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This category will concentrate on the development of the Reformed churches in a number of countries, as well as on the influence on the Protestant church in England.

Although Martin Luther is recognized as the first great reformer of the Protestant Reformation, there were also others who objected to the excesses of the Catholic Church and sought a reformation. Some of these were Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich, Martin Bucer in Strassburg, Guillame Farel in Geneva, as well as others. These reformers disagreed with Luther in some areas, particularly in the treatment of the Eucharist or Lord's Supper. There were attempts to compromise with Luther at the Colloquy at Marlburg in 1529, but opinions were too deeply held on both sides and a separate reformation was underway.

The central figure for this branch of the Reformation then became John Calvin, who published his "Institutes of the Christian Religion" in 1536. He worked in Geneva from 1536-1538, in Strassburg from 1538-1541, and back in Geneva from 1541-1564. During his lifetime of preaching and study and writing, he outlined his theology, developed a church liturgy, a church government and started an Academy which trained other ministers.

Through the 1540's this movement was constrained to Switzerland and nearby areas. But then, in a burst of activity, it expanded to a number of countries. It spread to Scotland under John Knox, after he had been in Geneva from 1555-1559. The church in France produced the Gallic Confession in 1559. In the Netherlands, Guido de Bres published the Belgic Confession in 1561. Ursinus and Olevianus wrote the Heidelberg Catechism in 1563 in Germany. The churches in these and other countries were greatly influenced by Calvin in theology, liturgy and church government and began to be known as Reformed churches, except in Scotland where the church was named Presbyterian. These churches did not agree with Calvin on everything, especially on some of his ideas of church and state, but in most other matters followed his example.

Dutch

This category is devoted to the Reformed Reformation in the Netherlands. The writings of Martin Luther were an early influence in the Netherlands and many of the early Dutch Protestants were Lutheran. Although Calvin's Institutes were published in 1536, it was not until about 1550 that the Netherlands began to feel the impact of this work and the Calvinistic movement became more prominent. Gradually the followers of Calvin and Zwingli were called Reformed (Gereformeerd).

The first Dutch Reformed synod was held at Dort in 1574, and in the next year the university of Leyden was founded. The Reformed Church of Holland adopted as its doctrinal and disciplinary standards the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563, the Belgic Confession of 1561, and the canons of the synod of Dort of 1618-19.

Eastern European

Since the Reformation brought Calvinism to Hungary and the Thirty-Years War (1618?1648) established Debrecen as a fortress of the Reformed faith, Hungary's second largest city has been known as "The Hungarian Geneva." Calvinism gave Debrecen its first printing house, established in 1561 to publish works that buttressed Reformation theology. And in 1538, Protestants founded the College of Debrecen, later to become the Protestant College of Eastern Europe, famous for educating ministers and teachers for Reformed churches in Eastern Europe.

The Protestant Church in Romania (Transylvania) began as moderate Lutherans, but from 1550 on, however, the majority of the Church turned to the Reformed Reformation.

English

The Reformation in England was quite different from that in any other country, and the result was not a Reformed Church as such, but there were a number of Reformed elements in its development. This category is an attempt to cover some of these Reformed elements in the Church of England.

The Church of England went through a number of stages:

Under Henry VIII (1509-1547), the Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic church and Henry became head of the Church, but the reformation was perhaps as much of a political change as a religious one.

Under Edward VI (1547-1553)Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury discarded most of the Catholic worship practices to follow many of the Reformed practices. Cranmer was also the chief writer of the Book of Common Prayer and the Forty-Two Articles, a Calvinistic confession of faith.

Mary (1553-1558) was strongly Catholic and Protestants were persecuted in England. Many fled to the Continent, where they were warmly received by Calvin and his followers.

Elizabeth (1558-1603) was Protestant and made changes in the doctrine, the worship and the government of the Church of England which were a compromise of Protestant and Catholic ideas. The adoption of these changes is known as the Elizabethan Settlement.

