This is the infamous story where John Calvin instigated the execution of Servetus for denying the doctrine of the Trinity. Servetus taught that Jesus and the Father could not be different "persons" and "hypostases", because they were "one". (John 10:30) My personal opinion, is that as a matter of logic and Tradition, one must differentiate the the two as "persons". The most I could agree with Servetus is that they shared the same "hypostasis", using that term in its Biblical and etymological meaning (substance).
What I find especially interesting about this case though is what it shows about Calvin in real life. On the surface, Michael Servetus went to Geneva, Switzerland, which was under the Reformed Protestants (ie. Calvin et al., not the Lutherans), just because he was fleeing the Inquisition in France. It was an officially unexplained stopover, and he and Geneva portrayed things as if he were just caught while in attempted hiding, unbeknownest to the official Genevan government and public. End of Story.
Servetus in portrait and in background
Is this, however, the real, full story?
Geneva 1550
Note the claim in bold from the "Reformed" website above that Servetus believed in executing Calvin. There is no citation for this. Indeed, the book Did Calvin Murder Servetus quotes Servetus as opposing the killing of heretics.(pp.20-21)
Before coming to Geneva,
One curious thing, I find, is Servetus' escape from French prison before coming to Geneva. Calvin, by the way, said in March 1553 that he did not get Servetus arrested in order to get him killed because he was against killing heretics, but this is curious as 6 months or so later he advocated Servetus' death. What is curious about the arrest though is that Servetus was also well known in France as a doctor involved in scientific discoveries. His arrest was not at France's own instigation. I'm sure that true, unabetted escapes from medieval Inquisition prisons happened, but I think that they were rare. It would not surprise me then if Servetus was aided in his escape. The writer Stanford Rives writes that Servetus escaped due to the jailer's negligence. (Did Valcin Murder Servetus?_
The Earl Morse Wilbur's Our Unitarian Heritage says about the Inquisition's trial in France:
The book Did Calvin Murder Servetus? By Stanford Rives, does not take the view that Servetus' presence in Geneva was unknown to Calvin before Servetus' arrest. Rives explains that Servetus saw God's creative "Word" as a manifestation of God, and that Servetus concluded that this meant Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit were all "one", not separate "persons". Rives goes on to say this was reasonable enough that Italian Protestants supported Servetus and decried his execution in Geneva, and asks: "Hence the question comes to mind why did Servetus turn from satefy in Italy to end up in Geneva that Sunday in August 1553? Why would he make his face so prominently visible to Calvin?"
https://books.google.com/books?id=M... OR miguel servetus geneva italy 1553&f=false
Rives proposes that it is clear that Calvin was responsible for exposing Servetus to the Inquisition in France and that even Geneva's court admitted it at the time. He concludes that Servetus came to Geneva to confront Calvin directly, and that this is why Servetus came to Calvin's church sermon. He notes that Geneva had not had religious based executions before under Protestantism, and that the Inquisition and Catholic religious institutes were closed there. Calvin was a major author of Geneva's new laws. Further, until then it had been a major, general Protestant objection that the Catholic inquisition killed heretics, stated in Luther's 95 theses and by Calvin himself at one point.
Further, under the the laws of the Catholic Inquisition, criminals were not convicted in other countries for heretical crimes they committed elsewhere, and so Servetus claimed that Geneva lacked jurisdiction, as his heresies were made when he was abroad. The formal punishment for blasphemy in Geneva was banishment, not arrest. Rives concludes that Servetus did not expected to get killed by Calvin.
Further, there were political factions in Geneva. Geneva decided in 1552 that Calvin could no longer teach "predestination", because it made God a tyrant. The Libertines, Calvin's opponents, were in power in the city, and so Servetus might expect their protection. Yet later that year, Calvin's ally Farel had Geneva pass a law saying that Calvin's Institutes were "God's holy doctrine" and could not be criticized. This is ironic considering Calvin's criticisms of "man-made" Catholic authoritarianism, and Rives proposes that news of this shameful law probably didn't spread far outside Switzerland to where Servetus would know about it.
