Reformation
Servetus and the Restoration of Christianity

The first radicals who rejected the dogma of Trinity were put on trial in Augsburg in 1527. A scholar from Navarre Michael Servetus (d. 1553) adopted antitrinitarian theology in the 1530s. MacCulloch proposes that Servetus rejected the Trinity, a dogma extremely offensive to Jews and Muslims, because he wanted to present Christianity as a universal religion. After studying medicine and anatomy in Paris, Servetus became the court physician of the elderly Catholic archbishop of Vienne in southern France. While in Vienne, he sent the first (unpublished) versions of his theological work, the Restoration of Christianity to Calvin. He disrespectfully described the Trinity as a three-headed Cerberus, attacked infant baptism, and denied original sin. He also wrote insulting comments on Calvin's Institutes. The Restoration was published anonymously in Lyon in 1553, but the Catholic Inquisition identified Servetus as its author by using documents from Calvin's personal files. Servetus fled from France but attended a church service delivered by Calvin in Geneva. He was recognised and arrested, and the urban authorities sentenced him to death with Calvin's consent. He was burned at the stake on 27 October 1553.

Bucer, Melanchthon and other leading Protestant theologians agreed with Servetus's execution. Only the Basel-based schoolmaster Sebastian Castellio (d. 1563) condemned it in a manifesto for religious toleration. He also addressed a letter to Calvin, stating "To burn a heretic is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man". Antitrinitarian theology survived among Italian exiles in Basel. Lelio Sozzini (d. 1562), a scholar from Siena, argued that Biblical texts calling Jesus " Son of God " did not refer to his divinity but to his faultless humanity. His nephew, Fausto Sozzini (d. 1604) rejected the theory of satisfaction (the concept that Christ's sufferings brought about atonement to God the Father for the original sin). The two Sozzinis also believed that human nature was essentially good. Their followers became known as Socinians.

After Servetus's execution Calvin strengthened his position as the leading figure of Reformed Protestantism. In Geneva, the Libertines rose up but they were quickly overcame, and forced into exile or executed. The confiscation of the property of the wealthy Ami Perrin (d. 1561) and his family provided the city with funds to create an academy. It served both as a preparatory school for local youths and as a seminary for Reformed ministers. Calvin's chief assistant Theodore Beza (d. 1605) was appointed as its first rector. The academy quickly developed into a principal center of theologian training for students from all over Europe, earning Geneva the nickname "the Protestant Rome". It was especially popular among French Protestants.
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