Calvinism, Anti-Calvinism, and the Admonition Controversy in Elizabethan England

Abstract

This chapter examines English understandings of Calvin and Calvinism during the reign of Elizabeth I. In particular, it focuses on the ‘Admonition Controversy’ of the 1570s, when puritan demands for further reformation stoked disputes with official church leadership. The dispute began in 1572 with the appearance of a pair of incendiary pro-Presbyterian pamphlets, the Admonition to the Parliament and the Second Admonition to the Parliament, but would continue for decades, and is now largely known for the long-running theological debate that ensued between John Whitgift and Thomas Cartwright. An examination of the roots of the controversy, however, reveals that perceptions of Calvinism in England were coloured by far more than a shared doctrinal outlook or theological consensus. For some of the Elizabethan bishops, most especially, Calvin and the Genevan model of reformation were not only associated with an uncomfortable history of religious conflict, but were also tainted by a political theology that had the potential to destabilize the English state.