El Calvinismo: ¿Camino espiritual o teoría económica?

0:13 Hola, bienvenidos a un nuevo Mates con Historia. Un placer estar nuevamente con ustedes aquí en los estudios de Conclusión TV de la Asociación de Empleados de Comercio de Rosario. Estamos grabando este programa que subiremos en breve. Hoy, martes 7 de octubre, es el día de Nuestra Señora del Rosario y por añadidura de la ciudad de Rosario, en la cual estamos aquí presentes. Welcome to more than 1000 new subscribers to

0:59 the channel. The program with Marcelo Gulo, in which we talked about Juan Manuel de Rosas, had a huge impact, many views. So, new subscribers, a very brief explanation, mates with history, we are interspersing videos about Argentine history, that we are in the time of Juan Manuel de Rosas, precisely. with videos of the history of the Catholic Church. Today we resume the history of the Catholic Church. We are averaging the process of the Lutheran schism. We have dedicated two videos. And today we are going to continue with this. We

1:44 are going to see the figure of John Calvin and Calvinism, properly said. because it's a complicated, complex, extensive phenomenon, it's been around for many years and it has many consequences to this day. "Mates con Historia" is the idea while we share some mates, on one side or the other of the screen, and reflecting on these issues we try to read part of authors that we find recommended for those who want to deepen each topic with some reflection from my part. And we don't run out of topics. I know many of you have the idea that in three hours we will run out of

2:31 topics. First, it's impossible. Second, it would take a long time. And the invitation is to delay, if necessary, we stop at some point, but in general, big lines of history, historical processes. Try to understand the story with key interpretations, as Marcelo Gullo did the other day, regarding the person, the political figure of Juan Manuel de Rosas. That's the idea. So that we are not going to vote. If the subject deserves more, we will probably dedicate two videos to it, so as not to make them so extensive, on the other hand. Well, Juan Calvino and Calvinism. There we have the background image. You will say, what did

3:17 Jürgen bring as a background image? Well, that's Calvino's grave. Calvino was buried, he was French, now we are going to read a little bit, but he ends up dying in Geneva, Switzerland. The city of Geneva, Switzerland, and he is buried in a cemetery in the center of Geneva. I don't know the place, but... The so-called Cemetery of the Kings. Today, no one can be buried there. One of the last must have been José Luis Borges, the Argentine poet and writer. He is buried in that same Cemetery of the Kings in Geneva, near the tomb of Calvino. And we go

4:02 a little deeper. I have the authors of always, those three Jesuit priests who wrote this phenomenal story of the Catholic Church in four volumes. We are still in volume 3, we are going through this stage, the 16th century. García Villoslada, Liorca and Montalbán, works written in the 1950s, Jesuit Catholic priests, for more information, of a great erudition, of a great formation. That's why we take them as reference authors, without denying the merits of many others who have written about this period. Let's see what these authors say about Calvinism, that it will be a kind of

4:48 twist about the theories and ideas of Luther. We already saw Luther in two stories with history. Today we turn to Calvin, that will constitute a branch within Protestantism. We said that Protestantism, by its logic, when questioning the magisterial authority of the Catholic Church, that is, considering that each one of us can understand God through the Holy Scripture, a free interpretation of the Holy Scripture, which, as we have said, quoting María Elvira Roca Marea, is false. We will also see it with Calvin. That does not exist. each one of those who will found each of these branches, Zwinglio, Calvino, Luther, and

5:34 many others, will give their imprint and establish their catechism, their dogmas, what can and cannot be believed, said or interpreted. And if not, there are the open doors and another community will be founded, of Catholicism. And then an article that I found very interesting, called "Protestantism, Lutheranism and Calvinism" by an author called Fredrik Wilhelmsen. I found it on the internet, I found his observations very relevant, very critical of Calvinism. We are going to leave it for the end, so we leave a little bit of incognito. I know from different Maths with History

6:20 dedicated to the history of the Church, for example those of the Lutheran Schism, that there are many subscribers, followers of Maths with History who are not Catholic, who are in all their right not to be, I clarify that this approach that we do, we do it from a Catholicism. respectful but at the same time aware of what these periods of history were and that does not deny their essences. We are not ashamed of history, we try to understand the history of the Church. That's why I say, because in a way of reproach there were some criticisms there. Well, yes, of course, someone put there and you are very partial. And yes, possibly, yes, as perhaps you are too, if you

