Martin Luther (1483-1546) and John Calvin (1509-1564) were two of the principal leaders of the Protestant Reformation that transformed Western Europe in the sixteenth century. In the German states of the early sixteenth century there was "a combination of circumstances favourable to rebellion," the agricultural peasantry was oppressed and impoverished and the rest of the society strained against the domination of the Church and the excesses of ecclesiastical-temporal rulers of many bishoprics and monasteries (Sykes 28). Yet the form of the vast social change that eventually occurred was very different from outright armed rebellion against the civil or even the ecclesiastical authorities. There were minor peasants' revolts, it is true, but in general social change began in the arena of spiritual matters and this is due almost entirely to Luther's challenge to the Church, which was based on his refreshed understanding of the nature of Revelation, faith, and the relationship between humanity and God. Calvin followed in the broad wake of Lutheran change and amplified Luther's ideas. But he also developed a number of doctrinal differences; most notably, his belief in predestination. Calvin also possessed a much greater interest in the immediate regulation of people's lives and the coercive powers of the godly state and the civil religion. He eventually became the spiritual leader of the city-state of Geneva which had adopted his teachings as its official creed. Lutheranism, a term rejected by Luther himself, and Calvinism grew, therefore, in different ways. Lutheranism spread gradually, taking advantage not just of people's appreciation of Luther's doctrinal pronouncements but of the general animosity toward Rome that existed throughout Germany. Calvinism, on the other hand, was developed on the spot, so to speak, as Calvin worked simultaneously to create a church state and to develop the theology from which its legitimacy was de...