28 The Burning of Servetus
The Burning of Servetus
There is no event that so clearly demonstrates the hatred of the Reformers for the Anabaptists as the burning of Michael Servetus does. Nothing so embarrasses the devotees of John Calvin, and there is no event they have worked so hard at explaining away. But facts are stubborn things. They sometimes refuse to be quiet. The mock trial and burning of Servetus has been an embarrassment to Calvin’s admirers for over four hundred years, and their historians have done all within their power to prove Calvin had the right to have him killed. If they cannot prove it was right to kill him, they would at least prove that his treatment was an aberration, and not the customary practice. The Reformers never had as much opportunity, and for as long a time, as the Catholics did, but to the limit of their ability they were just as brutal as the Catholic Inquisitors ever were. The story of Servetus sheds valuable light on the attitude and the conduct of the Reformers toward those who differed with them. The defenders of John Calvin do all they can to explain away the execution of Michael Servetus, and we should expect they would. But to those not so slavishly committed to the memory of Calvin the matter seems very clear.
Calvin had a long-standing grudge against Servetus, and for 20 years he watched for the opportunity to get his revenge.
Servetus was clearly an intellectual giant. He was already a well known scholar in European intellectual circles when he first met Calvin, and Calvin was jealous. At that time Calvin had not yet made his mark. To give just one example of Servetus’ work, James Harvey gets the credit for the discovery of the circulation of blood, but Servetus wrote about the subject 25 years before Harvey was born.
Servetus was obviously a man with a towering intellect, and an ego to match. He had profound discussions with Oeco-lampadius, Bucer, and Capito, and other leaders of the Reformation, before he met Calvin. As soon as they did meet, they had an instant dislike for each other. Calvin did not like the attitude of Servetus and he challenged him to a debate. But Servetus acted as if Calvin was a nobody, and defeating him was not worth the effort. Calvin carried a grudge against Servetus from that time until he finally had him arrested and burnt in Geneva, Switzerland.
Robert Robinson (Robinson’s Researches, 1792) provides a very good account of their relationship, and most of our comments about Calvin and Servetus will be excerpts from that book. (Rather than insert a long series of page references, suffice it to say that all the quotes from Robinson are found from pages 327 to 342 of that book).
Servetus opposed the doctrine of the Trinity, and he wrote several books on the subject. But it should be safe to say that nothing he wrote gave Calvin the right to trap him like a animal, and have him roasted alive.
Robinson tells us, “While the inquisitorial courts were making havoc with Moors, Jews, and heretics in Spain, there appeared, in the year fifteen hundred and thirty, a young gentleman of about nineteen or twenty years of age....named Michael Servede....He was himself an original genius, of a manly spirit, bold in his inquiries after truth, and generous as the day in communicating his opinions, not doubting that he had as much right to investigate the doctrine of the Trinity as others had that of transubstantiation.”
“He was a student in his earliest youth and understood Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; and in some degree philosophy and mathematics before he was fifteen. He was only eighteen when he published his first book against the Trinity.”
“It was said just now, that Servetus was in part a stranger to the spirit of the Reformers. He had indeed experienced a little of it in Oecolampadius and Bucer, who had discovered much indignation at the presumption of the young man for daring to call in question doctrines....not only held and taught, but taught as truths so indisputable, that it was even a crime to suspect whether they were true.”
“Bucer declared from the pulpit, that Servetus ‘deserved to be cut in pieces, and his bowels torn out of him.’ Little doth a young generous mind, like that of Severtus, know to what a degree of settled hatred and savage zeal old habits of speculation rise in the hearts of some orthodox divines.”
Bucer was one of the Reformers Servetus had debated privately. This statement by Bucer-from the pulpit- demonstrates something about the preaching and the attitudes of the Calvinistic Reformers.
Bucer raged from the pulpit that he wanted Servetus mutilated and disemboweled. To say the least, that is not the kind of language you expect from a follower of the Savior of sinners-and certainly not from the pulpit. Our Calvinist friends have done a good job of covering their tracks. Otherwise such quotes would be emblazoned across the pages of history.
Robinson goes on to talk about the political maneuvering of these Protestant preachers, “endeavoring to enlist princes” to assist them in their efforts (in the words of Bucer) to see to it that Servetus is “cut in pieces, and his bowels torn from him.”
Robinson goes on, “Beside, they were endeavoring to enlist princes under their standards of faith, and they entertained hopes of winning the emperor over to their party; while Servetus, young, vigorous, and wholly unconnected, aimed at nothing but truth, and pushed his inquiries without keeping or pretending to keep measures with any party. In this spirit he quitted Germany, and went to the University of Paris. There he studied mathematics and physick [medi-cine], and was admitted master of arts and doctor of medicine. Here he became acquainted with Calvin, who was then at Paris, and who, as Servetus made no secret of his religious principles, opposed his notions, and appointed a time to hold a conference with him, which for some reason Servetus declined....It is clear from many anecdotes, which afterwards transpired, he had no great opinion, either of the genius or religion of Calvin. They were much of an age, and it is not improbable, that Servetus, who was a high spirited man, declined a contest, in which he thought a victory would not do him much honor.”
