John Calvin-Life,Legacy and Theology

JOHN CALVIN : LIFE, LEGACY AND THEOLOGY -
PROF. M. M. NINAN
By
Stanford Rives
"Yet, there was another one charged with blasphemy who was equally innocent, although unlike our
Lord, he was not divine This was Miguel Servetus. And like our Lord, Servetus was punished with
death. This time the dispute appeared to be nothing more significant than a quibble over words. The
defendant Servetus believed Jesus’ divinity was because Our Lord was the etemal Word. The chief
witness and defacto prosecutor (Calvin) believed Jesus was divine because He was the eternal Son
and etemal Word. Calvin, the head pastor of Geneva, insisted this ‘heresy’ of Servetus was also
blasphemy, and that Servetus must be killed. Yet. the law of Geneva, which had been revised by
Calvin after the Protestant Revolution of I 535 in Geneva, provided that expulsion was the maximum
penalty for blasphemers. There was otherwise no crime in the civil code of Geneva for mere
heresy. As a result, there also was no death penalty for heresy recognized in Geneva’s Civil Code
Calvin was blocked. Yet, by persistence. and vague allusions to other ancient codes of‘ sixth century
Rome never enacted at Geneva, which even then did not provide for a death penalty in Servetus‘ case,
Calvin convinced the laymen-court known as the Pen‘! (‘email to order Servetus’ execution. Hence,
Calvin had a man killed on the accusation of‘ blasphemy who, like Jesus, was not guilty of blasphemy,
and whose death, as a result, was no less a murder than the killing of Jesus.
In Calvin’s first edition of the Institutes (1536), Calvin wrote: ll is crimiual to put heretics lo death. To
make an end of them by fire and sword is opposed to every principle of humanity.” Indeed, just before
he died, Calvin taught in his commentary on Ezekiel 18:34 that anyone like himself who had been
regenerated can be unrepentant murderer and still can expect etemal life, contrary to what Apostle
John taught.”
Calvin knew Servetus since college days in I534. ln approximately that year, they mutually planned a
public debate which was cancelled. They corresponded numerous times until their correspondence
ceased in 1543. Then in 1546, Calvin put in writing to Farel that Calvin would not let Servetus leave
Geneva alive if Sewetus should set Foot in it.“ Calvin repeated such an intent in writing during the
Servetus trial of I553.”
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