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The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of
Religious Knowledge, Philip Schaff Vol. X:
(edited for greater
clarity) |
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MICHAEL
SERVETUS (1511-1553)
Famous as an
antitrinitarian and an opponent of Calvin
Early Life and WanderingsMichael Servetus,
famous as an antitrinitarian and an opponent of Calvin, was b., probably at
Tudela (52 m. n.w. of Saragossa), Spain, Sept. 29, 1511, and was executed at
Geneva Oct. 27, 1553. Expected to become a jurist, he first studied at
Saragossa, and in 1525 was made amanuensis to the royal chaplain, Juan de
Quintana, whom he accompanied to Toulouse in 1528. Here he continued his legal
studies, and also became interested in the Bible, holding private readings with
some of his fellow students and likewise plunging into the writings of
Melanchthon and Paul of Burgos. In Feb., 1530,
he attended the coronation of Charles V. at Bologna with Quintana, and then
accompanied his patron, who had meanwhile become confessor to the king, to
Germany. While there is no real basis for the story that he met Luther
personally, it is not impossible that he went with Butzer to Basel in the autumn of 1530, although
the only demonstrable fact is that he met Œcolampadius in October of the same year.
By this time the antitrinitarianism of Servetus had been fully evolved, and
finally arousing the opposition even of the kindly Œcolampadius, he went
to Strasburg, where he was received by Capito and Butser. When, in 1531, he
printed at Hagenau his De Trinitatis erroribus libri septem,
Œcolampadius sought to have the writings of Servetus officially
suppressed, while Zwingli issued an earnest
warning against the tenets of the Spanish teacher. In his Dialogorum de
Trinitate libri duo, with its appendix, De justicia regni Christi et
de oaritate capitula quatuor (Hagenau, 1532) he now sought to avert the
unfavorable impression of his previous work by making certain formal
concessions, though maintaining that neither the ancient Church nor the
Reformers understood the Bible, and declaring himself unable either to agree or
to disagree entirely with either party.
Physician and Classical Scholar  Disappointed in his far reaching schemes,
Servetus left Germany, and, dropping his theological pursuits for the time
being, devoted himself to the study of medicine at Paris, taking the name of
Villanovanus from his father's native city of Villanueva in Aragon. In 1534 he
left Paris and lived for some years at Lyons, where he gained partial support
by proofreading, and then publíshing a new edition of Ptolemy (Lyons,
1535); but in 1537 he returned to Paris and gained distinction as a physician.
His views on the judicial value of astrology, however, as expressed in his
writings of the time, drew upon him such grave charges from the University of
Paris that he was forced to leave the capital for Charlieu, where he practiced
medicine for the short time that he was permitted to remain. He then lived
peacefully at Vienne for a number of years, and during this period issued an
entirely revamped edition of Sanctes Pagninus' Latin translation of the Bible.
During these years, moreover, Servetus had been gradually formulating a work to
prove that primitive Christianity had been corrupted by the early ecumenical
councils. He then began correspondence with Calvin,
apparently to gain the requisite approval for the publication of his
conclusions; but the impudent tone assumed by Servetus finally angered the
Genevan, who, on Feb. 13, 1546, wrote Farel: "If he
[Servetus) comes [to Geneva), I shall never let him go out alive if my
authority has weight." Servetus now entered upon negotiations with other
Genevan preachers and with Viret, fully recognizing the personal peril in which
he stood; and in 1553 he secretly printed at Vienne his Christianismi
restitutio, a book repeating with increased emphasis his old attacks on
the doctrine of the Trinity, which he declared had arisen with the corruption
of the Church.
Theological SystemThe positive tenets of Servetus' Restitutio are
equally difficult to deduce and to summarize. While rejecting the Trinity in
essence, he maintained a Trinity of revelation in his theory of the twofold
revelation of God, in the first of which the Word was present as a divine
primal light, and in the second the Spirit as a divine primal power. After the
creation the Word was prefigured in Adam, the theophanies, etc., until it
became incarnate in Christ; and through the exalted Christ, now Jehovah
himself, the Spirit, formerly existent only as the world-soul, the power of
life, the natural perception of the divine, and the Law, realizes its fulness
as the principle of regeneration and immortality inherent in man. Such was the
weight laid by Servetus on these problems that his system had room for faith
only as the recognition of the divinity of Christ. Consciousness of sin was
almost entirely lacking, and he even denied that one could sin, strictly
speaking, before one had reached the age of twenty. His stress on
intellectuality naturally had no place for infant baptism, and for this very
reason he stressed the importance of adult baptism as the conferring of the
Spirit, the Lord's Supper as the food of the Spirit, and good works, especially
asceticism, as the exercise of the Spirit. Eschatologically he maintained that
the Christian is completely freed from the dross of earthly life by a purifying
fire.
