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Courtesy Michael Sherlock - Author
Two Victims of Protestant Insanity – The Stories of Matthew Hamont and Michael Servetus. By Michael Sherlock: Author
Matthew Hamont: Murdered For Christ and Country
Matthew Hamont, a loving husband and father, was burnt at the stake by the Church of England for the crime of holding an opinion of God that was outside the narrow purview of both the Anglican Church and Christianity, in general.(1)
He was brutally tortured and snuffed out by the icy and intolerant flames of a powerful church for the crime of deism.
Deists believe in a creator, yet they see no need for organized religion, a position which in Matthew Hamont’s time, would have been very threatening to malign faith wielders and monarchists, who stood to forfeit immeasurable wealth and power, should Deism, a slightly less credulous form of belief, win the minds of the masses. The Deist’s God is one who designed the universe and set the wheels in motion, so to speak, then stepped back to let the universe govern itself. Deists view miracles and prophecies as being the invention of human imagination and religious scriptures, like the New Testament and the Qur’an, for example, as being little more than manmade fables.
In April of 1579, Matthew Hamont was taken from his wife and his only son, Erasmus and dragged before the Ecclesiastical Court of the Church of England, by the bishop of Norwich, Edmund Freke.(2) The charges laid against Matthew were:
• Denying Christ as the Saviour of mankind,
• Accusing Jesus of being nothing more than a Jewish sinner,
• Disbelieving in the existence of the Holy Ghost and;
• Asserting that the Gospels are fictitious fables. (3)
For these “crimes,” Hamont was handed over to the Sheriff, at which time further charges of blasphemy were laid against him for uttering unpleasantries about the Queen of England, who is believed by many to sit on the divinely appointed throne until Christ’s return. For this additional crime, he had his ears cut off before being set on fire, the sentence of his initial crimes. (4)
One cannot begin to imagine the horrendous pain, the torment and the excruciating agony Matthew must have suffered in his final hours. Having his ears violently hacked off, feeling and hearing, if indeed he could still hear, his skin sizzle, as his nerves went into overdrive, sending a tsunami of excruciating messages to his pain receptors, until he could feel no more. Nor could one begin to fathom the emotional heartache and anguish of his beloved wife and only son, who not only suffered the unspeakable loss of a husband and father, but must have also felt the social effects and stigma of being associated with a convicted heretic. And for what!? Because those whose minds are so fixated, so certain, so overwhelmed by their own ideas that they feel and believe they have the right to snuff out human lives with such callous disregard for the victim and their family? What kind of insanity is this that turns people into monsters? To answer in two words, religious beliefs!
Michael Servetus: Calvin’s Fury!
If we were to use a single word to describe Michael Servetus, it would have to be, polymath. He was a mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, astrologer, theologian and a physician, among other things. (5) Despite his intelligence, he was a devout Christian, one who despised the pomp of the papacy and so was drawn to the Reformation. On at least two occasions he narrowly escaped the flames of the Catholic Inquisition and became despised by Lutherans, Calvinists and Catholics alike. Members of these various sects were constantly at war with each other over ridiculous theological/superstitious differences, however, as much as they each relished the idea of burning members of their rival sects, they harbored nothing less than a frenzied desire to see Michael Servetus tortured and finally scrubbed from this planet.
Michael’s three chief heresies were that he believed the trinity to be false, which, in Servetus’ day, was a belief that could have you murdered by any of the Christian churches; he did not believe in infant baptism, again a fatal belief to hold in such a dark and depraved age and finally, he saw it as absurd that a person be saved by faith alone, or that faith naturally produces good works.(6) Officially, these were the reasons Calvin put Servetus to death for, however, if one examines the correspondences between Servetus and Calvin, another, even more insidious reason for this crime comes to light.
