Dr. Michael Servetus (Miguel de Servet, 1511-1553) was a Spanish physician [1] trained in Paris. He developed many breakthroughs in the medical field with regard to circulation.
He somehow assumed he was also an expert theologian, and published several theological works, among them: De Trinitatis Erroribus, 1531; Dialogorum de Trinitate, 1532; and Christianismi Restitutio, 1533. In these works, he denied original sin, the Doctrine of the Trinity, the Full Deity of Christ, and the Nicene Creed among other things. He thought himself the man to "restore" the whole of Christianity to its "original truths".
There have been some questions of late concerning the affair of Michael Servetus and his conviction by the Civil authorities at Geneva, Switzerland during John Calvins' tenure there as Pastor.
In blatant and outrageous attempts to discredit John Calvin, several distortions of the truth have been made. Whether these allegations are out of ignorance or malicious design, we leave it to the reader to decide. The event deserves our attention.
What were the charges and what are the facts?
DISTORTION NUMBER ONE:
Did John Calvin have "Michael Servetus burned at the stake"?
The answer is NO!
The Civil powers in Geneva decided his fate, and all the Protestant Swiss Cantons unanimously agreed on the verdict as they were consulted before judgment was passed.
First of all, Calvin was ill at the time. He was also responsible for the Religious community that had taken refuge there. This may have been a chief reason Servetus "forced the issue" by arriving at Geneva while Calvin was ill. Servetus may not have expected Calvins' secretary, Nicholas De La Fontaine[2] to set forth the arguments against his doctrines.
Calvin himself was consulted by the Civil arm before Servetus was sentenced and he advised leniency. The Civil powers in Geneva disregarded Calvins' recommendation. All of the Swiss Cantons were consulted as to the Servetus case, and they all unanimously agreed that Servetus was a heretic.
John Calvin did not have as much power in Geneva as many have been led to believe, nor his detractors have been led to falsely imagine.
The Civil arm executed Servetus, Calvin did not.[3]. Calvin was a proponent of strict separation of Church and State as was Luther. The Religious arm was not empowered to execute anyone.
DISTORTION NUMBER TWO:
Did Calvin "seize Servetus"?
The answer is NO!
The Civil powers arrested Servetus.
How could have John Calvin ever have "seized" Servetus, being ill at the time? A little history is in order here. Previously, Servetus had been "run out of town" for causing public disorder with his preaching, and warned not to return. In the 16th Century, his heresy was looked-upon by both Protestants and Romanists as subversive, similar to being guilty of sedition and treason in our own day.
Before the incident in question, Servetus had been apprehended by the Roman Catholics and was imprisoned to stand trial for his life on the charge of heresy. He had escaped from prison and was on his way to Italy and freedom, when for no reason detoured to Geneva for a "stand-off" with Calvin.
Servetus was well aware of the penalty for heresy, yet he kept returning by his own choice and pressuring Calvin. He was specifically warned the last time he was thrown out, that the next time he returned he would be arrested and put on trial for heresy.
We must remember the the penalty at that time for unrepentant heresy was execution.[4] These were different times. The Roman Catholic Church was hunting Servetus already as a heretic to burn him. He had escaped a Romanist prison. They had already convicted Servetus of heresy and he was a "wanted man". The Romanists had already executed tens of thousands in Europe for similar or lesser offenses, and they would execute many more.
Servetus was preaching denial of the Trinity, denial of original sin and that Jesus was not God the Son. He had published several works on these matters (listed above) and also other statements which were all refuted by Calvin, which was his duty.
DISTORTION NUMBER THREE:
Did John Calvin "murder" Michael Servetus?
The answer is again, NO!
Michael Servetus was sentenced and executed by the Secular arm in Geneva. He was not "murdered", but found guilty of gross heresy and executed according to Civil statutes in effect and deemed lawful at that time in history. Both Romanists and Protestants were acting in a similar fashion toward heretics.
DISTORTION NUMBER FOUR:
Could the execution of John Huss be compared to that of Michael Servetus?
NO!
All of John Huss' doctrines were held by John Calvin, and John Huss himself would have agreed that Michael Servetus' doctrines were indeed heretical.
