John Calvin

==Libellous attacks by Catholics==
Writing a biography of Calvin in 1577, [[Jérôme-Hermès Bolsec|Jerome Bolsec]] claimed that Calvin had committed [[sodomy]] while in Noyon in 1527 (age 18), and that he only at the last minute escaped the standard punishment of being [[burnt at the stake]], instead receiving the very lenient alternative of being branded with a [[fleur-de-lis]] on the shoulder.<ref name=Backus>Backus, Irena. "Roman Catholic Lives of Calvin from Bolsec to Richelieu: Why the Interest?". Section&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=wSza_fU2yI4C&pg=PA31 "Jerome Bolsec"], pp. 26-32 (see 27 last paragraph, 29-32). In Randall C. Zachman, ed. (2008).&nbsp;''John Calvin and Roman Catholicism: Critique and Engagement, Then and Now''. Baker Academic,ISBN&nbsp;080103597X. Accessed 25 Nov 2023.</ref> This is today viewed as libellous slander by Bolsec, a former associate who had fallen out with Calvin and returned to Catholicism, and who accused him posthumously and rhetorically of many "un-Christian" types of sexual behaviour.<ref name=Backus/> Bolsec is known to have conflated events from the lives of at least two men from Noyon named Jean Cauvin, adding to that rumours and fiction, and Irena Backus explains his libellous accusations as a reaction to an over-apologetic article by Beza, who had exaggeratedly praised the reformer's moral qualities.<ref name=Backus/>