Reading from "Out of the Flames" by Lawrence & Nancy Goldstone

         "Shortly after noon on a cold and rainy late October day in 1553, a procession began at the town hall of Geneva in western Switzerland, on the border with France. . . . In the midst of these fair-skinned Swiss, one man stood out, a prisoner. He was in his forties, dark, almost Moorish, dirty and weak… He was surrounded by a crowd of pastors exhorting him to confess his sins…. The prisoner prayed silently in reply….

         The prisoner's shabby appearance belied his status as one of Europe's leading physicians and preeminent thinkers. His name was Michael Servetus and his crime was publishing a book that redefined Christianity in a more tolerant and inclusive way. Although this book contained, almost as an afterthought, a great scientific discovery…On that October afternoon in 1553, no one in Geneva knew or cared. (page 1, Goldstone)

         When he was burned at the stake, he called out, "Oh Jesus, Son of the Eternal God, have pity on me." He had remained true to his beliefs. Otherwise, he would have said, "Oh Jesus, Eternal Son of God." (p.197, Goldstone)

         Unitarian scholar Earl Morse Wilber proposed that "Unitarianism could be characterized by a growing commitment to three basic principles: freedom of religious thought, the unrestricted use of reason, and tolerance of differing views and practices." (p. 185, Howe) This is true today because of the brave sacrifice of those of old.

Sermon

         Freedom, reason, and tolerance in religion were the guiding lights of Unitarianism from its beginnings in Europe and America. Perhaps these must always be our guiding lights if we are to continue as a religion. We owe our privilege of the guiding lights to those who have come before us.

         So that I could tell you a story about a Unitarian hero who contributed greatly to this privilege of freedom, I read a few books. As I was reading this story that took place over 450 years ago, I couldn't help thinking of our exceptionally brilliant hero, Michael Servetus, as one who had suffered from parental neglect. For our purposes today, can you imagine yourself a parent of a brilliant son or nephew? I'll refer to him as our son, Michael, who was born Miguel Serveto on Saint Michael's Day, September 29, 1511 in the small town of Villanueva in Arragon, Spain, about fifty miles south of the border with France. [Dear Reader, This was a device I used in hopes that it was easier for listeners to hear all this history if we could relate personally with Michael Servetus for a sermon is essential an oral art.] The house in which Michael was born is still there. Europe's identity was that of Christendom with the Holy Roman Emperor keeping civil order and answering to the Pope (when the current pope wasn't too corrupt).

         Michael was born into a well-to-do noble family. The world was changing rapidly partly because of the printing press and the explosion of books and knowledge for more ordinary people, especially the Bible. If you were bright enough to go to university, you studied for 5 to 20 years mostly in Latin. Our "son", Michael, was an exceptional student. By the time he was 13 years old, he could read French, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. Hebrew had been a forbidden language because the church wanted people to read the Bible only in its approved translation. It would be spiritually dangerous for them to think for themselves!

         To keep his mind occupied at the tender age of 13 years, we sent our son, Michael, to the university where he caught the eye of a famous scholar who needed a secretary. Michael got to study works of the great thinkers of the day like Martin Luther and the Humanist, Erasmus. He continued to study and work. His earliest passion was the study of the Bible. At the early age of 17 years, he concluded that what the churches taught about God being a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was not in the Bible. Michael was already a budding heretic. (pp. 1-60, Goldstone)

         You might remember that we have previously said that "heretic" means 'choice' in Greek. In our modern day, it means not going along with official religious doctrines and creeds, which it meant in Michael's day and the consequences were often death. Our UU religious heresy today is that we are religious liberals. (p.1, Muir) When I logged onto "Homer the Heretic" joke page this morning, I wasted my time and ended up with our very own UU Joke book. It said, "How does the Unitarian Universalist Association excommunicate naughty members? Answer: It takes away their coffee!"

         So what did our son, Michael Servetus, write and do to become a heretic so extreme that he was killed for it? By the age of 20 years, so convinced was he that both the Catholics and the Reformers were wrong in their interpretation of the Bible regarding Jesus' relationship to God and a few other things, he wrote a book about it called On the Errors of the Trinity. This book was wildly popular. Our Michael attacked what had been the central and most sacred of Christian doctrine: the three-part concept of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, making the Son (or Jesus) God and claiming that Jesus always existed. He also thought that infant baptism was ridiculous since a baby is free of sin. He thought baptism should not occur until the age of 20 when most youth are fully able to understand right from wrong. He also understood the Holy Spirit as being the divine part of the human being.

         When the Bishops decided on the nature of God in the year 325, they had been greatly influenced by Greek philosophy. Michael studied the gospels and admired Jesus and found his teachings wise and wonderful. But truth was important to him and he wanted to restore the current complex doctrines of the church to the original simplicity and purity of the early church so that ordinary people could understand them. He also wanted to be in the forefront of the Reformers, speaking and writing the truth as he saw it. (p. 52, Wilbur) But his style of speaking the truth in a direct and personal way was a big problem. Michael had a habit of using scathing criticism and calling famous scholars terrible names when he critiqued their opinions. This was not the way to convert his older colleagues to his ideas. Also, the reformers were afraid that Michael's views of God and Jesus would put them all in danger with the Inquisition.

