Letter to John Calvin

I pray this letter finds you well even at 500 years of age. Next week our church, named after you, will celebrate your birthday. Granted, your birthday was on July 10th, and even though many things have changed, most churches still worship on the Lord's Day. So we're going to honor your achievements during worship on July 12th. To be honest, if we held a celebration on the actual date of your birth, we probably wouldn't get anybody out to church on a Friday night. Sorry about that.

You may be surprised to know (even horrified knowing that you wanted all glory to go to God) how many of your ideas from the 1500s have become so pervasive. That fellow Knox from Scotland you mentored began a reformed church that's known as Presbyterianism. Can you believe it? Your notion that the people had the right to elect their own presbyters (overseers) took hold.

OK, there are only a few millions of us who go by that name, but the Declaration of Independence had only one clergy among the signers, and it was John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian. And the United States Constitution was created in large measure by the efforts of James Madison, who was influenced by Witherspoon. The idea of federalism came from you and your Genevan experiments in representative democracy. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that your theological views, which led to your political views, have shaped modern notions of liberty and self-governance.

Another one of your theological views, regarding the tendency of humans to be so idolatrous, has been amply demonstrated lately. You felt that greed was one of the chief examples of idolatry and, hence, you called Christians to a way of life that shunned ostentation. Well, we have a global economic crisis that was instigated by rampant greed and unfettered exploitation of loopholes in financial regulations. If only we had listened to you more closely. You believed that laws were enacted to thwart sinful behavior in society, and an ordered society would be better equipped to deal not only with evil but also incarnate the compassionate kingdom that Jesus began. Oh well.So many people cringe when they hear your name because of that predestination thing. Not long after your death, a whole generation of Calvinists took your theology to extremes. We've forgotten that you affirmed God's sovereignty in all things which, for you, meant that God was free to do whatever God wanted. If you were meant to be eternally damned, so be it, but you said that you would live as if you were going to be eternally saved because that would mean you would live a just and holy life not out of fear but in freedom. Wish more Christians lived like that.

What was your favorite? Chocolate or vanilla icing? We're going to have a cake for you following worship. Oh, you probably didn't even have cakes like this in the 1500s. I tell you what, I'll eat a piece for you. Or would that be too gluttonous? Happy birthday John Calvin, and thanks for all you've given the church and the world.

I find no evidence that Calvin deliberately stacked wood to make Servetus die in more anguish. That is the first time I have ever heard such a charge. I think it is libelous, unless you can put up some sort of evidence.

Michael Servetus taught against the doctrine of the Trinity.

““Michael Servetus had risked his life and position to publish this book called Christianismi Restitutio — The Restoration of Christianity.

Twenty years before he had been condemned by the INQUISITION for writing an earlier version called On the Errors of the Trinity, and since then he had lived underground in the south of France with an assumed name and a new profession—doctor of medicine. Noblemen traveled great distances to consult with him as “Dr. Villeneuve”.

But Michael Servetus was not willing to live out his life without trying again to reform the Christian churches of his time and publishing his beliefs and principles. So he rewrote his book and had it secretly printed.

“Shortly after the publication of the 1,000 copies [but before any of them had been sold], Servetus was arrested by the FRENCH INQUISITORS and sentenced to die on the next day. But [that night] he managed a daring escape and eluded re-capture for months. He was on his way to Italy where he expected he would be safe, when he was recognized in a church in Geneva and arrested.

“Before his supporters could rally to his defense, Michael Servetus was thrown into a dark, bug-infested cell where he was kept for seventy-five days. His had no access to the outside world and was forced to participate in a highly politicized trial, the outcome of which had far more to do with local political power struggles than the merits of the [radical] positions he took in his book.

During the trial Servetus defended himself brilliantly, going head to head with his accuser, John Calvin, who was perhaps the greatest mind of the Reformation and who had risen to be the virtual dictator of Geneva. But the quality of Servetus’ arguments never mattered. Servetus’ fate had been sealed from the moment Calvin learned he was in Geneva. Servetus was found guilty of the charges brought by a tribunal hand-picked by Calvin, who was Servetus’ sworn enemy and archrival.

