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Geneva’s Use of Lies, Deceit, and Simulation in Their Efforts to Reform France, 1536–1563

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2019

Jon Balserak
Jon Balserak*
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
*
email: J.Balserak@bristol.ac.uk
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Abstract

The Genevan Reformation was subjected to a trenchant ethical critique during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anabaptists, and Radicals who identified both Calvin and Beza as unscrupulous, dishonest, and immoral. By contrast, modern scholars have paid little attention to such matters. They have either stated explicitly that both men were upright and honest in their lives and ministries or implied it. A handful of scholars have, however, alluded to dishonest conduct on their parts. The present article takes up this topic in detail, looking particularly at Geneva’s ministry to France. It contends that duplicity characterized Calvin and Beza’s French ministry between 1536 and 1563. It commences by examining their understanding of mendacity, which provides the standard for our analysis of their ministry. After outlining what Calvin and Beza did to support and strengthen Calvinist churches in France, the article sets forth and explains the system Calvin devised to hide their ministry from the French Catholic government and probably from the Nicodemites as well. This system depended on lies, deceit, and simulation.

Keywords

GenevadeceptionministryCalvinismFrance
Type
Articles
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 112 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , pp. 76 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 2019 

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Footnotes

*

Colleagues at Edinburgh University and University of Bristol made helpful comments on previous drafts, particularly Jane Dawson, Stewart Brown, Sara Parvis, Paul Parvis, George Ferzoco, and Bob Akroyd, as did two anonymous reviewers. Errors remain mine alone.

References

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2 Beza’s Histoire Ecclesiastique des Églises Réformées au Royaume de France (ed. Guillaume Baum and Edouard Cunitz; 3 vols.; Paris: Fishbacher, 1883–89) (hereafter, Hist Eccl) relates Catherine de’Medici’s request for the census. See the recent re-assessment, Benedict, Philip and Fornerod, Nicolas, “Les 2,150 ‘églises’ réformées de France de 1561–1562,” Revue historique 311 (2009) 529–60Google Scholar. A smaller number, 1500, is mentioned in a 15 July 1561 letter from Beza to Grataroli (Beza, Correspondance, 3:282).

3 Reid, Jonathan, “French Evangelical Networks Before 1555: Proto-Churches?” in La réforme en France et en Italie: Contacts, Comparisons et Contrastes (ed. Benedict, Philip et al.; Rome: École française de Rome, 2007) 105–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar engagingly addresses, from a different vantage-point, this same question.

4 Marshall, Peter, “John Calvin and the English Catholics, c. 1565–1640,” The Historical Journal 53 (2010) 849–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Monter, William, “Witchcraft in Geneva, 1537–1662,” Journal of Modern History 43 (1971) 179–204CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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9 de la Tour, Pierre Imbart, Les Origines de la Réforme (4 vols.; Paris: Hachette et Cie, 1905–1935) 4:185–93Google Scholar; de Caprariis, Vittorio, “La politica calvinista e gli inizi della polemica ugonotta,” in Propaganda e pensiero politico in Francia durante le Guerre di Religione (Naples: Edizioni scientifiche italiane, 1959) 1–69Google Scholar, esp. 39; Kingdon, Robert, Geneva and the Coming of the Wars of Religion in France, 1555–1563 (Geneva: Droz, 1956) 110–12Google Scholar; Walzer, Michael, The Revolution of the Saints: A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965) 23Google Scholar, 39, 59; Benedict, Philip, “The Dynamics of Protestant Militancy: France, 1555–1563,” in Reformation, Revolt and Civil War in France and the Netherlands 1555–1585 (ed. Benedict, Philip et al.; Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen Verhandlingen, Afd. Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks, deel 176; Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1999) 35–50Google Scholar, esp. 39–40; Crouzet, Denis, “Calvinism and the Uses of the Political and the Religious (France, ca. 1560–ca. 1572),” in Reformation, Revolt and Civil War (ed. Benedict et al.) 99–114Google Scholar, esp. 99–100; Manetsch, Scott, Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France: 1572–1598 (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions 79; Leiden: Brill, 2000) 19–20Google Scholar; Mellet, Paul-Alexis, Les Traités monarchomaques. Confusion des temps, résistance armée et monarchie parfaite (1560–1600) (Geneva: Droz, 2007) 62–63Google Scholar; Gordon, Bruce, Calvin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) 167Google Scholar, 321–22. Related are: Bouwsma, William J., John Calvin; A Sixteenth-Century Portrait (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988) 116, 141Google Scholar; and Beam, Sara, “Rites of Torture in Reformation Geneva,” in Ritual and Violence: Natalie Zemon Davis and Early Modern France (ed. Murdock, Graeme, Roberts, Penny, and Spicer, Andrew; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) 197–219Google Scholar.

