SERVETUS, MICHAEL (MIGUEL SERVET). — Anti-Trinitarian writer, probably born on 29 April 1511 at Villanueva de Sijena in Aragon, died at Geneva on 27 October 1553. He studied at Saragossa and then at Toulouse; in 1530 he was received in Bologna as secretary to the confessor of Charles V and followed the emperor to Augsburg. From there he moved to Basel, then to Strasbourg, where he was warmly welcomed by Œcolampadius and Capito. In 1531 he published at Hagenau his *De Trinitatis erroribus*, in which he attacked the dogma. Wanted by the authorities, he concealed himself under the name of “Villanovanus” and practised medicine in Paris. Later he went to Lyon as a corrector in the printing house of the Trechsel brothers, for whom he published in 1535 a *Geography* of Ptolemy.
It is commonly held that at this time he discovered and made known, long before Harvey (whose work dates from 1628), the circulation of the blood, or at least pulmonary circulation. In 1540 Servetus went as physician to Vienne in the Dauphiné, protected by Archbishop Paulmier. Externally irreproachable as a Catholic, he secretly composed his principal work, which appeared under the title *Christianismi restitutio* (Vienna 1553) as a reply to Calvin’s *Institutio religionis christianae*.
As early as 1547 he had sent Calvin an outline of his book; Calvin, irritated, replied harshly, telling Farel that if Servetus came to Geneva he would “not leave it alive.” Six years later, when the work appeared, a certain G. de Trie of Lyon, a refugee in Geneva and probably acting in concert with Calvin, denounced Servetus to the Catholic authorities in Lyon, who in turn informed the Inquisition. Calvin asserted (Opera, ed. in Corpus Reformatorum, XXXVI, Brunswick 1863 ff., p. 479) that it was a foolish slander to accuse him of instigating the denunciation of Servetus to the Inquisition. Contemporary historians, however, believed that the denunciation by Calvin’s friend would not have been possible without Calvin’s authorization.
Servetus was arrested but managed to escape on 7 April 1553. The trial continued in Vienne, and on 7 June Servetus was condemned to death in effigy. Servetus, making his way to Italy, took the road to Geneva, where he was recognized, arrested on 13 August, and brought to trial. Thirty-eight charges were laid against him before the Genevan tribunal. A refugee in Calvin’s service, Nicolas de la Fontaine, came forward as accuser, declaring himself ready to undergo the penalty due to Servetus if the latter’s guilt were not proved. Servetus was supported by Calvin’s political opponents, especially Philibert Berthelier; thus the affair had become not merely a theological question but a matter touching Calvin’s position in Geneva itself. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Calvin on 17 August appeared in person to conduct the prosecution, displacing Nicolas de la Fontaine. On 21 August the Little Council decided to seek the advice of Bern, Basel, Zurich, and Schaffhausen—an action which Servetus’s friends hoped would save him from a death sentence. On 31 August the Little Council courteously declined the request of the Inquisition of Vienne for Servetus’s extradition. On 1 September a theological debate took place between Calvin and Servetus, the outcome of which is unknown. Servetus asked for a written discussion, which was granted; Calvin’s reply was signed by all the pastors of Geneva, and Servetus answered with violence (cf. Opera Calvini, ibid., pp. 501–553). Meanwhile a sharp controversy arose between Calvin and Berthelier regarding Calvin’s claim to the power of excommunication. Calvin’s thesis prevailed, worsening Servetus’s position; on 18 October came the replies from the pastors and magistrates of the consulted cantons, all declaring that “such a pestilence” must be “driven from the churches,” and accordingly on 26 October Servetus was condemned to be burned alive. To the end he showed courage in the face of death; his last words were a prayer: “Jesus, Son of the eternal God, have mercy on me.” In 1903 a monument was erected on the site of the burning as an act of reparation. It has been observed (W. Walker, J. Calvin, Paris 1909, p. 367, n. 3) that the whole controversy is summed up in Servetus’s final cry: “Jesus, Son of the eternal God,” instead of “eternal Son of God”; the difference is essential. Servetus sought to reform Christianity; in his view the Trinity was “a kind of three-headed Cerberus.” Starting from a pantheistic conception, which he claimed to be founded on Scripture, he maintained that the eternal Father manifested Himself in the flesh of Christ, who thus became the Son of God only at His birth; hence he rejected the Trinitarian doctrine of the Council of Nicaea and the Christological doctrine of Chalcedon, infant baptism, and predestination as understood by Calvin. He admitted, however, the merit of good works, believed in the imminent end of the world and in the millennium of Christ, to whose preparation he believed himself called. Servetus’s anti-Trinitarianism was not rationalistic, like that of Socinus, but mystical.