Early Years⤒🔗

John Calvin was born on July 10th, 1509. His parents, Gérard Calvin and Jeanne le Franc, lived in Noyon, a small town in the modern-day Oise department of northern France. Calvin’s childhood was marked by tragedy and piety. Gérard was widowed when his children were young. After this, his energies were focused on directing his sons towards the Roman Catholic priesthood. As an early teen, John worked as the local bishop’s clerk. He even wore the tonsure, a clerical haircut denoting serious devotion to Catholicism. The young Calvin was dedicated to the Church.

Financially supported by an influential local family, Calvin was enrolled at the Collège de la Marche in Paris. After this, he studied philosophy at the Collège de Montaigu. His fellow alumni from Montaigu include the Jesuit founder Ignatius of Loyola, Luther’s sparring partner Erasmus, and Scotland’s own John Knox.

Calvin was profoundly impacted by his early experiences in Paris. He studied at the Collège de la Marche for a few months. Four years were also spent at the Collège de Montaigu. At the Collège de la Marche, Calvin met Marthurin Cordier and was captivated by his Christ-centeredness and new teaching methods.

At this point, his life turned away from the priesthood. Gérard had fallen out with the local cathedral. John’s life would be better spent as a lawyer, it was decided, and thus he relocated to the University of Orléans. Following a period of study there, he moved to the University of Bourges. There he became involved in Renaissance Humanism, an intellectual movement which emphasised Greek and Latin study. He was thus equipped to read Scripture not only in its Latin Vulgate translation, but in its original languages.

Becoming Reformed←⤒🔗

Calvin’s student years took place during a period of dramatic social upheaval. Luther had, for some years, been spearheading a Europe-wide Reform movement. The year Calvin arrived to study in Paris, Jean Vallière, an Augustinian monk, was publicly burned to death for his Lutheran sympathies. Calvin studied in the midst of an inquisition.

After John’s graduation, Gérard Calvin died, having been previously excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. This was a source of grief to John, particularly regarding the difficulty of arranging a church burial for his father.

Following this, in 1531, Calvin returned to Paris. There he published his first book, a commentary on Seneca’s De Clementia. During this period Calvin, as a young man at the heart of Parisian intellectual life, began mixing in circles sympathetic to Luther and the Reformist movement. His writings from this time demonstrate an increasing awareness of Scripture.

His involvement with the Reformers was uncovered when his friend Nicolas Cop, the newly appointed rector of the Collège Royal, gave a speech containing Luther’s theology of law and gospel, and the notion of justification by faith alone. Cop called the Catholic Church to reform. His address caused the powder keg of pre-Reformation France to ignite. Cop was deemed a heretic and fled to Basel.

The inquisition turned its focus to Cop’s associates. Within a month of Cop’s speech, the King ordered that the ‘damned Lutheran sects’ be wiped out. Calvin became a suspect and was forced into hiding. Louis du Tillet, the canon of Antoulême and rector of Claix, showed him mercy, hiding Calvin for five months. Holed up in du Tillet’s considerable theological library, Calvin immersed himself in Scripture and the Early Church Fathers. He emerged from hiding intent on re-establishing himself in Paris. These plans were shelved when a new wave of anti-Lutheran persecution began. In October 1534, Antoine Marcourt, a preacher from Neuchâtel, began a protest using anti-Mass placards. Marcourt’s protest was aggressive, as was the State’s response. A round of imprisonments and executions forced Calvin to leave France. In January 1535, he was reunited with both Cop and du Tillet in Basel.

Within a year of arriving in Switzerland, at the age of 26, Calvin had completed the first edition of the Christianae Religionis Institutio (Institutes of the Christian Religion). The Institutes quickly became popular. They were available to the academic world in Latin, and to the wider community in a breathtakingly clear French translation.

The resounding success of the Institutes led Guillaume Farel, the Geneva-based Reformer, to ask Calvin (somewhat forcefully) to join him and work there. Reluctantly, Calvin agreed. However, his first stay in Geneva was short and somewhat unsuccessful. Several factors contributed to this, including the fact that the Genevan public was not, at this point, fully on board with Calvin’s take on Reformed worship and church life.

