The texts in this volume begin and end with this same point. Composed under different circumstances by giants of the Reformed tradition—Theodore Beza (1519–1605), Amandus Polanus (1561–1610), and Francis Turretin (1623–87)—they represent genres of classical treatments of the same doctrine. Beza’s Defense of Justification by Faith Alone is polemical and in response to ecclesiastical controversy. Polanus’ Free Justification of Man the Sinner before God is systematic and the fruit of logical ...

Theodore Beza's A Clear and Simple Treatise Respecting the Lord's Supper (1559) advances a tireless defense of the Reformed perspective on the Lord's Supper, responding chapter by chapter to specific arguments raised against John Calvin by his Lutheran opponent, Joachim Westphal. Beza makes great use of the concept of metonymy, or a figure of speech, in his interpretation of the words of institution, yet he equally champions the position that the Lord's Supper is not a bare symb...