Calvinism and the Reformers

By | July 19, 2012

The faith for which Cranmer was burnt to death at Oxford on March 26th, 1555 (after two and a half years imprisonment) was the same faith for which Bradford had died at Smithfield, Hooper at Gloucester and Farrer at Carmarthen. The Word of God alone, the grace of God alone, the work of the Spirit alone – these great principles, sometimes known as “Calvinism,” were the common possession of all the martyrs. This gospel was their strength in life, their solace in death; in vain did men strive to silence, imprison and burn it. Other gospels may appear to meet the needs of men while all is bright and times are prosperous, but let the times be desperate and the dark days of bloody tyrants recur, let fire and sword again encompass the church and then the truth of the testimony of the late Professor Froude of Oxford will again be realized:

“When all else has failed – when patriotism has covered its face and human courage has broken down – when intellect has yielded, when emotion and sentiment have become the handmaids of superstition… that form of belief called Calvinism has born ever an inflexible front to illlusion and mendacity, and has preferred to be ground to powder like flint than to bend before violence, or melt under enervating temptation… Calvinism overthrew spiritual wickedness and purged England and Scotland, for a time at least, of lies and charlatanry.

 

The Banner of Truth Magazine, February 1959