page_title: Institutes of the Christian Religion
section_title: Translations
hierarchical_section_title: Institutes of the Christian Religion / Translations
caption_attribution_description: English: Title page of 1541 edition of French Institution de la religion chrestienne (Institutes of the Christian Religion)
context_page_description: Institutes of the Christian Religion is John Calvin's seminal work of systematic theology. Regarded as one of the most influential works of Protestant theology, it was published in Latin in 1536 and in his native French language in 1541, with the definitive editions appearing in 1559 and in 1560.
  The book was written as an introductory textbook on the Protestant creed for those with some previous knowledge of theology and covered a broad range of theological topics from the doctrines of church and sacraments to justification by faith alone and Christian liberty. It vigorously attacked the teachings of those Calvin considered unorthodox, particularly Roman Catholicism, to which Calvin says he had been "strongly devoted" before his conversion to Protestantism.
  The Institutes is a highly regarded secondary reference for the system of doctrine adopted by the Reformed churches, usually called Calvinism.
context_section_description: There is some speculation that Calvin may have translated the first edition (1536) into French soon after its publication, but the earliest edition which has survived is Calvin's 1541 translation. It was primarily intended for French-speaking Swiss, since very few copies were able to be smuggled into France. Some of these were publicly burned in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral soon after their publication. Calvin published French editions of the Institutes in 1541, 1545, 1551, and 1560. They follow the expansion and development of the Latin editions, but they are not strictly translations, instead being adapted for use by a lay readership, though retaining the same doctrine.
  The French translations of Calvin's Institutes helped to shape the French language for generations, not unlike the influence of the King James Version for the English language. There are differences in translations of one of the more famous passages.  First, from Calvin's 1560 French edition, Institution, III, 7:
   Nous ne sommes point nôtres: que donc notre raison et volonté ne dominent point en nos conseils et en ce que nous avons à faire. Nous ne sommes point nôtres: ne nous établissons donc point cette fin, de chercher ce qui nous est expédient selon la chair. Nous ne sommes point nôtres ; oublions-nous donc nous-mêmes tant qu’il sera possible, et tout ce qui est à l’entour de nous. Au contraire, nous sommes au Seigneur: que sa volonté et sa sagresse président en toutes nos actions. Nous sommes au Seigneur: que toutes les parties de notre vie soient référées à lui comme à leur fin unique.
  The Institutes were translated into many other European languages. A Spanish translation by Francisco de Enzinas of the 1536 Latin text was published in 1540, before Calvin even published his first French edition. An Italian translation of Calvin's French text was made in 1557. Later translations were of the final 1559 Latin text: Dutch (1560), German (1572), Spanish (1597), Czech (1617), Hungarian (1624), and Japanese (1934). Scholars speculate that the seventeenth-century orientalist Johann Heinrich Hottinger translated it into Arabic, but this has not been confirmed.  A complete translation by HW Simpson of the 1559 Latin text into Afrikaans was published in four volumes between 1984 and 1992, following an earlier abridged translation by A Duvenhage in 1951.
  In English, five complete translations have been published – four from the Latin and one from the French. The first was made in Calvin's lifetime (1561) by Thomas Norton, the son-in-law of the English Reformer Thomas Cranmer. The Norton translation of the passage above, Institutes, III, 7:
  We are not our owne: therefore let neither our owne reason nor our owne will beare rule in our counselles and doinges. We are not our owne: therefore let us not make this the ende for us to tend unto, to seke that which may be expediét for us according to the flesh. We are not our owne: therefore so much as we may, let us foreget our selves and all things that our our owne. On the other side, we are God’s: therefore let us live and dye to him.
  In the nineteenth century there were two translations, one by John Allen (1813). The same passage in the Allen translation, Institutes, III, 7:
  We are not our own; therefore neither our reason nor our will should predominate in our deliberations and actions. We are not our own; therefore let us not propose it as our end, to seek what may be expedient for us according to the flesh. We are not our own; therefore, let us, as far as possible, forget ourselves and all things that are ours. On the contrary, we are God’s; to him, therefore, let us live and die. 
  Also from the nineteenth century, the Henry Beveridge (1845) translation, Institutes, III, 7:
  We are not our own; therefore, neither is our own reason or will to rule our acts and counsels. We are not our own; therefore, let us not make it our end to seek what may be agreeable to our carnal nature. We are not our own; therefore, as far as possible, let us forget ourselves and the things that are ours. On the other hand, we are God’s
caption: Title page of the first French edition (1541)
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