Calvinism And The Religious Wars Essay, Research Paper

This book is about pretty much the beginning of Calvinism and how it played a

major role in the reforming of mid to late fifteenth century Europe. Franklin

Charles Palm tries to exam the role in which John Calvin used his love for the

sacred scriptures and religion to reform the way he lived, and the rest of the

world. Concentrating mostly on Europe at that time period. Palm breaks down the

life of Calvin at first, and then as he proceeds through this book he leads up

to actual formation of the religion. And ultimately then how this newly formed

religion affected or may off even caused some of the religious war. I

unfortunately could not find any info on Franklin Charles Palm, though I even

had one the librarians look for me to. I feel that Franklin Charles Palm was

really not trying to answer any certain question while he was attempting to

write this informative novel at all. In fact I think that his true purpose for

writing this was to give an accurate account of what role Calvinism played in

that time period, because from what I can understand he did not feel that there

was enough information readily available. His work in my own opinion is very

relevant to the study of history, and he has added another great resource to the

reference area for history in any library. I feel that his work does not offer

any resonably new information for students to learn, but it may present an

easier way of learning for those who are tired of reading the same old reference

books. This book does though coincide with most of the notes that we have taken

during class periods. This helps out greatly when writing papers and reviews for

essays and reports. Palm starts the novel out by explaining the early the early

life of John Calvin and explains his life with his family. It talks about his

father Gerad Calvin and his working as the secretary for the bishop of Nylon and

as the fiscal agent for his district in England. It states how this made it

possible for Calvin to meet some very influential people in his early life and

made it possible for him to start to develop ideas about religion and other

political views early on in life. When Calvin was at the age of entering college

it made it hard for him to do so with the death of his father, and his mother

having to support six children in the family. His father was able to set aside

some money before he passed on for Calvin which in turn allowed him to attend

the College at Montiaigu, at Paris for four years. This is where John developed

a love for the bible and a tremendous understanding for the scriptures, which

would in turn play a major role in his ideas for changing and for his reforming

of the Catholic Church. After discussing Calvin?s early life Palm went on to

talk about the Roman Catholic Church and how they developed a keen sense of

hated for Calvin. It stated what they were going to do with his writings and how

they were going to go about dealing with him. Which evidently lead to Calvin?s

exile from the country. Some of Calvin?s works, cited the problems that pretty

much most of the reformers saw wrong with the church. Such as, the sale of

indulgences which Luther and Erasmus displayed ever so prominently in their

attempts for reform. Gradually the book moves on to the more important issues of

the book. Certain things like the Religious wars. Also it talks about things

like his oppositions and the struggles he faced with Greut, Servetus, and his

triumph over all of them. It shows the certain economic importance this new

religion played in France at the time and the political and intellectual

importance of the new religion of Calvinism. When the religious wars broke out

in France and Francis the 1st proclaimed his development of absolutism it shows

how Calvinism was one of the major elements opposed to it. Once that Calvinism

was starting to take hold it displayed the spread of it throughout most of

Eastern Europe. Like when it started in Italy and Spain, and began to work its

way through Western Germany. Once the religion hit those sections it began its

spread throughout the vast regions of Western Europe too. Last but not least it

explains The Spread of Calvinism into the new world with the Huguenots, the

Pilgrims, and the Puritans. If there was any case that Franklin Charles Palm was

trying to prove in this book; it was the fact that Calvinism was an important

part in the reform of the way people would eventually go about their religions.

Also providing us a look into the future at the reform of the Roman Catholic

Church. In my opinion he did not really display a major argument with anything

thing in the text, but it was more or less an informative piece based about

Calvinism. If in deed you go with that argument then I guess you could say that

he indeed did provide excellent information and plenty of back round information

to prove his point. I was convinced buy his argument because of the fact that I

knew only what I had learned through out my studies in school and that this was

really the first time someone went into any kind of in depth study of the

situation. So in a way I was over whelmed with the amount off info and the

resources he used to discuss it. His resources included some valuable works of

history; like the Encyclopedia Britanica. It was quite confusing when I first

read the bibliography. He mentions that for a good basis on writing something on

this topic you should begin with certain books that he started off with. He

states that there was few books written on this topic and it may be tough for

someone without the knowledge of the subject to even begin to write on theses

situations. Now for the part I have been waiting for, the time I get to give my

opinion of the book. Well let me start of by saying that I personally thought

that it was going to be a very boring book but I was indeed surprised after

reading it. I have always thought to consider myself a sort off history buff so

I can see why in turn did enjoy learning about Calvin?s subject matter. I am

quite able to say now that I would probably consider reading other works of

Franklin Charles Palm or just books on some of the same subject matter. I would

recommend this book to anyone who has an interest for these subjects, or just

plan flat out needs to do a report on this topic.

Title ? Calvinism and the Religious Wars Place of Publication ? New York,

1971 Publisher ? Howard Fertig, Inc.