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- 1509-1564. A leader of the Reformation in
- Geneva and set up a strict religious
- community there. His theological system is
- known as Calvinism, and his church government
- as Presbyterianism. Calvin wrote (in Latin)
- Institutes of the Christian Religion 1536 and
- commentaries on the New Testament and much of
- the Old Testament. Calvin, born in Noyon,
- Picardie, studied theology and then law, and
- about 1533 became prominent in Paris as an
- evangelical preacher. In 1534 he was obliged
- to leave Paris and retired to Basel, where he
- studied Hebrew. In 1536 he accepted an
- invitation to go to Geneva, Switzerland, and
- assist in the Reformation, but was expelled
- 1538 because of public resentment against the
- numerous and too drastic changes he
- introduced. He returned to Geneva 1541 and,
- in the face of strong opposition, established
- a rigorous theocracy (government by priests).
- In 1553 he had the Spanish theologian
- Servetus burned for heresy. He supported the
- Huguenots in their struggle in France and the
- English Protestants persecuted by Queen Mary
- I.
-