July 10, 1509
Noyon, Picardy, France
May 27, 1564
Geneva, Switzerland

Theologian, religious leader

"No one who wishes to be thought religious dares simply deny predestination, by which God adopts some to hope of life, and sentences others to eternal death."

John Calvin quoted in The Protestant Reformation, edited by Hans J. Hillerbrand.

John Calvin was perhaps the most influential of all leaders of the Protestant Reformation, a movement to reform the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. He was involved in reform efforts at the same time as Martin Luther (1483–1546; see entry), the German priest who initiated the Reformation, but Calvin was twenty-six years younger than Luther. The two men developed some important theological differences. Significantly, Calvin's stern, "puritanical" interpretations of Christianity brought a renewed vigor to...