2.3 Protestant Reform Continues

John Calvin (1509–1564) was a French lawyer who became a Protestant and fled to Switzerland. His Institutes of the Christian Religion (first edition 1536) laid out Protestant beliefs clearly and systematically. From 1541 he led the church in Geneva.

Calvin taught predestination: God decided before creation who would be saved (the elect) and who would not, and nothing a person does can change it. Believers could not know for sure, but living a disciplined, godly life was seen as a sign of being among the elect.

Geneva became a model Protestant city. A church court called the consistory, made up of pastors and elders, punished swearing, dancing, gambling and missing sermons. Calvin insisted that the church, not the city council, should control discipline and excommunication, and Anabaptists went further by rejecting state control of religion altogether. Churches removed religious images and simplified worship. Geneva trained missionaries who spread Calvinism abroad. Its strictness had a dark side; the city burned Michael Servetus for heresy in 1553.

Some Calvinists came to see success from honest, disciplined work as a sign of God's favor, which made making money look respectable rather than sinful. In essays published in 1904–1905, sociologist Max Weber argued that Calvinist values of hard work and thrift helped create the spirit of capitalism. Historians still debate how strong that link was, since capitalism also thrived in Catholic places like Venice and Antwerp.

• France: Calvinists called Huguenots grew to perhaps a tenth of the population, including many nobles.
• Netherlands: Calvinism fueled the Dutch Revolt against Catholic Spain (see 2.4).
• Scotland: John Knox led a Presbyterian church, governed by elders rather than bishops, which became the national church in 1560.
• England: Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England of remaining Catholic practices.

Henry VIII wanted to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, who had not given him a surviving son. The pope refused, partly because Catherine's nephew, Emperor Charles V, controlled Rome after 1527. Henry had Parliament cut ties with Rome, and the Act of Supremacy (1534) made the king head of the Church of England. From 1536 to 1541 he closed the monasteries and sold their land, which tied landowners to the new order.

Henry kept most Catholic beliefs. Under his son Edward VI (1547–1553) the church became more Protestant, with the English Book of Common Prayer (1549). Mary I (1553–1558) restored Catholicism and burned nearly 300 Protestants. Elizabeth I (1558–1603) set up a moderate Protestant church in the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559, keeping bishops and some ritual. She demanded outward conformity, such as attending church, but was less interested in prying into people's private beliefs.

Print helped every movement. Like Luther, Calvinists relied on the press: Geneva's printers turned out French Bibles, catechisms and pamphlets that were smuggled into France, and Bibles in everyday languages let ordinary readers check what preachers told them against scripture.

Most rulers believed one realm should have one religion, so religious minorities looked like political threats. Calvinists in particular developed arguments that lesser officials could resist an ungodly ruler. Huguenots, Dutch Calvinists and later English Puritans challenged their monarchs, which helps explain the religious wars of 2.4 and the English Civil War of 3.2.