This significant study explores the influences that shaped John Calvin up to the first edition of the Institutes. The author examines the tumultuous events that surrounded the young Calvin, the writers who shaped his thought, and questions concerning the nature of his conversion, his sense of call, and his views of the unity of the church. A historian thoroughly acquainted with both the primary and secondary literature, Ganoczy vividly re-creates the theological atmosphere of the early sixteenth century. Avoiding the polemics of a later era, he frames the issues in terms of Calvin's concern for the reform of the whole church.