John Calvin (1509 - 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer, one of the principal figures of the Protestant Reformation. His Institutes of the Christian Religion gave Reformed Protestantism its systematic form, and the church order he established in Geneva became a model for Reformed and Presbyterian churches across Europe and beyond. [1]
Early life and education
Jean Calvin was born on 10 July 1509 at Noyon in Picardy, in the Kingdom of France, the son of a notary employed by the cathedral chapter. Intended at first for the priesthood, he was sent to Paris, studying at the Collège de la Marche and the Collège de Montaigu, where he received a thorough grounding in Latin and scholastic philosophy. [1]
At his father's direction he turned to law, studying at Orléans and Bourges under leading humanist jurists. His first publication, in 1532, was a commentary on Seneca's De Clementia. At some point in the early 1530s he experienced what he later described as a sudden conversion to the reforming cause, and fled Paris after the authorities moved against evangelical sympathisers. [2]
The Institutes
In exile in Basel, Calvin published the first edition of the Institutio Christianae Religionis in 1536, a compact statement of evangelical doctrine addressed to Francis I of France in defence of persecuted French Protestants. He revised and expanded the work repeatedly over nearly thirty years, until the definitive Latin edition of 1559 and his own French translation made it the most comprehensive theological synthesis produced by the Reformation. [1]
The Institutes set out the sovereignty of God, the authority of scripture, justification by faith, and the doctrine of predestination with which his name is most often associated. He also wrote commentaries on most books of the Bible, catechisms, liturgies and a very large correspondence. [3]
Geneva
Passing through Geneva in 1536, Calvin was pressed by the reformer Guillaume Farel to stay and help organise the newly Protestant city. Conflict with the civil authorities led to the expulsion of both men in 1538, and Calvin spent three years in Strasbourg, pastoring a French refugee congregation and working alongside Martin Bucer, whose influence shaped his views on church order and worship. [1]
Recalled to Geneva in 1541, he drafted the Ecclesiastical Ordinances, establishing four ministerial offices and a consistory charged with the oversight of doctrine and morals. His authority in the city was contested for more than a decade by opponents among the older Genevan families, and was not secure until the mid-1550s. [2]
The most controversial episode of his career was the trial and execution by burning of the anti-Trinitarian physician Michael Servetus in 1553, carried out by the Genevan magistrates with Calvin's support, an act that drew criticism at the time and has been a persistent charge against him since. [1]
Later life and legacy
In 1559 Calvin founded the Geneva Academy, which trained ministers who carried Reformed theology into France, the Netherlands, Scotland, Hungary and Poland. He died in Geneva on 27 May 1564, asking to be buried in an unmarked grave. [2]
Reformed, Presbyterian and Congregational churches trace their theology and polity to his work. His influence on European political thought, on ideas of vocation and on the debates over religion and economic life, framed most famously by Max Weber, has been argued over by historians for more than a century. [4]
