Ami Perrin

Ami Perrin (died 1561) was a Swiss Libertine and one of the most powerful figures in Geneva in the 16th century as chief opponent of religious reformer John Calvin's rule of the city.

[Ami Perrin] wanted to be elaborately dressed and to live well, and was not merely dainty in his eating, which means to desire little but the best, but dainty and gluttonous together, since he must have plenty of the best.

Perrin's father was a dealer in wooden vessels who later expanded into cloth retail and married the daughter of a thriving apothecary from Piedmont. Their only child, Ami, they fawned over and spoiled excessively. Perrin was associated with the Eidguenots, Geneva's anti-Savoyard party and in 1529 commanded a company against the Duke of Savoy. During the 1530s he was a partisan of Protestant reformist John Calvin, and a convinced "Guillermin", but considered himself poorly rewarded for this support. The Perrins were a prominent and wealthy Genevese family which strongly supported the independence of the city and invited Calvin back from Strasbourg in 1541. However, Perrin became disillusioned with Calvin's rule, specifically the large number of immigrants and foreign ministers, and was concerned that the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V would capture the city as part of his campaign against the German princes. Perrin, who was at this point a man of great reputation and authority in Geneva, led the Libertine faction in the city which argued against Calvin's "insistence that church discipline should be enforced uniformly against all members of Genevan society". In 1547, Perrin was elected captain-general of the city's militia.

He married Françoise Favre, the daughter of François Favre, a merchant draper and former Eidguenot who was active on the Council and prosecuted in 1547 for accusing Calvin of proclaiming himself bishop of Geneva. Françoise appeared before the consistory (the congregation's governing body of elected officials) the same year, for the offence of dancing. Resisting the authority of Church elders, she claimed the right to punish her was reserved for her husband, Ami, who was in France representing the city before Henry II at the time. Returning to Geneva in September of that year, Perrin famously proclaimed before the court:

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