John Calvin has much to say about the Church with a substantial part of The Institutes of the Christian Religion devoted to ecclesiology. Eduardus Van der Borght
notes that Calvin’s ecclesiology was modified or refined over the years by pastoral
experience, see “Calvin's Ecclesiology Revisited: Seven Trends in the Research
of Calvin's Ecclesiology,” in John Calvin's Ecclesiology: Ecumenical
Perspectives (T & T Clark International, 2011). But it seems clear that Calvin never held a “purist” view of the church.
The following excerpt from The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559) is from an 18th century translation by Henry Beveridge accessed at
The following excerpt from The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559) is from an 18th century translation by Henry Beveridge accessed at
“Thinking there is no church where there is not complete purity and integrity of conduct, they, through hatred of wickedness, withdraw from a genuine church, while they think they are shunning the company of the ungodly. They allege that the Church of God is holy. But that they may at the same time understand that it contains a mixture of good and bad, let them hear from the lips of our Saviour that parable in which he compares the Church to a net in which all kinds of fishes are taken, but not separated until they are brought ashore. Let them hear it compared to a field which, planted with good seed, is by the fraud of an enemy mingled with tares, and is not freed of them until the harvest is brought into the barn. Let them hear, in fine, that it is a thrashing-floor in which the collected wheat lies concealed under the chaff, until, cleansed by the fanners and the sieve, it is at length laid up in the granary. If the Lord declares that the Church will labour under the defect of being burdened with a multitude of wicked until the day of judgment, it is in vain to look for a church altogether free from blemish (Mt. 13).”
Here is what John Calvin had to say about the parable of the weeds in his Harmony of the Gospels (1555; cited from the 1972 translation by T. H. L. Parker):
"It seems quite inconsistent to many that the Church should nurse in her bosom the ungodly, or the irreligious, or the wicked. Add that, under a pretence of zeal, many are more awkward than they need be if everything is not settled according to their wishes (for nowhere is an absolute purity seen) and they go mad and leave the Church or upset and ruin everything with their harsh strictness. Hence, to my mind, the intention of the parable is simple. So long as the Church is on pilgrimage in this world, the good and the sincere will be mixed in with the bad and the hypocrites. So the children of God must arm themselves with patience and maintain an unbroken constancy of faith among all the offences which can trouble them."A common objection to identifying "his kingdom" in Matthew 13:41 with the church is that the wheat and the weeds are obviously gathered from the field and the field is explicitly said to be "the world" (v. 38). Calvin is unperturbed by this.
"And it is a most apt comparison when the Lord calls the Church His field, for believers are His seed. Although Christ afterwards adds that the field is the world, there can be no doubt that He really wants to apply this name to the Church, about which, after all, He was speaking. But because his plough would be driven through all the world and He would break in fields everywhere and sow the seed of life, He transfers by synecdoche to the world what is more apt of a part of it."This reading follows Augustione for whom the parable provided an important framework in his writings against the Donatists. Augustine observed that the wheat must grow in the whole world. A community that only exists in Africa (the Donatists) therefore cannot claim to be the whole church because the wheat grows across the field (the world). So, e.g., in his Letter 76 (in WSA 2/1, 298).
"Why do you believe that the weeds have increased and filled the world, but the wheat has decreased and remains only in Africa? You say that you are Christians, and you contradict Christ. He said, Allow them both to grow until the harvest (Mt 13:30); he did not say, “Let the weeds increase, and let the grain decrease.” He said, The field is the world; he did not say, “The field is Africa.” He said, The harvest is the end of the world; he did not say, “The harvest is the time of Donatus.” He said, The harvesters are the angels; he did not say, “The harvesters are leaders of the Circumcellions.” And because you accuse the wheat in defense of the weeds, you have proved that you are weeds, and what is worse, you have separated yourselves from the wheat ahead of time."
