by Stanford Rives

The “Servetus Affair”

Calvin: “Servetus has just sent me a long volume of his ravings. If I consent he will come here, but I will not give my word, for if he comes here, if my authority is worth anything, I will never permit him to depart alive…I neither hate you nor despise you; nor do I wish to persecute you; but I would be as hard as iron when I behold you insulting sound doctrine with so great audacity.” (1546)

• Servetus arrested in France “thanks to the 17 letters sent by Calvin, preacher in Geneva.” 
• Calvin sought his death for “execrable blasphemies [and hoped] sentence of death will at least be passed on him; but desired that the severity of the punishment be mitigated.”
• Sentenced to death by burning for blasphemy, denying the Trinity and infant baptism (1553).

Premeditated Murder:

“A severe blunder by Calvin-defenders is to affirm there was a law in Geneva that heretics were to be killed…The Encyclopedia Britannica discussed this problem in its article on Servetus: ‘No law, current in Geneva, has ever been adduced as enacting the capital sentence'” (p. 31).

“Calvin in return correspondence in the 1540s heaped…personal insults on Servetus, proving [that he] went from merely hating [his] doctrines to actually hating Servetus…All of Calvin’s protests of non-involvement [have been firmly shattered by his] transmittal letters [which show him as the source]…Calvin therefore revealed a consciousness of guilt [which he repeatedly denied]” (p. 430-431).

Calvin “proved himself extremely capable of addressing legal topics…Attorneys are trained to pay attention to every word in a legal statement…[They are] trained to use words with precision…This capacity…was ably demonstrated in [his writings]…[These skills] are the most damning evidence against Calvin…[for his] role in the trial of Servetus was as an expert religious authority” (pp. 164-165).

Dissenters:

“To kill a man is not to protect a doctrine, but it is to kill a man. When the Genevans killed Servetus, they did not defend a doctrine, they killed a man. To protect a doctrine is not the magistrate’s affair (what has the sword to do with doctrine?) but the teacher’s. But it is the magistrate’s affair to protect the teacher, as it is to protect the farmer and the smith, and the physician and others against injury. Thus if Servetus had wished to kill Calvin, the magistrate would properly have defended Calvin. But when Servetus fought with reasons and writings, he should have been repulsed by reasons and writings. To seek truth and to utter what one believes to be true can never be a crime. No one must be forced to accept a conviction. Conviction is free” (Sebastian Castellion, Defense of the Orthodox Faith).

“I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false god, he did…It would be more pardonable to believe in no god at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin” (Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, 1823).

Calvin’s other crimes:

• Jacques Gruet (d. 1547): tortured/beheaded.
• Blamed plague on “witches, ” ordering them to be tortured/quartered/burned (1545).
• Libertine uprising executions (1555).

Cult Leader?

“Calvin operated just like one of the many cult leaders in America who likewise have sought to subvert small government to serve their power-schemes. The fact ‘religion’ is present in Calvin’s tyranny does not permit us to look away. It does not excuse the behavior of anyone [who invokes God’s name]. The evil they do makes such invocation worse for it causes others to disrespect God. The public sees the fruit, and blames the God whom the cult-leader claims to serve. The public does not generally know that murderers do not have eternal life with the true God” (pp. 415, 376).