The Heidelberg Catechism in the Hands of The Calvinistic Pietists.

JAMES TANIS Calvinistic Pietism (or, more accurately, Reformed Pietism) gave form to a new school of Protestant spirituality, a type of spirituality cast in a sturdy ethical mold, defining the spiritual life in moral terms and recreating the "Law" as the pious delight of the true believer. At times this movement broke out of the bounds of the church, as in the case of the engaging preacher, Jean de Labadie; but it is with the "churchly Pietists" that we shall concern ourselves here. An excellent characterization of this type of churchly Pietist is given in Paul Wernle's description of the Swiss Pietist Christof Stahelin, the father of St Gall Pietism. "Stahelin," Wernle wrote, was "a man of faultless Calvinistic orthodoxy, an enemy of heretics, at the same time an ardent proponent of the Law of God, passionately propagating God's honor to all the people, exactly in the manner of the Dutch Pietists, who wished for nothing other than to usher Calvinism into daily life."' For Stahelin. as for Calvinistic Pietists generally, the Heidelberger was the test of that Calvinism's orthodoxy and the framework of its spirituality. That the Reformed churches largely were able to contain both Pietists and anti-Pietists (as well as all degrees in between) was due in large measure, I believe, to the unifying effect of their common catecheti­ cal standard - the Heidelberg Catechism. Each group considered itself orthodox and each group defended itself on the basis of the Heidelberger. 2 Religious instruction having gained a new emphasis and a new direction with the use of the catechism (Kinderfragen) of the Bohemian Brethren in the mid-fifteenth century, catechisms were to be designed basically for use in training believers and their children concerning the nature of God and man. In early Protestantism the ac­ knowledged high point of that tradition had been Luther's Kleiner Katechismus. When the Heidelberg Catechism was published in 1563, it reflected many years of structural development. In addition to perfecting the catechism as an instrument for the instruc­ tion of youth, its framers eventually added two further basic functions to the primary one. The Heidelberger became an explicit guide for preaching (replacing the more traditional biblical lectionary for the church year) and it also evolved into a creedal or symbolic statement, serving, therefore, as both catechism and confession. The basic work on the Heidelberg Catechism had been the creative endeavor of the earnest and youthful Zacharias Ursinus, and it reflected the scholarly, pedagogic, systematic, and irenic disposition of his teacher, Philip Melanchthon. The final product was, oddly enough, the work of a committee. That committee included in it Caspar Olevianus, who at the age of twenty-six was already a popular, zesty, evangelical preacher. The work was executed under the authority of Friedrich III, also called "Der Fromme" or "The Pious." Indeed, when the Elector was called upon to defend the Catechism among the other princes at the Augsburg Diet of 1566 and when, after much debate, the others were unable to shake his defense, one of his colleagues ad­ mitted, "Fritz, du bist frommer als wir alle." This was clearly reflected in the Catechism itself and was an important factor in giving it its characteristic breadth of base. Though the Reformed tradition of Geneva was substantively reflected in the Catechism, yet 154 Zurich's Heinrich Bullinger was able to write to Ursinus, "I consider it the best cate­ chism which has ever appeared." Friedrich was irenic by nature and his intention for the Heidelberger was not narrowly Reformed nor was it even anti-Lutheran. Indeed, in the first edition, it was only very mildly anti-Roman. Friedrich had hoped to have a broadly-gauged educational tool of substance and this was imaginatively achieved with an amazing lack of that didacticism which was to become all-too-typical of much Reformed catechetical instruction. For the instruction of children, however, it was not an eminently successful cate­ chism . This led to the growth of numerous other catechisms based upon it or derived from it. Under the direction of Friedrich's son, Johann Casimir, the court preacher Daniel