CALVIN (modified from the French form Cauvin or Caulvin), John, Swiss reformer of the 16th century: b. Noyon, Picardy, 10 July 1509; d. Geneva, Switzerland, 27 May 1564. Though born in humble condition, his father, as procureur-fiscal of the district of Noyon and secretary of the diocese, was able by per sonal influence to further the interests of his family. Calvin's mother, Jeanne Lefranc, was distinguished alike by personal beauty and piety. Even as a lad Calvin was deficient in physical vigor, but gave early tokens of more than ordinary intellectual powers, a circumstance that attracted to him the regards of a noble family at Noyon who received him under their care and gave to him the same opportunities of schooling as were enjoyed by their own children (1523). It was his father's ,original intention to fit him for the priesthood and in pursuance of that object he was sent to the C911ege de la Marche at Paris; then to the College Montaigu where he was trained in logic by a learned Spaniard who afterward directed the education of Ignatius Loyola a student at the same school. He easily stood in the front rank of his fellow-students but was little disposed to affiliate with and from a certain unsocial severity of bearing acquired among them the nickname of the "Accusative Case." At the age of 12. he received part of the chapel revenue of Noyon in return for some services there. In 1527 his father secured for him the curacy of Saint Martin de Martinville, from which he resigned in 1529, in favor of his younger brother, and in the same year ex changed the curacy for that of Pont l'Eveque, his father's birthplace.
Then his father changed his plans with reference to John and determined to have him prepared for the profession of law, putting him for that purpose under instruction at Or leans (1528), where he studied with Pierre d'Etoile and Bourges (1530), where he applied himself to his studies with the same assiduity evinced at Paris, and attained immediate dis tinction, though at the expense of impaired health. Without • confining himself strictly to the curriculum of the school he devoted himself at the same time to the study of Greek under the German professor, Melchior Wolmar, whose Protestant views strengthened the bias toward the new faith already existing in his pupil's mind, for his attention had previously been drawn to the careful study of the Scriptures by his kinsman Olivetan, the first Protestant translator of the Bible into French. When Calvin was 22 his father died, whereupon the young man gave up his law studies and rettirned to Paris, where he met Lefevre and Farel, studied theology, issuing soon after his first publication, an annotated edition of Seneca's 'De Cletnentia.' Up to this point it is safe to presume that his interests and ambitions were purely those of a humanist, and whatever thought he may have had in regard to the need of reform in the matters of Church doctrine and discipline, he doubtless felt with Erasmus and Reuchlin that all the reforms that might be required would come about as the result of completer knowledge.
It was not long after this that he experienced what he calls his °sudden conversion.' He writes: °After my heart had long been pre pared by the most earnest self-examination, on a sudden the full knowledge of the truth, like a bright light, disclosed to me the abyss of errors in which I was weltering, the sin and shame with which I was defiled.* His experi
ence is near of kin to that of Luther, and we are set thinking also of the °great light' that shone upon Saul as he was nearing Damascus. Yet with all the profound disclosure thus made to him, he still felt no special call to the work of preaching the reformed doctrine and sought only for the undisturbed retirement that would permit him farther prosecution of his serious studies.
His friend Nicholas Cop had been elected to the rectorship of the University of Paris and at his request Calvin prepared for him an inaugural address which was substantially a defense of the reformed doctrine (1533). To the Sorbonnists this was intolerable, and Calvin was obliged to escape. He returned for a while to his native place, resigned the prefer ment he held in the Roman Catholic Church and for nearly three years led a wandering life. We find him at Saintonge; at Nerac, the residence of the Queen of Navarre; at An gouleme, with his friend Louis Tillet; then in Paris again. To escape persecution in France, he fled to Basel, where in 1536, at the age of 26, he published his °Institutes." This remark able work was intended to be a vindication of the Protestant doctrine, and its dedication to the reigning king, Frances I, sought to create royal sympathy for the cause and for its persecuted adherents. It has been claimed that no other work, written at so early an age, has produced such a marked influence upon the opinions and practices both of contemporaries and posterity. Although the book as then composed was but the germ of what it was developed into, yet the line initially laid down in it Calvin never swerved from. By his Catholic opponents his work was styled the °Koran of the heretics.' After completing this work he went for a short time to Italy to visit Renee, the Duchess of Ferrara. Finally he made a visit to his native town; and after selling the paternal estate, which had devolved on him at the death of his eldest brother, set out with his brother and sister for Strassburg. The direct road being dangerous, they went through Geneva. The situation, political and religious, which he there confronted, however, vetoed his plans and really determined his entire subsequent career. That situation briefly outlined is as follows: The Duke of Savoy, unable to secure the submission of Geneva, had by the aid of Pope Leo X forced upon the city the reluctant acceptance of John, the Bastard of Savoy, as bishop, it being stipulated that the civil admin istration of the city should be vested in the Duke. The Genevese revolted under the lead of Berthelier and Bonnivard, but were defeated, Berthelier was executed and Bonnivard became the °Prisoner of Chinon" (1530-36). Defeat did not, however, extinguish the spirit of re volt. Of the two parties into which the Gene vese were divided, the Confederates ("Eid genossen," a word from which perhaps comes the word Huguenot) looked for relief to the Swiss, and the Mamelukes favored supporting the Duke. The Confederates prevailed, the Duke was worsted and all power both military and civil passed into the hands of the people. This was in 1533.