Jeffrey R. Watt

Women and the Consistory in Calvin's Geneva

At its inception (1542-1544), the Consistory of Geneva was concerned above all with the religious practices of the common people. Calvin and his collegues were particularly wary of the piety of women, who appeared more attached than men to the rituals of Roman Catholicism. Moreover, the Consistory offered little protection to the wives of abusive husbands, nor did women benefit from the introduction of divorce. However, the Consistory did not display a double standard with regard to illicit sexuality, and it showed concern for unwed mothers. Nonetheless, the evidence from the Consistory does not support the view that the reformation in Geneva enhanced the status of women

Calvinism, childhood, and education: The evidence from the Genevan consistory

The Protestant Reformation had an important impact on practices pertaining to children, and the registers of the consistory provide valuable insight to changes in child-rearing in Calvins Geneva. Genevan leaders aggressively attacked practices they deemed papist, eliminating, for example, baptisms performed postmortem or by midwives and the naming of children after saints. The consistory also exhorted mothers and especially fathers to oversee carefully the religious education of their sons and daughters, mandated that all children attend weekly catechism lessons, and forbade matriculation at schools in Catholic territories. In dealing with sick children, Genevan authorities forbade parents to say prayers to saints and to employ cures considered superstitious. In so doing, Calvin and his colleagues contributed unintentionally to a certain desacralization of mentality. In spite of the initial strong resistance to some of these changes, the Genevan laity eventually conformed to the child-rearing practices espoused by Calvin.

Calvin on Suicide

In October 1555 Jean Jourdain, twenty-six, a humble farmer living near Geneva, was distraught at having contracted venereal disease, for which he could not afford medical treatment. On a Sunday morning, rather than going to church, Jourdain went into the woods where he stabbed himself. Immediately after inflicting the wound, Jourdain heard the ringing of the church bell. Feeling remorse, he asked forgiveness from God and walked to a nearby village, where he languished another eight days before expiring. In spite of his contrition, authorities ordered that Jourdains body be dragged on a hurdle and then impaled and left exposed outside the city as a deterrent to others. In February 1564 Julienne Berard was most upset about being convoked by Genevas Consistory to account for a dispute she had had with her nephew. According to witnesses, Berard, so frightened by the prospect of facing the questions of Calvin and other Consistory members, took her life by throwing herself in the Rhone River. As a result of this self-inflicted death, Berards body was also dragged through the streets of Geneva and buried at Champel which, as the site of executions, was a place of ignominy. Over a century later, the notary Jean Bardin hanged himself because he was devastated by the deaths from an explosion of three of his young children and by the subsequent burglary of his house. In spite of the entreaties of his widow on behalf of their surviving minor children, the Small Council passed an extremely harsh sentence in September 1670, enjoining that Bardins body be dragged on a hurdle before burial and that all his assets be confiscated.

The family, love, and suicide in early modern Geneva

Analysis of criminal proceedings and death records for early modem Geneva reveals an explosion in suicides after 1750. New attitudes toward courtship, marriage, and the family contributed to this dramatic increase, as unprecedented numbers of people took their lives because of family concerns, such as marital breakdown, unhappy love stories, and deaths of family members, Greater interest in the companionate marriage was central to these changes. After 1750, marriage, even more than parenthood, offered immunity to suicide, as married people were underrepresented among those who took their lives. Although men constituted the large majority of suicides, women and men shared the growing emphasis on conjugal sentiment, which cut across class lines.

Divorce in Early Modern Neuchâtel, 1547-1806

Analysis of all divorce litigation extant in Neuchâtel from the introduction of divorce in the mid-sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century suggests substantial changes, both quantitative and qualitative, over this long period. The proportion of couples going through divorce remained a small minority during the whole period, but the reasons for requesting divorce and the grounds on which divorce was granted changed, with the most noteworthy changes ap pearing in the second half of the eighteenth century. It may be said that by the end of the eighteenth century matrimoniul courts in Neuchâtel had begun to nurture componionate marriage.

Calvin’s Geneva Confronts Magic and Witchcraft: The Evidence from the Consistory

Abstract This essay examines the actions of the Consistory of Geneva, a morals court created and dominated by John Calvin, against reputed cases of magic and superstition. During the ministry of Calvin, the most common of these involved white magic to cure people of various illnesses. The Consistory was not unduly harsh in dealing with therapeutic magic, usually just rebuking the miscreants and temporarily excluding them from communion. It also showed a remarkable degree of skepticism when confronting accusations of maleficia, at times viewing the allegations as a form of defamation of the person accused of witchcraft. The Consistory, like the Catholic Inquisition, attacked superstition, but it extended superstition to include numerous practices that Catholics accepted. Calvinism’s elimination of many rituals and sacramentals greatly restricted access to the supernatural. Evidence from the Consistory suggests that Calvinism promoted the professionalization of medicine and, in the long run, the disenchantment of the world.

Marriage and the English Reformation.

Preface. Part I: The European and English Medieval Background: 1. From Celibacy to Fecundity: The European Reformation of Marriage. 2. Church, Crown, Lordship and Marriage in Medieval England. Part II: Marriage and the English Reformers: 3. Theology, Ritual and Clerical Marriage. 4. Canon Law. 5. Extraparliamentary Pressure. Part III: 6. Marriage Law and Marriage Pressure. 7. Church Courts and English Communities. Selected Bibliography. Index.