't 00:19:08.180 --> 00:19:09.720 want the civil government telling the church 00:19:09.720 --> 00:19:12.079 how to worship. It was a jurisdiction issue. 00:19:12.259 --> 00:19:14.779 The council ordered them to use the burn -style 00:19:14.779 --> 00:19:17.259 wafers to keep the alliance happy. So it was 00:19:17.259 --> 00:19:19.599 a power struggle. Church versus state, fought 00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:22.480 over a cracker. Exactly. It came to a head at 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:26.000 Easter, 1538. The council ordered them to use 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:29.440 the wafers. Calvin and Farrell said, if we can't 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:31.380 control the altar, we won't serve communion at 00:19:31.380 --> 00:19:33.839 all. They went on strike during Easter services. 00:19:34.140 --> 00:19:37.049 Oh, wow. No communion on Easter. That's like 00:19:37.049 --> 00:19:39.049 canceling Christmas dinner. That's the Super 00:19:39.049 --> 00:19:42.529 Bowl of the church year. It was explosive. Riots 00:19:42.529 --> 00:19:45.750 ensued in the church. Swords were drawn. It was 00:19:45.750 --> 00:19:48.890 chaos. The next day, the city council fired them 00:19:48.890 --> 00:19:51.289 both and gave them three days to get out of town. 00:19:51.589 --> 00:19:54.759 Banished. So much for the divine calling. Farrell's 00:19:54.759 --> 00:19:57.359 curse didn't seem to work out. Calvin was arguably 00:19:57.359 --> 00:19:59.799 relieved. He essentially said, good riddance. 00:19:59.980 --> 00:20:02.460 He wrote, if we had served men, we would have 00:20:02.460 --> 00:20:04.960 been ill -rewarded, but we serve a great master 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:08.339 who will pay us what he owes. He headed to Strasbourg, 00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:09.940 which is where he wanted to go in the first place. 00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:11.839 So he finally gets his wish, and this begins 00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:14.440 what the outline calls the Strasbourg Interlude. 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:16.619 This sounds like the happiest time of his life. 00:20:16.940 --> 00:20:20.500 It really was. From 1538 to 1541, he lived in 00:20:20.500 --> 00:20:22.960 Strasbourg. He was invited by Martin Busser, 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:26.039 who was a much older, wiser reformer. Busser 00:20:26.039 --> 00:20:28.980 became a father figure to him. He basically took 00:20:28.980 --> 00:20:31.259 Calvin under his wing and said, OK, you have 00:20:31.259 --> 00:20:33.240 the raw talent, but you have zero people skills. 00:20:33.380 --> 00:20:35.500 Let me teach you. So he's in rehab for failed 00:20:35.500 --> 00:20:38.690 pastors. In a way. And it worked. He became the 00:20:38.690 --> 00:20:41.150 pastor of a church for French refugees. So he's 00:20:41.150 --> 00:20:43.750 back among his own people, speaking his own language, 00:20:43.890 --> 00:20:46.289 not struggling with the Swiss dialect. And he 00:20:46.289 --> 00:20:48.769 learned how to be a pastor. In Geneva, he was 00:20:48.769 --> 00:20:51.309 trying to be a ruler. In Strasbourg, he was a 00:20:51.309 --> 00:20:53.170 shepherd. What did that look like? He visited 00:20:53.170 --> 00:20:55.470 the sick. He counseled people. He buried the 00:20:55.470 --> 00:20:58.130 dead. He expanded the institutes. He wrote a 00:20:58.130 --> 00:21:00.789 brilliant commentary on Romans. He even introduced 00:21:00.789 --> 00:21:03.170 congregational singing the Psalms. Before that, 00:21:03.329 --> 00:21:05.710 the people just listened to choirs. Calvin wanted 00:21:05.710 --> 00:21:07.690 the people to sing their prayers. also where 00:21:07.690 --> 00:21:09.410 he gets married, right? The Calvin in love section. 00:21:09.450 --> 00:21:11.289 I have to say the quote in the notes is hilarious. 00:21:11.730 --> 00:21:14.569 He tells a friend, I'm not of the mad kind of 00:21:14.569 --> 00:21:16.970 lovers who embrace even the vices of those they 00:21:16.970 --> 00:21:20.589 are in love with. He was very practical, unsentimental. 00:21:20.750 --> 00:21:23.269 His friends urged him to marry to help with the 00:21:23.269 --> 00:21:25.809 household and his health. He was always sickly. 00:21:25.869 --> 00:21:27.710 So they were matchmaking for him. They were. 00:21:28.089 --> 00:21:30.329 And he gave them a list of requirements like 00:21:30.329 --> 00:21:32.750 a job description. He wrote, the only beauty 00:21:32.750 --> 00:21:35.589 which allures me is this, that she be chased. 