Leaders killing for religion.

[Disciple4life]

So I learned about Michael Servetus yesterday. In the past I am sure I have read or heard about him. I have read many oneness books from the Pentecostal Publishing House over the years so I am sure he is in there somewhere. But...

Michael Servetus did not beleive in the Trinity. He was not secret about this fact and then wrote a couple books on how the Trinity should be taken out of Christianity.

John Calvin did not like this one bit. Long story short, he tipped off the authorities of where Michael Servetus could be found and produced evidence to convict him of the crime of heresy. So Michael Servetus was burned at the stake.

King James asked William Tyndale to come to England. Tyndale said he would if it was legal to translate and or own an English bible. King James was outraged that Tyndale would put a stipulation on the agreement. James let the authorities know where Tyndale could be found. Tyndale was burnt at the stake.

John Calvin and King James for the most part are seen as leaders that helped Christianity to progress. I did not know they were murderers.

Are there any other leaders that used murder to advance their agenda?

[Esaias]

King James did not have Tyndale put to death. Tyndale died in 1536.

[Disciple4life]

Opps, I was reading something too quickly and got ahead of myself.

It was Henry VIII of England
The reformers' efforts lay behind the publication of the Great Bible in 1539 in English.[196] Protestant Reformers still faced persecution, particularly over objections to Henry's annulment. Many fled abroad, including the influential Tyndale,[197] who was eventually executed and his body burned at Henry's behest.

Thanks Esaias for keeping this a honest discussion with facts.

[shazeep]

i think you point out a great reason to be an Anarchist, as God suggests; leaders, by definition, must have agendas, that will invariably come into conflict with the Holy Spirit at some point. I'm searching for an exception right now, but so far it is kill, or be killed, where religious leaders are concerned--naturally more of the first, as one does not usually achieve leader status if they have been killed.

[houston]

Calvin did not murder Servetus. Death was the penalty for heresy.

[shazeep]

Originally Posted by houston

Calvin did not murder Servetus. Death was the penalty for heresy.

hmm, i've forgotten the details, but i thought D4L's version was pretty much the accepted one? Calvin caused his death, iow, murder or otherwise.

[houston]

Originally Posted by shazeep

hmm, i've forgotten the details, but i thought D4L's version was pretty much the accepted one? Calvin caused his death, iow, murder or otherwise.

Read Calvin's words about the incident.

[Evang.Benincasa]

Originally Posted by houston

Calvin did not murder Servetus. Death was the penalty for heresy.

We no longer burn people at the stake.

They just have webpages devoted to individuals with the intentions of destroying their lives. Sean finds them and gleefully posts them here.

[shazeep]

well, i guess Hou was right

The belief that denial of the Trinity and/or Incarnation should be viewed as a capital crime in a Christian state was part of Calvin’s and Geneva’s medieval inheritance; Calvin did not invent it.
Anti-Trinitarian heretics were burned in other places beside Geneva in Calvin’s time, and indeed later–two in England, for instance, as late as 1612.
The Roman Inquisition had already set a price on Servetus’ head.
The decision to burn Servetus as a heretic was taken not only by Calvin personally but by Geneva’s Little Council of twenty-five, acting on unanimous advice from the pastors of several neighboring Reformed churches whom they had consulted.
Calvin, whose role in Servetus’ trial had been that of expert witness managing the prosecution, wanted Servetus not to die but to recant, and spent hours with him during and after the trial seeking to change his views.
When Servetus was sentenced to be burned alive, Calvin asked for beheading as a less painful alternative, but his request was denied.
The chief Reformers outside Geneva, including Bucer and the gentle Melanchthon, fully approved the execution.

man, these guys are almost as bad as OP pastors
which is unfair, of course--they only killed one at a time, whereas our pastors condone ethnic cleansing

[votivesoul]

Calvin:

...after he [Servetus] had been recognized, I thought he should be detained. My friend Nicolas summoned him on a capital charge, offering himself as a security according to the lex talionis. On the following day he adduced against him forty written charges. He at first sought to evade them. Accordingly we were summoned. He impudently reviled me, just as if he regarded me as obnoxious to him. I answered him as he deserved... of the man’s effrontery I will say nothing; but such was his madness that he did not hesitate to say that devils possessed divinity; yea, that many gods were in individual devils, inasmuch as a deity had been substantially communicated to those equally with wood and stone. I hope that sentence of death will at least be passed on him; but I desired that the severity of the punishment be mitigated.

Source: Calvin to William Farel, August 20, 1553, Bonnet, Jules (1820–1892) Letters of John Calvin, Carlisle, Penn: Banner of Truth Trust, 1980, pp. 158–159. ISBN 0-85151-323-9.

"To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man." ~ Sebastion Castellio