10 Olson, Jeannine, “The Mission to France: Nicolas Des Gallars’ Interaction with John Calvin, Gaspard de Coligny, and Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London,” in Calvinus clarissimus theologus: Papers of the Tenth International Congress on Calvin Research (ed. Selderhuis, Herman; Reformed Historical Theology; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012) 344–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar; eadem, “The Quest for Anonymity: Laurent de Normandie, His Colporteurs, and the Expansion of Reformed Communities through Worship,” in Semper Reformanda: John Calvin, Worship, and Reformed Traditions (ed. Barbara Pitkin; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2018) 33–56. On some of these figures, see Doumergue, Émile, Jean Calvin: les Hommes et les Choses de son Temps (7 vols.; Lausanne: Bridel, 1844–1937) 3:594–647Google Scholar.

11 See Crouzet, Denis, La genèse de la Réforme française 1520–1562 (Paris: SEDES, 1996)Google Scholar; Society and Culture in the Huguenot World, 1559–1685 (ed. Raymond Mentzer and Andrew Spicer; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

12 Eire, Carlos, War Against the Idols; The Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to Calvin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) 271Google Scholar; Kelley, Donald, The Beginning of Ideology: Consciousness and Society in the French Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) 89–128Google Scholar.

13 Reid, Jonathan, King’s Sister—Queen of Dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492–1549) and her Evangelical Network (2 vols.; Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions 139; Leiden: Brill, 2009) 1:13CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Ginzburg, Carlo, Il Nicodemismo, Simulazione e dissimulazione religiosa nell’Europa del ’500 (Turin: Guilio Einaudi, 1970)Google Scholar; Droz, Eugénie, Chemins de l’hérésie: Textes et documents (4 vols.; Geneva: Slatkine, 1970–1976) 1:131–71Google Scholar; Eire, Carlos, “Calvin and Nicodemism: A Reappraisal,” Sixteenth Century Journal 10 (1979) 44–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Higman, Francis, “The Question of Nicodemism,” in Calvinus Ecclesiae Genevensis Custos; Die Referate des Congrès International des Recherches Calviniennes… September 1982 in Genf (ed. Niesel, Wilhelm; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1984) 165–70Google Scholar; Millet, Olivier, Calvin et la dynamique de la parole: Etude de rhétorique réformée (Geneva: Editions Slatkine, 1992) 480–504Google Scholar; Zagorin, Perez, Ways of Lying: Dissimulation, Persecution, and Conformity in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990) 63–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Snyder, Jon R., Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2012)Google Scholar; Dissimulation and Deceit in Early Modern Europe (ed. Miriam Eliav-Feldon and Tamar Herzig; New York: Palgrave, 2015); Woo, Kenneth, “The House of God in Exile: Reassessing John Calvin’s Approach to Nicodemism in Quatre Sermons (1552),” Church History and Religious Culture 95 (2015) 222–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Ioannis Calvini opera quae supersunt omnia (ed. Guillaume Baum, Edouard Cunitz, and Edouard Reuss; 59 vols.; Brunsvigae: Apud C. A. Schwetschke et filium, 1863–1900) (hereafter CO) 42:290.