00:21:36.360 --> 00:21:39.940 obliging not fastidious economical patient and 00:21:39.940 --> 00:21:41.700 careful for my health he was hiring a spouse 00:21:41.700 --> 00:21:44.259 must be good with budgets and nursing it sounds 00:21:44.259 --> 00:21:46.799 so cold it sounds unromantic but he eventually 00:21:46.799 --> 00:21:50.359 found idolette debur she was a widow of an anabaptist 00:21:50.359 --> 00:21:53.059 he had converted she had two children and despite 00:21:53.059 --> 00:21:55.519 the pragmatic beginning by all accounts they 00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:57.980 had a deeply affectionate relationship we see 00:21:57.980 --> 00:22:00.500 a crack in the robot armor here absolutely it 00:22:00.500 --> 00:22:03.220 was a short marriage she died in 1549 after only 00:22:03.220 --> 00:22:17.509 nine years together and calvin was The best friend 00:22:17.509 --> 00:22:20.990 of my life. That's beautiful. It completely contradicts 00:22:20.990 --> 00:22:23.930 the emotionless statue image. It does. It shows 00:22:23.930 --> 00:22:26.529 he was capable of deep connection and deep grief. 00:22:26.750 --> 00:22:29.690 But his time in Strasbourg couldn't last. Geneva 00:22:29.690 --> 00:22:31.890 was falling apart without him. They realized 00:22:31.890 --> 00:22:34.210 they made a mistake. Chaos returned to Geneva. 00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:37.519 The Catholic Church tried to win the city back. 00:22:38.359 --> 00:22:40.819 Cardinal Sadalato wrote a very persuasive letter 00:22:40.819 --> 00:22:43.299 inviting them back to Rome, and the city council 00:22:43.299 --> 00:22:45.579 didn't know how to answer it. They were out of 00:22:45.579 --> 00:22:47.819 their depth. They needed their intellectual heavyweight. 00:22:47.880 --> 00:22:49.640 They realized they needed a heavyweight to debate 00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:51.779 the cardinals and organize the church. They needed 00:22:51.779 --> 00:22:53.859 their lawyer back. And I assume he jumped to 00:22:53.859 --> 00:22:56.500 the chance. I told you so! He was horrified. 00:22:57.180 --> 00:22:59.460 When the letter came asking him to return, he 00:22:59.460 --> 00:23:02.109 wrote to Farrell, Rather would I submit to death 00:23:02.109 --> 00:23:04.509 a hundred times than to that cross on which I 00:23:04.509 --> 00:23:07.309 had to perish daily a thousand times over. He 00:23:07.309 --> 00:23:10.589 called Geneva a cross. A place of torture. He 00:23:10.589 --> 00:23:12.990 remembered the riots, the insults, the stress. 00:23:13.049 --> 00:23:16.369 He did not want to go back. But he went. He felt 00:23:16.369 --> 00:23:18.769 it was God's will. He couldn't say no to duty. 00:23:19.269 --> 00:23:23.029 In 1541, he returned. Strasbourg lent him to 00:23:23.029 --> 00:23:26.309 Geneva for six months, but he never left. He 00:23:26.309 --> 00:23:28.670 arrived with a wagon for his family, and he stayed 00:23:28.670 --> 00:23:32.019 until he died. So this begins the main act, part 00:23:32.019 --> 00:23:35.559 four. Return to Geneva and the theocracy debate. 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:38.519 This is where the rubber meets the road. He sets 00:23:38.519 --> 00:23:42.240 up the ecclesiastical ordinances. How did he 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:45.500 structure this new church? He defined four offices, 00:23:45.799 --> 00:23:49.480 pastors to preach, doctors to teach so, the academics 00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:51.839 elders to discipline, and deacons to care for 00:23:51.839 --> 00:23:54.819 the poor. But the controversial part, the engine 00:23:54.819 --> 00:23:56.920 of the whole controversy, was the consistory. 00:23:57.059 --> 00:23:59.740 The consistory. That sounds like a sinister secret 00:23:59.740 --> 00:24:01.940 society in a Dan Brown novel. What was it? It 00:24:01.940 --> 00:24:04.460 was an ecclesiastical court made up of the pastors 00:24:04.460 --> 00:24:07.019 and 12 lay elders, and the elders were elected 00:24:07.019 --> 00:24:09.240 by the city council. Their job was to maintain 00:24:09.240 --> 00:24:11.599 the moral discipline of the city. How? They met 00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:13.720 every Thursday. If you were caught gambling, 00:24:13.980 --> 00:24:16.140 fighting, beating your wife, or skipping church, 00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:18.599 you got summoned to the consistory. And this 00:24:18.599 --> 00:24:20.740 is where the theocracy label comes from. People 00:24:20.740 --> 00:24:23.039 think Calvin was the Ayatollah of Geneva just 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:26.339 running everything. That is the myth. But historians 00:24:26.339 --> 00:24:28.220 have really pushed back on the word theocracy. 