Tossanus prepared the most popular version, though it was pedagogically un­ imaginative and theologically stiff. Issued in the revised Kirchenordnung published in 1585, it was known as "Der kleine Heidelberger." Another later but typical example, widely used in the early days of the Dutch Reformed church in America, was the "Summary of true Christian teachings extracted from the Heidelberg Catechism" (Kort-begtyp der waare christelyke leere, 1712) issued in New York by the Colonial Reformed Pastor Gualtherus Du Bois. Numerous other attempts filled the century and a quarter between the work of Tossanus and that of Du Bois. From the beginning there was tension between the Heidelberger's simplicity on the one hand, and, on the other hand, its clear limitation for effecting a generative spiri­ tuality when used with children. The struggle was not readily put aside. Though it was heady indeed for children, as late as 1875 the widely-heralded Hermann Friedrich Kohlbriigge - an orthodox though an individualistic and subjective Reformed theolo­ gian - is reported to have said on his death bed. "The Heidelberger, the simple Heidel­ berger, hold fast to her my children."3 The recently published "400th Anniversary Edition" of the Catechism makes the point that its continuing function is "for adult education" - yet it was designed for the "young and the simple" according to the Kirchenordnung in which it was first imbedded in 1563. Nonetheless, Olevianus also realized the necessity for something still simpler. In his Der Gnadenbund Gottes he included a "Bawren Catechismus" for use by fathers with their children, and as a guide­ light to the Lord Jesus for the poor peasant fo lk. It began:' Father: Who has created the beautiful heaven and the earth? Child : God the Father through Jesus Christ. Father: Who created you and gave you body and soul ? Child: Also our Lord Jesus Christ. Father: Well said . Then everything is created through Jesus Christ and without him is nothing created of all that is created. Did God therefore create us that we should be wicked (boss) or that we should be pious (from) and serve him? Child: T hat we should be pious and serve him. Father: Are we, however, as pious as we ought to be? Child: No. This striving after early piety, which was a part of the early Heidelberger tradition, developed at first along two separate paths, although each was eventually substantially to affect the other. Primarily two schools of catechetical development took place on the base of the Heidelberger. The one was initially represented by Ursinus and his Aristotelian meth­ odology, reflecting the medieval tradition from which the Reformation itself had been 155 born; the other school took shape as a result of the perspectives of Olevianus and his developing Ramist point-of-view. These two positions were to some extent polarized by the contrasting universities of Heidelberg and Herborn. For the Aristotelians, it was important to master the Catechism by memorizing it as well as exegeting it. The Ramists, on the other hand, felt that the Catechism should be mastered so that it might be used in new ways - mastered but not memorized. This new Ramist form was ex­ emplified in Olevianus' "Vester Grund," another part of his Der Gnaden.bund Gottes. The "Vester Grund" is actually a homiletical catechism: that is, it is no longer a true catechism but rather a theological exposition in question-and-a nswer form. This tendency to emphasize an independence of expression rather than a rote recitation, was developed more explicitly by one of Olevianus' successors, the Herborn professor Wilhelm Zepper. Zepper argued for answers which were the catechumen's own words and which revealed comprehension rather than simply retention. As on the matter o.f the free use of the formulae in worship, Zepper's open stance on the imaginative use of the Catechism points to him as one of the sources of later pietistic development. For the Pietists, comprehension of the meaning was basic to response; but it was the response which defined the pietistic life. In the Netherlands this question and answer form was picked up by Willem Teellinck, a fore-runner of Dutch Calvinistic Pietism, in such works as his "Key of devotion" (Sleutel der devotie, 1624); it was a