If Calvin only knew...

If Martin Luther was the initial catalyst of the Protestant Reformation; John Calvin was its second generation leader and refiner. Through his standard text for the Reformation Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) and his leadership in and from Geneva, Calvin exerted a formative influence upon the course of the Reformation.  Highly respected amongst Protestantism at the time and since, Calvin was but a man and men can err. The dilemma of the reformers like Luther and Calvin is that they had to square their recovery of justification by faith with their continued use of the Roman Catholic tradition of paedobaptism. Calvin rightly noted baptism as the rite of Christian entry into the Church by the Church (Institutes 4.15.1, 20) and rejected baptismal regeneration (Institutes 4.15.10) but retained the Catholic practice. To solve this dilemma, they appealed to the sign of circumcision in the Abrahamic Covenant (Institutes 4.16) and rooted faith in the parents or the future faith of the child.[1] Writing with the Swiss Brethren in mind, who believed, “infant baptism, the highest and chief abomination of the Pope,” Calvin argued otherwise. He contended that paedobaptism was “by no means of human invention.” (Institutes 4.16.8).
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[1] Greg Allison, Historical Theology, 629–30.

​Little did Calvin know that under his most beautiful medieval cathedral, St. Peter’s, there was evidence that would have revolutionized his belief. In 1970 the cathedral needed to tear up its floor to install a new heating system. They took this occasion to undertake an archaeological excavation of an early Christian basilica they believed the medieval Cathedral to have been built upon. They were correct and unearthed a large system of buildings, some dating back to the time of Jesus. So spectacular a discovery was this dig, that it became one of Europe’s finest subterranean archaeological attractions (http://www.site-archeologique.ch/). Directly under the nave (worship space) of the medieval cathedral where Calvin preached they found a font. However, it was a font that had progressively been made smaller from the original baptistry—quite a large baptistry for believer’s baptism by immersion! The interpretive plaque beside the baptistry reads:
“The baptistry was a separate building where the faithful received the first of the Christian sacraments: baptism. As such, it was the most important place of Christian worship. The size of the baptismal font was progressively reduced, reflecting changes in the ritual itself: from full immersion in running water to the sprinkling of water still practised today.”

​If only Calvin had known! The Reformation would have looked completely different. Those who read his works or studied under him or went out as missionaries would have gone out convinced Baptists and not Presbyterians, Reformed, Anglicans, Congregationalists, etc. One may be a great and wise authority in matters of Scripture and theology, however, our beliefs must be reformed to Scripture and in light of reason, history and reality.