00:24:28.819 --> 00:24:31.460 If by theocracy you mean the church ran the government, 00:24:31.660 --> 00:24:35.259 that's just false. Calvin held no civil office. 00:24:35.539 --> 00:24:38.809 He wasn't the mayor. He wasn't a counselor. He 00:24:38.809 --> 00:24:41.109 was a refugee pastor who wasn't even a citizen 00:24:41.109 --> 00:24:43.250 of Geneva until near the end of his life. Wait, 00:24:43.309 --> 00:24:46.309 he wasn't a citizen for most of that time. No. 00:24:46.450 --> 00:24:49.509 As a French refugee, he had no voting rights. 00:24:49.690 --> 00:24:52.849 He couldn't run for office. And crucially, the 00:24:52.849 --> 00:24:55.990 consistory had no civil jurisdiction. What does 00:24:55.990 --> 00:24:58.230 that mean, practically? They could scold you. 00:24:58.329 --> 00:25:00.690 They could excommunicate you, meaning bar you 00:25:00.690 --> 00:25:03.329 from communion. But they couldn't fine you, imprison 00:25:03.329 --> 00:25:05.390 you, or kill you. Only the city council, the 00:25:05.390 --> 00:25:07.559 little council, could do that. But didn't the 00:25:07.559 --> 00:25:09.799 council just do whatever Calvin wanted? Wasn't 00:25:09.799 --> 00:25:12.180 he pulling the strings? Definitely not. For most 00:25:12.180 --> 00:25:15.880 of his time there, from 1541 to 1555, the council 00:25:15.880 --> 00:25:18.160 was controlled by his political enemies. They 00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:20.380 fought him constantly. They hated him. Let's 00:25:20.380 --> 00:25:22.900 talk about those enemies. The Libertines. Again, 00:25:22.980 --> 00:25:24.759 sounds like a fun party group, but I suspect 00:25:24.759 --> 00:25:27.079 they weren't. They called themselves the Patriots, 00:25:27.079 --> 00:25:29.940 or Children of Geneva. Calvin called them libertines. 00:25:30.279 --> 00:25:33.140 These were the old, wealthy, established families 00:25:33.140 --> 00:25:35.940 of Geneva. They hated that this French refugee 00:25:35.940 --> 00:25:38.059 was telling them how to live. They felt he was 00:25:38.059 --> 00:25:40.880 destroying their culture. The notes mentioned 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:43.440 some specific clashes. Tell us about the card 00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:47.000 maker. Pierre Amo. He was a manufacturer of playing 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:49.880 cards. Calvin's preaching against gambling was, 00:25:49.960 --> 00:25:52.460 you know, hurting his bottom line. Right. So 00:25:52.460 --> 00:25:55.240 one night at a dinner party, Amo gets drunk and 00:25:55.240 --> 00:25:58.220 starts shouting that Calvin is a Picard, which 00:25:58.220 --> 00:26:01.019 was a slur for Frenchmen, and a teacher of false 00:26:01.019 --> 00:26:04.019 doctrine. Just a drunk rant at a party. Yes, 00:26:04.019 --> 00:26:07.240 but word got back. The council arrested him. 00:26:07.910 --> 00:26:10.630 Calvin wanted a modest punishment, but the council, 00:26:10.789 --> 00:26:13.450 in a weird twist, decided to humiliate him to 00:26:13.450 --> 00:26:15.970 show they were serious about order. They forced 00:26:15.970 --> 00:26:17.789 him to walk through the city in his shirt sleeves, 00:26:18.009 --> 00:26:20.269 kneeling at intersections to beg for forgiveness. 00:26:20.549 --> 00:26:23.089 That's incredibly harsh. And Amo's family never 00:26:23.089 --> 00:26:25.230 forgave Calvin, even though it was the council's 00:26:25.230 --> 00:26:27.650 sentence. It created a vendetta. And then there 00:26:27.650 --> 00:26:29.829 was the dancing incident. The Ami Perrin affair. 00:26:30.049 --> 00:26:32.890 Ami Perrin was a military hero, the captain general 00:26:32.890 --> 00:26:37.349 of the city. He was a libertine leader. His wife, 00:26:37.529 --> 00:26:40.670 Francoise, was caught dancing at a wedding. Dancing 00:26:40.670 --> 00:26:58.950 was illegal. So it became a huge political fight. 