 After the deaths of Calvin and his successor , Beza , the Geneva city council gradually gained control over areas of life that were previously in the ecclesiastical domain . Increasing secularisation was accompanied by the decline of the church . Even the Geneva académie was eclipsed by universities in Leiden and Heidelberg , which became the new strongholds of Calvin 's ideas , first identified as " Calvinism " by Joachim Westphal in 1552 . By 1585 , Geneva , once the wellspring of the reform movement , had become merely its symbol . However , Calvin had always warned against describing him as an " idol " and Geneva as a new " Jerusalem " . He encouraged people to adapt to the environments in which they found themselves . Even during his polemical exchange with Westphal , he advised a group of French @-@ speaking refugees , who had settled in Wesel , Germany , to integrate with the local Lutheran churches . Despite his differences with the Lutherans , he did not deny that they were members of the true Church . Calvin 's recognition of the need to adapt to local conditions became an important characteristic of the reformation movement as it spread across Europe . 
