Institutes

The familiar name for Christianae religionis institutio/Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536), the principal text of Calvinism. Written by the French religious reformer John Calvin, it is the clearest and ablest systematic exposition of the ideals that inspired the second generation of Protestant reformers and their followers.

The first edition, published in Basel, Switzerland, was a brief manual of six chapters based on the framework of the catechism and intended as a short textbook of reformed orthodoxy. Its success prompted Calvin to expand it considerably, so that by the time of the definitive edition of 1559 it was five times its original length. Its 80 chapters and four books now comprised a complete handbook of the reformed religion: a systematic theology based on the Bible, a manual of ethics, a guidebook to the Protestant creed, and a comprehensive survey of Reformation theological controversy.

It was soon translated into the languages of those countries influenced by Calvinism, including French in 1541 (by Calvin himself), Dutch in 1560, and English in 1561.