Calvinism and Religious Radicals

| Discussion Topics | Documents | Reading |

Discussion Topics and Essay Questions

a) Calvinism and the Swiss Reformation

How important was the Swiss Reformation to the spread of European Protestantism?
Why was Calvinism the most successful brand of Protestantism in later sixteenth-century Europe?
How radical was Calvinism?

b) Radical Religious Minorities

Why did religious minorities arouse such hostility in early modern Europe?
Did radical religious groups present a serious threat to established authority?

Documents

**NOTE: Some eresources are accessible only on-campus or via off-campus proxies or the athens service**

Texts	[Interpret]	Images	[Interpret]
The Schleitheim Articles of the Swiss Anabaptists (1527) Thomas Müntzer, Sermon to the Princes (1524) Dutch iconoclasm (1566) John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536-59), 'On civil government and resistence' and 'On Predestination' Theodore Beza, Supralapsarianism: The Fall of Man Was Both Necessary and Wonderful Theodore Beza, On the Rights of Magistrates, 'Must Magistrates Always Be Obeyed As Unconditionally As God?' (1574) Quaker writings		Job Adriaensz Berckheyde, Interior of the St Bavo Church at Haarlem (1560) Franz Hogenberg, The Calvinist Iconoclastic Riot of August 20, 1566 (1588) Portraits of Jean Calvin Francois Dubois, St Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572) Images of regicide from Mercurius Politicus (early English newspaper)

Audio Links

Radio 4, 'In Our Time' discussion on 'Calvinism'
Radio 4, 'In Our Time' discussion on the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
Radio 4, 'In Our Time' discussion on 'The Siege of Munster'
Radio 4, 'In Our Time' discussion on 'George Fox and the Quakers'

Secondary Literature

Key Selected Texts

(see also the secondary literature for The Reformation and Religious Change)

P. Benedict, Christ’s Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism (2002) (ebook)

C. S. Dixon and M. Greengrass, 'The Protestant Reformation: Religious Change and the People of Sixteenth-Century Europe' 1997 (online tutorial): sections 7 'Geneva and the Calvinist Reformation' and 8 'Sectarian Violence and Wars of Religion'
R. M. Kingdon, 'Calvin and Geneva' in R. Hsia, R. (ed.), A Companion to the Reformation World (2002) (ebook)
A. E. McGrath, Reformation Thought: An Introduction (1988) (ebook), ch. 5 'The Reformers'
Graeme Murdock, Beyond Calvin: The Intellectual, Political and Cultural World of Europe's Reformed Churches (2004)
W. G. Naphy, Calvin and the Consolidation of the Genevan Reformation (1994)
P. Marshall, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Reformation (2015) (ebook), ch. 3, by Carlos Eire

A. Pettegree (ed.), The Reformation World (2000) (ebook), esp. parts 3 and 4
Penny Roberts, 'The Long Reformation: Reformed', in B. Kümin (ed.), The European World (2009)
A. Ryrie, Palgrave Advances in the European Reformations (2006)

B. Scribner et al., The Reformation in National Context (1994) (ebook), esp. chs. 2-6

B. Cottret, Calvin: A Biography (2000)
J. Dillenberger, Images and relics: theological perceptions and visual images in sixteenth-century Europe (1999) (ebook), esp. ch. 1
C. Eire, The War against the Idols: the Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to Calvin (1996) (ebook), esp. chs. 4-6.
B. Gordon, The Swiss Reformation (2002)
“ , Calvin (2009) (ebook)
O. P. Grell, Brethren in Christ: A Calvinist Network in Reformation Europe (2011)
H. Höpfl, The Christian Polity of John Calvin (1982) (ebook)
R.P. Hsia, Social Discipline in the Reformation 1550-1750 (1989)
A.E. McGrath, A Life of John Calvin: A Study in the Shaping of Western Culture (1990)
A. McGrath, ‘John Calvin and late medieval thought’, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte/Archive for Reformation History 77 (1986) (available as a print journal in the Library)
D.C. McKim (ed), The Cambridge Companion to John Calvin (2004)
E.W. Monter, Calvin’s Geneva (1967)
G. Murdock, Calvinism on the Frontier, 1600-1660: International Calvinsim and the Reformed Church in Hungary and Transylvania (2000)
“ , Beyond Calvin: The Intellectual, Political and Cultural World of Europe’s Reformed Churches (2004), esp. chs. 2-3.
“ , ‘The importance of being Josiah: an image of Calvinist identity’, Sixteenth Century Journal 29 (1998)
W.G. Naphy, 'Baptisms, church riots and social unrest in Calvin's Geneva', Sixteenth Century Journal 26 (1995)
T. H. L. Parker, John Calvin (1975)
A. Pettegree et al. (eds), Calvinism in Europe, 1540-1620 (1994)
M. Prestwich (ed.), International Calvinism, 1541-1715 (1985)
H. Schilling, Civic Calvinism in Northwestern Germany and the Netherlands (1991)
M. Todd, The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland (2002)

