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while the religious motive was primary, political expediency was
also a factor in this struggle; for the Calvinists generally constituted
minorities in the countries where Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism,
or Lutheranism enjoyed an established status. Because of their minor
ity status the Calvinists generally demanded constitutional govern
ment. For this reason, too, Nichols points out, Roman Catholics,
particularly in England and France, also attempted under similar cir
cumstances to impose limitations upon the Protestant monarchs, and
thus their contribution to the development of constitutional govern
ment was second in importance only to that of the Calvinists.9
Despite the fact that some of the early Calvinists on the Continent
do not seem to have been as strong advocates of the ideas of popular
sovereignty, government by consent, natural rights, and the duty to
resist tyranny as he implies, Nichols’ over-all account of the historical
development of constitutional government is generally sound. He does,
however, fail to do justice to the insistence of Christians from the
beginning that the sovereignty of rulers is limited by the sovereignty
of God. To be sure, this belief does not necessarily lead to the de
velopment of constitutional governments; it may only mean that the
state is subordinate to the church which in turn exercises absolute
power. Moreover, it is also true, as Nichols recognizes, that the
principle of constitutional government may itself be used as an instru
ment of tyranny on the part of the majority or even of a strong
religious minority. Indeed, sixteenth-century Calvinism, although it
prepared the way for the development of democracy in England in
the seventeenth century, was not itself democratic. Puritanism became
democratic in England only after the Nonconformists there had added
to the Calvinist tradition three additional elements: the concept of
a “gathered church,” the belief in the presence and guidance of the
Holy Spirit in the fellowship of the church, and the doctrine of the
separation of church and state.10 The first of these concepts issued in
the development of the congregational form of church government and
contributed to the growth of political democracy—especially to the
rise of the contract theory of political government—by its emphasis
upon the consent of the governed. Implicit in the belief in the continu
ing guidance of the Spirit was a genuine trust in the value of group
discussion as a way of discovering truth and also a recognition of the
duty of each to participate in this process. Finally, there was implicit
9 Nichols,
op. cit.,
p. 20.
10
Ibid.,
pp. 32 ff.
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Biblical Faith and Social Ethics