I understand that John Calvin largely legitimized himself as a defender of “true” Christianity by encouraging the prosecution (and execution) of anti-trinitarian Michael Servetus. Did Calvin take similar steps against other heretics and dissidents at other points in career?
Obviously not a real hot button of discussion.
But, by your leave, I’m giving it just this one bump to afford the question one last chance. I thank you.
Well, I am interested if you do happen to dig up anything. I think it is an interesting story - and one that I have found can really set off rabid calvinists.
I just can not compute what people will do to each other in the name of completely silly metaphysical mumbo-jumbo.
Yes. Jerome Bolsec was banished from Geneva for denying predestination, and Sebastian Castellio for calling Calvin tyrannical, translating the bible into French without Calvin’s permission, and generally arguing that clergy shouldn’t be given any special privileges or persecute people who disagree with them. Jacques Gruet was executed, partly for atheism, but also because he threatened to kill Calvin, so you can judge for yourself whether that counts. There were also some people killed for witchcraft, being accused of trying to spread plague. Geneva at that time wasn’t extremely tolerant of dissidence, but at the same time, really outspoken dissidents were more likely to be banished than actually killed, and generally, only those accused of doing physical harm (Gruet threatening to murder Calvin and the witches) were actually executed.
I’ve seen some records that said that 38 people were executed during Calvin’s time in Geneva: 23 for witchcraft, one, a young woman for striking her mother, Gruet, Servetus, and then the rest for adultery.
Thank you, Cap’n!
Are these easily referenced in standard works on Calvin’s Geneva, or is there a particular cite you would recommend?
Yes, Calvin made sure only he and his followers could see his tiger as real. The rest of the world saw it as a toy 
Check out the 19th century “History of the Christian Church”, by Phillip Schaff. He talks about some of the major executions and banishments of Calvin’s enemies, and how the Libertine movement was destroyed.
Most biographies of Calvin aren’t very good, unfortunately, I don’t think, and while pretty much all of them go into detail about Servetus, not as many of them talk about Gruet or other people, I’ve noticed. I think the definitive biography of John Calvin, and the definitive study of Calvinist Geneva, are still yet to be written. It doesn’t help that Calvin is still a polarizing figure.
Darn, I had read an excellent review on a book about Calvin’s Geneva a few years ago, but I cant recall the author and it was a French book (it sparked my interest on the subject. I will try to do a search and see if there are copies of it in English, it seemed like a very good book).
I know this is GQ abd not IMHO, but I doubt another Calvin thread will ever pop up, so I’ll just say bluntly that Calvin was one of the greatest pieces of shit humanity ever produced. I find it amazing that he was “friend” with Sebastian Castellio who, on the other hand, is the closest example of what real-life Christianism should be.
There’s a quote by Castellio that I absolutely love (I dont know what the sentence was in its original language, but it sounds great in English):
“To kill a man is not to protect a doctrine, but it is to kill a man.”