Page "John Calvin" Paragraph 44

On his way to Italy, Servetus stopped in Geneva for unknown reasons, where he was recognized and arrested.

Calvin's secretary Nicholas de la Fontaine composed a list of accusations that was submitted before the court.

The prosecutor was Philibert Berthelier, a member of a libertine family and son of a famous Geneva patriot, and the sessions were led by Pierre Tissot, Perrin's brother-in-law.

The libertines allowed the trial to drag on in an attempt to harass Calvin.

The difficulty in using Servetus as a weapon against Calvin was that the heretical reputation of Servetus was widespread and most of the cities in Europe were observing and awaiting the outcome of the trial.

This posed a dilemma for the libertines, so on 21 August the council decided to write to other Swiss cities for their opinions, thus mitigating their own responsibility for the final decision.

While waiting for the responses, the council also asked Servetus if he preferred to be judged in Vienne or in Geneva.

He begged to stay in Geneva.

On 20 October the replies from Zurich, Basel, Bern, and Schaffhausen were read and the council condemned Servetus as a heretic.

The following day he was sentenced to burning at the stake, the same sentence as in Vienne.

Calvin and other ministers asked that he be beheaded instead of burnt.

This plea was refused and on 27 October, Servetus was burnt alive — atop a pyre of his own books — at the Plateau of Champel at the edge of Geneva.