style widely used and variously developed by many Pietists who followed after him. As a Reformed document, the Heidelberger seems surprising in its omission of the doctrine of eternal reprobation, which had been considered normative for Calvinism and which had had a prominent place in Ursinus' earlier Catechesis Major. He did not, however, include the doctrine in his Catechesis Min.or; and in the Heidelberger even the doctrine of predestination itself is scarcely mentioned, except in three passing allusions. Even these allusions emphasized the certainty of faith for the assurance of salvation, rather than the doctrine of foreordained decrees. This position was an essential point of departure for the rebirth-theologians who wished to emphasize man's response. In a blunt and revealing statement, the American Pietist Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen wrote: "In the day of judgement God will not deal with men according to election or reprobation but according to their obedience and devoutness ... Matthew 15, verse 27".5 Actually, the Heidelberger was the great "existential" catechism - if one can accept that word in a sixteenth-century context. It was anthropologically oriented, emphasiz­ ing not only the first person but even the more personal first person singular. Though by no means assuming a low doctrine of God, it was not focused primarily on the majesty and the almightiness of God. Its consistent framework was set out in the first and second questions: "What is your only comfort in life and in death?" and "How many things must you know that you may live and die in the blessedness of this com­ fort?" This same emphasis was reinforced by the shift from the old tripartite con­ struction of Creed, Law; and Prayer (Glaube, Gebot, und Gebet) to a new tripartite construction based on the acknowledgement of one's sin and guilt, the acknowledge­ ment of one's redemption and freedom, and the acknowledgement of one's gratitude and obedience - Law of God, Grace of God, and Spirit of God. Essentially, the Cate­ chism was related to the spiritual life of man, not wrestling with theological abstrac­ tions as did many other catechisms and as did many later expositions of the Heidelberger. It propounded no subtle theological niceties but rather was a catechism characterized by such phrases as "How are you reminded and assured ... " and "What 156 benefit do you receive ..." . For further example, its doctrine of Scripture, which is implicit rather than explicit, did not busy itself with the problems of how God inspired the biblical text but with the more immediate and relevant concern of the way in which the Bible inspired man. True Christian spirituality was not defined in terms of right doctrines, for "even the devils believe and tremble," but in terms of right actions. Though rebirth was the corner-stone of Reformed pietistic spirituality, the life constructed on that fundament was carefully defined in precisianistic terms, not unlike many of the terms which characterized Puritanism and which were later to characterize Methodism. For the Pietist, therefore, the greatest emphasis was placed on the third section of the Cate­ chism, the section dealing with discipleship and good works. Man's gratitude and obedience are there worked out in the context of new life through the Holy Spirit. Question 88 pointed out that there are two parts to true repentance or conversion: the dying of the old self and the birth of the new. Question 90 goes on to point out that the birth of the new man means "complete joy in God through Christ and a strong desire to live according to the will of God in all good works." Increasingly, these good works became the marks of true spirituality in the minds of a growing number of these Calvinistic Pietists. Christian life no longer was judged solely on the basis of a proper doctrine of the person of Jesus Christ; but, rather, it became a precisely-described course of spiritual exercises. Teellinck's contemporary, Godefridus Cornelisz Udemans, had early set the pattern for this moralistic stringency, particularly in his "The Practice, that is, the actual exercise of the basic Christian virtues of faith, hope and love" (Prac­ tyclce, dat is, Werclcel1jclce oeffeninge van de christehjclce hooft-deughclen, geloove, hope ende liefde) first published about 1612 and frequently thereafter reprinted. His friend, Gisbertus Voetius later completed the structures of that precisianism which became so large a component of late seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Re­ formed Pietism. Yoetius' Catechisatie over den Heidelbergschen Catechismus (re­ edited and republished by Abraham Kuyper in 1891) is strikingly instructive of these points. The position was popularized by Theodorus a Brakel's "The Steps of the Spiritual Life" (De trappen des geestelijlcen Levens, 1670). 