Calvin made various changes to the church itself whilst in Geneva. He totally re-arranged the church organisation to create a more community based congregation. Calvin presented his plan for a reorganised church in his Ecclesiastical Ordinances of 1541. His most important work involved the organisation of church governance and the social organisation of the church and the city. This proposed four types of officers in the church. Pastors were to preach, teach, to administer the sacraments and to guide the people in a Christian way of life. Doctors were to instruct the people in true doctrine. Deacons were to look after the sick and needy. The lay elders were twelve worthy citizens whose duty was to supervise every person’s conduct, issue warnings and where necessary, report those who were not up to the mark to the company of pastors. All these offices show how Calvin intended the church to be thoroughly organised, with each in someway supporting the other.
The Consistory court was where the lay elders joined with the pastors to supervise beliefs and morals. They dealt with problems such as dancing, failure to go to church and adultery. The grabeau wad a session of mutual criticism where each man could criticise others, but most importantly hear the criticisms of his fellows. The consistory court and grabeau gave Calvinism the institutional strength that Lutheranism lacked. Lutheran pastors had no similarly effective way of disciplining their congregations and they themselves were rarely checked they were doing their duties.
Calvin’s most important achievements involved the organisation of the church and city, modelling the social organisation entirely on Biblical principles. He created a leadership structure, and a catechism designed to impose doctrine on all members of the church. He proposed a strict moral code on the citizens of Geneva, derived from a literal interpretation of Scripture.
Luther also made a great impact to the church in Germany itself. Luther’s belief was that it was not necessary for a link to God to be made through a priest. Through Luther’s research into the scriptures he developed the key doctrine of sola fide, literally meaning by faith alone. This would therefore mean that a Protestant could make their own link with God which would be a massive alteration to Catholicism as it meant much of the church organisation itself was undermined.
Luther’s theology was much different to the Catholic Church at the time. His belief was that heaven could be achieved itself without the church’s paraphernalia of confession, penance, sacraments and indulgences. To the services itself Luther made various changes. One of the most significant was his rejection of five of the seven sacraments.
Luther never agreed with Zwingli or Calvin on their belief of the meaning of the Eucharist. Luther believed that although the bread and wine were not literally transformed into the body of Christ, it transformed into the spirit of Christ.
Calvin did have the advantage over Luther in being second generation reformer, summarising a Protestant position after nearly twenty years of debate. This would have therefore allowed him to concentrate on making his own reforms rather than joining the disorganised squabbling of other reformers. Luther developed the central doctrine of what was to be called Protestantism whilst Calvin developed it to work with society successfully. Luther may also have not been able to change the church as greatly because it still remained very much Catholic and at the time Protestantism hadn’t spread widely around Europe. Luther also faced opposition from the Holy Roman Empire, which generally opposed the changes, which he desired. When Calvin began making reforms the Reformation had therefore gained momentum.
Overall it’s not entirely fair to make a direct comparison between Calvin and Luther. Luther may not have changed the church practices as much as Calvin but he instigated a break away from Catholicism and its spread around Europe. On the other hand Calvin’s changes to the church were far reaching into society and by the 16th century and with Geneva being the most important Protestant centre of Europe. I do though think that Calvin’s changes in Geneva were more thorough than Luther’s in Germany.