00:26:59.109 --> 00:27:01.849 A massive power struggle. Perrin tried to destroy 00:27:01.849 --> 00:27:04.509 Calvin's authority to excommunicate. It was a 00:27:04.509 --> 00:27:06.750 question of can the state tell the church who 00:27:06.750 --> 00:27:09.890 can take communion? And Calvin's answer was over 00:27:09.890 --> 00:27:12.720 my dead body. It sounds exhausting. He's fighting 00:27:12.720 --> 00:27:14.759 the government every single day. And the threats 00:27:14.759 --> 00:27:16.900 were real. People named their dogs Calvin so 00:27:16.900 --> 00:27:18.700 they could kick them in the street. They shot 00:27:18.700 --> 00:27:20.779 muskets outside his window at night to keep him 00:27:20.779 --> 00:27:23.319 awake. And then there was Jacare. This one seems 00:27:23.319 --> 00:27:26.900 darker. Much darker. Gruet was a wealthy libertine. 00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:30.140 One day, a threatening letter was found on Calvin's 00:27:30.140 --> 00:27:32.700 pulpit. It basically said, you'd better get out 00:27:32.700 --> 00:27:34.720 of town or you'll get what's coming to you. We 00:27:34.720 --> 00:27:37.039 won't wait for a trial. A death threat. Yes. 00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:40.240 The council investigated. They searched Gruet's 00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:42.720 house and found papers attacking Christianity 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:45.500 itself, calling Jesus a fraud and mocking the 00:27:45.500 --> 00:27:49.259 Virgin Mary. In the 16th century, that was blasphemy 00:27:49.259 --> 00:27:51.900 and treason. And what happened to him? Gruet 00:27:51.900 --> 00:27:55.380 was tortured and beheaded. That brings us to 00:27:55.380 --> 00:27:57.880 the edge. And we can't do a deep dive on Calvin 00:27:57.880 --> 00:28:00.319 without jumping off that edge into the biggest 00:28:00.319 --> 00:28:03.019 shadow over his legacy. We have to talk about 00:28:03.019 --> 00:28:05.019 Michael Servetus. No, you can't avoid it. It 00:28:05.019 --> 00:28:07.420 is the defining controversy of his life. If you 00:28:07.420 --> 00:28:09.539 know one bad thing about Calvin, it's that he 00:28:09.539 --> 00:28:12.319 burned Servetus. So who was Servetus? Why was 00:28:12.319 --> 00:28:15.160 he so controversial? Michael Servetus was a Spanish 00:28:15.160 --> 00:28:18.299 polymath. A genius, really. In the history of 00:28:18.299 --> 00:28:20.700 science, he's actually famous for being the first 00:28:20.700 --> 00:28:23.680 European to correctly describe pulmonary circulation, 00:28:24.059 --> 00:28:26.259 how blood moves from the heart to the lungs. 00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:29.920 He was a doctor, a geographer, and a theologian. 00:28:30.059 --> 00:28:32.910 A brilliant scientist, then. And a radical heretic 00:28:32.910 --> 00:28:35.670 by the standards of the day. He wrote a book 00:28:35.670 --> 00:28:37.829 called The Restoration of Christianity, where 00:28:37.829 --> 00:28:40.549 he denied the Trinity. He believed the doctrine 00:28:40.549 --> 00:28:43.089 of the Trinity Father, Son, Holy Spirit was a 00:28:43.089 --> 00:28:46.809 correction, a three -headed Cerberus. He also 00:28:46.809 --> 00:28:49.890 rejected original sin and infant baptism. Now 00:28:49.890 --> 00:28:52.140 for the modern listener. Denying the Trinity 00:28:52.140 --> 00:28:54.440 might sound like a theological technicality, 00:28:54.480 --> 00:28:57.940 but in the 1500s, this was nuclear, right? It 00:28:57.940 --> 00:29:00.059 was a capital crime. You have to understand the 00:29:00.059 --> 00:29:03.099 pollution mindset. Pre -modern people believed 00:29:03.099 --> 00:29:05.960 that heresy was like a virus. If you let a heretic 00:29:05.960 --> 00:29:08.299 spread his ideas, he didn't just have a wrong 00:29:08.299 --> 00:29:10.660 opinion. He was infecting the souls of the community, 00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:13.119 damning them to hell, and inviting God's wrath 00:29:13.119 --> 00:29:15.019 upon the city. So it was a public health crisis. 00:29:15.220 --> 00:29:17.559 Exactly. And both Catholics and Protestants agreed 00:29:17.559 --> 00:29:21.279 on this. Anti -Trinitarians had to die. Everyone. 00:29:21.940 --> 00:29:24.380 The Catholic Inquisition in France had already 00:29:24.380 --> 00:29:26.519 arrested him in Vienne. He managed to escape 00:29:26.519 --> 00:29:28.640 prison, but they burned him in effigy. He was 00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:31.200 a dead man walking in Catholic Europe. So he 00:29:31.200 --> 00:29:34.440 escapes the Inquisition and decides to go to 00:29:34.440 --> 00:29:38.759 Geneva. To Calvin City. Why on earth would he 00:29:38.759 --> 00:29:41.299 do that? That seems suicidal. That is the great 00:29:41.299 --> 00:29:43.400 mystery. He and Calvin had corresponded years 00:29:43.400 --> 00:29:46.599 earlier. It did not go well. Servetus sent Calvin 00:29:46.599 --> 00:29:49.099 insulting letters. Calvin eventually stopped 00:29:49.099 --> 00:29:51.079 writing, telling Farrell in a private letter, 00:29:51.140 --> 00:29:52.940 and this is very damning. If he comes here, if 00:29:52.940 --> 00:29:55.299 my authority is worth anything, I will never 00:29:55.299 --> 00:29:59.019 let him depart alive. Ominous. A very clear threat. 