Calvin's Prefatory Address to Francis I in
The Institutes of the Christian Religion

For centuries John Calvin's book The Institutes of the Christian Religion has been known as the best defense of the Reformation and the best exposition of its principles. Calvin scholar John T. McNeill called the Institutes a masterpiece, which "holds a place in the short list of books that have notably affected the course of history, molding the beliefs and behavior of generations of mankind." The value of studying the prefatory address is that it contains a masterful summary of some of the main principles of the Reformation discussed in Calvin's Institutes.