French

The first professed Protestants in France were Lefevre, Wolmar, Farel, Viret, Marot, Olivetan, Calvin, and Beza, all men of distinguished learning and ability; but most of them had to seek safety in exile. It was only after the successful establishment of the Reformation in French Switzerland that the movement became serious in France. Calvin and Beza may be called the fathers of the French Reformed Church. Their pupils returned as missionaries to their native land. The first Protestant congregation was formed at Paris in 1555, and the first synod held in the same city in 1559. In 1561 the theological conference at Poissy took place, where Theodore Beza eloquently but vainly pleaded the cause of the Protestants before the dignitaries of the Roman Church, and where the name "Reformed," as an ecclesiastical designation, originated. In 1571 the general synod at La Rochelle adopted the Gallican Confession, and a system of government and discipline essentially Calvinistic, yet modified by the peculiar circumstances of a Church not in union with the State (as in Geneva), but in antagonism with it. The movement here unavoidably assumed a political character, and led to a series of civil wars between those who were Catholic, led by Catherine, and the Protestants (Huguenots) who were led by the Princes of Navarre.

These civil wars led to the treasonous slaughter of the Huguenots at the St. Bartholomews's Day massacre in 1572. The Reformed church again acquired status under the Edict of Nantes in 1598, but that edict was revoked in 1685 and the French Reformed Church lost nearly all of its membership.

German

Most German Protestants became Lutherans because of the influence of Martin Luther in his own country. However, the intolerance of the strict Lutheran party against the Calvinists and the moderate Lutherans (called, after their leader, Melanchthonians or Philippists) drove a large number of the latter over to the Reformed (Calvinistic) Church, especially in the Palatinate (1560), in Bremen (1561), Nassau (1582), Anhalt (1596), Hesse-Cassel (1605), and Brandenburg (1614).

The German Reformed communion adopted the Heidelberg Catechism -- drawn up by two moderate Calvinistic divines, Zacharias Ursinus and Kaspar Olevianus, in 1563, by order of the elector Frederick III., or the Pious -- as their confession of faith.

Scottish

The first preacher and martyr of Protestantism in Scotland was Patrick Hamilton, a youth of royal blood, and for sometime a student at Wittenberg and Marburg, who was condemned to death by Archbishop Beaton, and burned at the stake. The movement gradually increased, in spite of persecution, especially after the rupture of England with the Pope, and was carried to a successful conclusion under the guidance of John Knox, the Luther of Scotland. He was a disciple and admirer of John Calvin, with whom he spent several years. He returned, after the accession of Elizabeth, to his native country, resolved to reform the Scotch Church after the model of the Church of Geneva, which he esteemed as "the best school of Christ since the days of the apostles." After a short civil war the Parliament of 1560 introduced the Reformation, and adopted a Calvinistic confession of faith, drawn up by Knox, Spottiswoode, Row, and three others (superseded afterward by the Westminster standards), and prohibited, under severe penalties, the exercise of the Roman Catholic worship. In 1561 the first Book of Discipline was issued, and gave the new church a complete Presbyterian organization, culminating in a General Assembly of ministers and elders. The mode of worship was reduced to the greatest simplicity. When the unfortunate Mary Stuart, of French education, tastes, and manners, and in no sympathy with the public opinion of Scotland, began her reign, in August, 1561, she made an attempt to restore the Roman Catholic religion, to which she was sincerely attached. But her own imprudences, and the determined resistance of the nation, frustrated her plans; and, after her flight to England (1568), Protestantism was again declared the only religion of Scotland.

Swiss

The Reformation in Switzerland was contemporaneous with, but independent of, the German Reformation, and resulted in the formation of the Reformed communion as distinct from the Lutheran. In all the essential principles and doctrines, except that on the mode of Christ's presence in the Eucharist, the Helvetic Reformation agreed with the German; but it departed farther from the received traditions in matters of government, discipline, and worship. It naturally divides itself into three periods, -- the Zwinglian from 1516 to 1531; the Calvinistic, to the death of Calvin in 1564; and the period of Bullinger and Beza, to the close of the sixteenth century. The first belongs mainly to the German cantons; the second, to the French; the third, to both jointly.

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