Do Polemismo Teológico ao Político: João Calvino e João Knox: Divergências Doutrinárias. Repercussões em Portugal

In the present chapter I shall highlight the conflicting readings that the reformers John Calvin and John Knox made of the doctrine of passive obedience and that of active resistance to the authorities found in the Bible, and the impact they had on the reformation of the Church in sixteenth-century England and Scotland. Furthermore, I shall succinctly discuss how such readings contributed to the political and philosophical debate of the day that legitimized the ousting of regimes that arbitrarily imposed a faith Knox believed idolatrous, and beckoned the dawn of modern democratic regimes. In addition, I extended the present discussion to include both the role the Scottish humanist and reformer George Buchanan played in historical events ensuing the reformation of the Church of Scotland, after his short stay in Portugal, where he was persecuted and condemned for heresy by the Lisbon Inquisition, as well as that of Robert Reid Kalley, a Scottish doctor who was also persecuted for his proselytizing endeavours in Madeira, in mid-nineteenth century, as I believe they both contributed to enlighten many Portuguese regarding the tolerability of arbitrary powers, both ecclesiastic and civil.