How Did John Calvin Influence The Protestant Movement

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The Protestant movement was as successful as it was due to the theologian, John Calvin. This movement changed the lives of many people, and the world’s view on religion. John Calvin was the most influential of all religious leaders in sixteenth century Europe during the Reformation.
John Calvin’s early years influenced what he did in his later years. John Calvin was born on July 10, 1509 in Noyon, France and died on May 27, 1564 in Geneva, Switzerland. Calvin was the son of Gerard Calvin, a notary, secretary for the local bishop, and attorney for the church, and Jeanne Lefranc. Due to his father’s relationship with the church, Calvin was able to converse with many different scholars. “His intellectual life was cultivated by spending time with the large circles of scholars at the court of King Francis I” (John Calvin, American Eras). As a result of this interaction, it allowed Calvin to experience
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Before Protestantism, Calvin practiced a different religion. However, once Calvin went through his sudden conversion of religion, he began to develop the most terrifying book on Protestantism, the Institutes of Christian Religion (John Calvin, DISCovering Biography). This book would soon shape Protestant religion. “The first appearance of the Institutes gave Protestant theology the thorough and lucid expression that it so dearly needed and marked Calvin as a religious leader of some significance and authority” (John Calvin, DISCovering Biology). The theme of the Institutes is the majesty of God, and there is an unbridgeable chasm between man and his maker (John Calvin, Encyclopedia of World Biography). With an unbridgeable opening between God and man, man has no way of communicating with God. God is above all, so nobody can communicate with him.The first edition of the Institutes of Christian Religion was published in 1536 (John Calvin, Encyclopedia of World Biography).