In a sense, the religious reform movement was a part of modern bourgeois revolution, which Engels called "the first bourgeois revolution". The ideological achievements of religious reformers in this period provided extremely important materials for the great prosperity of modern bourgeois political thought, thus profoundly affecting the construction of modern western political science. 1. The dispute between belief and rationality and belief has a long history in Christianity. Augustine belittled the role of reason, while Aquinas promoted and perfected reason and belief to a certain extent. Theological theorists of the Reformation adopted a more reasonable compromise at that time: they not only recognized the difference between the church and the state, but also recognized the difference between the theories guiding the church and the state. Distinguishing between faith and reason is even regarded as a sign of a "true theologian". [1] (p39) Reason guides the secular kingdom, while the belief in the Bible dominates the spiritual kingdom. In this way, although the religious reformers seem to be stricter than the theologians in the Middle Ages, in fact, they have left enough space for the secular field, and it is inevitable to fill this space and lead it rationally. Politics is only a remarkable field in this field. Calvin further divided the external environment of controlling people into two kingdoms: "one is the spiritual kingdom and the other is the secular kingdom" [2](P 15). Since there is such a clear division, it is unreasonable to use the Bible as a textbook for politicians. It is enough to warn politicians that "you should act like a Christian". [3](P377) Actually, religion. However, besides the teaching of the Bible, what should political science be based on? Luther's answer was "God made secular government obey reason". [4](P 194) At this point, Luther even regarded a heretic like Aristotle as an authority. When Calvin talked about "political science and economy, all mechanical skills and liberal arts research", he avoided talking about faith and focused on rationality. However, this does not mean that reason dominates everything. In the field of theology, the rejection of reason is increasing day by day, surpassing the medieval theologians. Luther pointed out that "all Aristotle's thoughts are to theology as darkness is to light". [5](P50) However, we can see that Calvin is better than Augustine and even Aquinas: reason and belief are strictly separated. In the study of secular fields, including political science, the status of rationality has been restored, which has had a far-reaching impact on modern political science methods. It is also worth pointing out that in Calvin's view, the scope of reason has been expanded to the maximum extent. Calvin even proved this point in the comparison between the true church and the false church "with scripture, reason and Augustine's authority" (that is, the so-called "truth" and "fallacy" of the church). [6] This shows that rationality has even become the proof of "true" and "false" churches. Of course, we can't ask the leaders of the Reformation to preach rationality within the theological scope. However, they can distinguish theology from politics, limit the supremacy of faith to theology and establish the authority of reason in secular theory, especially political theory. Modernity is called "the age of rationality", and rationality has become the most fundamental starting point of modern political science research. The establishment of reason's authoritative position in guiding political science research provides a passport for the establishment of modern political science research methods. Second, the nation-state and the national church As far as religious reform theorists are concerned, the idea of reforming religious teachings is incredible, even a sin, and they are more concerned about the reform of the church. The establishment of "cheap ethnic churches" has become a slogan, which can even be regarded as the final reasonable conclusion of all his theories. For example, Lasmo's translation of the Bible in Rotterdam and the activities of "Erfort Group" had a far-reaching impact on the establishment of ethnic churches. However, Lu Se, a student of Erfort University, has made outstanding contributions in this respect. Luther's most important theory is "justification by faith". This means abandoning the "complex and corrupt Roman church", however, it is a prerequisite for establishing a national church. In Wartburg, where Saxony was elected, the influence of Luther's translation of the Bible went far beyond religion itself, and even had a great influence on language and cultural reform. In Britain, such works followed one after another, and this series of works undoubtedly injected stimulants into the rise of national spirit. Getting rid of the shackles of the Pope has become a primary goal of the religious reform, and achieving this goal has the same effect as establishing a national church. And how to fight against the powerful pope? Religious reformers all over the world place their hopes on the establishment of a nation-state. An outstanding performance of the establishment of the "National Church" in Germany is that this activity is based on the support of the rulers. The establishment of the "national church" inevitably needs a kind of power to oppose the Roman church, and the vassal who holds the political future of Germany acts as this kind of power, which inevitably makes the "national church" attached to the "nation state". Calvin initially denied the necessity of church organization. Later, due to the development of the situation, he himself went to Geneva to establish a "Calvinistic bourgeoisie * * * and country" with the integration of politics and religion, and the church directly exercised administrative power. Britain is a different picture: with the royal power, King Henry VIII of England carried out the church reform that relied entirely on the state. This example shows that "national church" and "national