Who are the 'Disciples of Calvin'?

Answer 1

Disciples of Calvin - variously known as Huguenots, Presbyterians, Puritans or Calvinists - agitate for their own kind of reform in the Roman Catholic kingdoms of France and Scotland, in Anglican England and in the Spanish Netherlands. In doctrine they follow the Swiss reform of Zwingli, as opposed to that of Luther. But Calvin adds one harshly rigorous element - the concept of predestination, with roots in St Paul and St Augustine. This argues that since everything is in God's hands, he must have selected in advance those who shall be saved. Thus any community includes some who are God's elect, destined for heaven, and others whose certain fate is damnation. One other distinct element in Calvinism is an insistence that church and state must be separate. The pastors control much of Genevan life, but they are not (and must never be) the civil magistrates. This distinction gives Calvinist sects a greater independence than either Lutherans or Anglicans, both of whom operate in a close relationship with lay rulers. Scottish Calvinists establish a church in defiance of Scotland's monarch, while the Pilgrim Fathers cross the Atlantic to found their own Calvinist community. The Genevan ideals of morality, thrift and hard work make such communities well adapted to prosper, even if tending to self-righteousness and intolerance.