John Calvin's Institutes in a Year

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  Calvin's Institutes: August 12 12.08.2026 10мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionHow did the claim of Roman primacy first arise? In the opening of Chapter 7, Calvin traces its beginnings to the Council of Nice, which gave the Bishop of Rome a place of honour among the patriarchs but not supremacy over them. He shows that in later councils the Roman legates often sat in inferior places, that the first seat at Chalcedon was granted only as a temporary and special concession, and that the ancient Fathers never bestowed the title of primate or universal bishop. Gregory himself, when the Bishop of Constantinople claimed the title of universal bishop, denounced it as profane, blasphemous, and a forerunner of Antichrist—while refusing to claim it for himself.Readings: John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 7, Sections 1–4Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Papacy #Primacy #Gregory #UniversalBishop #EarlyChurch
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  Calvin's Institutes: May 27 27.05.2026 14мин

  Podcast DescriptionIn a world obsessed with self-improvement and moral performance, John Calvin delivers a sobering and liberating diagnosis: apart from Christ, even our best virtues are tainted at the root. Today we explore the total depravity of human nature, the difference between civil virtue and true righteousness, and why only union with Christ can produce works that are genuinely pleasing to God.Today’s Readings: John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 3, Chapter 14, Sections 1–6 Augustine — The Confessions, Book X, Chapter X (Sections X–X) Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part X, Question X (Articles X–X) ---Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #TotalDepravity #GraceAlone #JohnCalvin #InstitutesOfTheChristianReligion #ReformedTheology #ThroughTheChurchFathers
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  Calvin's Institutes: May 13 13.05.2026 8мин

  Podcast SummaryIn this episode, John Calvin discusses the cross as a tool for both prevention and correction. We look at the analogy of the "refractory horse" to understand why God must curb our natural arrogance through discipline. Calvin also explains the "badge of honor" found in persecution, showing how earthly losses are transformed into heavenly gains. Finally, we distinguish between Christian patience and mere stoicism, noting that true fortitude is found not in being unfeeling, but in choosing to trust God's goodness even when the sting of pain is fully felt.Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 8 (Sections 5–8)Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org#ChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Reformation #Theology #TheCross #Persecution #Sanctification #ImagoDei #Providence #Scripture
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  Calvin's Institutes: April 20 20.04.2026 9мин

  In today’s episode, we wrap up our deep dive into John Calvin’s landmark chapter on faith by tackling the "anchor" of the Christian life: the certainty of final perseverance and the relationship between faith and hope. We’ll look at Calvin’s sharp rebuttal to the idea that we can only be "sure for today," as he argues that true faith must reach into eternity.We also explore his technical breakdown of faith as "substance" and "evidence"—the internal support that allows us to possess things we cannot yet see or touch. Finally, we discuss how hope serves as the "food and strength" of faith, keeping it alive when God’s promises seem delayed. It’s a powerful conclusion that moves us away from human merit and anchors our entire future in the unwavering truth of God's mercy.Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 2 (Sections 40–43)The Dynamic Duo: Faith & HopeTo understand Calvin's argument in these final sections, it helps to see how he distinguishes the roles of these two virtues while keeping them inseparable.Faith: Focuses on the Truth of God. It believes that God is a Father and has promised mercy.Hope: Focuses on the Timing of God. It expects that God will act as a Father and will fulfill His mercy in the future.The Symbiosis: Faith provides the ground hope stands on; hope provides the oxygen faith needs to survive long delays and trials.Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.comPatreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpattonCredo Courses – https://www.credocourses.comCredo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org#ChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Reformation #FaithAndHope #Perseverance #ChristianAssurance #Theology
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  Calvin's Institutes: April 18 18.04.2026 13мин

  Here’s your podcast, locked to your Calvin-only format and tone:Faith does not rest on circumstances—it rests on the favor of God revealed in Christ. In today’s reading from Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 2, Sections 28–32, John Calvin brings everything to a sharp center: the sum of salvation is found in being reconciled to God. If His face shines upon us, nothing is lacking—even if everything else is. Calvin insists that faith must anchor itself not in commands or threats, but in the free promise of mercy, since only the promise gives life and stability to the soul. From there, he presses deeper—faith does not merely acknowledge God’s truth, but clings to His mercy in Christ, where all promises find their fulfillment. Yet this faith is not static; it depends constantly on the Word and is strengthened by the power of God, even as it wrestles through weakness, doubt, and imperfection. Through examples like Sarah, Rebekah, and Isaac, Calvin shows that faith can be real even when flawed—so long as it remains tethered to the Word. And in the end, everything converges on Christ: every promise, every hope, every assurance. Outside of Him, there is no favor. But in Him, every promise is “Yes and Amen,” and the believer finds not only salvation, but the certainty that God’s love will never fail.Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 2, Sections 28–32Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.comPatreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpattonCredo Courses – https://www.credocourses.comCredo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org
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  Calvin's Institutes: February 6 06.02.2026 11мин

