Honest as a Huguenot

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, p. 283:

"Honest as a Huguenot" was as proverbial in the seventeenth century as the respect for law of the Dutch which Sir. W. Temple admired, and, a century later, that of the English as compared with those Continental peoples that had not been through this ethical schooling.

Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, p. 376:

The Huguenots made up the industrious artisan class of France and to be "honest as a Huguenot" became a proverb, denoting the highest degree of integrity.

Nathaniel MacFetridge, Calvinism in History, p. 123:

Outside of the circle of the Huguenots there was indeed but little that deserved the name of morality in France. Their honesty was so remarkable that even among their bitterest enemies it was proverbial. To be "honest as a Huguenot" was deemed the highest degree of integrity. And while they were stigmatized by the Roman Catholics as "heretics," "atheists," "blasphemers," "monsters vomited forth of hell," and the like, not one accusation was brought against the morality and integrity of their character. "The silence of their enemies on this head is," says Smiles, "perhaps the most eloquent testimony in their favor."

Samuel Smiles, The Huguenots: Their Settlements, Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland, pp. 134-135:

The Huguenot's word was as good as his bond, and to "honest as a Huguenot" passed into a proverb. This quality of integrity -- which is essential in the merchant who deals with foreigners whom he never sees -- so characterized the business transactions of the Huguenots, that the foreign trade of the country fell almost entirely into their hands.

William Maxwell Blackburn, Admiral Coligny, and the Rise of the Huguenots, p. 189:

"Honest as a Huguenot" was the proverb coined in his honour, and made current through long generations. As a neighbour, he was just and truthful; as a civilian, rare in his integrity and observance of law; as an artisan or a tradesman, he attended to his own affairs, and his goods had their value upon their very face; as an official he could be trusted with untold gold, and happy was the Pharoah who had such a Joseph at court. When Romanist noble or king wished for an honest man, to whom he could entrust life and property, he drew into his service a Huguenot. Even Charles IX. retained, to the last hour of his life, the old Huguenot nurse who had rocked his cradle, and he would have no other physician than Ambrose Pare, the chosen surgeon of his grandfather. Among all the Italian poisoners, Catherine knew that her children were safe when such a man dealt out the medicines. And she, too, must have her Huguenot ladies to succeed the trustworthy Madame de Chatillon and Madame de Roye. She long felt safest when Coligny was at the court. This compliment to Huguenot integrity was paid everywhere, down to the latest times.

Remembering Loraine Boettner

Loraine Boettner, American Presbyterian theologian, died twenty years ago today, on January 3, 1990. It is worthwhile to pause and remember his contributions to the church. His writings did much to popularize and make respectable the Reformed Faith in 20th-century America. Some of his works which were particularly influential upon me include The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (which helped to make famous the TULIP acronym); Roman Catholicism; The Millennium (a fair look at the spectrum of eschatological viewpoints which advocates postmillennialism); The Christian Attitude Towards War; and Calvinism in History. Some of these and other writings are available online still at an archived site known as The Loraine Boettner Anthology.

The following biographical sketch comes from Theopedia.com, which is extracted from that of the PCA Historical Center. Another brief biography written by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon is available online here.

Loraine Boettner (1901-1990) a Reformed Theologian, born on a farm in Linden, Missouri. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree from Tarkio College in 1925, he attended Princeton Theological Seminary where he studied Systematic Theology under Dr. Casper W. Hodge and received his Th.B. (1928) and Th.M. (1929). He taught Bible for eight years in Pikeville College, Kentucky. In 1933 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Tarkio College, and in 1957 the degree of Doctor of Literature. He was a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. From 1958 until his own death in 1990, Dr. Boettner lived a quite life in Rock Port, Missouri. For the remaining 32 years of his life, he generously sold his books at cost to any who wrote to ask for them. In doing so, Boettner made good conservative theology readily available at a time when such material was often difficult to come by. Through his writings, he served to popularize the Reformed faith and influenced literally tens of thousands of men and women around the world.

Finding TULIPs

Some time ago, I blogged about the Five Points of Calvinism, commonly referred to today as TULIP. At the time, I wrote that:

It is generally believed that Loraine Boettner was the first to coin the TULIP acrostic as a mnemonic device for easier memorization in his 1932 book, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination.

Recently, however, Wayne Sparkman, Director of the PCA Historical Center, has uncovered documentation which shows that the mnemonic device was used before Boettner, although in a slightly different form.

William H. Vail, "The Five Points of Calvinism Historically Considered," The New Outlook, Vol. 104 (May-August 1913), p. 394:

Some eight years ago [ie., 1905] I had the privilege of hearing a popular lecture, by Dr. [Cleland Boyd] McAfee (1866-1944), of Brooklyn, upon the Five Points of Calvinism, given before the Presbyterian Union of Newark, New Jersey, which was most interesting as well as instructive. To aid the mind in remembering the Five Points, Dr. McAfee made use of the word Tulip, which, possessing five letters, lends itself nicely to the subject in hand, especially as it ends with the letter P, as will be seen later.

Taking the five letters, Dr. McAfee used them as follows:

1st, T stands for Total Depravity.
2d, U " " Universal Sovereignty.
3d, L " " Limited Atonement.
4th, I " " Irresistable Grace.
5th, P " " Perseverance of the Saints.

