[Milton-L] attitudes to Calvin

[Daniel W. Doerksen]

I have two questions for my colleagues in literary and/or historical 
studies involving England in the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods. (I 
am sending this to the Milton, Ficino, and H-Albion lists.]

According to Andrew Pettegree, a tally of the revised Short Title Catalogue 
of Books Printed in England, 1475-1640 indicates that English editions of 
Calvin's works "easily outstripped all other continental writers, and 
dwarfed the production of native English theologians." Pettegree also 
reports that Leedham-Green's substantial survey of books recorded in 
Cambridge wills, carefully analyzed, confirms "the preeminent position of 
Calvin as the dominant theological influence in Elizabethan England." He 
cites Francis Higman's bibliographical studies showing that England was 
"far and away the biggest market for Calvin's work in translation." The 
fact that translaters and patrons of Calvin's works in English included 
both puritans and people linked with the church establishment suggests that 
the preeminence of those works depended on Calvin's "ability to appeal 
simultaneously to both the Elizabethan establishment and the emerging 
radical opposition," thus pointing to what has been called the "Calvinist 
consensus" (Pettegree, "The Reception of Calvinism in Britain," in Wilhelm 
H. Neuser, ed. Calvinus Sacrae Scripturae Professor: Calvin as Confessor of 
Holy Scripture [Eerdmans 1994],  281-83).

What I would like to know is: (1) What attitudes (undoubtedly a varying 
range) did the English have toward Calvin the person and the writer during 
the period 1558-1640? I am particularly interested in documentable 
evidence, such as the comments on Calvin I have already found in Hooker's 
Laws and in Donne's Sermons. (2) What attitudes do present-day scholars of 
literature and religion of that period have toward Calvin the person and 
the writer?

Thank you very much for any help you can give me.
Daniel W. Doerksen, Ph.D.,  Honorary Research Professor (English)
University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B. Canada
CURRENT ADDRESS: 207 5656 Halley Avenue, Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5H 2P8 
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