Thomas More, Niccolo Machiavelli, And John Calvin

Thomas More, Niccolo Machiavelli, and John Calvin are three theorists who share and justify their views on the relationship between the state and religion. More, the Catholic, Machiavelli, a critic of the Catholic Church, and Calvin, the Protestant, all believe that religion is a very important element of the state. However, More and Calvin also believe that religion can constrain rulers as well as support them, which ultimately leads to their conclusion that the arbitrary use of power by the state should have a limit. In the book Utopia, Thomas More describes what he believes an ideal society’s characteristics are by creating a fictional state, a Utopia. He builds the new world on paper. One of the more significant points in More’s piece is that religion is a
Calvin tries to create a new relationship between the church and the state, which is more extreme though very identical to Thomas More’s opinion. According to Calvin, the church and the state are two governments that should be integrated. For instance in the Geneva Confession Calvin discusses how religion should be a part of politics. He states “We should hold the supremacy and dominion of kings and princes as also of other magistrates and officers to be the holy thing and a good ordinance of God.” (Calvin, 5) Not only is there an inseparable relationship between the two entities, it is an absolute duty for the state to protect the church. God can easily replace the rulers who fail to follow through with their obligations. It is up to the government to “to cherish and protect the outward worship of God, to defend sound doctrine of piety and the position of the church, to adjust our life to the society of men, to form our social behavior to civil righteousness,” in order to generate peace and morality. This notion of Calvin’s suggests that the religion should be innate in a state’s