16 See footnote 78.

17 “In Consilium theologicum, Bucer would assure a Nicodemite vir quidam that, through diligent study of the fathers, the rites and ceremonies of the papal church could be adapted to a more wholesome interpretation” (Thompson, Nick, Eucharistic Sacrifice and Patristic Tradition in the Theology of Martin Bucer, 1534–1546 [Studies in the History of Christian Traditions 119; Leiden: Brill: 2005] 141)Google Scholar. Thompson indicates that Pierre Fraenkel (Martini Buceri Opera Omnia, series II: Opera Latina [ed. F. Wendel et al.; 4 vols.; Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 42; Leiden: Brill, 1955] 4:xv–xxix) dates the work to the winter of 1540–1541 and believes that the last part is intended to answer the anti-Nicodemite arguments of Calvin’s Epistolae duae.

18 Supplementa Calviniana; Sermons inédits (ed. Erwin Mulhaupt et al.; 11 vols.; Neukirchen: Neukirchener, 1936–) (hereafter SC) 8:225.

19 Regarding the extent of Calvin’s dependence on Augustine on this topic, I am indebted to Blacketer, “No Escape,” 274–82.

20 De Mendacio 3 (CSEL 41:415).

21 See Lipmann, O. and Plaut, P., ed., Die Lüge in psychologischer, philosophischer, juristischer, pädagogischer, historischer, soziologischer, sprach- und literaturwissenschaftlicher und entwicklungsgeschichlicher Betrachtung (Leipzig: Barth, 1927)Google Scholar; Boniface Ramsey, O.P., “Two Traditions on Lying and Deception in the Ancient Church,” The Thomist 48 (1985) 515–31Google Scholar; Somerville, Johann, “The ‘new art of lying’: equivocation, mental reservation, and casuistry,” in Conscience and Casuistry in Early Modern Europe (ed. Leites, Edmund; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988) 159–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 7.8.50–7.9.53; John Chrysostom, De Sacerdotio 1.8–9.

22 Chrysostom also mentioned the need to assess human intention in assessing a range of moral actions, lest one condemn Abraham (Gen 22:3), Phinehas’s slaying of idolaters (Num 25:7–8), and Elijah’s killing of 100 soldiers (2 Kgs 1:9–12), PG 48:628–32.

23 Jerome argued Paul and Peter feigned their argument; Jerome’s Galatians commentary (PL 26:363–67) and Augustine’s De Mendacio 8 (CSEL 41:422–24) and their dispute over the issue, CSEL 54:496–503, 666–74; 55:367–93.

24 Others, from John Cassian to Martin Luther, supported the officious lie (e.g., Dr. M. Luthers Samtliche Werke [67 vols.; Erlangen: Heyder, 1826–1886] 35:18); see, Hartmann Grisar, S.J., Luther (trans. E.M. Lamond; 6 vols.; St. Louis: Herder, 1917) 6:513–15. By contrast see, Calvin, Mosis Libri V, … harmoniae digesti (CO 24:18–19).

25 Ramsey, “Two Traditions,” 511.

26 See Augustine’s QQ. in Hept. qu. x super Jos. as cited by Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II Q40 a3 s.c.

27 Beza, Iesu Christi Domini nostri Novum Testamentum, sive Novum Foedus, … Th. Bezae Annotationes (2 vols.; Geneva: Vignon, 1598) 2:397 as cited in Summers, Morality After Calvin, 126–27. For Calvin, Inst 2.8.47 (CO 2:300). He also explains: “Whatever is opposed to the nature of God is sinful” (Joannis Calvini in librum Josue … et obitu [CO 25:440–3]).

28 Cato Censorius Christianus (Geneva: Ioannem Tornaesium, 1591). Beza’s “In Mendaces” can be found in Summers, Morality After Calvin, 128–29.

29 CO 25:440–43. Their line of argument resembles Augustine’s in Contra Mendacium.

30 Calvin, Petit traicté (CO 6:546). See Trapman, Johannes, “Erasmus on Lying and Simulation,” in On the Edge of Truth and Honesty: Principles and Strategies of Fraud and Deceit in the Early Modern Period (ed. van Houdt, Toon et al.; Intersections 2; Leiden: Brill, 2002) 33–46Google Scholar.

