Then we stand together for liberty and arms.
As far as burning at the stake go, Medieval times were extremely dark in this regard. It is a stain on the times as well as the Catholic Church.
But, it happened many hundreds of years ago. Just as the Protestant witch burnings in America and in various European countries.
John Calvin put his doctrinal enemy Servetus to death at the stake and fire.
Now we move on and have many secular enemies, jihadist enemies, religious liberty enemies etc to fight. We have our differences in doctrine, but we have Unity in obedience to only Jesus Christ.
Not accurate. While he did exert considerable influence in Geneva and appeared as an expert witness against Servetus at the trial, Calvin was not a member of the City Council and did not have the power or authority to personally impose a death sentence for what was then a capital crime. Calvin actually sought, unsuccessfully, to mitigate the death sentence to the less painful beheading. It should also be noted that in the spirit of the age Servetus had already been sentenced to death by the Roman Catholic inquisition.
Calvin and Servetus. It is sometimes said that John Calvin burned Michael Servetus at the stake. Servetus was burned at the stake just outside Geneva on October 27, 1553. John Calvin had some connection with the affair, and the part he played is not excusable in the light of the twentieth century, but it is not accurate to say that Calvin did the burning. Let us look at the facts.Michael Servetus was a Spaniard with a brilliant but erractic mind. He renounced Roman Catholicism, but did not embrace Protestantism. He was a prolific writer and wrote vehemently against some of the most chedrished doctrines of Christianity. Both Catholics and Protestants considered his writings not only heretical but horribly blasphemous.
In 1553 Servetus was arrested by the Roman Catholic authorities in Vienne, France, and sentenced to be burned. While awaiting execution he escaped, and went direct to Geneva. With all the world before him, why did he go to Geneva when he had been warned to stay away? He knew that Calvin had many bitter enemies, and probably knew that at that particular moment the majority of the City Council were opposed to Calvin. The City Council had banished him once, and might be induced to do it again. Servetus probably went to Geneva to ally himself with the enemies of Calvin and thus help to overthrow Calvin and his work. When Calvin heard of the presence of Servetus in Geneva he reported the matter to the City Council. Bear in mind that Calvin was not a member of the City Council and that the majority of the Council were opposed to him. The Council arrested Servetus and put him on trial for heresy and blasphemy. John Calvin appeard as a witness against him.
After a long trial the City Council found Servetus guilty of heresy and blasphemy, and sentenced him to be burned. Accoring to the Old Testament, blasphemy was punishable with death. John Calvin urged the Council not to burn Servetus, but to take a more humane method of executing him. The Council refused. The whole story is a sad one, and Calvin does not appear at his best in it, but we should judge him by the light of the century in which he lived. The large majority of both Protestants and Catholics in that century approved of the death penalty for heresy and blasphemy.
http://capthk.com/2009/07/16/john-calvin-and-michael-servetus/