Calvin, Jean

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 700+ words | Copyright

Calvin, Jean (from Calvinus, the Latinized form of Cauvin) (1509–64), French theologian and reformer. In 1536 he published in Basle the first (Latin) edition of his Institution de la religion chrétienne which was conceived as a defence of the Reformed Faith. It repudiated scholastic methods of argument in favour of deductions from biblical authority and the moral nature of man, and it advocated the doctrines of sin and grace—with the attendant doctrine of predestination derived from St Paul—at the expense of salvation by works. Calvin was an unswerving opponent of episcopacy. The influence of his ideas in 16th- and 17th-cent. England can scarcely be exaggerated.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Calvin, Jean." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Calvin, Jean." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-CalvinJean.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Calvin, Jean." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-CalvinJean.html

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