7:10 talk about these issues. If they position themselves from a place, Anyway, what I've noticed lately is that in these issues the great obstacle we have, Catholics, Lutherans, whatever, is the great indifference that lurks in an important sector of our society. Indifference. These are not topics for many people. That's what I think is most unfortunate. It seems to me. I wanted to make this reflection that I was thinking about these days. Well, without further ado, What do these authors say? Well, he was born in France, he had a vocational issue there not very well defined, some authors

7:56 consider that he became a Catholic priest in France at the beginning of the 16th century, others that did not. who was a teacher of theology, which does not mean being a priest. Calvino was undoubtedly a person with an inclination to the religious, to the theological, if you will. He was going to have a rather hazy life, especially depending on how the persecution of the French authorities in his native France fluctuated with respect to Lutheranism. We have seen in detail how The emperor in his territories forbids the writings of Luther. But of course, France was a separate kingdom. It was a kingdom that was not subject to

8:42 the jurisdiction of Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He says the following: "As Protestantism was then proscribed in France and was persecuted, in the face of the danger of being imprisoned, Calvin was forced to take the flight. He then went to Saint-Onge, where, in the home of an intimate friend, he began the composition of his famous dogmatic work "Institution Chrétienne". His break with the Catholic Church was exteriorized in May 1534. He presented himself in Noyon, his hometown, by the way, and renounced the ecclesiastical benefits of still enjoying what I

9:27 mentioned at the beginning, maybe some cathedral, this is what the authors call ecclesiastical benefits, giving them the best proof that he did not want to have anything to do with the Catholic Church. In the future he will dedicate all his efforts to make the war more decisive. I anticipate, because we are going to put it in the title, what happened to Calvino has consequences, That's why the title will be more or less with these phrases: "Religious, current, theological or economic school posture" Because the logical derivation of some of Calvino's theological

10:12 postulates will derive in a position of the Western man, especially in the areas where the influence of Calvinism will reach, which will not be only Switzerland, will derive from what we know as capitalism. But with some precisions that we will do at the end. Now, if we ask ourselves what were the motives that led Calvin to his ideology, Let's say that the comforting doctrine of justification for the sole faith, for the merits of Christ and without the good works, learned directly from the works of Luther, what Luther held,

10:59 and through his friends Capito, Copp and other innovators, was what pushed him to take the final step. With his logical character, he deduced from that principle of salvation for only the merits of Christ, and without intervention from us, that it is God who condemns and saves us. And from there he drew the principle, so characteristic of his doctrine, of double predestination. Double predestination is the aggregate that Calvin makes to salvation and to condemnation. That is, according to Calvin, we are predestined from the origin of time.

11:45 to save us for eternity or to condemn us for eternity. And nothing we do on our part will change that situation. Because God is the one who saves us or condemns us, without taking into account, at the very least, our works, made through a voluntary act. I'm adding that. Even more, he denied the value of indulgences and the authority of the Church as mediator, proclaiming the Holy Scripture as the only rule of faith. First synthesis, first approach. This will clearly bring consequences. Organization

12:32 and doctrine of Calvinism. By the way, I recommend a movie which represents very well this clash of views about the human condition and its relationship with God between Catholicism, which has a non-pessimistic view, which sees man as a creature made in the likeness of God and who is free to accept the commandments and follow them, to be friends with God and obey his law or not, but who preserves his freedom and his voluntary act influences his final destiny. and a pessimistic view of human

13:17 nature, which is what characterizes all innovators or reformists from Lutheran to the future. In Calvino it is very notorious. The film is "La fiesta de Babette", a production from the 80s, let's try to put an image, I saw it twice because it is to see it for the second time and understand the symbology. late 80s, a movie made by a Danish production, in which the story is the story of a French cook who, after some of the revolutions in France, is set in the middle of the 19th century, flees from France and ends up in

14:04 a remote village in Denmark. Denmark, a Lutheran country from the beginning, like all of Scandinavia. And there is a beautiful, with a good script and with images that are worth it, this clash, the puritan, pessimistic, somber vision that puritanism or the most exaggerated views of Lutheranism raises. And the Catholic view, the Catholic view in which, although there is a praise of austerity and poverty, as always, there is also a friendly look towards the world. Catholics do not have a

