Calvin
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHN, a theologian; born in Noyon, Picardy, France, July 10, 1509. Soon after taka degree, Paris study of the humanities. In Paris he came under the influence of the teachers of the new theology, and _before long long (1534) had to flee from France, seeking refuge at Basel. There he published his greatest work: "Institutes of the Christian Religion" (1536). The year following, he was chosen Professor of Divinity and one of the pastors of the church at Geneva. The strict discipline which he sought to introduce gave rise to ill feelings on the part of the citizens. He was banished from Geneva, and withdrew to Strassburg, where he filled the same posts as in the former city. He was deputed to assist when diets were held by order of the Emperor Charles V., at Worms and at Ratisbon, for the purpose of composing, if possible, the religious differences which were rending the Roman Church. Bucer accompanied him, and he conferred with Melanchthon and other leaders of the reformers. The JOHN CALVIN people of Geneva then besought him to return. Complying with their request, he arrived there Sept. 13, 1541, and straightway established a form of ecdiscipline, and a consistorial clesiastical jurisdiction with power of inflicting all kinds of canonical punishments, which to endure as that imposed by Rome. Calvin's inflexible character bore down, however, all opposition, and so sternly and rigorously did he carry out his own he condemned to the stake and rules that caused to be burned his once intimate friend, Michael Servetus, for writing against the doctrine of the Trinity. Calvin (whose real name was Chauvin, which, after the custom of that age, he Latinized into Calvinus) died in Geneva, May 27, 1564.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The biographical frame Collier's set out in 1921 still holds: born at Noyon in 1509, the Institutes at Basel in 1536, expulsion from Geneva in 1538, the return of 13 September 1541, death on 27 May 1564. What has shifted most is the Servetus episode, which Collier's states flatly as Calvin having "condemned to the stake" his former friend; historians now stress that Servetus was tried and sentenced in 1553 by Geneva's civil magistrates, with Calvin as chief accuser and witness, and that Calvin argued unsuccessfully for beheading rather than burning. The picture of Calvin as sole tyrant of Geneva has also been softened by the publication, largely since the 1960s, of the Genevan Consistory registers and of previously unprinted sermons, which show a body of ministers and lay elders at work rather than one man's will. Calvin remains a live figure rather than a museum piece: the 500th anniversary of his birth in 2009 drew wide attention, and Reformed churches tracing their theology to him number in the tens of millions worldwide.
Written for this edition, 2026.