6 This spiritual precisian­ ism later emerged fullblown in the writings of Friedrich Adolf Lampe, most popularly in his "Milk of Truth" (Milch der Wahrheit, 1718.) 7 Lampe set forth his exposition of the Heidelberger according to a detailed structuring of the order of salvation (Heilsordnung). This Lampe described as: Call, Faith, Rebirth, Justification, Sanctifi­ cation, Sealing, and Glorification. As this passion for the construction· of a formuia or a specified program for the spiritual life increased, it was paralleled among the more ardent Pietists 'PY an over­ arching concern with the teaching of the Heidelberger on the use of the "Keys of the Kingdom." The second of the two keys, according to Question 83, was "Christian discipline." Question 85 went on to point out that errant Christians "should be given brotherly admonition." If they do not respond to the warning, "they are forbidden to partake of the holy sacraments and are thus excluded from the communion of the church and by God himself from the Kingdom of Christ. However, if they promise and show real amendment, they are received again as members of Christ and of the Church." The Pietists emphasized the first part, "admonition," and the non-Pietists tended to emphasize the latter part, "receiving them again into the fellowship." This was exemplified by the differences which developed in New Netherlands between T . J. Frelinghuysen and Gualtherus Du Bois. 8 From the days of Calvin in Geneva on- 157 wards, the Reformed churches had a continuing struggle among themselves on ques­ tions of discipline and of "fencing the table." As with many other debatable issues, both points of view were defended with quotations from the Heidelberger. Beginning with Teellinck, the Pietists consistently were ardent catechists. 9 Taking the Scriptures as their point of departure, they frequently sought to define and ex­ plicate their theological systems on the framework which the Heidelberger provided. In the Netherlands this was equally true of the Voetians as well as later pietistic Coc­ ceians like Johannes d'Outrein. In fact, d'Outrein's vast and dusty study of the Cate­ chism was edited in the second edition by Lampe and soon became a standard for all parties. 10 In the Rhineland and in aremen Theodor UnderEyck, for example, had earlier combined the piety of Teellinck, transmitted by Voetius, with the covenant theology of Bullinger, transmitted by Ursinus and Cocceius. In his major work, "The bride of Christ" (Christi Braut, 1670) UnderEyck wove his theology on a web of Scrip­ ture and excerpts from the Heidelberger. In UnderEyck's own attempt at a children's catechism, "The Simple Christian" (Der einfaltige Christ, 1700), the entire structure rested on Cocceian federalism transmuted by a · pietistic, almost mystical, emphasis on union with Christ. This later emphasis, already strong in Teellinck, had gained momentum within Voetian circles and had been most effectively expounded by Theo­ dorus a Brake! and his son Willem. Though not strictly a Pietist, the pietistic Herman Witsius also contributed importantly to this phase of Reformed spirituality in his "Controversy of the Lord with his vineyard" (Twist des Heeren met Zynen w1/ngaart 1669). For UnderEyck, the beginning of the spiritual life was in thankful and responsive love - the Heidelberger 's section three. From this he developed the obligations of love, both love to God and love of one's neighbors. In Switzerland, where the writings of UnderEyck had already helped stir the nascent pietistic Calvinists, his position was given further currency in a small volume of selec­ tioll§ from his Halleluja, reshaped into the form of a catechism by the