Perhaps more than any other of God's servants, John Calvin is one of the best known of the Reformers. Millions of Christians who have their roots in the Protestant Reformation can be described as Calvinists or Reformed because their theology and thought can be traced back to the teachings of this sixteenth century Frenchmen who based his teaching on God's Word. This fact can be attributed primarily to Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, which underwent several revisions and expansions during his lifetime; the final edition being published in 1559.

Early Life⤒🔗

Calvin was born on July 27, 1509 in Noyons, France, a town about 100 kilometres northeast of Paris. In his early years he was known as Jean Cauvin. The name Calvin is actually derived from his Latin name, Calvinus. His father, Gerard Cauvin, was a lawyer of humble origins who worked himself up to the responsible position of performing legal duties for the Cathedral at Noyons. Jeanne, his mother, was the daugh­ter of an innkeeper in Cambrai, a French town.

We know very little of Calvin's early life. While Luther was like an open book, telling us about his thoughts and feelings in his writings, Calvin was rather reserved and many historians describe him as an introvert. We do know that he lost his mother at a very early age — when he was about five or six and such a tremendous loss must have caused him to recede even further into his shell. In 1521, at the age of twelve, he was given a titular benefice, meaning that while he was given the title of a clerical job, someone else does the actual work attached to it. This in effect meant that Calvin had enough income to pay for his education. In 1523 he went to study in Paris, one of the great intellectual centres of the world.

Calvin's father desired that he enter the priesthood. After receiving his Master of Arts in Paris in 1518, his father advised him to first study law at the University of Orleans. However, in 1531 Calvin's father died and Calvin again took up studies in Paris in both Greek and Hebrew. There he published his first work, a commentary on the classical Latin scholar, Seneca. At this time Calvin was influenced by the European, humanist tradition. All this changed when he experienced a "sudden conversion."

His Conversion and Exile←⤒🔗

The following is a personal account of Calvin describing his conversion: "My father had intended me for theology from my early childhood ... then, changing his mind, he set me to learning law ... until God at last turned my course in another direction by the secret reign of His provi­dence. By a sudden conversion He tamed to 'teachableness' a mind too stubborn for its years, for I was so strongly devoted to the superstitions of the papacy that nothing less could draw me from such depths of mire."

Calvin's term of a "sudden conversion" can be interpreted in two ways. Sudden can be regarded as something that happens rather quickly but it can also be translated as something that is unexpected. Perhaps his conversion surprised himself more than it did others. One thing we can agree on, however, is that it was momentous and lasting. It was also very risky, since Francis I, the king of France, was no friend of the Protestants. There was no Frederick the Wise in France as there had been in Luther's Germany. Consequently, by 1533, Calvin had to flee for his life because he was in agreement with a sermon preached by Nicholas Cop on November 1, All Saints Day. In this address, Cop attacked the Roman Catholic Church and advocated reform after the model advocated by Luther. When news of this reached Francis I, he demanded the arrest of the heretics. Being forewarned, Cop fled Paris and ultimately found refuge in Basel, Switzerland. After a period of wandering, Calvin too, found refuge in this city, where many Reformers, including Bullinger and Farel, had also found refuge.

The Institutes←⤒🔗

It was during this period of his life that Calvin began his most influential work for the Protestant cause, his Institutes of the Christian Religion, first published in Basel in 1535. Remarkably, Calvin dedicated it to the King of France with the hope that he would be convinced that the persecution of those who were receiving the Reformed faith was both wrong and foolish, and therefore unwarranted. This treatise was edited and expanded several times over the years and apart from the Bible itself has become one of the most important books ever published on the Christian faith.

This important work consisted initially of six parts. First, there is an explanation of the Ten Commandments, secondly of the Apostles' Creed, thirdly of the Lord's Prayer, fourthly of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and fifthly of Christian Baptism; and finally a concluding chapter on Christian liberty, and the authority of the church and the civil state. Calvin's aim was to teach people how God's glory may be protected on earth and how Christ's kingdom may be kept in good repair among Christians. Initially, the treatise was published anonymously.

The reason for its success was that it presented more clearly than anyone before him had done, the essential elements of Protestant theology. Calvin was a superb systematic theologian and teacher. By his God-given genius he was able to put complex ideas into words, which the Holy Spirit used over the centuries to powerfully transform millions of minds and hearts.

Calvin did not invent his views but through painstaking study he expounded what he thought was the clear message of the Bible, God's Word. His aim was that the Institutes would be a key to open the way for God's people to receive a right and helpful understanding of Holy Scripture. His writings show that Calvin was a clear expositor of the Word.

Calvin's First Stay in Geneva←⤒🔗

After more than a year in Basel, Calvin's plan was to move to Strassburg. However, due to war between Charles V and Francis I, a direct route would have been unsafe and so he ended up making a detour to the south through Geneva, the city with which his name has become synonymous. Guillaume Farel, also a French Reformer, was already sowing the seed of the Gospel in that city. When he heard that Calvin had arrived, he sought his assistance in pro­claiming the Gospel. But Calvin was not inclined to stay in Geneva, desiring to con­tinue with private study. Let us listen to Calvin's own explanation of what happened.

Farel, who burned with extraordinary zeal to advance the Gospel, immedi­ately strained every nerve to detain me. And after he had heard that my heart was set upon devoting myself to private studies, and finding that his entreaties were in vain, he went on to say that God would curse my retirement and the peace of study that I sought if I withdrew and refused him my help when the need was so urgent. I was so terror stricken that I abandoned the journey I had planned; but I was so sensible of my natural shyness and timidity that I would not bind myself to accept any particular office.

