2. Notable in this growing literature are Kingdon, Robert, “The Control of Morals in Calvin's Geneva,” in The Social History of the Reformation, ed. Buck, Lawrence P. and Jonathan, Zophy (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1972), 3–16Google Scholar; Estèbe, J. and Vogler, B., “Le genèse d'une société protestante: Etude comparée de quelques registres consistoriaux languedociens et palatins vers 1600,” Annales: E.S.C. 31 (1976): 362–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Monter, William, “The Consistory of Geneva, 1559–1569,” Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 38 (1976): 467–84Google Scholar; Mentzer, Raymond, “Disciplina nervus ecclesiae: The Calvinist Reform of Morals at Nîmes,” Sixteenth Century Journal 18 (1987): 89–115CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schilling, Heinz, “‘History of Crime’ or ‘History of Sin’? Some Reflections on the Social History of Early Modern Church Discipline,” in Politics and Society in Reformation Europe, ed. Kouri, E. I. and Tom, Scott (London: Macmillan, 1987), 289–310CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schilling, Heinz, Civic Calvinism in Northwestern Germany and the Netherlands (Kirksville, Mo.: Sixteenth Century Journal, 1991)Google Scholar; Garrisson, Janine, Protestants du Midi, 1559–1598 (Toulouse: Bibliothèque historique Privat, 1991)Google Scholar; Watt, Jeffrey, “Women and the Consistory in Calvin's Geneva,” Sixteenth Century Journal 24 (1993): 429–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Raymond, Mentzer, ed., Sin and the Calvinists, Morals Control and the Consistory in the Reformed Tradition (Kirksville, Mo.: Sixteenth Century Journal, 1994)Google Scholar; Kingdon, Robert, Adultery and Divorce in Calvin's Geneva (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995)Google Scholar; Graham, Michael, The Uses of Reform: “Godly Discipline” and Popular Belief in Scotland and Beyond, 1560–1610 (Leiden: Brill, 1996)Google Scholar; Kingdon, Robert, “The Geneva Consistory in the Time of Calvin,” in Calvinism in Europe, 1540–1620, ed. Andrew, Pettegree, Alastair, Duke, and Gillian, Lewis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 21–34Google Scholar; Lambert, Thomas, “Preaching, Praying and Policing the Reform in Sixteenth-Century Geneva” (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1998)Google Scholar; Murdock, Graeme, Calvinism on the Frontier, 1600–1660: International Calvinism and the Reformed Church in Hungary and Transylvania (Oxford: Clarendon, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pollmann, Judith, “Off the Record: Problems in the Quantification of Calvinist Church Discipline,” Sixteenth Century Journal 33 (2002): 423–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Benedict, Philip, Christ's Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002).Google Scholar

3. See Kingdon, “The Control of Morals in Calvin's Geneva”; Monter, “The Consistory of Geneva, 1559–1569” (discussed below); Cameron, Euan, The European Reformation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).Google Scholar

4. See, most recently, Gorski, Philip S., The Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism and the Rise of the State in Early Modern Europe (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Kingdon, , “The Geneva Consistory in the Time of Calvin,” 34.Google Scholar

6. Monter, , “The Consistory of Geneva, 1559–1569,” 476–77.Google Scholar

7. Ibid., 483–84.

8. Grosse, Christian, “Les Rituels de la Cène: Une Anthropologie Historique du Culte Eucharistique Réformé à Genève (XVIe–XVIIe siècles)” (Ph.D. diss., University of Geneva, 2001).Google Scholar

9. See Grosse, , “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 491–92, 523–24. However, Grosse sees a profound shift occurring in the function of moral discipline in Geneva after the mid-1570s as the magistrates reexerted control over the consistory: “Le Consistoire deviendrait ainsi davantage l'instrument d'un contrôle social s'exerçant de haut en bas et moins, comme l'expression institutionnelle d'une surveillance religieuse et morale exercée par la communauté sur elle-même, selon la manière dont if était conçu à l'origine.” Grosse, “‘II y avoit eu trop grande rigueur par cy-devant’: la discipline ecclésiastique à Genève à l'époque de Théodore de Bèze” (paper delivered at the International Congress on Théodore de Bèze, Réformateur et Homme de Lettres, Geneva, September 2005), used with permission.Google Scholar

10. Eight volumes of consistory registers dating from this period are housed in the Genevan state archive: vol. 27 (12 January 1570–4 January 1571), vol. 28 (18 January 1571–26 March 1573), vol. 29 (13 January 1575–29 December 1575), vol. 30 (12 January 1576–3 January 1577), vol. 31 (17 January 1577–18 February 1580), vol. 32 (25 February 1580–7 December 1581), vol. 33 (18 January 1582–27 December 1582; several months from 1589), and vol. 34 (13 January 1592–5 August 1596).