“Servetus had examined the works of Calvin very carefully, and not finding they deserved the great reputation, which they had acquired among the reformed, he consulted him not so much to be instructed by him as to perplex him....Servetus disputed every word, and pushed hard, and....[Calvin]....felt his oracular dignity hurt, and taxed him with pride.” In retrospect, we realize that Servetus had much to do with bringing about his own death. He was a man of unques-tioned genius. Considering all he accomplished and at such a young age, it is likely that had he lived, and his work been preserved, he would have been ranked with the greatest intellects of the age. At the moment, he was entertaining himself by challenging and pestering another great intellect. He was young and naive, and he, obviously, had no idea how dangerous it was to challenge a man with such powerful political connections and such bloody motives as John Calvin. He was having fun annoying the great Calvin. He must not have realized that every letter he wrote only stirred up a spiteful preacher who wanted nothing more than to have him killed-and who had the connections to get it done.
Servetus was not in Geneva, and it did not appear likely he was ever going to be. So Calvin began a letter writing campaign enlisting his friends, both Catholics and Protestants, to help catch him. Servetus continued to entertain himself by writing Calvin, and pointing out mistakes in his writings.
Robinson goes on, “Of all Calvin’s works his favorite production was the book entitledChristian Institutes. Servetus read this book, as a critic should do, with his reasoning powers in free exercise, and finding in it a great number of mistakes and errors, he took the liberty to inform the author of them. This so irritated Calvin that he never forgave him, and instead of profiting by the advice of the critic, he wrote letters to his friends Viret and Farel, ‘that if ever this heretic should fall into his hands, he would order it so, that it should cost him his life.’”
“In the year [fifteen] fifty-three Servetus printed at Vienne his chief work, entitledChristianismi Restitutio.....It was printed without the name of the author, or of the city, or of the printer......By the way, it is in the fifth book of the first part of this work, that the famous passage concerning the circulation of the blood is found. Servetus was the first physician who mentioned it.”
“Calvin, who had proselytes and spies everywhere, had an admirer at Geneva, one William Trie, a native of Lyon.... Trie communicated Arney’s letters to Calvin, who dictated answers to them, so that they are, as Mr. D’Artigny, who published them from originals, calls them, Calvin’s letters under the name of William Trie.” In these letters Calvin sent the Catholic authorities evidence against Servetus and pestered them as to why they did not burn Servetus. Robinson records him as writing, “‘You cruelly burn us....Where, pray, is the zeal you pretend to? And where is the wisdom of this fine hierarchy you magnify so much?’”
“This letter occasioned a prosecution against Servetus. Arney carried the letter with the sheet to Ory the inquisitor. Ory, finding there was not sufficient matter to cause an arrest, dictated a letter to Arney addressed to Trie, entreat-ing him, to send the whole work entire. ‘Calvin, says Mr. D’Artigny, ‘charmed with finding that every thing succeeded according to his desire, composed an answer in the name of his confidant, and sent other papers, which were more than sufficient to convict Servetus.”
“The two letters characterize this pretended reformer to perfection, who with an external show of great moderation, and an ardent zeal for religion, meditated nothing else but revenge for personal injuries.’” On the fourth of April he was arrested and put in prison awaiting trial, but he escaped. “Four months the doctor concealed himself, nobody knows where. Having determined to go to Naples, and settle there in the practice of his profession, he took his way through Geneva, but kept close for fear of a discovery. While he waited for a boat to cross the lake in his way to Zurick, by some means Calvin got intelligence of his arrival; and although it was on a Sunday, yet he prevailed upon the chief syndick to arrest and imprison him.”
“As it was necessary for some person to prosecute Servetus, Calvin employed one of his own family, a Nicholas de la Fontaine....Calvin did not blush to say, ‘I ordered it so that a party should be found to accuse him, not denying that the action was drawn up by my advice.’ What a glorious reformation had been wrought at Geneva, when the proof of a man’s Christianity lay in his humbly requesting the magistrates to burn a foreign gentleman, over whom they had no jurisdiction, for the honor of God and his eminent servant Mr. Calvin.”
“The doctor was arrested and imprisoned on Sunday the thirteenth of August. That very day he was brought into court, and short as the notice had been, La Fontaine was ready prepared, and accused him of the capital crime of heresy, in proof of which he produced a copy of the doctor’sPtolemy, a Latin Bible with his marginal notes, and a manuscript, which had never been printed, and which six years ago he had sent to Calvin to know what he thought of it. Calvin therefore furnished La Fontaine with evidence, such as it was, against the prisoner, and he expressly affirms, ‘La Fontaine demanded justice against him by my advice.’ Those are his own words.”
“On a future day, Calvin appeared in court, and disputed with him on the wordspersonandhypostasis; and yet he knew if he succeeded in convicting the prisoner of heresy, the crime was capital, and he was doomed by the law to die.”
“On the twenty-second the doctor [Servetus] presented a petition to the syndicks and council, which consists of three articles. First he petitions to be discharged from the criminal accusation of a capital offence, because the apostles, and the primitive church had no notion of making a criminal process of any doctrine of the scripture, or any questions arising from it.”
