The White Badger Inn

Wanted For Murder: Calvin.....or not

It has long been purported that John Calvin "murdered a man," especially by opponents of Calvin. However, History & - it would seem - the Law, are in favour of John Calvin, not a man named Servetus.

Servetus was a Catholic rhetorician, controversialist and diplomat. He belonged to that suave and cultured type of Catholic that wins to the Church princes and people to education and wealth (or kills them off if anyone disagrees with them). He has been likened by John Morley to Cardinal Newman; although Protestant History & Catholic law finds him a founder of Heresy.

Servetus, opposed the Protestant faith in Geneva (a crime punishable by death at the time), was arrested and thrown into prison. The charge was heresy, and was a legitimate one punishable in any Protestant city (or burgh, as the German Protestant states were called).

The trial lasted from August until September. At first, we find from documents supplied by those who knew Calvin, he would not supply any proof against Servetus, desiring his own testimony of Heresy to find him guilty, although he was at last persuaded to supply proof of guilt by bringing forward the many letters written him by Servetus. The prisoner did not deny the proof, but instead sought to
defend his position, once more - a crime punishable by death, running contrary to Protestant law. Calvin replied at length, and thus did the long - postponed debate take place.

The judges could not revoke the law, although Calvin tried to get a lighter sentence for Servetus.

The next day Servetus was burned alive in the public square.

"I interceded for him," said John Calvin; "I interceded for him - I
wanted him beheaded, not burned."

Was Calvin guilty of MURDER?
If he was, so were the Council of Judges who ruled in favour of Servetus' execution, so were the townspeople who stood by, not only endorsing the Protestant laws in place concerning Heresy, but supporting them by their very citizenship in Geneva, & so were the original lawmakers themselves.

However, most people will never take this into consideration. Calvin pleaded for a lighter sentence on a legally condemned man. F. Lewis Battles once said, “I can usually tell, when people speak of Calvin, whether they know him only by hearsay, have read a few pages, or sampled him anthologically. They have no clue to the wonderful interconnectedness of Calvin’s thought. They ask questions which a fuller reading of the Institutes could have answered.”

Maybe we should think about it a while...