A native of Villanuova, in Arragon, son of a notary. He studied the law at Toulouse, but afterwards applied to medicine at Paris, and took there his doctor's degree. The boldness and pertinacity of his opinions created him enemies, and he left the capital to settle at Lyons, but afterwards he retired to Charlieu. On the invitation of the archbishop of Vienne, in Dauphiny, he was prevailed upon to fix his residence there, and he might have lived in peace and respected, had he been satisfied to seek celebrity in medical pursuits alone. Eager to publish his Arian opinions on religion, he sent three questions to Calvin on the Divinity of Christ, on Regeneration, and on the Necessity of Baptism, and, when answered with civility, he reflected on the sentiments of his correspondent with arrogant harshness. This produced a quarrel, and ended in the most implacable hatred, so that Calvin, bent on revenge, obtained, by secret means, copies of a work in which his antagonist was engaged, and caused him to be accused before the archbishop as a dangerous man. Servetus escaped from prison; but, on his way to Italy, he had the imprudence to pass in disguise through Geneva, where he was recognized by Calvin, and immediately seized by the magistrate as an impious heretic. Forty heretical errors were proved against him by his accusers; but Servetus refused to renounce them, and the magistrates, at last yielding to the loud representations of the ministers of BÂsle, Berne, and Zurich, and especially of Calvin, who demanded the punishment of a profane heretic, ordered the unhappy man to be burnt. On the 27th October, 1553, the wretched Servetus was conducted to the stake, and, as the wind prevented the flames from fully reaching his body, two long hours elapsed before he was freed from his miseries. This cruel treatment deservedly called down the general odium on the head of Calvin, who ably defended his conduct and that of the magistrates. Servetus published various works against [pg 372] the Trinity, which were burnt in disgrace at Geneva, and other places.