Calvin, John (1509-1564)

John Calvin (1509-1564)

Theologian

Sources

Early Life. John Calvin was one of the primary reformers and theologians of the Protestant Reformation. Born in 1509 in Noyon, France, the son of a notary, attorney for the Church, and secretary for the local bishop, John Calvin was destined for a life in religious service. Noyon was the site of a cathedral and thus had a rich episcopal history. Calvin spent his first university years in Paris, supported by the generosity of the bishop of Noyon. His intellectual life was cultivated by spending time with the large circle of scholars at the court of King Francis I. He was studying for the priesthood until his father argued with the local bishop and sent his son to study law in Orleans. After earning his doctor of laws degree in 1531, Calvin went to Paris to study politics and theology. His humanistic studies led him to look carefully at the Church, and soon after, he joined a reformed religious party. His attitudes toward the Church were also affected by the fact that he could not secure Christian burial for his father, who had been excommunicated upon his death in 1531.

Conversion. Calvin published his first book in 1532, a commentary on Seneca’s On Clemency. The next year, after helping his friend Nicholas Cop, rector of the University of Paris, compose an address which included Lutheran Reformation ideas, the two had to flee Paris, and the Church instituted heresy proceedings against him. It was perhaps after this that Calvin experienced his conversion to scripture-based religion; the event sent Calvin into exile and a life of supporting Reformation ideals.

Geneva. The year 1536 witnessed two important events in Calvin’s life: he published his most significant work and was persuaded to go to Geneva, Switzerland, to reform religion there. The Institutes of the Christian Religion forms the principal source for Calvin’s thought; it is also a manual on spirituality. Calvin accepted Luther’s idea that salvation is by grace alone, through faith. At the core of Calvin’s thinking was predestination—the idea that God had long ago determined who would be saved and who would be damned—and that humans were dependent on God for knowledge and faith. In Geneva, where Calvin would remain for the rest of his life (except for three years, when the political climate became less amenable for Protestants and he returned to Strasbourg in France), he transformed the city regarded for its ill repute into one in which a strict moral code prevailed, regulating the lives of everyone, regardless of rank or class. Geneva thus became the model Protestant city, and the University of Geneva was a training ground for Calvinism. Calvin lived out his life developing and refining his ideas on church government. He published the Ecclesiastical Ordinances in 1541, which set forth the organization of churches. In his system he placed authority in the laity, assuring that even if a minister left or the church leaders were persecuted (a real fear), the church would continue, as it had leadership in place. When Calvin died in 1564, he left followers in Switzerland and throughout Europe to ensure the survival of his theological system.

Sources

William Bouwsma, John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Portrait (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988);

Michael A. Mullett, Calvin (New York: Routledge, 1989).