b) The Radical Reformation (esp. the Anabaptists)

R.H. Bainton, ‘The Left Wing of the Reformation’ in his Studies on the Reformation (1964)
M.G. Baylor (ed.), The Radical Reformation (1991)
C.P. Clasen, ‘The Sociology of Swabian Anabaptism’, Church History (1963)
“ , Anabaptism, a Social History, 1525-1618, Switzerland, Austria, Moravia, South and Central Germany (1972)
N. Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millenium (1970), chs 12 & 13
H.J. Goertz, The Anabaptists (1996)
“ (ed.), Profiles of Radical Reformers (1982)
H. Hillerbrand (ed.), Radical Tendencies in the Reformation : Divergent Perspectives (1988)
R.P. Hsia, ‘Münster and the Anabaptists’ in his (ed.), The German People and the Reformation (1988) (digital scan)
W. Klaassen, ‘The Anabaptist Understanding of the Separation of the Church’, Church History, vol. 46 (1977)
P. Marshall, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Reformation (2015) (ebook), ch. 4 by Brad Gregory
J. Roth & J. Stayer (eds), A Companion to Anabaptism and Spiritualism (2007)
G. Rupp, Patterns of Reformation (1969), Part III.
T. Scott, Thomas Müntzer, Theology and Revolution in the German Reformation (1989)
“ ‘The Volksreformation of Thomas Müntzer in Allstedt and Mühlhausen’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 34 (1983)
J.M. Stayer, ‘The Anabaptists and the sects’ in G.R. Elton (ed.), New Cambridge Modern History, vol. 2: The Reformation, 1520-1559 (1990 edn) (ebook).
“ & W.O. Packull (eds), The Anabaptists and Thomas Müntzer (1980)
C.A. Snyder, Anabaptist History and Theology: An Introduction (1995)
G.H. Williams, The Radical Reformation (1962; revised edn 1992)
J.D. Weaver, Becoming Anabaptist: the origin and significance of sixteenth-century Anabaptist (1987)

c) Radical religious groups (esp. in 17thC England)

R.J. Acheson, Radical Puritans in England 1550-1660 (1990)
Andrew Bradstock ed., Radical Religion in Cromwell's England (2010) (ebook), esp. ch.5 'The Quakers' and ch. 4 'The Rangers'
Sarah Covington, 'English Puritans, Dissenters, Quakers and Recusants', Oxford Bibliography (offers detailed overview of key reference works, primary sources, journals and other resources)
C. Durston and J. Maltby (eds) Religion in Revolutionary England (2006)
Ariel Hessayon, 'Abiezer Coppe and the Ranters' in The Oxford handbook of literature and the English Revolution (2012) (ebook)
C. Hill, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution (1972)
H. Hinds, George Fox and Early Quaker Culture (2011)
J.F. McGregor and B Reay (eds) Radical Religion in the English Revolution (1985)
M. Watts, The Dissenters, vol. 1 (1978)
P. Mack, Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England (1992), scan of ch. 7 available here.
B. Reay, The Quakers and the English Revolution (1985)
Nicholas McDowell, The English Radical Imagination: Culture, Religion and Revolution 1630-1660 (2003) (ebook)
A.L. Morton, The World of the Ranters (1970)
A. Bradstock (ed.) Winstanley and the Diggers 1649-1999 (2000)
B.S. Capp, The Fifth Monarchy Men (1972; 2008)
K.V. Thomas, ‘Women and the civil war sects’ Past and Present 13 (1958)
A. Walsham, Charitable hatred: Tolerance and Intolerance in England, 1500-1700 (2006), esp. introduction

