June 5, 1559. That was a very important date for the city of Geneva. It was on that date

that the academy at Geneva was officially founded. Some other key dates are 1798. And that year,

none other than Napoleon reformulated this academy. And in 1872, the academy at Geneva emerged

as an entirely transformed university. But let's go back to its founding and let's go back to

that date, June 5, 1559. There was already a school in Geneva and this school tended to serve

the younger ages. It was what we would call a public school. Calvin had an intense interest in this

school. But he also wanted to found a new school, a new academy that would pick up the education

from ages 16 on. What we would consider a college. This comes from his time in Strasbourg. When he was

in Strasbourg, he was pastoring. This was, of course, his exile from Geneva. He had gone to Geneva.

It was pastor there, was kicked out of Geneva. He's in Strasbourg. He's pastoring two congregations.

These are French speaking congregations that he's ministering to. And essentially in his home,

which was just down the street from one of the churches he pastored. In his home, he had a

default college. He was training young men there in theology, even in law, in the humanities,

in logic, in the languages. And it was there in Calvin's own home that this idea of the academy

was born. Well, Calvin is called back to Geneva from Strasbourg and was able to open his academy

in 1559. He had help, of course. One key figure that came alongside of him was Theodore

Baza. Baza had been at Lausanne and he was brought down to Geneva by Calvin to be the

director of the academy at Geneva. And on June 5th, he was the one who gave the inaugural

address. This academy was a fascinating place. For one, do you want to guess how much tuition was?

Zero dollars. It was free. For another, it was open to anyone. It didn't need to be of noble

birth, but you did need to qualify. That is to say that you needed to know your Latin.

And in addition to knowing your Latin, you also had to affirm a theological confession.

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