AuthorJohn Calvin
First printed1559
ShelfDogmatics & systematics
StatusIn rotation
Dogmatics & systematics
Institutes of the Christian Religion
John Calvin ⬩ 1559
Book IV is where my essays on the magistrate come from.
Read as a pastor's handbook rather than a system, the Institutes stop being intimidating. Calvin on civil government is more careful, and more sober, than either side of the internet argument wants him to be.
"There is no kind of government more happy than where liberty is framed with becoming moderation."
Institutes IV.xx.8