thither as a refuge from persecution elsewhere, or by the desire to sit
at the feet of the great Reformer. Between the years 1549 and 1555 no
less than 1297 strangers were admitted to citizenship. Practically all
of these were immigrants coming to the little town for conscience's
sake.
[Persecution]
Orthodoxy was enforced as rigidly as morality. The ecclesiastical
constitution adopted in 1542 brought in the Puritan type of divine
service. Preaching took the most important place in church,
supplemented by Bible reading and catechetical instruction. Laws were
passed enforcing conformity under pain of losing goods and life. Those
who did not expressly renounce the mass were punished. A little girl
of thirteen was condemned to be publicly beaten with rods for saying
that she wanted to be a Catholic. Calvin identified his own wishes and
dignity with the commands and honor of God. One day he forbade a
citizen, Philibert Berthelier, to come to the Lord's table. Berthelier
protested and was supported by the council. "If God lets Satan crush
my ministry under such tyranny," shrieked Calvin, "it is all over with
me." The slightest assertion of liberty on the part of another was
stamped out as a crime. Sebastian Castellio, a sincere Christian and
Protestant, but more liberal than Calvin, fell under suspicion because
he called the Song of Songs obscene, and because he made a new French
version of the Bible to replace the one of Olivetan officially
approved. He was banished in 1544. Two years later Peter Ameaux made
some very trifling personal remarks about Calvin, for which he was
forced to fall on his knees in public and ask pardon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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