John important persons of the protestant reform

John Calvin or to give him his proper French name, JeanCauvin was a powerful Frenchtheologian and pastor. He was one of the most important persons of theProtestant Reform movement in sixteenth century Europe. Although he isconsidered to be the successor to German reformer Martin Luther, he was anindependent thinker and his tenet, known as Calvinism, differed to a greatdegree from Luther’s. The first time when he started to work Renaissancehumanism was while he was studying law at the University of Bourges.

Itaffected him so much that he decided to dedicate his life to its propagation. However, he could not work in France and was forced to escape after a severerevolt against the Protestants. Finally, he was convinced by William Farrel to help him to reform churches inGeneva. The responsibility was not at all simple and he had to overcome lots ofopposition and dissent before he could bring in the desired reforms. Politically, he worked to protect the concern of the general public andbelieved that although the state and church are separate, they must work alltogether for the utility of the people. John Calvin was born as JehanCauvin on 10 July 1509 in Noyon, where it is located in the Picardy area ofFrance.

His father, Gérard Cauvin, was the apostolical secretary to the Bishopof Noyon and also the prog in the section of the diocese and the fiscalprocurator of the district. His mother, Jeanne Le Franc, was noted for her beauty and godliness during that time. John was their secondremaining son. Charles was his elder brother and Antoine was the youngest one. His father wanted all of them to attend the church and brought them upaccording to this.

His mother, Jeanne Le Franc died four or five yearsafter his birth. Shortly after that, his father married again and he was sentto live with the Montmors family which was really an effective in the vicinity. He had always been anremarkable child in the family. When he turned twelve, he was worked as a clerkby the Bishop. So, he received his tonsure first time as clergy.

Later in 1523, he was sent toParis for education of theology. Here in Paris he attended the Collège de laMarche and studied Latin under Mathurin Cordier/ Corderius. On completion ofthe program, he entered the Collège de Montaigu to study philosophy. Thus far he was being trainedto become a priest. But now his father decided that John should become aattorney.

In 1528, he was withdrawn from Collège de Montaigu and accepted firstto the University of Orléans and then to the University of Bourges to studylaw. When he was at the University of Bourges, he cameinto contact with humanist lawyer Andrea Alciato and also experienced theRenaissance humanism spreaded by Erasmus and Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples. Allthese left an inerasable sign on Calvin. He now wanted to study thescriptures in their original form. That’s why he began to learn Latin, Greekand Hebrew, which all of them were used in ancient Christian dissertation. In 1531, Calvin earned hisdegree in law.

After his father died in that year, he followed his academicgreeds freely. He now engrossed himself in the education of Renaissance ideas. In 1532 he published his first book, a interpretation on Seneca’s De Clementia. He turned back to Paris inOctober 1533.

Then, dissent to the Roman Catholic Church had already begun. AtCollège Royal, the discord between the reformers and the associates ofconservative faculty was the higher than it had been. On November 1, 1533, NicolasCop, one of Calvin’s bosom friends and also a protestant humanist and theRector of the Collège, gave a speech. In it, he emphasised the requirement forinnovations within the Roman Catholic Church and advocated the tenet of theSola fide which means the justification by faith alone. The conversation teased theconservatives to such an extent that Cop was not only pushed him to run away toBasel, but Calvin was also blamed and had to hide. But by that time, Francepreserved a mediatory behavior to the Protestant movement and so Calvin wassubstantially safe. Then on 17 October 1534 an event, accepted in therecords as the ‘ Affaire des Placards’ occured. It resulted in a violentreaction to the Protestant humanists and Calvin was forced to leave France.

Atthe end, he participated Cop at Basel in January 1535. “ Institutio ChristianaeReligionis” which is Calvin’s well-known work was published in March 1536. Andthen, he left for Ferrara, where he worked as secretary to Princess Renée ofFrance for a short term. In June, he turned back to Paris but realized thatthere was little extent for him in there. So, in August 1536, he departed forthe free emperor town of Strasbourg, taking a detour over Geneva.

Geneva was aplace where he actually started his career as a reformer. AtGeneva, William Farel, French evangelist, convinced John Calvin to stay backand help him in improving churches of that territory. But in 1538, both Calvin and Farel werecontradictory with the city council and abandoned Geneva for Basel. Later on, Calvin was asked to be leadership of a church for the French refugees inStrasbourg, a mission which he took by September 1538. Shortly after that, hewas given citizenship of the city. On 13 September 1541, Calvin once more turned backto Geneva upon the call of the city council. Here he came up with a few offersfor reform. One of them was to maintain religious instruction to the townsfolk, in backing of which the city management passed the Ordonnances ecclésiastiques.

On his suggestion, the city council also set upfour groups of church officials: pastors and teachers to clarify thescriptures, doctors to teach the worshippers in the faith, elders to conductthe church, and deacons to keep in order the charities.