John Calvin (1509-1564) was a French Reformer and theologian. He was the son of a lawyer who planned for him to become a priest. In 1523 he began studies at the University of Paris until his father changed his mind and sent him to the University of Orleans to study law. After his father’s death in 1531, he abandoned law and went to Paris to study humanities. Here he had a “sudden conversion,” as he would later describe it, and left the Catholic Church to become a Protestant leader and preacher. His outspokenness and brilliant mind got him in trouble in Paris so he and a companion, Nicholas Cop, left the city; eventually ending up in Strasbourg. Here, in 1536, he published Institutes of the Christian Religion, which stressed the sovereignty of God, a limited atonement, predestination, and irresistible grace. His travels took him to Geneva, Switzerland where he eventually, after a series of conflicts with the Catholic leadership and others, established the city as the “Rome of Protestantism.” He ran the city with strict authority and engaged in organizing nearly every aspect of its civic affairs. He remained here until his death. He, along with Luther and Knox, is considered one of the three greatest figures of the Reformation, and his influence can be seen to this day in the various denominations that embrace his theology, including Presbyterian and Reformed churches.
