How Did John Calvin Contribute To The Reformation

The Reformation was the most transformational movement in Europe, noting the prevailing dominance of the Catholic Church in the Western hemisphere. For centuries before, the Papacy dominated nearly every aspect of life, politics and even economics throughout Western Europe for all social classes. The Reformation was a religious movement, but not strictly. The desire for a deeper spirituality with God was just one of the reasons for this revolutionary time period. The masses desired to exercise economic, religious and social freedoms from the Catholic Church, and many kingdoms, especially, also desired political and economic freedom from Church interference. Spiritual motives for reformation could be considered the original reason for reformation, …show more content…
Calvinism would become the most dominant protestant movement in the western portion of Europe. With the formation of Calvinism came the formation of many other churches with similar theological beliefs and practices. These churches included “the French Huguenots, the English Puritans, the Scottish Presbyterians, and the Dutch Reformed Church” (boisestate). John Calvin elaborated upon Martin Luther’s main ideas and “could not have done his work had not Luther and Zwingli gone before” (Walker).What distinguished Calvinism from the Lutheran church and the many other reformed churches was the idea of predestination. At first Calvin was just a theologian and scholar, however, while in Geneva, he discovered he had good oratorical skills as well. With this skill, the public became more familiar with him due to his preaching. The city of Geneva “was interested in reform”, and as a result, Calvin was wanted to help. After being persuaded to stay and help, “He spent all of 1537 in the city, writing, fulfilling his pastoral duties, and trying to get the City Council to adopt his ‘Articles on the Government of the Church’” (boisestate). With the successful conversion of many people in the city and after his extensive work there, Geneva essentially became John Calvin’s headquarters. By about 1541, John Calvin gained enormous influence over the city council and its …show more content…
For one, he was the first to translate the Bible from Latin, to English, that all men capable of reading may get the opportunity to study. As this was almost a century before the movable type printer was invented in Europe, he did so by hand finishing by about 1384. After his studies at Oxford University in about the mid 1370’s, Wycliffe became politically active, particularly in religion. At this time, the Papacy had much influence over English politics, but also was very demanding of money. While at war with France, England was under Roman Catholic control and was charged money for the French Pope. That money eventually ended up in France. “So intolerable did this become that Parliament passed a Bill of Indictment against the pope” demanding that the Papal State not collect charges from England (prca). In 1374, England and France negotiated in Bruges, Netherlands, in order to resolve the issue in peace. Here Wycliffe was sent to serve England as a commissioner and discuss the issues with representatives of the Papacy. John Wycliffe observed the scheming and corruption of the Papacy, which was contrary to what he had expected of them. Seeing such immorality, and un-holiness coming from the Papacy, he developed a disgust and hatred for them, and defended England’s rights from Roman Catholic control. However, in doing so he made many bold allegations against the Papacy,