That is how young Calvin, in 1536, at the age of 27, began his first stay in Geneva. He held lectures (without pay) in the autumn of that year and was later elected as the pastor of the church of St. Pierre. During this time, Calvin published a short treatise on Christian Doctrine adapted for use in St. Peter's church, which had just been set free from the pollution of the papists. A short catechism containing the main heads of doctrine was appended to this treatise. Farel and Calvin were not satisfied that the citizens of Geneva remain hearers of the Gospel only, but that they would become doers of the Word. In July 1537, by the good hand of the Lord, the senate and the people solemnly declared their adherence to the leading doctrines and discipline of the Christian religion.

But as we often see in the history of the church, Satan employs his tools to oppose the free course of the Gospel. Initially, opposition arose from two sources, the Anabaptists and an individual named Peter Caroli, who was a supporter of Rome. Concerning the first, Calvin and his col­leagues were able to bring them to a public discussion in March 1537 and thoroughly refuted them by using arguments drawn directly from the Bible. From that time on the Anabaptists did not dare challenge the Reformed movement in Geneva and a few were even persuaded of its validity and truth.

The second enemy, a man by the name of Caroli, caused a longer struggle. He charged Calvin and Farel with error on the subject of the Trinity. However, a Synod held at Bern, convicted Caroli of slander. Subsequently, Caroli openly attacked the Reformers, hoping to gain an appointment from Rome. This defamation failed and Caroli died in poverty of a loathsome disease.

One other enemy faced the Reformers in Geneva, namely, the depravity of man's heart, which became evident in the conduct of the citizens of Geneva. While the majority had welcomed the preaching of the Gospel and had somewhat reluctantly agreed with Calvin's treatise on Christian Doctrine, many did not want to renounce the immoralities and vices that had long prevailed in the city. The ambivalent monks and corrupt Roman clergy had never been an example to the people. When Calvin and his associates tried to introduce a strict form of discipline that forbade admittance to the Lord's Supper, the Libertine faction that opposed Calvin's reform gained the upper hand in the city council of Geneva. The result was that Calvin and Farel were banished from Geneva. It looked as if the attempts of the Reformers to establish a truly Reformed city had failed and was finished.

This is Calvin's response to the unjust order to leave the city: "Certainly, had I been the servant of men I had obtained a poor reward, but it is well that I have served Him Who never fails to perform to his servants what He has promised." Although it seemed that this development would be the total undoing of the Genevan church, by God's providence His servant was being equipped to perform even greater achievements for the Lord's cause.

Calvin in Strasbourg←⤒🔗

In the city of Strasbourg Calvin spent some of the happiest years of his life. He assumed the chair of theology and thereby obtained a sufficient salary. Here he worked with the great German Reformer, Martin Bucer. Calvin was now 31 years old and married a devout widow, Idelette de Bure, who had two children from her previous marriage. The Lord blessed them with the birth of a son who died when only two weeks old. Calvin is said to have written at this time: "The Lord has certainly inflicted a bitter wound in the death of our infant son. But He is Himself a Father and knows what is good for His children." On another occasion he stated, "God has given me a little son and taken him away; but I have myriads of children in the whole Christian world." Calvin's wife died in 1549, after nine years of marriage, leaving the Reformer a widower for the remaining ten years of his life.

In pastoring the refugee congregation of Strasbourg, Calvin sought to organize the church according to the teachings of the New Testament and establish a biblical form of church discipline. It was also during this time that Calvin compiled a Psalm book, which included French translations set to metric music by Clement Marot. Our present Psalter has adopted some of these. Calvin's attention to the singing of the Psalms led to the popularizing of this practice throughout the Reformed churches on the continent.

It was also during this period of his life that the Reformer was engaged in publishing some of his most prominent works. In 1539 his Commentary on the Book of Romans appeared and in 1541 an expanded edition of his Institutes was published. He also found time to write a highly influential work on liturgy called The Form of Ecclesiastical Prayers and Hymns. Lastly, he wrote a Little Treatise on the Lord's Supper in which he tried to steer a middle road between the increasingly hardened positions of Luther and Zwingli.

Return to Geneva←⤒🔗

Besides these activities there was an event that led to Calvin's return to Geneva. While he had been expelled from the city he had not forgotten the cause of reform in Geneva. During his absence another evil arose which sought to restore Roman Catholicism as the dominant power. James Sadolet, a bishop of great eloquence, was promoted to the position of cardinal for the sole purpose of bringing the city back into the fold of Rome. With the new authority entrusted to him, he sent a letter to the "Beloved Senate, Council and People of Geneva." Since Geneva had been robbed of her reforming leaders, there was no one capable of writing an answer to Sadolet's charges, especially since it had been written in Latin. While in Strasbourg, Calvin read it and refuted it with such clarity and eloquence that the Roman schismatic gave up his efforts as hopeless.

During his banishment from Geneva, Calvin could not forget his former flock and he wrote many letters to the Geneva City Council wherein he exhorted them to repentance before God and to act with forbearance towards the wicked, while seeking to cultivate peace with their pastors. This could only be accomplished by constant prayer. In this way the Reformer prepared many hearts for that most desirable light they needed to pierce their present darkness. May we too see the need of that same light. May we be much in prayer to the Lord to reveal His countenance to us by His Spirit. May we too experience an awakening and revival in these last days.