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JOHN CALVIN : LIFE, LEGACY AND THEOLOGY -<br />
PROF. M. M. NINAN<br />
<strong>and</strong> eventually leading an established party of moderation, the Libertines. In May 1555 an<br />
armed rising of his Libertines was resisted by the city’s government, <strong>and</strong> he was condemned to<br />
death. He managed to escape to Bern, where, with a few supporters (Fugitifs), he continued a futile<br />
opposition in exile.<br />
The story doesn't end there:<br />
+++++++<br />
When fellow reformer <strong>John</strong> Eckius, who disagreed with him on various points, got sick in Geneva,<br />
<strong>Calvin</strong> wrote this about him: “One says that Eckius will recover: The world still does not deserve to be<br />
delivered of this wild beast.”<br />
++++++<br />
For having disagreed with him on some points of doctrine, Sebastian Castillo, rector of a boys<br />
school in Geneva <strong>and</strong> an old friend of <strong>Calvin</strong>, was fired from his position <strong>and</strong> expelled from the city.<br />
For accusing the <strong>Calvin</strong>ist doctrine of being absurd, Jérôme-Hermès Bolsec was sent to prison for<br />
weeks <strong>and</strong> then banished from Geneva.<br />
+++++++<br />
For criticizing <strong>Calvin</strong> at a banquet, Pierre Ameaux, a city official, was forced to make expiation by<br />
parading through the city squares in a hair-shirt <strong>and</strong> begging God for forgiveness. These are the<br />
words of the official sentence:<br />
“He is condemned to go around the city in penitential clothing, bareheaded, carrying a torch in his<br />
h<strong>and</strong>. When arriving before the tribunal, he must kneel, confess having evilly <strong>and</strong> maliciously spoken<br />
vile words, <strong>and</strong> manifest his repentance; then, he must beg for mercy before God <strong>and</strong> the justice of<br />
man. He is condemned to pay all the expenses. This sentence should be publically announced."<br />
++++++++++++++<br />
For having accused <strong>Calvin</strong> of Miguel Servet, condemned to burn for disagreeing with <strong>Calvin</strong> being a<br />
heretic, Jacques Gruet was tortured <strong>and</strong> beheaded in 1547.<br />
+++++++++++++<br />
Galiffé, who delved into the records of that time.describing that within a short period of <strong>Calvin</strong>’s rule ,<br />
“One counts 30 executions of men <strong>and</strong> 28 of women,<br />
subdivided by method of death: 13 persons hanged, 10 beheaded, 55 quartered, 35 burned alive after<br />
being tortured.”<br />
+++++++++++++++<br />
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