“All the Fathers with one heart execrated, and with one mouth protested against, contaminating the word of God with the subtleties of sophists, and involving it in the brawls of dialecticians. Do they keep within these limits when the sole occupation of their lives is to entwine and entangle the simplicity of Scripture with endless disputes, and worse than sophistical jargon? So much so, that were the Fathers to rise from their graves, and listen to the brawling art which bears the name of speculative theology, there is nothing they would suppose it less to be than a discussion of a religious nature.”

— John Calvin , book Institutes of the Christian Religion

Prefatory Address, p. 22
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)

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John Calvin 161

French Protestant reformer 1509–1564

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John Calvin 161

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