“450 years ago today the TRIBUNAL condemned Servetus “to be led on the next day to Champel and burned there alive together with his book.” Of all the punishments of the 1500s, the worst was to be burned alive, and so this horror was reserved for the most terrible crime there was—heresy. Heretics were especially loathed because they put not only their own souls in mortal jeopardy, but also those of the otherwise INNOCENT PEOPLE THEY LED AWAY FROM GOD and His heavenly reward by their heretical teachings.

“When Servetus was led to the pyre, chained to his side was what everyone thought was the last surviving copy of his book. The ideas were to be burnt along with the man. There was no escape.

“The fire was lit, but the wood was deliberately green. Michael Servetus’ life was not extinguished quickly in a blazing wall of fire. For a full half hour he was slowly roasted. At last he uttered a final prayer to God, saying, “Oh Jesus, Son of the Eternal God, have pity on me!” To the end he remained true to his belief in the Errors of the Trinity. He did not say, “Oh Jesus, eternal son of God.” Finally, his ashes co-mingled with those of his book.”

The above from a Unitarian ministress’s thesis, hardly a defender of Calvin. Pardon all the glowing adjectives of Servetus. . . to blame Calvin alone for Servetus’ death, when many others were clearly involved. . .when Servetus went to Geneva on purpose knowing his possible fate. . .after pushing seriously heretical junk and knowing the death penalty would ensue. . .and to accuse Calvin of personally stacking wood a certain way...is irresponsible.

As you recall, he criticized various points of your Institutes and you burned him to death for it....Unlike you, he died with these words on his lips, "Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me."

Servetus wasn't put to death for "criticizing various points of the Institutes", but for denying the triune God of the Bible. Thus, I have to ask, who was the Jesus that Michael Servetus begged to for mercy?

"With my whole soul I embrace the mercy with [God] has exercised towards me through Jesus Christ, atoning for my sins with the merits of his death and passion, that in this way he might satisfy for all my crimes and faults, and blot them from his remembrance....I confess I have failed innumerable times to execut my office properly, and had not He, of His boundless goodness, assisted me, all that zeal had been fleeting and vain....For all these reasons, I testify and declare that I trust to no other security for my salvation than this, and this only, viz., that as God is the Father of mercy, he will show himself such as a Father to me, who acklowedge myself to be a miserable sinner...."
-- John Calvin, April 25, 1564 (a month before his death)
from John Dillenberger's biography John Calvin, page 35

I wasn’t trying to condone the execution. I was just pointing out that if Calvin wanted him decapitated instead of burnt at the stake, it would be unlikely Calvin was “personally arranging the wood around him” for maximum torment, as a previous poster claimed (without providing a source). Also, if true, it showed uncommon mercy in an age when burning someone at the stake for “heresy” was questioned by few.

Hard to tell who's a hostile sometimes.

If Servetus hadn't escaped the papists, they would have certainly burned him instead of the Genevese.

Lot of that going on back then. It was a different world. No constitution, no Bill 'o Rights, no "separation of church and state" (whatever it's true meaning and legitimacy in the UnitedState-ian context).

“Calvin’s participation in the execution of anyone for “pushing seriously heretical junk” is profoundly hypocritical.”

I may or may not support his participation. I don’t know enough about it to say for sure whether it was legitimate or not. I understand Servetus was sentenced to death by legitimate authorities, after a trial, and was truly guilty of his crime. I further understand that Calvin tried to mitigate his manner of death by seeking a more merciful beheading.

I do think torturing someone to death is never legitimate. Inasmuch as Calvin was party to that, I can’t approve.

But I’m not sure he was being hypocritical. If, like most leaders of his day, both civil and clerical, he supported the death penalty for heresy, I don’t see why agreeing in some sense with Servetus’ death sentence would make him a hypocrite.

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