Help I Need A Spouse! (Part 2) | The Heidelblog
Notes
- In May 1559, Calvin wrote to Sir William Cecil, advisor to Queen Elizabeth II: “Two years ago, John Knox in a private conversation, asked my opinion respecting female government. I frankly answered that because it was a deviation from the primitive and established order of nature, it ought to be held as a judgment on man for his dereliction of his rights just like slavery—that nevertheless certain women had sometimes been so gifted that the singular blessing of God was conspicuous in them, and made it manifest that they had been raised up by the providence of God, either because he willed by such examples to condemn the supineness of men, or thus show more distinctly his own glory. I here instanced Huldah and Deborah. I added to the same effect that God promised by the mouth of Isaiah that queens should be the nursing mothers of the church, which clearly distinguished such persons from private women. Finally I added in conclusion, that since by custom, common consent, and long-established usage, it had been admitted that kingdoms and principalities might be by hereditary right transmitted to women, it did not seem proper to me that this question should be mooted, not only because the thing was odious in itself, but because in my judgment it is not permitted to unsettle governments that have been set up by the peculiar providence of God. Of the book I had not the slightest suspicion, and it had been published a whole year before I was aware of its existence.” He was distancing himself from Knox’s Monstrous Regiment of Women, which quoted Calvin to this effect and greatly offended Elizabeth. Letters of John Calvin, ed. Jules Bonnet (Logos Bible Software, 2009), 4:47.
https://heidelblog.net/2026/10/help-i-need-a-spouse-part-2/
