John Calvin and the Execution of Michael Servetus

Michael Servetus (1511 - 1553) was a Spanish theologian during the Protestant Reformation whose heretical views ultimately cost him his life. His execution in 1553 has for centuries been blamed primarily on John Calvin, the Protestant leader of Geneva, but in the process of making Calvin the villain much has been left out by Servetus' supporters.

At the time of his arrest in Geneva in August 1553, Servetus was already under a death sentence for heresy imposed by the Catholic Church. He had escaped from prison in the French town of Vienne in the spring of 1553 and shortly thereafter was sentenced to death by the French Catholic Inquisition. The fact that the Protestant Council of Geneva agreed with the Roman Catholics on Servetus' death sentence (and actually carried it out) is one reason Calvin has been so vilified. The very idea of Catholic and Protestant leaders agreeing on anything was an outrage to the people of the time, and down to our own day.

When Servetus' case is considered objectively, however, it is hard to see how Calvin could have ruled any other way. In the 21^st century there are numerous groups (Unitarians and Oneness Pentecostals, for example) that agree with Servetus' assertion that the doctrine of the Trinity was not backed up by scripture and was therefore invalid, but in the 16^th century such ideas got you burned at the stake.

To see where Calvin was coming from, both theologically and socially, we need only look to other religious leaders of the time and how they responded to heresy, both real and imagined. Martin Luther, the catalyst of the Reformation, was terribly anti-Semitic and called for attacks on both Jews and German peasants who opposed him. The Catholic Lord Chancellor of England, Sir Tomas More, was ruthless in his pursuit and execution of those who opposed what he saw as the "One True Church." The people of the 16^th century simply would not understand our tolerance of differing views today.