Huldreich Zwingli 1484-153, Swiss

1518, elected "People's Preacher" in the city of Zurich

John Calvin 1509-1564

1532, published a commentary on one of Seneca's works

1536, published the first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Guillaume Farel 1489-1565

Calvin and Farel wrote Articles of Church Government together around 1537.

Calvin learned from Martin Bucer 1491-1551

"Holy Commonwealth" (Geneva)

1. Four groups of people—pastors, doctors, elders, and deacons—were assigned power.
2. The supervision of public morality was effected by Consistory.

The chasm between the sovereignty of God and man was bridgeable in Catholicism but unbridgeable in Calvinism.

Second edition of Institutes of the Christian Religion. (1539)

This book conferred intellectual respectability on protestantism.

The Institutes were built up systematically as a series of biblically-grounded reflections on:

• The Ten Commandments
• The Lord's Prayer
• The Apostles' Creed

T.U.L.I.P (mnemonic method)

• T: Total depravity, human beings are incapable of taking any steps to merit his own redemption.
• U: Unconditional Election, those God selected to salvation were elected unconditionally, therefore the election is not dependent on works or mode of life.
• L: Limited Atonement, to atone whose sins did Chris die, Christ died for the elect, not for all humankind.
• I: Irresistible Grace, God's grace is irresistible for the elect, grace is not a reward for conduct.
• P: Persistence in Grace, grace cannot be lost or rejected by the elect.

Calvin's system depended fundamentally on his doctrine of absolute predestination, rejecting the idea of works as being efficacious.

To fight off the possibility of hedonism, Calvin taught about the "Signs of Election."

• Public profession of faith
• Regular attendance at church services
• Leading a godly life

For Luther and Calvin,

• they agreed on three fundamental points, the primacy of scripture, justification by faith and the non-existence of free wills.
• they disagreed on five basic points; Luther didn't accept the proposition that grace was persistent and irresistible; they differed in the certitude of salvation; they differed in the idea of absolute predestination; they disagreed on the real presence of Christ in the eucharist, they disagreed on the nature of theocratic polity, for Calvin, the church was supreme, for Luther, the state was supreme.