Michel Cop (1501 – 18 September 1566) was a Swiss Protestant Reformer. He was brother of

Nicolas Cop Nicolas Cop (born circa 1501 in Paris and died 1540), rector of the University of Paris in late 1533, from 10 October 1533, was a Swiss Protestant Reformer and friend of John Calvin. Nicolas Cop and his brother Michel Cop, sons of the king's phys ...

and friend of

John Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...

. Cop was the second son of Guillaume Cop, a native of Basel who had become physician to the king of France,

Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to: * Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407) * Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450 * Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547 * Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...

. Michel served as a

cathedral canon A canon (from the Latin , itself derived from the Greek , , "relating to a rule", "regular") is a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule. Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, i ...

for several years before he became evangelical in his thinking. He and his brother Nicolas became part of the humanist–evangelical circle which flourished in Paris in the early 1530s. They were both forced to flee the city in 1534 after Nicolas preached a sermon in favour of the Reformation, which created a Catholic backlash. Michel went to Basel, and remained there until 1545, at which time he moved to Geneva, where he served as a minister until his death. He was created a

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

in 1554. Scott Manetsch notes that "throughout the 1540s, Calvin worked tirelessly to construct a pastoral company of men who were committed to the reformed faith, competent in their pastoral duties, and loyal to him – and no one satisfied these requirements any better than Michel Cop." Calvin described Cop as "a man of exceptional piety and doctrine" with an intelligence "more profound than his appearance suggests."

Publications

* ''Exposition sur les proverbes de Salomon'' (1556; published in English as ''An Exposition upon the Fyrste Chap. of the Proverbis of Salomon'', 1564) * ''Le livre de l'Ecclésiaste, autrement dit le Prescheur'' (1557; published in English as ''A Faithful and Familiar Exposition of Ecclesiastes'')

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cop, Michel 1501 births 1566 deaths Swiss Protestant Reformers 16th-century Calvinist and Reformed ministers Bible commentators