14:49 relationship with the world in the sense of seeing sin in the world, irredeemable, and that is why we dedicate ourselves to enjoying life. Enjoy life. That is very well seen in this film, "La fiesta de Babette", which has as its central axis the reaction of those Danish Lutherans to that display on the table by a French Catholic cook, which gives them a look at Catholicism through a banquet. Let's not forget that Catholicism is a banquet. Not in the sense of excess, of obscenity, in the sense of excessive

15:34 deployment. No, no, no. Sharing the table. That defines us. Sorry, today I leave the reading very often. But they are very deep issues. The basic character of Calvinism is a presbyterian, democratic organization, in which, above all, Calvin tried to avoid the fundamental defects of the Lutheran Church. Calvin wants to correct some issues of Luther that had worked badly. The first was the theory of justification, which by establishing justification for the sole faith and the uselessness of good works had effectively contributed to the relaxation of customs.

16:21 The second was to have attributed to the State all ecclesiastical jurisdiction. We saw this in the second mat dedicated to Lutheran schism. Lutheranism is going to be in fact a state religion, where it triumphs, in Scandinavia for example. This had submitted the Church to the civil power and declared it as judge in all matters, temporal and religious. To avoid the first defect, while still maintaining the principle of justification by the single faith, the need for good works was established. Calvin says, no, no, no, wait a minute, we have to do good works. What does

17:07 our collaboration with the work of God mean? But wait a minute, wait a minute. Frente al segundo, defendió la teoría de que el Estado y la Iglesia deben trabajar en íntima unión por la misma obra de la fe, pero en contraposición a Lutero, afirmaba que el Estado debe estar subordinado a la Iglesia. El Estado debe estar subordinado a la Iglesia. Por eso él va a establecer, cuando gobierne en Ginebra durante 20 años, ya vamos a llegar, lo de él va a ser una teocracia, va a ser el gobierno de los clérigos. El gobierno de los clérigos en Ginebra. This, of course, established a series of positions that constitute a true hierarchy, first the pastors, whose position was the preaching, then the doctors, who had

17:57 the teaching and direction of the schools, the presbyters, who constituted the basis of the hierarchy and maintained the direction of the church, finally the deacons, who were in charge of the hospitals and charity works. As a complement to the hierarchy, we must add the two great organisms of the Calvinist Church. You see that each one reads the Holy Scriptures and has a direct link with God. That was very good as a flag to rise from Rome, from the Catholic hierarchy. But the next day they are already creating a new hierarchical community, as you

18:42 can clearly see here. First of all, the Congregation. that consisted of all the pastors of the church of Geneva, to which the jurisdiction belonged, on doctrinal issues. What was to be believed? In case of doubt between them, they had to go to the council of the elders. The second body was the consistory, which included six pastors and twelve elders, who were the supreme authority of the church. Again, the pope not because the pope is corrupt, but there has to be a supreme authority that defines Definable questions. 58 death sentences in Calvinist

19:32 Geneva. In Calvinist Geneva, this is perhaps... The anti-Catholic black legend makes some people surprised about this fact, but let's talk again about Miguel Cerveta, who we have already mentioned, who is going to be burned in the bonfire in Calvino's Calvinist Geneva. As far as doctrine is concerned, we note that Calvino took almost all the points of his dogmatics from Luther, Melanchthon and other innovators. Above all, it depends on Luther in the doctrines of justification for faith, and the corrupted nature of

20:21 man depriving him of freedom. As specific doctrines of Calvin we will point out first of all the double predestination that we have alluded to, to glory and condemnation, with an absolute and unconditional need, from where the rigorous and gloomy character of the Reformed Church is deduced. For according to Calvin, everything that happens, happens out of absolute necessity. Secondly, the sacraments, of baptism and of the Supper, which are the only ones that Calvin admits, baptism and the Supper, not the Eucharist. However, for him they are only external signs or symbols. The Eucharist is not present in

21:08 Christ through the transubstantiation that the Catholic Church teaches. His ideal was realized by Calvin with relative perfection in Geneva, thanks to his indomitable energy and his organizing talent. The city came to surrender to its fervent discipline and it can be said that from its return to Geneva in 1541 until its death in 1564, it ruled as a true dictator of the city. All religious festivities were suppressed, four times a year the feast or communion of the faithful was celebrated, the city took an adult air, a natural result of Calvinist doctrines, this that I mentioned, that contrast is evident in other

