Servetus and Calvin / A Study of an Important Epoch in the Early History of the Reformation

by Robert Willis

The Church of Zürich [of which Bullinger must have been the reporter], replied at greater length than that of Berne, or, indeed, any of the other Churches, going minutely into the question of Servetus’s opinions, which are pronounced to be at once heretical and blasphemous. The Ministers of this Church are particular also in insisting on the propriety of upholding Calvin in his prosecution of the heretic.

We trust (say the pastors of Zürich), that the faith and zeal of Calvin, your pastor, and our brother, his noble devotion to the refugees and the pious, will not be suffered by you to be obscured by the unworthy accusations of this man, against whom, indeed, we think you ought to show the greater severity, inasmuch as our Churches have the evil reputation abroad of countenancing heretics, and even of favouring heresy. But the holy providence of God, they proceed, waxing in fervour, presents you at this moment with an opportunity of clearing yourselves as well as us, from such injurious imputations, if you but resolve to show yourselves vigilant, and well disposed to prevent the further spread of the poison. We do not doubt, indeed, that your Excellencies will act in this wise.

Schaffhausen was content to subscribe to all that had been said by Zürich (whose conclusion, consequently, had been communicated to it); but could not resist insinuating how it thought the Spaniard should be dealt with.

We do not doubt (say its Ministers) that you, with commendable prudence, will so repress this attempt of Servetus, that his blasphemies shall not be suffered to eat like a gangrene into the limbs of Christ. To use lengthy reasonings with a view to free him from his errors, would but be to rave with a madman.

The pastors of the Church of Basle [with Sulzer as reporter], the last consulted, are rejoiced to see Servetus in the hands of the magistrates of Geneva; feeling persuaded that they will not be wanting either in saintly zeal or Christian prudence, in finding a remedy for an evil that has already led to the ruin of vast numbers of souls. The theological culpability of the man is also much aggravated in their opinion by the obstinacy and insolence with which he persists in his errors, instead of yielding to the reflections which imprisonment and the instructions of the pastors of Geneva ought to have led him to make.

We exhort you, therefore (they conclude), to use, as it seems you are disposed to do, all the means at your command to cure him of his errors, and so to remedy the scandals he has occasioned; or, otherwise, does he show himself incurably anchored in his perverse opinions, to constrain him, as is your duty, by the powers you have from God, in such a way that henceforth he shall not continue to disquiet the Church of Christ, and so make the end worse than the beginning. The Lord will surely grant you his spirit of wisdom and of strength to this end.

We thus see that the Churches, whilst they all agree in condemning, refrain from declaring in precise terms the kind of punishment they would have awarded the prisoner—they do not in so many words say they would have him put to death; but finding him guilty of heresy and blasphemy, they knew that by the law of the land he must die. Condemning him unequivocally, therefore, for his theological views, they, in fact, pronounce his doom. To have done so directly, would have been trenching on the rights of the Council of Geneva, by whom, under the circumstances, a covert wish was sure to be better taken than an open recommendation. And let us not overlook the base and selfish motive that underlies the severity counselled: by putting the heretical Spaniard to death, the Swiss Churches will free themselves from the imputation of favouring heresy!

So much for the conclusions and implied wishes of the Ministers. The Magistrates of the cities consulted, differ but little, if at all, from their Clergy. The Council of Berne express a hope that their brothers of Geneva will not allow the wickedness and evil intentions of their prisoner to make further head, all he says being so manifestly opposed to the Christian religion, which they think it must be his purpose to vilipend and do what in him lies to exterminate. They, therefore, ‘entreat the Senate of Geneva so to comport themselves—and they do not question their inclination in this—that such sectaries and disseminators of error as their prisoner shall no longer be suffered to sow in the Church of Christ.’

The reply of Berne is said by Calvin to have had greater influence on the Judges of Servetus than that of any of the other Councils. Geneva had oftener than once in former years been indebted to Berne for assistance in her straits, and still continued, to a considerable extent, under the influence of the Canton that was looked up to as Chief in the Swiss Confederation. The Magistrates of Berne, moreover, were more outspoken, perhaps, than those of any of the other Cantons.

But we discover, after all, that neither the Churches nor Councils were acting independently and of knowledge self-acquired of the business. The Clergy were dominated by Calvin, the Councils by the Clergy; and there appears to have been collusion and concert among the reporters both of the Churches and Senates.