Michael Servetus

Michael Servetus (29 September, 1511 – 27 October, 1553), (Miguel Servet or, as it was originally, Serveto in Spanish) was a theologian, physician and humanist. His interests included many sciences: astronomy and meteorology; geography, jurisprudence, study of the Bible, mathematics, anatomy and medicine. He is renowned in the history of several of these fields, particularly medicine and theology.

Career

After his studies in medicine he started a medical practice. He became personal physician to Archbishop Palmier of Vienne, and was also physician to Guy de Maugiron, the lieutenant governor of Dauphiné. While he practiced medicine near Lyon for about fifteen years, he also published two other works dealing with Ptolemy's Geography. Servetus dedicated his first edition of Ptolemy and his edition of the Bible to his patron Hugues de la Porte, and dedicated his second edition of Ptolemy's Geography to his other patron, Archbishop Palmier. While in Lyon, Symphorien Champier, a medical humanist, had been Servetus' patron, and the pharmacological tracts which Servetus wrote there were written in defense of Champier against Leonard Fuchs.

Related Topics:
Archbishop Palmier - Vienne - Guy de Maugiron - Dauphiné - Lyon - Ptolemy - Hugues de la Porte - Symphorien Champier - Leonard Fuchs

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While also working as a proofreader, he published a couple more books which dealt with medicine and pharmacology. In 1553 he published another religious work with antitrinitarian views entitled Christianismi restitutio. He had a copy sent to John Calvin, initiating a correspondence between the two. In this correspondence Servetus initially used the pseudonym "Michael Villeneuve." Calvin wrote to Servetus, "I neither hate you nor despise you; nor do I wish to persecute you; but I would be as hard as iron when I behold you insulting sound doctrine with so great audacity." In time their correspondences grew more heated until Calvin ended it.http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&safe=active&q=cache:oTvgEE3aX5cJ:home.messiah.edu/~kdownton/NatureOfAuthority.pdf He developed a bitter hatred based not only on the unorthodox views of Servetus but also on Servetus's tone of superiority not unmixed with personal abuse.http://www.ku.edu/carrie/texts/carrie_books/gilbert/14.html

Related Topics:
1553 - John Calvin

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~