Jerome Hermes Bolsec

d.1585. Controversialist. Member of the order of Carmelites* in Paris, he had been driven from the city as a result of a sermon which he had preached favoring Protestant doctrine. He took up medicine, was converted to Protestantism, and went to Geneva only to find himself in dispute with Calvin on the doctrine of predestination.* He had begun to question the doctrine in private at first, but later ventured to express his opposition in the presence of the congregation. He was prosecuted and banished from Geneva in 1551. He returned to Paris, but was compelled to leave again on his refusal to accept a ruling of the Council of Orleans (1563) ordering him to recant. He eventually returned to the Roman Catholic Church, and died at Lyons. He took revenge in the publication of slanderous biographies on Calvin (1577) and Beza (1582).