Defensio sanae et orthodoxae doctrinae de servitute et liberatione humani arbitrii

This is one of Calvin's more significant works, for a variety of reasons. It contains Calvin's fullest exposition of sin and grace and how these relate to the human will. He uses a range of language (including scholastic terminology) wider than that found elsewhere in his writings. Also this work is, after the Institutio, the most significant for Calvin's use of the Fathers, with sustained exposition of Augustine in particular. The notes not only trace Calvin's sources in precise detail but also point to his use elsewhere of the same texts. There are full and detailed cross references to Pighius's De libero hominis arbitrio (1542), to which Calvin was responding, and to the 1539 edition of the Institutio, which Pighius was attacking. Pighius's work has never been reprinted and is relatively rare so the relevant portion is reproduced by facsimile in this volume. This, together with the detailed notes, means that the reader can trace the course of the debate from the 1539 Institutio to Pighius's work to Calvin's response - and sometimes beyond. There is also full documentation of Calvin's use of classical and proverbial material.