Reformation Leaders John Calvin

John Calvin

 http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-calvin.html
John Calvin is the author of the most famous theological book ever published, Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. He is considered, along with Martin Luther, to be among the most significant of figures in the Protestant Reformation. His doctrines of the sovereignty of God in predestining the fate of all believers, referred to today as “Calvinism”, are among the most hotly debated in Christianity. He is also the primary person behind the printing of the famous Geneva Bible.

John Calvin (né Jean Cauvin; 10 July 1509 – 27 May 1564)

Protestant Reformation

A devout believer in God, Jesus Christ who changed early Christian lives with his wisdom and his development of new forms of church government and liturgy.  He was a French theologian, Pastor, Principal Figure in the development Christian Theology.

John Calvin born into a wealthy family and was one of three sons born to Gerard Cauvin and Jeanne le Franc. His mother died a few years after Calvin's birth and his father wanted his son’s to enter the priesthood.  John was exceptionally smart and by the age of 12 entered into employment by the local Bishop. John Calvin won the assistance of influential family and attended College de la Marche in Paris.  John learned Latin and continued his education attending College de Montaigu and University of Orleans. He became a lawyer and entered University of Bourges where he learned Greek language.

In 1529 John Calvin experienced a sudden religious conversion.  It is said this conversion came about the time John Calvin break from the Roman Catholic Church. In 1533 tensions rose at the College Royal and a faculty members Nicolas Cop, was rector and in November 1533   he devoted his inaugural address to the need for reform and renewal in the Catholic Church.   He was denounced as heretical forcing Cop to flee to Basel Calvin, a close friend of Cop's, was implicated in the offense. This was to be the beginning of John Calvin’s reform work.

In March 1536 John Calvin published his first edition Institutes of the Christian Religion. It was his work of defense of his faith and a statement of the doctrinal positions of the reformers. Due to changes going on in France John Calvin decided to leave bringing him to Geneva.  It was in Geneva William Farel advanced that John Calvin stay in Geneva assists him in reforming the church there.  Sometime in 1537 he was selected to be a "pastor, although he never received any pastoral consecration.