Michael Servetus (Spanish: Miguel Serveto Conesa), also known as Miguel Servet, Miguel Serveto, Revés, or Michel de Villeneuve (29 September? 1509 or 1511 – 27 October 1553), was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and Renaissance humanist. He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation. He was a polymath versed in many sciences: mathematics, astronomy and meteorology, geography, human anatomy, medicine and pharmacology, as well as jurisprudence, translation, poetry and the scholarly study of the Bible in its original languages. He is renowned in the history of several of these fields, particularly medicine and theology. He participated in the Protestant Reformation, and later developed a nontrinitarian Christology. Condemned by Catholics and Protestants alike, he was arrested in Geneva and burnt at the stake as a heretic by order of the city's Protestant governing council.
... he was arrested in Geneva and burnt at the stake as a heretic by order of the city's Protestant governing council ...
Heretic? Well, Unitarians have a different view:
Michael Servetus (c.1506-October 27, 1553), a Spaniard martyred in the Reformation for his criticism of the doctrine of the trinity and his opposition to infant baptism, has often been considered an early unitarian. Sharply critical though he was of the orthodox formulation of the trinity, Servetus is better described as a highly unorthodox trinitarian. Still, aspects of his thinking—his critique of existing trinitarian theology, his devaluation of the doctrine of original sin, and his fresh examination of biblical proof-texts—did influence those who later inspired or founded unitarian churches in Poland and Transylvania. Public criticism of those responsible for his execution, the Reform Protestants in Geneva and their pastor, John Calvin, moreover, stirred proto-unitarians and other groups on the radical left-wing of the Reformation to develop and later institutionalize their own heretical views. Widespread aversion to Servetus’s death has been taken as signaling the birth in Europe of the idea of religious tolerance, a principle now more important to modern Unitarian Universalists than antitrinitarianism.
An interesting contemporary and associate of Senor Servetus:
Once upon a time there was this certain boy… He grew up. He studied law. Got his doctorate in law and became an attorney. After reading philosophies of “admirable” religious philosophers, he had a “conversion experience” and started reading his Bible. He then proceeded to write things about the Bible himself, but alas, since his opinions were quite “unorthodox” for the era, he was banished from his town. No matter. He took solace with a friend and writing more and more, became a self-proclaimed theologian and “authoritative” writer.
Well, in due time, he was invited to be the mayor of a certain town in which the “elders” of that town’s church were trying to incorporate change. He obliged and soon became a pious, but very ruthless dictator. His word was command. He preached in a pulpit every “Lord’s day” and would enforce church attendance by threat of imprisonment. Heretics and blasphemers were either banished or executed, often by being burned at the stake. In fact, historical records show that under his rule, approximately 58 people were killed and 76 were exiled.
Granted, not a totally unbiased take on the reformist theologian John Calvin, who had a thing about Servetus:
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 ...
John Calvin, the Protestant Pope of Geneva:
... in that day John Calvin's authority in Geneva, Switzerland had ultimate "weight." This is why some referred to Geneva as the "Rome of Protestantism"(3) and to John Calvin as the "Protestant 'Pope' of Geneva."
During Servetus' trial, John Calvin wrote:
"I hope that the verdict will call for the death penalty."
Death to science. Death to understanding and knowledge and wisdom, a loving, almost erotic embrace of the death penalty, worship of the wealthy as the virtuous heirs of God Almighty ...:
Put simply, the derivative form of Calvinism views the world as divided between the good guys and the bad guys, the saved and the damned, the virtuous and the undeserving. This idea is projected onto the country insofar as America sees itself as especially chosen by God and placed under his mantle of protection. When you listen to American politicians speak, no matter the ideology, you will hear these tones of election. America is simply exceptional, with a unique role in history. And, after all, if you believe in limited atonement– especially coupled with the penal theory of vicarious atonement– it’s a a short step to justifying killing the bad guys, by making war or by the death penalty. Dualism in action. And of course, election is unconditional, meaning that you actually don’t have to add anything yourself. God bestows material wealth on his favored, so there is no call to share, and certainly no notion of the universal destination of good. The poor are poor because they are not virtuous. Out with solidarity, in with individualism.
Shades of Ayn Rand!