Geneva
A city governed by its own councils at the western end of Lake Geneva. The councils banished Calvin and Farel in 1538, received Calvin back in 1541 and adopted the church ordinances he asked for.
Geneva lies where the Rhône leaves Lake Geneva. John Calvin, who came there meaning to stay one night, found a city from which “Popery” had lately been driven and which was divided into factions (Calvin, Preface to the Psalms preface). Its registers show the Little Council, the Two Hundred and the General Council of the citizens voting to expel him and Guillaume Farel in April 1538 (Geneva registers, Council, 21–23 April 1538) and passing the Ecclesiastical Ordinances on 20 November 1541 (Geneva registers, Council, 20 November 1541). See Calvin’s Institutes and the Reform of Geneva.
What happened here
- 1536 to 1541, firm dateCalvin’s Institutes and the Reform of Geneva
John Calvin, a French exile, publishes the Institutes of the Christian Religion at Basel in 1536 and is kept in Geneva by Guillaume Farel. Banished in 1538, he returns in 1541, and the city adopts the church ordinances he asked for.