Watt's The Consistory and Social Discipline in Calvin's Geneva is the culmination of a lifetime of working in the rich archives of Geneva with some of the most difficult scripts accessible to twenty-first-century paleographers. Much work was with the registers of the Consistory of Geneva, a morals court founded by John Calvin in 1541 to convert inhabitants of Geneva and Geneva's countryside into a community of believers with Reformed convictions, rejecting Catholic practices, and embracing morality.

This book is appropriate for a wide range of readers, from scholars (whether knowledgeable or ignorant of Genevan history), to students (graduate or undergraduate), to the casual reader browsing in a church library. Access is facilitated by this book being downloadable free from JSTOR and other repositories. This book is useful for classroom use, especially for group work, because it is divided into seven distinct chapters, each complete in itself but all integrated into the whole. A syllabus that would not bear the addition of 229 pages of assigned reading plus seventy pages of notes could easily accommodate around thirty pages of one chapter of this book plus group discussion with six other students who had each read one of the six other chapters.

Much has been written about the Geneva Consistory in general terms. One of the strengths of Watt's book is the attention to chronology and detail. This is most obvious in the first chapter, “The Consistory Encounters Resistance.” The Consistory experienced resistance especially during the first fourteen years of its existence, during which some powerful Genevan families complained about a disciplinary program that they considered imposed by illegitimate foreigners: the pastors of Geneva, most of whom were French, during the extended presence of Calvin in Geneva from 1541 to his death in 1564.

Chapter 1 covers the rise and fall of the Perrinistes, named after Ami Perrin. Self-described as “Enfants de Genève,” Calvin's supporters called them “Libertines.” They objected to aspects of the disciplinary program, such as condemning dancing as sin, including circle dances at weddings. The Perrinistes also objected to foreign Frenchmen imposing a disciplinary program onto native Genevans such as themselves, although the politically astute Calvin had included, besides the pastors, members of the city's councils, called elders, on the Consistory. Elders were predominantly native Genevans when Calvin was in Geneva. After the Libertines’ defeat, deaths, and expulsions from Geneva in 1555, the pastors had a much freer hand to expand their disciplinary agenda without resistance.

The chapters that follow chapter 1 are equally intriguing: chapter 2, “The Push for Religious Uniformity”; 3, “Educating and Disciplining the Young”; 4, “Controlling Lust and Regulating Marriage”; 5, “Superstitions, Magic, and Witchcraft”; 6, “Promoting the Industrious and Sober Lifestyle”; and 7, “Conflicts, Reconciliation, and the Confession of Sins.” Throughout, Watt not only describes how the Genevan Consistory handles problems but also compares it with past practice and with other courts of the era, such as the Catholic Inquisitions. Watt counts how many women as compared to men are convoked for particular offenses and compares with other venues. He provides political and economic context. Particularly helpful to the sophisticated reader are the precise details and exact dates provided for events that one might be somewhat vague about, such as the Conspiracy of Amboise (204, 294n63).

Not to be missed are seventy pages of notes, which regrettably are at the end of the text rather than the foot of each page. Not only is the information valuable, but Jeffrey Watt slips into the first person, stating frankly his own opinion (if one has not already surmised) that he thinks of the Consistory as a positive force for building, relatively quickly, a Reformed community at the price of condoning and even enabling beatings by teachers of schoolboys and husbands of wives. The Consistory limited extremely brutal behavior, but its limits were not where twenty-first-century people would place them. Viewing this intrusive society through the eyes of the disadvantaged, however, the Consistory saved many a child from negligent parents and many a victim from brutal bullying. With a cooperative laity, little abuse could be completely hidden. Genevans supported the Consistory, even appearing with a guilty conscience without being convoked.