Expansionist Calvinist Theocracy in Europe

I'm not a big fan of Calvinist theology and I was once in a bad mood, compared Calvinism with Islam (due to predestination and the obsessions some Calvinists have with gender roles and abolishing the separation of church and state), and thought that John Calvin and Oliver Cromwell were both the closest thing Europe had to Muslim Caliphs.

Regardless of whether or not that's an accurate analogy, that got me thinking...

What might be required to get an expansionist Calvinist "empire" in Europe? In "For Want of a Shove," where Luther never becomes a monk, Calvin ends up becoming co-ruler of a giant Reformed state in southern Germany. I asked Dreadnought Jenkins if he intended Calvin to be the new Caliph of some kind of empire but he said that he didn't.

For the purposes of this scenario, Calvin need not be the Emperor--he could play the role of Mohammed, with his successors engaging in the whole wave-of-conquests thing.
 
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Apparently, Lyra's world in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials had John Calvin as Pope.

www.wisegeek.com said:
While in our world John Calvin was an important Protestant thinker, who based himself in Geneva, in Lyra's world apparently there was no true Protestant Reformation, and instead the Church simply adopted many Protestant ideals.

Pope John Calvin moved the seat of the Church to Geneva, and began a process of decentralization. When he died, the Papacy itself was abolished, and the Magisterium became a much more bureaucratic, less centralized body. The Magisterium held a tight rein on society, perhaps as a result of having no turmoil between Protestant and Catholic divisions, and in the time of the books has retained control over most of society.

The Magisterium is the ultimate political, social, and religious body in these books. It dictates what can be taught, controls most of the world's governments, and reacts brutally to dissent. The Magisterium is a distinctly religious organization, and bears many similarities to the Catholic Church during the time of the Inquisition.

Because of its decentralization, the Magisterium is also full of political infighting. Various factions vie for larger degrees of power, and are often played against one another. It is made apparent in the book that different groups within the Magisterium are withholding information from each other, in order to further their own political agendas. The three most powerful of these factions appear to be the General Oblation Board, the Society of the Work of the Holy Spirit, and the Consistorial Court of Discipline.

The General Oblation Board operates ex cathedra in many ways, and is seemingly responsible to neither the Consistorial Court of Disciple nor any other organization. Their primary task is to destroy Dust, which is viewed as a physical manifestation of Sin itself. In order to accomplish their goal, they are given free rein and have accrued immense power.

The Consistorial Court of Discipline is, as its name suggests, the disciplinary branch of the Magisterium. They investigate all claims of heresy, and have free rein to punish and kill as they see fit. The Court is a small, tight-knit group run by twelve fanatical priests, who see their work as keeping the Magisterium pure.

The Society of the Work of the Holy Spirit is a research branch of the Magisterium. Whereas the Consistorial Court of Discipline charges people with heresy and punishes them accordingly, the Society of the Work of the Holy Spirit acts to look into heresies and to place them into categories. They are essentially a scientific organization, although working within the strict confines of the Magisterium's doctrine. They investigate the nature of Dust, and of the various other universes, for example, even though these things are considered heretical by the Magisterium itself.
 
Calvinism was extremely popular. It had adherents as far afield as Scotland and Transylvania. The problem ofcourse was that it was opposed by not only the Catholics but also the Lutherans who perceived, atleast after the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, that the Calvinists were probably the greater threat to their own religion.

If you by-pass Luther then you have a vast clutch of butterflies to deal with.

A Calvinist southern Germany is probably going to be difficult. I suppose you could have Zwingli and the others be much more successful, only for Calvin to co-opt their movements a generation later but that could be messy. Its probably easier to postulate a Calvinist 'revolution' for want of a better term in France. Calvin obviously couldn't become king (well.. it could be interesting fiction but I think it would fail with regards to plausability), but its not impossible that he could gain influence there. As it was the civil wars didn't really begin untill Calvin was dead so timing might be a problem.

On Germany you could have Calvin convince Melanchton of the rightness of his doctrine, which would effectively sunder the Lutherans and permit the spread of Calvinist doctrine.

Edward VII living a bit longer in England would be enough to make England reformed.

With that the Reformed Church could control Scotland, England, France, swathes of Germany, Prussia (well, if the people could be converted), Transylvania, Bohemia and Poland. That would probably be enough to be going on with.
 
Just because a state has got a Reformed church doesn't mean that the state will automatically join a Calvinist Caliphate.

After all, Catholic France fought alongside Protestants to humble Catholic Austria.

In the "Giant Switzerland" thread, someone commented that Zwingli was a Calvinist Ayatollah (not sure about that but I know Calvin himself was), so perhaps a more successful Zwingli might be helpful.
 

Jasen777

Donor
There might be a possibility in the Netherlands, Calvinism was tied up into politics there. IIRC, Calvinists wanted a stronger unity state while their looser confederation opponents were largely Arminian. Things go a bit differently perhaps a Netherlands with a strong state church that seeks expansion at the H.R.E's expense can happen.
 
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