Swiss Pietist, Christof Stiihelin. Standing in the earlier tradition of Ursinus, this brief catechism, called "The Conjugal Yes" (Ehliches ]a-Wort, 1719) reveals in its title the continuing interest in the covenant as a means of expressing the spiritual relationship between the believing soul and his Christ. This was then further developed, both more broadly and more extensively or coherently, by Stahelin in his own Catechetischer Hauss­ Schatz. The most influential of all Swiss Reformed Pietist works, the Hauss-Schatz also introduced a significant new dimension into the use of the Heidelberger, for in it Stiihelin combined the use of the Catechism with the ancient idea of "the steps to paradise," the Scala paraclisis. 11 It was this scala which Udemans had reinterpreted for Protestant Pietists a century earlier in his christological allegory, "The Ladder of Jacob" (De Leeder van Jacob, 1628.) 12 The scala tradition had been important in the life of the Church before the Reformation, and particularly so in the devotional life of the Low Countries. Most influential had been The seven steps of the ladder of spiritual love by the Flemish 12 mystic, Jan van Ruysbroek (1293-1381)." " Later Wessel Gansfort (ca. 1420-1489) en­ thusiastically recommended this form to Johannes Mombaer (Joannes Mauburnus, 12 ca. 1460-1501) for his "Scala sacre communionis." " Appearing first as sixteen steps in his Exercitia (Zwolle, 1491) and then as seventeen steps in his Rosetum (Zwolle, 1494), Mombaer's "steps" went through six editions, the last appearing in Douai in 1620. Udemans most explicitly turned for inspiration to Bernard's Steps of humility. 12c 158 In addition to Catholic forebears, Udemans was influenced by his Catholic con­ temporaries - particularly Roberto, Cardinal Bellarmino. Most of Bellarmino's works were to be found among the books in Udemans' library. 12<1 For our purposes, it is in­ teresting to discover in the catalog of his library two editions of Bellarmino's De ascensione mentis in Deum (The mind's ascent to God by a ladder of created things.)13 Like Udemans, Bellarmino, too, turned to Bernard's Steps for inspiration."" Ac­ cording to Udemans himself, however, he was most influenced in a negative way, and that by an anonymous Flemish Catholic work, Rosarium sive Psaltarium beatae vir­ ginis Mariae, printed in Antwerp in 1600. I.lb The author there treats of the ladder in Marian terms, whereas Udemans, naturally, forcefully rejected the identification of Mary and the ladder in favor of his more traditional christological exposition of Christ as the ladder. For Udemans the ladder itself was Christ and the eight rungs of the Scala Ja cobi were: Humility, the Knowledge of Christ, Faith, Confession, Godli­ ness, Patience, Spiritual Joy and, the last and highest rung, Perfection. This christo­ logical interpretation was paralleled in certain Puritan authors as well, as reflected in the marginalia of the Geneva Bible. Much later it was defended by the pietistic Herman Witsius.14 In addition to this tradition seen in Jan van Ruysbroeck, in the fourteenth century Walter Hylton developed another ancient tradition in his The scale of pe1fection. In this vernacular treatise Hylton elaborated upon the three steps or levels of the Christian life, working with modes of spiritual thought already current in Plotinus and Paul. By the eighth century it had been firmly rooted in medieval thought in the injunction of "The rule of Saint Benedict" to erect the mystical ladder of Jacobl5 Using the imagery of Genesis 28:12 and of John 1:51, Christians of all eras had sought clear guidance in the specificity of "the spiritual steps." In the early days of the Re­ formation in the Netherlands, Jean Taffin, proto-Pietist and chaplain to Willem the Silent, had set out these three steps in his "Marks of the children of God" (Des marques des en.fans de Dieu). 16 Written in 1585 and 1586, the work appeared in at least seven French editions, was translated into Dutch within two years and published in at least eleven Dutch editions, and two years later appeared in the first of at least five English editions. 