Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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of Christianity. Servetus was equally confident of a divine call, and even
identified himself with the archangel Michael in his apocalyptic fight
against the dragon of Rome and “the Simon Magus of Geneva.”
A mysterious force of attraction and repulsion brought these intellectual
giants together in the drama of the Reformation. Servetus, as if inspired by
a demoniac force, urged himself upon the attention of Calvin, regarding
him as the pope of orthodox Protestantism, whom he was determined to
convert or to dethrone. He challenged Calvin in Paris to a disputation on
the Trinity when the latter had scarcely left the Roman Church, but failed
to appear at the appointed place and hour. f987 He bombarded him with
letters from Vienne; and at last he heedlessly rushed into his power at
Geneva, and into the flames which have immortalized his name. f988
The judgment of historians on these remarkable men has undergone a great
change. Calvin’s course in the tragedy of Servetus was fully approved by
the best men in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. f989 It is as fully
condemned in the nineteenth century. Bishop Bossuet was able to affirm
that all Christians were happily agreed in maintaining the rightfulness of the
death penalty for obstinate heretics, as murderers of souls. A hundred years
later the great historian Gibbon echoed the opposite public sentiment when
he said: “I am more deeply scandalized at the single execution of Servetus
than at the hecatombs which have blazed at auto-da-fés of Spain and
Portugal.” f990
It would be preposterous to compare Calvin with Torquemada. f991 But it
must be admitted that the burning of Servetus is a typical case of
Protestant persecution, and makes Calvin responsible for a principle which
may be made to justify an indefinite number of applications. Persecution
deserves much severer condemnation in a Protestant than in a Roman
Catholic, because it is inconsistent. Protestantism must stand or fall with
freedom of conscience and freedom of worship.
From the standpoint of modern Christianity and civilization, the burning of
Servetus admits of no justification. Even the most admiring biographers of
Calvin lament and disapprove his conduct in this tragedy, which has
spotted his fame and given to Servetus the glory of martyrdom.
But if we consider Calvin’s course in the light of the sixteenth century, we
must come to the conclusion that he acted his part from a strict sense of
duty and in harmony with the public law and dominant sentiment of his