Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud

by Peter Watson

The essence of Calvinism was that morality was enforced and enforced strictly, while Protestant doctrine was developed at the University of Geneva, which Calvin founded.32 And he set up two main arms of government, the Ministry and the Consistory. The main aim of the Ministry was to produce what might be called an ‘army’ of preachers who had to follow a particular programme and way of life and set an example. It was the job of the Consistory to govern morals. It comprised a court of eighteen–six ministers and twelve elders–and had the power of excommunication. It was this court, which met every Thursday, that was responsible for the dictatorship of terror in Geneva, what Daniel Boorstin calls the reign of biblical morality. It was in Geneva that a certain way of life–one that would become very familiar–was instigated: getting up early, hard work, being always concerned to set a good example (for example reading only uplifting literature). Thrift and abstinence were all-important virtues. As one historian put it, ‘This was an attempt to create a new man…the church was not simply an institution for the worship of God, but an agency for the making of men fit to worship Him.’33 The regime gave its name to the ‘Puritan’ movement.34

Calvanism as a beginning to Puritanism