Father of Reformed and Presbyterian doctrine and theology. Calvin was born in Noyon, Picardie. His father was a notary who served the bishop of Noyon, and as a result Calvin, while still a child, received a canonry in the cathedral which would pay for his education. Although he commenced training for the priesthood at the University of Paris, his father, because of a controversy with the bishop and clergy of the Noyon cathedral, now decided that his son should become a lawyer, and sent him to Orleans, where he studied under Pierre de l'Etoile. Later he studied at Bourges under the humanist lawyer Andrea Alciati. It was probably while in Bourges that he became a Protestant.
On his father's death Calvin returned to Paris, where he became involved with the Protestants there and as a result had to leave, eventually spending some time in Italy and in Basel, Switzerland. In the latter city he published the first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536). After wandering around France, he decided to go to Strasbourg, a Protestant city, but while stopping overnight in Geneva he was approached by William Farel, who had introduced the Protestant movement there. After considerable argument Calvin was persuaded to stay and help. Calvin and Farel, however, soon ran into strong opposition and were forced out of the city, Calvin going to Strasbourg, where he stayed for three years (1538-41), ministering to a French Protestant refugee congregation. Called back to Geneva in 1541, he remained there for the rest of his life as the leader of the Reformed Church.
While Calvin was the pastor of the Eglise St. Pierre and spent much of his time preaching, his greatest influence came from his writings. Both his Latin and his French were clear and his reasoning lucid. He wrote commentaries on twenty-three of the OT books and on all of the NT except the Apocalypse. In addition he produced a large number of pamphlets, devotional, doctrinal, and polemical. But most important of all, his Institutes went through five editions, expanding from a small book of six chapters to a large work of seventy-nine chapters in 1559. Calvin also translated the original Latin versions into French. All these works were widely distributed and read throughout Europe.
Not only was Calvin's influence widespread in his own day through his writings, but his impact on the Christian church has continued down to the present day. His works have been translated into many different languages, one of the most recent being the translation of the Institutes into Japanese. The result has been that his theological teachings as well as his political and social views have wielded a strong influence on both Christians and non-Christians since the Reformation.
W.S. REID