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Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva. Volume 1: Courtship, Engagement, and Marriage (review)

John Witte and Robert Kingdon have compiled a very interesting and useful collection of primary sources pertaining to marriage in Calvin’s Geneva. They have culled fascinating information on marriage and the control of matrimony from an impressive variety of documents, including excerpts from sermons, biblical commentaries,statutes,legal memoranda,and correspondence.Almost all the correspondence and normative literature reproduced in this volume was authored by Calvin, though the editors have also included a number of important pieces written by Theodore Beza, Calvin’s successor as the leading pastor in Geneva. Of particular interest are excerpts from the registers of the Consistory, a quasi-tribunal that was comprised of the city’s pastors and elders and had jurisdiction over a wide range of moral issues, including marriage disputes. Having founded the Consistory in 1541, Calvin religiously attended its weekly meetings and profoundly shaped its agenda until his death in 1564.The selected Consistory records date from 1546, 1552, and 1557, sample years that corresponded respectively to the appearance of Calvin’s Marriage Ordinance, growing opposition to Calvin among some native Genevans, and the summit of Calvin’s power following his defeat of Ami Perrin and the so-called “Children of Geneva.”