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Sept 16 , 2007
Shortly after noon on a cold and rainy late October day in 1553, a procession began at the town hall of Geneva ..., Switzerland . At its head were the local dignitaries -- magistrates in their robes, members of the town council, clergymen in their gowns, and the chief of police. Immediately behind them rode a wave of officers on horseback....Next came the citizens of the city, first the well-to-do..., then the tradespeople..., and finally, a mob of the city's lower classes. Their destination was a hillside at Champel, about a mile outside the city's walls.
In the midst of these fair-skinned Swiss, one man stood out, a prisoner. He was in his forties, dark, almost Moorish, dirty and weak, with a long, unkempt beard and ragged clothing. He was surrounded by a crowd of pastors exhorting him to confess his sins....The prisoner prayed silently in reply.
The prisoner's...name was Michael Servetus, and his crime was publishing a book that redefined Christianity in a more tolerant and inclusive way....
Of all the punishments, the very worst was to be burned alive, and so this horror was reserved for the most terrible crime there was -- heresy....The stake and pyre were made of fresh wood, green wood, newly cut branches with the leaves still attached. They sat him on a log and chained him to a post....On his head they put a crown made of straw, doused in sulphur. Chained to his side was what was thought to be the last available copy of his book, the rest having all been zealously hunted down and destroyed. The ideas were to be burnt along with the man.
(Excerpts from Out of the Flames by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. Broadway Books: New York , 2002. pps 1-4.)
Michael Servetus was a child prodigy, a devout man of faith, a famous physician and a Unitarian martyr. By the time Servetus was 13 years old, in addition to his native language Spanish, he could read French, Greek, Latin, and most significantly Hebrew, which in most of Christian Europe was a forbidden language” (p. 31). He used his knowledge of these languages to study the bible. This was something quite unusual, for bibles were not published in everyday people's language, and because Severtus could read Hebrew, he could read the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament, in its original language, rather than the Catholic Church's Latin translation.
Through his research of the bible and church history, he discovered what several before him, and many after him would conclude -- that the doctrine of the Trinity, that God is of three essences (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) was not biblical and was not the message Jesus preached. Rather it was a doctrine adopted at the First Council of Nicaea, convened by Emperor Constantine in 325, almost 300 years after Jesus' death. It was an attempt to bring together multiple conflicting and confusing understandings of Jesus that existed within the Christian community at the time. Even at the meeting itself, there were those who disagreed with the complicated doctrine. Two bishops refused to go along with the definition and they were promptly banished and their writings burned.
Servertus uncovering all of this, as well as reading the bible himself, in the original languages, not the editorial translations of the church, came himself to the same conclusion. It was this argument published in his book “Errors of the Trinity” that first earned him the name heretic. And it was his life, his study, his pursuit of truth that later inspired Americans in the late 18th century to claim for themselves this heretical faith -- Unitarianism. Men like Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Priestly.
The word heresy derives from the Greek word for “choice.” A short book that offers an introduction to Unitarian Universalism is called “A Chosen Faith” because throughout Unitarian and Universalist history, the leaders and martyrs of our faith have routinely been accused of heresy. Whether it was Bishop Arius exiled after his refusal to accept the Nicean Creed establishing the doctrine of the Trinity, or Francis David, who died in prison refuting the Trinity and abandoning the worship of Jesus, or William Ellery Channing who argued that human reason had a prominent place in religious faith and belief, or finally, even Ralph Waldo Emerson who was, among Unitarians, considered a heretic for espousing that the church was unnecessary, that no church, no preacher, no mediator was necessary to feel and receive and understand the divine. Yes indeed, we come from a long line of heretics.
This lineage means two very important things for our tradition today. It means that no matter what any one of us believes, that we celebrate and protect religious tolerance and the freedom of conscience.
In 1561, only 8 years after Servetus was killed, a young man, John Sigismund was appointed King of Transylvania. Seven years later after study and meetings with theologians, King John II converted to Unitarianism and became the first and only Unitarian king in history. In their book Out of the Flames , the Goldstone's point out that “Unlike almost every other religious group that got its start as a reaction to intolerance, the Unitarians under King John did not themselves become intolerant” (Goldstone, p. 232).
