John Calvin was the founder of the Calvinist faith, the Presbyterian
denomination of Christianity today. Calvin was born and died in 1564.
John Calvin was one of the chief leaders of the Protestant Reformation.
From his early life and start in Protestantism, to his life in Geneva,
and the Proclamation of his faith, Calvin was an incredible
individual.
Calvin was born in Noyon, France, near Compiegne. His father was a
lawyer for the Roman Catholic Church. Young Calvin was educated in
Paris, Orleans and Bourges. Calvin planned to be a lawyer as his
father was, but it is likely that he never inwardly committed himself
to that career. With his father died in May of 1931, Calvin was free
to make his choice. He completed his doctorate in law but then came to
study Greek and Latin and the University of Paris. Calvin's life then
took a new direction that he refers to as a "sudden conversion".
He
writes about his experience in the introduction to his Commentary on
the Psalms written in 1557: "Since I was more stubbornly addicted to
the superstitions of the Papacy than to be easily drawn out of so deep
a mire, God subdued my heart-too stubborn for my age-to docility by a
sudden conversion." Therefore, by 1533 Calvin had declared himself a
Protestant. In 1534 Calvin moved to Basel, Switzerland where there,
two years later in 1536, he published his first edition on Institutes
of the Christian Religion. Calvin's book was the most influential work
in the development of the Protestant churches of the Reformed
tradition. It sets forth his basic ideas of religion, and he expanded
it throughout his life.
After much persuasion in 1536, Calvin became a leader of Geneva's first
group of Protestant pastors, even though he was probably never...