In the beginning, Servetus and Calvin’s letters to one another were moderate and cordial however, as time went on more and more differences began to emerge between the Christianity of Calvin and his intellectual superior, Servetus. In the end, Calvin tried to put a stop to their correspondence by sending Michael his seminal and authoritative work entitled, ‘The Institutes of the Christian Religion,’ which he thought would make this heretic bow down before the “supreme intellect” of Calvin. It did not. In fact, Michael sent it back heavily annotated, drawing attention to errors of fact, logic and theology, by employing Christian Scripture and the works of the ante-Nicene fathers, to demonstrate where and how Calvin’s central tenants were flawed. (7) Naturally, Calvin was infuriated wanting Servetus dead. In a letter to one of his friends, Calvin wrote:
"There is hardly a page that is not defiled with his vomit." (8)
Following this event, Servetus sent other correspondences to Calvin and in one asked to come and sit with him to discuss their differences. Upon receiving this request, Calvin wrote to his chief Lieutenant, Farel:
"Servetus lately wrote to me and sent me with his letters a great volume of his ravings, saying that I would see there things stupendous and unheard of until now. He offers to come here if I approve, but I will not pledge my faith to him. For should he come, if my authority avails, I should never suffer him to go away alive." (9)
Calvin’s authority availed and he didn’t suffer Michael to leave Geneva alive, for after a speech given by Calvin in Geneva, one in which Michael was in attendance, Calvin had him arrested and put to death by the jealous and prideful flames of an intellectually dominated zealot.
The twentieth century church historian, Carl Theophilus Odhner, paints a rather vivid picture for us of the events accompanying Michael Servetus’ murder, from contemporary accounts:
"When he came in sight of the fatal pile, the wretched Servetus prostrated himself on the ground, and for a while was absorbed in prayer. Rising and advancing a few steps, he found himself in the hand of the executioner, by whom he was made to sit on a block, his feet just reaching the ground. His body was then bound to the stake behind him by several turns of an iron chain, whilst his neck was secured in like manner by the coils of a hempen rope. His two books,—the one in manuscript sent to Calvin in confidence six or eight years before for his strictures, and a copy of the one lately printed in Vienne,—were then fastened to his waist, and his head was encircled in mockery with a chaplet of straw and green twigs bestrewed with brimstone. The deadly torch was then applied to the faggots and flashed in his face; and the brimstone catching, and the flames rising, wrung from the victim such a cry of anguish as struck terror into the surrounding crowd. After this he was bravely silent; but the wood being purposely green, although the people aided the executioner in heaping the faggots upon him, a long half-hour elapsed before he ceased to show signs of life and suffering. Immediately before giving up the ghost, with a last expiring effort he cried aloud: “Jesus, Thou Son of the Eternal God, have compassion upon me!” All was then hushed save the hissing and crackling of the green wood; and by-and-by there remained no more of what had been Michael Servetus but a charred and blackened trunk and a handful of ashes." (10)
Had Servetus and Hamont’s murders been the only ones we could lay at the feet of the Protestants, there would still be ample reason to condemn their belief-infatuated insanity, however, they were not and for proof of this we need only read the records of the Protestant London Missionary Society, who lusted for Christ so desperately that their depravity in countries like Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia, saw no bounds. We may even sight examples such as the widespread burning and drowning of young women accused of being witches by the protestant puritans in both Europe and America or the brutal and inhumane African slave trade and the list of crimes goes on and on ad infinitum.
Anglican Rev. William Dean Inge adds:
"The earlier Protestantism, in its chief forms, was certainly intolerant. Some of the minor sects pleaded for liberty of conscience, but minor sects always plead for liberty of conscience until they become major sects. On what principle were the Anabaptists, a body of Christian Socialists, persecuted by Lutherans and Calvinists? Why were the absolutely harmless Quakers maltreated both in Europe and in America, where four of them actually suffered death? Why did Calvin cause the Spaniard Servetus to be burnt alive? Why, above all, were many thousands of "witches" executed in Protestant countries?" (11)
Surely, even if one innocent person has died as a result of Jesus’ teachings, or those whom Jesus allegedly chose to represent him here on earth, then Jesus should be held to be vicariously liable for such crimes. The tragic truth of the matter is that it has not only been one innocent person who has suffered and died as a result of both the Catholic and Protestant churches, but a vast multitude.