11. Choosing 1582 as the terminus ad quern is justified by the fact that the consistory registers for the years 1583–88 are no longer extant. I have not yet had the opportunity to read consistory register vol. 34 (January 1592–August 1596). Note that consistory minutes are missing from April 1573 to December 1574.

12. Kingdon, “The Geneva Consistory in the Time of Calvin”; Grosse, , “Les Rituels de la Cène,” especially 595–610, 646–744Google Scholar; Schilling, “‘History of Crime’ or ‘History of Sin’?”; and Benedict, , Christ's Churches Purely Reformed, especially 460–89.Google Scholar

13. Ordonnances Ecclésiastiques (1541), in Registres de la Cotnpagnie des Pasteurs de Genève, ed. Robert, Kingdon and Bergier, J. F. (Geneva: Droz, 1964), 1:11 (hereafter cited as RCP).Google Scholar

14. The Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1541) stated that “les fauldra tellement eslire qu'il y en ayt en chacun cartier de la ville, affin d'avoir l'oeil par tout, ce que voulons estre faict.” In RCP, 1:7. The 1576 revision of the Ecclesiastical Ordinances contains a similar provision. This revision is found in Heyer, Henri, L'Église de Genève, Esquisse Historique de son Organisation (Geneva: Librairie Jullien, 1909), 292.Google Scholar

15. John Calvin urged the Small Council in 1557 that it was “necessaire qu'ilz fussent espars par la ville pour tant mieux veiller sus les vices.” Registre du Conseil 53, 241v, cited in Grosse, “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 282.

16. Monter estimates that around one adult in fifteen was summoned before the consistory annually in the late 1560s. See Monter, , “The Consistory of Geneva,” 484. For attendance at consistory during the 1570s and early 1580s, see Graph 2.Google Scholar

17. Originally, the head elder—one of the syndics—was responsible by law to preside over the Geneva consistory and conduct the interrogation. This practice was modified in an edict of 1560, which stipulated that the two lay elders drawn from the Small Council need not include a ruling syndic. This statute was appended to the revision of the Ecclesiastical Ordinances that appeared the following year. See Grosse, , “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 456–58.Google Scholar

18. Registres du Consistoire, Archives d'Etat of Geneva, vol. 32 (1590), 154 (hereafter cited as R. Consist).

19. R. Consist., 32 (1580), 154v.

20. For example, when Pernette Aberjoux was accused of abandoning a child that she had borne out of wedlock, she confesssed “ses faults lesquelles elle gemise et pleure exterierements.” See R. Consist., 31, (1578), 170v.

21. See for example R. Consist., 25 (1568), 67; ibid., 27 (1570), 94v; ibid., 33 (1582), 45.

22. This scale of penalties was similar to that evidenced in other reformed churches. See Benedict, , Christ's Churches Purely Reformed, 465.Google Scholar

23. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 163.

24. R. Consist., 31 (1578), 135r–v.

25. R. Consist., 31 (1578), 249v–250.

26. R. Consist., 32 (1580), 154v.

27. The Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1561, 1576) stipulated that those suspended from the Lord's Table who refused to reconcile themselves to the church within six months were to be banished. See Les Ordonnances Ecclesiastiques de 1561, found in Calvini Opera X, col. 118, and Les ordonnances ecclésiastiques de l'Eglise de Genève (1576), in Heyer, , L'Eglise de Genève, 296.Google Scholar

28. R. Consist., 26 (1569), 2v.

29. R. Consist., 31 (1578), 185v.

30. Grosse demonstrates that, according to the edict of 1560 (which was added to the revision of the Ecclesiastical Ordinances the following year), the names of excommunicated persons were to be announced in the church “affin que chescun s'abstienne de leur compagnie.” Furthermore, the edict stipulated that “ceux qui auront esté excommuniez par le Consistoire, s'ils ne se rengent apres avoir esté deuement admonestez, mais qu'ils persistent en leur rebellion, soyent declarez par les temples estre rejettez du troupeau jusques à ce qu'ils viennent recognoistre leur faute et se reconcilier à toute l'Eglise.” Quoted in Grosse, , “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 460.Google Scholar Scholars do not agree as to whether social ostracism was actually practiced against excommunicated persons in Geneva and other reformed communities. The consistory registers that I have examined provide no evidence of social ostracism of excommunicated persons, corroborating the conclusion of Christian Grosse: “Dans cette société où l'honneur est une valeur centrale, l'impact social des peines ecclésiastiques se mesure plus en termes d'infamie qu'elle ne se concrétise par une réelle marginalisation sociale” (ibid., 490).

