Geneva was a church-city-state of 15,000 people, and the church constitution now recognized “pastors, doctors, elders and deacons,” but the supreme power was given to the magistrate, John Calvin. In November 1552, the Council declared Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion to be a “holy doctrine which no man might speak against.” Thus the State issued dogmatic decrees, the force of which had been anticipated earlier, as when Jacques Gruet, a known opponent of Calvin, was arrested, tortured for a month and beheaded on July 26, 1547, for placing a letter in Calvin’s pulpit calling him a hypocrite. Gruet’s book was later found and burned along with his house while his wife was thrown out into the street to watch…
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2643336/posts
…John Calvin insisted that his men use green wood for the fire because it burned slower. Servetus was screaming as he was literally baked alive from the feet upward and suffered the heat of the flames for 30 minutes before finally succumbing to one of the most painful and brutal death methods possible. Servetus had written a theology book, a copy of which Calvin had strapped to the chest of Servetus. The flames from the burning book rose against Servetus’ face as he screamed in agony…
…Another victim of Calvin’s fiery zeal was Gentile of an Italian sect in Geneva, which also numbered among its adherents Alciati and Gribaldo. More or less Unitarian in their views, they were required to sign a confession drawn up by Calvin in 1558. Gentile signed it reluctantly, but in the upshot he was condemned and imprisoned as a perjurer. He escaped only to be incarcerated twice at Berne where, in 1566, he was beheaded. Calvin also had thirty-four (34) women burned at the stake after accusing them of causing a plague that had swept through Geneva in 1545. John Calvin’s actions were very paganistic like his mentor, Saint Augustine. Jesus and all of the Apostles would have abhorred and condemned these blatant mass murders…
http://www.biblelife.org/calvinism.htm
“9. (page 180) February 1545 – “Freckles” Dunant dies under torture without admitting to the crime of spreading the plague. His body was then dragged to the middle of town and burned.
10. (page 180) 1545 – Following the incident with Dunant, several more men and women were apprehended including a barber and a hospital supervisor who had “made a pact with the devil.”
11. (page 180) March 7, 1545 – Two women executed by burning at the stake (presumably for the crime of sorcery, i.e. spreading the plague). CALVIN INTERCEDED apparently to have them executed sooner rather than later after additional time in prison. The Council followed his directive happily and urged the executioner to “be more diligent in cutting off the hands of malefactors.”
12. (page 180) 1545 – more executions, tortures carefully watched to prevent death. Most of the tortured refused to confess. Means of death varied a little to include decapitation. All under the crime of spreading the plague. Some committed suicide in their cells to avoid torture, afterward the rest were handcuffed. One woman then through herself through a window.
13. (page 208) 1545 – CALVIN HAD the magistrates seize Belot, an Anabaptist (against infant baptism) for stating that the Old Testament was abolished by the New. Belot was chained and tortured.
14. (page 180) May 16, 1545 – The last execution concerning the plague outbreak, bringing the total dead to 7 men and 24 women. A letter from CALVIN attests to 15 of these women being burned at the stake. CALVIN’S only concern was that the plague had not come to his house.
15. (page 189) April 1546 – Ami Perrin put on trial for refusing to testify against several friends who were guilty of having danced. She was incarcerated for refusal to testify.
16. (page 190) July 1546 – Jacques Gruet was accused of writing a poster against Calvin. He was arrested and tortured until he admitted to the crime. He was then executed.”
Ian Vincent 
September 27, 2013 at 4:29 am
Shocking !!! How can some one who professes to follow The Bible do this?
September 27, 2013 at 12:21 pm
Thank you for sharing, brother.
September 27, 2013 at 1:29 pm
How well documented is this? It is worse than I thought if it is true.
September 28, 2013 at 1:05 am
Try google.
I think perhaps the reason the scope of Calvin’s atrocities slipped under the radar was that he did not act alone, it was the result of the system he set up in Geneva and over which he was the CEO. He was called “The Pope of Geneva”.
September 28, 2013 at 1:44 am
Some people say that these charges are false, that they were fabricated to bring Calvinism into disrepute.
For sure, there may be people who have that agenda, and also vice-versa, those who cover over the evidence to try and save Calvinism.
If anyone asks me what i think about Calvinism, i will say, Please answer my question first, What do you think about Paulinism, the Paulinistic doctrine?
Paul’s doctrine is a lot simpler than Calvin’s doctrine, and the example he left to follow a much higher example than the one Calvin left.
One of the differences between Paul and Calvin was that Paul taught BOTH election and freewill/accountability, while Calvin taught election and discarded freewill/accountability.
September 28, 2013 at 11:48 pm
Predestination and freewill are both presented in the Bible. It is a mystery, and all the real men of God thru the ages acknowledged that it is a mystery which the human mind cannot wrap itself around.
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Charles Spurgeon on Free Will and Predestination.
https://www.bible.com/de/notes/4084468