Thus, it is argued, that if Jesus did in fact exist and reaching further into credulity, he was the son of God, then he is either all-loving and impotent or all-knowing and apathetic. In either case, neither this Jewish god-man, nor his representatives on earth are worthy of our trust and devotion.
As the ancient Jewish historian Philo noted regarding Epicurus’ problem relating to the quandary of an allegedly all-powerful and all loving God, who is either unable or unwilling to prevent evil and suffering, said:
"Epicurus’ old questions are yet unanswered. Is he (God) willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?" (12)
References
1. Jeremy Collier, M.A. An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain. Vol. 6. William Straker. (1811). pp. 608-609.
2. Alexander Gordon. Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 24. (1895-1900).
3. Robert Wallace. Antitrinitarian Biography. Vol. 2. E.T. Whitfield. (1850). Pp. 364-365.
4. Ibid.
5. Carl Theophilus Odhner. Michael Servetus: His Life and Teachings. J.B. Lippincott Company. (1910). p. 19.
6. Ibid. p. 58-59.
7. Ibid. p. 21.
8. R. Willis, M.D. Servetus and Calvin: A Study of an Important Epoch in the History of the Reformation. Henry S. King and Co. (1877). p. 168.
9. Carl Theophilus Odhner. Michael Servetus: His Life and Teachings. J.B. Lippincott Company. (1910). p. 22.
10. Ibid. pp. 32-33.
11. W.R. Inge. (Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral) Christian Ethics and Modern Problems. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. (1930). p. 189.
12. Jordan Howard Sobel. Logic and Theism: Arguments For and Against Belief in God. Cambridge University Press. (2004). p. 436.
Courtesy Michael Sherlock - Author
Two Victims of Protestant Insanity – The Stories of Matthew Hamont and Michael Servetus. By Michael Sherlock: Author
Matthew Hamont: Murdered For Christ and Country
Matthew Hamont, a loving husband and father, was burnt at the stake by the Church of England for the crime of holding an opinion of God that was outside the narrow purview of both the Anglican Church and Christianity, in general.(1)
He was brutally tortured and snuffed out by the icy and intolerant flames of a powerful church for the crime of deism.
Deists believe in a creator, yet they see no need for organized religion, a position which in Matthew Hamont’s time, would have been very threatening to malign faith wielders and monarchists, who stood to forfeit immeasurable wealth and power, should Deism, a slightly less credulous form of belief, win the minds of the masses. The Deist’s God is one who designed the universe and set the wheels in motion, so to speak, then stepped back to let the universe govern itself. Deists view miracles and prophecies as being the invention of human imagination and religious scriptures, like the New Testament and the Qur’an, for example, as being little more than manmade fables.
In April of 1579, Matthew Hamont was taken from his wife and his only son, Erasmus and dragged before the Ecclesiastical Court of the Church of England, by the bishop of Norwich, Edmund Freke.(2) The charges laid against Matthew were:
• Denying Christ as the Saviour of mankind,
• Accusing Jesus of being nothing more than a Jewish sinner,
• Disbelieving in the existence of the Holy Ghost and;
• Asserting that the Gospels are fictitious fables. (3)
For these “crimes,” Hamont was handed over to the Sheriff, at which time further charges of blasphemy were laid against him for uttering unpleasantries about the Queen of England, who is believed by many to sit on the divinely appointed throne until Christ’s return. For this additional crime, he had his ears cut off before being set on fire, the sentence of his initial crimes. (4)
One cannot begin to imagine the horrendous pain, the torment and the excruciating agony Matthew must have suffered in his final hours. Having his ears violently hacked off, feeling and hearing, if indeed he could still hear, his skin sizzle, as his nerves went into overdrive, sending a tsunami of excruciating messages to his pain receptors, until he could feel no more. Nor could one begin to fathom the emotional heartache and anguish of his beloved wife and only son, who not only suffered the unspeakable loss of a husband and father, but must have also felt the social effects and stigma of being associated with a convicted heretic. And for what!? Because those whose minds are so fixated, so certain, so overwhelmed by their own ideas that they feel and believe they have the right to snuff out human lives with such callous disregard for the victim and their family? What kind of insanity is this that turns people into monsters? To answer in two words, religious beliefs!
