friends. In fact, there was never such
a busy-body in a position of high authority before nor since. No
wonder that the citizens frequently chafed under the yoke.

If we ask how much was actually accomplished by this minute regulation
accompanied by extreme severity in the enforcement of morals, various
answers are given. When the Italian reformer Bernardino Occhino
visited Geneva in 1542, he testified that cursing and swearing,
unchastity and sacrilege were unknown; that there were neither lawsuits
nor simony nor murder nor party spirit, but that universal benevolence
prevailed. Again in 1556 John Knox said that Geneva was "the most
perfect school of Christ that ever was on earth since the days of the
apostles. In other places," he continued, "I confess Christ to be
truly preached, but manners and religion so sincerely reformed I have
not yet seen in any place besides." But if we turn from these personal
impressions to an examination of the acts of the Consistory, we get a
very different impression. [Sidenote: Morals of Geneva] The records
of Geneva show more cases of vice after the Reformation than before.
The continually increasing severity of the penalties enacted against
vice and frivolity seem to prove that the government was helpless to
suppress them. Among those convicted of adultery were two of Calvin's
own female relatives, his brother's wife and his step-daughter Judith.
What success there was in making Geneva a city of saints was due to the
fact that it gradually became a very select population. The worst of
the incorrigibles were soon either executed or banished, and their
places taken by a large influx of {175} men of austere mind, drawn
thither as a refuge from persecution elsewhere, or by the desire to sit
at the feet of the great Reformer. Between the years 1549 and 1555 no
less than 1297 strangers were admitted to citizenship. Practically all
of these were immigrants coming to the little town for conscience's
sake.

[Persecution]

Orthodoxy was enforced as rigidly as morality. The ecclesiastical
constitution adopted in 1542 brought in the Puritan type of divine
service. Preaching took the most important place in church,
supplemented by Bible reading and catechetical instruction. Laws were
passed enforcing conformity under pain of losing goods and life. Those
who did not expressly renounce the mass were punished. A little girl
of thirteen was condemned to be publicly beaten with rods