Nothing is more remarkable in the history of the
sixteenth century than the effect of Calvinism in levelling distinctions
of rank and in steeling and ennobling the character of common men. In
Scotland, in the Low Countries, in France, there was the same
phenomenon. In Scotland, the Kirk was the creation of the preachers and
the people, and peasants and workmen dared to stand in the field against
belted knights and barons, who had trampled on their fathers for
centuries. The artisans of the Low Countries had for twenty years defied
the whole power of Spain. The Huguenots were not a fifth part of the
French nation, yet defeat could never dishearten them. Again and again
they forced Crown and nobles to make terms with them. It was the same in
England. The allegiance to their feudal leaders dissolved into a higher
obligation to the King of kings, whose elect they believed themselves to
be. Election to them was not a theological phantasm, but an enlistment
in the army of God. A little flock they might be, but they were a
dangerous people to deal with, most of all in the towns on the sea. The
sea was the element of the Reformers. The Popes had no jurisdiction over
the winds and waves.
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