Brutus-Mornay #1: (His History)

The Great Bible Reset is a concept that refers to going back to the Book of the Covenant in Exodus 24 as a source of hope and deliverance. The Reformation, initiated by Martin Luther and continued by John Calvin, recovered the doctrine of salvation by faith alone, but they compromised by replacing God's law with natural law. John Knox, a leader in the Reformation, insisted on the Old Testament's relevance to political life. Brutus Morne, a Huguenot theologian, wrote Vendice contra Tyrannos to justify Protestant resistance, relying on natural law reasoning. The conflict between Catholics and Protestants in France resulted in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. The French Calvinists, or Huguenots, were pitted against the House of Guise. Brutus' emphasis on individual resistance contributed to secularized political theories of human rights. The resistance led to the Edict of Nantes, which granted Huguenots relief until it was Hello everybody, this is Oliver Woods, and welcome to TheGreatBibleReset.com. Now, what do we mean by that, The Great Bible Reset? Well, most of us are familiar with Klaus Schwab and his Great Economic Reset, and so our assertion and our theme here is that The Great Bible Reset, back to what God calls the Book of the Covenant in Exodus 24, is our only hope of deliverance. Exodus 20 contains the Ten Commandments, and that's followed by three chapters of what God calls ordinances that define the Ten Commandments. And then in Exodus 24, the final chapter there, we have the Oath to the Covenant and what God calls the Book of the Covenant. It's kind of like Book 1, the Ten Commandments, and Book 2, the Ordinances. We cannot separate them according to God. They're one book. Well, we're well into the heart of the Reformation now with a discussion of the work of Brutus Morne in 16th century France. So let's look at the historical context. The Reformation had started with Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg door in 1517. And that was articulated by John Calvin a bit later with his Institutes of the Christian Religion and Commentaries on the Bible. So these two men together recovered the doctrine of salvation by faith alone in the death and resurrection of Christ. Very important. However, both of them compromised the Reform by their fatal tendency to replace the law of God with so-called natural law related to a legal system for criminal justice. For example, Calvin taught that the civil ruler may legislate apart from the law of Moses depending on the situation. And this is a quote. For the statement of some, said Calvin, that the law of God given through Moses is dishonored when it is abrogated and new laws preferred to it is utterly vain. End of quote. So at this point we'd have to say that Calvin is utterly vain for preferring the natural law above the law of God. Well, during times of persecution in France, France, Holland, England, Scotland, leaders of the Reformation fled to Geneva where they were mentored by Calvin. And chief among these was John Knox who subsequently abandoned Calvin's dalliance with natural law insisting that the entire Old Testament was applicable to political life in New Testament times and specifically in its native Scotland. And this was based on passages such as 1 Timothy 1, 8-12 where numerous Old Testament laws are enumerated as a lawful use of the law today. Now, in this sense, Knox represented a high watermark of the Reformation in his interaction with Mary Tudor, otherwise known as Bloody Mary, for her persecution of the Reformers until her death in 1558. Shortly thereafter, James I, one year old, became King of Scotland on July 24, 1567. He was brought up with a classical Christian education by one of Knox's associates, George Buchanan, who at the time was the most distinguished man of letters and poetry that Scotland had then produced. He was a respected Christian humanist throughout Europe. Now, in 1579, Buchanan published his book Laws for the Kings of Scotland, which expanded, or some would say diluted, the biblical theories of his friend John Knox with theories of social contract that ranged across the entire spectrum of learned antiquity. According to Otto Scott in The Fool is King, the essence of this was that the rights of the people, as expressed in a majority, should prevail. If a tyrant abuses that understanding, the people have a right to resist, to overthrow, and to punish. Now, where Knox had talked of one kingdom, the kingdom of God, with Christ ruling over both church and state, his successors talked of two kingdoms, one of the world and one of the Lord. Buchanan's book joined with Dendisy Contra Tyrannos, which was written just slightly later by Brutus Morne in France, to steer the Reformation in a more secular stream of human rights and social contract. By the time James I was thirteen, George Buchanan, who had schooled hundreds, if not thousands, of young men, realized that he had failed. Much to the chagrin of the reformers. The conflict between Catholics and Protestants, or Huguenots in France, was often bloody. The proposed marriage of the Huguenot Duke of