Definition for John Calvin
From Biology Forums Dictionary
Calvin, John (1509 to 1564): Protestant reformer, born in France. He studied Latin at Paris, then law at Orléans, where he developed an interest in theology. In Bourges and other centres he began to preach the reformed doctrines, but was forced to flee from France to escape persecution. At Basel he issued his influential Institutes of the Christian Religion, and at Geneva was persuaded by Guillaume Farel to help with the reformation. The reformers proclaimed a Protestant Confession of Faith, under which moral severity took the place of licence. When a rebellious party, the Libertines, rose against this, Calvin and Farel were expelled from the city (1538). Calvin withdrew to Strasbourg, where he worked on New Testament criticism. In 1541 the Genevans recalled him, and he founded a theocracy which controlled almost all the city's affairs. By 1555 his authority was confirmed into an absolute supremacy. The father-figure of Reformed theology, he left a double legacy to Protestantism by systematizing its doctrine and organizing its ecclesiastical discipline. His commentaries, which embrace most of the Old and New Testaments, were collected and published in 1617. Calvin’s most distinctive doctrines, perhaps, are his insistence upon literalist reading of the Bible (a Zwinglian notion, but expanded by Calvin) and his belief in predestination.
