Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

Epistle to Marguerite de Navarre

Marie Dentière · c. 1495–1561

A former abbess turned reformer defends women's right to read and expound scripture, and criticises the Geneva ministers by name for their treatment of her.

Reply to Sadoleto

John Calvin · 1509–1564

An answer to a cardinal's courteous invitation to Geneva to return to Rome, arguing that the reformers left not the church but its corruptions, and imagining the last judgement.

The Ecclesiastical Ordinances

John Calvin · 1509–1564

Four orders of ministry — pastors, teachers, elders, deacons — with a consistory of ministers and lay elders charged with the discipline of the whole city.

The Catechism of the Church of Geneva

John Calvin · 1509–1564

Instruction by question and answer, opening with the chief end of human life: to know God by whom we were created.

The Restoration of Christianity

Christianismi Restitutio

Michael Servetus · c. 1511–1553

A complete alternative theology rejecting the Trinity and infant baptism, containing in passing the first European description of the pulmonary circulation of the blood.

Concerning Heretics, Whether They Are to Be Persecuted

Sebastian Castellio · 1515–1563

An anthology of passages against persecution — from the fathers, from Luther, even from Calvin's own early work — published under a pseudonym after Servetus was burned.

The Geneva Bible

The English exiles at Geneva

A scholarly translation with verse numbers, roman type, maps, and extensive marginal notes — some of which told readers when a king might be disobeyed.

Institutes of Elenctic Theology

Francis Turretin · 1623–1687

Theology arranged as a series of disputed questions, each stating the state of the controversy precisely before answering it.