         The other unfortunate trait was that he engaged much older colleagues in these discussions not in a way of dialogue but in a way of instructing them. One of these men was Calvin, one of the most famous and feared of the Reformers. Following the publication of his book, the Inquisition soon sought after Michael. So he fled Vienne to Lyon, changed his name to Michael Villanovus and got a job with a printer retranslating Ptolemy's geography.

         With his great scholarship, he actually improved this book. He was only 23 years old but he couldn't help adding his own opinions to the book. He wrote, "The English are brave, the Scots fearless [both good comments in the view of this Englishwoman, born in Scotland!], the Italians vulgar, the Irish rude, inhospitable, barbarous and cruel [no comment from me!]….and on the map of Germany, he wrote '… all Germany are gluttons and drunkards." (p.105, Wilbur) He was greatly admired in Lyon but he got himself into trouble again when he began discussing religion. And so he fled to Paris in 1536 and attended the University to study medicine.

         Within three years he knew just about everything they had to teach him and he was the first to theorize accurately the circulatory system of the human body. He had also become knowledgeable in astrology and mathematics. To support himself at medical school, he taught mathematics, geography, and astrology. Our Michael was such a creative thinker that he synthesized mathematics, geography and astrology and said things like this and that star will affect the human body and particular medicine for a patient. This was actually common belief amongst physicians but it wasn't talked about openly. (This approach was probably influenced by the ancient Egyptian belief in astrology and horoscope.) It was also rumored that Michael drew up horoscopes for money.

         Michael wasn't satisfied with speaking his truth; he also criticized other professors scathingly and called all those who disagreed with him stupid, incompetent, and 'the plagues of society'. (p. 128, Wilbur). Word soon got back to his professors and Michael was brought before a council. Recognizing his youth, the professors tried to speak kindly to him but our Michael couldn't help responding in an insulting way!!! Let's just say that Michael made his case worse and he was forced to leave.

         By 1538, Michael Villanovus went to Vienne where he became a celebrated physician and man of letters. When plague broke out, he attended the poor and rich alike. But by 1540, having too much energy and time on his hands, he turned his attention once more to religion when he was asked to translate a Bible from the original Greek and Hebrew. This was his first and great love of his life!

         Michael struck up a correspondence with Calvin, who didn't know at first that the letters were from Michael Servetus. When Michael Villanovus became arrogant and rude in his letters, Calvin began to suspect this was Servetus. He stopped responding to Michael, who, outraged, wrote another brilliant book called The Restoration of Christianity, which was really a critique of Calvin's book. It took him six years to write. He had it published in secret. Michael could not have imagined that his first book called On the Errors of the Trinity, his more than 30 letters to Calvin, and his current book would later all become evidence against him.

         Michael was first put on trial and condemned to death by the Inquisition in Vienne but he escaped from prison only to be recaptured in Geneva and put on trial there where eventually Calvin became his prosecutor. So intrigued was Michael with his question and answer sessions with Calvin during his trial that he forgot he was on trial and brilliantly argued with Calvin. Few of the witnesses understood their conversation. However, Michael became so irate that he fell into name-calling and insults, thus ensuring a tragic fate.

         Our brilliant son, Michael, had left home at 13 years. He had never had parental guidance to challenge his rough edges in his critical teen years. Michael Servetus' only crime was that he was lacking in tact. Part of him never matured. In our society, he would have been somewhat tolerated as an eccentric. In British society, he would have been a celebrated eccentric! The Swiss mathematician Blaise Pascal said, "Men never do evil so cheerfully and so completely as when they do so from religious conviction. (At least I got that from Homers Heretics' site!)

         Michael's religion was a simple and gentle one. He thought we should follow Jesus' teachings and forget all the concocted doctrine. Michael's teachings were to reappear again and again in dozens of reform movements, including Quakers, Baptists, and Unitarians. They were already present before the Council of Nicea in 325 where a few hundred people decided what the rest of the Christian world should believe or die. Michael simply gave voice to heretical ideas. He was 42 years old when he died in 1553. Calvin should have been deeply sorry, though there's no evidence of this. Ironically, the Reformers were already talking the trinity, infant baptism, and the nature of the Holy Spirit-all that Michael was concerned with. It is possible that Michael's forcing the discussion out prematurely, cause the Reformers to be fearful that the Inquisition would turn its attention to all of them. So they found a way to simply "go along" with much of the churches "doctrine". Michael was burned at the stake with green wood for fuel so that his death would be slow and agonizing (see the attached reading).

         In our responsive reading, another Unitarian hero, Francis David said, "We do not have to think alike to love alike." Those of you who are in our small groups already know the spectrum of belief amongst us. Difference of opinion and belief can and does add richness to our lives for we can see that the opinion is not the person. The person is judged by what he or she does. We call this 'salvation by character.' And even then, we must be ready to forgive and make room for a person to become who they really are in the depths of their spirit. Only in this way can we go forward through the ages.

         May we always have a sense that all people must be free to speak the truth of their hearts. And may we also remember that we don't have to think alike to love alike.

References

The following has inspired and informed this sermon:

Goldstone, Lawrence & Nancy. Out of the Flames, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books, 2002.

Howe, Charles C. For Faith and Freedom, Boston: Skinner House Books, 1997.

Wilbur, Earl Morse. A History of Unitarianism: Socinianism and its Antecedents, (Vol. I), Boston: Beacon Press, 1945.