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John Calvin was born on 10 July of 1509, in Noyon, Picardy region of France.
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At the age of 14, Calvin went to Paris to study. He studied seven subjects: Grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.
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In 1523 he changed to a more famous college, and also his name to it’s Latin form, which in French is Jean Calvin.
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Calvin was closely tied to the Catholic Church, even though teachings of Martin Luther and Jacques Lefevre d’Etaples were spreading in Paris. By 1527, he had been friend with reform-minded people, and his father told him to study the law rather than theology, wich helped him convert into a Reformed faith.
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John Calvin published the first edition of his book Institutes of the Christian Religion, which talked about:
- It was indebted to Martin Luther.
- It was addressed to King Francis I of France. -
John Calvin disengaged himself from the Catholic Church, and made plans to move to Strasbourg, but there was a war between King Francis I and Charles V, so calvin decided to move to Geneva. He worked there as a preacher and Lecturer.
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Calvin was asked to leave Geneva because of theological conflicts. So, he went to Strasbourg. His stay as a pastor to french refugees was happy and peaceful.
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Calvin got married to Idelette de Bure, a widow who had two children from her first marriage.
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In 1541, Calvin was requested by the Council of Geneva to get back to Geneva. He was emotionally torn and he wanted to stay, but he felt a responsibility to return.
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Calvin adapted a service book used in Strasbourg, publishing “The Form of Prayer and Church Hymns”. Calvin recognized the power of music, and in the original Strasbourg psalter had twelve psalms by Clement Marot, and added many hymns of his own in the Geneva version. In 1542, Marot became a refugee in Geneva and contributed 190 more psalms. In the same year, Calvin published Catechism of the Church of Geneva, wich was inspired by Bucer’s Kurze Schrifftliche Erklärung of 1534.
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Calvin preached over two thousand sermons. Initially, he preached twice on sunday and three times during the week, but as this was too hard, late in 1542 the Council allowed him to preach only once a sunday
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Calvin’s sermons started to be recorded so that they could be printed, Those sermons preserved in manuscript form are published in Supplementa Calviniana.
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Calvin was required to preach twice on sundays and every week day of alternative weeks. His sermons lasted more than one hour and he did not use notes.
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- In his edition of 1559, he writes in four sections, about how the knowledge is considered the knowledge of the Father.
- In section two, how the Son reveals the father.
- section three talks about the work of the Holy Spirit, who raised Christ from the dead.
- Section four, about the Christian Church.
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John Calvin died in 27 May of 1564, Geneva.
