FROM SACRAMENTARIANS TO CALVINISTS

Abstract

Farel’s aggressive sacramentarianism was a strategy that could only be effective within a Catholic context. Although it forced the established church to defend itself against charges of idolatry, it also ran the risk of stirring up hostile reactions to the new religion. Not everyone who desired change agreed with the confrontational strategy. Calls were also heard for the orderly removal of images and a positive elucidation of the faith, rather than violent iconoclasm and negative attacks on the Mass. Moreover, the watershed events of the fall of 1536 – the Lausanne Disputation, and Bern’s edicts of Reformation – officially established the Reformed faith in Vaud. The new situation demanded a new approach by the reformers. Since the sacramentarians’ strategy had focused so intently on the Mass, once the Mass was gone the reformers had to adopt a method that would build up rather than tear down. The visible remnants of Catholicism were quickly purged from the churches of Vaud, but a great deal of work remained to ensure, as John Calvin put it after the disputation, that “idolatry be removed from the hearts of all!”¹