John Calvin was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation.
87 Facts About John Calvin
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John Calvin was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism, including its doctrines of predestination and of God's absolute sovereignty in the salvation of the human soul from death and eternal damnation.
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John Calvin was a tireless polemicist and apologetic writer who generated much controversy.
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John Calvin exchanged cordial and supportive letters with many reformers, including Philipp Melanchthon and Heinrich Bullinger.
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John Calvin broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530.
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In that same year, John Calvin was recruited by Frenchman William Farel to join the Reformation in Geneva, where he regularly preached sermons throughout the week.
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At the invitation of Martin Bucer, John Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg, where he became the minister of a church of French refugees.
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John Calvin continued to support the reform movement in Geneva, and in 1541 he was invited back to lead the church of the city.
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John Calvin was denounced by Calvin and burned at the stake for heresy by the city council.
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John Calvin spent his final years promoting the Reformation both in Geneva and throughout Europe.
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John Calvin was the second of three sons who survived infancy.
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John Calvin died of an unknown cause in Calvin's childhood, after having borne four more children.
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John Calvin won the patronage of an influential family, the Montmors.
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John Calvin was intrigued by Andreas Alciati, a humanist lawyer.
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John Calvin remained on the move, sheltering with his friend Louis du Tillet in Angouleme and taking refuge in Noyon and Orleans.
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John Calvin intended it to serve as an elementary instruction book for anyone interested in the Christian faith.
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John Calvin updated the work and published new editions throughout his life.
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John Calvin had intended to stay only a single night, but William Farel, a fellow French reformer residing in the city, implored him to stay and assist him in his work of reforming the church there.
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John Calvin accepted his new role without any preconditions on his tasks or duties.
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John Calvin was eventually given the title of "reader", which most likely meant that he could give expository lectures on the Bible.
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The next day, the council told Farel and John Calvin to leave Geneva.
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Farel and John Calvin then went to Bern and Zurich to plead their case.
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John Calvin was invited to lead a church of French refugees in Strasbourg by that city's leading reformers, Martin Bucer and Wolfgang Capito.
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John Calvin preached or lectured every day, with two sermons on Sunday.
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John Calvin worked on the second edition of the Institutes.
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John Calvin was dissatisfied with its original structure as a catechism, a primer for young Christians.
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Reluctantly, John Calvin agreed to the marriage, on the condition that she would learn French.
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John Calvin later wrote that he would never think of marrying her, "unless the Lord had entirely bereft me of my wits".
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John Calvin agreed and his Responsio ad Sadoletum strongly defended Geneva's position concerning reforms in the church.
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John Calvin wrote that he was prepared to follow the Lord's calling.
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In 1542, John Calvin adapted a service book used in Strasbourg, publishing La Forme des Prieres et Chants Ecclesiastiques.
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John Calvin recognized the power of music and he intended that it be used to support scripture readings.
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The original Strasbourg psalter contained twelve psalms by Clement Marot and John Calvin added several more hymns of his own composition in the Geneva version.
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Louis Bourgeois, a refugee, lived and taught music in Geneva for sixteen years and John Calvin took the opportunity to add his hymns, the most famous being the Old Hundredth.
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John Calvin had written an earlier catechism during his first stay in Geneva which was largely based on Martin Luther's Large Catechism.
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John Calvin's sermons lasted more than an hour and he did not use notes.
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Parker suggests that John Calvin was a consistent preacher and his style changed very little over the years.
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John Calvin was known for his thorough manner of working his way through the Bible in consecutive sermons.
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John Calvin expressed his sorrow in a letter to Viret:.
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John Calvin went to Strasbourg, where he published a pamphlet against the Trinity.
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When John Calvin alerted the Inquisition in Spain about this publication, an order was issued for Servetus's arrest.
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John Calvin was particularly outraged when Servetus sent him a copy of the Institutes of the Christian Religion heavily annotated with arguments pointing to errors in the book.
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John Calvin stayed for some time in Lyon, and now he is living in Vienne.
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John Calvin said, after swearing before the holy gospel, that "he was Michel De Villeneuve Doctor in Medicine about 42 years old, native of Tudela of the kingdom of Navarre, a city under the obedience to the Emperor".
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John Calvin managed to escape from prison, and the Catholic authorities sentenced him in absentia to death by slow burning.