31. My findings for the years 1568–82 thus corroborate Grosse's conclusions for the years 1560–64. Grosse reports that during this five-year sample excommunications never exceed 10 per year, even as suspensions range between 200 and 400 per year. See “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 482. Benedict concludes that major excommunication was imposed sparingly in other reformed churches around Europe as well. See Christ's Churches Purely Reformed, 465–66. For several examples where major excommunication appears in my sources, see R. Consist., 31 (1578), 185v, and ibid., 31 (1579), 351v and 395r–v.

32. In keeping with the language of the consistory registers themselves, this paper will hereafter reserve the word “excommunication” for cases of major excommunication.

33. Most important of these legal codes was the Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1541,1561,1576), and the Ordonnances sur la police des eglises dependantz de la Seignorie de Genesve.

34. Thus, for example, when four men were brought before the consistory in 1578 for gambling, the two defendants who admitted their failure were sent away with an admonition; the other two men who “colored the fact” were suspended. R. Consist., 31 (1578), 240v.

35. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 209v. Several days before the consistory's action, the civil case against Chautemps was dismissed due to the statute of limitations. See Procès Criminels, Archiv d'Etat of Geneva, #1507 (hereafter cited as PC).

36. For elders and their families in trouble, see R. Consist., 30 (1576), 89v; ibid., 31 (1578), 411r–v; ibid., 31 (1579), 411. Pastors disciplined include Jean de Serres from Jussy for abandoning his charge, ibid., 28 (1572), 184r–v; Louis Henri, recently retired from Celigny, for usury, ibid., 27 (1570), 155v; Sebastien Jullien from France for gaming, ibid., 27 (1570), 107; and Jean Le Gaigneux from the city for abandoning his charge, rebellion, and lying, ibid., 28 (1572), 140v.

37. Beza describes discipline as the “yoke of the Lord” in a letter to Sibrand Lubert, 27 August–6 September 1593, in De Vries, H., Genève pépinière du calvinisme hollandais (Fribourg: Fragnière, 1918), 1:263.Google Scholar

38. Beza notes: “Pour le sixieme poinct, il faut noter a quelle fin l'excommunication a este ordonnee de Dieu. Premierement, afin que l'Eglise de Dieu soit pure, tant qu'il sera possible, & qu'on n'ait occasion de penser qu'elle soit une retraitte des meschans. Secondement, de peur que les rongneux n'infectent ceux qui sont sains. Tiercement, afin qu s'il est possible le pecheur soit ramené au troupeau.” Confession de la foi Chrestienne (Geneva: Badius, 1559), 175.Google Scholar

39. See Maruyama, Tadataka, The Ecclesiology of Theodore Beza: The Reform of the True Church (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1978), 31.Google Scholar The belief that suspension and excommunication protected the sacrament from pollution is occasionally indicated in the consistory registers. Hence, when Catherine Collombel took the Lord's Supper while under the sentence of suspension, her action was described as “ladite pollution.” She was thereafter excommunicated for this act of rebellion against the order of the church. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 85.

40. Beza argues that “selon la promesse de nostre Dieu, le vray corps & le vray sang du Seigneur, c'est a dire Iesus Christ luy-mesme, avec tous ses biens & thresors ne nous soit veritablement, & sans aucune fraude offert, pour estre receu de nous interieurement en foy par la vertu du sainct Esprit, en vie eternelle, aussi veritablement que sont offerts a nos sens exterieurs le pain & le vin pour la vie corporelle.” Confession de la foi Chrestienne, 109–10.

41. Calvin notes in his Institutes of the Christian Religion: “For when Christ promises that what his people ‘bind on earth shall be bound in heaven’ [Matt. 18:18], he limits the force of binding to ecclesiastical censure. By this those who are excommunicated are not cast into everlasting ruin and damnation, but in hearing that their life and morals are condemned, they are assured of their everlasting condemnation unless they repent. … And although excommunication also punishes the man, it does so in such a way that, by forewarning him of his future condemnation, it may call him back to salvation.” Institutes, IV.xii.10, ed. McNeill, John T. (Philadelphia, Pa.: Westminster, 1960), 2:1238Google Scholar. See Grosse's discussion of this important point in his “Les Rituels de la Cene,” 403–4. Beza echoes Calvin's sentiments in his Confession de lafoi Crestienne, 172.

