Description

Like the two previous tomes, volume 12 of the registers of the Consistory of Geneva, which covers 1557, provides ample evidence of the growing power of Calvin and the Consistory. This is the longest volume to date, which itself reflects the institution’s increasing efforts to impose discipline in Geneva. Having received the right to administer oaths to witnesses only the previous year, the Consistory in 1557 began prosecuting those who were guilty of perjury before it. Calvin and his colleagues continued to attack laziness and begging, and authorities showed a growing concern for the dissipation of assets. Actions against illicit sexuality remained among the most common heard by the Consistory. Although Calvin and his associates condemned domestic abuse, wife-beaters almost never were subject to anything beyond admonitions. The Consistory now enjoyed the exclusive right to determine who had the right to take communion, and those who were excluded from the Supper had to repent and ask for readmission within a year or run the risk of being banished.

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