00:29:59.180 --> 00:30:01.940 Very. So Servetus shows up in Geneva in August 00:30:01.940 --> 00:30:05.369 1553. He goes to Church St. Pierre Cathedral 00:30:05.369 --> 00:30:07.869 while Calvin was preaching. He was recognized 00:30:07.869 --> 00:30:09.950 by someone in the congregation and arrested. 00:30:10.539 --> 00:30:12.059 And this is where the Libertines get involved. 00:30:12.220 --> 00:30:14.000 This is where it gets political. The Libertines' 00:30:14.039 --> 00:30:15.960 Ami Perrin and his crew controlled the council 00:30:15.960 --> 00:30:18.779 at this time. They hated Calvin. They saw an 00:30:18.779 --> 00:30:20.980 opportunity. To use Servetus against him. They 00:30:20.980 --> 00:30:23.660 thought if they could use Servetus to humiliate 00:30:23.660 --> 00:30:26.180 Calvin or maybe prove that Calvin was too harsh, 00:30:26.319 --> 00:30:28.299 they could finally break his power. So they made 00:30:28.299 --> 00:30:30.460 the trial difficult. They let Servetus argue 00:30:30.460 --> 00:30:32.619 in court. Servetus actually thought the Libertines 00:30:32.619 --> 00:30:35.480 might save him and execute Calvin instead. He 00:30:35.480 --> 00:30:37.920 thought he could flip the script. He did. He 00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:41.160 called Calvin a sorcerer in court. But eventually 00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:44.000 the theology was just too radical. The council 00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:47.940 wrote to other Swiss cities, Zurich, Bern, Basel, 00:30:47.940 --> 00:30:50.420 asking for advice. And they all wrote back saying, 00:30:50.539 --> 00:30:54.059 this man is a cancer. He must be stopped. So 00:30:54.059 --> 00:30:56.329 the Libertines were cornered. They realized they 00:30:56.329 --> 00:30:58.329 couldn't save him without looking like heretics 00:30:58.329 --> 00:31:00.670 themselves, so the council condemned him to be 00:31:00.670 --> 00:31:03.210 burned alive. And what was Calvin's role in the 00:31:03.210 --> 00:31:05.809 actual execution? Did he light the match? No. 00:31:06.269 --> 00:31:08.769 Calvin served as the prosecutor for the theology. 00:31:09.109 --> 00:31:12.630 He argued that Servetus was guilty. But, and 00:31:12.630 --> 00:31:15.170 this is a nuance often missed, Calvin argued 00:31:15.170 --> 00:31:17.589 for a different mode of execution. He asked the 00:31:17.589 --> 00:31:20.539 council to behead him. Why beheading? Burning 00:31:20.539 --> 00:31:23.160 was seen as particularly cruel. It was torture. 00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:25.960 Calvin believed the death penalty was biblically 00:31:25.960 --> 00:31:27.900 justified for heresy. Almost everyone did back 00:31:27.900 --> 00:31:30.359 then. But he didn't want the spectacle of the 00:31:30.359 --> 00:31:33.500 stake. He wanted a swift execution. The council 00:31:33.500 --> 00:31:36.400 refused Calvin's request, specifically to spite 00:31:36.400 --> 00:31:38.519 him. To show who was in charge. To show they 00:31:38.519 --> 00:31:41.180 were in charge, not the pastor. They burned Servetus 00:31:41.180 --> 00:31:45.079 on October 27, 1553. That is a heavy, heavy legacy. 00:31:45.420 --> 00:31:47.480 It is. It's the stain that never washes out. 00:31:47.789 --> 00:31:50.029 Apologists try to minimize it, but the fact is 00:31:50.029 --> 00:31:52.609 Calvin prosecuted him and supported the death 00:31:52.609 --> 00:31:55.130 sentence. But we do have to remember the context. 00:31:55.410 --> 00:31:58.589 If Servetus had gone to London, Vienna, or Paris, 00:31:58.710 --> 00:32:00.509 he would have been burned there too. It was a 00:32:00.509 --> 00:32:03.549 brutal age. So we've seen the politician, the 00:32:03.549 --> 00:32:05.789 disciplinarian, the prosecutor. Let's pivot to 00:32:05.789 --> 00:32:10.809 the thinker. Part six. Theology. The Institutes. 00:32:11.089 --> 00:32:13.490 You mentioned it grew from six chapters to 80. 