42. Sometimes the consistory granted special permission for offenders to contract marriages or serve as witnesses at baptism, while leaving them in the state of suspension from the sacrament. See, for example, R. Consist., 25 (1568), 189.

43. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 122r–v.

44. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 145.

45. R. Consist., 27 (1570), 22v.

46. R. Consist., 33 (1582), 85.

47. R. Consist., 27 (1570), 72v.

48. R. Consist., 26 (1569), 169v.

49. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 152v, 161v–162.

50. The consistory reminded Alexandre Campagnole of this fact when he tried to avoid the humiliation of a public confession of sin. R. Consist., 32 (1580), lOr–v.

51. See Monter, “The Consistory of Geneva,” and (especially) Grosse, , “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 471–72.Google Scholar The secretary Pierre Alliod itemized suspensions and excommunications by the Geneva consistory for the years 1550 to 1569. These extracts are located in Annexes 3, 4, 5 of the Registres du Consistoire. Unfortunately, Alliod's extracts do not continue beyond 1569. My quantification of consistorial censures from 1568 to 1582 is thus drawn from a careful reading of the consistory registers themselves.

52. The population of Geneva intra mur during these decades was highly sensitive to the influx of religious refugees from France, ranging from perhaps 21,400 in 1560 to 16,000 in 1570. The population of the countryside parishes was more stable, comprising perhaps 4,000 persons or one-fourth of the population of the city. See Perrenoud, Alfred, La Population de Genève du Seizième au Début du Dix-Neuvième Siède (Geneva: Éditions Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Genève, 1979), 1:36–37.Google Scholar

53. Monter, , “The Consistory of Geneva,” 484.Google Scholar Note that Monter's study does not differentiate between minor excommunications (suspensions) and major excommunications.

54. Consistory registers are not extant for the period April 1573–December 1574.

55. In quantifying the kinds of sins for which Genevans were censured, I have not distinguished suspensions from excommunications. Given that excommunications are relatively rare, I have simply included them within the category of “suspensions.”

56. In my study of the Genevan documents, two interpretive difficulties have been particularly evident. First, from time to time the registers are unclear as to whether an offender is actually suspended. This confusion may result from opaque language used by the scribe, uncertainty about the offender's age (that is, youthful offenders who have not yet given reason for their faith cannot be suspended, given that they have yet to receive permission to communicate at the Table), or cases in which the consistory reaffirms the prior suspension of a recidivist. Fortunately, consistory secretaries normally denoted a suspension with a marginal note, such as “suspendu du Cene.” Second, identifying the specific reason for a suspension is not always self-evident, particularly when a defendant is guilty of multiple infractions. The case of Gaspard Bally illustrates this well: he was suspended in 1580 for appearing in consistory drunk and spewing forth a string of blasphemies and curses against the pastors (R. Consist., 32 [1580], 6v). Was he disciplined for drunkenness, or rebellion, or blasphemy, or perhaps all three? In these cases, I have consulted (when available) the statement of reconciliation, which usually sheds light on the original suspension. Thus, for example, the record of Bally's restoration notes that he was originally censured for “ivrognerie et irreverences” (ibid., 22v). Additional difficulties with quantifying disciplinary records are described by Pollmann, , “Off the Record,” 424–26Google Scholar, and Benedict, , Christ's Churches Purely Reformed, 461–62.Google Scholar

57. See Graph 3.

58. To offer one comparison: Mentzer notes that the reformed church of Montauban (with around 8,000–10,000 adherents) excommunicated [that is, suspended] only 80 people between 1595–98, while the consistory of Nîmes (with approximately the same number of adherents) censured a total of 104 people between 1561–63 and 1578–83. Comparisons like these are suggestive, but must be made cautiously given the substantial differences between the “autonomous” churches of southern France and a “state” church in Geneva. See Mentzer, , “Excommunications in the French Reformed Churches,” in Mentzer, , ed., Sin and the Calvinists, 100, 124.Google Scholar

59. Male offenders constitute 64 percent of total suspensions in my sample. This percentage is almost identical to the figure reported by Mentzer in his study of reformed churches in southern France. See his “Excommunications in the French Reformed Churches,” 124.

60. R. Consist., 30 (1576), 48v.

61. See Mentzer, , “The Calvinist Reform of Morals,” 103.Google Scholar

62. During this same period, however, the Genevan civil courts tried and punished several men for homosexual behavior. In 1568, Jean de la Tour was drowned in the Rhone for sodomy (see PC, 1452). The next year, Jerome Spada was tried but not convicted of the same crime and subsequently banished (see PC, 1560).

