John Calvin, the Geneva reformer, entered the world in Noyon, France, in 1509. His parents pushed him and his brother Charles toward priestly studies. Both boys pursued that path, though Charles chased wild ways. Calvin chose strictness instead. His rigor earned him a classmate’s tag: “the accusative case.” The church granted him two paid roles. Yet his father shifted gears and steered him to law school. All the while, Calvin wrestled deep inner doubts. He later wrote that his mind held no true calm. Then, around 1528, a quick turning point eased his heart. Friends soon turned to him for wisdom.

By 1531, Calvin dropped law, surrendered his church posts, and spread Reformation ideas, sweeping Europe. Ties to Nicholas Cop, Paris university leader, drew trouble fast. On All Souls’ Day in 1533, Cop preached a sharp talk Calvin penned. It blasted other scholars for flaws in faith teachings: “They skip God’s love, grace’s pardon, right standing with God—or twist them with rules and clever lies. You here must end these wrongs now.”

Cop fled to dodge arrest. A tip saved Calvin from a room raid. That November 2, 1533, he hid with a grape farmer. In workman’s garb, he slipped out a window and slipped away from town.

The following year, bold Reformers plastered rants against the mass and bread-to-body claims across Paris—even on King Francis I‘s chamber door. The ruler boiled with anger. Fires claimed Protestant lives in the city air. Calvin darted between safe spots. Harsher hunts drove him from France for good. He landed in Basel, Switzerland, just long enough to publish his guide, Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Calvin slipped into Italy next, spending months sharing the gospel. He set out for Strasbourg, then a free outpost, today French soil. War paths of French troops routed him through Geneva. William Farel there pressed him, by God’s call, to linger and reshape the place. Calvin balked at first but stayed. He rose as the era’s prime reformer, right after Luther.

Also On This Day

1582: Pope Gregory XIII issues the bull Inter gravissimas, decreeing the Gregorian calendar.
1860: Viscount Dungannon proposes a resolution to condemn prayer meetings in Southern England’s theaters.
1873: An edict against Christianity is revoked in Japan after a long history of suppression.
1915: Amanda Smith, a prominent African-American evangelist and singer, dies.
1946: Charles Monroe Sheldon, the author of the famous Christian novel In His Steps, dies in Topeka, Kansas.
1949: The government of Bulgaria passes a law acknowledging the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as the traditional and inseparable church of the nation.

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