John Calvin

John Calvin was born on July 10, 1509, in Noyon, in the north of France. His father, Gérard, was an administrator for the cathedral and a man of some standing. His mother died when John was a small child. He was sent to Paris at the age of fourteen to study, and he took his degree in arts. His father then directed him to study law, at Orléans and Bourges. He was an able student and was drawn to the new learning of the humanists. In 1532, he published a commentary on a work of Seneca, which showed his scholarly gifts.

Around 1533, he experienced what he called a sudden conversion. He later wrote that God subdued his heart to teachableness, and that he, who had been stubbornly attached to the superstitions of the papacy, was brought to a new mind. He did not say much about the details. He soon left Paris, after a friend, Nicolas Cop, gave a speech that was considered heretical, and Calvin was thought to be involved. He became a wanderer for a time. In 1535, in Basel, he completed the first edition of his great work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion. It was published in 1536, when he was twenty-six.

In July 1536, he was traveling through Geneva when William Farel, a fiery reformer, urged him to stay and help in the work of reform. Calvin was reluctant, as he wanted to live a quiet life of study. Farel threatened him with God's curse if he would not remain. He stayed. He became a teacher and a pastor in the city. The citizens of Geneva resisted the strictness of the reformers, and in 1538, Calvin and Farel were expelled. He went to Strasbourg and served as the pastor of a congregation of French refugees. There he married Idelette de Bure, a widow with two children, in 1540. He also learned from Martin Bucer.

In 1541, he was invited back to Geneva, and he returned with some reluctance. He spent the rest of his life there. He set up a system of church government, with pastors, teachers, elders and deacons. He wrote a catechism and a form of worship and drew up ordinances for the church. He established the Consistory, a body of ministers and elders who watched over the morals of the city. He preached almost daily, often without notes, and went through whole books of the Bible. He also wrote commentaries on nearly every book of the Bible.

He revised the Institutes several times, and the final edition, in 1559, was a work of five books. It is the greatest statement of Reformed theology. It deals with the knowledge of God, the person and work of Christ, the way in which we receive His grace, and the church. He stressed the sovereignty of God, the authority of Scripture and the doctrine of predestination. His thought influenced the Reformed churches in Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Scotland and later America. In 1559, he founded the Academy of Geneva, which trained pastors and reformers for many countries.

He had trials and faults. He suffered constant ill health, including migraines, gallstones and tuberculosis. He lost his wife in 1549. He was a man of great discipline and not of great warmth. He could be harsh and quick to anger, and he made many enemies. In 1553, the physician and theologian Michael Servetus, who denied the Trinity, was arrested in Geneva, and Calvin took part in the prosecution. He was burned at the stake. This is the darkest episode in his life, and many have criticized his role. He had urged that Servetus be beheaded, not burned, but he did not stop the execution.

He died on May 27, 1564, in Geneva, at the age of fifty-four. He asked to be buried in an unmarked grave, and no one knows where he lies. His influence has been vast, and his work shaped much of the Protestant world. His life shows the power of a mind devoted to the Word, and also the dangers of a hard spirit.