ABSTRACT
In the course of the 1520s, Strassburg, partly under pressure from its lower classes, went over to the Reformation. The dominant doctrine showed important differences from the Protestantism upheld by Martin Luther at Wittenberg. Strassburg was also a relatively open city in terms of beliefs – a magnet for diverse radicals – and in that respect quite different from the uniform model that Calvin had in mind for his ideal Reformation city. Strassburg had been identified as a kind of city of God by the radical Anabaptist prophet Melchior Hoffman (d. 1543) and the city was for a time a refuge for Anabaptist dissidents, advocates of a far-reaching and
without offending God, if another ministry is offered you’. Three years later, this perception of divine mandate, which brought Calvin to Strassburg, would take him from that place and back to Geneva. In the meantime, though, there was important work to be done at Strassburg which, as the most important German Protestant city nearest to France, was host to a sizeable French émigré Protestant community of up to 500. Calvin’s principal role at Strassburg was to provide pastoral ministry for this Francophone community. In addition, he played a leading part in international discussions with Catholic representatives and also developed his reputation as an author. The Institutes were considerably expanded for publication in 1539, with the addition of six new chapters, including one on predestination, and the existing material enlarged. Calvin partly intended the Institutes as background reading for the detailed, or exegetical, reading of passages of Scripture, and he showed how this exegesis was to be carried out in his Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul to the Romans which he published in March 1540.
