Lewis Lupton: The Michelangelo of Chiswick

Best known as the author of the 25-volume A History of the Geneva Bible (London: Fauconberg Press; The Olive Tree, 1966-1994), which was indeed his magnum opus as Peter Toon once wrote, Lewis Lupton was not only a church historian and writer, but also an artist, storyteller, theologian and loving husband and father. As David Martyn Lloyd-Jones once put it, "Mr. Lupton has not only the eye of an artist but also the nose of the true historian, and above all the understanding of one well versed in the Reformed faith." In the words of J.I. Packer, Mr. Lupton was "[a]n artist with brush and pen as well as words and wisdom." The story of his life and legacy is one that deserves to be more widely known.

Born on July 18, 1909, in Fulham, London, as the oldest of seven children, Lewis Frederick Lupton (known as "Luppy" to some) was recognized early to have a gift for artistic talent. His family moved to Sheffield -- where they attended the Mount Olivet Strict Baptist Chapel -- when he was very young, and after leaving school at the age of 12, he was given a scholarship to study at the Sheffield College of Arts and Crafts for a period of seven years. This is where he met (Phyllis) Joan Ainger, the future Mrs. Lupton. 

[Lewis Lupton self portrait, 1929.]

After their marriage in 1934, they moved to London the following year. Mr. Lupton was asked by a fellow Sheffielder, Victor Askew, to join his commercial art studio, Askew Younge Studios. While there he worked on advertising projects for a wide range of firms including Marconi, and P and O. In 1939, Mr. Lupton illustrated both Kathleen Conyngham Greene, The Rector's Second Daughter; and James Cahill, The Pilot of Indian Leap. In 1940, he illustrated Brian Reed, The World Goes By Machines, and he was the illustrator for Wilfrid Robertson, The Island Plot (1942), for Christopher Beck, et al., The Triumph Book for Boys (1942), for Violet M. Methley, Derry Down-Under (1943) and for S.C. George, Eagle of the Desert (1943). The Luptons later became members of the North Rd. Strict Baptist Chapel, Brentford, and meanwhile, their son Jude was born in 1939.

During World War II, he exhibited several oil paintings in the Royal Academy, some of which were chosen to tour the country. He was also a keen water color painter and never traveled without his easel and paints. During the war he needed to develop further commercial art clients and found work with City Display Organisation. As a conscientious objector he chose not to take work promoting the war effort, but designed posters for the Ministry of Fuel and Power, and Dig for Victory campaign. The house where the family was living in Chiswick was destroyed by bombing in 1941, but Jude was rescued unharmed from his cot. The family lived in temporary accommodations until they bought their current home in 1944. Two daughters, Esther and Julia, were born after the war, and the family later settled at Gunnersbury Baptist church in Chiswick.

After the war he illustrated many books published by Scripture Union (formerly the Children’s Special Service Mission or CSSM), and was encouraged in his work by his boss, A Morgan Derham. In 1948 he illustrated Mr. Derham’s On the Trail of the Windward: A Story of the Norfolk Broads, followed by Mr. Derham’s The Cruise of the Clipper: A Story of the Norfolk Broads (1952) and Bluewater Mere (1954). He also illustrated many of the children's novels by Patricia St. John, such as The Tanglewoods’ Secret (1948), Treasures of the Snow (1950), Star of Light (1953) and Rainbow Garden (1960); and others such as Deborah Bennett, Jean’s Black Diamond: A Story of Australia (1951), Son of Diamond: A Story of Australia (1952) and Susan’s Conquest: A Story of Australia (1956); Joyce Reason, Laughter of the Desert (1952); David Britten, The Making of Stephen Hall (1954); Elisabeth Batt, The House With the Blind Window (1955), In Search of Simon (1956) and The Wilde Riders (1960); Christine Savery, Red Knights from Hy Brasil (1955); Leslie S. Ward, Touchdown to Adventure (1958); Will Maggs, Head-Hunters’ Moon (1958); Constance Savery, Flight to Freedom (1958); Margaret Barry, Julie Westaway (1958); Gordon Parke, Coffins for Traitors (1958); Mary Batchelor, All For Good (1958); Richard Armstrong, Sabatoge at the Forge (1960); Maurice Cox, Virginian Rebel (1960); Godfrey C. Robinson and Stephen F. Winward, In the Holy Land: A Journey Along the King’s Highways (1963); O.L. Rice, My Friend Linda (1976); and Elizabeth Mumford, Holiday in the Mountains (n.d.). His love of art and his Christian convictions led him to illustrate and design exhibitions for organizations such as The British and Foreign Bible Society, Strict Baptist Mission and Scripture Union (he illustrated, for example, John C. Pollock, The Good Seed, Story of CSSM & Scripture Union, 1959), and for The Evangelical Magazine. It was during his time at SU that he started writing, later entering Captured into their annual children’s writer competition.

