Page "John Calvin" Paragraph 32

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 on 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 an hour and he did not use notes.

An occasional secretary tried to record his sermons, but very little of his preaching was preserved before 1549.

In that year, professional scribe Denis Raguenier, who had learned or developed a system of shorthand, was assigned to record all of Calvin's sermons.

An analysis of his sermons by T. H. L.

Parker suggests that Calvin was a consistent preacher and his style changed very little over the years.