John Calvin, Reformer
26 May -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of Pastors, page 483
The French reformer John Calvin was born at Noyon in Picardy
in 1509 and, since he was intended for an ecclesiastical
career, he received the tonsure and his first benefice at
the age of twelve, not untypical at this time. It proved to
be the only 'order' he ever received. Two years later he
began studying theology at Paris but for some reason changed
to law and moved to Orléans where he came under his
first Protestant influences. He broke with the Roman Church
in 1533, having had a religious experience which he believed
commissioned him to purify and restore the Church of Christ.
The first edition of his Institutes appeared in
1536, being basically a justification of Reformation
principles. Calvin accepted a position in Geneva which
involved organising the Reformation in that city and, with a
few absences, spent most of the the rest of his life there,
becoming the undisputed master of the moral and ecclesial
lives of the citizenry. His pre-eminence could be seen in
that he wrote to the Protector Somerset in England
indicating to him what changes he felt should be made and
corresponded similarly with other nations' leaders. During
all this, his literary output never wavered. His immense
reputation and influence have continued in the churches of
the Reform to the present day. He died on this day in 1564.