From natural disability to the moral man: Calvinism and the history of psychology

Some humanist theologians within the French Reformed Church in the 17th cen tury developed the notion that a disability of the intellect could exist in nature independently of any moral defect, freeing its possessors from any obligations of natural law. Sharpened by disputes with the church leadershi p, this notion began to suggest a species-type classification that threaten ed to override the importance of the boundary between elect and reprobate i n the doctrine of predestination. This classification seems to look forward to the natural history of mind that emerged later in the century.