Here is my promised newsletter on John Calvin. I especially loved his exchange with Cardinal Sadolet, which is linked at that page. This newsletter is a shorter summation of Calvin's life and doctrine. John Calvin was born in and converted in or Though he is so notable in Reformation history, he was a latecomer. He was only 8 years old when Martin Luther nailed the famous 95 theses to the Cathedral door in Wittemberg and only 12 when Luther was excommunicated after the Diet of Worms in It is Calvin who said he was "converted," and we cannot be sure what he meant by that.
Cop fled to Switzerland, and Calvin had to climb out a window to escape. Queen Marguerite of Navarre protected him in Angouleme, France for a year or so before he, too, fled to Basel, Switzerland to be with Cop.
It came out in March, , while he was still in Basel. As said, the Reformation was already in full bloom, and Reformers, most notably Martin Bucer, praised the work. Calvin was passing through Geneva, Switzerland, planning to stay but one night when William Farel, who was trying to establish the Reformation there, tried to persuade him to stay.
In fact, he told Calvin that the wrath of Almighty God would be on him if he "preferred his studies to the work of the Lord, and his own interest to the cause of Christ. An excellent summation of the work of establishing the Reformation is this paragraph from my John Calvin page:. He and Farel set about cleaning up Geneva. Like most cities that require its citizens to be 'Christians,' very few of Geneva's citizens actually lived like Christians.
Prostitution was actually sanctioned by the council, and vice abounded. The priests, as was typical of medieval Catholicism, had neglected to teach the citizens anything of Christ, the Scriptures, or obedience to the faith. After a couple years of this, the council that led Geneva required all citizens to affirm a confession of faith that represented Reformation theology rather than Catholic theology. Tired of being told what to do, the citizens elected an "anti-clerical" council in the place of the old one.