The real disaster in this first Geneva stay, however, was caused by the Swiss church itself. Historically, the Reformed churches in Bern and Geneva had been mutually supportive in the Reformation. However, after Calvin’s arrival in Geneva, Bern insisted that Geneva comply with its theology of worship: strict uniformity was demanded (albeit on Bern’s terms). The Geneva Council, against the wishes of Calvin and Farel, complied. Worship in Francophone Geneva had to become uniform with that of Germanic Bern. The City Council had already agreed to Bern’s demands, which placed Calvin and Farel in an impossible position. The work of Reformation in Geneva ground to a halt as Farel left to be the pastor at Neuchâtel and Calvin moved to work in Strasbourg. Geneva, having had two Reformers, was left with none. Without its Reformers, Geneva came under the attention of Cardinal Sadolet, who urged the Genevans to return to Catholicism. They came close to this.

Strasbourg←⤒🔗

Calvin’s story continues in the Alsatian capital, Strasbourg. While here, he worked alongside the Reformer Martin Bucer, preaching, teaching and expanding the Institutes. Living in Alsace, Calvin was also able to make closer contact with the German Reformers.

In Strasbourg, Calvin was aware of Cardinal Sadolet’s efforts to bring the Genevans back to Catholicism and wrote a thorough response to Sadolet, exhorting the Genevan public to reform. So convincing was Calvin’s piece that the Genevans called him back to be their pastor.

Before returning to Geneva, Calvin married Idelette de Bure. At this point, Calvin was 30. Idelette, a widow with several children, was from Liege.

Geneva←⤒🔗

In 1541, the Calvins moved to Geneva. Shortly after, Idelette gave birth to a son, Jacques, who died in infancy. John and Idelette had another two children who also died as infants. Five years into their marriage, Idelette became ill. The same illness plagued her for four years until her death in 1549, after nine years of marriage. The bereft Calvin’s remark was, ‘The best companion of my life is taken from me.’

Calvin’s second stay in Geneva was marked by wholehearted commitment to the Reformation. He preached over two thousand sermons, wrote extensively, founded a school which transformed education in Europe, taught theology, sheltered refugees and was at the centre of a worldwide Christian movement. His church in Geneva trained, financially supported and sent over one hundred ministers to France.

Servetus←⤒🔗

No discussion of Calvin’s life would be complete without the obligatory mention of Michael Servetus. Born in Spain, Servetus was a prodigious polymath who travelled Europe with a publicly anti-Trinitarian and anti-paedobaptist theology. Protestants and Catholics alike, Calvin included, denounced his theology as heretical. Servetus was first arrested in 1553 by Roman Catholic authorities in France. There, he was sentenced to death.

He managed to escape from prison. While en route to Italy, Servetus stopped in Geneva and attended Calvin’s church, where he was recognised as a wanted man and held by the Genevan authorities. The normal view of the time, regardless of ecclesiastical background, was that proactive heresy of this kind was a capital offense. Calvin agreed, and in doing so reflects his historical context in post-Medieval, pre-Enlightenment Christendom.

Contrary to the common stereotype, however, Calvin was not the dictator who ruled the City Council (and thus was singularly responsible for Servetus’ death). In fact, as an immigrant, Calvin was not even a citizen of Geneva at the time. The Genevan Council, under pressure to avoid the label of safe house for all ‘heresies’, first offered to return Servetus to the French. Servetus refused to go. He had now made himself Switzerland’s problem. Geneva then came under pressure from France to carry out their sentence on Servetus. In escaping to Switzerland, Servetus had turned his case into a knotty, international episode, complicating an already difficult diplomatic relationship between Catholic France and its Protestant neighbour.

The Genevan Council sentenced Servetus to death by burning. Calvin’s plea was for the punishment to be reduced to the less painful beheading.

Servetus’ case is complex. Its facts concern international law, economic and social pressures and a very particular historical context. Properly interpreting these facts is somewhat more challenging than relying on the oft churned-out stereotypes of Calvin as a murderous tyrant in an otherwise peace-loving Europe.

Older Age←⤒🔗

Calvin lived as a widower for fifteen years. In 1558, he was ill and, thinking death was near, became motivated to massively expand the Institutes. Although Calvin largely recovered from this illness, his health declined from that time onwards. He preached for the final time in February 1564. He passed into glory on the 27th of May, 1564, shortly before his 55th birthday.

His grave became the focal point of the Genevan Reformed community. Fearing the creation of a Calvin cult, his body was moved to an unmarked location. Whether one loves or loathes Calvin, none can deny his significance in the five centuries since his remarkable life.