31 Calvin insisted “Christum sine mendacio peraeque simulasse” (CO 45:803–8).

32 CO 30:147–58. Ably discussed in Zagorin, Ways of Lying, 100–130; Blacketer, “No Escape,” 280–82.

33 CO 6:546.

34 See Calvin’s accusing of Roussel in CO 5:279–312.

35 CO 6:548.

36 CO 6:603. On his harshness, Wright, David F., “Why was Calvin so severe a critic of Nicodemism?,” in Calvinus Evangelii Propugnator: Calvin Champion of the Gospel; Papers Presented at the International Congress on Calvin Research, Seoul, 1998 (ed. Wright, David F., Lane, A. N. S., and Balserak, Jon; Grand Rapids, MI: CRC, 2006) 66–90Google Scholar.

37 CO 10b:30–36. Rott, Jean, Kroon, Marijn de, Lienhard, Marc, Investigationes historicae. Eglises et société au XVIe siècle (2 vols.; Publications de la Société savante d’Alsace et des régions de l’Est. Collection Grandes publications 31–32; Strasbourg: Grandes Publications, 1986) 2:266–87Google Scholar.

38 Calvin defends himself in Excuse, CO 6:607.

39 Inter alia, CO 10:428–29; 12:47, 342; 16:629–33; 17:570–74, 671–87. He also praised their death, calling them martyrs, e.g., CO 13:348–49.

40 Beza discusses his flight in a 1560 letter to Wolmar, Beza, Correspondance 3:47. He also explains that persecution was intensifying around this time, Hist Eccl 1:133–36. He went first to Lausanne and a decade later to Geneva. While in Lausanne, Beza worked to strengthen French evangelical churches and drafted a defence of Calvin against Sebastian Castellio, see De haereticis a civili magistratu puniendis libellus (Geneva: Robert Stephanus, 1554); for more, Maag, Karin, “Recteur, pasteur, et professeur: Theodore de Beze et l’education à Genève,” in Théodore de Bèze (1519–1605): Actes du colloque de Genève (ed. Backus, Irena; Geneva: Droz, 2007) 29–39Google Scholar.

41 Beza took over translating the Psalms into French, following Marot’s 1544 death, publishing the Octante-trois psaumes in 1553. Les psaumes en vers franc˛ois, retouchez sur l’ancienne version de Cl. Marot & Th. de Beze (Paris: Antoine Cellier, 1579). See, Gœury, Julien, “Les Pasteurs Poètes De Langue Française Des Origines De La Réforme à La Révocation De L’édit De Nantes,” Bulletin De La Société de L’Histoire du Protestantisme Français 156 (2010) 129–46Google Scholar.

42 Naphy, William, Calvin and the Consolidation of the Genevan Reformation (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003) 144–66Google Scholar. Studies by Robert Kingdon, Ray Mentzer, and Philip Benedict also demonstrate Calvin’s clear authority over these men.

43 His continued campaign enraged evangelicals including Marguerite herself. Calvin writes her (28 April 1545) regarding his attacks on the Libertines and Nicodemites, which had been interpreted by some, and apparently her, as attacks by Calvin on her, CO 12:65–68.

44 Gordon, Calvin, 360 n.18 notes the work of Andrew Pettegree and the French Book Project (St. Andrews University) to support this assertion.

45 Manetsch, Theodore Beza, 15; see Beza to Farel, 16 March 1556 (Beza, Correspondance, 2:35); Beza to Bullinger, 27 March 1557 (Beza, Correspondance, 2:57).

46 Le Livre des Habitants de Genève, Tome I, 1555–1572 (ed. Paul-F. Giesendorf; 2 vols.; Travaux d’humanisme et renaissance; Geneva: Droz, 1957–1963) 1:54–218; Wilcox, Peter, “The Lectures of John Calvin and the Nature of his Audience,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 87 (1996) 136–48Google Scholar.

