John Calvin-Life,Legacy and Theology

JOHN CALVIN : LIFE, LEGACY AND THEOLOGY -
PROF. M. M. NINAN
“THE BURNING OF SERVETUS settled only one of the questions raised by his appearance on the
stage at Geneva. He himself was indeed now removed from the stage, and could no longer spread his
ideas in person. But the burning of the man, as Calvin and other champions of the faith soon
discovered, by no means put an end to his ideas; while it did bring to the front a much broader, more
important and more vital question, that of religious toleration. Calvin’s critics, in centering their
attention on his responsibility for this tragedy, have largely overlooked the fact that in this case he was
but the conspicuous embodiment of a policy toward heretics that was at the time universally accepted
in principle by Protestants no less than by Catholics. It ought therefore to cause no surprise that from
the most influential leaders of the Reformation this shocking occurrence called forth an all but
unanimous response of approval.
All this, however, was solely on an ex parte presentation of the case by Calvin, who had drawn the
terms of the indictment of Servetus which formed the basis of the prosecution and sentence, and had
taken the pains to prepare their minds for it.
This approval was given by men not one of whom had had a fair opportunity to read and judge
the book on which his conviction had been founded, if indeed they had even seen it, but who
nevertheless endorsed all that vas done, without apparent hesitation or further inquiry.
Bullinger not only had approved of the death of Servetus in advance, but two years later he wrote that
he was persuaded that if Satan were to return from hell and preach to the world as he pleased, he
would employ many of Servetus’s expressions. Years afterwards he still firmly held that the Geneva
Council had done its duty in this case.
Peter Martyr Wrote in 1556, ‘I have nothing to say of the Spaniard Servetus except that he was a
veritable son of the Devil, whose poisonous and detestable doctrine should everywhere be hunted
down; and the magistrate that condemned him to death should not be blamed, seeing that there was
no hope of his amendment, and that his blasphemies were quite intolerable.”
(A HISTORY OF UNITARIANISM Volume II A History of Unitarianism Socinianism and its Antecedents by EARL MORSE
WILBUR, D.D; page 186-187)
The following quotation is added to give what Servetus was teaching - monotheism and unity of
Elohim. This is how the book starts:
BOOK I
Argument
Any discussion of the Trinity should start with the man. That Yahshua, surnamed Christ, was not a
hypostasis4 but a human being is taught both by the early Fathers and in the Scriptures, taken in their
literal sense, and is indicated by the miracles that he wrought. He, and not the Word5 is also the
miraculously born Son of Yahweh in fleshly form, as the Scriptures teach– not a hypostasis,
[Hypostatic Union: A theological term used with reference to the Incarnation to express the revealed truth that in Christ one
person subsists in two natures, the Divine and the human. Hypostasis means, literally, that which lies beneath as basis or
foundation. Hence it came to be used by the Greek philosophers to denote reality as distinguished from appearances
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