Antoine de la Roche Chandieu and the extra Calvinisticum into Early Reformed Orthodoxy

This chapter investigates the extra Calvinisticum in the Reformed tradition after the shift to scholastic theology in the 1580s by investigating the work of French theologian Antoine de la Roche Chandieu. Chandieu is widely considered one of the fathers of Reformed scholasticism and produced the most extensive work on the extra in this period. In De Veritate Humanae Naturae Christi (1585) he offers an exposition and defense of the extra in response to the christology of Lutheran theologian Martin Chemnitz. Chandieu’s work is distinguished from other treatments of the extra in both scope and depth, utilizing scholastic methodology, scriptural exegesis, and the church fathers. The work of Chandieu demonstrates the ongoing development of the extra in the period of early Reformed orthodoxy, which is in continuity with the precedent tradition and uses the new scholastic method not to unmoor it from the biblical witness but to secure it more firmly.

The extra Calvinisticum from the Marburg Colloquy to the Consensus Tigurinus

This chapter investigates the historical and theological development of the extra Calvinisticum from the Marburg Colloquy (1529) to the Consensus Tigurinus (1549). During this period, the proponents of the emerging Reformed tradition expanded the theological basis for the extra by incorporating additional arguments from Scripture, the church councils, and the church fathers. First, the chapter investigates the debate at the Marburg Colloquy demonstrating that the christological divergence between Zwingli and Luther was rooted not only in theological and hermeneutical method but also in the doctrines of God and anthropology. The chapter analyzes Zwingli’s final works, Fidei Ratio and Fidei Expositio, in which he presents a more robust understanding of the hypostatic union. The final section addresses the Consensus Tigurinus, written by Heinrich Bullinger and John Calvin, which offers the confessionalization of the extra in the Reformed tradition and effectively marks the definitive parting of ways within Protestantism over the Lord’s Supper.

Introduction

This introduction presents the state of the question of the extra Calvinisticum in contemporary scholarship, defines the term and concept of the extra, and lays out the plan and method of the study. Previous scholarship has unduly focused on the doctrine of the extra in John Calvin to the neglect of other figures in the sixteenth century and largely failed to account for the historical context of polemics with Lutheranism. This book seeks to answer two main questions: When and why did Reformed theologians first articulate the extra, and how did the form and function of the extra Calvinisticum develop over the course of the sixteenth century? This work goes beyond previous studies by extending the discussion beyond Calvin by investigating the formulation and rationale for the doctrine in the works of Ulrich Zwingli and Peter Martyr Vermigli and in Reformed orthodoxy.

Conclusion

The conclusion summarizes the findings of the work and expounds some implications of the extra Calvinisticum in the early modern period. The extra from the thought of Zwingli up to the Consensus Tigurinus is embedded in the debate over the nature of Christ’s eucharistic presence, but after the Consensus, especially motivated by Brenz’s doctrine of ubiquity, the controversy differentiates. The Lutheran and Reformed polemics shift more fully into a christological controversy, which has implications for sacramentology. The conclusion offers three case studies of the broader effects of the extra beyond christology and eucharistic presence: the influence of the extra on the nature of theological knowledge in Francis Junius, on the formation of eucharistic ritual practice in England (the Black Rubric) and Brandenburg (the fractio panis dispute), and on the emergence of confessional physics in early modern universities.

Peter Martyr Vermigli and the extra Calvinisticum

This chapter expounds the extra Calvinisticum in Peter Martyr Vermigli during the second eucharistic controversy and in polemical dialectic with the Lutheran doctrine of ubiquity. The chapter expounds Vermigli’s mature christological work, The Dialogue on the Two Natures of Christ, written against Lutheran theologian Johannes Brenz. Vermigli brought together various aspects of theological and philosophical argumentation to produce a coherent account of the extra. He continued the trajectory of the extra found in previous works by prioritizing Christ as Mediator, deploying a sophisticated doctrine of the hypostatic union, and articulating a doctrine of the communicatio idiomatum precluding a sharing between the natures themselves. Vermigli contributes to the doctrine in two main ways, corresponding to his training in humanism and scholasticism. He broadened the sources for the doctrine by attending to conciliar christology and patristic testimony, and he incorporated certain aspects of Aristotelian philosophy into his defense of the extra.

Zwingli and the Birth of the extra Calvinisticum

This chapter demonstrates not only that Ulrich Zwingli was the first theologian of the Reformation period to articulate the extra Calvinisticum in its full form but that, contrary to common scholarly opinion, this doctrine was not a reaction to Martin Luther’s doctrine of ubiquity but preceded it. Through analysis of Zwingli’s works before the Marburg Colloquy the chapter demonstrates that Zwingli articulated the extra as one plank in his goal to reform the Zurich church and elaborated it over time in response to Lutheran polemics. At stake for him was nothing less than the soteriological role of Christ as the Mediator between God and man. Zwingli articulates the extra through reflection upon the logic of satisfaction, the ascension of Christ, the hypostatic union, and communicatio idiomatum to defend his understanding of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.