John Calvin
French theologian and reformer (1509–1564) of Geneva, whose Institutes and church order shaped the Reformed tradition.
Category: Figures
- July 10, 1509Birth of John Calvin at Noyon
Jean Cauvin is born at Noyon, France. Trained first for the priesthood and then for law, he becomes the reformer of Geneva and a founding figure of the Reformed tradition. He dies in Geneva in 1564.
- 1535Olivétan's French Bible is printed at Neuchâtel
In 1535 Pierre Robert Olivétan, a cousin of Calvin, publishes at Neuchâtel the first French Bible translated from Hebrew and Greek rather than Latin. Calvin writes its Latin preface; it is the first French Protestant Bible.
- 1536Guillaume Farel persuades John Calvin to stay in Geneva
In summer 1536 Calvin, passing through Geneva on his way to Strasbourg, is persuaded by Guillaume Farel to stay and help organise the city's new Reformed church.
- March 1536Calvin publishes the first Institutes of the Christian Religion in Basel
The first, Latin edition of Calvin's Institutes appears at Basel in March 1536. He expands it repeatedly, with a French edition in 1541 and a fifth, final Latin edition at Geneva in 1559.
- 1538Calvin and Farel are banished from Geneva
At Easter 1538 Geneva's council banishes Guillaume Farel and John Calvin after a dispute over church discipline. Farel settles in Neuchâtel, and Calvin lives in exile until he is recalled in 1541.
- September 1541Calvin returns to Geneva and its church order is set
Expelled in 1538, Calvin returns to Geneva in September 1541 at the city's request. The Ecclesiastical Ordinances of 20 November create its ministerial orders and the Consistory, a church disciplinary court.
- October 27, 1553Michael Servetus is burned for heresy at Geneva
Geneva's council burns Michael Servetus for anti-Trinitarian views on 27 October 1553, after Calvin denounced him. Catholic authorities at Vienne had already condemned him in absentia in June.
- 1555Calvin's opponents fail in an attempted coup in Geneva
In 1555 the Libertines led by Ami Perrin, who resisted Calvin's church discipline, attempt a coup in Geneva and call for the massacre of the French. It fails, and Perrin is sentenced in absentia.
- 1559Calvin founds the Academy of Geneva
In 1559 John Calvin founds the Academy of Geneva to train pastors for Reformed churches. It later becomes the University of Geneva and draws students from across Protestant Europe.
- May 27, 1564Death of John Calvin in Geneva
John Calvin dies in Geneva on 27 May 1564, aged 54. The school he founded there in 1559 later becomes the University of Geneva, and Geneva remains a centre of the Reformed tradition.