Sárospataki Füzetek 13. (2009)

2009 / 4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - I. John Hesselink: Kálvin a jelen és az eljövendő élethez való helyes viszonyulásról

Erik Alexander de Boer

after the Bible study on Friday morning, also a theological disputation in Latin. The Matricula Coetus Ungarici testifies that the Hungarians also held their weekly academic discusions. In the early years none other than Philip Melanchthon presided over the disputations!3 A form of Bible studies, connected to my present topic, is however not registered.

1. Bible studies in Geneva

When the former Italian bishop, Pier Paolo Vergerio, visited Geneva in 1550, he wrote a report of his impressions of the reformed city.3 4 5 This ‘letter’, an eulogy in fact, was published by Conrad Badius, the printer whom Vergerio may have met in the biblical studies.® One of the jubilant passages concerns his attendance of the congrégation in St. Pierre and reads as follows:

Every week, on Fridays, a conference is held in the largest church [St.

Pierre] in which all their ministers and many of the people participate. Here one of them reads a passage from Scripture and expounds it briefly. Another speaks on the matter what to him is according to the Spirit. A third person gives his opinion, and a fourth adds some things in his capacity to weigh the issue. And not only the ministers do so, but everyone who has come to listen. Thus is being followed what Paul found in the Church of Corinth, and on which he said that, when the brothers gathered, every one of them could say what the Spirit revealed to him; then he was silent, sat down and another began to speak [1 Cor. 14:29-30]. 6

Several elements of this impression of the congrégation are worth noting. The first is the prominence of the ministers and their various contributions. The second is the participation of lay members in these Bible studies. A third element to be noted is the clear allusion to Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 14, and to the gift of prophecy. Did Vergerio present an adequate impression of these Genevan biblical studies?

2. The‘Prophezei’in Zurich

I find Vergerio’s allusion to 1 Corinthians 14 noteworthy because in Geneva this form of Bible study was called the congrégation, conférence des Escriptw'es, or collogue, but never la prophétie. Still, the roots of the Genevan

3 Géza Szabó, Geschichte des Ungarischen Coetus an der Universität Wittenberg 15551613 [Bibliothek des Protestantismus im mittleren Donauraum 2] (Halle: Akademischer Verlag, 1941), 62-71.

4 In November, 1549, Gribaldi sent a letter of introduction to Calvin (CO 13: 448, no. 1304), but the Italian bishop did not show up. In the meantime, Vergerio contacted Calvin for a preface to the booklet on the history of Francesco Spiera.

5 For Badius’ attendance see E.A. de Boer, ‘The Presence and Participation of Lay People in the Congrégations of the Company of Pastors in Geneva’, in: Sixteenth Century Journal 35 nr. 3 (2004), 651-670.

6 Pier Paolo Vergerio, Epistola del Vergerio, nella quale sono descritté molte cose della Citá, é della Chiesa di Geneva, 15 July 1550 (J.-Fr. Gilmont, Bibliographie des editions de Jean Crespin 1550-1572, vol. l (Venders : Librairie P.M. Gassen, 1981), 7 (50/11).