DIALOGUES ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY

MICHAEL SERVETUS, (1531)

Servetus was a Spaniard, who became notorious for his questioning of the doctrine of the Trinity. One of the first of the “Radical Reformation,” he came into trouble with both Roman Catholics and Protestants: he was executed for heresy in Calvin’s Geneva in 1553.

“If you say that you are unable to see the difference between Christ and the rest, since we all are called sons of God, my response is that if we are called sons of God by his gift and grace, being him the creator of our filiations and thus he is called Son in a more excellent manner. For this reason, the article is used and Christ is called Son of God in order to show that he is not the son in the same regard as we are, but in a very special and peculiar sense. He is the natural son: the rest are not, but they are made sons of God, and for that reason we are called sons by adoption.” (9a)

“God gave us the mind so that we can know him.” (31a)

“Not even a single word is found in the whole Scripture about the Trinity, nor about the persons, nor about the essence, nor about the substance’s unity, nor the nature of the various divine beings.” (32a)

“Nothing can be found in the intellect if previously has not been found in the senses.” (33b)

“I do not separate Christ from God more than a voice from the speaker or a beam from the sun. Christ is the voice of the speaker. He and the Father are the same thing, as the beam and the light, are the same light. There is therefore a tremendous mystery in the fact that God may be united with man and the man with God. It is a surprising wonder that God has taken for himself the body of Christ in order to make his special dwelling.” (59b)

“And because his Spirit was wholly God, he is called God, and he is called man on account of his flesh. Do not be surprised if I adore as God what you called humanity, since you talked of humanity as if it was empty of spirit and you think in the flesh according to the flesh. You are unable to acknowledge the quality of the Spirit of Christ which confers the being to material things. He is the one who grants life when the flest is already useless.” (59a)

“In the inhalation and exhalation there is an energy and a lively divine spirit, since He, through his spirit supports the breath of life , giving courage to the people who are in the earth and spirit to those who walk on it. Only he shakes the heavens and from its treasures takes our the winds. He joins the waters and the clouds and produces the rain. He does all those things. Only he realizes miracles permanently.” (59b-60a)

“One thousand times the Kingdom of Christ is called eternal, but in the consummation of the times, it will be delivered to God. This does not mean that the glory of Christ will be reduced for that reason as it is its greatest glory to have managed everything until the end and to have

1 submitted everything to the Father as it was his will. He will deliver the Kingdom of God, as the superior general hands in to the emperor the palm of the victory; in the same manner, since all the reason to govern will terminate by that time, powers will be abolished, the authorities and the administration of the Holy Spirit will cease, since we will not need attorneys or mediators, as God will be All-in-All. And then the Trinity of dispensations will be over.” (81b-82a)

“Man only obeys blindly a faith adequated to its rational nature.” (109b)

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