 In the autumn of 1558 , Calvin became ill with a fever . Since he was afraid that he might die before completing the final revision of the Institutes , he forced himself to work . The final edition was greatly expanded to the extent that Calvin referred to it as a new work . The expansion from the 21 chapters of the previous edition to 80 was due to the extended treatment of existing material rather than the addition of new topics . Shortly after he recovered , he strained his voice while preaching , which brought on a violent fit of coughing . He burst a blood @-@ vessel in his lungs , and his health steadily declined . He preached his final sermon in St. Pierre on 6 February 1564 . On 25 April , he made his will , in which he left small sums to his family and to the collège . A few days later , the ministers of the church came to visit him , and he bade his final farewell , which was recorded in Discours d <unk> aux <unk> . He recounted his life in Geneva , sometimes recalling bitterly some of the hardships he had suffered . Calvin died on 27 May 1564 aged 54 . At first his body was laid in state , but since so many people came to see it , the reformers were afraid that they would be accused of fostering a new saint 's cult . On the following day , he was buried in an unmarked grave in the Cimetière des Rois . While the exact location of the grave is unknown , a stone was added in the 19th century to mark a grave traditionally thought to be Calvin 's . 