  How do we truly know the invisible God when nature alone leaves us prone to confusion and speculation? In this reading, Calvin explains why Scripture provides a clearer portrait of God than creation by itself ever could, grounding our knowledge of the Creator in the historical account given through Moses. He rebukes arrogant curiosity about time, eternity, and creation, urging humility where God has chosen silence, and shows how the six-day creation displays God’s fatherly wisdom and care. Calvin then turns to the invisible realm, addressing angels not to satisfy curiosity, but to guard against errors that diminish God’s sovereignty or divide creation into rival powers. Throughout, he calls us away from idle speculation and back to Scripture’s plain teaching, where true knowledge leads not to pride, but to reverence, faith, and worship.Readings: John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 14 (Sections 1–5)Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org#JohnCalvin #InstitutesOfTheChristianReligion #DoctrineOfCreation #Angels #ChristianTheology #ReformedTheology #ScriptureAndNature
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  Calvin's Institutes: February 5 05.02.2026 10мин

  of God? In today’s reading, Calvin carefully addresses this tension by showing how Scripture speaks of the Father and the Son according to order and role without dividing the divine essence. He explains Christ’s words as Mediator, clarifies passages that seem to imply inferiority, and demonstrates that the Son’s submission belongs to His redemptive office, not to His nature. Drawing on Irenaeus, Tertullian, and the broader consensus of the Fathers, Calvin dismantles claims that early Christianity knew only the Father as God, showing instead a consistent confession of one God in three persons. The result is a sober, historically grounded defense of Trinitarian faith that guards both Christ’s full divinity and the unity of God without speculation or distortion.Readings: John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 13 (Sections 26–29)Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org#JohnCalvin #InstitutesOfTheChristianReligion #Trinity #Christology #ReformedTheology #ChurchFathers #NiceneFaith
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  Calvin's Institutes: September 20 20.09.2026 13мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionA larger gift of the Spirit after the resurrection does not make a second baptism. Ministers still give water. Christ alone gives the Spirit. Whoever baptises, Christ presides. Israel was baptised in the cloud and in the sea: Pharaoh drowned, yet still on the shore; the cloud covering them from the heat. So baptism promises that our Pharaoh is drowned, though he still threatens, and that we are covered from wrath by the blood of Christ. Baptism does not restore Adam’s nature. Original sin remains a seed. What is withdrawn is condemnation. Righteousness in this life is by imputation. Concupiscence is not extinguished until death. It is not to reign. We are on the way. Paul groans under the body of death and then says there is now no condemnation to those in Christ. Baptism is also our confession before men: we have sworn allegiance. Receive the sign as from Christ’s own hand. In the water see the thing signified. He does what he figures.### Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 15, Sections 8–14---### Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Baptism #OriginalSin #Mortification #Romans #ConfessionOfFaith #Sacraments
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  Calvin's Institutes: September 19 19.09.2026 12мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionBaptism is the initiatory sign by which we are admitted to the Church and accounted children of God. It is not a soldier’s badge first. It is a sealed instrument that our sins are covered and will never be imputed. Water does not save. It seals the gospel that announces washing by the blood of Christ. The washing is once for the whole of life. When we fall we do not seek another sacrament. We remember our baptism. The keys do not replace it; they preach what baptism already signs. A second benefit is mortification and new life: we are buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. A third is union with Christ himself. We put him on. John’s baptism was not another baptism. Same doctrine, same repentance, same remission. He pointed to the Lamb who was coming; the apostles pointed to the Lamb who had come.### Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 15, Sections 1–7---### Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Baptism #RemissionOfSins #UnionWithChrist #JohnTheBaptist #Sacraments
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  Calvin's Insitutes: September 18 18.09.2026 8мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionDoes Paul set baptism above circumcision when he speaks of the circumcision of the letter? Calvin says the same could be said of baptism. God regards no external washing unless the mind is purified. Circumcision made with hands is set aside only because, after Christ, the shadow must yield to the reality. The Colossians were buried with Christ by baptism: that is now what circumcision was then. “Shadows of things to come” names the mode of signifying, not emptiness. Until Christ appeared in the flesh, the signs pointed to him as still expected. Separated from him they are null. Augustine’s high praise of our sacraments is hyperbole of presence, not a different power. The fathers drank the same spiritual drink. The rock was Christ; what is set on the altar is Christ. The opus operatum is foreign to the nature of a sacrament. Believers bring nothing. They beg.### Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 14, Sections 24–26---### Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Sacraments #Baptism #Circumcision #Augustine #OpusOperatum #Christ
