Prefatory Address to King Francis I of France
Charges of Antogonists Refuted: Newness, Uncertainty, the Value of Miracles (3)
1. How does Calvin respond to the charge that the teaching of the Protestants is a novelty?
2. If it is new, in what way is it new?
3. In response to the charge that this teaching is uncertain or doubtful, how does Calvin turn the tables?
4. In what way did miracles confirm the Protestant teaching? In what way not?
5. How did Calvin respond to the miracles that were purported to have established the teaching of Rome?
Prefatory Address to King Francis I of France
Misleading Claim That the Church Fathers Oppose the Reformation Teaching (4)
1. If the contest between the forces of Reformation and those opposed to it were to be decided through an appeal to the church fathers alone, which way would it go?
2. Were the church fathers without fault in what they taught? And what did the Roman church do with those faults? What illustration does Calvin use to portray this?
3. Does Calvin sidestep the teaching of the fathers, or does he cite them to support his teaching?
4. If the fathers were alive in Calvin’s day, what is the last thing they would suppose the “sophists” of Rome were discussing?