John Calvin was born Jehan Cauvin on the 10th of July 1509 in the town of Noyon, Picardy, a province of the Kingdom of France, yet his life was never destined to follow the path of the priesthood his father Gérard intended for him. Gérard Cauvin, a prosperous cathedral notary and registrar to the ecclesiastical court, initially planned for all three of his sons to enter the church, but a family conflict with the local clergy and a pragmatic desire for financial stability led him to withdraw young Calvin from theological studies. Instead, the boy was enrolled in the University of Orléans to study law, a decision that would prove pivotal when the young man later found himself fleeing religious persecution. By 1532, Calvin had earned his licentiate in law and published his first book, a commentary on Seneca's De Clementia, displaying a humanist scholarship that would eventually be overshadowed by his theological writings. His conversion to the evangelical faith, which scholars debate as occurring between 1529 and 1533, was described by Calvin himself as a sudden change of mind brought about by God, though he also wrote of a long process of inner turmoil and spiritual anguish. This internal shift transformed him from a potential priest into a fugitive, forcing him to flee France during the Affair of the Placards in mid-October 1534, an incident where unknown reformers had posted placards criticizing the Roman Catholic mass, leading to violent reprisals against their sympathizers. He spent the next year on the move, sheltering with friends in Angoulême and Noyon, before finally joining fellow reformer Nicolas Cop in Basel, a city under the enduring influence of the late reformer Johannes Oecolampadius.
The Reluctant Architect of Geneva
In August 1536, Calvin set off for Strasbourg, a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, but military maneuvers forced him to make a detour to Geneva, where he intended to stay only a single night. There, William Farel, a fellow French reformer residing in the city, implored him to stay and assist in his work of reforming the church, and Calvin accepted his new role without any preconditions on his tasks or duties. The office to which he was initially assigned is unknown, but he was eventually given the title of reader, which most likely meant that he could give expository lectures on the Bible. By October 1536, Calvin participated in the disputation of Lausanne, trying to bring that city into the Protestant camp, and sometime in 1537 he was selected to be a pastor, although he never received any pastoral consecration. For the first time, the lawyer-theologian took up pastoral duties such as baptisms, weddings, and church services. In late 1536, Farel drafted a confession of faith, and Calvin wrote separate articles on reorganizing the church in Geneva, which were presented to the city council on the 16th of January 1537. The document described the manner and frequency of their celebrations of the Eucharist, the reason for, and the method of, excommunication, the requirement to subscribe to the confession of faith, the use of congregational singing in the liturgy, and the revision of marriage laws. The council accepted the document on the same day, but as the year progressed, Calvin and Farel's reputation with the council began to suffer. The council was reluctant to enforce the subscription requirement, as only a few citizens had subscribed to their confession of faith, and France was taking an interest in forming an alliance with Geneva, leading councillors to question the loyalty of the two Frenchmen. A major ecclesiastical-political quarrel developed when the city of Bern, Geneva's ally in the reformation of the Swiss churches, proposed to introduce uniformity in the church ceremonies, requiring the use of unleavened bread for the Eucharist. The two ministers were unwilling to follow Bern's lead and delayed the use of such bread until a synod in Zurich could be convened to make the final decision. The council ordered Calvin and Farel to use unleavened bread for the Easter Eucharist, and in protest, they refused to administer communion during the Easter service, causing a riot during the service. The next day, the council told Farel and Calvin to leave Geneva, and they were expelled from the city they had hoped to reform.