[All For Good by Mary Batchelor, 1958.]

It was in 1959 that Mr. Lupton spoke at the Puritan Conference at Westminster Chapel. Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones after hearing his lecture encouraged him to publish his work. Mr. Lupton would go on to create the original logo for the publisher, Banner of Truth, as well as illustrate many cover sketches for Banner of Truth publications, including the design for the Geneva series of Bible commentaries. His artwork appears on two volumes by J.C. Ryle that were reprinted by Banner of Truth in 1960: Five Christian Leaders and Five English Reformers; as well as the 1960 BoT edition of James Bannerman’s classic, The Church of Christ.

An exhibition designer during and after WWII, Mr. Lupton once met the Queen Mother at the opening of the 1951 Faith of Britain exhibition, which he had designed. Too embarrassed to wear his hearing aid (he was deaf), he unable to hear what she said. In A History of the Geneva Bible, he noted “isolated as I am by deafness and devoted to my art, social relationships cannot be my strong point; yet, as I go about looking for subjects to sketch I am continually swept by waves of rapture for the physical world around me” (3:188-189).

It was after WWII that Mr. Lupton had an experience that was life-changing. He tells the story in the first volume of what would become the great work of his life, A History of the Geneva Bible (1:11-12):

It was on a sketching tour soon after the War that I fell in love with a [Geneva] Bible. It lay invitingly open in a window shop in Chichester. The left-hand page had an old map with galleons and sea monsters on it while the right had a gorgeously decorative title and border. It was early closing day so we drove on to Bosham with our easels and canvasses. But I always regretted missing that Bible and in the end, some three years later, I wrote to see if it was still there. It was, and thereby hangs this tale.

I soon found that there was more to the volume than met the eye, especially for people who feel a sneaking sympathy with those underdogs of our school history books -- the Puritans and Roundheads. I found that this old book was a real Puritan Bible. As I dug out more and more bits of information about it I found myself back in a thrilling world of romance, of little ships slipping their moorings at night, of galloping horses, of the roar of siege cannon, of snowy Alpine passes, of printing presses, of men who feared neither man nor devil, Queen nor Emperor, of a royal Duchess trudging a lonely road in pouring rain at midnight and carrying her husband's sword while he carried her baby, of love among exiles in foreign cities, of births, of deaths and a hundred other things of which I could write if this book were a Geneva quarto or one of Christopher Barker's great folios instead of a mere 20th century demy octavo.

This experience led Mr. Lupton to not only cherish the Geneva Bible and begin a 25-volume study of its history, but also contributed to his appreciation for and contributions towards hand-lettered calligraphy, which he used from volume eight forward, with a quill pen. The individual volumes are a treasure, because each has the feel of a book written especially for the reader.

[The first volume of Mr. Lupton's magnum opus.]

The preface to the fourth volume of A History of the Geneva Bible was written by Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and sheds more light on both the man and his magnum opus (4:7-8): 

For many years I had known of Mr. Lewis Lupton's interest in the Geneva Bible, and having heard his paper on the subject at a "Puritan Conference" some years back, I was delighted when he told me that intended publishing the story of its history in several volumes.

I have already greatly enjoyed the first three volumes and it is now my privilege to write this word of Introduction to the fourth volume.

All who have read the previous volumes will need no encouragement to read this one, but for the sake of those who may not have done so, I would call attention to certain special features of this series of books.

They are of unusual interest and importance at the present time. We have been bombarded by new translations of the Bible during the past twenty years, so it is particularly valuable to have this history of one of the most important and influential translations ever made.

Fortunately for us, however, Mr. Lupton does not confine himself solely to that theme. He rightly includes the entire history of that most fascinating period during which the shape of the different sections of the Christian church in Britain was being determined. At a time when the nature of the church and its form of government is constantly before us because of the various ecumenical activities, it is essential that all branches of the church should be familiar with their origins and factors that determined what happened.

