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Introduction

Michael Servetus was a brilliant thinker who seems to have been the first to describe the “pulmonary transit” of blood through the lung from the heart’s right ventricle to the left auricle. However, he also made himself repugnant by rejecting the Trinity and by advancing theories that seemed to many theologians to entail pantheism. He published his ideas in The Restitution of Christianity. In 1540 Servetus commenced a correspondence with John Calvin denying the Trinity and the divine sonship of Christ. Calvin wrote to his friend Farel that he would not allow Servetus to leave Geneva alive if he showed his face there. After Catholic authorities condemned Servetus to death, he did show up in Geneva, where he was soon recognized. Calvin tried to convert him but Servetus clung to his unorthodox views. On this day 26 October 1553, Geneva’s council condemned Servetus to death with the words given in today’s quote. Calvin asked that the heretic be given a more humane death than burning. The council refused. Servetus cried aloud to Christ in the flames.