country" are inextricably linked. Due to the differences in history and reality of all ethnic groups in western society, there are different models of the relationship between the national church and the national state in modern European Protestant countries. However, we can't deny the influence of the "national church" advocated by the Religious Reform on the formation of a modern nation-state. In the history of the formation of modern political theory, an indisputable historical phenomenon is the rise of the nation-state. In a sense, the political theory of this period is the theory about the nation-state. Both Machiavelli's "rational state" and Bhutan's sovereignty theory are based on the rise of modern nation-states. Including Grotius' War and Peace Law, are based on the fact that the nation-state has risen. Perhaps we are at a loss when we are pursuing the religious reformers' theory of nation-state. However, the reformers' work is full of two efforts: one is to break the Pope's status as emperor in Western Europe, and the other is to establish ethnic churches. These two efforts have made use of the growing strength of the nation-state, which in turn has become a great driving force for the rise of the nation-state, providing fertile ground for the development of the political theory of the nation-state. Third, the modern characteristics of human beings and the rise of individual spirit. People in the Middle Ages had dual identities, namely "Christians" and "subjects". Christianity is a religion with strict moral requirements, which has a profound impact on people's lives and is linked with the economic life in the Middle Ages. In modern times, the great geographical discovery and the rise of trade have greatly changed people's economic life and given people a series of names completely different from those in the Middle Ages: emerging bourgeoisie; The emerging urban proletariat; Farmers who are different from before. Although people are still a collection of "Christians" and "subjects", the surge of wealth has led to the luxury life of the growing emerging bourgeoisie; The rising urban proletarian and peasant uprisings show that the changes in economic life changed people's lifestyles in the Middle Ages. The change of human status and lifestyle will inevitably lead to a new understanding of people. In the works of Luther, Calvin and other religious reform leaders, the concepts of "laity believers are all priests" and "everyone is a monk" are common. The rise of "individual spirit" caused by the reform of human values has become the most obvious feature of the modernization of this religious movement, which seems to be a tortuous response to the Renaissance movement within the theological scope. However, Luther and Calvin have different views. Luther put more emphasis on people's faith. "How do you believe in God, you will get God" and "Believers are God". Like all theologians, man is first degraded by religious reformers and guilty before God. On the road to salvation, the religious reformers showed their greatest difference from the Roman church. That is, "only faith is justified." Guilty people can be saved through their own "beliefs", not the "deeds" advocated by the medieval church. Therefore, we can see that the concept of "people with faith" became a declaration of "individual spirit" in Luther. Calvin dismissed such bold remarks, and the concepts of depravity and sin were more prominent in Calvin. He declared, "We are not our own masters." He even quoted David as saying, "What is man that you care about him? This is exactly the same as people's understanding in the Middle Ages. However, if we analyze it carefully, we will find the subtleties. Calvin doesn't ignore people because of God. On the contrary, he believes that "man is the mirror of God's work". So, what makes Calvin's understanding of people so low? In fact, we can get the answer from the social background at that time. The cruel commodity economy involved people in an unknown and unpredictable force. In the whirlpool of this force, the power of the individual is even smaller. Calvin's pessimism was born from this. In his eyes, man is like a raft drifting with the tide. Therefore, we think that the people in Calvin's eyes reflect the modern characteristics of people more keenly than that he ignores people. The reason why religious issues are so important is that individuals in medieval western Europe were more concerned about their own redemption, and the changes in the moral field caused by modern economic life brought a crisis to this redemption. The appearance of modern society shows that caring for the inner world and adapting to the outer world is a dynamic process. The tortuous development of Christian theology has changed people's values and become an indispensable aspect in this process. In this tortuous development process, the religious reform is obviously a very powerful driving force. The "discovery of man" accompanied by the change of man's status is a great achievement of the Renaissance, and the meticulous work of the rise of personal spirit mostly comes from the religious reform. This "personal spirit" has established such a value: on this basis, it is easy for us to understand modern concepts such as democracy, freedom, equality and human rights that the leaders of the Religious Reform cannot understand. Fourth, the theological fulcrum of the political theory of nation-state. Modern political theory holds that man should be free as an individual; People should be equal; The relationship between the state and the individual should be democratic. This seemed inconceivable in the Middle Ages. However, the concepts of freedom, equality and democracy were not put forward by modern political thinkers. The concept of state in the sense of liberalism, the organizational form of equality and democracy under the background of professional equality germinated among religious reformers, which is of great significance to the formation of concepts such as freedom, equality and democracy as the core content