All the Reformers were outraged at the past execution of John Huss, Calvin included. Further, the chief theologians of the time all agreed Servetus' statements were heresy and that he should be punished according to customary means.
Todays' anti-Calvin calumniators therefore find themselves in the same camp with those who protested Servetus' trial for heresy way back then. They argued that since he was anti-Romanist, he should be accepted by the Protestants. All the Protestant Swiss Cantons were consulted on this matter however, and they all agreed the Servetus was a heretic.
When the trial commenced and it was brought to light just how much heresy Servetus was preaching, those that agreed with Servetus found themselves in the embarrassing position of trying to defend these heresies. There is a partial list below.
On the other hand, there are some today that violently oppose the death penalty, and that is why they vituperate in this matter. Since the Roman Catholic Church has in our own day turned full circle and is now against the death penalty, many Romanists feel justified in attacking the 16th-Century Protestant Swiss. It is well-known, however that their record on this issue is not exactly "lily white". Tens of millions were persecuted. They even dug up William Tyndales' corpse and burned it publically for teaching the Bible should be translated into English. See "Foxes' Book of Martyrs" if anyone has a question.
Then again there are those who are taught to oppose Calvin because he preached Election and Predestination by Grace and not CONDITIONAL SALVATION which they preach and may be unaware that Romanists have preached since Calvins' day.
Sometimes they are not even taught that Martin Luther was alive at the time of John Calvin and read Calvins' works on Election and Predestination and totally agreed with them.
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FOOTNOTES
[1
Calvins' refutations of Servetus' works were totally demolishing. Because of this, Servetus may have realized the the only thing that lay between himself and "universal fame and acceptance" was John Calvin.
Dr. Servetus could very well have believed his medical breakthroughs in the study of circulation and physiological theories could be directly applied en toto to all things human as well as Divine, and that he was some sort of "divine instrument\messenger" to "enlighten mankind". For these and other reasons, he possibly decided to risk sacrificing his very life.
In this, he was "man with a mission" with the courage of his convictions, but would not be suffered to repent for what he was convinced was "ultimate religious-scientific truth". Bible meanings were altered and the Nicene Creed was jettisoned in order to bring some "sense of credibility" to his theories.
Servetus was not judged for disagreeing with Aristotle, as Galileo would later be charged by Rome, he was judged for attempting to overthrow the fundamental Doctrines of the Faith accepted by all 16th-Century Christendom. Servetus was not declared a heretic solely for disagreeing with John Calvin, as the Roman Catholic French Inquisition had already imprisoned Servetus on the same charges but he had escaped.
Amazingly, Servetus was on his way to Italy, but deliberately stopped in Geneva after his prison break to confront Calvin, being well-aware of the warnings he had received from the authorities there the last time he had been thrown out of the city. This wasn't "orchestrated by Calvin", it was orchestrated by Servetus as he decided to make this last visit seemingly "personal". Servetus had also received assurances from an anti-Calvin faction within Geneva that he stood an excellent chance of defeating Calvin in an open debate and being aquitted.
Heretics in Geneva were not imprisoned and executed as the Romanist practice was, but were instead merely thrown out of the city. They were not rounded-up as the Romanists' practice was and turned over to the Iquisition for tortures and burnings. Servetus was also not heinously "tricked" into coming to Geneva, as Rome had done to John Huss, and then executed while under a "Passage of Safe Conduct".
[2
A brief list follows of what Servetus had written and preached publically. It should be remembered that if Servetus would have repented, he would have been released. That is why Farel addressed him even at the last moment. If Servetus would have recanted, he would have been free to go.
A PARTIAL LIST OF WHAT SERVETUS WAS TEACHING
VIII. To wit, whether he has not written and falsely taught and published that to believe in a single essence of God there are three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, is "to create four phantoms, which cannot and ought not to be imagined".
IX. Item, that to put such distinctions into the essence of God is "to cause God to be divided into three parts, and that this is a three-headed devil, like to Cerberus, whom the ancient poets have called the dog of hell, a monster", and things equally injurious.
X. Item, whether he has not maintained such blasphemies most injuriously, as much as against the ancient doctors, such as St. Ambrose, St. Augustin, Chrysostom, Athanasius and the like as against all those who sought in our times to elevate Christianity, even calling to Melancthon "a man without faith, son of the Devil, Belial, and Satan". (Melanchthon was Luthers' close friend).
