St. Alphonsus Liguori: The History of Heresies and Their Refutation

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CHAPTER XI. – THE HERESIES OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

THE DIFFERENT SECTS OF CALVINISTS

99. The Sects into which Calvinism was divided.
100. The Puritans.
101. The Independents and Presbyterians.
102. The difference between these Sects.
103. The Quakers and Tremblers.
104. The Anglo-Calvinists.
105. The Piscatorians.
106. The Arminians and Gomarists.



99. The sect of Calvin was soon divided into numerous other sects in fact, we may say that from every sect a thousand others sprung, and that is the case, especially in England, where you can scarcely find the members of the same family believing the same thing. We shall speak of the principal sects described by Noel Alexander and Cardinal Gotti (1). These are the Reformed, who are found in France, in the Palatinate, in Switzerland, and Flanders, and these, in general, follow the doctrine of Calvin to the letter. In England and Scotland they are called Puritans, and, besides, we find among his followers, others called Independents, Presbyterians, Anglo-Calvinists, Piscatorians, Arminians, and Gomorists.


100. The most rigid of all the Calvinists are the Puritans, who hate all who do not follow their own way of thinking, but abhor the Catholics especially, and do not even like to pray in the churches consecrated by them. They rejected Episcopacy the rites, and ceremonies, and Liturgy, both of the Catholic and Anglican Churches, not even keeping the Lord’s Prayer. They are as exact in the observance of the Sunday as the Jews are of the Sabbath. They are no friends to royalty, and it was through their means that Charles I. was brought to the block (as we have seen above, N. 85), in 1649.


101. The Independents and Presbyterians believe much the same as the Puritans, but their system of church government is different. When Oliver Cromwell became Protector of England (N. 86), he was an independent. They believe just what they like, and recognize no superior as invested with the power of teaching them. According to them, that supreme power resides in each sect which they would not allow to the Councils of the Universal Church. They allow no one to preach who does not follow their doctrine. They celebrated the ” Supper” on Sundays; but they do not admit to the ” Supper,” nor to Baptism, only those of their own sect. They celebrated the Supper, with their hats on, without Catechism, sermon, or singing; and they were the progenitors of all the other sects that overran England, as the Anabaptists, the Antinomians (who rejected all law, N. 35), disciples of John Agricola, and the Anti-Scripturists, who totally rejected the Scriptures, boasting that they had the spirit of the Prophets and Apostles.


102. The Presbyterians are a powerful body in the British islands. They separated themselves from the Independents. Their Churches are formed into classes; the classes are subject to Provincial Synods; and these to a National Synod, whose decisions must be obeyed, as if almost of Divine authority. They are called Presbyterians, because they adopt a form of Church government by lay elders, and they say that Bishops have no more authority than Presbyters. Their Elders are generally men of years, unless in the case of some specially gifted young person; the name is derived from the Greek word, Presbuteroi, which means our Elders.


103. There are also Quakers, or, as they were sometimes called, Tremblers, who considered themselves perfect in this life. They imagined they were frequently moved by the Spirit to such a pitch, that they trembled all over, not being able to endure the abundance of the Divine light they enjoyed. They reject not only all Ecclesiastical, but even civil ceremonies, for they never uncover for any one. They say no prayers in their meeting-houses; they even look on prayer as useless, for they are justified by their own justice itself. They did believe, though it is supposed they hold those opinions no longer, that Jesus Christ despaired on the cross, and that he had other human defects. They held erroneous opinions even on the first dogmas of Faith, not believing in the Trinity, or the second coming of Christ, or in hell or heaven after this life; many of these opinions, which were held by the first Quakers, are now changed or modified, and it is difficult at present to know exactly what their creed is. Their founder was an Englishman, John Fox, a tailor. There is another sect, called Ranters, who believe that nothing is vile or unlawful which nature desires. Another sect was called Levellers, enemies of all political order; they wished that all men should dress exactly alike, and that no one should be honoured more than another, and they frequently had to be punished for seditious conduct by the magistrates.