63. The account of this (attempted) act of incest is graphic: In 1570, Elizabeth Tillemand reported to consistory that her half-brother Jaques tried to rape her. “II la print et la jetta sur le lict mettanit la main soubz sa cotte, a cause de quoy elle cria tellement qu'il la laissa, et d'aultres fois l'avoir bien sollicitée mais elle ne vouloit consentir a sa volonté.” See R. Consist., 27 (1570), 134. Other instances of incest are found in R. Consist., 29 (1575), 102, and ibid., 31 (1579), 295v–296.

64. R. Consist., 30 (1578), 147v.

65. Raymond Mentzer has made the same observation in his study of reformed discipline in Nîmes; see “Disciplina nervus ecclesiae,” 103–4.

66. R. Consist., 27 (1570), 184v.

67. Monter identifies this as the sin of Nicodemism, following John Calvin's nomenclature in Excuse de Jehan Calvin à MM. les Nicodemites (1544). In fact, acts of religious compromise under duress (as encountered by the consistory in my sample) were somewhat different than Calvin's conception of Nicodemism. For Calvin, the Nicodemites were those “secret Protestants” who chose to remain within the Catholic Church so as to avoid inconvenience or persecution. I am grateful to Bernard Roussel for his insight on this point.

68. See Hoffman, Philip, Church and Community in the Diocese of Lyon, 1500–1789 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984), 30–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

69. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 27, 166v, 169v, 98v.

70. When a tide of refugees arrived in Geneva in the aftermath of St. Bartholomew's Day (1572), the city's ministers invited all those who had been “polluted with idolatries” to appear before the consistory and to make public reparation. Over one hundred people responded. They were not, however, banned individually from the Lord's Table in a formal act of suspension. See RCP, 3:95–96. One wonders if Geneva's more lenient stance toward confessional infidelity (under duress) was prompted, in part, by the more liberal policy hammered out at the French National Synod of La Rochelle (1571), a synod over which Theodore Beza presided. See Aymon, Jean, Tous les Synodes Nationaux des Églises réformées de France (The Hague: Charles Delo, 1710), 110.Google Scholar

71. That the ministers themselves distinguished between voluntary and involuntary contact with Catholic rites, see the case of Dimon, Jean in R. Consist., 31 (1577), 89v.Google Scholar

72. See R. Consist., 31 (1578), 139v, and ibid., 30 (1576), 86.

73. The rapid re-Catholicization of the nearby baillages of Ternier and Chablais through the efforts of Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries in 1597 and 1598 serves as strong evidence that reformed Christianity was not as firmly rooted among villagers outside of Geneva as the consistory registers might indicate. I am grateful to Christian Grosse for this reminder. For the Catholic mission to Ternier and Chablais, see Martin, Paul E., Trois Cas de Pluralisme Confessionel aux XVIe and XVIIe Siècles (Geneva: A. Jullien Éditeur, 1961), 73–106Google Scholar, and Manetsch, Scott, Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France, 1572–1598 (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 318–28.Google Scholar

74. R. Consist., 27 (1570), 92r–v.

75. R. Consist., 28 (1578), 121r–v. This case also appears in the minutes of the Company of Pastors; see RCP, 3:57–58. Though not suspended, the suspects were imprisoned by the magistrates.

76. R. Consist., 28 (1572), 156v.

77. R. Consist., 32 (1580), 107v.

78. R. Consist., 27 (1570), 170r–v.

79. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 206v; ibid., 27 (1570), 22; ibid., 27 (1570), 27v; ibid., 27 (1570), 66; ibid., 32 (1580), 36v.

80. R. Consist., 30 (1576), 28.

81. Comparisons must be made with caution: the mechanism for supervising behavior outside the city walls was different than that within the city, and the social “filters” for what was deemed scandalous or offensive may well have been dissimilar.

82. Monter estimates that around one-quarter of all excommunications [that is, suspensions] between 1557 and 1569 were directed to people living in Geneva's countryside. See “The Consistory of Geneva,” 477.

83. This growing laxity in the system of rural discipline may have been due partly to growing neglect of rural visitation. Christian Grosse shows that rural visitation by the Genevan clergy, a practice begun in 1546, became sporadic after 1574 and was discontinued entirely from 1582 to 1605. See Grosse, , “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 510–11, and his unpublished paper “‘II y avoit eu trop grande rigueur par cy-devant,’” 8 (used with permission).Google Scholar

84. Estimates that place Geneva's rural population at one-quarter that of the city are only educated guesses. See note 52 above.