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  Calvin's Institutes: September 17 17.09.2026 11мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionOrdinary sacraments are ceremonies by which God trains a people in one faith. They seal his promise and mark our profession. Gentile mysteries show that men cannot live without signs; they do not make those signs holy. The signs have changed with the dispensation. Circumcision, washings, and sacrifices led the fathers by the hand to a Christ still expected. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper testify to the same Christ now come. Circumcision sealed the righteousness of faith. The washings promised another laver. The sacrifices demanded a priest and a victim. All three were Christ. Water and blood from his side are, says Augustine, the fountain of our sacraments. The Scholastic claim that the old signs only shadowed while the new confer grace must be exploded. The fathers ate the same spiritual food, and that food was Christ. We have no privilege that gives us hope of impunity. The ceremonies avail nothing until we arrive at him.### Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 14, Sections 19–23---### Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Sacraments #Baptism #LordsSupper #Circumcision #Christ #Covenant
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  Calvin's Institutes: September 16 16.09.2026 12мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionAugustine distinguishes the sacrament from the matter of the sacrament. Sign and thing can be separated. The cup was poison to Judas, not because he received what was evil, but because he wickedly received what was good. Christ is the substance of every sacrament. Out of him they promise nothing. The ordinance remains what God made it even when the wicked receive it without fruit: “If you receive carnally, it ceases not to be spiritual, but it is not spiritual to you.” Two faults are to be avoided: treating the signs as empty, and stopping at the visible sign as if it were the gift. Sacraments offer Christ as the word offers him. They pour no grace from themselves. The Spirit must open the vessel. The term sacramentum covers every sign God stamps with his word—the tree of life, the bow in the cloud, Gideon’s fleece, the shadow on the dial. A tree remains a tree until the promise is written on it. Then it is a seal.### Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 14, Sections 15–18---### Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Sacraments #Augustine #Christ #Faith #Covenant
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  Calvin's Institutes: September 15 15.09.2026 10мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionThe word is seed. On hard ground it dies; in a heart the Spirit has prepared it bears fruit. He that plants and he that waters is nothing. God alone gives the increase. The sacraments are instruments of that same kindness, not causes of it. When God withdrew the tree of life from Adam, he did not take away a medicine that could have restored immortality. He took away the symbol of a promise already broken, lest Adam trust the sign. Bread feeds, the sun gives light, fire gives warmth—yet none of them is to be trusted as the giver. So with the sacraments. The first use of a sacrament is to help faith in God; the second is to attest our confession before men. Those who invert the order make the mystery frigid. Those who go the other way and ascribe a secret virtue by which the sacraments justify without faith teach a righteousness that is not of faith, and turn the eye from God to a corporeal object. Augustine’s distinction remains: there may be invisible sanctification without a visible sign, and a visible sign without true sanctification.### Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 14, Sections 11–14---### Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Sacraments #Faith #Justification #Augustine #MeansOfGrace
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  Calvin's Institutes: September 14 14.09.2026 11мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionDo sacraments cease to be signs of grace because the ungodly receive them? Calvin says no. The gospel is still grace when it is spurned; Christ is still offered when he is not received. The seal of a prince remains a seal though many deride it. Faith, if it is good, can still be made better. “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” To believe with the whole heart is not to believe perfectly, but to embrace Christ sincerely. Faith is the work of the Spirit, yet the Lord uses three gifts: he teaches by the word, confirms by the sacraments, and illumines the heart so that word and sign do not stop at the ear and the eye. The sacraments have no secret power of their own. Without the Spirit they are sun on blind eyes. With him they have a true ministry. Honouring that ministry does not rob the Spirit. He prepares the mind; then the signs confirm what he has begun. Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 14, Sections 7–10---Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Sacraments #HolySpirit #Faith #Baptism #Grace
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  Calvin's Institutes: September 13 13.09.2026 11мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhat is a sacrament? Calvin calls it an external sign by which the Lord seals his promises on our consciences and we, in turn, testify our faith before God, angels, and men. The Latin sacramentum is the old rendering of the Greek μυστήριον (*mystērion*): a sacred thing made known under a sign. There is never a sacrament without an antecedent promise. The sign does not make God’s word more true; it props up a faith that is slender and would otherwise fall. Word and element belong together. A muttered formula in an unknown tongue is not the sacramental word. Augustine’s rule stands: let the word be added to the element, and it becomes a sacrament—not because it is said, but because it is believed. The sacrament is a seal on a deed already written, a visible word, a pillar under the house, a mirror of grace.### Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 14, Sections 1–6---### Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Sacraments #Baptism #LordsSupper #Augustine #VisibleWord
