Calvin, like Luther, was a lightning rod. Historians and pick and choose to make him appear as a great man or a cretin.
The fact is that Geneva prospered and benefited greatly under the influence of Calvin. For example, the death rates in Geneva due to the plague were far lower than in other European cities because he advocated a strict program of hygiene.
Hasta la vista from a fun-loving Calvinists.
I could put in lotsa quotes from the Durants chapter cited, or go to the attic for Dr. Albert Schweitzer's book, but it wouldn't matter would it now? If they find Calvin dour and stultifying they must be godless leftists.
The improvements in living conditions in all protestant controlled city states were remarkable, but what does that have to do with being enemies of pleasure?
Not Calvin alone, but John Knox, Zwingli, Martin Luther in his later years, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards et al.
The whole of the Reformation was about strictness, discipline, attending to ones duties to God and to your fellow man. If you were enjoying yourself, you were obviously neglecting one or the other.
So9