John Calvin (redirected from Jean Chauvin)

Calvin, John 

Born July 10, 1509, in Noyon, France; died May 27, 1564, in Geneva. A leader of the Reformation and the founder of Calvinism.

Calvin was the son of an important church official. He received a theological and legal education. Under the influence of Luther’s preaching he began to lean toward Protestantism, and in 1533 he abandoned the Catholic Church. Because of the increasing persecution of Protestants in France he fled to Basel in 1534; his principal work, Institutio Religionis Christianae, was published here in 1536 (first in Latin, then in French). In it he set forth a systematic exposition of his new doctrine. In the same year Calvin arrived in Geneva, where the Reformation had already triumphed. His introduction (with the aid of the magistracy) of austere decrees on church discipline and moral principles for the burghers and his disputes with Reformation leaders in Bern (from which city Geneva had initially derived its Reformation ideas) caused him to be banished from Geneva and to move to Strasbourg (1538). In September 1541, Calvin returned to Geneva and remained there until the end of his life, having become the head of a new movement in Protestantism called Calvinism.

Under Calvin’s influence the Genevan magistracy adopted a new form of church organization, which with certain variations was subsequently adopted by Calvinist congregations in other countries. Reflecting the interests of the bourgeoisie during the period of the primitive accumulation of capital, Calvin promulgated a series of reforms aimed at strengthening “secular asceticism.” With the aid of the consistory, which headed the church and which had in effect subjected the secular authorities to itself, he abolished the pomp and splendor of Catholic rites; as an adviser to the government he succeeded in establishing a petty and captious supervision over the citizens, compulsory attendance at church services, and the banning of amusements, dancing, and brightly colored clothing. Calvin exhibited an extreme religious intolerance toward Catholicism and also to the popular Reformation movements (especially Anabaptism), whose followers he condemned as atheists. On Calvin’s insistence the opponents of his doctrine were subjected to banishment, the death penalty (in 1553, M. Servetus was burned at the stake), and other punishments.

WORKS

Opera quae supersunt omnia, vols. 1-59. Edited by G. Baum, E. Cunitz, and E. Reuss. Braunschweig, 1863-1900. (Corpus reformatorum, vols. 29-87.)
Opera selecta, vols. 1, 3, 4, 5. Edited by P. Barth. Munich, 1926-36.

S. D. SKAZKIN