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How revolutionary were Lutheran and Calvinist theories of authority? Lutheran and Calvinist theories of authority were revolutionary as they laid the foundations of a radical shift in attitudes towards obeying authority. Political thought changed from a view that it was never legitimate to resist authority to the notion that 'like any other wild animal, a tyrant can be killed.' However it was later Calvinist theories that were more revolutionary than Calvin's own work On Civil government and Luther's On Secular authority. Moreover rather than promoting revolutionary theories of authority, Luther and Calvin were concerned to preserve order. Revolutions occurring throughout Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth century were to an extent legitimised by Lutheran and Calvinist theories of authority but this was certainly not the original intent of the writings. Luther and Calvin were after all theologians, not political philosophers. The Lutheran and Calvinist theories of authority were a radical departure in...

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