This book is about pretty much the beginning of Calvinism and how it played a
major role in the reforming of mid to late fifteenth century Europe. Franklin
Charles Palm tries to exam the role in which John Calvin used his love for the
sacred scriptures and religion to reform the way he lived, and the rest of the
world. Concentrating mostly on Europe at that time period. Palm breaks down the
life of Calvin at first, and then as he proceeds through this book he leads up
to actual formation of the religion. And ultimately then how this newly formed
religion affected or may off even caused some of the religious war. I
unfortunately could not find any info on Franklin Charles Palm, though I even
had one the librarians look for me to. I feel that Franklin Charles Palm was
really not trying to answer any certain question while he was attempting to
write this informative novel at all. In fact I think that his true purpose for
writing this was to give an accurate account of what role Calvinism played in
that time period, because from what I can understand he did not feel that there
was enough information readily available. His work in my own opinion is very
relevant to the study of history, and he has added another great resource to the
reference area for history in any library. I feel that his work does not offer
any resonably new information for students to learn, but it may present an
easier way of learning for those who are tired of reading the same old reference
books. This book does though coincide with most of the notes that we have taken
during class periods. This helps out greatly when writing papers and reviews for
essays and reports. Palm starts the novel out by explaining the early the early
life of John Calvin and explains his life with his family. It talks about his
father Gerad Calvin and his working as the secretary for the bishop of Nylon and
as the fiscal agent for his district in England. It states how this made it
possible for Calvin to meet some very influential people in his early life and
made it possible for him to start to develop ideas about religion and other
political views early on in life. When Calvin was at the age of entering college
it made it hard for him to do so with the death of his father, and his mother
having to support six children in the family. His father was able to set aside
some money before he passed on for Calvin which in turn allowed him to attend
the College at Montiaigu, at Paris for four years. This is where John developed
a love for the bible and a tremendous understanding for the scriptures, which
would in turn play a major role in his ideas for changing and for his reforming
of the Catholic Church. After discussing Calvin’s early life Palm went on to
talk about the Roman Catholic Church and how they developed a keen sense of
hated for Calvin. It stated what they were going to do with his writings and how
they were going to go about dealing with him. Which evidently lead to Calvin’s
exile from the country. Some of Calvin’s works, cited the problems that pretty
much most of the reformers saw wrong with the church. Such as, the sale of
indulgences which Luther and Erasmus displayed ever so prominently in their
attempts for reform. Gradually the book moves on to the more important issues of
the book. Certain things like the Religious wars. Also it talks about things
like his oppositions and the struggles he faced with Greut, Servetus, and his
triumph over all of them. It shows the certain economic importance this new
religion played in France at the time and the political and intellectual
importance of the new religion of Calvinism. When the religious wars broke out
in France and Francis the 1st proclaimed his development of absolutism it shows
how Calvinism was one of the major elements opposed to it. Once that Calvinism
was starting to take hold it displayed the spread of it throughout most of
Eastern Europe. Like when it started in Italy and Spain, and began to work its
way through Western Germany. Once the religion hit those sections it began its
spread throughout the vast regions of Western Europe too. Last but not least it
explains The Spread of Calvinism into the new world with the Huguenots, the
Pilgrims, and the Puritans. If there was any case that Franklin Charles Palm was
trying to prove in this book; it was the fact that Calvinism was an important
part in the reform of the way people would eventually go about their religions.
Also providing us a look into the future at the reform of the Roman Catholic
Church. In my opinion he did not really display a major argument with anything
thing in the text, but it was more or less an informative piece based about
Calvinism. If in deed you go with that argument then I guess you could say that
he indeed did provide excellent information and plenty of back round information
to prove his point. I was convinced buy his argument because of the fact that I
knew only what I had learned through out my studies in school and that this was
really the first time someone went into any kind of in depth study of the
situation. So in a way I was over whelmed with the amount off info and the
resources he used to discuss it. His resources included some valuable works of
history; like the Encyclopedia Britanica. It was quite confusing when I first
read the bibliography. He mentions that for a good basis on writing something on
this topic you should begin with certain books that he started off with. He
states that there was few books written on this topic and it may be tough for
someone without the knowledge of the subject to even begin to write on theses
situations. Now for the part I have been waiting for, the time I get to give my
opinion of the book. Well let me start of by saying that I personally thought
that it was going to be a very boring book but I was indeed surprised after
reading it. I have always thought to consider myself a sort off history buff so
I can see why in turn did enjoy learning about Calvin’s subject matter. I am
quite able to say now that I would probably consider reading other works of
Franklin Charles Palm or just books on some of the same subject matter. I would
recommend this book to anyone who has an interest for these subjects, or just
plan flat out needs to do a report on this topic.

Bibliography
Title – Calvinism and the Religious Wars Place of Publication – New York,
1971 Publisher – Howard Fertig, Inc.