Here we have it all in detail - the troubles at Frankfurt, the prejudices and the divisions, and the mighty influence of John Calvin at Geneva.

At the same time there are cameos of the great men of those days who were gathered together in various places, and who grappled with the great questions which are in our day and generation still burning and vital issues.

I am particularly glad that Mr. Lupton has "spread" himself. Far too often we are given mere summaries, or an expression of the prejudices of the author; but here, the facts are allowed to speak for themselves and we see these men who belonged to the second generation of Protestant leaders as they were, and as they met their daily problems.

At the same time we are led into what, from the purely theological standpoint, are most interesting by-paths, where we learn something about printing, art, etc. 

Personally I always find this type of book not only interesting but truly instructive and stimulating, and the larger the number of facts and details the better.

Mr. Lupton has not only the eye of an artist but also the nose of the true historian, and above all the understanding of one well versed in the Reformed faith. I need say nothing about the sheer delight to the eye of these volumes.

This particular volume is worthy of its predecessors and whets our appetite for what is yet to come.

It was also in the 1960's that Mr. Lupton set up (with others) The Fauconberg Press (named for Lady Mary, daughter of Oliver Cromwell, known as Countess Fauconberg), the publishing arm of the Strict Baptist Historical Society. Books he illustrated for TFP include J.H. Alexander, More Than Notion (1964) (a story of revival); Lewis Lupton, Red Indian Peril: The Story of John Eliot, the Apostle of the Red Indians, Translator of the Bible no-one can read and the First Protestant English Missionary (1965); Lewis Lupton, Captured: Being the Adventures of a Puritan Boy, Sandy Williams, of Deerfield in Massachusetts, New England, in the year 1704. How he was Captured by the Abenaki Indians; his residence in Canada and Acquaintance with Mademoiselle Carignan and other of the French Nobility, with all that he suffered at the hands of the Governor and Priests; together with an Account of the Remarkable Sequel now set forth by Lewis Lupton (1965); and Lewis Lupton, Behind Mr. Bunyan (1968) (a true story of Agnes Beaumont, who belonged to John Bunyan's Meeting). These stories engage not only younger but older readers as well (Captured has "A Preface for Young Older Folk," "Another Preface, For Younger Young Folk," and "An Introduction, For Nobody"). The prominent theme in these works is a desire on the part of the writer/illustrator to bring church history alive and make Puritan Christianity relevant to our day.

[Portrait of Lewis Lupton by Julia Button from Captured, 1965.]

Mr. Lupton shared personal remarks often in his History of the Geneva Bible, and the last volume he published (it was considered “unfinished” at the time of his death in 1996) contains interesting comments he made in the postscript. In the context of describing his appreciation for the influence of Dr. J.I. Packer, Dr. D.M. Lloyd-Jones and Rev. Peter Toon, he had this to say about what the “rediscovery” of Puritan theology meant to him personally.

Another plank in our ‘Puritan’ platform was called the ‘Banner books,’ reprints of puritan tomes, splendidly printed, a venture of the greatest value, which still does much good worldwide. These excellent works are puffed on their way by a magazine, of which I count No. 11 as a turning point in my thinking, for it was devoted to the ‘Free Offer.’ Brought up on predestinarian Baptist preaching, and confirmed in the same by studies of, and around, the Geneva Bible, I was familiar with its rediscovery at Geneva, Beza’s chart of ‘double’ predestination, and the perils of ‘hypercalvinism.’ Therefore the ‘Banner’s’ summary of the Biblical doctrine of the ‘well meant’ offers of mercy to all, brought pure joy to my troubled heart, while Boston’s ‘Fourfold State,’ wiped the last vestige of a frown from my Father’s face. (25:111)

In 1968, Mr. Lupton toured the area around Christ Church, Spitalfields, a place known to history for its warm embrace of French Huguenot refugees. He wrote about his experience and provided illustrations of his tour, which are available to see here.

The Olive Tree published a facsimile reprint of Anne Locke’s 1560 English translation of the French Sermons of John Calvin upon the Song that Ezechias made after he had been sick and afflicted by the hand of God, contained in the 39^th chapter of Isaiah (modernized English title), along with her poetic meditation on Psalm 51 under the title Mrs. Locke’s Little Book (1973).

[Portrait of Lewis Lupton by Joan Lupton.]

