John Calvin-Life,Legacy and Theology

JOHN CALVIN : LIFE, LEGACY AND THEOLOGY -
PROF. M. M. NINAN
The same day, in Saint-Godeberthe church, the child was baptized. The edifice where Calvin was
baptized was destroyed at the time of the revolution. Calvin's father, Gérard Cauvin, had a
prosperous career as the cathedral notary and registrar to the ecclesiastical court. His father, a lawyer,
and a lay administrator was in the service of the local bishop, Bishop Charles d'Hangest. He was
also the secretary to the bishop. On the father's side, Calvin's ancestors were seafaring men. His
grandfather settled at Pont l'Evêque near Paris, and had two sons who became locksmiths at Pont
l'Evlque, in a village nearby. The third was Gerard, Calvin's father who was a cooper; one who
makes utensils and barrels with wood. His mother, Jeanne le Franc, was the daughter of an innkeeper
from Cambrai. She died of an unknown cause in Calvin's childhood, after having borne four more
children. She passed away when Calvin was six. His father remarried and he was sent to live with
the Montmar family.
Gerard had four sons and two daughters.
The eldest son, Charles, was an ecclesiastic, and chaplain of St. Mary's church at Noyon. But when
he died he refused to take the last sacraments. Having suspicious of his fath in the Catholic religion he
was refused burial within the Catholic cemetery and was burried in the public gibbet in the night.,
The second son was John Calvin..
The third son, Anthony, was a chaplain of Tourneville, in the village of Traversy. Eventually he
embraced the Reformed tenets, and followed Calvin to Geneva.
The fourth son died in childhood.
Of the two daughters, one, Maria accompanied Calvin to Geneva; the other appears to have
continued in the Roman Catholic faith.
Both his father and mother remained faithful to the Catholic faith till they died.
In 1914, Noyon was occupied by Germany. During the occupation, a memorial plaque was placed on
the house where he was born stating that it was the historic birthplace of Calvin. However, in 1918, the
last year of World War I, it was completely destroyed. After the war, the Society of the History of
French Protestantism bought the ruined house and restored the first floor of the building. The top floor
was eventually added and the entire house was converted to a museum in 1930. During World War II,
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