LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Reformation: Presbyterian Church
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[O]ne of the chief means employed in promoting the spread of the Reformation was the use of violence by the princes and the municipal authorities. Priests who remained Catholic were expelled and replaced by adherents of the new doctrine, and the people were compelled to attend the new services. The faithful adherents of the Church were variously persecuted, and the civil authorities saw to it that the faith of the descendants of those who had strongly opposed the Reformation was gradually sapped. In many places the people were severed from the Church by brutal violence; elsewhere to deceive the people the ruse was employed of retaining the Catholic rite outwardly for a long time, and prescribing for the reformed clergy the ecclesiastical vestments of the Catholic worship. The history of the Reformation shows incontestably that the civil power was the chief factor in spreading it in all lands, and that in the last analysis it was not religious, but dynastic, political, and social interests which proved decisive. Add to this that the princes and municipal magistrates who had joined the Reformers tyrannized grossly over the consciences of their subjects and burghers.
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The Second Reformation is a clarion call; it is about returning the people of God back to the simple truths of His Gospel and obedience to His eternal Law. The Second Reformation is not simply revival, but wholesale transformation. This Second Reformation echoes the beginnings of God’s call for His faithful people to leave a wayward and apostate church which has been built more on man’s errant traditions than on God’s simple Commandments.
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The Reformation teachings of John Calvin were foundational in the development of modern Europe and North America. Calvin’s concept of the separation of church and civil government – where each stand independent of each other yet recognise each others Divine authority, supporting each other within their own spheres – transformed Western Civilisation. Calvin’s ideals of religious toleration, representative government, constitutionalising the monarchy, establishing the rights and liberties of citizens and the Christian Work ethic – in which secular society is seen as sacred (whereby the arts, crafts, sciences and industries are all developed for the glory of God) led to the industrial and scientific revolutions developing the most productive and prosperous societies in history.
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Reformation means standing against the spirit of the age, so pastors and church leaders must join together to encourage, equip, and embolden one another in the work of the Reformation. Most importantly, a society brings the Word of God and prayer to bear on the leaders themselves, strengthening them for the work of a faithful shepherd.
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In Sweden the Reformation was spearheaded by Gustav Vasa, elected king in 1523. Friction with the pope over the latter's interference in Swedish ecclesiastical affairs led to the discontinuance of any official connection between Sweden and the papacy from 1523[1]. Four years later, at the Diet of Västerås, the king succeeded in forcing the diet to accept his dominion over the national church. The king was given possession of all church property, church appointments required royal approval, the clergy were subject to the civil law, and the "pure Word of God" was to be preached in the churches and taught in the schools - effectively granting official sanction to Lutheran ideas [2].
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French jurist John Calvin (1509 - 1564) was banished from Paris because of its open partisanship for the Reformation in 1533. When Calvin traveled through Geneva in 1536 he had no intention to stay, but Farel convinced him to do so. Farel had failed 1532 in a first attempt of reformation due to the resistance of the citizens of Geneva, he returned ... in 1533 under the protection by Berne. Berne threatened to stop support against the dukes of Savoy if Geneva would reject the reformation. The bishop of Geneva sympathizing with the dukes of Savoy was banished in 1533. Calvin was not able to move a majority of Geneva's cititzens to accept his severe church order. After a dispute about the form of celebrating the Lord's Supper, Calvin and Farel were banished from Geneva in 1538, but called back in 1541 after re-elections to the city council.
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