21:54 works, in this film, "La fiesta de Babette". That's why it contrasts, even... By the way, in the Catholic Cathedral of Geneva, there was a cathedral, raised in the medieval period, centuries before what we are relating. I think it's the Cathedral of San Pedro. Well, of course, the question of goods, right? That cathedral, another Catholic or always Catholic, was appropriated by the Calvinists and today it is a Calvinist temple. It was stripped, in its majority, of that rich, let's say, liturgical ornaments, something very austere, but with a

22:40 dark air, not austere of sobriety, but of something dark and dark, we could say. On the other hand, Calvino removed from Geneva its democratic character, because although he left the people the right to elect their magistrates, he limited it to the names proposed by the Small Council of the 20th and the Grand Council of the 200th. That's why I said it was a theocracy in the background. the clergy government, something that had never happened in the history of Christianity. It was not an easy task for him, because the city councils did not easily give up their privileges, so they demanded some intervention in the naming of shepherds, of the elders of the consistory and even of the excommunication of

23:30 the members of the community. This struggle, there will be a struggle, "There were moments of great tension and there were some people who tried to shake the yoke that Calvino tried to impose. Against his theocracy were first revealed the so-called libertines, who found the Calvinist system too intransigent. As among these there were people from the nobility, a battle was fought between them and Calvino, a battle incarnated." by minors of this situation of civil war, we could say, within the same Calvinist camp in Geneva and

24:16 Sona, in that area of Switzerland. And here appears Miguel Servet, that Spanish who had the misfortune of arriving in Geneva thinking that it would be a sanctuary of freedom of conscience and ended up burned in the bonfire by the Calvinists. In these circumstances, the famous issue of Miguel Cervet took him out of such a difficult situation. Calvino takes advantage of the situation. They see in Miguel Cervet's work a salvation table that improves his internal political situation. He was a Spanish-born doctor, a good humanist and a connoisseur of Hebrew, Greek

25:01 and Latin, who had already discovered the circulation of blood in his time. Miguel Cervet. But following the flow of time he wanted to get into theology and in 1551 published a work about the errors of the Trinity in which he taught a trinity of divine manifestations but not of people. He came to repeat the ancient heresy of the Sabellians. Denounced and persecuted by Protestants and Catholics he walked errant through Toulouse, Lyon and even took refuge in Geneva and Basel and finally retired to Vienna with the false name of Villanova. There he composed a new work, "On

25:48 Christian Restitution", as it was called, in which he attacked the principles of the "Cretien" institution of Calvino, which he just exasperated who since then swore the ruin of the unfortunate Servet. Thus, he denounced him to the court of the Inquisition of Vienne, being considered an intermediary and using private letters from Servet himself. It wouldn't be the most gentlemanly or evangelical attitude, I would say, but well, the Calvinists will know. Servet was condemned to the fire, but he could escape well in August 1553 and came to take refuge in Geneva. It was precisely the time when Calvino was seen so severely attacked by the great

26:34 council of the city and about to fall off the pedestal of his prestige. He thought that a push from him would be enough to knock him down and he dared to publicly ask that his denunciator be judged on a series of errors that he pointed out in his accusation. But Calvino reacted violently by presenting a formal accusation against him, which consisted of 38 errors taken from his writings. On October 26, the Grand Council condemned Servet to fire. In February 1554, Calvino published his "Defensa de Fe Ortodoxa". Notice the title: "Defensa de Fe Ortodoxa". The paradoxes of the so-called Lutheran reform

27:21 and its consequences. Freedom of conscience and heterodoxy as a flag to denounce the bishop of Rome and break the Christian unity after 1500 years and then, in a few years, the fervent internal discipline of the small community that followed such or such pastor. It is a topic. Its authority was fully and definitively confirmed. Geneva was to become a center of culture and evangelical formation. With this I finish the authors and move on to the article. For this reason, Calvino organized in 1559 a study center, the so-called "Academia",

28:06 with Latin, Greek and Hebrew catechism. In this work, as in others of this period of triumph of Calvin, his main collaborator was Theodore Bessa, a French theologian from a noble family. Put in front of this academy, Bessa made it a kind of Calvinist theological faculty that gradually became a center of international irradiation. Bessa is due to having filed some roughnesses of the character and doctrine of Calvin. This academy, by the way, is going to be the main reason why Calvinism was not kept in Geneva, Switzerland and some adjacent places, but that many of those who went to that academy later, for

