(1509–64). When John Calvin was a boy in France, Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Two decades later Calvin became the second of the great 16th-century reformers. His work and teachings had a profound impact on the development of Christianity.

John Calvin was born in Noyon, France, on July 10, 1509. His father was a lay administrator in the church. In his youth Calvin studied in Paris for the priesthood, but later he turned to law. From 1528 to 1531 he studied in the law schools of Orléans and Bourges before returning to Paris. During this period Calvin became involved with a radical movement that sought to reform church and society. Above all the movement emphasized salvation by grace rather than by good works and ceremonies.

Government intolerance of the reform movement led Calvin to leave Paris in 1533. Eventually he settled in Basel, Switzerland, where he studied theology intensively. In 1536 he published the first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion, which made clear his break from Roman Catholicism. In subsequent revisions, the Institutes became the single most important statement of Protestant belief.
As Calvin gained a reputation among Protestant leaders, he went to Geneva to help establish Protestantism in that city. His uncompromising nature led to his expulsion from the city in 1538, but he was invited back in 1541. Under Calvin’s iron will, Protestantism became the dominant force in Geneva. In the city’s social life, Calvin enforced the ideals of purity, simplicity, and devout religious faith. He was consulted in all civic as well as religious matters. Calvin made Geneva one of the most influential cities in Europe. He died in Geneva on May 27, 1564.

Calvin’s theology was further developed by his followers. Calvin’s successor at Geneva, Theodore Beza, emphasized the doctrine of double predestination much more than Calvin had. This doctrine holds that God long ago chose some people to be saved and others to be damned. Beza also stressed the literal truth of the Bible. Calvinism became the basis of the Presbyterian and Reformed churches and spread among the Huguenots of France, the Protestants of the Netherlands and Scotland, and the Puritans of England. The English Calvinists, unable to practice their religion at home, came to the New World in the 17th century. They laid the foundation for Calvinism in the United States.

“Calvin, John,” Encyclopedia Britannica Noet Edition (Chicago, IL: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2015).