47 See, Kingdon, “PART II: Political Activity,” in Geneva, 54–126.

48 Calvin to Antoine of Navarre, December 1557 (CO 16:730–34) and June 1558 (CO 17:196–98); see, DeCrue, Francis, L’action politique de Calvin hors de Genève: d’après sa correspondence (Geneva: Librairie Georg, 1909) 42–59Google Scholar. Gaspard de Coligny is addressed by Beza in his dedicatory letter to Ioannis Calvini in Viginti prima Ezechielis Propheta capita praelectiones (Geneva: Francisci Perrini, 1565) iir–viiiv; see also CO 17:318–19; and, Shimizu, Junko, Conflict of Loyalties: Politics and Religion in the Career of Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France, 1519–1572 (Geneva: Droz, 1970) 28–30Google Scholar.

49 This council would be made up of the Estates General and the Princes of the Blood, and could take the decision to resist Francis II’s government, if it felt such action were necessary. However, see Histoire et dictionnaire des guerres de religion, 1559–1598 (ed. Arlette Jouanna; Paris: Laffont, 1998) 52–53, 1067.

50 Calvin complains about Antoine, CO 17:594–95; 18:229–31, 231–32, 254–56, 267–69, 97–100, esp. 98. Beza and Calvin continued their efforts with Antoine, CO 18:608–10, 621. King Francis II’s death on 5 December 1560 brought relief to the Reformed. Beza described his reign with Jesus’s words: “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened” (Matt 24:22 NIV) (Hist Eccl 1:133–34); see also CO 18:270. The new monarch, Charles IX, was only nine when he took the throne and was under the regency of Catherine, Hist Eccl 1:459–566.

51 On which, Beza’s Hist Eccl 1:164–74; Histoire et Dictionnaire (ed. Jouanna) 52–69; Kingdon, Geneva, 68–78; and further discussion below.

52 Dufour, Alain, “L’affaire de Maligny (Lyon, 4–5 septembre 1560) vue à travers la correspondance de Calvin et de Bèze,” in Cahiers d’Histoire 8 (1963) 269–80Google Scholar. Philip Benedict, “Prophets in Arms? Ministers in War, Ministers on War: France 1562–1574,” in Ritual and Violence (ed. Murdock, Roberts, and Spicer) 163–96, esp. 171 n. 21. See CO 18:176–80. This plot “had Calvin’s approval (since the first prince of the blood was directing it). Calvin took charge even of collecting funds borrowed left and right, up to 50,000 pounds” (Alain Dufour, Théodore de Bèze, poète et théologien [Geneva: Droz, 2006] 74); also, idem, “L’affaire de Maligny,” 269–80; Beza, Correspondance 3:63–70.

53 Beza, Correspondance, 3:132–33. On 1 November 1560, Calvin wrote to Bullinger that “war in France is inevitable” (CO 18:230). See, inter alia, Romier, Lucien, Les origines politiques des guerres de religion (2 vols.; Paris: Perrin et Cie, Libraires-Editeurs, 1913–1914)Google Scholar; Balserak, Jon, John Calvin as Sixteenth-century Prophet (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. There were still highpoints for the Reformed. For instance, on 16 January 1561, Calvin wrote to Admiral Coligny (CO 18:316–17) who, in the wake of Francis II’s death, was ready to work for the Reformed cause and eodem die wrote Antoine (CO 18:311–12). Yet, by the time of the Poissy Colloquy in September, Calvin would warn Coligny, who was present at it, of Antoine’s unreliability (CO 18:732–34) and, by December, Calvin and Beza would write a denunciatory missive to the king of Navarre (CO 19:198–202).

54 For subsequent developments, see Monter, William, Judging the French Reformation: Heresy Trials by Sixteenth-Century Parlements (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999)Google Scholar.

55 CO 1:9–30.

56 CO 1:25.

57 “POTENTISSIMO, ILLUSTRISSIMOQUE MONARCHAE, FRANCISCO, FRANCORUM REGI CHRISTIANISSIMO” (CO 1:10–11).

58 Zwingli, Ulrich, De vera et falsa religione, Huldrychi Zvinglij commentarius (Zurich: Froschower, 1525) n.p.Google Scholar CO 10b:57–62. The Genevan Senate’s greeting to the Zurich senate is less effusive, CO 10b:221–23.

