[the_conscience]

Liberty of conscience stands counterpoised not only to God's spiritual law, but also to the Catholic Church's canon law. Like other early Protestants, Calvin had little faith in the vast system of canon law rules and structures by which the Church had come to govern spiritual life and much of temporal life.34 He issued a bitter broadside against the arguments from Scripture, tradition, and the sacraments which the Church had adduced to support its canon law system.35 "[T]he power to frame laws was both unknown to the apostles, and many times denied the ministers of the church by God's Word," he argued.36 And, again, "it is not a church which, passing the bounds of God's Word, wantons and disports itself to frame new laws and dream up new things" for spiritual life.37