Calvin's Spoof Proofs

Henry Beveridge describes the Articles agreed upon by the Faculty of Sacred Theology of Paris, in reference to matters of faith at present controverted with the antidote [1542] by John Calvin :

The object being to expel every man whose convictions would not allow him to subscribe, care was taken to exhibit the most obnoxious tenets of Popery in the strongest terms in which it was possible to state them, and thereby render evasion impossible. The effect has been to give an air of absurdity to the gravest of their statements, and make it difficult to treat them with seriousness. To this circumstance, the form which Calvin has given to his Antidote is probably to be ascribed. He first gave an Article, and immediately subjoins what he calls the Proof. You accordingly begin to read, never doubting that the Proof is from the pen of the Sorbonnist who framed the Article, but soon meet with arguments, which, though very much in the manner of a Sorbonnist, tell most powerfully against him, and reveal the fact, that what purports to be a Proof by the Sorbonist is indeed a proof – not, however, of the thing said to be proved, but of its opposite; in other words, is a Reductio as absurdum by Calvin.

This mode of refutation probably told better in Paris than the most solid discussion would have done; but Calvin, apparently aware that ridicule, especially in matters of religion, is a dangerous, and from its very nature an imperfect weapon, fitted only to demolish error, and not to establish truth, immediately subjoins what properly forms the Antidote, viz. a clear statement of sound doctrine, confirmed by passages of Scripture, and supported by numerous quotations from the Fathers.

(Calvin, John, Calvin’s Tracts 3 volumes Calvin Translation Society Translated by Henry Beveridge Edinburgh 1844 (Eugene, Wipf and Stock, 2002) Volume 1, Preface, ppvii-viii)