A man who loved the visual as well as the written word, he illustrated the ceiling of his house showing the gospel from Genesis to Revelation (which was featured in the 1989 Observer). It was painted in oils directly on the plaster. He created a similar illustration on the ceiling of another house. Those who have seen the ceilings continue to marvel about them to this day.

He died on July 16, 1996. Almost exactly two years later, Joan passed away on July 2, 1998. His three children (Jude, Esther and Julia) still own the Lupton house, and Jude lives there to this day. Mr. Lupton has been memorialized in several places. The Strict Baptist Historical Society published his obituary, as did Iain Murray in the October 1996 Banner of Truth Magazine [I have just read Mr. Murray's tribute to his friend shortly before publishing this article, and it is a wonderful encomium]. A page in his honor tells the story of his life and highlights his skill as an illustrator in Donald L. Brake and Shelly Beach, A Visual History of the King James Bible: The Dramatic Story of the World's Best-Known Translation (2011), which also includes many varied and beautiful illustrations by Mr. Lupton. Peter Toon, the great Anglican minister and historian, in Puritans and Calvinism (1973) (whose 1967 book Hypercalvinism, was published by Mr. Lupton's The Olive Tree), had this to say in his preface about Mr. Lupton: 

I dedicate this book to two men, both of whom are twice my age.  They have never met but they share a common enthusiasm for all that is best in Puritan divinity.  First, by reason of his greater age, is Norman F. Douty of Pennsylvania, preacher, teacher and theologian.  This year he celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the Christian ministry in the Baptist denomination.  He has given me the privilege of seeing through the press for him his major study entitled The Believer’s Union with Christ to be published by Reiner Publications in April 1973.  Second, Lewis F. Lupton, artist, historian and theologian.  Two of his paintings hang in my house and his portraits of my wife and me are in my study.  He is engaged in publishing a truly magnum opus, a History of the Geneva Bible in at least seven volumes, four of which have appeared already.  Enriched by beautiful illustrations, the books are published by Mr. Lupton’s own publishing house, The Olive Tree of Chiswick, London.

In researching this article, I have corresponded with his daughter Julia, and a number of others who have known Mr. Lupton over the years. Many have offered me testimonies of his character, anecdotes of his life, and access to his works. I am greatly indebted to each of them. I would note also that Mr. Phil Roberts of Tentmaker Publications has rights to the reprinting of A History of the Geneva Bible, and some volumes have already been reprinted.

[The Resurrection Tree by Lewis Lupton.]

In 1965, Mr. Lupton wrote of himself, “For the last decade he has devoted much of his time to the illustration of Christian literature. He now finds the appeal of the three creative activities, writing, painting, and drawing almost equally balanced. Like most people with artistic gifts he is spurred on by the hope of producing some work of lasting merit, but at middle age it still remains to the seen whether he will make any permanent mark.” There are no statues standing in London so far as this writer knows to honor "the Michelangelo of Chiswick." Charles Spurgeon once wrote, however, that “A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.” We have precious writings and beautiful illustrations to cherish from Mr. Lupton's hand. But his legacy lives on most particularly in the hearts of his loved ones, and those who knew him - and those who wish they had known him. 

Falling in Love With the Geneva Bible

Lewis F. Lupton, History of the Geneva Bible, Vol. 1, pp. 11-12:

It was on a sketching tour soon after the War that I fell in love with a [Geneva] Bible. It lay invitingly open in a window shop in Chichester. The left-hand page had an old map with galleons and sea monsters on it while the right had a gorgeously decorative title and border. It was early closing day so we drove on to Bosham with our easels and canvasses. But I always regretted missing that Bible and in the end, some three years later, I wrote to see if it was still there. It was, and thereby hangs this tale.

I soon found that there was more to the volume than met the eye, especially for people who feel a sneaking sympathy with those underdogs of our school history books -- the Puritans and Roundheads. I found that this old book was a real Puritan Bible. As I dug out more and more bits of information about it I found myself back in a thrilling world of romance, of little ships slipping their moorings at night, of galloping horses, of the roar of siege cannon, of snowy Alpine passes, of printing presses, of mean who feared neither man nor devil, Queen nor Emperor, of a royal Duchess trudging a lonely road in pouring rain at midnight and carrying her husband's sword while he carried her baby, of long among exiles in foreign cities, of births, of deaths and a hundred other things of which I could write if this book were a Geneva quarto or one of Christopher Barker's great folios instead of a mere 20th century demy octavo.