28:53 example, John Knox, who was Scottish, when he returned to Scotland, he was going to be the diffuser in Scotland of Calvinism and from there he also went to jump to Anglican England. The next Mateus with History we are going to dedicate to Henry VIII and the Anglican schism in England, specifically the question of the Anglican Church that breaks with Rome as a result of the divorce not granted by Pope Henry VIII. But we are going to try it in another Mateus with History. Calvinism is also going to be strongly rooted in sectors of the French bourgeoisie, The French Calvinists will receive the name of Hugonots, the Hugonots, with the

29:39 same similar process, although not of as much weight, as that of Lutheranism with the German princes. We are already going to get to that specific situation of France. But there will also be Calvinism, Calvinism as already self-denominated Reformed Church will reach the Netherlands, Holland, Holland. Calvinism was not only confined to the experience of Calvin himself in Geneva, Switzerland, but also in Hungary. I think the current president, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, is a Calvinist, from the reformed Hungarian Church. Most of the Hungarian people are Catholic,

30:25 but Calvinism has always had its presence in Hungary and in some other regions of Central Europe. I didn't read about it from the authors, but going back to the question of predestination, according to Calvin, we are predestined for eternal condemnation or eternal salvation. Nothing we do based on our voluntary and free acts can influence at the very least that destiny that is already established with certain fatalism and that God attributes arbitrarily, capriciously, we would say. But Calvin, now we are going to say something about

31:11 this from this very interesting article, unlike Luther, says that works count. Especially because those works can lead to the fact that through those works, wealth, for example, possessing personal wealth, that is a symptom of predestination for eternal salvation. This syllogism, this situation, this posture will clearly have harmful consequences from my point of view. It reminds me of the phrase "dissatisfied", but it actually describes the mentality

31:57 of certain sectors, even of Catholic environments. Arturo Pérez Reverte, a well-known Spanish writer, once said that Spain in Trento, in the Council of Trento, we are going to analyze it, the Council of Trento, the answer of the Church to all these innovations, "he was wrong about God". Arturo Pérez Reverte, with that Spanish-speaking last name, says: "Forgiving Spain, he was wrong about God." As if saying: "We should have adopted the God of Calvin." Well, there Pérez Reverte, who seems to have an important mental salad, beyond his

32:43 virtues in poetry or literature, The article by Friedrich Wilhelmsen, "Protestantism, Lutheranism and Calvinism" He criticizes all of them, but we'll stop at Calvinism later. The consequences of Lutheranism. The political consequences of this Lutheran doctrine have marked the history of Germany, especially that of Prussia. The passivity of the northern German against his government, whether monarchical, imperial, republican or Nazi, reflects a theology and a religion whose negation of the natural law requires that man obeys passively

33:29 without asking why. The ease with which the kings of Prussia established absolutism in their kingdom in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the cynicism with which they robbed the Austrian province of Silesia and the dismantling of the Kingdom of Poland, emanated from a mentality within which the religious had divorced the moral. The division between the religious and the moral. Religion withdrew from the secret consciousness of each one. And the free will, so much crushing with the free will, ends up being the religious, its home is the individual conscience, but the consequent abandonment of the

34:16 public, which will derive years later in which the public must be neutral. Lie, it will never be neutral, but hey, it sells it as such. religion withdrew from the secret consciousness of each one and stopped having an influence on the political-social order. Only a Catholic can ask the "why" of politics, since the Catholic, and only the Catholic, recognizes the goodness of human nature and therefore the effectiveness of human reason in the search for the truth of the political-social order. Lutheran pessimism limits the goodness of God and abandons the

35:02 world to the devil. According to Lutherans, the world is so bad that even grace cannot penetrate it. Grace covers the sins of man like a layer covers the human body, but it does not perform any transformation of man on the inside. Therefore, a sacred world, a sanctified world, a world transfigured in Christ is an impossibility within Lutheranism. It is likely that the sadness of the Protestant world, its lack of joy and spontaneity, His fear of human and natural beauty, his own distrust of Lutheranism and more of Calvinism towards the sensitive of the world

35:48 around us, that is why the feast of Babette, emanates from this negation of the goodness of the things that the good God has created. The second consequence of Lutheranism is its cultural and historical sterility. Luther based his faith exclusively on the Bible and rejected the authority of the tradition of the Holy Fathers, as well as of the Church. Therefore, Lutheranism does not allow any development of the Christian doctrine, any growth in wisdom and light. If tradition means something, it is surely the belief that the content of Revelation opens up for man little by little through time. Luckily,