It will be noticed that McAfee's acrostic employs "U" to represent "Universal Sovereignty," while Loraine Boetter's "U" represents "Unconditional Election." Boetter also refers to "Total Inability" rather than "Total Depravity." Nevertheless, it appears, based on this research, that credit should go to Dr. McAfee for the earliest usage of the TULIP acrostic to convey the Five Points of Calvinism, and to Mr. Sparkman for bringing this fascinating bit of history to our attention.

Emilé Doumergue's Biography of John Calvin

Loraine Boettner has noted (Calvinism in History)that "beyond comparison the most exhaustive and authoritative work ever published on [John] Calvin" is Emilé Doumergue's (1844-1937) massive seven-volume biography written in French, Jean Calvin: Les hommes et les choses de son temps (1899-1927). Jean-Daniel Benoît, author of Jean Calvin: La Vie, l'homme, la pensée (1933), describes his own biography (only 275 pages) as constituting "the quintessence of the seven big volumes of my old master, dear Emile Doumergue."

Although it has never been translated into English (except for brief portions here and there), Domergue's seven-volume biography is -- happily for those who read French -- available to read online:

Vol. 1
Vol. 2
Vol. 3
Vol. 4
Vol. 5
Vol. 6
Vol. 7

In the course of preparing this blog post, I came across an undated letter by Doumergue which was for sale at auction which includes the following remarks (translation provided by the auctioneer):

" ... So what has caused you to know my name, is my work on Calvin, - a work of which seven volumes have appeared and of which the eighth and last volume without doubt will appear shortly; it is finished ... "

This raises a question which I would love to clarify. Is there, in fact, an eighth and final volume which has never been published? If so, does it exist in manuscript somewhere? Inquiring minds, who consider Doumergue to be the premier biographer of the premier theologian of the Reformation, would like to know.

Tip-Toeing Through the TULIPs

In 1552, the German Lutheran Joachim Westphal coined the term 'Calvinism,' which he opposed strenuously. The system of theology represented by this label may be traced back further, however, to 1536, when John Calvin first published his Institutes, and even further back to the theology of Augustine and, indeed, Paul and our Lord Jesus.

It was not until the Dutch Remonstrants put forward their five articles of Arminianism that the Orthodox Reformed were forced to articulate what became known as the 'Five Points of Calvinism' in response at the Synod of the Dordt. The Canons of Dordt express these Five Points of Calvinism brilliantly, but the English translation of this document is not the source of the acrostic that is commonly associated today with the Five Points: TULIP. Nor is this acrostic to be traced directly to the famous tulip mania of the Dutch Golden Age which followed soon after the Synod of Dordt.

As Robert Dabney summarized the Five Points in the 19th century, they are: 1) Original Sin; 2) God's Election; 3) Particular Redemption; 4) Effectual Calling; and 5) Perseverance of the Saints. It is generally believed that Loraine Boettner was the first to coin the TULIP acrostic as a mnemonic device for easier memorization in his 1932 book, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. As he put it:

The Calvinistic system especially emphasizes five distinct doctrines. These are technically known as "The Five Points of Calvinism," and they are the main pillars upon which the superstructure rests. In this section we shall examine each of these, giving the Scripture basis and the arguments from reason which support them. We shall then consider the objections which are commonly brought against them.

As will be shown, the Bible contains an abundance of material for the development of each of these doctrines. Furthermore, these are not isolated and independent doctrines but are so inter-related that they form a simple, harmonious, self-consistent system; and the way in which they fit together as component parts of a well-ordered whole has won the admiration of thinking men of all creeds. Prove any one of them true and all the others will follow as logical and necessary parts of the system. Prove any one of them false and the whole system must be abandoned. They are found to dovetail perfectly one into the other. They are so many links in the great chain of causes, and not one of them can be taken away without marring and subverting the whole Gospel plan of salvation through Christ. We cannot conceive of this agreement arising merely by accident, nor even being possible, unless these doctrines are true.
...
The Five Points may be more easily remembered if they are associated with the word T-U-L-I-P; T, Total Inability; U, Unconditional Election; L, Limited Atonement; I, Irresistible (Efficacious) Grace; and P, Perseverance of the Saints.

And so a flower was born. Since then, some Calvinists have devised other acrostics which they feel better express the doctrines of grace in the Calvinistic system of theology which the Five Points are designed to convey (see Roger Nicole, Timothy George, Michael Horton, R.C. Sproul, Sr., James Boice and Philip Ryken, for instance). There is also an Arminian daisy (I have not attempted to trace this origin of this). But the TULIP, like a flower that bends yet does not break, continues to thrive.

As William Perkins, one of the authors of A Garden of Spiritual Flowers, put it, in his Golden Chain, the doctrine of the Reformed is "that the cause of the execution of God’s predestination, is his mercy in Christ, in them which are saved; and in them which perish, the fall and corruption of man; yet so, as that the decree and eternal counsel of God, concerning them both, hath not any cause beside his will and pleasure." And thus, as Paul wrote 2,000 years ago, our salvation is by grace: "And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work." (Rom. 11.6)

To God be the glory for his magnificent grace.