Calvin was one of the most important figures of the Protestant Reformation. His particular brand of Protestantism became the most influential throughout Europe and would in turn form the basis of Puritan religious life in America. Unlike that other titan of the Reformation, Martin Luther, Calvin didn't simply want to reform the Catholic Church from within, he wanted to establish an entirely new church altogether, a church based on a rigid adherence to Scripture.
Luther was much less concerned than Calvin with setting down a precise blueprint for what a godly Protestant church should look like. For Calvin, however, ecclesiological concerns were paramount. It wasn't enough to break free from the Catholic Church; a completely new church would have to be organized and led in a certain way. This meant that it should reject an ordered hierarchy of bishops and embrace instead a more democratic system of government where the congregation would choose its elders. It was Calvinists' association with a more popular form of church government that helped to facilitate its rapid spread across the European continent.
Then as now, Calvinism became associated in the popular mind with strict standards of personal morality and godliness. Calvinists gained a reputation for coming down hard on the least sign of immorality, meting out severe punishments for a variety of offenses, ranging from swearing to adultery.
Calvinists were also renowned for the austerity of their worship and the simplicity of their churches. Whereas Lutheran places of worship still retained some traces of the old Catholic ways in terms of elaborate ornamentation and music, Calvinists chose instead to worship in churches with whitewashed walls and a lack of statuary and to conduct their services on the basis of sermons and the singing of unaccompanied hymns.
The Protestant Reformation began in Germany in 1517 when Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses in response to Catholic Church practices that he saw as corrupt. Essentially, the Protestants thought that the Catholics relied too much on middlemen to intervene between humans and God and put too much emphasis on one’s behavior. Protestants believed that salvation can and will come only through faith and grace, regardless of one’s earthly works.
In 1536, Calvin published Institutes in the Christian Religion to help define Protestantism and set the standards for worship, faith, and religious government. In 1555, he became the leader of the Reformation in Geneva and his influence spread.
Not all of the Protestants agreed on every theological point, and there were three major schisms within the Reformation itself at the time: Lutheranism, English Protestantism, and Calvinism, the branch named after John Calvin.
Calvin preached that salvation was a matter of predestination rather than free will. He believed that God has already decided which souls will enter heaven. His incorporation of theology in government inspired other Protestants to make the church a political authority, even in secular matters.
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