Tried by the InquisitionAs the physician-in-ordinary of the
archbishop of Vienne, Servetus naturally endeavored to keep his authorship of
the Restitutio secret, but Calvin recognized the source as soon as he became
aware of the book, and at once assailed it as a most dangerous attempt to
discredit and destroy fledgling French Protestantism. It would seem that
Calvin's first information was gained from a letter of a Protestant refugee
named Guillaume Trie, then residing at Geneva, to a Roman Catholic kinsman,
Antoine Arneys, at Lyons, mocking at the ancient Church for harboring a heretic
like Servetus. Arneys, many allege at the indirect instance of Calvin,
denounced Servetus to the Inquisiton. At the first trial Servetus denied all
knowledge of the Restitutio, whereupon, at the instance of the Inquisitor Ory,
Arneys wrote Trie asking for a complete copy of the work. This was no longer
accessible, but instead Trie submitted as documents twenty-four letters of
Servetus to Calvin, the Genevan theologian meanwhile seeking to avoid any
suggestion that he might be a party to a trial before the Holy Office, deeply
regretting that his plan of suppressing Servetus necessitated his formal
cooperation, and later expressly denying that he had any part whatever in the
proceedings. On Apr. 4, 1533, Servetus was arrested at Vienne and examined on
the two days following, when he denied that he was Servetus, claimed to have
adopted the name of that scholar that he might measure himself with Calvin in
dialectics, and offered to make complete retractation. On Apr. 7 he was
permitted to escape, either to guard the archbishop and other noted friends of
Servetus against further embarrassment, or to save the Inquisition from being
made a catspaw for Calvin. The trial, however, continued, and on June 17
Servetus was condemned to the stake, his books and his effigy being burned in
his stead.
Before the Court at GenevaMeanwhile Servetus, being unsuccessful in
reaching the Spanish line, sought to go to Italy by way of Switzerland, his
route taking him through Geneva. Learning that his enemy was in the city,
Calvin had him arrested on Sunday, Aug. 13, and had his secretary, Nicolas de
la Fontaine, take the legally requisite duty of plaintiff, the charge being the
circulation of dangerous heresies, for which the defendant, a fugitive from
justice, had already been imprisoned. Calvin drew up for De la Fontaine
thirty-eight counts against Servetus, the special charges being
antitrinitarianism and anabaptism. On Aug. 15 Servetus was brought to trial. As
to the Trinity, he admitted that be used the term "Person" in a different sense
from his contemporaries; he declared himself ready to retract his views on
infant baptism; but he maintained that Calvin was guilty of grave errors of
doctrine. Calvin now found himself obliged to come forward as the plaintiff,
and on Aug. 17 the two opponents came for the first time face to face. In the
beginning Servetus proved himself more than a match for Calvin, but so strong
were his pantheistic expressions that the Council, feeling that the outcome
would prove a tragedy, determined to get further information from Vienne.
During the days of waiting which ensued, Calvin wrote Farel (Aug. 20) that he
hoped Servetus would be sentenced to capital punishment, though not by a
painful death; while Servetus (Aug. 22) vainly protested to the Council against
being treated as a criminal, contrary to the tenets of the Apostles and the
early Church. On Aug. 24 the prosecutor-general, Claude Rigot, presented a list
of thirty charges which, ignoring the differences between Servetus and Calvin,
and laying little stress on the Trinitarian problems, attacked primarily the
basal ideas of the Restitutio that all Christianity which had previously
existed was corrupt, that the Reformation was un-Christian, and that all who
differed from Servetus were damned, likewise casting suspicion on the private
life of the accused. In reply the latter maintained that his intention was
good, that he had the highest veneration for the Scriptures, and that he must
consider his tenets to be true until they were proved to be false. On Aug. 31
an answer was received from Vienne with a request for the surrender of the
fugitive; but Servetus, when offered his choice, preferred to stand trial at
Geneva, especially as Calvin was already involved in his struggle with the
Libertines. Exhausted by hearing a theological debate between the two
principals on Sept. 1, the council determined that the remainder of the
controversy should be carried on in writing, and on the following day Calvin
declared that the Geneva preachers were ready to prove thirty-eight passages
from Servetus to be either heretical, or blasphemous, or contrary to the Word
of God and the teaching of the Church. Evidently learning of Calvin's dispute
with Philibert Berthelier, Servetus changed his tone to one of more boldness.
The council hesitated to condemn him, and on Sept. 19 determined to send the
minutes of the proceedings to Bern, Basel, Zurich, and Schaffhausen, and to ask
the advice of both the theologians and the councils of these four cities. At
this juncture Servetus formally charged Calvin with deliberate suppression of
Christian truth and the like, and demanded that the Geneva theologian be
banished and his property confiscated in behalf of the plaintiff, requests
which were naturally refused.
The Execution and Opinions Regarding It
On Oct. 19 answers were received from
the four Swiss cities unanimously condemning the doctrines of Servetus and
urging the obviation of a peril which threatened the entire Reformed Church,
though without direct allusion to the death penalty. The Geneva council now
proceeded to final action, and on Oct. 20 Servetus was condemned, not to a
merciful death, as Calvin and the other Genevan ministers had wished, but to
the stake. The antitrínitarían implored pity from Calvin, who
replied that he had never been motivated by vindictiveness, and urged him to
seek the divine forgiveness and mercy. On the following day the sentence was
carried out, since Farel, whom Calvin summoned to accompany the condemned, was
unable to induce Servetus to retract. The execution of Michael Servetus was
used to slander Calvin in in his own and in succeeding generations, slander
that was partly merited and partly undeserved. Almost immediately after the
event, in Feb., 1554, Calvin published his Defensio orthodoxœ fidei de
sacra trinitate, which was followed by Beza's De hœreticis a
civili magistratu puniendis, issued in September of the same year; while
the dissatisfaction with the execution was voiced by the writings of
Sebastianus Castellio. On the 350th anniversary of the burning of Servetus an
"atonement monument" was erected near the scene of his execution. [A monument
to Servetus was erected at Annemasse (4 m. from Geneva), on the French border.
It represents Servetus in prison and has on it an extract from one of his
prison letters. Professor Odhner of the Swedenborgian Seminary at Bryn Athyn,
Pa., has discovered that Servetus in a remarkable manner anticipated the
teachings of Swedenborg.)
(EUGEN LACHENMANN.) |
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