Barely two months after the Reformation had been legally ushered into Geneva, in July 1536, as images were still literally smoldering, John Calvin came to the city. His visit was unplanned, a detour on the road from Paris to Strassburg. Much to Calvin's surprise, Farel burst into the inn where he was staying, as impetuous as ever. The meeting that followed not only changed the course of Calvin's life, but the history of Geneva and the Reformation as well.

Farel, who was busy organizing the Genevan church into a disciplined community, came to enlist Calvin in this hard task. The young Frenchman (twenty years Farel's junior), was already known for his brilliant defense and summary of the Reformed faith, the Christianae religionis institution, published at Basel in March of that same year. Though he had fled from his native France for the sake of religion, Calvin had no intention of getting involved in the pastoral task of church reform in exile. His goal was to study and write in scholarly seclusion. He told Farel he was only passing through town, on his way to more pressing business, but Farel would not listen. Instead, he warned him: “If you refuse to devote youself with us to this work … God will condemn you.” Calvin was terrified by this adjuration, and later wrote that he had felt as if God had come into his room and laid a hand upon him.