page_title: John Calvin's views on Mary
section_title: Veneration of Mary
hierarchical_section_title: John Calvin's views on Mary / Veneration of Mary
caption_attribution_description: Cathedral of Saint Martin, Utrecht - evidence of former Iconoclasm still in evidence
context_page_description: John Calvin was a French Protestant theologian during the Protestant Reformation, and one of the most influential reformers. He was a central figure for the Reformed churches, whose theological system is sometimes called Calvinism.
  Calvin had a positive view of Mary, but rejected the Roman Catholic veneration of her.
context_section_description: Calvin had genuine respect for Mary and saw her as a model for faith. "To this day we cannot enjoy the blessing brought to us in Christ without thinking at the same time of that which God gave as adornment and honour to Mary, in willing her to be the mother of his only-begotten Son". The genuine respect for Mary in Calvin's writing, and his attempt to express his Marian convictions to the faithful of his day in his explanations of the epistles is not fully known or shared by Reformed Protestants after John Calvin.
caption: Statues in the Cathedral of Saint Martin, Utrecht, attacked in Reformation iconoclasm in the 16th century
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