Psalm 124

The setting to Psalm 124 that we know as Old 124th was composed by Louis Bourgeois and appeared in the 1551 Genevan Psalter entitled Pseaumes Octante Trois de David (Eighty-Three Psalms of David). The psalm itself is a song of hope and has been sung on many special occasions celebrating God's providential deliverances.

It sung by the Jews at the Feast of Purim to commemorate their deliverance from the schemes of Haman.

In Scottish church history, it is known as "Durie's Psalm" because it was sung after John Durie (1537-1600), who had been banished from Edinburgh for critical remarks against King James VI of Scotland, was readmitted to the city in 1582. James Melville wrote in his diary:

Within few days after the petition of the nobility, John Durie gat leave to ga haim to his ain flock of Edinburgh; at whase returning there was a great concours of the haill toun, what met him at the Nether Bow; and going up the street, with bare heads and loud voices, sang to the praise of Goed, and testifying of great joy and consolation, the 124th Psalm, "Now Israel may say, and that trewly," till heaven and earth resoundit. This noise, when the Duke (of Lennox), being in the toun, heard, and ludging in the Hiegate looked out and saw, he rave his beard for anger, and hasted him off the toun.

The event known to Genevans as L'Escalade, which occurred in 1602, was a great deliverance in the history of the Protestant Church. The Duke of Savoy launched a surprise attack on the night of December 11-12 and it was repelled by the city's defenders. Theodore Beza led the city in service of praise to God afterwards at which Psalm 124 was sung.

In 1900, as the Boxer Rebellion got underway, persecution against American missionaries intensified and many were killed. But in August, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions received a cable quoting Psalm 124.7: "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we are escaped." The cable reported that twenty-missionaries and eleven children who had been missing for 73 days, and were believed to be dead, were in fact alive and safe.

Spontaneous singing of this psalm occurred in the English Parliament after the end of World War II and after Holland's liberation from the Nazis in May 1945.

Lewis Lupton, A History of the Geneva Bible, Vol. 5, p. 85:

This psalm to Bourgeois' tune is an impressive expression of joy at sudden deliverance and has preserved its vitality through the centuries. When liberation came so dramatically to Holland in 1945 Dutch people flocked into the streets and squares in their thousands singing this psalm (in Dutch of course) to this tune. The English version was sung at St. Margaret's, Westminster, on May 8th, 1945, when the House of Commons attended in state. Sir Winston Churchill and many other Members were much struck by it. For my own part the studies connected with the Geneva Bible have become part of my life, and on more than one occasion this psalm has meant as much to me as it did to oppressed believers in bygone days.

As we sing this psalm in our day, the counsel of John Brown of Haddington holds true:

This psalm is highly applicable to every remarkable deliverance which God works for his church, especially to the great redemption wrought for his people by Christ. In it, (1.) David magnifies the danger they were in, ver. 1-5. (2.) Ascribes the glory of their deliverance to God, ver. 1-2, 6-7. (3.) Improves the deliverance as an encouragement to trust in God, ver. 8.

Let me behold Jehovah as a present help in trouble. Let my waiting eyes be towards him, who, notwithstanding all the combined power and policy of hell and earth, is able and ready to pull my feet out of the net.

1 Now Israel
may say, and that truly,
If that the Lord
had not our cause maintain'd;
2 If that the Lord
had not our right sustain'd,
When cruel men
against us furiously
Rose up in wrath,
to make of us their prey;

3 Then certainly
they had devour'd us all,
And swallow'd quick,
for ought that we could deem;
Such was their rage,
as we might well esteem.
4 And as fierce floods
before them all things drown,
So had they brought
our soul to death quite down.

5 The raging streams,
with their proud swelling waves,
Had then our soul
o'erwhelmed in the deep.
6 But bless'd be God,
who doth us safely keep,
And hath not giv'n
us for a living prey
Unto their teeth,
and bloody cruelty.

7 Ev'n as a bird
out of the fowler's snare
Escapes away,
so is our soul set free:
Broke are their nets,
and thus escaped we.
8 Therefore our help
is in the Lord's great name,
Who heav'n and earth
by his great pow'r did frame.