After his conversion, King John issued the Act of Religious Tolerance and Freedom of Conscience. In part it read:
“In every place the preachers shall preach and explain the Gospel each according to his understanding of it, and if the congregation like it, well, if not, no one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied, but they shall be permitted to keep a preacher whose teaching they approve. Therefore none of the superintendents or others shall abuse the preachers, no one shall be reviled for his religion by anyone, and it is not permitted that anyone should threaten anyone else by imprisonment or by removal from his post for his teaching, for faith is the gift of God....” (p. 231-232).
“For 3 years, Transylvanians of all religions lived in peace and harmony. The tiny nation was a showplace of tolerance. Then in January of 1571, King John II was critically injured and died.” The next king a moderate Catholic who initially continued the Act of Religious Tolerance was eventually convinced to overturn the act by a group of Jesuit priests, called in to work among the peasantry, but who instead worked on the new king. Yet the power of the act transcended its brevity -- for Thomas Jefferson, who crafted the first legislation protecting religious freedom in this country knew and was inspired by King John's Act and Michael Servetus' life.
Given this history of heresy, “chosen” seems a valid name for our Unitarian Universalism, but it may not be entirely adequate. John Calvin, the Catholic Church, the Kings of Spain during the Inquisition used the word heretic to label someone whose beliefs differed from the established doctrine of the Church. But heresy's root from the word for “choice” implies that these prophets and martyrs of our faith “chose” to believe differently. But imagine Michael Servetus. He was told when the sentence of burning alive at the stake was handed down, that if only he would recant his beliefs he would be saved, but he would not recant. And when we see him surrounded by the throng of people yelling at him to confess while he marches to his death, and his only response is to pray silently to the God he knows to be true -- it tells me that he did not choose his faith the way one might choose what to wear one day. Indeed, do any of us choose what we believe? If so, could we just choose to believe differently? Or, do doubt and questioning and views that differ from what is passed down emerge from a deeper source?
King John II had it correct when he included “Freedom of Conscience” in his Act of Religious Tolerance. Conscience is that inner voice that seems to tell us without our thinking too much about it what is right and what is wrong. And it is conscience that causes us to question. It is conscience that tells us from a place deeper than choice what we believe. It must have been something stronger than choice that led Michael Servetus to give his life for his understanding of truth -- for his belief in one God and his optimistic view of God and humanity. It must be something stronger than choice that has led so many after him to refuse to accept was they see as false, oppressive or damaging in tradition and orthodoxy. It is conscience.
But choice still has a role to play -- perhaps the most important role. Michael Servetus could have chosen to recant and save his life. He could have chosen to lie. In his heart he would have known the truth, yet he had a choice to make. In the same way, ours is truly a chosen faith, because any one of us could find our place quietly in a church that has less of a heretical history. We could sit and enjoy community and hold our doubts and our questions silently. But in becoming Unitarian Universalists, by choosing to be Unitarian Universalists, we take our conscience and put it into action.
By our choice, we build the church that will not be confined by doctrine and orthodoxy. We claim the faith that protects the right of conscience and the necessity of freedom in faith. We step out and live and breathe and practice in a church that to many seems odd and unknown. That to some seems downright sinful in theology and in the social justice positions we claim. We come into a community and a history, over 2000 years old, of people who refused to just accept what was handed down, but who chose to study, who listened to their hearts, their minds, their conscience, and who did and continue to stand for the right of every person to do the same.
In the end, Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone draw this profound conclusion to bring together how John Calvin and the Catholic Church, enemies of one another, came together in their attacks not only on Servetus but on liberal Christianity as a whole. Here is what they wrote: “Jesuits and Calvinists didn't agree on many things, but one thing they did agree on was that liberal Christianity was anathema. Heresy aside, a movement that placed moral responsibility with the individual was an overwhelming threat to centralized power” (p. 233).
A “chosen” faith is a well-earned name for Unitarian Universalism because of the moral responsibility we have for thousands of years, through many leaders and thinkers, placed with the individual. This moral responsibility, rooted in the conscience, means we believe people can search their hearts and minds, search their history books, their bibles, their Qu'rans and sacred texts and through that pursuit of truth find faith, belief, even non belief.
And our choice matters because it is so important to have a religion like ours -- a haven for the free mind, for an evolving and open faith, that welcomes everyone just as you are when you come through the doors -- no need to check your mind, or your heart, or your doubt -- you, all of you, are welcome here.
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