Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Cathedral Interior 3

Presumably, from this pulpit, Calvin preached - apparently over 2,000 sermons, according to wikipedia.
During his ministry in Geneva, Calvin preached over two thousand sermons. Initially he preached twice on Sunday and three times during the week. This proved to be too heavy a burden and late in 1542 the council allowed him to preach only once every Sunday. However, in October 1549, he was again required to preach twice on Sundays and in addition every weekday of alternate weeks. His sermons lasted more than a hour and he did not use notes or manuscripts. An occasional secretary tried to take down notes of his sermons, but up to 1549 very little of his preaching has been preserved. However, in that year a professional scribe, Denis Raguenier, who had learnt or developed a system of shorthand, was assigned to record all his sermons. In analysing his sermons, Calvin was a consistent preacher and his style changed very little over the years.

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