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Welcome back to another episode of

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5 Minutes in Church History. Back

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in 58 B.C., Julius Caesar arrived

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in Geneva. Now,

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if you were to arrive in

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Geneva today, I would suggest five

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sites for you to visit to

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get a sense of Calvin's Geneva.

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The first is the site of

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Calvin's house. It is on Calvin

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Street, and just outside of where

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his house would have stood, there

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is Calvin's well. And it is

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actually the well from which Calvin

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would have drawn water. And right

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near the well is a streetlight.

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It is the last remaining streetlight

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of the 16th century streetlights. It

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really wasn't so much a streetlight

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as it was holding a fire

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pot to illumine the street,

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as Calvin made his way back home

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after a long day at

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the cathedral well. He lived in that

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house from 1554 to 1564, the

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time of his death. And after

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he died, Theodore Beza moved in,

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and he lived there from 1564

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to 1605. The house was demolished in

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1706, and a big building was built

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on the side of it. And today,

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it houses the offices of

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the secondary schools of Geneva. But

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there is a plaque, and the street

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upon which it sits is named Calvin

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Street. So that's the

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first site. The second site is

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where Calvin worked. The Cathedral of

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St. Peter's Christianity came to Geneva

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in 313. And from the 400s

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on, there was a church on this site.

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It was in the 1100s that construction

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began on the cathedral. And

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in 1536, in the square right

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in front of the cathedral, the

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town of Geneva gathered and voted

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to become a reformed city. And

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They're Calvin preached and of course

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he was followed by Baeza again.

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Next to the cathedral is the

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Odd a Trois. This was very

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busy in the fifteen forties and

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fifteen fifties. Calvin and Geneva gave

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the order to are over to

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the Italians and the English refugees

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who they could have services there.

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And from fifteen fifty six to

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fifteen fifty nine, John Knox preach

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there. and of course this is

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the place where all those who

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were involved in the Geneva bible

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would have attended. Once Knox

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left Calvin started lecturing and the audit

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was to all the students of the

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Geneva Academy and college and then of

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course once again be the followers and

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says he used it to lecture as

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well. Well, our

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fourth a site is the

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same as Reformation Wall. This

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was undertaken in nineteen oh

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ninth to commemorate what would

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have been the four hundredth

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anniversary of Calvin's birth. It

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is a massive monuments at

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the center of which of

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course, or the big four

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reformers, Pharaoh. Calvin. Baeza

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and knocks. On. The

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base of that monument is a

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date sixteen fifty nine. That was

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the one year when all four

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of those reformers were in Geneva

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at the same time. On either

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side, to the left and to

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the rates are the various nations

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which were impacted by the reformation

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Their Geneva. So we start with

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Germany and in Holland and France

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and then the rest of Switzerland.

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And and on the other side

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we have Scotland, America, Britain and

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Hungary, and of. Course stretching

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on the wall behind the

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reformers and these various countries

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are the words post Tenebrous

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Looks. For

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that brings us to our

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fifth and final sites. It

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is the Cannons Arcade and

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the building right next to

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the Cannons Arcade. In

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Calvin's day this was the armory

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or the arsenal for the City

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of Geneva. And today and the

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arcade outside of the building sits

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five robust cannabis. They were not

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there originally, they were perched on

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the city walls to protect to

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Niva and they've been moved to

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this place today. this building houses

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the archives of the City of

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Geneva. This is very important because

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in there are the records of

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all of the underground. Churches Hundreds

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of underground churches that were established

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and France pastors would sneak out

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of France, come to Geneva, get

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trained, sent back. Indifference with funding

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from the city and all that

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resulted in a network of underground

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churches that's just one of the

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treasures and the archives. Whether you

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have it five sites in Calvin's

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Geneva. I'm Steve Nicolas. Thanks for

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listening to Five Minutes and Church

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History.