Besides all the frolicking among the defrocked, the Protestants' new marriage laws created the need for another innovation: divorce.
However, Calvin and Co. didn't sanction it as an easy way out.
Divorce was meant to free husbands and wives if their spouses were at fault, especially if they'd committed adultery—a crime punishable by death in Geneva.
Though that may seem a bit harsh (maybe it's just me), Calvin's draconian code was designed to defend the City of God's reputation abroad and quash sex scandals at home.
When it came to the latter, not even the Reformer was safe: Calvin himself helped prosecute his sister-in-law not once but twice for alleged hanky-panky under his very own roof.
Jean's brother, Antoine, and his wife, Anne, had lived for years in the Reformer's house in Geneva.
HUNCHBACK LOVE
In 1557, though, the Calvin brothers publicly accused Anne of having cheated on Antoine with a former employee who was also a hunchback—several witnesses had seen him pulling up his trousers after being alone with her.
What's more, Anne had previous: eight years earlier, the Calvins had hauled her up in court for consorting with a member of the bourgeoisie.
The young man admitted having tried to seduce her, but both he and Anne swore they hadn't had sex.
That trial had ended with Anne on her knees, begging forgiveness from the Calvins, who in turn accepted her apology.
When she brought them into disrepute again, though, they weren't so forgiving.
Anne's hunchbacked friend had fled, so she faced her interrogators alone.
Tortured at least twice with thumbscrews, she steadfastly denied adultery (and may well have been innocent), saving herself from the death penalty.
Instead, the judges banished her.
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