Cauvin himself was personally run out of Geneva for his excessive tendency toward authoritarian coercion.
Cautions from him on the risks of authoritarianism truly approach the very apex of hypocrisy that mere mortals can achieve.
1. Interpretations of Scripture that have been the cornerstone of Church teaching for two thousand years are WRONG.
and
2. Interpretations of Scripture by a French lawyer are RIGHT.
Of course, one paradox still remains with sola Cauvin:
1. Did our Lord, Jesus Christ LIE when He said the Holy Spirt would come (which would mean that the Disciples experienced a mass hallucination at the Pentecost).
or
2. Did the Holy Spirit LIE to the Church for 1500 years?
(And keep in mind that EITHER answer means that God LIED.)
lol. If you're interested in the truth you can read the following link. Calvin was asked by the city fathers to leave Geneva so the city could be protected by German Lutheran soldiers to whom Calvin refused to be forced into giving the Lord's Supper because of their belief in consubstantiation.
Calvin then was invited to Strasbourg where he set up a church, met and married his wife, and happily thrived until three years later when the city fathers of Geneva again begged Calvin to return, granting him every concession he asked for regarding freedom of the church.
Calvin's Geneva became a center for righteous scholarship, publishing, commerce, and a haven to many refugees escaping persecution.
Geneva became an international center for publishing and critical scholarship in the 1550s. Dozens of French and English Bibles were permitted to be printed in Geneva during Calvin's time, whereas under Mary Tudor's oppressive reign, use or publication of the Bible in English was prohibited. English exiles streamed to Geneva during the 1550s. By 1555 following the burning of Protestant leader John Rogers at Smithfield in London (Rogers had been seeking to revise Tyndale's Bible), Marian exiles had little reason to stay in England-and many reasons to seek refuge in Europe. Scholars like Miles Coverdale (an Anglican bishop in exile), John Foxe, Christopher Goodman, Anthony Gilby, William Whittingham and others migrated to Geneva and commenced work on the version which became known as the "breeches Bible" (so called after an odd translation of Genesis 3:7). Whittingham, who eventually returned to serve as Bishop of Durham, settled in Geneva from 1555-1563; he oversaw the first printing of the Geneva Bible in 1560. William Whittingham, a relative of Calvin who also had been an Oxford student with sophisticated skill in Hebrew and Greek, is credited with the New Testament translation of the Geneva Bible, first released on June 10, 1557. Anthony Gilby oversaw the translation of the Old Testament [OT], which first appeared in 1560 from Hebrew.[4] The translation of both Testaments resorted to the original sources (instead of to the Latin Vulgate, itself a translation) a hallmark of the Protestant Reformation's scholarly integrity..." "...Knox's opinion of Geneva during Calvin's day represented the admiration of the British Puritans when he stated: "In other places, I confess Christ to be truly preached; but manners and religion so sincerely reformed I have not yet seen in any other place." Others were generous in their praise of the city. A fellow exile from England, William Whittingham, exalted Geneva as "the mirror and model of true religion and piety." A former Italian bishop was equally laudatory, describing Geneva as "a republic whose only sovereign was God, where only seven ministers preached ten times each Sunday . . . and where the entire population were models of piety and concord." Jean Tagaut, a Huguenot professor at Calvin's academy, praised the natural beauty of Geneva as "truly supernatural exaltation" and suspected that "legions of angels watch from the mountains over the safety of the city."[3] Even with hyperbole, the gratitude of these refugees reflects their praise for Geneva, a city that they thought was not only free but also holy. In due time these Scottish, English, and Italian refugees returned to their homelands and became ardent spokesmen for Calvinistic republicanism, widely commending Geneva as a unique and praiseworthy model. During their stay in Geneva, they were free to pursue biblical translation and exploration of more pure ecclesiological practices.