Roman
Catholicism revered celibacy and placed a ban on divorce. The protestant reformers whilst in favour of
marriage did not easily embrace divorce. Calvin’s teachings shaped the divorce
legislation in many Europeans countries and in North America. He loathed
adultery and also believed that an unbeliever’s desertion of a protestant
spouse was grounds for divorce but he denied that cruelty impotence, disease or
loathing were sufficient grounds for divorce.
These views were expressed in the 1541 Institutes of Christian Religion
and implemented in the city of Geneva.
The
authorities would scrutinize the intimate details of married life, often
hearing eye witness accounts from resident servants and incorporated torture in
to their interrogations and forced warring spouses to reconcile. They punished
adultery wit banishment and whipping , or in outlying villages nine days
imprisonment on bread and water and payment of
a fine. Adulteresses were publicly drowned and adulterers
decapitated. In 1566 only two years
after the death of Calvin Geneva passed
a law making adultery a capital offence.
Calvin’s own approach was that divorce was permitted but granted only as
a last resort. During Calvin’s ministry
from 1541 until 1564 only twenty six divorces were granted in Geneva.
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