This paper discusses the doctrinal foundations of criminal law in Calvin’s ecclesiology, namely his theology of the original sin, and its practical implementation in Geneva’s consistory. On these grounds, I analyse the distinction between civil and ecclesiastical criminal law. Both State and Church were granted by Calvin a ius gladii, but only the former can claim a right to impose physical punishment, whereas the latter should just punish spiritually. Here lays, in my view, the difference between law and discipline.

Les chercheurs doivent citer ce travail comme suit :

• García-Alonso, M., (2025), "Le pouvoir disciplinaire chez Calvin", HSSCommons: (DOI: )

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1. Renaissance and Reformation

Original publication: García-Alonso, Marta. "Le pouvoir disciplinaire chez Calvin." Renaissance and Reformation 33 (4): 2011. 29-49. DOI: 10.33137/rr.v33i4.15970. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Iter Canada / Renaissance and Reformation. Copyright © the author(s). Their work is distributed by Renaissance and Reformation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.