Fear God Honor the King: Magisterial Power and the Church in the Reformation Circa 1470-1600

From a medieval perspective God had provided a church to shepherd believers toward salvation. It had a divine mission a sacred history a hierarchy of officers and the intellectual support of respected thinkers. It provided a means for believers to interact with God. Believers also had to interact with neighbors strangers and their rulers. Fear God Honor the King considers that sometimes surprisingly problematic issue. What is the correct relationship between the church believers and the ruling magisterial authority (whether alderman mayors or kings)? The thinkers of the Reformation era produced many answers. They explained in a variety of ways how the church related to or fit in with or was separate from or was controlled by the temporal government of the realm and they set into motion what became the determinant factors--social political economic and philosophical--underpinning modern Western societies determination to keep the church and the state in well-defined autonomous cubicles. The Reformers rival ideas ushered in new philosophies (such as conciliarism and localism) as well as directly conflicting doctrines (such as Luthers two kingdoms or Bucers co-terminus). This book examines compares and explains these new theories using the voices of the Reformers themselves.