Death of John Calvin

May 27, 1564

The austere reformer of Geneva died at fifty-four, worn out by asthma, migraines, and overwork. He asked to be buried in an unmarked grave, and his instructions were obeyed. Calvinism by then had jumped the city walls and was reshaping Scotland, the Netherlands, and bits of France and Hungary. The institutional structures he created survived his death and continued shaping Reformed Protestantism across Europe and the Americas.