John Calvin

===Michael Servetus (1553)===
[[File:Michael Servetus.jpg|thumb|right|[[Michael Servetus]] exchanged many letters with Calvin until he was denounced by Calvin and executed.|280x280px]]

The turning point in Calvin's fortunes occurred when Michael Servetus, a brilliant Spanish polymath who introduced [[ibn al-Nafis#Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon|the Islamic idea]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Majeed|first1=Azeem|date=2005|title=How Islam changed medicine|journal=BMJ|volume=331|issue=7531|pages=1486–1487|doi=10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1486|pmid=16373721|pmc=1322233}}</ref> of [[pulmonary circulation]] to Europe, and a fugitive from ecclesiastical authorities, appeared in Geneva on 13 August 1553. Servetus was a fugitive on the run after he published ''[[The Restoration of Christianity]]'' (1553), Calvin scholar Bruce Gordon commented "Among its offenses were a denial of original sin and a bizarre and hardly comprehensible view of the Trinity."<ref name="postbarthian.com">{{Cite news|title=Michael Servetus: Saint, Heretic and Martyr (Part 3: A Radical Theology)|url=https://postbarthian.com/2018/10/05/michael-servetus-saint-heretic-and-martyr-part-3-a-radical-theology/|date=5 October 2018|newspaper=The Postbarthian &#124; Ecumenical Reformed Musing of Wyatt Houtz|language=en-US|access-date=9 May 2020}}</ref><ref name="Bainton141">''Hunted Heretic'', p. 141.</ref>

Decades earlier, in July 1530 he disputed with [[Johannes Oecolampadius]] in Basel and was eventually expelled. He went to Strasbourg, where he published a pamphlet against the Trinity. Bucer publicly refuted it and asked Servetus to leave. After returning to Basel, Servetus published ''[[Dialogorum de Trinitate libri duo|Two Books of Dialogues on the Trinity]]'' ({{lang-la|Dialogorum de Trinitate libri duo}}) which caused a sensation among Reformers and Catholics alike. When John Calvin alerted the [[Spanish Inquisition|Inquisition in Spain]] about this publication, an order was issued for Servetus's arrest.<ref>{{Harvnb|Cottret|2000|pp=213–216}}; {{Harvnb|Parker|2006|p=146}}</ref>

Calvin and Servetus were first brought into contact in 1546 through a common acquaintance, Jean Frellon of Lyon; they exchanged letters debating doctrine; Calvin used a pseudonym as ''Charles d' Espeville'' and Servetus used the moniker ''Michel de Villeneuve.''<ref name="postbarthian.com" /> Eventually, Calvin lost patience and refused to respond; by this time Servetus had written around thirty letters to Calvin. Calvin was particularly outraged when Servetus sent him a copy of the ''Institutes of the Christian Religion'' heavily annotated with arguments pointing to errors in the book. When Servetus mentioned that he would come to Geneva, "Espeville" (Calvin) wrote a letter to Farel on 13 February 1546 noting that if Servetus were to come, he would not assure him safe conduct: "for if he came, as far as my authority goes, I would not let him leave alive."<ref>{{Harvnb|Cottret|2000|pp=216–217}}; {{Harvnb|Parker|2006|pp=147–148}}; Levy, Leonard W. (1995), ''Blasphemy: Verbal offense Against the Sacred from Moses to Salman Rushdie'', p. 65, {{ISBN|978-0-8078-4515-8}}.</ref>