36:33 we can compare the development of Revelation to a seed that becomes a tree. That is why Lutheranism is a fossilized religion. That is the opinion of this author. A little spicy, Frederick. But well. Some will wish to read the Jesuit priests of the 1950s again, who were not so direct in some things. "He lacks the dynamism necessary to make a new world and has always had to settle for his strength in the north of Germany and Scandinavia, where Lutheranism is a mortician religion officially maintained by

37:21 states whose subjects have largely stopped believing in God." This is true. If Protestantism had been restricted to Lutheranism, it is likely that he would have died in a short time. Calvinism, capitalism and liberalism. Calvinism, capitalism and liberalism. But the spirit of religious rebellion in the 16th century was manifested in a man and in a heretical movement much more powerful than Luther's. The one who is buried in that tomb

38:07 in the historical casket of Geneva. I mean Calvin and the religion that took his name, Calvinism. Calvin, like Luther, was a Catholic priest, according to this author, he was a Catholic priest. I insist, I said it at the beginning, the authors that we mentioned at the beginning do not make it clear. But his Latin mentality, irrational, made possible an infinitely superior doctrine to Lutheran and therefore infinitely more powerful and dangerous. As Luther, Calvin denied that man had freedom or free will. With Luther he affirmed the total deprivation of human nature and therefore the

38:54 effectiveness of works for salvation. But he added a new dimension to Luther's doctrine. According to Calvin, Man has been predestined either to condemnation or salvation from eternity by God, without God taking into account at all what man did. The decision to condemn or save from God has nothing to do with a supposed human freedom, since man has absolutely no freedom. The bad are bad because God wants them to be like that, and the good are good because God wants them to be like that. It is a terrible decision. a decision identified with

39:41 the very Being of God. He commands eternally that the vast majority of men go to hell and that a handful of chosen ones go to heaven. Everything I do cannot influence this act of divine freedom, because my freedom, which does not exist, does not participate in that of God. I find it very forceful to clarify why this ends in a gloomy, somber, pessimistic culture. pessimistic, to which the Calvinist can only compensate with the accumulation of material goods as a sign of predestination to eternal life. At first glance, we would think

40:28 that this doctrine, notice how interesting, would have reduced the Calvinist man to quietism or lust. If I'm ready, I'm fried in one way or another, or I saved myself or I condemned myself for all eternity, no matter how I conduct myself. I either stay waiting for death or I dedicate myself to enjoying the pleasures of life. Because if not, what sense does it make? This is the paradox that the author warns. If all the good that I do does not count at all for my salvation, why can't I dedicate myself either to doing nothing or to seeking the delights of sin?

41:14 Paradoxically, Calvin did not draw this conclusion from his doctrine, but rather he elaborated an addition to his doctrine, which is extremely important if we want to understand the modern world. "Although my acts are not worth a penny for my salvation, they are nevertheless a sign or a symbol of that salvation." In other words, a man saved by God can realize his salvation, he can separate himself from the mass of the condemned if God has blessed him with the goods of this life. Material prosperity is a proof that God has chosen

41:59 me. Therefore, the Calvinist man sought material prosperity as a proof of his salvation and as a justification for his own existence. While Catholicism had always preached that a poor man has a higher chance of entering heaven than a rich man, based on his doctrine on the words of Our Lord, Calvinism preached exactly the opposite. Poverty was a sign of condemnation and wealth of salvation. Instead of becoming a quietist or a shameless, the Calvinist became a capitalist. His religious beliefs produced a spiritual anxiety capable

42:45 of being softened only through the accumulation of material wealth. It is very dense what this man throws in this article, I really recommend it. Fredrik Wilhelmsen, Protestantism, Lutheranism and Calvinism. It's on the internet, I got it like that, looking for it. It is often said that Calvinism was the cause of capitalism, what Pérez Reverte thinks, let's say with his phrase. This is not the exact truth. Capitalism had already begun to develop in England and the Netherlands before the advent of Calvinism, due to the beginning of that economic transformation that later became the Industrial

43:32 Revolution, and due to the decline of the guilds and their old freedoms due to the new centralization of the state and the presence of a new class, the bourgeoisie. But the nascent capitalism received its spirit from Calvinism, which was the spout that pushed man to become rich in every way. Without Calvinism, the new media of the industry would have been caused and disciplined by Catholic morality, and today's world would have been totally different from what it is in reality. These new means would have served the common good of society, instead of serving

