Defensio orthodoxae fidei de sacra Trinitate, contra prodigiousos errores Michaelis Serveti..

[Servetus, Michael (1511-53).] Calvin, John (1509-1564). Defensio Orthodoxae fidei de sacra Trinitate, contra prodigiosos errores Michaelis Serueti. 8vo. 261, [3]pp., including final blank. [Geneva:] Robert Estienne, 1554. 194 x 127 mm. 16th-century limp vellum, spine lettered in manuscript, light soiling. Minor soiling and dampstaining, lower edges of first 3 leaves a bit frayed, but very good. Early ownership inscriptions on the title.

First Edition. Calvin, the Protestant religious reformer and founder of Calvinism, here defended the execution in 1553 of the notable humanist and polymath Michael Servetus for the latter's anti-Trinitarian beliefs. That same year Servetus had published his Christianismi restitutio, a work calling for the reformation of Christianity, which includes the first printed description of the lesser circulation (see Garrison-Morton.com 754); because of the heretical nature of this work, Calvin had Servetus arrested, tried and condemned to burn at the stake. Calvin was adamant about Servetus's blasphemy, attacking him numerous times in print and telling his friend Farel that "if he comes [to Geneva], if my authority is worth anything, he will never be allowed to depart alive." The year after Servetus's execution, Calvin published the present work "in which further insults were heaped upon his former adversary in the most vindictive and intemperate language" (Fulton, Michael Servetus, p. 36). Adams C-343.