John Calvin

Born in Noyon in the year 1509. As a Frenchman and the son of a lawyer, he developed a love for scholarship and literature.
In 1523 he went to the University of Paris where he studied theology. To maintain himself while a student, Calvin secured a small chaplaincy attached to Noyon Cathedral.
In deference to his father, Calvin went in 1528 to Orleans to study Law, and a year later to Bourges also to study law. After the death of his father in 1531 Calvin resumed his religious studies.
At some point between 1528 and 1533 Calvin wrote that "God subdued my soul to docility by a sudden conversion".
In 1536 the first edition of "Institutes of the Christian Religion" was published in Basle. This systematic explanation of Christianity was revised and expanded several times, the final edition was published in 1559.
In July 1536, Calvin was travelling to Strasbourg and planned to pass through a Swiss city called Geneva, but Guillaume Farel (a Protestant leader in the city) spoke very strongly to him and convinced him to stay. Geneva became his home.
In 1538 however, there was division in the city, and the Libertines expelled Farel and Calvin who fled to Strasbourg until September 1541 when the new city officials of Geneva begged Calvin to return.
Friends began to urge Calvin to marry. He specified that a wife of his must be “chaste, obliging, not fastidious, economical, patient, and careful for his health”. Fellow laborer Martin Bucer recommended Idelette de Bure, a widow who had two children from her first marriage. They were married in August 1540. Three children were born to Calvin and Idelette, but they all died in infancy.
Idelette died in 1549 after a lengthy illness. Calvin grieved deeply for his wife. He wrote to Pierre Viret “I have been bereaved of the best companion of my life”
By the mid-1550's, Geneva had become an important Protestant center in Europe. Protestants driven out of their native countries (France, England, Scotland, and the Netherlands) all came to Geneva to take refuge.
Calvin Died 27 May 1564. But his influence through his teaching and writings has continued for centuries. He was a tireless polemic and apologetic writer, finishing commentaries on most books of the Bible as well as theological treatises and confessional documents. He had preached over 2,000 sermons!