44:18 the particular means of individuals and groups of pressure. But Calvinism deviated from the new industrial economic progress towards a mentality and psychology with an internal insecurity, insisting that the individual as such would enrich himself and in this way symbolize his salvation for everyone and for himself. The liberalism of the 18th and 19th centuries and the early 20th centuries until our times has always been derived from the Calvinist spirit. Wherever Calvinism has won, it has also won liberalism, since these doctrines, although they are not identified, combine wonderfully. In Scotland, in England, in the Netherlands, in the United States, Calvinists have always been the great capitalists. In France, a Catholic country,

45:09 more than half of the country's wealth is in the hands of a small Protestant minority and more than 80% of the financial and industrial wealth is Protestant. It would be ridiculous to pretend that the cause of this is the fact that Protestants want to make a lot of money and Catholics don't. Everyone wants money, and the more the better. But a Catholic does not need to have money to be sure of his own salvation and therefore of the integrity of his personality, while the Calvinist does need it. A poor Catholic is a poor man, but a poor Calvinist

45:55 or liberal is a poor man. And we are concluding, he talks about the Calvinist interventions, so that we can see that he did not stay in Calvino, his grave and the beautiful Swiss canton of the Geneva area. Calvinism commutes with Lutheranism in its negation of the natural law. Therefore, everything that prevents the progress of the capitalist revolution had to be rejected. A model of the union between capitalism and Calvinism was the 17th century English Revolution against the Estuards. We know little about this revolution. King Charles I represented ancient England

46:42 with its estates, its guilds, its free peasants. The Parliament represented a new aristocracy, whose wealth came from the theft of the Church's lands and the energy of a new capitalism that felt restricted by the traditional morality of the country. This new capitalist aristocracy was Calvinist in block, while the forces that supported the king were either Catholic or not Calvinist. The consequences of the English Revolution are extremely interesting for us. King Charles I lost the war and his own head. The peasants lost their small farms, the knights of the

47:29 king their goods. A new, rich, capitalist group took over the country and quickly turned England into that industrial hell of the 19th century, which did not recognize the rights of anything other than money and the power obtained by money. As a result, today, Less than 10% of the English peasants are owners of the land they grow. And less than 20% of the population owns their own houses. It is said that the English countryside is a garden. It is true. It is a garden that belongs to the rich. Pérez Reverte continues confused and would say that was the

48:16 God that suited us. Perhaps it would suit him, that he would be within that 10%. And I mention the other interventions. The second great intervention with the House of Orange Nassau in Holland, the current reigning dynasty in the Netherlands, with Prince William. The third Calvinist intervention was the French Revolution. We are going to get there and we are going to see it in detail. And the fourth great intervention of liberal capitalism was carried out in Spain in the 19th century. After the emancipatory processes, we in Hispano-America, in particular the Argentines, have little idea of what was the Spanish history in the rest

49:01 of the 19th century. That struggle between liberals and traditionalists or carlistas. The author considers that in Spanish liberalism the ideas of Calvino are present. They would be the predecessors of Pérez Reverte in ideological terms. They see as a totally alien character to our culture. that some consider restricted only to the 16th century and to a cultural environment such as Switzerland, has actually given a mark to the much deeper historical devenir. And I dare to say that that West, once the medieval Christianity, united around the Catholic faith, as a result of this rupture that

49:49 implicated the Lutheran schism and then Calvinism and then we will see Anglicanism, Well, these sectors are going to be the ones that are going to stay with the commercial brand, if you allow me the metaphor. They are going to consider themselves the Christian West, at least until it was necessary to invoke that Christianity against the Soviet kuk, etc. After the Soviet Union fell, they already forgot about the Christian, and at least now we have an advantage, the Catholics, which is that these sectors act in the face of discovery, they no longer have to hide anything. Catholicism or Christianity, regardless of their different aspects, was an effective ally when the "cucu" seemed to come from Moscow. But now Christians from all

50:37 over the world realize that the real threat, more than from Moscow, may come from Wall Street, from Basel, from Brussels or Silicon Valley. Sectors in which the mentality of their people is that of Calvin. Anyway, it's a lot more, but well, impossible. 50 minutes seems enough to me. I give you a greeting. Have a good week. See you

51:23 next time, if you want.