Reformed Exiles and International Calvinism in Reformation-Era Europe

Abstract

This chapter evaluates the role of religious exile in the development of confessional Calvinism during the Reformation era. Historians once put considerable emphasis on the widespread experience of exile in encouraging the development of a well-defined international Calvinist movement. This chapter reconsiders this framework from the perspective of theology, ecclesiology, liturgy, discipline, and the relationship to state authority. Drawing on recent research, it argues that, rather than encouraging confessional consolidation, exile was a deeply destabilizing force that helps explain why Reformed Protestantism never developed a unified institutional structure, liturgical practice, or statement of belief.