“Secondly, he prays to be discharged, because he had not committed any civil offence, either in their territories or anywhere else; because he had never been seditious or turbulent: because the questions before the court were difficult, and ought to be left to learned men: and because he had never spoke of them even in Germany to any more than three, Oecolampadius, Bucer, and Capito. He ought not to be punished, he said, for proposing questions to divines without any sedition.”
“Lastly, he humbly requests, as he was a foreigner, and wholly unacquainted with the laws and customs of the republic, that they would grant him counsel to speak for him. The petition was rejected....What chance had this poor gentleman for his life?”
“In this deplorable situation, far from his own country; fallen into the hands of cruel strangers, all under the influence of Calvin his avowed enemy, who bore him a mortal hatred; stripped of all his property; [he was] confined in a damp prison, and neglected till he was almost eaten up with vermin, denied an advocate, and loaded with every indignity that barbarity could invent.”
“The pretense of heresy was a mere farce. Calvin did but half believe the Trinity himself....Omitting a great number of maneuvers of injustice and cruelty, the last act of this tragedy was performed at Geneva on the twenty-seventh of October, fifteen hundred and fifty three....and on this day, with many brutal circumstances, the sentence was executed to the encouragement of Catholic cruelty, to the scandal of the pretended Reformation, to the offence of all just men, and to the everlasting disgrace of those ecclesiastical tyrants, who were the chief instruments of such a wild and barbarous deed.”
“Servetus was not a subject of the republic of Geneva; he had committed no offence against the laws of the state; he was passing peaceably on the road, which lay through the city; he was not a member of any Reformed church; he was a useful and honorable member of society; he was a man of unimpeached morality; he was then the admiration of numbers of good judges, who afterward pleaded his cause; for from him proceeded partly, if not wholly the unitarian Baptist churches in most parts of Europe.”
There can be no question that Servetus helped to bring on his own downfall. He pestered Calvin and kept him stirred up. But that is hardly an excuse for this preacher to spend so many years of his life plotting to have his antagonist killed. When Servetus was finally in his power, Calvin had him tried for his life before a justice of the peace. He denied him the benefit of a jury trial. Even though he was a foreigner, and unacquainted with the laws of Geneva, Calvin denied him a lawyer. He denied his request to be tried before a more representative council. He denied him the right of appeal. He appointed one of his own relatives as the prosecutor. It is not easy to imagine how the most devoted Calvinist could imagine this was anything less than judicial murder.
Calvin died hard hearted and unrepentant: One of Calvinism’s most cherished notions is that if a person does not persevere in holiness, it is proof positive that he was, at best, only anominal professor, and not a true possessor of the Spirit of God. Until the day he died, history records not the slightest repentance on the part of Calvin. This famous preacher, who lent his name to one of the most powerful religious systems of all time died hard hearted and unrepen-tant.
Robinson tells us, “Calvin’s hard heart never relented at the recollection of this bloody action. On the contrary he justified it by publishing after the execution a book entitled,A faithful account of the errors of Michael Servetus, with a short confutation of them: in which it is proved that heretics ought to be restrained with the sword.” The Reformers saw to it Servetus’ writings were burned, so they are not easy to come by. But in 1932, Harvard Univer-sity managed to acquire and republish two of his books on the Trinity. The books are again out of print, but I have in my library xerox copies of both books. A careful reading of those two books shows that he held very much the same views as Elder Wilson Thompson did with regard to the Trinity.
Like Thompson, Servetus argued as forcefully as it is possible for anybody to argue for the full deity of Jesus Christ. You can almost see the tears running down his cheeks as he empties his very heart in declaring his undying devotion and worship for Jesus Christ the Son of God. He just could not reconcile himself to the notion ofpersonsin the godhead, and he objected to the use of the wordhypostasisin regard to Christ. One of the pretexts for burning him was his objection to the wordhypostasis.
It would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a Primitive Baptist who would agree either with Servetus, or with Wilson Thompson, on their views of the Trinity, but anybody, who doubts that both those men worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ from the very depths of their heart, should first read what they say, and then pronounce judgment.
Going from Servetus, as he declares his deepest devotion to his Lord, to the cold and sterile arguments of Calvin’s Institutes is like walking out of the warm June sun into an ice box. Calvin’s writings will freeze you to death. You cannot read Calvin without getting the idea he had ice water in his veins.
Even though Calvin had Servetus tried and burned for denying the doctrine of the Trinity, it is not at all clear that Calvin believed it himself. Servetus published his first two books on the subject in 1531 and 1532. In 1537-five years later-Calvin was himself charged with denying the doctrine. Hassell records, “It is noteworthy that in 1537 Peter Caroli accused Calvin and Farel of Anti-Trinitarianism (or Arianism and Sabellianism), because they would not enforce the Athanasian Creed, and had not used the words ‘Trinity’ and ‘Person’ in the Confession that they had drawn up” (Hassell’s History, ppg 492,493).
Calvin and the early Reformers were not at all sure what they believed about the Trinity. Calvin became more and more committed to the doctrine the more he demanded that Servetus must acknowledge the Trinity or be burned.