Jérôme-Hermès Bolsec

Jérôme-Hermès Bolsec (b. probably at Paris, date unknown; d. at Lyons c. 1584) was a French Carmelite theologian and physician, who became a Protestant and controversialist.

A sermon which he preached at Paris aroused misgivings in Catholic circles regarding the soundness of his ideas, and Bolsec left Paris. Having separated from the Catholic Church about 1545, he took refuge at the Court of Renée, duchess of Ferrara, who was favourably disposed towards persons holding Protestant views. Here he married, and began the study of medicine, about 1550 settling as a physician at Veigy, near Geneva.

A theological controversy with John Calvin, whose doctrine of predestination he deemed an absurdity, soon ensued. In 1551, at one of the religious conferences or public discussions, then held at Geneva every Friday, he interrupted the orator of the day, Jean de Saint André, who was speaking on predestination, and argued against him. Bolsec was arrested, and through the influence of the reformer banished from Geneva (1551).

In 1555 he was also driven from Thonon, in the Bernese territory, whither he had retired. He went to Paris and sought admission into the ministry of the Reformed Church. But his opinions were not found sufficiently orthodox, from a reformed point of view, for one wishing to hold such a position. He was asked for a declaration of faith, but refused.

He went to Lausanne (c. 1563), but as the signing of the Confession of Bern was made a condition of his residence here, he preferred to return to France. Shortly after this, he recanted his errors, was reconciled with the Catholic Church, and published biographies of the two Genevan reformers, Calvin and Theodore Beza (1519-1605). These works are violent in tone, and their historical statements cannot always be relied on. They are "Histoire de la view, des moeurs . . . de Jean Calvin" (Lyons and Paris, 1577; published in Latin at Cologne in 1580; German tr. 1581); "Histoire de la vie et des m urs de Th. de B�ze" (Paris, 1582). The life of Calvin was edited by L. F. Chastel in 1875 with extracts from the life of Beza.

A book review in the 14 June 2002 Times Literary Supplement by Alister McGrath of Wycliffe Hall at Oxford includes this passage: "Jerome Bolsec, with whom Calvin crossed swords in 1551, went on to publish a scurrilous (but highly entertaining) life of Calvin in 1577. His subject, according to Bolsec, was irredeemably tedious and malicious, bloodthirsty and frustrated. He treated his own words as if they were the word of God, and allowed himself to be worshipped by his followers. In addition to frequently engaging in homosexual activity, he had an undiscriminating habit of indulging himself sexually with any female within walking distance. Thus, according to Bolsec, Calvin resigned his benefices at Noyon on account of the public exposure of his homosexuality. Bolsec's biography makes much more interesting reading than the more deferential biographies of Theodore Beza [Calvin's associate who was, himself, accused of homosexuality] and Nicolas Colladon."

References

*Fritz in "Kirchenlexikon"
*Schaff, "History of the Christian Church" (New York, 1903), VII, 614-621
*Walker, "John Calvin" (New York, 1906), 116-119, 315-320.
*CathEncy|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02643a.htm|title=Jérôme-Hermès Bolsec
*John Calvin, "Actes du procès Intenté par Calvin et les autres ministres de Genève à Jérome Bolsec de Paris" (1551), Corpus Reformatorum (Brunsvigae, 1870), vol. 36, "Opera", vol. 8, 141-248, C. A. Schwetschke et Filium (M. Bruhn.)