85. The vulgar quality of some of these songs is suggested by the case of Nicolas Borsat. The consistory deposed four witnesses who recalled in detail the lyrics of Borsat's “chansons profanes et vilaines.” Borsat was suspended, along with a companion who taught him the songs. See R. Consist., 27 (1570), 101.

86. R. Consist., 31 (1577), 49.

87. [Lambert, Daneau?], Traité des Danses, auquel est amplement resolue la question, ascavoir s'il est permis aux Chrestiens de danser ([Geneva: Francois Estienne], 1579), 12–20Google Scholar. On this topic, see also Garrisson, Janine, Protestants du Midi, 302–5.Google Scholar

88. See R. Consist., 31 (1579), 305–30.

89. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 99, and ibid., 25 (1568), 172v

90. See, for example, R. Consist., 27 (1570), 151, and ibid., 31 (1580), 93v.

91. However, on several occasions suspected witches were sent to the city council for investigation. In 1570, for example, Clauda Garmaise of Gy accused her neighbor Lois Planche of witchcraft. Clauda claimed that Lois had cast a spell on her and her husband, bringing an unusual amount of hostility to their home. Because Lois could present no witnesses to the contrary, and because other residents of Gy had made similar accusations, the consistory sent the case to the magistrates for further investigation. See R. Consist., 27 (1570), 156v.

92. William Monter documents that from 1568 to 1582 forty-three people were tried for witchcraft by the Genevan civil authorities, twelve of whom were executed. See Witchcraft in France and Switzerland (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1976), 42–66, 210–11.Google Scholar

93. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 119, 182. This case also appears in the PC, 1483.

94. See, for example, Delumeau's, JeanCatholicism between Luther and Voltaire: A New View of the Counter-Reformation (Philadelphia, Pa.: Westminster, 1977)Google Scholar. My findings thus support the conclusions of Robert Kingdon: “Christianity was clearly not as dominant a force in the lives of the illiterate peasants in those villages [surrounding Geneva] as in the urban population. Even in Geneva's villages, however, while we find some evidence of folk religion or witchcraft, we find even more evidence of forms of Christianity.” Kingdon, , “The Genevan Revolution in Public Worship,” Princeton Seminary Bulletin 20 (1999): 265.Google Scholar

95. In several of these cases, however, persons had voluntarily abstained from the Lord's Supper before the censure was imposed. This may be one reason why the consistory occasionally lifted a suspension prematurely.

96. See, for example, R. Consist., 31 (1580), 23v, 134v.

97. R. Consist., 31 (1580), 10.

98. Here my data differ significantly from the findings of Christian Grosse for the period 1561–64. Based on Alliod's extracts, Grosse shows that 80 percent of suspended persons during those years were reconciled within six months, and 99 percent of suspended persons were reconciled within two years. See “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 485. Although the disparity in our findings may be due in part to the precision of the consistorial secretary, the registers indicate that during the 1570s consistory members were becoming increasingly concerned about suspended persons who did not seek reconciliation with the church. See my comments below.

99. Death records indicate that of the 179 persons suspended in 1568 for whom there is no record of reconciliation, at least 15 died between August 1568 and July 1570. See E. C. Genève, Chapître du Livre des Morts #9 (1568–69), and Chapître du Livre des Morts #10 (1569–70), in the Archiv d'État of Geneva, MiA 220p and MiA 221p. Many of these mortalities were due to the plague, which devastated Geneva and its environs between 1568 and 1572.

100. R. Consist., 27 (1570), 13.

101. R. Consist., 30 (1576), 3.

102. Mottu-Weber, Liliane, Piuz, Anne-Marie, and Lescaze, Bernard, Vivre à Genève autour de 1600: La vie de tous les jours (Geneva: Éditions Slatkine, 2002), 65.Google Scholar

103. Perrenoud estimates that the population of the city of Geneva increased from around 16,000 persons in 1570 to 17,300 persons in 1580, and then declined during the next decade to 14,400 persons in 1590. The population of Geneva's countryside remained relatively constant during these years, numbering perhaps 4,000 persons. Perrenoud, , La Populatiuon de Genève du Seizième au Début du Dix-Neuvième Siècle, 36–44.Google Scholar

104. In 1568, 6.8 percent of offenders were suspended more than once during the calendar year. With several exceptions, the annual rate of recidivism declined over the next decade: 7.2 percent (1569); 7.7 percent (1570); 5.0 percent (1571); 4.7 percent (1572); 3.9 percent (1575); 7.0 percent (1576); 3.5 percent (1577); 8.5 percent (1578); 7.3 percent (1579); 4.2 percent (1580); 3.0 percent (1581); 2.4 percent (1582).

