Calvin and the Inquisition?

[rien]

I have a friend who is evangelical and about to start a site directed at catholics comparing the Inquisition to the current Islamic radical goings on.

I realize the Inquistion was absolutely wrong and innocent people were put to death by the church.

But I have read that dissenters fleeing the Inquistion to Calvin’s Geneva who did not convert to protestantism were persecuted. I believe some were put to death - Sedova or Sedona? Also, were not many women in Reformation England put to death for being witches?

Can someone provide me sources?

Its not tit for ta. The persecutions by Catholics and, I believe, some Protestants are just as bad as those by some Muslimes today.

But I think to suggest that no Reformed?Protestant Chritians engaged in any sort of violence/coercion as Catholics once did and some Muslims do today is erroneous.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

I have a friend who is evangelical and about to start a site directed at catholics comparing the Inquisition to the current Islamic radical goings on… But I think to suggest that no Reformed?Protestant Chritians engaged in any sort of violence/coercion as Catholics once did and some Muslims do today is erroneous.

Calvin’s excesses:
newadvent.org/cathen/03198a.htm

Luther’s excesses:
newadvent.org/cathen/12700b.htm#III
newadvent.org/cathen/09438b.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_and_the_Jews

Protestantism’s excesses:
wsu.edu:8001/~dee/AMERICA/MILL.HTM

Inquisition:
crisismagazine.com/october2003/madden.htm

 

[Zooey]

But I have read that dissenters fleeing the Inquistion to Calvin’s Geneva who did not convert to protestantism were persecuted. I believe some were put to death - Sedova or Sedona? Also, were not many women in Reformation England put to death for being witches?

The name you are looking for is: Michael Servetus.

You’re right about Calvin’s Geneva; it was basically set up as a theocracy, with Calvin making the rules. (Think fundamentalist Islamaic states, like Iran under the imams, or Afghanistan under the Taliban).

 

[Petergee]

I have a friend who is evangelical and about to start a site directed at catholics comparing the Inquisition to the current Islamic radical goings on.

I realize the Inquistion was absolutely wrong and innocent people were put to death by the church.

You “realise” wrongly. Certain things some inquisitors did were wrong, The Inquisition itself was not “absolutely wrong”. Over 600 years, a few thousand people were executed **by secular state authorities **(not by the Church) after being convicted by the Inquisition. As with all courts, (although the Inquisition was far more fair, humane and thorough than all other courts of the time) they probably made occasional mistakes and so a few of these people may have been innocent, but the vast majority were guilty. The average annual world total of executions after being convicted by the Inquisition was less than the average annual number of executions in the 21st century by the State of Texas alone.

But I have read that dissenters fleeing the Inquistion to Calvin’s Geneva who did not convert to protestantism were persecuted.

I would be very surprised if there was even one person who “fled the Inquisition” (which did not then exist in France, Germany or Switzerland) to Calvin’s Geneva.

I believe some were put to death - Sedova or Sedona? Also, were not many women in Reformation England put to death for being witches?

Yes, mainly under King James I (of “King James Bible” fame).

Its not tit for ta. The persecutions by Catholics and, I believe, some Protestants are just as bad as those by some Muslimes today.

Interesting omission of the word “some” before “Catholics”. Catholics and protestants both committed atrocities (the Catholic Church never endorsed these, though protestant authorities usually did), but I don’t believe either Catholics or protestants ever conducted a sustained campaign to deliberately kill and maim, without warning, as many innocent ciivilians as possible, simply in order to terrorise them, wheich we see from the Moslem radicals today.