How Did John Calvin Turn Back To Reform

In 1509, John Calvin was born into a wealthy French family and had a very powerful father who was the secretary to the bishop of Noyon. By age twelve, he was given church benefices which enabled him to study at Parisian colleges and earn a law degree. Later in 1534 Calvin made the decision to give up his benefices and join the new reformation in Geneva. Though the city was very corrupted before his arrival, John Calvin transformed the city of Geneva and its church from civic disorder to a leading example for reformers. Before Calvin altered the city, Geneva was full of chaos and moral depravity. At genevabible.com, Gary DeMar states that before Calvin’s appearance there, in Geneva, “Immorality was at an all-time high, with gambling, street …show more content…
E. Harris Harbison’s The Age of Reformation declares that even after Calvin had left the city, “it was to Geneva that young protestant enthusiasts went from all over Europe to see what John Knox called ‘the most perfect school of Christ that ever was on earth since the days of the apostles’… they received the theological training and the ideas of the church and state which they carried back home to put into practice” (Harbison 76-7). Even after Calvin was no longer there they still resembled a truly reformed city. The impact he left there made the city a hub for new Protestants growing in their faith. His university he left in the city defined the society for years to come. Harbison later insists that the, “Genevan church was the model for organizing what were called ‘the reformed churches’ of France, the Netherlands, Scotland, parts of Germany, Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary” (76). Calvin not only impacted the city of Geneva but also the surrounding countries. The work that he did in Geneva was influential in many different societies for centuries to come. After he left, Geneva was seen as an example of how a corrupted city can be reformed and thrive as a protestant