00:32:13.890 --> 00:32:15.769 What was the big idea? If you could summarize 00:32:15.769 --> 00:32:18.799 Calvinism on a napkin. What is it? The core of 00:32:18.799 --> 00:32:21.440 Calvin's theology is the knowledge of God and 00:32:21.440 --> 00:32:23.619 the knowledge of self. He believed you can't 00:32:23.619 --> 00:32:25.890 know one without the other. And his starting 00:32:25.890 --> 00:32:29.130 point is that the human mind is broken. He famously 00:32:29.130 --> 00:32:31.849 called the human heart a perpetual idol factory. 00:32:32.150 --> 00:32:34.490 Idol factory. That's a sticky phrase. What did 00:32:34.490 --> 00:32:36.450 he mean by that? He meant that left to our own 00:32:36.450 --> 00:32:39.029 devices, we are constantly inventing false gods. 00:32:39.269 --> 00:32:41.150 If we don't worship the God of the Bible, we 00:32:41.150 --> 00:32:43.450 will worship money, power, sex, our nation, our 00:32:43.450 --> 00:32:45.730 children, our career. We take good things and 00:32:45.730 --> 00:32:48.130 turn them into ultimate things. And because our 00:32:48.130 --> 00:32:51.730 mind's eye is blurry due to sin, we need spectacles 00:32:51.730 --> 00:32:54.839 to see clearly. For Calvin, those spectacles 00:32:54.839 --> 00:32:57.880 are scripture. So the Bible puts the world in 00:32:57.880 --> 00:33:01.460 focus. And this brings us to, we have to talk 00:33:01.460 --> 00:33:04.460 about the P word, predestination. The elephant 00:33:04.460 --> 00:33:07.019 in the room. Why is Calvin the poster boy for 00:33:07.019 --> 00:33:10.519 this? Didn't others believe it? They did. Augustine, 00:33:10.519 --> 00:33:14.099 Aquinas, Luther, they all believed in some form 00:33:14.099 --> 00:33:16.599 of predestination because, quite frankly, it's 00:33:16.599 --> 00:33:19.220 in the Bible. Ephesians 1 talks about being... 00:33:19.470 --> 00:33:21.670 chosen before the foundation of the world. Right. 00:33:21.990 --> 00:33:25.250 But Calvin systematized it. He was a fearless 00:33:25.250 --> 00:33:27.470 logician. He followed the logic to the end of 00:33:27.470 --> 00:33:30.069 the line. And the end of the line is double predestination. 00:33:30.250 --> 00:33:32.509 Right. The idea that God doesn't just choose 00:33:32.509 --> 00:33:35.230 some for heaven, which is election, but he actively 00:33:35.230 --> 00:33:37.890 passes over others, leaving them for damnation, 00:33:37.930 --> 00:33:40.849 which is reprobation. That seems cruel. It seems 00:33:40.849 --> 00:33:42.549 like God is creating people just to throw them 00:33:42.549 --> 00:33:44.809 in the trash. Calvin admitted it was terrifying. 00:33:45.130 --> 00:33:48.539 He used the Latin phrase decritum horribly. The 00:33:48.539 --> 00:33:52.019 horrible decree. But by horrible, he didn't mean 00:33:52.019 --> 00:33:56.519 bad or evil. He meant awe -inspiring or dreadful 00:33:56.519 --> 00:33:58.480 in the archaic sense, like a horror movie that 00:33:58.480 --> 00:34:00.559 shakes you to your core. He knew how it sounded. 00:34:00.819 --> 00:34:03.500 He didn't enjoy it. He felt bound by scripture 00:34:03.500 --> 00:34:06.079 to teach it. He essentially said, my hands are 00:34:06.079 --> 00:34:09.019 tied. This is what the text says. But for him, 00:34:09.019 --> 00:34:11.239 it wasn't about scaring people. It feels like 00:34:11.239 --> 00:34:14.159 a scare tactic. No, and this is the irony. For 00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:16.980 Calvin, predestination was meant to be comforting. 00:34:17.300 --> 00:34:19.440 How is that comforting? Think about it this way. 00:34:19.519 --> 00:34:22.380 If your salvation depends on you, on your good 00:34:22.380 --> 00:34:24.639 behavior, your prayers, your ability to stay 00:34:24.639 --> 00:34:26.980 faithful, you can never be sure. You might have 00:34:26.980 --> 00:34:29.340 a bad day and die. You might lose your faith. 00:34:29.579 --> 00:34:31.400 It's all on your shoulders. Right. But if your 00:34:31.400 --> 00:34:34.000 salvation depends entirely on God's choice made 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:37.400 before the universe began, then it is unshakable. 00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:39.880 It's secure. It takes the burden off the human 00:34:39.880 --> 00:34:42.679 and places it on God. It was a doctrine of assurance 00:34:42.679 --> 00:34:45.980 for anxious refugees. I see. It's about sovereignty. 00:34:46.420 --> 00:34:48.860 God is in control even when the world is burning. 