59 CO 1:243.

60 Ibid., 1:244–46.

61 Ibid., 1:246–48. For a good summary, Witte, John Jr., The Reformation of Rights; Law, Religion, and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007) 49–54Google Scholar. Most acknowledge Calvin’s later position on resistance changed somewhat but retained the restriction against active resistance; however, for a different view, see also Nijenhuis, Willem, “The Limits of Civil Disobedience in Calvin’s Last-Known Sermons: Development of his Ideas on the Right of Civil Resistance,” in Ecclesia Reformata: Studies on the Reformation (2 vols.; Bijdragen, Kerkhistorische 16; Leiden: Brill, 1994) 2:73–94Google Scholar.

62 CO 5:233–312. See, Augustijn, Cornelius, Burger, Christoph, and van Stam, Frans Pieter, “Calvin in the Light of the Early Letters,” in Calvinus Praeceptor Ecclesiae. Papers of the International Congress on Calvin Research, Princeton, August 20–24, 2002 (ed. Selderhuis, Herman; Geneva: Droz, 2004) 139–57Google Scholar.

63 CO 10b:62–64; Calvin to François Daniel, 3 October 1536, in Correspondance des Réformateurs dans les pays de langue française (ed. A. L. Herminjard; 9 vols.; Geneva: H. Georg, 1864–1897) 4:86–91.

64 That Calvin began writing Duae Epistolae in Ferrara is persuasively argued by Paul Wernle, Calvin und Basel bis zum Tode des Myconius, 1535–1552 (Tübingen: Mohr, 1909) 8; see Alexandre Ganoczy, Le Jeune Calvin; genèse et évolution de sa vocation réformatrice (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1966) 311–14.

65 van Stam, Frans Pieter, “The Group of Meaux as First Target of Farel and Calvin’s Anti-Nicodemism,” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 68 (2006) 253–75Google Scholar.

66 Reid discusses the factors that contributed to the forming and strengthening of evangelicalism and perceptively notes the detrimental role of Calvin’s leadership for the growth of Reformed churches in France, Reid, “French Evangelical Networks Before 1555,” 105–24.

67 See Kingdon, Geneva, 57; Heller, Henry, The Conquest of Poverty: The Calvinist Revolt in Sixteenth Century France (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 35; Leiden: Brill, 1986) 27–69Google Scholar; Speelman, Herman, Calvin and the Independence of the Church (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014) 143–208CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Tensions within France predate Calvinism; see Denis Crouzet, Les guerriers de Dieu. La violence au temps des troubles de religion, vers 1525–vers 1610 (2 vols.; Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 1990) 1:103–236; 2:330–60, 428–64, 464–539. On clandestine Huguenot worship, Davis, Natalie, “Printing and the People,” in Society and Culture in Early Modern France (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975) 201–203Google Scholar as cited in Olson, “The Quest for Anonymity,” 35–36.

68 Romier, Lucien, La Conjuration d’Amboise (Paris: Perrin, 1923) 167Google Scholar as cited in Benedict, Philip, “Qui étaient les députés? An Unknown Group of Protestant Leaders on the Eve of the First War of Religion,” in Social Relations, Politics, and Power in Early Modern France: Robert Descimon and the Historian’s Craft (ed. Diefendorf, Barbara; Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2016) 158–83Google Scholar, esp. 161.

69 CO 18:64–66. Also letters to churches in Poitou (CO 15:222–24 [3 September 1554]), Angers (CO 15:756–58 [9 September 1555]), Loudun (CO 15:758–60 [9 September 1555]). Calvin complains to Bullinger (CO 18:175–77 [6 September 1560]) that French churches were not following Geneva’s instructions in this regard. See also, Beza, Hist Eccl 1:66–7.

70 CO 17:311–12.

71 CO 6:544.

72 CO 18:66.

73 CO 15:754–56.

74 Kingdon, Geneva, 111–12. For example, to the church of Paris (CO 18:376–78 [26 February 1561]); the consistory of Sauve (CO 18: 580–81 [July 1561]); Beza (CO 19:120–22 [19 November 1561]). Eire, War against the Idols; Christin, Olivier, Une revolution symbolique. L’iconoclasme Huguenot et la reconstruction catholique (Paris: Minuit, 1991)Google Scholar.

