Calvin John Biography

CALVIN JOHN (1509-64). When John Calvin was a boy in France, Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Two decades later Calvin became the second of the great 16th-century reformers. His work and teachings had a profound impact on the development of Christianity. John Calvin was born in a upper middle class family in Noyon, France, on July 10, 1509. His father, Gerard, was procurator-fiscal of the Noyon district and secretary of the diocese. In his …

…s master work was the Institute of the Christian, which he revised at least five times. Calvin's teachings are the basis of the Presbyterian and Reformed churches. They spread among the Huguenots of France, the Protestants of the Netherlands and Scotland, and the Puritans of England. The English Calvinists, unable to practice their religion at home, came to the New World in the 17th century. They laid the foundation for Calvinism in the United States.