Michael Servetus: Calvin’s Fury!
If we were to use a single word to describe Michael Servetus, it would have to be, polymath. He was a mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, astrologer, theologian and a physician, among other things. (5) Despite his intelligence, he was a devout Christian, one who despised the pomp of the papacy and so was drawn to the Reformation. On at least two occasions he narrowly escaped the flames of the Catholic Inquisition and became despised by Lutherans, Calvinists and Catholics alike. Members of these various sects were constantly at war with each other over ridiculous theological/superstitious differences, however, as much as they each relished the idea of burning members of their rival sects, they harbored nothing less than a frenzied desire to see Michael Servetus tortured and finally scrubbed from this planet.
Michael’s three chief heresies were that he believed the trinity to be false, which, in Servetus’ day, was a belief that could have you murdered by any of the Christian churches; he did not believe in infant baptism, again a fatal belief to hold in such a dark and depraved age and finally, he saw it as absurd that a person be saved by faith alone, or that faith naturally produces good works.(6) Officially, these were the reasons Calvin put Servetus to death for, however, if one examines the correspondences between Servetus and Calvin, another, even more insidious reason for this crime comes to light.
In the beginning, Servetus and Calvin’s letters to one another were moderate and cordial however, as time went on more and more differences began to emerge between the Christianity of Calvin and his intellectual superior, Servetus. In the end, Calvin tried to put a stop to their correspondence by sending Michael his seminal and authoritative work entitled, ‘The Institutes of the Christian Religion,’ which he thought would make this heretic bow down before the “supreme intellect” of Calvin. It did not. In fact, Michael sent it back heavily annotated, drawing attention to errors of fact, logic and theology, by employing Christian Scripture and the works of the ante-Nicene fathers, to demonstrate where and how Calvin’s central tenants were flawed. (7) Naturally, Calvin was infuriated wanting Servetus dead. In a letter to one of his friends, Calvin wrote:
"There is hardly a page that is not defiled with his vomit." (8)
Following this event, Servetus sent other correspondences to Calvin and in one asked to come and sit with him to discuss their differences. Upon receiving this request, Calvin wrote to his chief Lieutenant, Farel:
"Servetus lately wrote to me and sent me with his letters a great volume of his ravings, saying that I would see there things stupendous and unheard of until now. He offers to come here if I approve, but I will not pledge my faith to him. For should he come, if my authority avails, I should never suffer him to go away alive." (9)
Calvin’s authority availed and he didn’t suffer Michael to leave Geneva alive, for after a speech given by Calvin in Geneva, one in which Michael was in attendance, Calvin had him arrested and put to death by the jealous and prideful flames of an intellectually dominated zealot.