d) Toleration and persecution in 16thC Europe

B.S. Gregory, Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe (1999)
O.P. Grell and B. Scribner (eds), Tolerance and Intolerance in the European Reformation (1996) (ebook), esp. chapters by Monter, Cameron and Gordon
S. Haliczer (ed.), Inquisition and Society in Early Modern Europe (1987)
B.J. Kaplan, Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe (2007) (ebook)
A. Walsham, Charitable hatred: Tolerance and Intolerance in England, 1500-1700 (2006), esp. introduction

·Dutch iconoclasm (1566)
·John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536-59), 'On civil government and resistence'.
·Theodore Beza, Supralapsarianism: The Fall of Man Was Both Necessary and Wonderful
·The Heidelberg Catechism, 'Part I - On the Misery of Man' (1542)
·Theodore Beza, On the Rights of Magistrates, 'Must Magistrates Always Be Obeyed As Unconditionally As God?' (1574)
·William Dowsing's Journal detailing iconoclasm in East Anglia (1640s)

·Job Adriaensz Berckheyde, Interior of the St Bavo Church at Haarlem (1560)
·Franz Hogenberg, The Calvinist Iconoclastic Riot of August 20, 1566 (1588)
·Calvin
·Francois Dubois, St Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572)

b) Calvinism

P. Benedict, Christ’s Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism (2002)
F. Clark, Calvin and other Reformers (1972)
B. Cottret, Calvin: a Biography (2000)
J. Dillenberger, Images and relics: theological perceptions and visual images in sixteenth-century Europe (1999)
C. Eire, The War against the Idols: the Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to Calvin (1996)
B. Gordon, The Swiss Reformation (2002)
“ , Calvin (2009)
B. Hall, Calvin (1956)

H. Höpfl, The Christian Polity of John Calvin (1982)
R.P. Hsia, Social Discipline in the Reformation 1550-1750 (1989)

A.E. McGrath, A Life of John Calvin (1990)
A. McGrath, ‘John Calvin and late medieval thought’, ARG 77 (1986)
D.C. McKim (ed), The Cambridge Companion to John Calvin (2004)
E.W. Monter, Calvin’s Geneva (1967)
G. Murdock, Calvinism on the Frontier 1600-60: The Reformed Church in Hungary and Transylvania (2000)
“ , Beyond Calvin: The Intellectual, Political and Cultural World of Europe’s Reformed Churches (2004)
“ , ‘The importance of being Josiah: an image of Calvinist identity’ , SCJ 29 (1998)
W.G. Naphy, 'Baptisms, church riots and social unrest in Calvin's Geneva', SCJ 26 (1995)
T. Parker, John Calvin (1975)
A. Pettegree et al. (eds), Calvinism in Europe, 1540-1620 (1994)
A. Pettegree (ed.), The Reformation world (2000)
M. Prestwich (ed.), International Calvinism, 1541-1714 (1985)
N.L. Roelker, One king, one faith: the Parlement of Paris and the religious reformations of the sixteenth century (1996)
H. Schilling, Civic Calvinism in Northwestern Germany and the Netherlands (1991)
M. Todd, The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland (2002)

Module Forum

Module Homepage

E-Resources

Chronology

Glossary of Religious Terms

External Links

(see also the links for The Reformation and Religious Change)

Martin Luther, On the Jews and their Lies (1543)

French Wars of Religion - primary sources

Huguenots (from New Advent) - information about French Protestantism

Street Corner Society - explores the history of radical groups like the Quakers and Diggers

The Diggers - documents and essays relating to the English Digger movement (1649-50)

British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate - good section on the different sects and factions that emerged during the conflicts

Department of History