Abstract

In 1544, two anonymous works attributed to Calvin were published against the theologians of the Sorbonne and the censorship of Reformed ideas. The first was a sarcastic caricature ridiculing the way the Parisian doctors worked, in which the forced line imitated the form of the reproaches levelled at Protestants, since Calvin was regularly accused of remarks he had never made. The second, on the other hand, is very serious and sets out in detail the accusations made by the University of Paris and their carefully argued refutation. In this article, we present the original architecture of this manipulation and discuss a few aspects of its remarkable pragmatic effectiveness.