Fiducia: a "protest against the Romanist spirit of self-righteousness"

“Over against the reviving Arminianism of his day, he (Alexander Comrie) once more called attention to the fact that assurance is exactly that element in which faith most clearly reveals its nature as the subjective counterpart of the scheme of grace. Only by throwing off his self-righteous doubts and fears, i.e., by allowing himself to be fully persuaded and assured, does a sinner fully appreciate the grace of God. At the time of the Reformation this same element of fiducia had been placed in the foreground as a protest against the Romanist spirit of self-righteousness, and consequently we find strong utterances on the subject in Calvin and others.” – Geerhardus Vos, The Presbyterian and Reformed Review 5:331-334. [1894], a review of Dr. A.G. Honig’s “Alexander Comrie”