Servetus, Michael

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Servetus, Michael, or Miguel Serveto (1511–53). Christian theologian. He was born in Spain and studied at Saragossa, Toulouse, and Paris. He turned from law to medicine which he practised intermittently throughout his life. During his travels he met Bucer and perhaps some other Anabaptist leaders. His interest in theology led him to produce De Trinitatis Erroribus (1531, On the Erroneous Understanding of the Trinity), in which he argued that the Son and the Holy Spirit are modes in which God manifests himself in creation, redemption, and sanctification, and that the Trinity is not made up of ‘persons’. He reiterated these arguments in Christianismi Restitutio (1546, The Restoration of Christianity), by which time he had also argued against predestination and infant baptism. He was arrested, first by the Inquisition, and then (when he escaped to Geneva) by the Protestants. He was convicted and burnt to death, his death provoking debate about the bounds of tolerance.

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