Reformation · 1536-1564

Calvin's Geneva

A French refugee turns a small city on Lake Geneva into a training school for Protestants from all over Europe. Students map how Calvin's ideas travelled to France, Scotland and the Netherlands, and debate life in a city with strict rules for everyone.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1550
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

A French refugee turns a small city on Lake Geneva into a training school for Protestants from all over Europe. Students map how Calvin's ideas travelled to France, Scotland and the Netherlands, and debate life in a city with strict rules for everyone.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain how Calvin's Geneva was governed and why it attracted refugees.
  • Trace on the map how Calvinism spread to at least three countries.
  • Compare one idea of Calvin with one idea of Luther.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1550

A city on the lake

Open the map in 1550 and zoom in on the western tip of Lake Geneva. Old borders are approximate: here the lands of the Duke of Savoy surround the city. Why would a small city need strong friends like Bern?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1550

Zurich and Geneva

Find Zurich, where Ulrich Zwingli began a Reformation in 1519, and then Geneva. Both lie in or beside the Swiss Confederation. Why might the Reformation do well in self-governing cities?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1550

Exporting a faith

Zoom out over western Europe. Find France, Scotland and the Low Countries, where Calvin's followers were called Huguenots, Presbyterians and Reformed. Who ruled each of them around 1560, and what was the ruler's religion?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Calvin taught that God has already chosen who will be saved. Why might believers still work hard to live well?
  2. Geneva's church court, the Consistory, checked how people lived, from church attendance to dancing. Would you want to live there?
  3. Thousands of refugees came to Geneva in the 1550s. How do refugees change a city?
  4. In 1553 Geneva executed Michael Servetus for his religious ideas. What does this tell us about religious freedom then?
  5. Why did Calvinism spread even where rulers opposed it, such as in France and the Netherlands?
4

Game round

9 min

Play a round of Rule History as Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled Muslims, Christians and Jews in the same years Calvin led Geneva. Discuss: which is easier to keep peaceful, a strict city of one faith or an empire of many faiths?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.