Calvin had strong power in Geneva, beyond what one might expect. To attack him personally or his particular Protestant teachings was to risk criminal penalties. For example, a man named Gruet was tortured and burned for a placard calling Calvin a representative of the devil and of renegade priests, however Calvin himself noted that the placard was not in Gruet's handwriting. Rives lists other such cases on p. 418.
After Servetus' death, Calvin admitted in correspondence that the arresting accusation for Servetus was made on his advice and that he "engaged one to be the accuser" and "the accuser proceeded from me." This is interesting, because on p. 11, Rives says that Calvin later admitted that from March to August 1553, he knew that Servetus was in Geneva. So by the chronology of events:
Servetus was arrested in France, but escaped in April 1553, then in March-August Calvin knew he was in Geneva (but how can this be, if April comes after March?), and then in August Calvin in practice had Servetus arrested. So what was happening during those months when Genevans knew that Servetus was there? Why did no one in Geneva openly talk about this or take action, and then only in August did Calvin act? Rives says that at some point though, perhaps immediately after Servetus fled France, he went to Italy where he supporters were and only later went to Geneva. Rives cites alvin to that effect, but notes that Servetus says that he just went straight to Switzerland. Rives proposes that Servetus covered this up to protect his supporters in Italy.
I do remember a proposition by another author that Servetus may have come to and stayed in Geneva in coordination with people from the Libertine party who opposed Calvin. This may not be such a surprise considering that Servetus had supporters in Italy and people who helped him flee France, so he may have had supporters in Geneva too.
What I find especially interesting about this case though is what it shows about Calvin in real life. On the surface, Michael Servetus went to Geneva, Switzerland, which was under the Reformed Protestants (ie. Calvin et al., not the Lutherans), just because he was fleeing the Inquisition in France. It was an officially unexplained stopover, and he and Geneva portrayed things as if he were just caught while in attempted hiding, unbeknownest to the official Genevan government and public. End of Story.
Servetus in portrait and in background
Is this, however, the real, full story?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Servetus#Imprisonment_and_executionMichael Servetus (Spanish: Miguel Serveto), also known as... Michel de Villeneuve (29 September 1509 or 1511 – 27 October 1553), was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and Renaissance humanist....
On 16 February 1553, Michael Servetus while in Vienne, France, was denounced as a heretic by Guillaume de Trie, a rich merchant who had taken refuge in Geneva, and who was a good friend of Calvin, in a letter sent to a cousin, Antoine Arneys, who was living in Lyon. On behalf of the French inquisitor Matthieu Ory, Michael Servetus and Balthasard Arnollet, the printer of Christianismi Restitutio, were questioned, but they denied all charges and were released for lack of evidence. Ory asked Arneys to write back to De Trie, demanding proof. On 26 March 1553, the letters sent by Michel to Calvin and some manuscript pages of Christianismi Restitutio were forwarded to Lyon by De Trie. On 4 April 1553 Michael de Villanueva was arrested by Roman Catholic authorities, and imprisoned in Vienne. Servetus escaped from prison three days later. On 17 June, Michel de Villeneuve was convicted of heresy, "thanks to the 17 letters sent by John Calvin, preacher in Geneva" and sentenced to be burned with his books. An effigy and his books were burned in his absence.
Meaning to flee to Italy, Servetus inexplicably stopped in Geneva, where Calvin and his Reformers had denounced him. On 13 August, he attended a sermon by Calvin at Geneva. He was arrested after the service and again imprisoned. All his property was confiscated. Servetus claimed during this judgement he was arrested at an inn at Geneva. French Inquisitors asked that Servetus be extradited to them for execution. Calvin wanted to show himself as firm in defense of Christian orthodoxy as his usual opponents. "He was forced to push the condemnation of Servetus with all the means at his command."
Geneva 1550
http://reformedanswers.org/answer.asp/file/39726After escaping from prison when he was on trial for heresy in Lyons, Servetus traveled to Geneva on his way to Italy. According to Schaff's Church History, Servetus stayed at Geneva for about a month, taking few pains to conceal his identity. After attending services in Calvin's church one Sunday, Servetus was arrested on charges of heresy. Calvin believed that it was just and right for heretics to be put to death. In this regard, he was not different from Servetus who also believed that heretics, specifically the heretic John Calvin, should be put to death by the Genevese Council.
