[aruanan]

It is only fair to wonder what could be the nature of such a burning self-reproach. There is one answer, based upon serious evidence, one that has always been passionately denied by the Protestants. In 1551, a Catholic controversialist revealed that the archives of the city of Noyon, Calvin's birth place, contain the record of a condemnation against Calvin, at age 18, for sodomy. He had by then already received the tonsure. His parents obtained clemency from the bishop, so that instead of being condemned to death as the law demanded, he was branded as a sign of infamy. The Catholic controversialist presented the evidence signed by all the eminent personages of the city. The English scholar Stapleton went there to examine the archives during Calvin's lifetime, and vouched for the fact. The contemporary German Lutherans spoke of it as an established fact (Schlusselburg, Théologie calvinienne).

This is of doubtful origin, though.

See this link to a rebuttal from a Catholic source: Refuting the Ludicrous Anti-Protestant Sodomy Charge Against John Calvin.

[Natural Law]

"This is of doubtful origin, though."

It is a far more credible scenario than the "Pope was a Nazi lies" that have been told ad naseum on this site by the anti-Catholics and a clear indicator of the "flexible" standards applied to stories about the Church. From my extensive reading on Calvin I tend to believe it.