104. The Anglo-Calvinists are different from the Puritans, Independents, and Presbyterians, both in Church discipline and doctrine. Unlike all these sects, they have preserved the Episcopal Order, not alone as distinct from other offices, but as superior by Divine right; they retain a sort of form of consecration for Bishops; they ordain Priests, and confirm those who have received Baptism, and show some honour to the Sign of the Cross, which their cognate sects reject totally. Besides Bishops, there are Chancellors, Archdeacons, Deans, and Rectors of Parishes; they have preserved the Cathedrals, and have Canons and Prebends, who say morning and evening prayers, and the surplice is used as a vestment. They recognize both the orders of Priesthood and Deaconship. The King, according to the laws of Henry and Elizabeth, is head of the Church, and the fountain of all ecclesiastical authority. The Sovereign, they say, has the power of making new laws, and establishing new rites, with consent of the Metropolitan and Convocation; and his royal tribunal decides all judgments brought before it. He can, with his Council, decide on matters of Faith, publish ordinances and censures. Such are the powers granted to the Sovereign, in the work entitled, ” The Policy of the Church of England,” published in London, in the year 1683.


105. The Piscatorians were so called, from John Piscator, a Professor of Theology, and Pastor, at Herborne, a proud and vain man. He differed in several points with the Calvinists. He divided the justification of Christ into active and passive; the active he acquired by the holiness of his life the passive, by his sufferings; the active justification was profitable to himself alone the passive to us, and it is by this we are justified. It is, on the contrary, our doctrine, that Christ, by his labours and sufferings, gained merit both for himself and us; as the Apostle says: ” He humbled himself, being made obedient unto death… For which God exalted him, &c.” (Philip, ii, 8, 9). Hence God exalted him, both for the sanctity of his life, and for his passion. He, likewise, taught that the breaking of the bread in the ” Supper” was essential; and the academy of Marpurg embraced this opinion, but the other Calvinists did not. The Mosaic Law, he said, should be observed, as far as the judicial precepts go. He differed almost entirely with Calvin, regarding Predestination, the Atonement, Penance, and other points, and composed a new Catechism. He likewise published a new version of the Bible, filled with a thousand errors. Both himself and his doctrines were unanimously condemned by the Reformers.


106. Two other Calvinistic sects had their origin in Holland, the Arminians and Gomarists. Arminius or Harmensen, and Gomar, were Professors of Theology in the University of Leyden. In 1619, Arminius published a Remonstrance, and, on that account, his followers were called Remonstrants. In this writing, or Catechism, which in several articles comes near to the Catholic doctrine, he rejects eight errors of Calvin. The first error he attacks is, that God gives to the predestined alone, faith, justification, and glory; God, he says, wishes the salvation of all men, and gives all sufficient means of salvation, if they wish to avail themselves of them. He rejects the second error, that God, by an absolute decree, has destined many to hell before he created them; he says, that such reprobation is because of the sins they commit, and die without repenting of. Of the third error, that Christ has redeemed the elect alone, he says that no one is excluded from the fruit of Redemption, if he is disposed to receive it as he ought. The fourth error he reproves, is that no one can resist grace; this, he says, is false, for man by malice can, if he likes, reject it. The fifth error is, that he who has once received grace cannot again lose it; but he teaches that in this life we may both lose the grace received, and recover it again by repentance. Gomar (2), on the other hand, though a Professor in the same University, adopted all the dogmas of Calvin, and opposed Arminius and his Remonstrants with the greatest violence, and his disciples were called Anti- Remonstrants, and they accused the Arminians of Pelagianism. The dispute, at length, became so violent, that the States-General convoked a Synod, at Dort, to terminate it, and invited deputies from England, Scotland, Geneva, and other kingdoms. The Synod was held; but as almost all the deputies who attended were Calvinists, or differed but slightly from the Calvinistic doctrines, the Arminians were condemned, and the Gomarists got the upper hand. The States Chancellor, Barneveldt, and Hugo Grotius, took the part of Arminius, for which Barneveldt perished on the scaffold, and Grotius was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, but was saved by a stratagem of his wife, who obtained leave to send him a chest of books, to amuse him in his solitude; after a time, the chest was sent back, and, instead of the books, Grotius was concealed in it, and he thus escaped (3).


(1) Nat. Alex. t. 19, art. 13, sec. 3; Gotti, Ver. Rel. c. 312, sec. 1, 2.
(2) Nat. Alex. t. 19, c. 3, art. 11, sec. 13, n. 6.
(3) Nat. Alex. loc. cit.; Gotti, Ver. Rel. c. 12, sec. 2, n. 40; Dizion. Port, alia parola Grozio.