00:34:49.360 --> 00:34:51.559 Absolute sovereignty. That is the keynote of 00:34:51.559 --> 00:34:54.059 Calvinism. And quickly on the sacraments. We 00:34:54.059 --> 00:34:56.199 know Luther said Christ is physically present 00:34:56.199 --> 00:34:58.440 in the bread. Zwingli said it's just a symbol 00:34:58.440 --> 00:35:02.130 of memorial service. Where did Calvin land? He 00:35:02.130 --> 00:35:04.389 tried to find the middle ground. He rejected 00:35:04.389 --> 00:35:06.369 the physical presence. He said Christ's body 00:35:06.369 --> 00:35:09.429 is in heaven. But he rejected the empty symbol 00:35:09.429 --> 00:35:12.530 idea, too. He taught a spiritual, real presence. 00:35:12.769 --> 00:35:15.590 What does that mean? He argued that by the power 00:35:15.590 --> 00:35:17.809 of the Holy Spirit during the Eucharist, the 00:35:17.809 --> 00:35:19.909 believer is lifted up to commune with Christ 00:35:19.909 --> 00:35:23.010 in heaven. It's a mystical union. It's food for 00:35:23.010 --> 00:35:26.210 the soul, not the stomach. Got it. So we're moving 00:35:26.210 --> 00:35:29.719 into the final years, part seven, legacy. After 00:35:29.719 --> 00:35:31.579 Servetus and after the Libertines are finally 00:35:31.579 --> 00:35:35.000 crushed in a failed riot in 1555, Calvin finally 00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:37.860 wins the political battle in Geneva. Yes. The 00:35:37.860 --> 00:35:40.159 last decade of Calvin's life was relatively peaceful 00:35:40.159 --> 00:35:42.579 politically, and he turned his attention to his 00:35:42.579 --> 00:35:45.239 other great passion, education. He founded the 00:35:45.239 --> 00:35:47.480 college Calvin and the Academy, which became 00:35:47.480 --> 00:35:51.000 the University of Geneva. This is huge. He believed 00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:53.260 that to be a good Christian, you had to be educated, 00:35:53.440 --> 00:35:56.719 not just in Bible, but in science, logic, grammar, 00:35:56.940 --> 00:36:01.059 rhetoric. He wanted an educated laity. This connects 00:36:01.059 --> 00:36:03.599 to the impact on the world. The outline mentions 00:36:03.599 --> 00:36:06.159 democracy and capitalism. Let's unpack that. 00:36:06.519 --> 00:36:09.880 How does a guy who ran a strict consistory help 00:36:09.880 --> 00:36:12.659 create democracy? It seems contradictory. It 00:36:12.659 --> 00:36:14.960 comes back to his view of human nature. Because 00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:17.699 we are all idle factories, and in his view, totally 00:36:17.699 --> 00:36:20.300 depraved, no single person can be trusted with 00:36:20.300 --> 00:36:22.929 absolute power. Not a king, not a bishop, not 00:36:22.929 --> 00:36:25.210 a pope. So you need checks and balances. Exactly. 00:36:25.869 --> 00:36:28.610 Calvin favored a mixed government elements of 00:36:28.610 --> 00:36:31.409 democracy and aristocracy. He believed magistrates 00:36:31.409 --> 00:36:33.070 should be elected to check the power of kings. 00:36:33.329 --> 00:36:35.829 This idea traveled to Scotland with John Knox, 00:36:35.989 --> 00:36:38.050 to England with the Puritans, and eventually 00:36:38.050 --> 00:36:40.250 to America with the founding fathers. So the 00:36:40.250 --> 00:36:42.730 U .S. system of checks and balances has DNA from 00:36:42.730 --> 00:36:45.269 Geneva. It absolutely does. That is mind -blowing. 00:36:45.429 --> 00:36:48.130 The founding fathers were reading their Bibles, 00:36:48.170 --> 00:36:53.590 or at least reading people who read Calvin. This 00:36:53.590 --> 00:36:57.150 is Max Weber's famous theory. Unlike the medieval 00:36:57.150 --> 00:36:59.630 church, which viewed profit with suspicion and 00:36:59.630 --> 00:37:02.210 elevated the monk as the ideal, Calvin taught 00:37:02.210 --> 00:37:05.909 that secular work is a vocation. A calling. A 00:37:05.909 --> 00:37:09.269 calling from God. Whether you are a shoemaker, 00:37:09.469 --> 00:37:12.469 a banker, or a street sweeper, your work is an 00:37:12.469 --> 00:37:15.760 act of worship. Doing it well is an act of worship. 00:37:15.960 --> 00:37:18.699 So excellence is holiness. Yes. And crucially, 00:37:18.780 --> 00:37:21.519 unlike Luther, who hated usury lending money 00:37:21.519 --> 00:37:24.440 at interest, Calvin allowed it. He realized that 00:37:24.440 --> 00:37:26.900 in a commercial economy, you need credit to start 00:37:26.900 --> 00:37:29.860 a business. He allowed interest with strict regulations 00:37:29.860 --> 00:37:32.440 to protect the poor. This opened the door for 00:37:32.440 --> 00:37:34.679 modern finance in Protestant countries. He also 00:37:34.679 --> 00:37:36.900 had top missionaries, right? He wasn't just hoarding 00:37:36.900 --> 00:37:38.679 this truth in Geneva. He was running a command 00:37:38.679 --> 00:37:41.420 center. He sent over 100 ministers back into 00:37:41.420 --> 00:37:43.760 France. These men were... essentially secret 00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:45.780 agents. They entered France knowing they might 00:37:45.780 --> 00:37:48.019 be burned at the stake. They used fake names. 