75 Between 1558 and 1563, Beza wrote a myriad of individuals including French noblemen and women. He also wrote from France back to Calvin. But he did not write to Églises réformées.

76 On the European publishing industry, Gilmont, Jean-François, John Calvin and the Printed Book (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2005) 275–76Google Scholar; Pettegree, Andrew, “Books, Pamphlets, and Polemic,” in The Reformation World (ed. Pettegree, Andrew; London: Routledge, 2000) 120–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

77 Grandjean, Henri, “La bourse française de Genève (1550–1849),” in Etrennes Genevoises (Geneva: Atar, 1927) 46–60Google Scholar; Olson, Jeannine, Calvin and Social Welfare: Deacons and the Bourse française (Cranbury, NJ: Susquehanna University Press, 1989) 70–91Google Scholar, 168–82; eadem, “The Mission to France,” 344–57; eadem, “The Quest for Anonymity,” 33–56. It is mentioned in letters, CO 13:149–52 and CO 14:723–24.

78 For example, Duae Epistolae (CO 5:239–312), Petit traicté (CO 6:537–88), Traicté des reliques, (CO 6:405–52), Articuli a facultate sacrae theologiae Parisiensi … Cum antidoto (CO 7:1–44), Excuse à Messieurs les Nicodémites (CO 6:589–614), and Contre la secte phantastique et furieuse des Libertins (CO 7:145–248). On the circulation of literature, Lire et découvrir: la circulation des idées au temps de la Réforme (ed. Francis Higman; Geneva: Droz, 1998) 131–54. See, for example, Calvin writing about a French translation of his De Scandalis being produced (CO 13:654–57).

79 CO 18:202–204, esp. 204.

80 CO 18:231–32. See also CO 17:576–78.

81 Beza, Correspondance 4:91, 243; 6:313; 7:281; 8:32, 34, 218; 10:72; see Manetsch, Theodore Beza, 20.

82 For example, CO 14:27–28; 17:652–53.

83 CO 18:311–12.

84 CO 10b:27, Calvin to François Daniel, 31 October 1533 (Herminjard, Correspondance 3:106–11, esp. 107), see the explanatory note in John Sturm’s mid-October 1533 letter to Martin Bucer, Herminjard, Correspondance 3:93–95, esp. 94 n. 7. CO 12:295, Calvin to François Daniel, 27 June 1531 (Herminjard, Correspondance 2:346–48, esp. 347 n. 5). Plyades may be a family name.

85 Calvin’s opposition appeared quite late, see May 1560 letter to Bullinger, CO 18:83–85; see also, CO 18:425–31. Naef, Henri, La Conjuration d’Amboise et Genève (Geneva: Jullien, 1922) 462–63Google Scholar; Kingdon, Geneva, 68–78; idem, “Calvin and Calvinists on Resistance to Government,” in Calvinus Evangelii Propugnator, 54–65. See also, a letter dated 16 April 1561 from Calvin to Admiral de Coligny, in which Calvin, speaking of the Amboise Conspiracy, says that “if the Princes of the Blood wished to be maintained in their rights for the common good and if the Parliament joined them in their fight, then it would be lawful for all good subjects to support their efforts (prêter main forte, given the context likely means something like “give them armed support”)” (CO 18:426). DeCrue interprets Calvin too cautiously; see DeCrue, L’action politique de Calvin, 47–52. Sensu lato, Beza, Hist Eccl 1:164–74; Histoire et Dictionnaire (ed. Jouanna) 52–69.

86 CO 17:654–56.

87 CO 18:177–80, a letter to Beza of 10 September 1560; see also CO 18:176–78 and Beza, Correspondance 3:63–70.

88 CO 19:325–26 and CO 19:326–29, respectively.

89 CO 19:297–302; letter of 26 February 1562 from Beza to Calvin.

90 Daybell, James, The Material Letter in Early Modern England; Manuscript Letters and the Culture and Practice of Letter-Writing, 1512–1635 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)Google Scholar and Visual Cultures of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe (ed. Timothy McCall et al.; Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2013).

