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Article: God called Him: John Calvin gave his heart 'promptly and sincerely.'.(CALVIN)(Biography)
- Article from:
- Presbyterian Record
- Article date:
- September 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Presbyterian Record. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Canadian Presbyterians name churches after John Calvin and claim to be his theological descendants, so it is worth asking: Who was John Calvin?
He was born in Noyon, Picardy, northwest of Paris, on July 10, 1509, the youngest of five (or maybe seven) children. (And at the start of Calvin's story we confront the problem that makes telling his story challenging. Many things about Calvin we do not know, in part because of the 500 years between his time and ours, but more significantly despite being a prolific writer Calvin wrote little about his own life.) His father was the financial administrator for the cathedral chapter of Noyon; his mother, a pious woman, died ...