Calvin & English Reformation

CHAPTER 3 Calvin and the English Reformation

    • John Calvin Institutes of the Christian Religion

nstitutes of the Christian Religion (Latin: Institutio Christianae religionis) is John Calvin’s seminal work of Protestant systematic theology. Highly influential in the Western world1 and still widely read by theological students today, it was published in Latin in 1536 (at the same time as the English King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries) and in his native French in 1541 (it was a landmark in the elaboration of the French language in the 16th century to become a national language) with the definitive editions appearing in 1559 (Latin) and in 1560 (French).

The Five Articles of Remonstrance were theological propositions advanced in 1610 by followers of Jacobus Arminius who had died in 1609, in disagreement with interpretations of the teaching of John Calvin then current in the Dutch Reformed Church. They proved divisive, and those who supported them chose to call themselves “Remonstrants”.

http://www.esvbible.org/resources/creeds-and-catechisms/article-the-five-arminian-articles-1610/

  • Westminster Confession of Faith

    • The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the "subordinate standard" of doctrine in the Church of Scotland, and has been influential within Presbyterian churches worldwide.

    • http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/

    • The Canons of the Synod of Dort

http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/dort.htm

http://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/confessions/canons-dort

    • John Knox History of the Reformation of Religion Within the Realm of Scotland

The Canons of Dort, or Canons of Dordrecht, formally titled The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands, is the judgment of the National Synod held in the Dutch city of Dordrecht in 1618–19. At the time, Dordrecht was often referred to in English as Dort.

John Knox (c. 1514 – 24 November 1572) was a Scottish clergyman, theologian and writer who was a leader of the Protestant Reformation and is considered the founder of the Presbyterian denomination in Scotland. He is believed to have been educated at the University of St Andrews and worked as a notary-priest. Influenced by early church reformers such as George Wishart, he joined the movement to reform the Scottish church. He was caught up in the ecclesiastical and political events that involved the murder of Cardinal Beaton in 1546 and the intervention of the regent of Scotland Mary of Guise. He was taken prisoner by French forces the following year and exiled to England on his release in 1549.

http://anglicanhistory.org/hooker/

    • Thomas Cartwright A Reply to an Answer Made of Master Doctor Whitgift Against the Admonition to Parliament

Richard Hooker (March 1554 – 3 November 1600) was an English priest in the Church of England and an influential theologian. He was one of the most important English theologians of the sixteenth century. Scholars disagree regarding Hooker’s relationship with what would be called “Anglicanism” and the Reformed theological tradition. Traditionally, he has been regarded as the originator of the Anglican via media between Protestantism and Catholicism. However, a growing number of scholars have argued that he should be positioned in the mainstream Reformed theology of his time, and only sought to oppose extremist Puritans rather than moving the Church of England away from Protestantism.

Cartwright was born in Hertfordshire, and studied divinity at St John’s College, Cambridge. On the accession of Queen Mary I of England in 1553, he was forced to leave the university, and found occupation as clerk to a counsellor-at-law. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth I, five years later, he resumed his theological studies, and was soon afterwards elected a fellow of St John’s and later of Trinity College, Cambridge.

http://www.liberantiquus.com/0911/whitgift.html

A rich source of Anglican resources can be found at: http://anglicansonline.org/. The 39 Articles are a quick view of the controversies accompanying the English Reformation.

The Law of Freedom in a Platform is a pamphlet published in 1652 by Gerrard Winstanley, one of the Diggers, in which he argued that the Christian basis for society is where property and wages are abolished. In keeping with Winstanley’s adherence to biblical models, the tract envisages a communistic society structured on patriarchal lines.

George Fox (September 1624 – 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.