Navarre and the king's Catholic sister ended in the St. Bartholomew's Massacre of the Protestants in Paris. Brutus wrote Dendisy Contra Tyrannos, somewhat later, to moderate Catholics to justify the Protestant resistance. And because of his audience, he felt he had to rely heavily on natural law reasoning. So who was Brutus? Well, Brutus is the pen name of the Huguenot theologian Diplices Morne. He is the likely author of Dendisy Contra Tyrannos in 1579, published in 1579, sometime after the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. And he is known as the Huguenot Pope due to his effective leadership of the Huguenot military and his diplomacy. Now, the French Calvinists, or the Huguenots, were pitted against the Catholic faction the House of Guise. This was a bloody extended war. The royal family in France, headed by the weak king Charles IX, wavered between the two of them. He was torn between entreaties of Huguenot general Colligny and the despotic queen mother Catherine de Medici. Catholicism won out in France thanks to betrayal at the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572. Most of the Huguenot nobility were guests of the king were slain in their beds at Paris. The event was the wedding of the Duke of Navarre, a Huguenot, and the king's Catholic sister, Margaret of Valois. Catherine de Medici was the daughter of the powerful Florentine banking family during the Renaissance. They controlled banking, politics, and the church for about three centuries. And this family patronized the arts, including masters such as Raphael and Michelangelo. Two of them sat on the papal throne, Leo X and Clement VII. Political foes twice exiled them from Florence. Leo X transformed the papacy into the most feared political force in Italy. His lavish court, support of the arts, and remodel of St. Peter's Basilica soaked up money like a sponge. It led to papal indulgences and the Protestant Reformation. It was Leo's papal bull of excommunication and canon law that Luther burned during the Reformation. These defensive wars waged by the French Huguenots resulted in brilliant victories over the Catholics, the fruits of which were frequently given away by treaty. The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre was the culmination of this unfortunate, temporizing tendency. Subsequently, Brutus wrote Vendice contra Tyrannos to justify Huguenots' resistance in the eyes of the moderate French Catholics. And because of this, he felt constrained to rely on natural law sources in addition to the Bible. Unfortunately, that and Brutus' emphasis on the right of the individual to resist tyranny, apart from the lower magistrate, served as a bridge between Calvin and Knox and secularized political theories of human rights in 17th century England. However, the resistance sparked by Vendice led to the Edict of Nantes and nearly a century of peace between Protestants and Catholics. When that treaty was revoked by Louis IV in 1685, hundreds of thousands of Huguenots fled the country, leaving France to her long, slow descent into the French Revolution. So hindsight is always 20-20, but the French Christians may show by way of negative example the dangers of shifting our belief under persecution. The pressures on the Huguenots were intense over a long period of time, and who knows what the pampered modern church might have yielded to. The Waldensians and the Huguenots are certainly a sterling example of Christian heroism in trying times. The Waldensian preachers came first as traveling peddlers in the French Alps. They were organized by Peter Waldo, a wealthy lion's merchant, and they were treated savagely by the Dominican Inquisition. Even so, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre may have been God's judgment on the proposed mixed marriage. During the Catholic Wars, the peace-loving Huguenots often gave up by treaty what was gained by valor. Were the Huguenots now trusting an unholy pact for relief rather than God? The young Duke of Navarre, Henry IV, debated these issues in his own conscience before the marriage, but he was persuaded by his elders and his mother, who was a strong believer. However, heathen marriages lay at the heart of Nehemiah's reform after the Restoration. He exhorted the Jews, Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things, he demanded? Yet among many nations was there no king like him who was beloved of his God? Nevertheless, even him did outlandish women cause to sin. Henry IV remained an enigma. He converted between Protestant and Catholic several times. In 1598, he issued the Edict of Nantes, which Brutus helped to craft. It granted the Huguenots relief for nearly a century until revoked by Charles XIV in 1685. Thank you for joining us today. Please share this with your friends, greatbiblereset.com, and avail yourself of our podcast library at www.greatbiblereset.com. Please patronize our sponsors at kingslayclassicalacademy.com and the longevity store at boomers-alive.com where 15% of your purchases go to scholarships for low-income students at the school. So tomorrow we'll be delving into the teaching of Brutus Morne in quite a bit more detail.