Happy Birthday JC

500 years ago in France the babe John Calvin was born. How amazed his parents would be to know that in Australia 500 years later a Kiwi woman would get up early to write about it in her blog before heading off to work in a Catholic university (although for them all universities were Catholic I guess)
No time for new research and thinking, so here's a repeat (excerpt) from a previous post ...

Conviction about the mercy and justice of God also characterise our reformers. Their powerful intellects and passion for holy living can sometimes obscure our view of their humanity and experience of love. Calvin was once described as a brain without a personality. Yet these were women and men who integrated heart and intellect. Their experience of God’s love enabled joy through what Calvin called ‘troubles’ and helped them to put aside anxieties and needless worry. Troubles for Calvin were real life events, like the deaths of his three children, his only children, in infancy, and the death of his wife Idelette [de Bure] which affected him greatly. In a letter to a friend he said “Mine is no common grief. I have been bereaved of the best companion of my life.”(Bouwsma p.23).

and a UK site that seems pretty comprehensive and unbiased has heaps more information