426 THE FEENCH BLOOD IN AMEEICA 



Luther and 



Calvin 



Differentiated 



Calvinism 

 Republican 



liberty wiis to be a foundation stone. It was the sim- 

 plicity of worship in the Eeformed churches of France 

 and Switzerland that set the type for the Puritans of 

 England. 



The difference between the Lutheran and Calvinistlc 

 types of reform is finely brought out by Bancroft, ' in one 

 of his most discriminating passages : 



"The reform had made great advances among the 

 French and the Swiss. Both Luther and Calvin brought 

 the individual into immediate relation with God ; but 

 Calvin, under a more stern and militant form of doctrine, 

 lifted the individual above pope and prelate, and priest 

 and presbyter, above Catholic Church and national 

 church and general synod, above indulgences, remissions, 

 and absolutions from fellow -mortals, and brought him 

 into the immediate dependence upon God, whose eternal, 

 irreversible choice is made by himself alone, not arbi- 

 trarily, but according to his own highest wisdom and 

 justice. Luther spared the altar, and hesitated to deny 

 the real presence ; Calvin with superior dialectics, ac- 

 cepted as a commemoration and a seal the rite which the 

 Catholics revered as a sacrifice. Luther favoured mag- 

 nificence in public worship, as an aid to devotion ; Cal- 

 vin, the guide of republics, avoided in their churches all 

 appeals to the senses, as a peril to pure religion. Luther 

 condemned the Eoman Church for its immorality ; Cal- 

 vin for its idolatry. Luther exposed the folly of super- 

 stition, ridiculed the hair shirt and the scourge, the pur- 

 chased indulgence, and dearly -bought, worthless masses 

 for the dead ; Calvin shrunk from their criminality with 

 impatient horror. Luther permitted the cross and the 

 taper, pictures and images, as things of indifference ; 

 Calvin demanded a spiritual worship in its utmost 

 purity. Luther left the organization of the church to 

 princes and governments ; Calvin reformed doctrine, 



History of the United States. Vol. I, p. 312fl. 



