(1509-1564)

John Calvin (aka. Jean Cauvin) played an important role in the Protestant Reformation—perhaps second only to Martin Luther in importance.

Calvin wrote the deeply influential Institutes of the Christian Religion (published in 1536, see also the Britannica summary), developed the "presbyterian" model of church government, and has been called the "organizer of Protestantism" because of his pastoral work organizing churches in Strassburg and Geneva.

He was born on July 10, 1509 in the city of Noyon in Picardy, France (where his childhood home is now a museum), was raised with children of the aristocracy, adopted the Latin "Calvin" as a young scholar. His father was the Bishop's secretary serving the cathedral in Noyon, and he ensured that Calvin was well educated. At age 14, Calvin enrolled at the University of Paris and later attended the College de Montaigu there. Calvin studied theology and in the

The gothic cathedrals eventually gave birth to medieval universities. The universities revealed an intense hunger to understand the truth of God received from any land, and reason became the servant of faith. This era gave rise to a distinctive method of scholarship and a unique Middle Age theology emerged. The aim of the Schoolmen was twofold: to reconcile Christian doctrine and human reason, and to arrange the teachings of the church in an orderly system. A free search for truth was never in view since the chief doctrines of the Christian faith were regarded as fixed. Scholars sought to "live studiously in a religious way, and religiously in a studious manner".

The event that marked the flowering of the universities was the grouping of students and masters into guilds. Scholars banded together for mutual interest and protection, and called themselves a "universitas", the medieval name for any corporate group.