“today the consensus of sixteenth-century scholars is that the growth and organization of the Reformed faction in France into congregations was caused by pastors and books sent illegally into France from Geneva in the 1550s and early 1560s.”
— The Theology of the French Reformed Churches: From Henry IV to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes🔗
“It is unfortunate that the French delegation was prevented from attending the Synod of Dort. One is left to wonder: If Du Moulin had been allowed to participate in person, would he have been a significant moderating influence on the synod and the canons?”
— The Theology of the French Reformed Churches: From Henry IV to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes🔗
“Recent estimates put the number of Calvinists in France in 1560 at around two million, forming some 10 percent of the total French population.”
— The Theology of the French Reformed Churches: From Henry IV to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes🔗
“Calvin and Chandieu both saw the Reformed consistory as the continuation of the Jewish religious council at the time of Christ, namely, the Sanhedrin. Both exegeted Jesus’ saying in Matthew 18:16, “Tell it to the church,” according to what would have worked in the Jewish context of Jesus’ day: “Tell it to the church” had to mean, “Tell it to the governing body of the church, that is, the Sanhedrin/Consistory.”
— The Theology of the French Reformed Churches: From Henry IV to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes🔗
“In their system the autonomy of the local churches came first, but the need for all the churches to express their unity and to assist each other in doctrine, worship, ethics, and judicial appeals warranted self-imposed restrictions that prevented every church from “doing what was right in its own eyes.”
— The Theology of the French Reformed Churches: From Henry IV to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes🔗