John Calvin
John Calvin (1509–1564) was a French-born theologian who became the second great architect of Protestantism after Luther. Educated as a humanist lawyer, he was converted to Protestantism around 1533 and fled France after religious persecution. He settled in Geneva in 1541, where he built a rigorous theocratic city-state that became the international headquarters of Reformed Protestantism. Calvin's systematic theology, most fully expressed in the Institutes of the Christian Religion (first edition 1536, definitive 1559), extended Luther's critique of Catholicism into a comprehensive doctrine centred on the absolute sovereignty of God and the doctrine of predestination — that God has predestined some souls to salvation and others to damnation. Calvinism spread to France (Huguenots), Scotland (Presbyterianism under John Knox), the Netherlands (Dutch Reformed), England (Puritanism), and eventually North America. Its emphasis on discipline, vocation, and literacy in service of Scripture produced a distinctive culture that Weber controversially linked to capitalism. Calvin's execution of the anti-Trinitarian Michael Servetus (1553) remains a dark episode in his legacy.
- Lived: 1509 CE – 1564 CE
- Nationality: french
- Roles: theologian, reformer, religious_leader
