Calvinism, the Catholic Counter-Reformation, and the Machinery of Religious Control

John Calvin developed his theological doctrine in Geneva from 1536 onward, after publishing the Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvinism emphasized the doctrine of predestination alongside a presbyterian form of church government built around local consistories, and under Calvin's influence Geneva became a model of strictly disciplined reformed theocracy. From Geneva, Calvinism spread to France, where its adherents were called Huguenots, as well as to Scotland, the Netherlands, Hungary, and parts of Germany. Of all the reformist confessions, Calvinism proved to have the greatest capacity for political and military organization, and Calvinist theorists such as Theodore Beza developed doctrines justifying armed resistance against tyrannical or idolatrous rulers, ideas that would later feed the political thought of the Dutch revolt and the French Huguenot wars.