Bullinger combined. Nevertheless, Bunyan’s Mapp exists in direct lineal descent from Calvin’s work and from the work of his most prolific Reformation apologists. One must hesitate, then, in accepting Gordon Wakefield’s claim that Bunyan was ‘a signal example of Lutheran influence on English Protestantism, tempering Calvinism’. The scholastic treatment of conver- : In these two instances, as in many others, puritan conversion narratives effected an emancipation of the laity. Laypeople found a voice within the ecclesiastical institutions of the burgeoning Independent movement. Without formal theological qualifications they were encouraged to testify what God had done for their soul and were given the means publicly to negotiate with

doi:10.4324/9780203166505-28

Chapter

Bullinger combined. Nevertheless, Bunyan’s Mapp exists in direct lineal descent from Calvin’s work and from the work of his most prolific Reformation apologists. One must hesitate, then, in accepting Gordon Wakefield’s claim that Bunyan was ‘a signal example of Lutheran influence on English Protestantism, tempering Calvinism’. The scholastic treatment of conver-

Chapter

ABSTRACT

But their emancipated laypeople were grappling with Spirit and with scripture and were redefining the very basis of ecclesiastical debate. Accounts of lay conversion no longer tallied with academic presentations of Calvinist doctrine. They could negotiate with the scholastics, for the Son had set them free.