Thanks to C or C for posting this. We need more Beza in our lives.
R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
More by R. Scott Clark ›
On the side, I was suprised about how Turretin wrote about this doctrine. I don’t understand what the difference would be after Christ’s virgin birth. God kept His Word.
The entire essay sounds like something written in the Patristic era, or possibly by Launcelot Andewes. It is valuable at least for showing how
truly Patristic and genuinely Catholic the Reformers were.
Yes, I knew that the PV is a commonplace among 16/17th century Reformed and Lutherans. I bring it up not for the sake of Mariology, but because this fact sheds some light on how they understood Scriptura sola. As I grasp SS, it does not rule out the place of Catholic Tradition as embodied in the patristic writings (which they quoted incessantly) but is aimed at the radical Reformation which promoted private revelations and religious experience.
I am trying to make a case for SS which will make sense to Anglicans. Am I on the right track?
I think so. You might take a look at my book on Olevian and also RRC where I deal with the relations between the Reformation and catholicity. The Reformers were consciously, intentionally catholic. William Perkins defended the catholicity of the Reformed faith explicitly against the Romanist claims.
Nota bene:
“he was conceived and born of this virgin Mary, virgin, I say, before and after the birth. ”
Semper Virgo!
For some reason Beza felt it was necessary to say this. Apart from continuing in the Patristic tradition of the Blessed Virgin’s perpetual virginity, what could that have been?
This was a commonplace among the Reformed in the 16th and 17th century. They had the highest regard for the BVM.
I think your supposition of the patristic influence is right. I don’t know enough to add more.
His Little Book on Christian Questions and Answers was translated by Kirk Summers and published by Pickwick Publications (1986). I fondly call this book “a Little Sample of Protestant Scholastic Delights.”
One thing that is interesting about this book is how similar some of the answers are to the answers found in WLC. Especially Q/A # 6.
Thanks Stephen.
That’s a good reminder. Those two works and several others need to be reprinted,
When may we see more of Beza’s works in English?
There is a bit of Beza in English but not enough.
http://www.wscal.edu/clark/beza.php
Theodore Beza, The Christian Faith, trans. J. Clark (East Sussex: Focus Christian Ministries Trust, 1992)
http://wscal.edu/clark/protschol.php
Classic Reformed Texts in English Translation
prepared by Patrick J. O’ Banion M A. (Westminster Seminary California), 2001
Orthodox Reformed Writers Available in the Early English Books
(all reel numbers are from the 1475-1640 series unless otherwise noted)
A brief declaration of the chief points of Christian religion set forth in a table – Reel #173 (1575?)
Christian mediations upon eight psalms – #411 (1582)
A brief and pithy sum of the Christian faith – #451 (1565?); #279 (1589)
A discourse of the true and visible marks of the catholic church – #411 (1582?); #1537 (1622, 1623)
A discourse containing the life and death of John Calvin – #173 (1564); #451 (1578)
Patched pelagianism – #642 (1578)
Job expounded (with Ecclesiastes) – #279 (1589?)
On the three-fold order of bishops – #279 (1589)
A little catechism – #411 (1578, 1579); #1807 (1579)
Sermons on the first three chapters of the Canticle of Canticles – #279 (1587)
An oration made at the nunnery of Poyssy(?) – #1195 (1561); #174 (1562)
The pope’s cannons: wherein the masters of the Sorbonne are confuted – #452 & 174 (1585)
The Psalms of David truly opened and explained – #1470 (1580); #452 (1590)
A book of Christian questions and answers – #1537 (1574); #452 (1578); #1721 (1586)
Treatise on the plague – #377 (1580)
A tragedy of Abraham’s sacrifice – #174 (1577)
The treasure of truth: touching the ground work of man’s salvation and the chief points of the Christian religion – #452 (1576)