Who was John Calvin?
Oil painting of a young John Calvin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland was the work of Arducius de Faucigny, the prince-bishop of the Diocese of Geneva. The building's earliest construction dates from the 12th century, but wars, fires, renovations and additions have often changed its look and shape. Though today it is the home of a congregation of the Swiss Reformed Church, it will always be known as John Calvin's church, for it was here that the great Reformer preached day-after-day and year-after-year. And there within St. Pierre's, is John Calvin's chair, the next of the twenty-five objects through which we can trace the history of Christianity. In 1517, Martin Luther had sparked Reformation with his Ninety-Five Theses. In the years that followed, his seditious new teachings quickly spread throughout Europe so that Christianity was now split into two broad streams: Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.