M2 L3: John Calvin, Nicholas Cop, and The Massacre of The Waldenses

 

John Calvin and Nicholas Cop had been influenced by Jacques LeFevre d’Etaples’ translation of Scripture. 

John Calvin, as a student in the Sorbonne, helped Nicholas Cop to write an an address for the convocation at the beginning of the academic year. It compared the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount with practices in the Catholic Church.

This was part of the reason for Cop and Calvin to flee from Paris.

This lesson shows God’s providence in many ways:

• Calvin’s father deciding that he should be a lawyer instead of a priest
• The influence of Calvin’s cousin (Pierre Robert Olivetan) on him
• Nicholas Cop’s father being Francis’ physician
• Calvin and Cop working together
• The continued growth of the Church in spite of Edicts passed by Francis I to exterminate ‘heretics’ and anyone sheltering them and to incentivizing snitchers and prosecutors
• The circumstances necessary for Calvin’s Institutes (the greatest influence of the Reformed faith) and his flight to Geneva

In this lesson, we also learn about the merciless massacre of the Waldenses.