From wikiJohn Calvin (French: Jean Calvin, born Jehan Cauvin: 10 July 1509 – 27 May 1564) was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530. After religious tensions provoked a violent uprising against Protestants in France, Calvin fled to Basel, Switzerland, where he published the first edition of his seminal work The Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536.
The turning point in Calvin's fortunes occurred when Michael Servetus, a fugitive from ecclesiastical authorities, appeared in Geneva on 13 August 1553. Servetus was a Spanish physician and Protestant theologian who boldly criticised the doctrine of the Trinity and paedobaptism (infant baptism).[48] In July 1530 he disputed with Johannes Oecolampadius in Basel and was eventually expelled. He went to Strasbourg where he published a pamphlet against the Trinity. Bucer publicly refuted it and asked Servetus to leave. After returning to Basel, Servetus published Two Books of Dialogues on the Trinity (Latin: Dialogorum de Trinitate libri duo) which caused a sensation among Reformers and Catholics alike. The Inquisition in Spain ordered his arrest.[49]
Calvin and Servetus were first brought into contact for the first time in 1546 through a common acquaintance, Jean Frellon of Lyon; they exchanged letters debating doctrine; Calvin used a pseudonym as Charles d' Espeville, while Servetus left his unsigned.[50] Eventually, Calvin lost patience and refused to respond; by this time Servetus had written around thirty letters to Calvin. Calvin was particularly outraged when Servetus sent him a copy of the Institutes of the Christian Religion heavily annotated with arguments pointing to errors in the book. When Servetus mentioned that he would come to Geneva if Calvin agreed, Calvin wrote a letter to Farel on 13 February 1546 noting that if Servetus were to come, he would not assure him safe conduct: "for if he came, as far as my authority goes, I would not let him leave alive."[51]
In 1553, Calvin's front man, Guillaume de Trie, sent letters trying to address the French Inquisition to Servetus.[52] Calling him a "Spanish-Portuguese", suspecting and accusing him[53] of his recently proved Jewish converso origin.[54][55][56] De Trie wrote down that "his proper name is Michael Servetus, but he currently calls himself Villeneufve, practising medicine. He stayed for some time in Lyon, and now he is living in Vienne."[57] When the inquisitor-general of France learned that Servetus was hiding in Vienne, according to Calvin under an assumed name, he contacted Cardinal François de Tournon, the secretary of the archbishop of Lyon, to take up the matter. Servetus was arrested and taken in for questioning. His letters to Calvin were presented as evidence of heresy, but he denied having written them, and later said he was not sure it was his handwriting. He said, after swearing before the holy gospel, that "he was Michel De Villeneuve Doctor in Medicine about 42 years old, native of Tudela of the kingdom of Navarre, a city under the obedience to the Emperor".[58] The following day he said: "..although he was not Servetus he assumed the person of Servet for debating with Calvin".[59] He managed to escape from prison, and the Catholic authorities sentenced him in absentia to death by slow burning.[60]
On his way to Italy, Servetus stopped in Geneva for unknown reasons, where he was recognized and arrested. Calvin's secretary Nicholas de la Fontaine composed a list of accusations that was submitted before the court. The prosecutor was Philibert Berthelier, a member of a libertine family and son of a famous Geneva patriot, and the sessions were led by Pierre Tissot, Perrin's brother-in-law. The libertines allowed the trial to drag on in an attempt to harass Calvin. The difficulty in using Servetus as a weapon against Calvin was that the heretical reputation of Servetus was widespread and most of the cities in Europe were observing and awaiting the outcome of the trial. This posed a dilemma for the libertines, so on 21 August the council decided to write to other Swiss cities for their opinions, thus mitigating their own responsibility for the final decision. While waiting for the responses, the council also asked Servetus if he preferred to be judged in Vienne or in Geneva. He begged to stay in Geneva. On 20 October the replies from Zurich, Basel, Bern, and Schaffhausen were read and the council condemned Servetus as a heretic. The following day he was sentenced to burning at the stake, the same sentence as in Vienne. Calvin and other ministers asked that he be beheaded instead of burnt.[61] This plea was refused and on 27 October, Servetus was burnt alive—atop a pyre of his own books—at the Plateau of Champel at the edge of Geneva.[62]
Imagine having the hand in the execution of someone on this forum, because you thought they were a heretic; because they disagreed with you?
How would that person live with himself unless he was evil to the bone?
How evil was John Calvin?
To drive this point home, one could, today, start accusing a Muslim in Iran of being a closet Jew and that person would be executed according to Sharia Law.
Calvin didn't have Sharia Law, he had Christian Law, but the effect was the same.
Who here would accuse a person of something so petty as having a different religion in order to kill them?
Imagine if you offered to meet someone on this forum, and you found out that the person said, "for if he came, as far as my authority goes, I would not let him leave alive."
I cannot understand how anyone could follow the reasoning of Calvin if his reasoning led him to this bastardized and evil view of the words of Jesus. Particularly the 5 points and the concept of the Elect. It seems to be obviously the delusions of an evil and warped mind.
Or, was Calvin the only true Christian since Jesus? Was Calvin the only one to understand the true Christianity?