11 "Concerning life itself," wrote Taffin, "we can detect three steps, both as regards the body as well as the soul"." The first step consists of the reconciliation of man with God through faith in Jesus Christ. The second step is the separation of the soul and the body at death, and the third is the ultimate union at the resurrection. In fact, then, though Taffin included numerous important subdivisions in presenting his "ladder," he basically followed Paul's structure of "life, death and resurrection." William Teellinck, too, as Ritschl noted, 1s made use of this same metaphor. Indeed the close association of Jean Taffin the younger, Udemans, and the Teellincks point to a wide tradition within the earliest strains of Reformed Pietism in the use of the "spiritual ladder." In 1670, after nearly a century of gestation and practical application by Reformed pietistic hands, the theme emerged more forcefully and more elaborately than ever in Theodoris a Brakel's "The Steps of the Spiritual Life. " Already in 1648, in his first published work, a Brake! had used the sea/a image to describe the manner in which a child of God is led to the highest step of his blessedness. 19 In "The Steps of the Spiri­ tual Life" a Brake! vigorously challenged his readers to the borders of spiritual per­ fectionism but made the course alluring by the gradualism of "the steps." "It serves as your consolation that a believing child of God does not get his footing on the highest 159 . step of rebirth and grace when he has just been reborn any more than a child is im­ mediately full-grown when he is born but grows gradually - so it is with the second birth." 20 2 In spite of the fact that here as elsewhere a Brake! practically paraphrases Hylton, I the specific lines to the earli er traditions of the Middle Ages which were marked in Taffin a nd Teellinck had disappeared. Though lacking in a Brake!, citations to medieval ascetic writings continued to appear in writings of other Reformed Pietists, giving si lent testimony to the continuing pervasiveness of the earliest strains of Christian spirituality. German editions of these Dutch pietistic writings soon began to appear in Switzer­ land. Udemans' "The ladder of Jacob" was translated into German and published in Basel in 1673, and a Brakel's treatise followed in a Bern edition of 1698. Both thereby became a part of the Swiss backdrop for Christoph Stahelin's development. In the course of expounding the second question of the Catechism Stahelin wrote: "Here, dearest reader, you have, as it were, a ladder to heaven with three rungs. If you would use it to reach heaven, then you must step on each of the three rungs and not step over any one of them. The outward Christian (Mund-Christen) would leap to heaven in one spring."22 The genuine Christian, Stahelin went on to point out, proceeds step by step. These three steps he then likened to the three parts of the Catechism. No longer identifying "the ladder" as Christ himself, the christological emphasis came in con­ junction with evaluating one's readiness so to use the Catechism and to proceed from step to step. "Unite yourself with Him through faith and love," Stahelin urged, "and do not rest until you can say, 'My Jesus is mine, and I am His'. Song of Songs 2:16. Thereafter step forth on the third rung. "23 Discoursing again on the Catechism, Stahelin concluded, "O blessed ladder on which man climbs from hell to heaven."24 So it was that the ladder of the spiritual li fe of the Reformed Pietists finally took its form from the Heidelberger - after a hundred and fifty years of enlarging, de­ veloping, distorting, interpreting, misinterpreting and finally expounding the Catechism as the primitive Scala paradisi, the Scala perfectionis. Now it was purified itself by its own rebirth at the hands of the Calvinistic Pietists.