The twentieth century church historian, Carl Theophilus Odhner, paints a rather vivid picture for us of the events accompanying Michael Servetus’ murder, from contemporary accounts:
"When he came in sight of the fatal pile, the wretched Servetus prostrated himself on the ground, and for a while was absorbed in prayer. Rising and advancing a few steps, he found himself in the hand of the executioner, by whom he was made to sit on a block, his feet just reaching the ground. His body was then bound to the stake behind him by several turns of an iron chain, whilst his neck was secured in like manner by the coils of a hempen rope. His two books,—the one in manuscript sent to Calvin in confidence six or eight years before for his strictures, and a copy of the one lately printed in Vienne,—were then fastened to his waist, and his head was encircled in mockery with a chaplet of straw and green twigs bestrewed with brimstone. The deadly torch was then applied to the faggots and flashed in his face; and the brimstone catching, and the flames rising, wrung from the victim such a cry of anguish as struck terror into the surrounding crowd. After this he was bravely silent; but the wood being purposely green, although the people aided the executioner in heaping the faggots upon him, a long half-hour elapsed before he ceased to show signs of life and suffering. Immediately before giving up the ghost, with a last expiring effort he cried aloud: “Jesus, Thou Son of the Eternal God, have compassion upon me!” All was then hushed save the hissing and crackling of the green wood; and by-and-by there remained no more of what had been Michael Servetus but a charred and blackened trunk and a handful of ashes." (10)
Had Servetus and Hamont’s murders been the only ones we could lay at the feet of the Protestants, there would still be ample reason to condemn their belief-infatuated insanity, however, they were not and for proof of this we need only read the records of the Protestant London Missionary Society, who lusted for Christ so desperately that their depravity in countries like Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia, saw no bounds. We may even sight examples such as the widespread burning and drowning of young women accused of being witches by the protestant puritans in both Europe and America or the brutal and inhumane African slave trade and the list of crimes goes on and on ad infinitum.
Anglican Rev. William Dean Inge adds:
"The earlier Protestantism, in its chief forms, was certainly intolerant. Some of the minor sects pleaded for liberty of conscience, but minor sects always plead for liberty of conscience until they become major sects. On what principle were the Anabaptists, a body of Christian Socialists, persecuted by Lutherans and Calvinists? Why were the absolutely harmless Quakers maltreated both in Europe and in America, where four of them actually suffered death? Why did Calvin cause the Spaniard Servetus to be burnt alive? Why, above all, were many thousands of "witches" executed in Protestant countries?" (11)
Surely, even if one innocent person has died as a result of Jesus’ teachings, or those whom Jesus allegedly chose to represent him here on earth, then Jesus should be held to be vicariously liable for such crimes. The tragic truth of the matter is that it has not only been one innocent person who has suffered and died as a result of both the Catholic and Protestant churches, but a vast multitude.
Thus, it is argued, that if Jesus did in fact exist and reaching further into credulity, he was the son of God, then he is either all-loving and impotent or all-knowing and apathetic. In either case, neither this Jewish god-man, nor his representatives on earth are worthy of our trust and devotion.
As the ancient Jewish historian Philo noted regarding Epicurus’ problem relating to the quandary of an allegedly all-powerful and all loving God, who is either unable or unwilling to prevent evil and suffering, said:
"Epicurus’ old questions are yet unanswered. Is he (God) willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?" (12)
References
1. Jeremy Collier, M.A. An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain. Vol. 6. William Straker. (1811). pp. 608-609.
2. Alexander Gordon. Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 24. (1895-1900).
3. Robert Wallace. Antitrinitarian Biography. Vol. 2. E.T. Whitfield. (1850). Pp. 364-365.
4. Ibid.
5. Carl Theophilus Odhner. Michael Servetus: His Life and Teachings. J.B. Lippincott Company. (1910). p. 19.
6. Ibid. p. 58-59.
7. Ibid. p. 21.
8. R. Willis, M.D. Servetus and Calvin: A Study of an Important Epoch in the History of the Reformation. Henry S. King and Co. (1877). p. 168.
9. Carl Theophilus Odhner. Michael Servetus: His Life and Teachings. J.B. Lippincott Company. (1910). p. 22.
10. Ibid. pp. 32-33.
11. W.R. Inge. (Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral) Christian Ethics and Modern Problems. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. (1930). p. 189.
12. Jordan Howard Sobel. Logic and Theism: Arguments For and Against Belief in God. Cambridge University Press. (2004). p. 436.
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