105. For examples of voluntary “self-excommunication,” see R. Consist., 25 (1568), 17v; ibid., 26 (1569), 67v, 108v; ibid., 28 (1571), 7; ibid., 28 (1572), 148; ibid., 29 (1575), 78, 81; ibid., 31 (1579), 278v, 297, 331.

106. See, for example, Choisy, , L'État Chrétien Calviniste à Genève, 114–25, 152–58, 187–200Google Scholar. Beza was equally critical of the moral condition of Geneva's inhabitants in his sermons from the mid-1580s. See his Sermons sur le Cantique des Cantiques (Geneva: Jean Le Preux, 1586), 103, 104, 270.Google Scholar

107. Cited in Choisy, , L'État Chrétien Calviniste à Genève, 123.Google Scholar

108. See Benedict's helpful discussion of this question, in Christ's Churches Purely Reformed, 484–89.

109. See R. Consist., 30 (1576), 69v, and Choisy, , L'État Chrétien Calviniste à Genève, 191.Google Scholar

110. R. Consist., 30 (1576), 45.

111. See R. Consist., 26 (1569), 171; ibid., 27 (1570), 98v; ibid., 31 (1579), 441; ibid., 30 (1576), 69v.

112. In fact, I have identified only two rural suspensions during the four-month siege (April 11 to August 16). See R. Consist., 33 (1582), 24v and 48v.

113. “Le jeudy 26e [January 1576] Messieurs, occasionnez de quelques renvois du Consistoire, y ont faict remonstrer par Monsieur de Besze qu'ilz trouvoyent bien estrange qu'on defendist la Cene si ordinairement à des personnes qui auparavant n'avoyent pas esté reprinses et qui n'auroyent pas commis chose si grande, de laquelle mesmes ilz montrent se repentir, et que cela pourroit mettre des consciences en trouble, offencer beaucoup de gens qui sur telles defences peuvent tomber malades, faire hayr le Consistoire, et que ceste prattique ne respond à l'ordonnence qui en est aux edictz, à laquelle ilz pretendent et enjoingnent qu'on se tienne. La compagnie du Consistoire a deliberé de mieux regarder ladicte ordonnence et d'y proceder plus sobrement.” RCP, 4:39.1 am indebted to Grosse for calling my attention to this passage. See his discussion in “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 474–76.

114. This statement appears in the Registre of the Small Council (vol. 71, fol. 17) and is cited in RCP, 4:39, n. 4.

115. See Grosse, , “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 475–76. Grosse develops this argument further in his fine paper, “‘II y avoit eu trop grande rigueur par cy-devant’: la discipline ecclésiastique à Genève à l'époque de Théodore de Bèze” (used with permission).Google Scholar

116. See “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 471–72. Note that Grosse's totals are based on Pierre Alliod's extracts.

117. This pastoral dimension of church discipline was recognized by Pierre Bonne, suspended in 1579 for charging excess interest. In a letter to consistory requesting restoration to the Lord's Table, Bonne wrote: “Je vous prie done (messieurs tres honorés pères) de m'en asseurer de plus en plus, et en tesmoignage de ce pardon me recevoir à la S. Cene. Et je prieray Dieu de vous augmenter la bonne affection, qu'il a mise en vous de tascher de reduire au troupeau du Seigneur les povres brebis errantes.” R. Consist., 31 (1579), 342.

118. The Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1541) stipulate that “tout cela soit tellement moderé qui n'y ait nulle rigueur dont personne soit grevé et mesmes que les corrections ne soient sinon medicines pour reduire les pecheurs à nostre Seigneur.” This clause was repeated in the 1576 revision of the ordinances, with the word “les Censures” replacing “les corrections.” These passages of the Ecclesiastical Ordinances are found in RCP, 1:13, and Heyer, , L'Église de Genève, 296.Google Scholar

119. There was real spiritual danger, the ministers believed, in partaking of the Communion elements in an unworthy manner. Hence, when the consistory examined Pierre Fredon for flirting with and promising marriage to three different women, the register noted that “daultant aussy qu'il s'est mis en azard d'avoir communique à la cene et prophane la cene du Seigneur, par [ ] telz scandalles mesmes.” See R. Consist., 32 (1580), 78v. This danger is also recognized in the Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1541); see in RCP, 1:287.

