The incompetence of ministers in Geneva, Switzerland compelled the city fathers to ask John Calvin to return to their city in March, 1541. Calvin dreaded the thought: “There is no place under heaven that I am more afraid of,” (letter to Viret, March, 1941).
Calvin wrote the city fathers,
“If you desire me for your pastor, correct the disorders of your lives…Rome does not constitute the principal object of my fears. Still less am I apprehensive from the almost infinite number of monks. The gates of hell, the principalities and powers of evil spirits, disturb me not at all. I tremble on account of other enemies, more dangerous; and I dread abundantly more those carnal covetousness, those debaucheries of the tavern, and of gaming…Re-establish there the pure discipline. Remove from within your walls, and from the frontiers of your state, the pest of your vices, and condemn them to a perpetual banishment.”
Calvin did return, and served there until his death May 27, 1564.
Dan Greenfield 