<P> John Calvin was a student of law and then classics at the University of Paris . Around 1533 he became involved in religious controversies and converted to Protestantism , a new Christian reform movement which was persecuted by the Catholic Church in France , forcing him to go into hiding . He moved to Basel , Switzerland , for safety in 1535 , and around this time he must have begun writing a summary of theology which would become the Institutes . His Catholic opponents sought to associate him and his associates ( known as Huguenots in France ) with radical Anabaptists , some of whom had been defeated after a long siege in the Münster Rebellion in June 1535 . He decided to adapt the work he had been writing to the purpose of defending Protestants suffering from persecution from false accusations that they were espousing radical and heretical doctrines . The work , written in Latin , was published in Basel in March 1536 with a preface addressed to King Francis I of France , entreating him to give the Protestants a hearing rather than continue to persecute them . It is six chapters long , covering the basics of Christian faith using the familiar catechetical structure of the Ten Commandments , the Apostles ' Creed , the Lord 's Prayer , and the sacraments , as well as a chapter on Christian liberty and political theology . Soon after publishing it , Calvin began his ministry in Geneva , Switzerland . </P>
<P> John Calvin was a student of law and then classics at the University of Paris . Around 1533 he became involved in religious controversies and converted to Protestantism , a new Christian reform movement which was persecuted by the Catholic Church in France , forcing him to go into hiding . He moved to Basel , Switzerland , for safety in 1535 , and around this time he must have begun writing a summary of theology which would become the Institutes . His Catholic opponents sought to associate him and his associates ( known as Huguenots in France ) with radical Anabaptists , some of whom had been defeated after a long siege in the Münster Rebellion in June 1535 . He decided to adapt the work he had been writing to the purpose of defending Protestants suffering from persecution from false accusations that they were espousing radical and heretical doctrines . The work , written in Latin , was published in Basel in March 1536 with a preface addressed to King Francis I of France , entreating him to give the Protestants a hearing rather than continue to persecute them . It is six chapters long , covering the basics of Christian faith using the familiar catechetical structure of the Ten Commandments , the Apostles ' Creed , the Lord 's Prayer , and the sacraments , as well as a chapter on Christian liberty and political theology . Soon after publishing it , Calvin began his ministry in Geneva , Switzerland . </P>
who had a large influence and ministry in switzerland and wrote institutes of the christian religion
who had a large influence and ministry in switzerland and wrote institutes of the christian religion
John Calvin
John Calvin