According to the Custom of the Ancient Church? Examining the Roots of John Calvin’s Liturgy
Puritan Reformed Journal 1:2 (June 2009): 189–211
Daniel R. Hyde
Calvin claimed his liturgy restored ancient practice. This article tests that against the Didache, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian, and finds it holds.
This article argues that John Calvin’s claim that his Form of Church Prayers reflected the practices of the early church was historically accurate.
It places Calvin’s liturgy in the broader Reformation effort to return the church to its patristic roots rather than innovate, showing how figures like Bucer, Bullinger, and Vermigli similarly argued that Protestantism was a restoration, not a departure, from the ancient faith.
It also surveys Calvin’s writings (e.g., Reply to Sadoleto and Necessity of Reforming the Church), where Calvin defended Reformation worship and doctrine as aligned with the church fathers and Scripture.
It then compares Calvin’s Geneva and Strasbourg liturgies to the earliest Christian liturgies described by Pliny, the Didache, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian, highlighting shared features like confession, psalm-singing, Scripture reading, preaching, prayers, and the Lord’s Supper.
The conclusion is that Calvin’s simple, Word-and-Sacrament–centered liturgy successfully embodied the “custom of the ancient church.”
