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soda7777777

Wer rettet uns den Frieden wenn nicht wir selbst?
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Aug 18, 2011
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By reform Christianity I roughly mean Calvinism and related branches.

I understand why the German princes, Scandinavian and English monarchs moved towards Lutheranism, as it allowed for them to not radically change the function of religion prior to the Reformation, but what I don't understand is how Calvinism came to be the dominant form of Christianity in places like Scotland or in England for the period of the English Civil War.

So why Calvinism?
 
Witchcraft and Devilry :p

But more serious: I think part is politics, part is culture.

Politically the calvinists trended republicans (or at least anti current monarch) while lutherans trended more royalist, so when British republicans won they trended more Calvinist (and Catholics of course just trended conservative ; happy enough in both Genoa and Spain).

Culturally the Calvinists trended urban, and England at least had urban culture from London and environs, but for Scotland I got nothing better than 'Calvin was persuasive apparently'.
 
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Pure geography. Luther and most Lutheran activists were operating in eastern Germany. Rather distant to reach.

Zwingli/Calvin were in Switzerland, and their influence went up the Rhine into France and Holland. Lots of English & Scottish exiles ended up in Holland and Switzerland, and got inculcated there rather than in Germany.

Scottish avenue is via George Wishart, a schoolmaster in Montrose. Just a typical egghead Humanist, who dabbled in the Greek Bible. Once he was suspected of Protestant sympathies, Wishart fled to France and then Switzerland in 1538 and became thoroughly Swissified. Returned as a Calvinist preacher, and took young John Knox under his wing. Rest is history.

It is a mistake to think of English monarchs as "Lutheran". They were "Henrican" (whatever that means). Very ideologically uncommitted. So anybody could pop in and fill the English ideological void with something more substantial. Anglicanism had no body of texts. There's no such thing as "Anglican theological writings" to refer to for reference, explanation or guidance. The first reference piece was the Thirty-Nine Articles, but it was late and brief, with barely any commentaries. By contrast, Luther and Calvin wrote tons, and in great depth. England inevitably had to import.

The "Lutheran" element in England was very minimal - there was an early small group Cambridge eggheads who read Luther for kicks and there was Archbishop Cramer (who had served as an emissary in the German court). But that's about it. Most of the rest of the English reformers (like the Scottish reformers) served long sojourns of exile in Switzerland/Strasbourg/Netherlands, and came back deeply indoctrinated as "Reformed". English Puritanism has a lot more in common with Calvinism than Lutheranism.
 
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Because it is an Anglo-Saxon sentiment to be left alone on their island without anyones interference since times immemorial. Remember the vikings? That left a stain on the proto-English. Frankly, there is no difference between the Pope and the Viking as both take their land and their coin.
 
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Because it is an Anglo-Saxon sentiment to be left alone on their island without anyones interference since times immemorial. Remember the vikings? That left a stain on the proto-English. Frankly, there is no difference between the Pope and the Viking as both take their land and their coin.
I would nominate a later time period, the late 14th century: The teachings of Wycliffe, the spread of Lollardry, the resentment of the Avignon Popes (and later the Roman Popes when they proved as compulsively grasping...).

Good King Harry was fine being Catholic, but in the event needed his own religion so he could get a divorce. Learned English society simply filled in most of the blanks afterwards.
 
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"Politics, politics, politics, politics!" -Mel Brooks

I would think a desire to not be beholden to a man in a fancy hat far away in Rome.
 
"Politics, politics, politics, politics!" -Mel Brooks

I would think a desire to not be beholden to a man in a fancy hat far away in Rome.
Then you don't understand what it's being Catholic and being a part of a global religion, which transcends borders. I'm a Dutch Roman Catholic, with ancestors, who stayed faithful, when others left our faith. To read that Henry was even more cynical, than German (sovereign) Nobles, is a saddening thought. OTOH the council of Trent, where eventually the Catholic response was created, was rather late due to Papacy finding Protestantism a useful tool, to keep the HRE and king of the Spanish Kingdoms. Charles V busy. He like his brother had been arguing for the unity of the Holy Church, long before the Papacy realized it wasn't a tool to hurt Habsburg dominance, but it hurt Catholic interests in general. And look what the Counter Reformation achieved, it didn't only counter the Reformation, but it made some much needed reforms.