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  Calvin's Institutes: September 13 13.09.2026 9мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionDoes 1 Timothy 5 bind widows—and therefore nuns—to a lifelong vow of celibacy? Calvin says no. Paul’s widows entered a public ministry to the poor. They pledged celibacy only because marriage would hinder that office, and they were chosen from those already proved in continence (*continentia*). Deaconesses are not nuns. They did not soothe God with chants, nor vow in adolescence before they knew themselves. The apostle admits none under sixty; the later deduction to twelve, twenty, and thirty years he will not excuse. Illegitimate vows do not bind. What God does not require is null. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Those who leave the monastery for an honest calling are not perjurers. The cross that frees from the curse of the law frees also from superstition’s nets. An impossible vow of continence, taken against nature and against the remedy God has given, is not to be kept.### Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 13, Sections 18–21---### Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Vows #Celibacy #Deaconesses #ChristianLiberty #Conscience
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  Calvin's Institutes: September 12 12.09.2026 10мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionIs the monastic profession a second baptism? Calvin says the Fathers never intended a double Christianity. Ancient monks lived apart, but they had no private church, no private altar, and no private sacraments. They remained part of the people. Present monasteries, he argues, break that bond: they take a special ministry to themselves and then glory in factional names—Benedictine, Franciscan, Dominican—as if those titles could replace the name of Christian. The charge is against the profession, not every monk. Some good men remain, but they lie scattered among a multitude. Even Augustine’s form, Calvin admits, was not without affectation: God values a household served in a lawful calling more than a flight into solitude. Present vows he judges rash. Continence (*continentia*) is a gift, not a compact a man may force upon God. Cyprian still allowed marriage when the vow could not be kept. The later rigour that treats marriage as worse than whoredom has wandered far from that equity.### Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 13, Sections 14–17---### Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Monasticism #Vows #Baptism #Continence #Cyprian #Augustine #ChristianLiberty
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  Calvin's Institutes: September 11 11.09.2026 10мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionCan present-day monkism claim Augustine? Calvin says no. Augustine would not bind what Scripture leaves free, would not let monks live idle on other men’s goods, and made charity the chief rule so that the monastery would train ordinary piety and serve the unity of the Church. Modern monkism, he says, exacts dress, diet, and ceremony as if they were the faith itself, glories in idleness as a contemplative approach to the angels, and invents a new piety by which a few men become more perfect than the rest. They reserve the title of perfection for their own order, then retreat to the subterfuge that they only aspire to it more than others. They treat Christ’s commands as mere “evangelical counsels,” as if love of enemies and truthfulness were optional extras. The rich young ruler is no proof that selling all is a second path to perfection. Christ probed one man’s hidden love of riches; Paul still names charity the bond of perfectness.Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 13, Sections 10–13--- Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Monasticism #Augustine #Perfection #ChristianLiberty #EvangelicalCounsels
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  Calvin's Institutes: September 10 10.09.2026 10мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhen is a private vow a help, and when is it only more superstition? Calvin allows temporary vows that curb a weakness or stir a sluggish duty, provided they rest on God’s word, fit our calling, and stay within the measure of grace. The one vow required of all is the baptismal promise, confirmed in catechism and the Lord’s Supper. Perpetual and multiplied vows soon lose their solemnity and bind the conscience. The common religion of pilgrimages, special fast-days, and meritorious fatigue he judges empty and impious. He then turns to monastic vows (*vota monastica*). Ancient monachism (*monachatus*) was not a second holiness beside the Church. Monasteries were austere seminaries from which Basil, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, and many others were called to the episcopal office. Augustine’s portrait shows common labour, common goods, measured austerity, and charity that would rather give wine to the sick than treat food as pollution.Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 13, Sections 5–9---Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Vows #Baptism #Monasticism #Augustine #ChristianLiberty
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  Calvin's Institutes: September 9 09.09.2026 13мин

  Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhen is a private vow a help, and when is it only more superstition? Calvin allows temporary vows that curb a weakness or stir a sluggish duty, provided they rest on God’s word, fit our calling, and stay within the measure of grace. The one vow required of all is the baptismal promise, confirmed in catechism and the Lord’s Supper. Perpetual and multiplied vows soon lose their solemnity and bind the conscience. The common religion of pilgrimages, special fast-days, and meritorious fatigue he judges empty and impious. He then turns to monastic vows (*vota monastica*). Ancient monachism (*monachatus*) was not a second holiness beside the Church. Monasteries were austere seminaries from which Basil, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, and many others were called to the episcopal office. Augustine’s portrait shows common labour, common goods, measured austerity, and charity that would rather give wine to the sick than treat food as pollution.### Today’s Readings:John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 13, Sections 5–9---### Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #Vows #Baptism #Monasticism #Augustine #ChristianLiberty