In 1553 Servetus published ''[[Christianismi Restitutio]]'' (English: The Restoration of Christianity), in which he rejected the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the concept of predestination. In the same year, Calvin's representative, Guillaume de Trie, sent letters alerting the French Inquisition to Servetus.<ref>See the letters in John Calvin, ''Opera Quae Supersunt Omnia'', Book VIII, First Appendix, IV & VII.</ref> Calling him a "Spanish-Portuguese", suspecting and accusing him<ref>''Calvin and the Judaism: Influence and Actions and Obsessions''. Revoeder Hebrew Press. Levi Lancaster 200, p. 106.</ref> of his recently proved Jewish [[converso]] origin.<ref>Gonzalez Echeverría, "Andrés Laguna and Michael Servetus: two converted humanist doctors of the XVI century" in: Andrés Laguna International Congress. Humanism, Science and Politics in the Renaissance Europe, García Hourcade y Moreno Yuste, coord., Junta de Castilla y León, Valladolid,1999, pp.&nbsp;377–389</ref><ref>González Echeverría "Michael Servetus belonged to the famous converted Jewish family The Zaporta", Pliegos de Bibliofilia, no. 7, Madrid pp.&nbsp;33–42. 1999</ref><ref>González Echeverría" On the Jewish origin of Michael Servetus" Raíces. Jewish Magazine of Culture, Madrid, nº 40, pp.&nbsp;67–69. 1999</ref> De Trie wrote down that "his proper name is Michael Servetus, but he currently calls himself Villeneuve, practicing medicine. He stayed for some time in Lyon, and now he is living in Vienne."<ref>Inconsistencies of John Calvin, A.C. Williams, Artiviche Ed, Pressore, 2012, pp.&nbsp;34–39.</ref> When the inquisitor-general of France learned that Servetus was hiding in [[Vienne, Isère|Vienne]], according to Calvin under an assumed name, he contacted Cardinal [[François de Tournon]], the secretary of the archbishop of Lyon, to take up the matter. Servetus was arrested and taken in for questioning. His letters to Calvin were presented as evidence of heresy, but he denied having written them, and later said he was not sure it was his handwriting. He said, after swearing before the holy gospel, that "he was Michel De Villeneuve Doctor in Medicine about 42 years old, native of [[Tudela, Navarre|Tudela]] of the kingdom of [[Kingdom of Navarre#Spanish conquest|Navarre]], a city under the obedience to the Emperor".<ref>1749 First questioning. Judgement of Vienne in Dauphiné against Servet. D'artigny Nouveaux mémoires d'histoire Tome Seconde. pp.&nbsp;55–154.</ref> The following day he said: "..although he was not Servetus he assumed the person of Servet for debating with Calvin".<ref>1749 Second questioning. Judgement of Vienne in Dauphiné against Servet.D'artigny Nouveaux mémoires d'histoire Tome Seconde pp. 55–154)</ref> He managed to escape from prison, and the Catholic authorities sentenced him ''in absentia'' to death by slow burning.<ref>{{Harvnb|Parker|2006|pp=149–150}}</ref>

On his way to Italy, Servetus stopped in Geneva to visit "''d'Espeville''", where he was recognized and arrested. Calvin's secretary, Nicholas de la Fontaine, composed a list of accusations that was submitted before the court. The prosecutor was [[Philibert Berthelier (Son of Geneva patriot)|Philibert Berthelier]], a member of a libertine family and son of a famous [[Philibert Berthelier (Geneva patriot)|Geneva patriot]], and the sessions were led by Pierre Tissot, Perrin's brother-in-law. The libertines allowed the trial to drag on in an attempt to harass Calvin. The difficulty in using Servetus as a weapon against Calvin was that the heretical reputation of Servetus was widespread and most of the cities in Europe were observing and awaiting the outcome of the trial. This posed a dilemma for the libertines, so on 21 August the council decided to write to other Swiss cities for their opinions, thus mitigating their own responsibility for the final decision.<ref>{{Harvnb|Parker|1975|p=122}}</ref> While waiting for the responses, the council also asked Servetus if he preferred to be judged in Vienne or in Geneva. He begged to stay in Geneva. On 20 October the replies from Zurich, Basel, Bern, and [[Schaffhausen]] were read and the council condemned Servetus as a heretic. The following day he was sentenced to burning at the stake, the same sentence as in Vienne. Some scholars claim that Calvin and other ministers asked that he be beheaded instead of burnt, knowing that burning at the stake was the only legal recourse.<ref>Verdict and Sentence for Michael Servetus (1533) in A Reformation Reader eds. Denis R. Janz; pp. 268–270</ref> This plea was refused and on 27 October, Servetus was burnt alive at the Plateau of [[Champel]] at the edge of Geneva.<ref>{{Harvnb|McGrath|1990|pp=118–120}}; {{Harvnb|Cottret|2000|pp=222–225}}; {{Harvnb|Parker|2006|pp=150–152}}</ref>