During the trial it was Calvin's job as expert witness to prove that Servetus was a heretic. Calvin's expert reason and clear thinking triumphed when Servetus chose to hurl insults at Calvin rather than offer a defense. It is important to note that at this time the Council was not controlled by friends of Calvin but by his enemies, the patriots and libertines. This is probably why Servetus felt that he did not have to offer a substantive defense against charges of heresy. We have a written record of the debate because each was required to write their statements and responses for review by the churches of four other prominent protestant cities.
Note the claim in bold from the "Reformed" website above that Servetus believed in executing Calvin. There is no citation for this. Indeed, the book Did Calvin Murder Servetus quotes Servetus as opposing the killing of heretics.(pp.20-21)
Before coming to Geneva,
http://uudb.org/articles/michaelservetus.htmlServetus sent Calvin a manuscript of his yet unpublished Restitutio. Calvin reciprocated by sending a copy of the Institutio. Servetus returned Institutio with abusive annotations but Calvin refused to return Servetus’s manuscript. On the day Calvin broke off the correspondence, he wrote to his colleague, Guillaume Farel, that should Servetus ever come to Geneva, “if my authority is of any avail I will not suffer him to get out alive.”
When Servetus finally published Christianismi Restitutio in early 1553 he sent an advance copy to Geneva. The printed text included thirty of his letters to Calvin. Soon afterward, at Calvin’s behest, the true identity of “Villeneuve” was betrayed to the French Inquisition in Vienne. After his arrest and interrogation Servetus managed to escape from the prison. On his way, perhaps, to northern Italy or to southeastern Switzerland, where he may have hoped that there were people receptive to his writings, he crossed the border into Geneva. Recognized at a church service, he was arrested and tried for heresy by Protestant authorities.
http://www.bcbsr.com/topics/servetus.htmlDuring the incident
Again Calvin writes Farel in a letter dated Aug 20th 1553 where he has Servetus arrested.
"We have now new business in hand with Servetus. He intended perhaps passing through this city; for it is not yet known with what design he came. But after he had been recognized, I thought that he should be detained. My friend Nicolas summoned him on a capital charge. ... I hope that sentence of death will at least be passed upon him"
One curious thing, I find, is Servetus' escape from French prison before coming to Geneva. Calvin, by the way, said in March 1553 that he did not get Servetus arrested in order to get him killed because he was against killing heretics, but this is curious as 6 months or so later he advocated Servetus' death. What is curious about the arrest though is that Servetus was also well known in France as a doctor involved in scientific discoveries. His arrest was not at France's own instigation. I'm sure that true, unabetted escapes from medieval Inquisition prisons happened, but I think that they were rare. It would not surprise me then if Servetus was aided in his escape. The writer Stanford Rives writes that Servetus escaped due to the jailer's negligence. (Did Valcin Murder Servetus?_
The Earl Morse Wilbur's Our Unitarian Heritage says about the Inquisition's trial in France:
Before the examination was concluded the court adjourned for the night. That evening Servetus sent his servant from the prison to collect a large sum of money owing to him, and the next morning at daybreak he made his escape from prison — as was generally believed, not without connivance on the part of influential friends. When his escape was discovered, he was already well out of reach. The trial went on without him, and dragged on for ten weeks. The printers were discovered, and bales containing 500 copies of the book were found at Lyon. Servetus was found guilty of heresy and various related crimes, and was condemned to be burned to death by a slow fire, along with his books.
...