of modern political science. "Christian freedom" is the freedom idea of religious reformers, and its content is extremely narrow, as evidenced by Calvin's persecution of pagans in Geneva. However, the deeper contribution of religious reformers to the theory of freedom comes from their understanding of the country. The establishment of the nation-state is a means to realize the national church, while the secular state is only a tool to help individuals achieve a certain goal. Although this thought is embodied in the limited affairs that individuals rely on faith to be saved, it has a far-reaching impact on the modern liberal state theory. Luther regarded the vassal as the backing of the religious reform, and the powerful vassal was regarded as the foundation of realizing the national church. Luther's understanding of vassals and even the state is only this: secular state is an auxiliary tool in the cause of saving individuals through faith. Calvin's "unity of politics and religion" and "republic" are precisely to protect this cause. The purpose of the state is to ensure the conduct of individual behavior, which is particularly striking among the theorists of the Reformation. Anyone who knows a little about the history of modern political development will know that this understanding of the country is almost a pillar of modern political theory. Therefore, we have reason to believe that the state in the modern bourgeois political science system is just a secular replica of the religious reform's view of state, although this replica is dressed so luxuriously. As a secondary religion in early Christianity, "everyone is equal before God" embodies the equality view of early prophets. However, the development of Christianity shows that this equality is spiritual and has nothing to do with the strict hierarchy within the church. Even this spiritual equality comes from the church, because the church has mastered the interpretation of the Bible and monopolized the culture. The establishment of hierarchy in the church is based on the role of the church in people's realization of their beliefs. The foundation of the Roman church's rule is based on the consensus that individuals can't understand God's will, and people's faith can only be saved under the guidance of the Roman church. It is precisely because of this guidance that inequality within the church becomes inevitable. Religious reformers, on the other hand, point to the core of this theory and put forward tit for tat: "Justification by faith". This slogan has become a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it openly challenges the authority of the Roman church hierarchy, on the other hand, it gives people the equality they deserve in their souls, with only one condition: "faith." The strict hierarchy of the Roman church has been the goal of the religious reform from the beginning, and what attracts people's attention most is what level Protestantism positions the relationship between people. Luther gave us a clear and accurate answer: "Everyone should stand in his post and serve the rest according to his occupation. All people should work for the same interests, just as all people serve each other. " [7](P 12) This content is very eye-catching, which is exactly what the main ethnic groups who believe in Protestantism do not have. The "occupation" theory of religious reformers (typically Luther) was called the so-called "capitalist spirit" by Weber. What Weber didn't see, however, was that behind Luther's concept of "occupation", there was also equality under the background of social and economic changes. In Calvin's view, everyone is equal, because everyone is equal before God. He pointed out: "Even a saint can't do a thing, and if such a thing is judged by its merits, it should not be condemned." [8] Protestantism's equality theory has gradually become a substitute for the hierarchy in the real world after the hard cultivation of the masters of religious reform. Every orthodox profession has exactly the same value in the eyes of God, and this new concept of equality has become a sword to stab the hierarchy of the church, making the equality in the modern sense a reasonable "moral defense" in the secular scope. Another core concept in modern political theory is democracy. Democracy in the sense of a political country was not created by anyone. On the contrary, people are constantly starting from their personal lives and gradually implementing their knowledge into the political field. This is a gradually cultivated theory of political democracy, and the church "democracy" advocated by religious reformers has played a demonstration role to some extent. Calvin advocated the reform of church organizations according to democratic principles. In the Republic established by Calvin, equal relations were established between priests; Vote for clergy; Set up a congress composed of believers and brothers, and abide by their decisions ... This series of reforms has obvious enlightenment to the emergence of modern democracy. In practice, Calvin established a democratic and national church organization according to the principles of this church organization. At first, this kind of democracy was limited to the church, but with the growth of the emerging bourgeoisie, it gradually expanded to "the kingdom on earth." Its theoretical contribution is not only limited to the influence on modern political theory, but also "becomes the flag of Geneva, Holland, Scotland and the party" ... and provides an ideological cloak for the second act of the British bourgeoisie. [9](P252) After the victory of the bourgeoisie, the countries established by Protestants are mostly in the form of * * * and the state, from which we can clearly see the pioneering significance of "Calvinism" democracy. We don't want to exaggerate the role of religious reform in the construction of modern western political theory system. However, the religious reform shocked people's thoughts at that time and played an important role in the establishment of modern political system.