Francois Hotman

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VirginiaHuguenot

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François Hotman (August 23, 1524 - February 12, 1590), French Huguenot lawyer and scholar, secretary to John Calvin, and author, contributed an important work in defense of Calvinist constitutional legal principles entitled Francogallia (1573), which is commended by Thomas M'Crie in The Life of Andrew Melville as being on par with George Buchanan's The Rights of the Crown in Scotland and [Philippe Duplessis-Mornay's] A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants.
 
While teaching Sunday School last Sunday regarding Kuyper's lecture on Calvinism and Politics the issue of resistance was brought up. I mentioned Hotman, Beza, and Philippe Duplessis-Mornay's works. What a rich heritage we have and yet it sits gathering cobwebs or worse demeaned as Constantinian...:(
 
:amen:

From the introduction to John Milton's The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates:

Francis Hotman has the distinction of being the first modern historian to search the annals of his own land in an endeavor to discover in the practices of earlier generations proofs that the people had set up and deposed kings at pleasure, and had instituted parliament to be a bridle to monarchs. On this account, his Franco-Gallia was an epoch-making book.
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It also deals with a subject that was important to another Calvinist political theorist, John Knox: it addresses the historic French constitutional provisions barring women from political leadership. As it was relevant in the days of Queen Mary of Scotland, and Catherine de Medici of France, so it is relevant as Hillary Clinton prepares to run for President of the United States.
 
You're confusing the two kingdoms. The State should be secular.

A Secular Faith by D.G. Hart

From the comments section
D.G. Hart:

Thanks Chris Rhoades for that compilation of Reformed worthies who would probably have me hanged. I am aware that a two-kingdom or separationist position is relatively novel. One read through Cochrane's anthology of 16th century creeds let me know that...

...Let me add that the older Reformed view of the magistrate was, I believe, the legacy of Constantinianism. Without the establishment of Christianity as the religion of the state/empire, I'm not sure we'd be having this debate.
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That was an interesting blog read -- thanks! Bill Chellis is advocating the precise view of civil magistracy to which I adhere, as you know, National Confessionalism/Establishment Principle. He was a pastoral candidate at my old RPCNA church, and I like what he has to say in that blog.

D.G. Hart's political views are consistent with the American revisions to the Westminster Confession, but not with the Biblical requirements for godly civil magistracy. He is usually a good historian but the Constantinianism comment is misguided.
 
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