Posted: Sun May 23, 2010 2:56 am Post subject: Calvin's Judicial Murder of Michael Servetus
Calvin's Judicial Murder of Michael Servetus
By John Thomas Didymus
Michael Servetus (Miguel Serveto 1511-1553) was an intellectual who made original contributions in several fields of human knowledge, the most notable of which was his description of the pulmonary circulation. Unfortunately, his productive life was cut short by his crossing paths with John Calvin, the famous leader of the protestant reformation in Switzerland.
Servetus was born in Spain to a family with Jewish blood links. He is said to have been very gifted in languages having studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew under Dominican friars. He attended the University of Toulouse, in France, and got a degree in law. After leaving school Servetus traveled in Germany and Italy. By 1530 he was in Basel where he worked as a proofreader. He read widely during this time and, in July 1531, he published his first work "On the Errors of the Trinity," and the following year another titled, "Dialogues on Trinity." He returned to Paris in 1536 to study medicine.
In his two books, Servetus rejected the Church doctrine of the Trinity. He believed that it was not a biblical doctrine. He urged a return to what he considered the simplicity of the Gospels, for in his views, the Trinity doctrine had been influenced by the pagan philosophies of the Greeks.
Servetus found no sympathy in Europe both from Catholics and Protestants alike who believed in the Trinity and considered all Unitarians heretics. Servetus started a medical practice near Lyon and practiced for about fifteen years. He was personal physician to some important personalities. During this time he also published two new works on Ptolemy's Geography. Servetus persisted in his anti-Trinitarian beliefs and in 1553 he published a work which criticized John Calvin's doctrine of predestination. Calvin considered this work a personal attack on him. Servetus had been publishing under a pen name for several years but he was soon corresponding openly with Calvin.
Calvin, at first, made a show of tolerating the "heretic," but he soon ran out of patience and stopped communicating with him. Servetus unwisely persisted in sending letters to Calvin and soon Calvin had grown impatient with what he considered Servetus' impertinent tone
A friend of Calvin's, in 1553, denounced Servetus as heretic in Vienna, and Servetus was held for questioning by the French inquisitor. He was released for lack of evidence. However, the letters that Servetus had sent to Calvin were soon produced as evidence and Servetus was again arrested by the Roman Catholic authorities and imprisoned. He managed to escaped from prison but was convicted of heresy and sentenced to be burned to death. The Catholic authorities burned his books and effigy in his absence.
Why Servetus returned to Geneva after he had escaped death in the hands of the Catholics remains a mystery to this day. But on August 13, 1553, he was present at a sermon by Calvin in Geneva. He was arrested and again sent to prison. Servetus might have thought that Calvin, a protestant, would be unwilling to have him condemned to death, but it turned out that he had been mistaken in his assessment of Calvin's pious personality. He was condemned for spreading heretical doctrines. Servetus had only very few supporters: the party of Libertines who were opposed to his execution but enjoyed very little support.
Servetus was sentenced to death on 27 October 1553. He was burned at the stake after the Geneva Council rejected Calvin's request that he be decapitated rather than burned at the stake.
Calvin's position on Servetus was made plain throughout the affair. He wanted nothing short of the death of the man who had dared raise his opinions against his. Calvin revealed a personality trait typical of men imbued with a deep sense of service to God in matters of high principles which are thought to absolve the "man of God" of all humane considerations. In Calvin's words: "...we spare not kin, nor blood of any, and disdain all humanity when the matter is to fight for God's glory."
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