1509–1536

The early years and conversion of John Calvin

John Calvin was born on 10 July 1509 in Noyon. He studied in Paris, at the Collège de Montaigu, and then law in Orléans and Bourges. There he encountered Guillaume Budé's French legal humanism. In 1532 he published a humanist commentary on Seneca's treatise "On Clemency".

On 2 November 1533 a speech by the rector Nicolas Cop with cautious Lutheran overtones caused a scandal. Calvin, who probably helped draft it, fled Paris. Between late 1533 and 1534 he underwent a "sudden conversion", which he himself ascribed to divine providence.

The "Affair of the Placards" (18 October 1534) and Francis I's ensuing persecution forced him to leave France for good in January 1535. He settled in Basel.