2017年3月21日 星期二
Michael Servetus(1511-1553)
John Calvin ( French: Jean Calvin; born Jehan Cauvin: 10 July 1509 – 27 May 1564) was an influential French theologian, pastor and reformer during the Protestant Reformation.
Michael Servetus (Spanish: Miguel Serveto), also known as Miguel Servet, Miguel Serveto, Revés, or Michel de Villeneuve (29 September 1509 or 1511 – 27 October 1553), was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and Renaissance humanist.
In 1553 Michael anonymously published The Restitution of Christianity which he saw as an attempt to restore Christianity to its primitive purity. In that work he boldly--or rashly--continued to deny the Trinity despite the danger it brought him. Denying the Trinity and the incarnation of Christ were still capital offenses as they had been throughout the middle ages. Michael said Jesus was the Son of the eternal God but not the eternal Son of God. Contrary to the reformers, he also taught that both faith and works were necessary for salvation.
He sent Calvin a portion of the work.
Roman Catholic authorities in Vienne discovered the name of the Restitution's author because Calvin collaborated in denouncing him to the Inquisition, and they arrested Michael for heresy. He escaped, however, and fled toward Naples by way of Calvin's Geneva. Vienne's authorities burned him in effigy. He entered a church where Calvin was preaching, was recognized, and arrested on charges of blasphemy and heresy, although he was not a citizen and was just passing through town. Was it legal for them to arrest him?
Nonetheless, Michael was tried for heresy, this time by a Protestant city council.
He continued in an attitude of superior knowledge and called John Calvin "Simon Magus" an "impostor," and more. Servetus shocked the Genevans with his pantheistic or gnostic claim that everything emanated from God, even the devil. Like the Anabaptists, he declared infant baptism a great error. Geneva unfairly refused him legal council although he was a stranger to its law system, saying he could lie well enough without a lawyer to assist him.
The Geneva Council voted to condemn Servetus for heresy and called for his execution.
The Swiss churches of Berne, Zurich, Basle, and Schaffhausen encouraged this move.
Although Calvin insisted with the rest that Servetus must die, he urged that in mercy Servetus be executed by the sword, not by burning, but the Council rejected the suggestion. It was quarreling with Calvin at that time over the city government. Calvin and reformer William Farel spent hours with Servetus trying to turn him back from his lapses from commonly accepted Christian doctrine, but Servetus stood fast to his principles.
On this day, October 27, 1553, Geneva burned Michael Servetus at the stake for blasphemy and heresy.
In the flames, Michael called repeatedly on Jesus, the Son of God for mercy.
Geneva's action led to an immediate controversy among reformers whether it is right for a reformation church to execute heretics. Most said it was not. Calvin took a lot of heat for his role in the denunciation, trial and execution of Servetus and was not always honest in his account of what had happened.
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