John Calvin

THE FATHER OF CALVINISM WAS A MURDERER

John Calvin's Insanity!

Burned Without Mercy

When Servetus knew Calvin was going to have him killed regardless of the merits of his arguments (all of which Calvin could not refute), he asked for mercy. He pleaded with Calvin to just quickly cut off his head by the sword rather than burning him at the stake, fearing he might not remain faithful under the anticipated pain.

Ignoring pleas for mercy, Calvin ordered Servetus to be burned with green wood so the suffering would be prolonged. He ordered sulfur be placed atop his head so when the flames finally reached high enough to ignite the sulfur an even more intense heat would burn his head.

Throughout the ordeal, Michael Servetus did not recant his deeply held beliefs or his innocence. On October 26 the official Council of Two Hundred ordered Servetus “to be led to Chapel and burned there alive on the next day together with his books.” Only two charges were mentioned in his sentencing–anti-Trinitarianism and anti-pedobaptism.

The law under which Servetus was condemned was the Codex of Justinian that prescribed the death penalty for the denial of the Trinity. This law was instituted by the totalitarian ecclesiastical state, whose morality was defined by the interests of the ecclesiastical state which Calvin helped establish.

Two hours before his execution, he requested an audience with Calvin who agreed and came with two of his lieutenants. He acknowledged that Servetus became “irritated against my good and saintly admonishing…. Seeing that I do not accomplish anything by exhortations, I did not want to be wiser than my Master would permit me. Therefore, following the rule of Saint Paul, I separated myself from the heretic.”

Servetus was led to his place of martyrdom by a cortege of archers upon horses. People lined the way, some of whom taunted him to recant. Two witnesses wrote that Servetus responded that he was being unjustly killed and he would pray for his accusers.

Marian Hillar in his book on Servetus describes the martyrdom. “No cruelty was spared on Servetus as his state was made of bundles of the fresh wood of live oak still green, mixed with the branches still bearing leaves. On his head, a straw crown was placed sprayed with sulfur. He was seated on a log with his body chained to a post with an iron chain, his neck was bound with four or five turns of a thick rope. This way Servetus was being fried at a slow fire for about half an hour before he died.

His last words were, “O God, save my soul; O Jesus of the eternal God, have mercy on me.”

A Counter-revolution Begun

Calvin succeeded in burning to death his innocent challenger, but in doing so ignited a greater fire of protest against both his doctrine and his intolerance of a free religious conscience.

Lucian of Samosata was a satirist in 2nd century Greece. He wrote in one of his works about early Christians.

The Christians ... worship a man to this day – the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account.... [It] was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. Source: Lucian, "The Death of Peregrine", 11-13 in, in The Works of Lucian of Samosata, translated by H.W. Fowler and F.G. Fowler, 4 vols. (Oxford: Claridon 1949), volume 4., cited in Habermas, The Historical Jesus, 206.

Although Lucian does not mention Jesus by name it is clear that he is talking about Jesus. Lucian does not say explicitly, the Christian denial of other gods combined with their worship of Jesus implies that Jesus was no mere human.

Another source of information comes from Pliny the Younger to Emperor Trajan. Pliny was the governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor

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