Calvin Publishes the Institutes

1536

A young French exile named Jean Calvin, hiding in Basel, published a slim Latin volume called the Institutes of the Christian Religion. It laid out predestination, church discipline, and the sovereignty of God in clear, remorseless prose. Geneva would soon be its laboratory, and the world would feel it. The Institutes, expanded over twenty-five years, became the most influential work of Protestant theology, shaping Reformed churches worldwide.