John Calvin consumed wine regularly

John Calvin consumed wine regularly and received wine as part of his ministerial compensation.

Wine Consumption and Theology

Calvin celebrated wine and food as gifts from God that bring joy and delight[1], and he wrote in his Institutes that believers have “never been forbidden to laugh, or to be filled, … or to delight in musical harmony, or to drink wine.”[1] Although Calvin condemned drunkenness, he neither preached nor practiced abstinence from wine, and he suggested that three glasses of wine represented the minimum that would overcome weak heads[2]—implying his own capacity exceeded this threshold.

Calvin firmly believed it was unbiblical to forbid drinking wine under the pretext of preventing drunkenness, calling such abstinence an “inhuman philosophy” that deprives people of lawful enjoyment of God’s kindness.[3] He condemned the abuse of wine and upheld moderation as the Christian ideal.[3]

Wine as Wages

Like Luther, Calvin was paid in wine barrels for his sermons and ministry, maintaining a significant wine cellar to provide for his family and extensive hospitality ministry.[1] More specifically, his salary included five hundred liters of wine annually—roughly two bottles a day—intended to supply household needs.[4] Another source records that his pay consisted of fifty dollars, twelve measures of corn, two tuns of wine, and a dwelling-house.[5]

On one occasion when Calvin and Farel visited a wineshop for refreshment, Farel offended him by paying the bill for both.[2] When in decent health, Calvin was excellent company with an abundant flow of brilliant conversation, prompt at repartee, and his circle sometimes rocked with laughter.[2]

[1] Gisela H. Kreglinger, Cup Overflowing: Wine’s Place in Faith, Feasting, and Fellowship (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2024). [See here, here, here.]
[2] Hugh Y. Reyburn, John Calvin: His Life, Letters, and Work (London; New York; Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914), 329–330.
[3] Gisela H. Kreglinger, The Spirituality of Wine (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 56.
[4] Glenn S. Sunshine, The Reformation for Armchair Theologians, Armchair Theologians Series (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2005), 132.
[5] Paul Henry and Henry Stebbing, The Life and Times of John Calvin, the Great Reformer (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1851), 269.