Calvinism a life-system - pagina 133

CALVINISM AND POLITICS.

The duty of false

1

29

of the government to extirpate every form

and idolatry was not a

religion

find of Cal-

vinism, but dates from Constantine the Great, and was

the reaction against the horrible persecutions which his

pagan predecessors on the Imperial throne had

upon the

of the

sect

system had been defended by applie4

by

and Calvin,

Romish

theologians and

In the time of Luther

Christian princes.

all it

all

inflicted

Since that day this

Nazarene.

was an universal conviction that that system

was the true one.

Every famous theologian of the

Melanchthon

of

first

period,

approved of the death by

all,

of Servetus; and the scaffold, which was erected

fire

by

the

Lutherans at Leipzig for Krell, the thorough Calvinist,

was

infinitely

more

reprehensible,

when looked

at

from

a Protestant standpoint.

But whilst the

Calvinists, in the

yielded their victims,

and the

stake,

by

(those

age of the Reformation,

tens of thousands, to the scaffold

of the

Lutherans and

Roman

Catholics being hardly worth counting), history has been guilty

casting

of the great and far-reaching unfairness of ever in

teeth

their

this

one execution by

of

fire

Servetus, as a crimen nefandmn.

Notwithstanding

all

this

I

not

only

deplore

that

one stake,

but

not as

were the expression of a special characteristic

if it

I

unconditionally disapprove of

it;

yet

of Calvinism, but on the contrary as the fatal after-effect

which Calvinism found

of a system, grey with age, existence, under it .

which

it

had grown up, and from which

had not yet been able entirely to liberate If I desire to

from

the

know what

specific

in

in this respect

principles

itself.

must follow

of Calvinism, then the

9

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen