SERVETUS, MicHael, a learned Spanish physician, was born at Villanueva in Aragon, in 1509. He was sent to the university of Toulouse to study the civil law. The Reformation, which had awakened the most polished nations of Europe, directed the attention of thinking men to the errors of the Romish church, and to the study of the Scriptures. Among the rest Servetus applied to this study. From the love of novelty, or the love of truth, he carried his inquiries far beyond the other reformers, and not only renounced the false opinions of the Roman Catholics, but went so far as to question the doctrine of the Trinity. Accordingly, after spending two or three years at Toulouse, he determined to go into Germany to propagate his new opinions, where he could do it with most safety. At Basel he had some conferences with Oecolampadius. He went next to Strasburg to visit Bucer and Capito, two eminent reformers of that town. From Strasburg he went to Hagenau, where, in 1531, he printed a book entitled De Trinitatis Erroribus. The ensuing year he published other two treatises on the same subject. In an advertisement to this work he informs the reader that it was not his intention to retract any of his former sentiments, but only to state them in a more distinct and accurate manner. To these two publications he had the courage to put his name, not suspecting that, in an age when liberty of opinion was asserted, the exercise of that liberty would be attended with danger. After publishing these books he left Germany, probably finding his doctrines not so cordially received as he expected. He went first to Basel, and thence to Lyons, where he lived two or three years. He then removed to Paris, where he studied medicine under Sylvius, Fermelius, and other professors, and took the degrees of master of arts and doctor of medicine. His love of controversy involved him in a serious dispute with the physicians of Paris; and he wrote an Apology, which was suppressed by an edict of the parliament. The misunderstanding which this dispute produced with his colleagues, and the chagrin which so unfavourable a termination occasioned, made him leave Paris in disgust. He settled two or three years in Lyons, and engaged with the Frellons, eminent printers of that age, as a corrector of the press. At Lyons he met with Pierre Palmier, the archbishop of Vienne, with whom he had been acquainted at Paris. That prelate, who was a great encourager of learned men, pressed him to accompany him to Vienne, offering him at the same time an apartment in his palace. Servetus accepted the offer, and might have lived a tranquil and happy life at Vienne, if he could have confined his attention to medicine and literature. But the love of controversy, and an eagerness to establish his opinions, always possessed him. At this time Calvin was at the head of the reformed church of Geneva. With Servetus he had been acquainted at Paris, and had there opposed his opinions. For sixteen years Calvin kept up a correspondence with him, endeavouring to reclaim him from his errors. Servetus had read the works of Calvin, but did not think that they merited the high eulogies of the reformers, nor were they sufficient to convince him of his errors. He continued, however, to consult him; and for this purpose sent from Lyons to Geneva three questions, which respected the divinity of Jesus Christ, regeneration, and the necessity of baptism. To these Calvin returned a civil answer. Servetus treated the answer with contempt, and Calvin replied with warmth. From reasoning he had recourse to abusive language; and this produced a polemical hatred, the most implacable disposition in the world. Calvin having obtained some of Servetus’s papers, by means, it is said, not very honourable, sent them to Vienne along with the private letters which he had received in the course of their correspondence. The consequence was, that Servetus was arrested; but having escaped from prison, he resolved to retire to Naples, where he hoped to practise medicine with the same reputation which he had so long enjoyed at Vienne. He imprudently took his route through Geneva, though he could not but know that Calvin was his mortal enemy. Calvin informed the magistrates of his arrival; Servetus was apprehended, and appointed to stand trial for heresy and blasphemy. It was a law at Geneva that every accuser should surrender himself a prisoner, that if the charge should be found false, the accuser should suffer the punishment in which he meant to involve the accused. Calvin not choosing to go to prison himself, sent one of his domestics to present the impeachment against Servetus. The articles brought against him were collected from his writings with great care, an employment which took up three days. One of these articles was, “that Servetus had denied that Judaea was a beautiful, rich, and fertile country; and affirmed, on the authority of travellers, that it was poor, barren, and disagreeable.” He was also charged with “corrupting the Latin Bible which he was employed to correct at Lyons, by introducing impertinent, trifling, whimsical, and impious notes of his own through every page.” But the main article, which was certainly fatal to him, was, “that in the person of Mr Calvin, minister of the word of God in the church of Geneva, he had defamed the doctrine that is preached, uttering all imaginable injurious and blasphemous words against it.”

Calvin visited Servetus in prison, and had frequent conferences with him; but finding that, in opposition to all the arguments he could employ, the prisoner remained inflexible in his opinions, he left him to his fate. Before sentence was passed, the magistrates of Geneva consulted the[7:20:158] ministers of Basel, of Berne, and Zurich, and, as another account informs us, the magistrates of the Protestant cantons of Switzerland. And to enable them to form a judgment of the criminality of Servetus, they transmitted the writings of Calvin, with his answers. The general opinion was, that Servetus ought to be condemned to death for blasphemy. He was accordingly sentenced to be burned alive on the 27th of October 1553. As he continued alive in the midst of the flames more than two hours, it is said, finding his torment thus protracted, he exclaimed, “Unhappy wretch that I am, will the flames be insufficient to terminate my misery? What, then, will the hundred pieces of gold, and the rich collar, which they took from me, not purchase wood enough to consume me more quickly ?” Though the sentence of death was passed against Servetus by the magistrates of Geneva, with the approbation of a great number of the magistrates and ministers of Switzerland, yet it is the opinion of many historians that this dreadful sentence was pronounced at the instigation of Calvin. This act of severity for holding a speculative opinion, however erroneous and absurd, has left a stain on the character of the illustrious reformer, which will attend the name of Calvin as long as history shall preserve it from oblivion. The address which he used in apprehending Servetus, as well as his harshness towards him during his trial, proves that he was as much influenced by personal hatred as by a desire to support the interest of religion, though, no doubt, he believed he was performing a very praiseworthy action. In what practical school were the principles of toleration to be then studied? This intolerant spirit of Calvin and the magistrates of Geneva gave the Papists a favourable opportunity to accuse the Protestants of inconsistency in their principles, which they did not fail to embrace. “How could the magistrates,” says the author of the Dictionnaire des Heresies, “who acknowledged no infallible interpretation of the Scriptures, condemn Servetus to death because he explained them differently from Calvin; since every man has the privilege to expound the Scripture according to his own judgment, without having recourse to the church? It is a great injustice to condemn a man because he will not submit to the judgment of an enthusiast, who may be wrong as well as himself.”

Servetus was a man of great acuteness and learning, and well versed in the arts and sciences. In his own profession his genius exerted itself with success. In his tract entitled Christianismi Restitutio, published in 1553, he remarks, that the whole mass of blood passes through the lungs by the pulmonary artery and vein, in opposition to the opinion which was then universally entertained, that the blood passes through the partition which divides the two ventricles. This was an important step towards the discovery of the circulation of the blood.

His works consist of controversial writings concerning the Trinity; an edition of Pagninus’s version of the Bible, with a preface and notes; an Apology to the Physicians of Paris; and a book entitled Ratio Syruporum. Mosheim has written in Latin an elaborate history of the heresy and misfortunes of Servetus, which was published at Helmstadt in 1728, 4to.