their writers. The authors were arranged
according to their field, such as law, po-
etry, history, mathematics, or rhetoric, and
listed in alphabetical order, as were their
works.
His poetic works, unlike the “Lists,”
survived in the form of fragments and
quotations into the Renaissance.Aetiawas
a group of narrative poems describing leg-
endary figures and events, whileIambiwas
a collection of shorter poems, some of
them describing the scholars and students
Callimachus knew or heard about in Alex-
andria. He was also the author of a short
epic,Hecale, and a collection known as
Hymns. As a scholar, he wrote short stud-
ies in various fields of knowledge and col-
lected them into theEpigrams. Callima-
chus engaged in a famous and long-
standing debate with one of his own
students, Apollonius of Rhodes, over the
proper form and length of poetry, with
Callimachus ridiculing the traditional
longer epic poems and Apollonius mock-
ing his rival’s preference for shorter forms.
Jealous of Apollonius’s securing the job of
librarian, Callimachus endlessly needled
Apollonius for his pretentious and old-
fashioned manner of writing. The work of
Callimachus in the Library of Alexandria
provided a foundation for later studies of
ancient Greek writers; his debate with
Apollonius over the nature of poetry was
also well remembered and provided schol-
ars and authors of the Renaissance with
one of their most common points of de-
bate.
SEEALSO: classical literature
Calvin, John .....................................
(1509–1564)
Protestant theologian and founder of Cal-
vinism, a religious movement that had far-
reaching effects on European thought and
culture. Born Jean Cauvin in Noyon, a
town in the Picardy region of northern
France, Calvin was the precocious son of a
lawyer who began studies at the University
of Paris at the age of fourteen. He studied
law, theology, as well as ancient languages,
including Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. After
earning a doctorate, he moved to Geneva,
in what is now the French-speaking region
of Switzerland. Around 1533 Calvin re-
belled against the Catholic hierarchy and
took up the cause of the German Protes-
tants. He attempted to have the city fa-
thers adopt a new religious creed to be
sworn to by all citizens of Geneva. Ex-
pelled from the city for his religious activ-
ism, he moved to Strasbourg, Germany,
wherehebecameapreacherinaHugue-
not (French Protestant) church. In 1541,
after several of his followers won election
to the city council of Geneva, he was in-
vitedtoreturntothecity,wherehere-
mained for the rest of his life.
Calvin believed in a direct interpreta-
tion of scripture, without any human com-
mentators shaping the experience for the
faithful. He believed in subordinating civic
government to religious authorities, and in
reforming the church through his own in-
terpretation of the will of God. His work
Institutes of the Christian Religionhad a
far-reaching effect on the Christian church
in Europe. First published in 1536, theIn-
stitutes explained basic Protestant doc-
trines, such as the rejection of the author-
ity of the pope and the doctrine of
justification by faith, which was first put
forth by Martin Luther, former Catholic
monk and founder of the Protestant Ref-
ormation.Calvinbelievedinonlytwoof
the traditional Catholic sacraments: bap-
tism and Holy Communion; he disagreed
with Martin Luther in not believing in the
physical presence of Christ in the offeringCalvin, John