XI. Item, whether he does not say that our Lord Jesus Christ "is not the Son of God", except in so much as he was conceived of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin Mary. (Servetus denied the Full Divinity of Christ from the foundation of the world).
XII. Item, that those who believe Jesus Christ to have been the word of God the Father, engendered through all eternity, have "a scheme of redemption which is fanciful and of the nature of sorcery".
XV. Item, that divinity was imparted to Jesus Christ only when he was made man, and afterwards "spiritually communicated to the apostles on the day of Pentecost".
XVII. Item, whether he does not condemn those who seek in the essence of God His holy spirit, saying that "all those who believe in the Trinity are atheists". (Servetus did say this, but later qualified his remarks).
XIX. Item, that the word of God is "no other thing than the flesh of Jesus Christ".
XX. Item, that the flesh of Jesus Christ was engendered, out of the substance of God by a word which he calls "seminal."
XXV. Item, that the substance of Jesus Christ is "that which was in the skies", and that this is the same substance whence "proceed the angels and our souls".
XXVI. Item, instead of conferring three persons in the essence of God, or three hypostases which have each His property, he says that God is a single entity, "containing one hundred thousand essences", so that "He is a portion of us, and that we are a portion of His spirit".
XXVII. Item, in consequence whereof not alone the models of all creatures are in God, but also the material forms, so that "our souls are of the substantial seed of the word of God".
XXVIII. Item, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God because he has the elements of the substance of the Father, to wit: "fire, air and water". (this would seem to be an attempt to combine what the common belief of alchemy was at the time with his theology).
XXIX. Item, that the soul of man is mortal, and that the only thing which is immortal is "an elementary breath", which is the substance that Jesus Christ now possesses in heaven and which is also the elementary and divine and incorruptible substance of the Holy Ghost.
XXX. Item, that the Fathers under the Law have "never received the spirit of regeneration". (he may have gotten this from Marcionism, but what the rest of his theology on this was, is not clear).
XXXIII. Item, that they do not commit mortal sin up to the age of twenty.
XXXIV. Item, that the baptism of little children is "an invention of the Devil, an infernal falsehood tending to the destruction of all Christianity".
XXXV. Item, that the word of God is no longer that which it was before the incarnation of Jesus Christ, because its "substance was the clearness of the skies and is now made flesh".
XXXVII. Item, that the "air is the Spirit of God" and that God is called Spirit, because "He breathes life in all things by His spirit of air".
XXXVIII. Item, the soul of man insomuch as it possesses "many divine properties" is "full of an infinity of Gods".
This does not comprise a full list of Servetus' assertions and theology. Those that sought to declare him innocent were now found trying to defend the teachings above, which didn't last long.
[3
Servetus' execution was argued bitterly against by Sebastian Castello, who Calvin previously had expelled from Geneva for his interpretation of the Song of Songs as merely a poem of erotic love.
The faction that opposed his execution found it increasingly more difficult to oppose not only the Protestants and the Romanists, but now the unanimous vote of the Protestant Swiss Cantons as well.
[4
This is seldom mentioned by Calvins' detractors; neither that while Calvin did write scathing denunciations of Servetus' doctrines, he recommended leniency when the time came.
By focusing on Calvin, his detractors have clean missed the whole point of Michael Servetus' motivations. By returning to Geneva, he and his allies orchestrated this "showdown", not Calvin. Servetus possibly truly believed that he would be historically vindicated: theologically, because of his newly-discovered "scientific doctrine"? Did Servetus hope to goad Calvin into rising out of his sickbed while ill, and refute Calvin publically knowing that Calvin was perhaps unfit to debate? Not only that, but did he think that Calvin was so incensed that he would bring the charges himself and so be incarcerated along with Servetus, perhaps dying in prison? Because of anti-Calvin support in Geneva, he definitely miscalculated the ultimate reaction against his theology. At any rate, Servetus clearly saw that Calvins' refutations were more respected than his own ideas about the Bible and felt this was the time to settle it once and for all.
Thus the tragedy of Michael Servetus and the short-sightedness of Calvins' detractors; and both of their tragic flaws.
Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity. Peabody, Massachusetts. Prince Press. 1999.