Posted on 12/15/2010 7:22:45 PM PST by narses
Geneva was a church-city-state of 15,000 people, and the church constitution now recognized "pastors, doctors, elders and deacons," but the supreme power was given to the magistrate, John Calvin. In November 1552, the Council declared Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion to be a "holy doctrine which no man might speak against." Thus the State issued dogmatic decrees, the force of which had been anticipated earlier, as when Jacques Gruet, a known opponent of Calvin, was arrested, tortured for a month and beheaded on July 26, 1547, for placing a letter in Calvin's pulpit calling him a hypocrite. Gruet's book was later found and burned along with his house while his wife was thrown out into the street to watch. Gruet's death was more highly criticized by far than the banishment of Castellio or the penalties inflicted on Bolsec -- moderate men opposed to extreme views in discipline and doctrine, who fell under suspicion as reactionary. Calvin did not shrink from his self-appointed task. Within five years fifty-eight sentences of death and seventy-six of exile, besides numerous committals of the most eminent citizens to prison, took place in Geneva. The iron yoke could not be shaken off. In 1555, under Ami Perrin, a revolt was attempted. No blood was shed, but Perrin lost the day, and Calvin's theocracy triumphed. John Calvin had secured his grip on Geneva by defeating the very man who had invited him there, Ami Perrin, commissioner of Geneva.
Calvin forced the citizens of Geneva to attend church services under a heavy threat of punishment. Since Calvinism falsely teaches that God forces the elect to believe, it is no wonder that Calvin thought he could also force the citizens of Geneva to all become the elect. Not becoming one of the elect was punishable by death or expulsion from Geneva. Calvin exercised forced regeneration on the citizens of Geneva, because that is what his theology teaches.
Michael Servetus, a Spaniard, physician, scientist and Bible scholar, was born in Villanova in 1511. He was credited with the discovery of the pulmonary circulation of the blood from the right chamber of the heart through the lungs and back to the left chamber of the heart. He was Calvin's longtime friend in their earlier resistance against the Roman Catholic Church. Servetus, while living in Vienne (historic city in southeastern France), angered Calvin by returning a copy of Calvin's writings, Institutes, with critical comments in the margins. Servetus was arrested by the Roman Catholic Authorities on April 4 but escaped on April 7, 1553. He traveled to Geneva where he attended Calvin's Sunday preaching service on August 13. Calvin promptly had Servetus arrested and charged with heresy for his disagreement with Calvin's theology. The thirty-eight official charges included rejection of the Trinity and infant baptism. Servetus was correct in challenging Calvin's false teaching about infant baptism for salvation, but he was heretical in his rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity. Servetus pleaded to be beheaded instead of the more brutal method of burning at the stake, but Calvin and the city council refused the quicker death method. Other Protestant churches throughout Switzerland advised Calvin that Servetus be condemned but not executed. Calvin ignored their pleas and Servetus was burned at the stake on October 27, 1553. John Calvin insisted that his men use green wood for the fire because it burned slower. Servetus was screaming as he was literally baked alive from the feet upward and suffered the heat of the flames for 30 minutes before finally succumbing to one of the most painful and brutal death methods possible. Servetus had written a theology book, a copy of which Calvin had strapped to the chest of Servetus. The flames from the burning book rose against Servetus' face as he screamed in agony.
John Calvin celebrated and bragged of his killing of Servetus. Many theological and state leaders criticized Calvin for the unwarranted killing of Servetus, but it fell on deaf ears as Calvin advised others to do the same. Calvin wrote much in following years in a continual attempt to justify his burning of Servetus. Some people claim Calvin favored beheading, but this does not fit charges of heresy for which the punishment, as written by Calvin earlier, was to be burning at the stake. Calvin had made a vow years earlier that Servetus would never leave Geneva alive if he were ever captured, and Calvin held true to his pledge. Truly John Calvin is burning in Hell for his heresy, blasphemy of God and murder of many.
Another victim of Calvin's fiery zeal was Gentile of an Italian sect in Geneva, which also numbered among its adherents Alciati and Gribaldo. More or less Unitarian in their views, they were required to sign a confession drawn up by Calvin in 1558. Gentile signed it reluctantly, but in the upshot he was condemned and imprisoned as a perjurer. He escaped only to be incarcerated twice at Berne where, in 1566, he was beheaded. Calvin also had thirty-four (34) women burned at the stake after accusing them of causing a plague that had swept through Geneva in 1545. John Calvin's actions were very paganistic like his mentor, Saint Augustine. Jesus and all of the Apostles would have abhorred and condemned these blatant mass murders.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my Catholic Apologetics and the Defense of the Faith ping list:
Please ping me to Catholic threads where I can help defend our common faith!
Unmitigated lies.
Calvin journeyed into Roman territory, at the risk of his own life, to plead with Servitus not to return to Geneva.
The Roman Catholic church wanted to burn Servitus as well, but he got to Geneva first.
Now, you want to talk about the Roman Catholic persecution of the Jews during the same time frame?
Dang, looks like Calvin learned a whole lot from the violent Popes!
Actually, I’ve put in a lot of time studying that period. Nothing in this article is a lie. The speculation that the Catholic Church might have burned Servetus does not logically demonstrate that the truth is a lie. Calvin did order him burned at the stake in Geneva, in the manner described.
