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Geneva_Total_State

One of the first examples of a total state (totalitarianism) was the state of Geneva under Calvin's influence as President of the Directory. It utilized a system of spying on individual citizens.

The clearest first-hand proof is to read "Ordinances for the Supervision of Churches for the Country, February 3, 1547" from Calvin, Calvin's Treatises (ed. J.K. Reid) at 77 et seq. Just one example among many will suffice:

“In anyone sings songs that are unworthily, dissolute or outrageous, or spin wildly round in the dance, or the like, he is to be imprisoned for three days, and then sent to the Consistory.” Id. at 81.

Philip Schaff tells of a Lutheran minister who visited Geneva, “When I was in Geneva I observed something great which I shall remember and desire as long as I live…[which was] the weekly investigations into the conduct, and even the smallest transgression, of the citizens.” (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (New York, Scribner,1910) at 502.)

Laurence Vance writes, "Calvin was involved in every conceivable aspect of city life... He was consulted not only on all important state
affairs, but on the supervision of the markets..." (Laurence M. Vance, The Other Side of Calvinism (1999) at 85.)

"To regulate lay conduct a system of domiciliary visits was established...and questioned the occupants on all phases of their lives...
The allowable color and quantity of clothing, and the number of dishes permissible at a meal, were specified by law. Jewelry and
lace were frowned upon. A woman was jailed for arranging her hair to an immoral height..." (Will Durant, "The Reformation," The Story of Civilization (1957) at 474.)

Philip Schaff:

"It is impossible to deny that this kind of legislation savors more of the austerity of old heathen Rome and the Levitical code than of the gospel of Christ, and the actual exercise of discipline was often petty, pedantic and unnecessarily severe" (History of the Christian Church, Vol. 8, pg. 464.)  

Lewis Mumford echoes Schaff:

"Calvin's Church claimed for itself a more constant supervision over every detail of human life than Rome had claimed. So long as the sinner did not cut himself off from God by heresy, the Catholic Church was lenient to him.  But Calvin's government practised no such indulgence: its aim was to reduce temptation and to root out sin: even little errors in conduct required correction" (10, pgs. 189, 190).

(February 2011)