 Originally trained as a humanist lawyer , he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530 . After religious tensions provoked a violent uprising against Protestantism in France , Calvin fled to Basel , Switzerland , where he published the first edition of the Institutes in 1536 . In that year , Calvin was recruited by another Frenchman William Farel to help reform the church in Geneva , where he regularly preached sermons throughout the week . The city council resisted the implementation of Calvin 's and Farel 's ideas , and both men were expelled . At the invitation of Martin Bucer , Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg , where he became the minister of a church of French refugees . He continued to support the reform movement in Geneva , and was eventually invited back to lead its church in 1541 . 