“Now, you want to talk about the Roman Catholic persecution of the Jews during the same time frame?”
How does that have any possible bearing on the deeds of the supposed “elect” of God?
Hey, if we are going to dredge up late medieval era bad behavior why not start with this:
http://www.ccel.org/f/foxe/martyrs/home.html
This is an intentionally negative piece written about John Calvin that doesn’t place him in the context of his times.
His weren’t the only beheadings, the only stake-burnings, and the only burdensome rules and restrictions.
But, this kind of propaganda hit job is designed to further someone’s agenda; someone who thinks they gain by running down another Christian brother.
And it goes the same when directed from the Calvinist side toward their non-Calvinist brethren.
Jesus prayed for our unity. It’s sad when we make it harder for people to believe in Jesus because of our disunity.
Shoot, it’s not like the Catholics weren’t a bunch of murderous scumbags, too.
A pox on both their houses.
LOL, because Foxe was a grotesque liar!
“Unmitigated lies.”
Nope. Calvin was a thug.
Calvin expressed these sentiments in a letter to Farel, written about a week after Servetus’ arrest, in which he also mentioned an exchange with Servetus. Calvin wrote:
“ ...after he [Servetus] had been recognized, I thought he should be detained. My friend Nicolas summoned him on a capital charge, offering himself as a security according to the lex talionis. On the following day he adduced against him forty written charges. He at first sought to evade them. Accordingly we were summoned. He impudently reviled me, just as if he regarded me as obnoxious to him. I answered him as he deserved... of the man’s effrontery I will say nothing; but such was his madness that he did not hesitate to say that devils possessed divinity; yea, that many gods were in individual devils, inasmuch as a deity had been substantially communicated to those equally with wood and stone. I hope that sentence of death will at least be passed on him; but I desired that the severity of the punishment be mitigated.
Calvin to William Farel, August 20, 1553, Bonnet, Jules (1820–1892) Letters of John Calvin, Carlisle, Penn: Banner of Truth Trust, 1980, pp. 158–159. ISBN 0-85151-323-9.
Nothing in this article is a lie.
Nothing in this article is a lie.
Nothing in this article is a lie.
Nothing in this article is a lie.
Nothing in this article is a lie.
Nothing in this article is a lie.
Nothing in this article is a lie.
Nothing in this article is a lie.
“This is an intentionally negative piece written about John Calvin that doesn’t place him in the context of his times.”
It is factual. How are facts “negative”?
Quelle horreur!
“Now, you want to talk about the Roman Catholic persecution of the Jews during the same time frame?”
Why not Luther’s?
http://www.humanitas-international.org/showcase/chronography/documents/luther-jews.htm
Uh oh, back to hatin’ on poor ol’ Martin.
That was quick.
The laws of Geneva in the 16th Century, were pretty much the same as in most European cities, based on old Roman law which made heresy a executable offense. Nothing new or innovative in John Calvin’s approach to that...
The same kinds of old Roman Catholic medieval laws being relied up on to kill hundreds (and in 1572 TENS OF THOUSANDS) of Protestant “heretics” in France, and other parts of Europe—by Roman Catholic authorities—were used to execute one Micheal Servetus—who had been on the run for years from the Roman Catholic Inquisition—having just escaped captivity during an Roman Catholic trial in France.
There was no speculation—definite heretics (and Servetus strongly and arrogantly denied the Trinity—not some minor point of Calvinism, or any form of Christianity) were routinely burned at the stake in the 1500s—and Calvin was a man of his day—a day when NO ONE was religiously tolerant.
Upon the trial of Servetus—by the democratically elected City Council, by the way, NOT the non-Citizen John Calvin, letters were sent out to all the neighboring Protestant cities and centers about their opinion on executing a heretic—and ALL of THEM (including the Lutherans) favored it.
Was Calvin strict? Yes he was, and so were the old (medieval, Roman Catholic-written) laws which backed the City Council up—who directly ruled Geneva (Calvin did not—and was never even a full Citizen) who followed Calvin’s advice.
It is amazing to me that Roman Catholic apologists-for-the-Inquistion....would be so self-righteously hard on a man—of the first generation of Protestants—who followed their Church’s lead in lacking religious tolerance.
If you want the real story, and a picture into the world of 16th Century Reformation-era Europe, try renowned scholar Roland Bainton’s book, “Micheal Servetus” which is the source of my knowledge about him.
I respect you greatly. But this post serves no edifying purpose. Please let our charity and faith by our witness for the Catholic faith. We do not need to tear down others or give air to scandal in order to be assured we have the fullness of Truth as revealed by God and protected by the Holy Spirit in the Catholic Church.
There are many decent, good and faithful non Catholic Christians for whom such posts are very hurtful. In the spirit of Advent Joy let us not play the game a small minority of posters play. Instead let us celebrate the coming of Christmas with mutual wonder at His great saving Love.
Why, I heard about this guy once, a real body-builder type, and he took a big bone, and MURDERED a THOUSAND people, by clubbing them to death, just because they were of a different religion.
He should be locked up, tried and executed don’t you think?
If so, than you’d just executed one of the Bible’s great heroes and liberators, that is one of the great Judges of Israel, Samson. (Judges 14-16)
Context often does make all the difference.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.