Calvin. History and Reception of a Reformation Week 1. Calvin's Life Sequence 6. The Servetus Affair (1553) Hello. We are standing today in a part of Geneva where Calvin, in all likelihood, never set foot. If you're familiar with Geneva, you'll recognize where we are: right behind the main hospital, at the foot of the hill called Champel. For those of you who don't know Geneva, this spot is outside the 16th century fortifications, about 1km from the heart of the city. This is where, on October 27, 1553, Michael Servetus, a Spanish physician and theologian, was burned alive, having been sentenced to death by the Council of Geneva
for the crime of heresy. What exactly was he found guilty of? Here is an abridged passage from the sentence pronounced by the Council of Geneva: "Desiring to purge the Church of God of such infection, and to cut off from it so rotten a member, we (...) condemn you, Michael Servetus, to be bound and taken to Champel, and there bound
to a stake, to be burned alive, along with your book (...) until your body be reduced to ashes.
So shall your days end, and shall you be made an example to others
who would do as you have done." Servetus was as much a physician as a theologian. He wrote a well-known treatise on blood circulation. He also authored a book on the use of syrups that had considerable commercial success. As a theologian, Servetus agreed with the Reformers' "original intuition," their insistence on returning to Scripture -- but he also
reproached the Reformers for not being entirely true to their principles. You claim to return in all things to Scripture, yet you baptize children, -- argued Servetus -- when in fact, nowhere does the New Testament endorse infant baptism. You confess the Trinity, yet Scripture is entirely unclear on this matter. Servetus engaged in a fierce correspondence with Calvin. When Calvin sent Servetus a copy of his "Institutes of the Christian Religion," Servetus returned it full of hand-written annotations in the margins,
some of them rude and disparaging. In the words of Vincent Schmid, Calvin was "not one to back down from a fight." And a fight is exactly what Servetus had picked. Earlier, Servetus -- quite miraculously -- had somehow escaped trial by the Inquisition in
Vienne, France (in the Dauphiné region). For reasons unknown to historians, he ended up in Geneva, where he was recognized and promptly arrested. Why did Servetus come to Geneva? Perhaps out of naivety, perhaps out of arrogance -- perhaps a mixture of both. It appears, in any case, that his intention was to challenge Calvin. The only times Servetus actually met Calvin in person, however, was in his jail cell in Geneva. Calvin went to the Council of Geneva to impress upon it the degree to which Servetus' offense merited death by hanging. Servetus is a dangerous heretic, he argued. And in this he had the full support of all the pastors in Geneva, as well as the theologians of Basel and Zurich. Of course, nowadays, we wouldn't view someone who denies the Trinity, or who opposes baptizing children, as a particularly dangerous fellow. But in the 16th century, everyone -- Protestants and Catholics alike -- considered that the single most important thing was to protect and uphold God's honor. Claiming that Jesus was not God, for instance, was tantamount to dishonoring God. Servetus, then, was considered a blasphemer, someone who had directly attacked God's honor. As far infant baptism was concerned, Servetus' position was seen as wholly irresponsible. Indeed, any child who died before having been baptized was bound
to eternal hell. And in those times, as demographers have clearly shown, one out of every four newborns did not make it past the age of 12 months. Those children who died before baptism were bound to eternal hell. The man was dangerous; Servetus had to be eliminated. Once the death sentence was pronounced, Calvin assumed the Servetus page had been turned once and for all. He could not have been more wrong. In fact, Servetus' execution at the stake on October 27, 1553 in Champel was only the beginning of what would
become known as the Servetus Affair. In 1903, Émile Doumergue, a professor at the School of Theology in Montauban, organized the creation of an expiatory monument in memory of Michael Servetus. The monument read (in substance): Though admirers of Calvin's work, we condemn an error, which was that of his age. This was in essence an attempt to pave the way for the upcoming celebrations in honor of the 400th anniversary of Calvin's birth, to be held in 1909, by symbolically
closing the book, once and for all, on the Servetus controversy and erasing its stain on Calvinism. The plan did not succeed. In 2011, a second monument -- a statue of Michael Servetus -- was added right next to the original 1903 plaque. This statue is the work of Genevan sculptor Clotilde Roch, who learned sculpture in the workshops of Auguste Rodin, and was added two years ago to the site where Servetus was
burned at the stake. Today, the book has yet to be closed. If, walking the streets of Geneva, you were to ask passersby what Calvin is known for, one or two of them, perhaps, might mention
the College or the Academy, and you'd be lucky if anyone points out that he was one of the
greatest Christian theologians -- but you can be sure that the overwhelming
majority will say: "He was the man who executed Michael Servetus." There are two questions we must address: - what exactly was Calvin's role in the entire affair? how can the execution of heretics be justified? Calvin's role, in a sense, was that of a "juge d'instruction", or investigating judge. He was the one who alerted the Council to the seriousness of the Servetus case. He was the one who appealed for the death penalty. But let's not forget that in 1553, Calvin's relationship with the Council of Geneva was tenuous at best. Indeed, the majority of the Council's members were
opponents of his. When Calvin asked that Servetus, rather than being burned alive, be beheaded -- a somewhat less inhumane end, perhaps --, the Council
refused and sentenced Servetus to the stake. Why were heretics put to death? This is something, as hard as it is for us to understand today, that was horribly commonplace in the 16th century (as, indeed, during the last few centuries
of the Middle Ages). For the entire European <i>intelligentsia</i>, that heretics must be executed was self-evident. For instance, in the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas justified the execution of heretics as follows: It is justified -- he argued -- to execute counterfeiters of currency because they corrupt material things. All the more reason, then, to execute heretics who fail to heed proper warning, since they corrupt spiritual matters. In the 16th century, virtually every European, Protestant and Catholic, adhered to this position. Every society, as historians well know, defines the limits of what it considers acceptable and unacceptable. This is a perilous task, and the answers given can never be definitive. Let's come back to the stake upon which Servetus was burned. After the execution, a few isolated people spoke up against Calvin, the most famous of whom was Sébastien Castellion. Castellion was not concerned with the substance of Servetus' theological positions, instead blaming Calvin, who had created a martyr in Servetus, for attracting the eyes
of the entire world onto Geneva. Previously -- argued Castellion -- no one had any interest in Servetus' writings, but now the entire world will want to read them. Let's take a closer look at Castellion. In 1554, a few months after Servetus' death, Castellion wrote a text against Calvin, which was not published until 1613, in Holland, long after Castellion's death. This text, then, had no influence whatsoever during the 16th century, but it is nonetheless fascinating and well worth examining a little more closely. In it, Castellion asserts that the power to declare someone a heretic belongs to God exclusively, and in no way to Calvin. Castellion wrote: "When comes the incarnate Word and the Wisdom none can resist [this is a reference to Luke 21:15], then I will consider as heretic he who has not followed them. If such was
the wisdom of Calvin, in all fairness I shall not contradict it. But it seems to me that
this is not the case." "This is not the case" -- in other words, Calvin is not on God's level. Let's read another quote from Castellion's broadside against Calvin; a quote that fundamentalists of all kinds, regardless of creed, time or place, would do well to
sear into their minds. Here I am quoting directly from Castellion, using the excellent French translation published several years ago by Étienne Barilier: "To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. When the Genevans killed Servetus, they were not defending a doctrine, they were killing a man." Castellion, in his time, was probably a utopian. Calvin, visionary as he was, had no time for utopia. With hindsight, history has proven without a doubt that Castellion was right, and Calvin wrong in all respects. We've reached the end of this sequence; thank you for your attention.