00:37:48.139 --> 00:37:50.960 They traveled at night. And the movement grew 00:37:50.960 --> 00:37:53.519 massively, the Huguenots. By the time Calvin 00:37:53.519 --> 00:37:55.659 died, there were thousands of Protestant churches 00:37:55.659 --> 00:37:58.800 in France. It's tragic and inspiring. So how 00:37:58.800 --> 00:38:01.039 does it end for Calvin? He worked himself to 00:38:01.039 --> 00:38:03.840 death, literally. By his 50s, he was a wreck. 00:38:03.980 --> 00:38:07.119 He had migraines, kidney stones, gout, hemorrhoids, 00:38:07.119 --> 00:38:09.679 and eventually tuberculosis. He was in constant, 00:38:09.780 --> 00:38:12.519 agonizing pain. But he kept going. He kept writing 00:38:12.519 --> 00:38:15.159 and preaching. He even dictated his final revisions 00:38:15.159 --> 00:38:17.420 of the Institutes while shivering with fever. 00:38:17.659 --> 00:38:20.780 Sheer determination or stubbornness? Both. He 00:38:20.780 --> 00:38:24.150 preached his last sermon in February 1564. He 00:38:24.150 --> 00:38:26.269 had to be carried to the church in a chair. He 00:38:26.269 --> 00:38:30.510 died on May 27, 1564 at age 54. He burst a blood 00:38:30.510 --> 00:38:32.610 vessel in his lungs while talking. And the grave. 00:38:33.119 --> 00:38:35.380 This is a fascinating final detail. This is the 00:38:35.380 --> 00:38:38.280 perfect ending to his story. He gave strict instructions. 00:38:38.420 --> 00:38:41.039 He wanted no headstone, no monument. He was buried 00:38:41.039 --> 00:38:43.420 in a common grave in the Cimetia del Roi. He 00:38:43.420 --> 00:38:46.500 was terrified of idolatry. He didn't want his 00:38:46.500 --> 00:38:49.519 followers to turn his grave into a shrine. He 00:38:49.519 --> 00:38:51.820 didn't want people lighting candles for St. John 00:38:51.820 --> 00:38:54.139 Calvin. He wanted all the glory to go to God. 00:38:54.500 --> 00:38:57.059 To this day, we don't know exactly where he lies. 00:38:57.119 --> 00:38:59.860 There's a small stone there now with JC on it, 00:38:59.900 --> 00:39:02.800 but it's just a guess. That is a powerful final 00:39:02.800 --> 00:39:04.860 statement. Don't look at me. Look at him. It 00:39:04.860 --> 00:39:08.659 is the ultimate act of self -effacement. So let's 00:39:08.659 --> 00:39:11.610 wrap this up. We started with a caricature of 00:39:11.610 --> 00:39:15.210 a joyless dictator. And what we found was a brilliant, 00:39:15.309 --> 00:39:19.090 anxious, driven refugee who loved his wife, debated 00:39:19.090 --> 00:39:21.550 deeply, made some terrible mistakes like Servetus, 00:39:21.670 --> 00:39:23.929 but ultimately built a worldview that shaped 00:39:23.929 --> 00:39:26.750 the modern West. A man who wrote about the dreadful 00:39:26.750 --> 00:39:29.610 power of God, but also found deep comfort in 00:39:29.610 --> 00:39:32.349 it. A man who was terrified of chaos, so he built 00:39:32.349 --> 00:39:35.070 a system of order. Here's a provocative thought 00:39:35.070 --> 00:39:37.579 to leave you with. Calvin's greatest fear was 00:39:37.579 --> 00:39:39.639 idolatry people worshipping things other than 00:39:39.639 --> 00:39:43.059 God. Yet he created a movement, Calvinism, that 00:39:43.059 --> 00:39:45.300 is often so rigid, so focused on the man's system, 00:39:45.420 --> 00:39:47.400 that it sometimes eclipses the mystery he was 00:39:47.400 --> 00:39:50.320 trying to point to. Did he succeed, or did he 00:39:50.320 --> 00:39:52.460 become the very idol he warned against? That 00:39:52.460 --> 00:39:54.739 is the question every ism has to answer. But 00:39:54.739 --> 00:39:57.380 one thing is for sure, you can't ignore him. 00:39:57.659 --> 00:40:00.400 And a call to action for you listeners. Next 00:40:00.400 --> 00:40:02.179 time you see a system of checks and balances 00:40:02.179 --> 00:40:05.360 in your government or you feel that drive to 00:40:05.360 --> 00:40:07.519 do your work with excellence just for the sake 00:40:07.519 --> 00:40:10.019 of it, take a moment to think of the lawyer from 00:40:10.019 --> 00:40:12.719 Noyon. You might be more Calvinist than you think. 00:40:13.139 --> 00:40:15.400 Indeed. Thanks for diving deep with us. We'll 00:40:15.400 --> 00:40:15.880 see you next time.