For those who prefer truth to fiction, it's important to remember Servetus denied the Trinity which was at that time a capital offense for heresy throughout all Christendom. Rome was hunting Servetus and the Roman Catholic Inquisition in Lyons had already condemned him to death in absentia for this heresy.
Calvin had nothing to do with the city government in Geneva. Calvin was, after all, the philosophical founder of our current separation between church and state, as well as our representative form of government and its system of checks and balances.
Few men in history have contributed as much as Calvin did to the correct theological understanding of Scripture, society and human nature.
And few men have been so maligned for that effort.
Here's a wonderful thread from a few years ago I found on google - posted by Harleyd! Serendipity.
Calvin's dearest friend, Theodore Beza, said of him: "The thing to be wondered at is that a single man, as if he had been a kind of Christian Hercules, should have been able to subdue so many monsters, and this by that mightiest of all clubs, the Word of God."
What part of Christ’s teaching authorized his followers to burn “heretics”? How would the Edicts of Rome be binding on the Protestant Geneva?
Calvin said he intended to do what he could do bring about the death of Servetus:
“If he [Servetus] comes [to Geneva], I shall never let him go out alive if my authority has weight.”
“Calvin had nothing to do with the city government in Geneva. Calvin was, after all, the philosophical founder of our current separation between church and state, as well as our representative form of government and its system of checks and balances.”
Not when it was Calvin’s church and ideology.
Your revisionism isn’t a strong enough soap to wash the blood from Calvin’s hands either.
LOL He also invented the rose, the electric blender, stone masonry and non-fat yogurt.