120. R. Consist., 27 (1570), 123. Monter assesses the work of the consistory in the late 1560s this way: “it is hard to escape the impression that many people were excommunicated for trivial reasons.” “The Consistory of Geneva,” 383.

121. Sermons sur l'histoire de la résurrection de nostre Seigneur Iésus Christ (Geneva: Le Preux, 1593), 567Google Scholar. See also ibid., 165, 554–55.

122. See Grosse's helpful discussion of domestic and rural visitations. “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 496–522.

123. See R. Consist., 25 (1568), 19, 48v; ibid., 27 (1570), 159. The Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1576) states: “Pour ce que plusieurs sont négligents de se consoler en Dieu par sa Parole, quand ils se trouvent en nécessité de maladie, dont adviene que plusieurs meurent sans aucune admonition ou doctrine, laquelle lors est à l'homme plus nécessaire et salutaire que jamais: pour cette cause avons avisé et ordonné que nul ne demeure trois jours entiers, gisant au lit malade, et qu'il ne le fasse savoir au ministre et que chacun s'avise d'appeler les ministres à l'heure opportune quand ils les voudront avoir, afin de ne les distraire de leur charge en laquelle ils servent en commun à toute l'Eglise. Et pour ôter toute excuse, que cela soit recommandé spécialement aux parents, amis et gardes: afin qu'ils n'attandent pas que le malade soit prêt à rendre l'esprit. Car en telle extrémité, les consolations ne servent de guère à la plupart.” In Heyer, , L'Église de Genève, 289–91.Google Scholar

124. R Consist., 32 (1580), 152.

125. Hence, in 1582, the consistory delegated the minister Charles Perrot to explore whether or not two men, suspended for fighting, had been reconciled to one another. He was given authority to lift the censure “selon sa prudence.” R. Consist., 33 (1582), 17v–18.

126. See, for example, R. Consist., 25 (1568), 164v; ibid., 32 (1580), 27.

127. See, for example, R. Consist., 26 (1569), 73v.

128. See, for example, R. Consist., 26 (1569), 2v; ibid., 26 (1569), 50v; ibid., 26 (1569), 1.

129. See, for example, R. Consist., 26 (1569), 20; ibid., 26 (1569), 212; ibid., 30 (1577), 112.

130. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 157v; ibid., 30 (1576), 60v; ibid., 27 (1570), 131; ibid., 27 (1570), 49; ibid., 31 (1580), 81; and ibid., 33 (1582), 28v–29, 31v; ibid., 28 (1572), 208v.

131. See Kingdon, Robert, “Social Welfare in Calvin's Geneva,” American Historical Review 76 (1971): 50–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed On several occasions, however, the consistory intervened on behalf of the poor by sending them with instructions to the deacons. See R. Consist, 30 (1576), 8; ibid., 31 (1578), 220.

132. “Advis de luy dire qu'il vivre en ediffication sans donner nul scandalle a personne et de luy faire bonnes remonstrances et que par cy appres encores que Dieu l'aye afflige qu'il ne laisse point cela du dormer aux paouvres et Dieu par cy moyen le benira et luy augmentira ses biens et mesmes le benira de telle facon qu'il luy augmentire ses biens au double.” R. Consist., 31 (1577), 105v.

133. R. Consist., 28 (1571), 83v.

134. This aspect of the Consistory's work has been noted by Robert Kingdon in his article, “The Geneva Consistory in the Time of Calvin” (24–26), and treated in detail in Christian Grosse's dissertation, “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 595é610.

135. R. Consist., 31 (1578), 160v.

136. R. Consist., 31 (1579), 359v–360.

137. R. Consist., 32 (1580), 139v.

138. R. Consist., 31 (1577), 81, 130.

139. Robert Kingdon has even likened this aspect of the consistory's ministry to a compulsory counseling service. See “The Geneva Consistory in the Time of Calvin,” 26–33. For detailed treatment of the consistory's mediation of domestic and public quarrels, see Grosse, , “Les Rituels de la Cène,” 646–744.Google Scholar

140. See R. Consist., 28 (1571), 87; ibid., 29 (1575), 1; ibid., 30 (1577), 61.

141. See R. Consist., 31 (1579), 351, 363.

142. R. Consist., 32 (1580), 70.

143. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 137v.

144. R. Consist., 32 (1580), 3v, 57.

145. R. Consist., 32 (1580), 151v. I found no further evidence of conflict between these two women in the registers.

146. R. Consist., 31 (1578), 191v, 211.

147. R. Consist., 25 (1568), 129v; ibid., 26 (1569), 95; ibid., 28 (1572), 161v. Dumur's civil case is found in PC, 1493.