He therefore determined to go to Naples in order to practice his profession among his countrymen, of whom many had fled thither for the sake of enjoying greater religious liberty. He thought at first of crossing the Pyrenees and going through Spain, but danger of arrest on the border deterred him, and after wandering like a hunted thing for four months he at length turned to the route through Switzerland into northern Italy as the safest one for him. Fortunately for him, he was well provided with money. Thus it was that Servetus at length arrived at an inn in Geneva one evening about the middle of August, intending as soon as possible to get a boat up the lake on his way to Zürich and Italy. He had meant to keep out of sight as much as possible, hoping thus to escape discovery; but unhappily for him the next day was Sunday, when the laws required every one to attend church, and he may indeed even have been curious to hear Calvin preach. Here he was recognized before ever the sermon began.
The book Did Calvin Murder Servetus? By Stanford Rives, does not take the view that Servetus' presence in Geneva was unknown to Calvin before Servetus' arrest. Rives explains that Servetus saw God's creative "Word" as a manifestation of God, and that Servetus concluded that this meant Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit were all "one", not separate "persons". Rives goes on to say this was reasonable enough that Italian Protestants supported Servetus and decried his execution in Geneva, and asks: "Hence the question comes to mind why did Servetus turn from satefy in Italy to end up in Geneva that Sunday in August 1553? Why would he make his face so prominently visible to Calvin?"
https://books.google.com/books?id=M... OR miguel servetus geneva italy 1553&f=false
Rives proposes that it is clear that Calvin was responsible for exposing Servetus to the Inquisition in France and that even Geneva's court admitted it at the time. He concludes that Servetus came to Geneva to confront Calvin directly, and that this is why Servetus came to Calvin's church sermon. He notes that Geneva had not had religious based executions before under Protestantism, and that the Inquisition and Catholic religious institutes were closed there. Calvin was a major author of Geneva's new laws. Further, until then it had been a major, general Protestant objection that the Catholic inquisition killed heretics, stated in Luther's 95 theses and by Calvin himself at one point.
Further, under the the laws of the Catholic Inquisition, criminals were not convicted in other countries for heretical crimes they committed elsewhere, and so Servetus claimed that Geneva lacked jurisdiction, as his heresies were made when he was abroad. The formal punishment for blasphemy in Geneva was banishment, not arrest. Rives concludes that Servetus did not expected to get killed by Calvin.
Further, there were political factions in Geneva. Geneva decided in 1552 that Calvin could no longer teach "predestination", because it made God a tyrant. The Libertines, Calvin's opponents, were in power in the city, and so Servetus might expect their protection. Yet later that year, Calvin's ally Farel had Geneva pass a law saying that Calvin's Institutes were "God's holy doctrine" and could not be criticized. This is ironic considering Calvin's criticisms of "man-made" Catholic authoritarianism, and Rives proposes that news of this shameful law probably didn't spread far outside Switzerland to where Servetus would know about it.
Calvin had strong power in Geneva, beyond what one might expect. To attack him personally or his particular Protestant teachings was to risk criminal penalties. For example, a man named Gruet was tortured and burned for a placard calling Calvin a representative of the devil and of renegade priests, however Calvin himself noted that the placard was not in Gruet's handwriting. Rives lists other such cases on p. 418.
After Servetus' death, Calvin admitted in correspondence that the arresting accusation for Servetus was made on his advice and that he "engaged one to be the accuser" and "the accuser proceeded from me." This is interesting, because on p. 11, Rives says that Calvin later admitted that from March to August 1553, he knew that Servetus was in Geneva. So by the chronology of events:
Servetus was arrested in France, but escaped in April 1553, then in March-August Calvin knew he was in Geneva (but how can this be, if April comes after March?), and then in August Calvin in practice had Servetus arrested. So what was happening during those months when Genevans knew that Servetus was there? Why did no one in Geneva openly talk about this or take action, and then only in August did Calvin act? Rives says that at some point though, perhaps immediately after Servetus fled France, he went to Italy where he supporters were and only later went to Geneva. Rives cites alvin to that effect, but notes that Servetus says that he just went straight to Switzerland. Rives proposes that Servetus covered this up to protect his supporters in Italy.
I do remember a proposition by another author that Servetus may have come to and stayed in Geneva in coordination with people from the Libertine party who opposed Calvin. This may not be such a surprise considering that Servetus had supporters in Italy and people who helped him flee France, so he may have had supporters in Geneva too.