Calvinism - pagina 133

CALVINISM AND POLITICS.

The duty of

29

of the government to extirpate every form

and idolatry was not a

religion

false

1

find of Cal-

and was

vinism, but dates from Constantine the Great,

the reaction against the horrible persecutions which his

pagan predecessors on the Imperial throne had

upon the

of the

sect

applied

by

and Calvin,

Romish

all

theologians and

In the time of Luther

Christian princes.

all it

Since that day this

Nazarene.

system had been defended by

inflicted

was an universal conviction that that system

was the true one.

Every famous theologian of the

Melanchthon

of

first

approved of the death by

all,

and the

of Servetus;

period, fire

which was erected by the

scaffold,

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

Roman

Lutherans and

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 nefaiidinn.

Notwithstanding

all

this

I

not

only

deplore

unconditionally disapprove of

that

yet

one stake,

but

not as

were the expression of a special characteristic

if it

I

it;

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 If I desire to

from

the

know what

specific

in

liberate itself

in this respect

principles

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