“Calvin, right out of the gate in his Institutes (1559) has an address to the King of France telling him, ‘I hope your Majesty will see from this brief summary of the Christian faith, not the Reformed faith, the Christian faith, that this is simply the catholic faith believed throughout all ages.’ That gives an example of how our tradition, at its best has always seen itself as first of all catholic, not Roman Catholic, but catholic in the sense that, and Calvin pointed this out, ‘Roman Catholic’ is a contradiction of terms. Catholic means ‘universal’ – so that’s like saying, ‘I’m a California Nationalist.’ No, to be catholic is to say, ‘no one locale – no one particular bishop – has sovereignty over the whole church.’”

– Dr. Michael Horton