91 CO 7:289–340.

92 CO 12:100–101, 107–8.

93 See Beza, Correspondance, 14:88, 95. I am grateful to Scott Manetsch for this information. For more see, Manetsch, Theodore Beza, 57–58.

94 Doumergue, “Pseudonymie de Calvin,” Jean Calvin, Appendice VIII, 1:558–73. See also Sigismund Liebe, Christian, Diatribe de pseudonymia Jo. Calvini (Amsterdam: Apud Wetstenios, 1723)Google Scholar; Blacketer, “No Escape,” 284–85; Tunstall, Kate, “‘You’re Either Anonymous or You’re Not!’: Variations on Anonymity in Modern and Early Modern Culture,” Modern Language Notes 126 (2011) 671–88Google Scholar and the literature cited therein.

95 Beza, Correspondance, 4:132–33.

96 CO 10b:45–46 (Herminjard, Correspondance, 3:242–45).

97 For example, CO 15:144–47, 193–95. See Blaisdell, Charmarie Jenkins, “Calvin’s Letters to Women: The Courting of Ladies in High Places,” Sixteenth Century Journal 13 (1982) 67–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

98 Photographs used by the kind permission of Max Engammare.

99 Beza, Correspondance, 6:142; 9:57. On the incident, Benedict, “The Dynamics of Protestant Militancy,” 39–40.

100 Kingdon, Geneva, 5, 33, 38–40, appendices 1–3; Boisson, Didier and Daussy, Hugues, Les protestants dans la France moderne (Paris: Belin, 2006) 61Google Scholar; Balserak, Jon, Establishing the Remnant Church in France; Calvin’s Lectures on the Minor Prophets, 1556–1559 (Brill’s Series in Church History 50; Leiden: Brill, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See the excellent summary in Mentzer, Ray, “Calvin and France,” in Calvin Handbook (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 2009) 78–87Google Scholar. This was discussed in letters, e.g., CO 18:467; 19:224–26. On the question of whether Geneva kept a list of French churches needing pastors, see Wilcox, Peter, “L’envoi des pasteurs aux Eglises de France: trois listes établies par Colladon (1561–1562),” Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire du protestantisme français 139 (1993) 347–74Google Scholar; also, Maag, Karin, “Recruiting and Training Pastors: The Genevan Model and Alternative Approaches,” in Revisiting Geneva: Robert Kingdon and the Coming of the French Wars of Religion (ed. Barker, S. K.; St. Andrews Studies in French History and Culture; St. Andrews: University of St. Andrews, 2012) 10–22Google Scholar. On dangers these ministers encountered, CO 42:296; 44:226.

101 CO 41:3.

102 CO 44:16.

103 CO 38:385.

104 CO 38:7.

105 CO 41:7.

106 CO 44:151.

107 CO 40:540.

108 McNeill, John T., “Editor’s Introduction,” in Calvin; On God and Political Duty (New York: Macmillan, 1950) xxGoogle Scholar. Also see Engammare, Max (“Calvin monarchomaque? Du soupçon à l’argument,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 89 [1998] 207–26Google Scholar) and Balserak (John Calvin as Sixteenth-century Prophet, 152–65) on Geneva’s harshness towards French kings.

109 For the king’s letter, CO 18:337–39.

110 CO 18:343.

111 CO 18:343–45, esp. 343; also note Kingdon, Geneva, 35.

112 CO 18:344. The man was Nicolas Des Gallars.

113 Ibid.

114 Ibid.

115 Ibid.

116 Nicodemites expressed hurt and frustration at Geneva’s harshness but generally exhibited a desire for cooperation; Reid, King’s Sister—Queen of Dissent, 1:30; 2:563.

117 See inter alia Balserak, John Calvin as Sixteenth-century Prophet, 152–65.

118 Cited from Zagorin, Ways of Lying, vi.