1 Wernle, Paul, Der schweizerische Protestantismus im XVIII Jahrhundert, Tu bingen, 1923, vol. 1, p. 136. 2Throughout this study 1 have made particular use of Walter Hollweg's Neue Unlersuchu.ngen zitr Geschichte und Lehre des Heidelberger Katechisnws, Neukirchen, 1961 , and "Zweite Folge" 1968; and Heinrich Graffmann's "Der Unterricht nach elem Heidelberger Katechismus im Zeital­ ter cler Orthocloxie und des Pietismus," pp. 33-47 in Monatshefte fur evangelische Kirchenge­ schichte des Rheinlandes, vol. 9. 3Kohlbrugge, Herman Friedrich. De eenvoudige Heidelberger, Nijkerk, 1947,p. 5. 10levianus, Caspar, Der Gnaclenbund Gottes, Herborn, 1590, p. 165. 5Frelinghuysen, Theodorus Jacobus, Een bundelken leer-redenen, Amsterdam, 1736, pp. 19-20. 6De trappen of a Brakel was probably the most widely read of all Dutch pietistic writings. It has gone through innumerable Dutch editions over the last four centuries and was translated into German and published by the Swiss Reformed. 7The Milch der Wahrheit ran through many German editions and was frequently printed in Dutch translation. The same text was also issued in German under the title: Erklarung iiber Frag und Antwort des Heidelbergischen Catechismi. BDu Bois, Gualtherus, Kort-beg1yp der waare christelyke leere, New York, 1712, p. 44. See also my Dutch Calvinistic Pietism, The Hague, 1967, pp. 141-143. 160 9Teellinck's major wo rk o n the Heidelberger was hi s Huys-boeck, ojle Eenvoudige verklaringhe ende toe-eygheninghe vande voornaemsle vraegh-stu.cken des Neder/a11dtsche 11 Chrislelijcken Catechismi, first printed in 1618. In later editions it was expanded to over a tho usand pages by his son Maximiliaen. JOd'Outrein's major catechetical study (over 800 quarto pages) was Het gouden kleinool van de /eere der waarheid die naar de godsaligheid is. First published in 1719, it later appeared in numerous Dutch and German editions. 11 The theme of Jacob's ladder had by no means gone unused by Pro testants, fo r both Lutherans and Reformed expo unded it in their commentaries and applied it in their preaching fro m the days of Luther o n. T ypical extended printed examples of Lutheran sermo ns are represented by Erasmus Ro thmaler's Scala lacobaea; das isl, Zehen Christ/iche Weyhenachlen Predigten (Jena, 1600) and Johann Cramer's Die lroslreiche Jacoba Himmelsleiter (Leipzig, 1618). It is amusing to no te in o ne o f Cramer's sermo ns dealing with Christ as the ladder ("One must climb o n the ladder: that is, o ne must be li eve o n Christ"), that he also explains "how the Calvin­ ists climb down rather than up the ladder, thus traveling from to p to bottom with their abso /u. lo decrelo ", pp. 64-66. 12 Udemans' po pular "Ladder" went through eight Dutch editio ns, as well as a German edition. (P. J. Meertens, "G. C. Udemans" in Nederlandsch archief voor kerkgeschiedenis, n.s. vol. 28, p. 82). 12aRuysbroek, Jan van, "Yan vii trappen in den graed der gheesteleker minnen," in vol. 3 of his Werken, uitg. door het Ruusbroec Genootschap, Amsterdam, 1934. 12b Persijn , Anne Jacob, De dietse verta/ing der "Scala sacre commu.nionis" van loannis Mau­ bu. rnus, Rijswijk, 1960, p. 15. Persijn provides both an expositio n and a cri tical text of Mo m­ baer's Scala. 12c Udemans, Godefridus Corne li sz, De Leeder van Ja cob, da t is: Korie ende naeckle afbee/dinghe van den rechten wegh na den heme/, in sekere trappen onderscheyden. Den sevensten druck veel verbetert. Amsterdam, 1660, pp. 1 and 7. 12dCatalogus variorum & insignium librorum bibliothecae ... Godefridi Udemanni. Middleburg, 1653. 13 The English edition used was published in Lo ndon in 1925 with a preface by P. N. Waggett. 13a/bid., p. 137. 13bUdemans, De feeder, p. viii 14 Witsius defended this use in his dissertation o n John l :5 1-52, pp. 288-297 of his Me/etemata Leidensia, Leiden, 1703. He also refers there to the supporting study of the eloquent Huguenot preacher, Pierre du Bose (p. 295).

t fi" The rule of Saint Benedict" in Western asceticism, Philadelphia, 1958, " T ~e library of christian classics", vo l. Xll, p. 301. 16 Tho ugh T affin does no t mention Hylton in his no tes, he clearly was steeped in the medieval traditions fo r he frequently cites Augustin, Bernard, and o thers. 17Boer, Co rnelia, Hofpredikers van Prins Willem van Oranje, Nijho ff , 1952, pp. 161-165. 18Ritschl , Albrecht, Geschichle des Pietismus, Bo nn, 1880, vol. 1 ("Der Pie ti smus in der reformir­ ten Kirche"), p. 276.

19 Brakel, Theodorus a, Het geesteljicke /even, 7. druck. Amsterdam, 1686, pp. 145- 146. 20Brakel, T . 1, De trappen, p. 10. 21Hylto n, Walter, Th e scale (or ladder) of perfection, Lo nd on, 1901 , pp. 174-175 (Pt. II, chap. I). 22 Stahelin, Christoph, Catechetischer Hauss-Schatz, oder Erkliirung des Heidelbergischen Cate- chismi, 3. Auflage, Basel, 1737, p. 27. 23 Ibid, p. 28. 24 /bid, p. 29. 161