What did some of the Anabaptists and Servetus as well in Calvins' time believe and teach? Here is a statement from Calvin that they were anti-Semitic at root. Something that Calvin was strongly against.
"This discussion, which would have been most useful at any rate, has been rendered necessary by that monstrous miscreant Servetus, and some madmen of the sect of the Anabaptists, who think of the people of Israel just as they would do of some herd of swine,[1] absurdly imagining that the Lord gorged them with temporal blessings here, and gave them no hope of a blessed immortality - seeing they think that our Lord only wished to fatten them on the earth as in a sty, without any hope of heavenly immortality. Let us guard pious minds against this pestilent error, while we at the same time remove all difficulties which are wont to start up when mention is made of the difference between the Old and the New Testaments."
Institutes, Book II, Chapter 10:1
The Anabaptists had been declared heretics by the Roman Catholic Church. They then attempted to enter the Protestant Reformation Churches as "protestants" because they were against Roman Catholicim that had pronounced them heretics.
The Protestants, however, did also Rule the Anabaptists were heretics.
These were the early Anabaptists who rejected the Civil Arm as having any authority over them. There was more than just one group. Later, other groups who took the name Anabaptist emerged that were not as radical, but although anti-Roman Catholic, were never considered Protestants by the Protestants.
Almost the same thing could be said of Servetus. He had been jailed by the Roman Catholics to be tried for heresy. He escaped. Instead of going to Italy, he went to Calvins' Geneva instead to challenge the leading voice of the Reformation who opposed him. Perhaps Servetus thought that if he could defeat Calvin in a debate, he could be the new "protestant leader"? Calvin had also said that Servetus was a heretic and all the Swiss Cantons agreed with Calvin about Servetus. This prevented Servetus from calling himself "Protestant".
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[1
"If I had been a Jew, and seen such stupidity and such blockheadedness rule in the Christian Church, I would rather have been a pig than a Christian. They have treated the Jews as if they were dogs, not men; and have done nothing but revile them. They are blood relations of our Lord; therefore, if it were proper to boast of flesh and blood, the Jews belong to Christ more than we...Therefore it is my advice to treat them kindly." Martin Luther. (Graetz. Vol IV. p. 470.)
Graetz, H. History of the Jews. New York. Jewish Publication Society of America. New York. 1956.
