Calvin in the Hands of the Philistines: Or Did Calvin Bowl on the Sabbath?

By Chris Coldwell

The older PDF version is available here. Copyright © 1998; 2007 by Chris Coldwell. See the version published in The Confessional Presbyterian journal 6 (2010) for the latest version, here. The text that was posted here was mangled some way by WordPress and has been removed except for the outline below.

Thus it is that history is falsified and good men slandered

David Hay Fleming

Introduction

Calvin’s View of Sports and Pastimes on the Lord’s Day

1. The 20th Century – Recent use of the bowling tale

Christopher Hill and Gary North

Did Calvin Want to Change the Lord’s Day to Thursday or Friday?

John T. McNeill

2. The 19th Century – The anecdote appears in literature

David Hay Fleming

Isaac Disraeli

Gilfillan and Cox

3. The 17th Century – Searching for earlier references

Sabbath Literature and Geography books

Peter Heylyn and the Practice of Geneva

Heylyn Answered

Richard Baxter

The Practice of Bowling

John Laud

4. The 16th Century – Alymer bowls and Knox visits Geneva

John Aylmer

Knox in Geneva and Calvin’s 34th Deuteronomy Sermon

Conclusion

Bibliography

Postscript