Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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Thus the Reformation of the sixteenth century is the mother or
grandmother of at least half a dozen families of evangelical denominations,
not counting the sub-divisions. Lutheranism has its strength in Germany
and Scandinavia; the Reformed Church, in Great Britain and North
America.
The Reformed Confession has developed different types. Travelling
westward with the course of Christianity and civilization, it became more
powerful in Holland, England, and Scotland than in Switzerland; but the
chief characteristics which distinguish it from the Lutheran Confession
were already developed by Zwingli and Calvin.
The Swiss and the German Reformers agreed in opposition to Romanism,
but the Swiss departed further from it. The former were zealous for the
sovereign glory of God, and, in strict interpretation of the first and second
commandments, abolished the heathen elements of creature worship; while
Luther, in the interest of free grace and the peace of conscience, aimed his
strongest blows at the Jewish element of monkish legalism and selfrighteousness.
The Swiss theology proceeds from God’s grace to man’s
needs; the Lutheran, from man’s needs to God’s grace.
Both agree in the three fundamental principles of Protestantism: the
absolute supremacy of the Divine Scriptures as a rule of faith and practice;
justification by free grace through faith; the general priesthood of the laity.
But as regards the first principle, the Reformed Church is more radical in
carrying it out against human traditions, abolishing all those which have no
root in the Bible; while Luther retained those which are not contrary to the
Bible. As regards justification by faith, Luther made it the article of the
standing or falling Church; while Zwingli and Calvin subordinated it to the
ulterior truth of eternal foreordination by free grace, and laid greater stress
on good works and strict discipline. Both opposed the idea of a special
priesthood and hierarchical rule; but the Swiss Reformers gave larger
scope to the popular lay element, and set in motion the principle of
congregational and synodical self-government and self-support.
Both brought the new Church into Close contact with the State; but the
Swiss Reformers controlled the State in the spirit of republican
independence, which ultimately led to a separation of the secular and
spiritual powers, or to a free Church in a free State (as in the free churches
of French Switzerland, and in all the churches of the United States); while
Luther and Melanchthon, with their native reverence for monarchical