Tracts & Letters (Vol 3) - Calvin - I - Translators preface & Tract 1 commenced

Required reading
Tracts and Letters (Volume 3) by John Calvin (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read the 'Translator's preface' and begin Tract I (Canons and decrees of the council of Trent, with the antidote) by reading 'John Calvin to the pious reader', 'Admonition and exhortation of the legates of the Apostolic See to the Fathers in the Council of Trent' and 'Calvin's preface to the antidote'.

My summary
Today we begin volume three by firstly reading the translator's preface which gives an overview of the contents of the book.  Beveridge's opening statement is a nice summary: 'The Tracts of the present volume, four in number, have been selected partly on account of their own intrinsic value, and partly on account of the great additional interest which recent occurrences have given to some of the subjects considered in them. They contain lucid discussions on all the leading points in the Popish controversy, furnish whole-some advice in answer to a question which once was, and will probably again become, of great practical importance ; and refute the wild dogma which a kind of infidel fanaticism had devised, asserting, that in the interval between death and the final judgment the soul remains in a state of sleep or unconscious existence. All the Tracts sustain the reputation of their distinguished author ; and, considering their controversial nature, are not often chargeable with the virulent spirit and intemperate language in which the controversialists of Calvin's age were too prone to indulge.'

Next we read the Calvin's preface to the reader and then the Roman Catholic's opening admonition from the council of Trent which asserts their authority and their desire to tackle three problems springing from the Reformation: heresies, decay of discipline, intestine and external war.

We then begin to read Calvin's antidote to this admonition which exposes the lack of authority of the council to make any authoritative decisions.

What grabbed me
Calvin really knew his opponents: 'The mask which the Roman Pontiff has placed on the eyes of men is one by which no seeing man can be deceived. When, ten years ago, a Council was everywhere talked of, and the belief accordingly was, that the Pope could no longer by equivocation escape from collecting his flocks in good earnest, and bulls of citation had begun to fly about, I for my part conjectured that the summonses founded on the bulls would gradually go off into smoke. For I remembered another bull of Mantua, under the pontificate of Pius II, which, after much swelling talk, had instantly vanished.'

The bulls and councils of men come and go.  But the authoritative word of God endures forever.

Next week's reading
Continue Tract I (Canons and decrees of the council of Trent, with the antidote) by reading up to (but not including) the 'First decree of the fifth session of the Council of Trent'

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.