Calvinist Thomism Revisited: William Ames (1576–1633) and the Divine Ideas

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chapter 8 Calvinist Thomism Revisited: William Ames (1576–1633) and the Divine Ideas

Richard A. Muller

Calvinist Scholasticism and Thomism: Then and Now

In a series of pioneering works on “Calvinist Scholasticism” and “Calvinst Thomism” John Patrick Donnelly established the point that not only were the medieval backgrounds of early modern Reformed thought of considerable im- portance to the study of the theologies of the Reformers and their scholastic or orthodox successors, but that in the cases of several major Reformed writers, notably Peter Martyr Vermigli and Girolamo Zanchi, there were significant elements of Thomistic theology and philosophy present in major works of Re- formed thinkers.1 Donnelly’s work provided a major impetus to further study inasmuch as it did not partake of the substantial theological negatives that had often plagued earlier scholarship, whether the anti-scholastic and anti- Thomistic understandings of various writers who had engaged the writings of Protestant scholastics2 or the critiques of Protestantism from the vantage point of expertise in medieval scholastic thought. Early on in the study of developing sixteenth-century Reformed thought, it also served to point out that a group of Calvin contemporaries, notably Farel, Bullinger, and Vermigli, were not to be regarded as disciples of Calvin but as partners in the early modern theological conversation, whose individual backgrounds and training needed to be examined for the sake of a proper picture of early modern Reformed thought.3

1 John Patrick Donnelly, Calvinism and Scholasticism in Vermigli’s Doctrine of Man and Grace (Leiden: Brill, 1975); idem, “Calvinist Thomism,” Viator 7 (1976): 441–55; and idem, “Italian Influences on the Development of Calvinist Scholasticism,” Sixteenth Century Journal 7/1 (1976): 81–101. My thanks to David Sytsma for his critique and assistance in the preparation of this essay. 2 Cf., e.g., Brian G. Armstrong, Calvinism and the Amyraut Heresy: Protestant Scholasticism and Humanism in Seventeenth Century France (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969); and Otto Gründler, “Thomism and Calvinism in the Theology of Girolamo Zanchi (1516– 1590)” (Th.D. dissertation, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1961), subsequently published as Die Gotteslehre Girolami Zanchis und ihre Bedeutung für seine Lehre von der Prädestination (Neukirchen: Neukirchner Verlag, 1965). 3 Donnelly, Calvinism and Scholasticism in Vermigli’s Doctrine of Man and Grace, 2.

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In addition, Donnelly was able, by showing the Thomistic underpinnings of Vermigli’s thought, as well as suggesting a somewhat eclectic appropriation of medieval backgrounds on Vermigli’s part, to set aside the then-widely-held view of the nearly overpowering impact of aspects of late medieval nominal- ism on the development of Protestant theology and to question the broad and somewhat pejorative definitions of Protestant scholasticism found in the older literature.4 Recent scholarship on an increasing number of Reformed scholastic thinkers of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries has built on and debated the points raised by Donnelly, by identifying other medieval backgrounds to Protestant scholasticism5 arguing further cases of influence of Thomist thought6 indicating the positive impact of contemporary Roman Catholic, notably Dominican and Jesuit, scholasticism on Protestant theol- ogy7 raising the possibility of a broadly Scotist line of influence on the Re- formed, above and beyond the Thomist8 and disputing the extent of Scotist

4 Calvinism and Scholasticism in Vermigli’s Doctrine of Man and Grace, 196–207. 5 Notably, Frank A. James, Peter Martyr Vermigli and Predestination: the Augustinian Inheri- tance of an Italian Reformer (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998); and idem, “Peter Martyr Vermi- gli: At the Crossroads of Late Medieval Scholasticism, Christian Humanism and Resurgent Augustinianism,” in Carl R. Trueman and F. Scott Clark, eds., Protestant Scholasticism: Essays in Reassessment (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1999), 62–78, who argues a substantial influence of Gregory of Rimini on Vermigli. 6 E.g., Richard A. Muller, God, Creation and Providence in the Thought of Jacob Arminius: Sources and Directions of Scholastic Protestantism in the Era of Early Orthodoxy (Grand Rapids, mi: Baker 1991); Stephen Hampton, Anti-Arminians: the Anglican Reformed Tradition from Charles ii to George i (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 221–65; David Sytsma, “‘As a Dwarfe set upon a Gyants Shoulders’: John Weemes (c. 1579–1636) on the Place of Philosophy and Scho- lasticism in Reformed Theology,” in Die Philosophie der Reformierten, eds. Günter Frank and Herman J. Selderhuis. Melanchthon-Schriften der Stadt Bretten 12 (Stuttgart: Frommann- Holzboog, 2012), 299–321; and Christopher Cleveland, Thomism in John Owen (Burlington, vt: Ashgate, 2013). 7 E.g., Eef Dekker, Rijker dan Midas: Vrijheid, genade en predestinatie in de theologie van Jacobus Arminius, 1559–1609 (Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum, 1993), demonstrating the Molinist sources of Arminius’ thought; Andreas J. Beck, “Gisbertus Voetius (1589–1676): Basic Features of his Doctrine of God,” in Reformation and Scholasticism: An Ecumenical Enterprise, ed. Willem J. van Asselt and Eef Dekker (Grand Rapids, mi: Baker, 2001), 205–26, documenting a close reading of contemporary Dominican thought. 8 Andreas J. Beck, Gisbertus Voetius (1589–1676): Sein Theologieverständnis und seine Gottesleh- re, in Willem J. van Asselt, J. Martin Bac, and Roelf T. te Velde, trans., ed., and commentary (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2007). Reformed Thought on Freedom: The Concept of Free Choice in the History of Early-Modern Reformed Theology (Grand Rapids, mi: Baker, 2010); J. Martin Bac and Theo Pleizier, “Reentering Sites of Truth. Teaching Reformed Scholasticism in the Contemporary Classroom,” in Willemien Otten, Marcel Sarot, and Maarten Wisse, eds.,