The Consolidation of Anti-Calvinism in Francophone Switzerland

The network of anti-Calvinists in the Suisse romande continued to grow through the late 1540s and 1550s, and the early centers of Calvin’s opponents began to coalesce regionally around André Zébédée and Jacques de Bourgogne, Seigneur de Falais. This chapter presents the fullest treatment to date of Zébédée, one of the most important but least studied opponents of the Calvinists. At first, Zébédée was friends with the Calvinists, but he broke with them for their abandonment of Zwinglian theology of the Eucharist and the ministry. In the 1550s, Zébédée teamed up with Jerome Bolsec, who criticized Calvin’s doctrine of predestination, and Jacques de Falais, whose estate at Veigy became a regional anti-Calvinist center. In 1555, Zébédée, Bolsec, and Jean Lange complained about the Calvinists to the Bernese, who banned Calvinism in the Vaud.