Old 100th

'Old 100th' or 'Old Hundredth', also known as 'All People That on Earth Do Dwell,' is one of the most famous and beloved Christian Church tunes of all time. Some today recognize it in connection with or association to The Doxology (1674) by Thomas Ken ('Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow'). But the tune has its origins in the Huguenot or Genevan Psalter of 1551, entitled Pseaumes Octante Trois de David (Eighty-Three Psalms of David). However, in that Psalter the tune was associated with Psalm 134 (as translated by Theodore Beza), not Psalm 100. As a musical composition, its authorship has been ascribed to Claude Goudimel (who did compose a polyphonic arrangement), Guillaume (William) Franc (Le Franc) (1520-1570) and Martin Luther, among others. Nineteenth century scholarship pointed to Franc, in particular, as the composer. However, modern scholarship, primarily based on the discovery of a single surviving copy of the 1551 Psalter, which was deposited in the library at Rutgers University (a facsimile copy was made in 1973), indicates that the actual composer is understood to be Louis Bourgeois. Bourgeois got in trouble with the Genevan magistrates for unauthorized compositions associated with that particular Psalter, but his friendship with Calvin, who recognized his talents, enabled him to leave prison and resume his work.

The tune was not associated with Psalm 100 until the publication of the 1561 Anglo-Genevan Psalter (Four Score and Seven Psalms of David). It was employed along with an arrangement of this psalm by William Kethe, although initially ascribed to Sternhold & Hopkins. The tune was also used in the same psalter with a versification of the Lord's Prayer by William Whittingham. It took the name "Old 100th" later to distinguish from the "new" Psalter by Tate and Brady.

One may enjoy listening to the tune and reading the lyrics to 'All People That on Earth Do Dwell' here (note that the last stanza is a doxology and not part of Psalm 100).

Lewis Lupton, A History of the Geneva Bible, Vol. 5 (1973), pp. 87-88:

The most interesting feature of this edition [ie., the 1561 edition of the Anglo-Genevan Psalter] is the inclusion for the first time of the Old Hundredth 'All people that on earth do dwell'. Surprisingly enough it is under the signature of Tho. Ster:

The explanation is that Kethe translated this psalm (which was written to fit a tune composed by Louis Bourgeois for psalm 134 in Beza's Psalter of 1551) after he had left Geneva in 1560 on his way to Britain....In the English black letter edition [a copy of the 1561 Anglo-Genevan Psalter printed in England rather than Geneva] the hundredth psalm is attributed to Kethe (Psalme C. W.Ke.) at the foot of the previous page to that on which the psalm begins which is, of course, the reason the Genevan printers failed to notice the author's name and substituted the most likely one they could think of.
...
As far as the tune of the 'Old Hundredth' is concerned, its introduction into Britain would appear to be due to Whittingham as well as Kethe.

Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God (Part 1)

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5.29)

"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." -- This famous saying of both Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin is said to have been on the epitaph of John Bradshaw (1602-1659), a British judge who presided over the trial of King Charles I, when his body was re-interred in Jamaica (where it was taken by his son to protect it from the fury of the Restoration towards regicides).

"Men must be governed by God, or they will be ruled by tyrants." -- William Penn

"Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants." -- Benjamin Franklin

As our nation draws closer to another Fourth of July commemoration of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, I thought it would be worthwhile to trace some of the known or probable influences of history upon the writing of our national Declaration of Independence and to quote relevant extracts [I am cognizant of the fact that Thomas Jefferson was not a professing Christian, and that many Enlightenment influences among the American Founding Fathers of the late 18th century have affected our nation for ill, particularly with respect to the U.S. Constitution, but this series of posts concerns the major influences upon our other national charter, many of which were Calvinistic].

* c. 410 -- Augustine, Sermon 12 [Ben. 62] on the New Testament (Matt. 8.8 and 1 Cor. 8.10) (the chronology of Augustine's sermons is difficult to pin down precisely):

Do we lift up ourselves unto pride, or tell you to be despisers against the powers ordained? Not so. Do ye again who are sick on this point, touch also that border of the garment? The Apostle himself saith, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. He then who resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.”

But what if it enjoin what thou oughtest not to do? In this case by all means disregard the power through fear of Power. Consider these several grades of human powers. If the magistrate enjoin anything, must it not be done? Yet if his order be in opposition to the Proconsul, thou dost not surely despise the power, but choosest to obey a greater power. Nor in this case ought the less to be angry, if the greater be preferred.

