In his 2003 book The Cradle King: A Life of James VI and I, Alan Stewart recounts King James VI’s encounter with the “Calvinist-tinged Lutheran” Niels Hemmingsen in Roskilde.
“From Copenhagen, James moved on to the village of Roskilde on 11 and 12 March [1590], to visit the great cathedral that served as the burial place of the kings of Denmark. James listened to a Latin oration by Mathias, and debated with Niels Hemmingsen, the elderly leading Danish theologian. Much of the doctrinal discussion centred on Hemmingsen’s Calvinist-tinged Lutheranism (for which he had been removed from his office of Professor of the University of Copenhagen):1 a Danish account records that Hemmingsen ‘discussed, with acute perception, predestination. For he was completely a disciple of Calvin.’ The theologian made a huge impact on James: he confided to a local priest that meeting Hemmingsen stood alongside seeing a monument to Frederick II in Roskilde Cathedral, and witnessing the Danish churches free of idolatry, as one of the highlights of his visit.” (p. 114)
- For more on this, see my previous post here.