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The difficulty in using Servetus as a weapon against John Calvin was that the heretical reputation of Servetus was widespread and most of the cities in Europe were observing and awaiting the outcome of the trial.
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John Calvin had always insisted that the Consistory retain the power of excommunication, despite the council's past decision to take it away.
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John Calvin protested that the council did not have the legal authority to overturn Berthelier's excommunication.
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John Calvin's authority was practically uncontested during his final years, and he enjoyed an international reputation as a reformer distinct from Martin Luther.
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John Calvin actively participated in the polemics that were exchanged between the Lutheran and Reformed branches of the Reformation movement.
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John Calvin took steps toward rapprochement with Bullinger by signing the Consensus Tigurinus, a concordat between the Zurich and Geneva churches.
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John Calvin reached out to England when Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer called for an ecumenical synod of all the evangelical churches.
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John Calvin praised the idea, but ultimately Cranmer was unable to bring it to fruition.
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John Calvin sheltered Marian exiles in Geneva starting in 1555.
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John Calvin tried to recruit two professors for the institute, Mathurin Cordier, his old friend and Latin scholar who was now based in Lausanne, and Emmanuel Tremellius, the former Regius professor of Hebrew in Cambridge.
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The final edition was greatly expanded to the extent that John Calvin referred to it as a new work.
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John Calvin recounted his life in Geneva, sometimes recalling bitterly some of the hardships he had suffered.
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John Calvin developed his theology in his biblical commentaries as well as his sermons and treatises, but the most comprehensive expression of his views is found in his magnum opus, the Institutes of the Christian Religion.
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John Calvin intended that the book be used as a summary of his views on Christian theology and that it be read in conjunction with his commentaries.
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John Calvin argues that the knowledge of God is not inherent in humanity nor can it be discovered by observing this world.
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John Calvin defends the trinitarian view of God and, in a strong polemical stand against the Catholic Church, argues that images of God lead to idolatry.
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John Calvin famously said "the human heart is a perpetual idol factory".
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John Calvin often cited the Church Fathers to defend the reformed cause against the charge that the reformers were creating new theology.
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John Calvin then describes the New Covenant using the passage from the Apostles' Creed that describes Christ's suffering under Pontius Pilate and his return to judge the living and the dead.
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John Calvin first defines faith as the firm and certain knowledge of God in Christ.
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John Calvin denied the papal claim to primacy and the accusation that the reformers were schismatic.
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John Calvin regarded the first three offices as temporary, limited in their existence to the time of the New Testament.
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John Calvin believed that the civil and church authorities were separate and should not interfere with each other.
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John Calvin defined a sacrament as an earthly sign associated with a promise from God.
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John Calvin accepted only two sacraments as valid under the new covenant: baptism and the Lord's Supper.
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John Calvin completely rejected the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and the treatment of the Supper as a sacrifice.
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Rather than holding a purely symbolic view, John Calvin noted that with the participation of the Holy Spirit, faith was nourished and strengthened by the sacrament.
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Bolsec was banished from the city, and after John Calvin's death, wrote a biography which severely maligned John Calvin's character.
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Some have argued that John Calvin was the least antisemitic among all the major reformers of his time, especially in comparison to Martin Luther.
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Finally, John Calvin taught that if rulers rise up against God they lose their divine right and must be deposed.
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John Calvin thought that agriculture and the traditional crafts were normal human activities.
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John Calvin allowed the charging of modest interest rates on loans.
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John Calvin's first published work was a commentary of Seneca the Younger's De Clementia.
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John Calvin probably wrote it during the period following Cop's speech, but it was not published until 1542 in Strasbourg.
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John Calvin produced commentaries on most of the books of the Bible.
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John Calvin then turned his attention to the general epistles, dedicating them to Edward VI of England.
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John Calvin wrote the treatise, Vera Christianae pacificationis et Ecclesiae reformandae ratio in 1549, in which he described the doctrines that should be upheld, including justification by faith.
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John Calvin provided many of the foundational documents for reformed churches, including documents on the catechism, the liturgy, and church governance.
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John Calvin produced several confessions of faith to unite the churches.
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John Calvin had always warned against describing him as an "idol" and Geneva as a new "Jerusalem".
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John Calvin encouraged people to adapt to the environments in which they found themselves.
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John Calvin did not live to see the foundation of his work grow into an international movement; but his death allowed his ideas to break out of their city of origin, to succeed far beyond their borders, and to establish their own distinct character.