Calvin wasn't a murderer?
John Calvin's Quotes regarding Michael Servetus
Was John Calvin involved in the murder of Michael Servetus? Did he wish for Servetus' death, and did he claim any credit for his burning?
Quotes from
Standford Rives' book "Did Calvin Murder Servetus?" pages 291-295
In a letter addressed to William Farel and Peter Viret dated February 13, 1546, Calvin wrote: “If he [Servetus] comes [to Geneva], I shall never let him go out alive if my authority has weight.” (page 291)
In a letter of August 20, 1553, one week after Servetus' arrest, Calvin wrote: “I hope that Servetus will be condemned to death.” (page 292)
In 1561, Calvin wrote a letter to Marcus Paet, chamberlain to the king of Navarre, in which Calvin said: "Honour, glory, and riches shall be the reward of your pains; but above all, do not fail to rid the country of those scoundrels, who stir up the people to revolt against us. Such monsters should be exterminated, as I have exterminated Michael Servetus the Spaniard." (page 292)
(A review of the apologists defense of John Calvin can be read on page 293.)
An additional resource can be found here, on page 371:
New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. X
As to the Old Covenant Laws:
John Calvin (1509-1564) on the three uses of the Law
Gospel and Law in Reformed theology form two distinct but inseparable aspects of the one revelation of God. The Reformed way of relating gospel and law is often used to distinguish Reformed theology from Lutheran theology. For
Martin Luther (1483-1546), even though gospel and law are both considered part of the one Word of God, the chief task of the theologian is to refine one’s ability to distinguish law from gospel, letter from spirit, works from faith. While the Reformed recognize the importance of these distinctions, especially in covenant theology with its unfolding of the historical economy of the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, the Reformed were more concerned to comprehend the law as a positive form of God’s grace. The sentiment from Psalm 19 – that the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, making the simple wise – is a foundational conviction of Reformed piety. The rigour of the law, including its ceremonial prescriptions under the Old Testament dispensation, has been removed as a result of the gospel of Christ. But the gospel indicative, the liberation Christ has achieved for sinful humanity, creates an ethical imperative that includes obedience to God’s commandments.
This is nowhere better illustrated than in
John Calvin’s (1509-1564) teaching on the “three uses of the law.” The first use is the theological use whereby the law convicts us of sin. For Luther, this was the law’s primary, although not exclusive, function. The second use, also affirmed by Luther, is the civil use according to which the law restrains social evil. The third use of the law is that by which believers are instructed in living unto righteousness out of gratitude for the grace they have received from the Lord. There are hints of this in Luther, and Luther’s successor
Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) is responsible for bringing it to the fore in the 16th century theological discussion. But for the Reformed, the third use is the
primary use of the law; and this is an affirmation difficult for any good Lutheran to make. This is what Calvin had to say:
“That the whole matter may be made clearer, let us take a succinct view of the office and use of the Moral Law. Now this office and use seems to me to consist of three parts. First, by exhibiting the righteousness of God,—in other words, the righteousness which alone is acceptable to God,—it admonishes every one of his own unrighteousness, certiorates [informs], convicts, and finally condemns him. This is necessary, in order that man, who is blind and intoxicated with self-love, may be brought at once to know and to confess his weakness and impurity…
Thus the Law is a kind of mirror. As in a mirror we discover any stains upon our face, so in the Law we behold, first, our impotence; then, in consequence of it, our iniquity; and, finally, the curse, as the consequence of both. He who has no power of following righteousness is necessarily plunged in the mire of iniquity, and this iniquity is immediately followed by the curse. Accordingly, the greater the transgression of which the Law convicts us, the severer the judgment to which we are exposed…
But while the unrighteousness and condemnation of all are attested by the law, it does not follow (if we make the proper use of it) that we are immediately to give up all hope and rush headlong on despair. No doubt, it has some such effect upon the reprobate, but this is owing to their obstinacy. With the children of God the effect is different. The Apostle testifies that the law pronounces its sentence of condemnation in order ‘that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God,’ (Rom. 3:19). In another place, however, the same Apostle declares, that ‘God has concluded them all in unbelief;’ not that he might destroy all, or allow all to perish, but that ‘he might have mercy upon all,’ (Rom. 11:32); in other words, that divesting themselves of an absurd opinion of their own virtue, they may perceive how they are wholly dependent on the hand of God; that feeling how naked and destitute they are, they may take refuge in his mercy, rely upon it, and cover themselves up entirely with it; renouncing all righteousness and merit, and clinging to mercy…
But even in the reprobate themselves, this first office of the law is not altogether wanting. They do not, indeed, proceed so far with the children of God as, after the flesh is cast down, to be renewed in the inner man, and revive again, but stunned by the first terror, give way to despair. Still it tends to manifest the equity of the Divine judgment, when their consciences are thus heaved upon the waves. They would always willingly carp at the judgment of God; but now, though that judgment is not manifested, still the alarm produced by the testimony of the law and of their conscience bespeaks their deserts…
Continues
– John Calvin (1509-1564), Institutes of the Christian Religion, II.vii.6-12
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