Anton Praetorius

Wikipedia has an interesting aritcl on Anton Praetorius, a German Calvinist pastor who advocated against torture, including the torture of witches. Little forward leaps of thought like this are necessary, for those whose thought is new in some ways hew close to tradition in others. This was the case with Calvin, who despite having been able to veer away from prevailing religious theology in many ways, was a fan of central control, torture, and in particular the torture of witches who he seems to have considered a seditious and insidious form of religious threat to the new one true way. On the other hand, Calvin seems to have punished men equally with women for adultery and been dead set against spousal abuse.