Again, if the Proconsul himself enjoin anything, and the Emperor another thing, is there any doubt, that disregarding the former, we ought to obey the latter? So then if the Emperor enjoin one thing, and God another, what judge ye? Pay me tribute, submit thyself to my allegiance. Right, but not in an idol’s temple. In an idol’s temple He forbids it. Who forbids it? A greater Power. Pardon me then: thou threatenest a prison, He threateneth hell. Here must thou at once take to thee thy “faith as a shield, whereby thou mayest be able to quench all the fiery darts of the enemy.”

* 1100 -- The Charter of Liberties issued by Henry I of England, upon his accession to the throne, made public his voluntary submission to the principle of Lex Rex, that is, that he as prince was under the law and bound to uphold the law.

* c. 1159 -- John of Salisbury, a friend and biographer of Thomas Becket, himself a martyr for ecclesiastical liberty, wrote Policratus, the first modern European justification of tyrannicide.

For myself, I am satisfied and persuaded that loyal shoulders should uphold the power of the ruler; and not only do I submit to his power patiently, but with pleasure, so long as it is exercised in subjection to God and follows His ordinances. But on the other hand if it resists and opposes the divine commandments, and wishes to make me share in its war against God; then with unrestrained voice I answer back that God must be preferred before any man on earth. Therefore inferiors should cleave and cohere to their superiors, and all the limbs should be in subjection to the head; but always and only on condition that religion is kept inviolate.

* June 15, 1215 -- The Magna Carta, England's first charter of citizen liberties, was promulgated.

1. We have in the first place granted to God and by this our present charter have confirmed, for us and our heirs forever, that the English Church shall be free and shall have its rights entire and its liberties inviolate. And how we wish [that freedom] to be observed appears from this, that of our own pure and free will, before the conflict that arose between us and our barons, we granted and by our charter confirmed the liberty of election that is considered of prime importance and necessity for the English Church, and we obtained confirmation of it from the lord pope Innocent III — which [charter] we will observe ourself and we wish to be observed in good faith by our heirs forever. We have also granted to all freemen of our kingdom, for us and our heirs forever, all the liberties hereinunder written, to be had and held by them and their heirs of us and our heirs.

* 1265-1274 -- Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica was written, wherein he opposes tyrannicide but upholds the right of resistance to tyrants. Summa Theologica II-II, q. 42 (Concerning Sedition), a. 2:

A tyrannical government is not just, because it is directed, not to the common good, but to the private good of the ruler, as the Philosopher states (Polit. iii, 5; Ethic. viii, 10). Consequently there is no sedition in disturbing a government of this kind, unless indeed the tyrant's rule be disturbed so inordinately, that his subjects suffer greater harm from the consequent disturbance than from the tyrant's government. Indeed it is the tyrant rather that is guilty of sedition, since he encourages discord and sedition among his subjects, that he may lord over them more securely; for this is tyranny, being conducive to the private good of the ruler, and to the injury of the multitude.

* August 1, 1291 -- The Schweizer Bundesbrief, Switzerland's national charter, was signed, documenting the Eternal Alliance, or League of the Three Forest Cantons. The signers were known as Eidgenossen, or Confederates, a term that has been proposed as the possible etymological origin of "Huguenot."

* April 6, 1320 - The Declaration of Arbroath (signed among others by Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray (d. 1332) -- whose uncle was Robert the Bruce -- an ancestor of Thomas Jefferson) was a declaration of Scottish independence from England.

But from these countless evils we have been set free, by the help of Him Who though He afflicts yet heals and restores, by our most tireless Prince, King and Lord, the Lord Robert. He, that his people and his heritage might be delivered out of the hands of our enemies, met toil and fatigue, hunger and peril, like another Macabaeus or Joshua and bore them cheerfully. Him, too, divine providence, his right of succession according to or laws and customs which we shall maintain to the death, and the due consent and assent of us all have made our Prince and King. To him, as to the man by whom salvation has been wrought unto our people, we are bound both by law and by his merits that our freedom may be still maintained, and by him, come what may, we mean to stand.

Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom -- for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself

* 1536-1560 -- John Calvin, while opposing rebellion by individual citizens, upheld the principle of interposition of lesser civil magistrates, Institutes, 4.20.31:

I speak only of private men. For when popular magistrates have been appointed to curb the tyranny of kings (as the Ephori, who were opposed to kings among the Spartans, or Tribunes of the people to consuls among the Romans, or Demarchs to the senate among the Athenians; and perhaps there is something similar to this in the power exercised in each kingdom by the three orders, when they hold their primary diets). So far am I from forbidding these officially to check the undue license of kings, that if they connive at kings when they tyrannise and insult over the humbler of the people, I affirm that their dissimulation is not free from nefarious perfidy, because they fradulently betray the liberty of the people, while knowing that, by the ordinance of God, they are its appointed guardains.

* 1556 -- John Ponet published A Short Treatise of Politike Power (commended by John Adams).

Chapter VI. Whether It Be Lawful To Depose An Evil Governor, And Kill A Tyrant.
...
Now for as much as there is no express positive law for punishment of a tyrant among Christian men, the question is, whether it is lawful to kill such a monster and cruel beast covered with the shape of a man. And first for the better and more plain prose of this matter, the manifold and continual examples that have been from time to time of the deposing of kings, and killing of tyrants, do most certainly confirm it to be most true, just and constant to God's judgment. The history of kings in the Old Testament is full of it.

But now to prove the later part of this question affirmatively, that it is lawful to kill a tyrant: there is no man that can deny, but that the ethnics (although they had not the right and perfect knowledge of God) were endued with the knowledge of the law of nature.

For it is no private law to a few or certain people, but common to all: not written in books, but grafted in the hearts of men: not made by man, but ordained of God: which we have not learned, received or read, but have taken, sucked, and drown it out of nature: where unto we are not taught, but made: not instructed, but seasoned: and (as St. Paul says) man's conscience bearing witness of it.

This law testifies to every man's conscience, that it is natural to cut away an incurable member, which (being suffered) would destroy the whole body.

* 1557-1644 -- The Geneva Bible's marginal notes incurred royal wrath for their opposition opposition to tyranny (see Lewis Lupton's summary of this point here).

To be continued...

Geneva Bible Contra Tyranny

Lewis Lupton, A History of the Geneva Bible, "Vision of God," Vol. 5, pp. 138-139, describes the Genevan marginal notes on the subject of civil tyranny thus:

AGAINST TYRANNY

A mixture is in these [Geneva] notes, wherein most are pious and proper to expound their respective places, but some (and those too many though never so few) are false, factious, dangerous, yea destructive to religion. I could therefore wish some godly discreet persons were empowered and employed to purge forth the latter, that the rest may remain without danger for the profit of plain people. But till this be done, I am, I thank God, old enough to eat fish, feeding on the flesh thereof, and laying by the bones on my trencher, or casting them down to the dog. Thomas Fuller, The Appeal of Injured Innocence, 1659.

LOSELY ALLIED to hatred of cruelty was hatred of tyranny. Induced by persecution it evoked republican attitudes in firm aristocrats! 'Gyantes,' Gensis 6 v. 4 were 'tyrants which usurped autoritie over otheres and did degenerate from yt simiplicitie wherein their fathers lived'. Nimrod, 'ye mighty hunter before the Lord', Genesis 10 v. 9 was counted 'a cruel oppressor & tyrant. His tyrannie came into a proverbe as hated bothe of God and man: for he passed not to commit crueltie even in Gods presence.' Rulers were exhorted to be kind. Deuteronomy 17 v. 20. 'Kings oght so to love their subjects, as nature bindeth one brother to love another.' They cited Mordecai as an example. Esther 10 v. 3. 'These thre pointes are here set forth as commendable and necessarie for him that is in autoritie: to have the favour of the people: to procure their welth, & to be gentle and loving toward them.' They had experienced other kinds of rule. I Samuel 11 v. 2 'The more nere that tyrants are to their destruction the more cruel thei are.' But God would deal with them. Judges 9 v. 54 'his page thrust him through.' 'Thus God by suche miserable death taketh vengeance on tyrants even in this life.' There might even be occasions when it was right to kill them. I Samuel 26 v. 9 'Iehu slew two kings at Gods appointment.' To say nothing of driving his chariot over Jezebel! 2 Kings 9 v. 33 'This he did by the mocion of the Spirit of God, yt her blood shulde be shed, that had shed the blood of innocents, to be a spectacle and example of Gods judgements to all tyrants.' Small wonder Stuart monarchs failed to appreciate this version!