Living in union with Christ in today’s world: the contribution of John Calvin and Ignatius Loyola. This is the theme of this newly announced conference that brings some of the finest scholarship in Ireland together in the beautiful surrounds of Maynooth College for an opportunity to learn more about the similarities, differences and indeed perhaps shared roots of these two giants of the Christian tradition.
Dr. Laurence Kirkpatrick, Professor of Church History at Union Theological College, Belfast, has this to say:
Did the early paths of the reformer John Calvin and the founder of the Jesuits Ignatius Loyola cross as students?
Both certainly attended the University of Paris in the 1520s. The university at that time comprised of about forty colleges situated in the Latin Quarter of the city. Calvin and Loyola were both students at the celebrated College de Montaigu, Calvin arriving there in the latter part of 1523. Loyola’s dates of attendance are uncertain but may well have overlapped.
The college at the time was a tightly knit community of about 200 students and, under the tutelage of Pierre Tampete, followed an austere daily regime. Students rose at 4am in order to begin lessons at 5am with study ending with a 9pm bedtime.
It is tantalizing to muse that these two giants of the 16th Century church shared a common education experience and yet subsequently travelled along very different spiritual paths. Reason enough to merit a unique conference in Ireland which will explore and unpack something of the points of comparability and contrast between these two Montaigu old boys.
