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27.10.2007
Welcome! I'm glad to present You the new site about Michael Servetus.
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Servetus was born as Miguel Serveto Conesa at Villanueva de Sijena, Huesca, Aragon, Spain, in 1511, probably on September 29, the patron saint day of Saint Michael (Michaelmas),[1] although no specific record exists. Some sources give an earlier date based on Servetus' own occasional claim of being born in 1509.[2] His paternal ancestors came from the hamlet of Serveto, in the Aragonian Pyrenees, which gave the family their surname. The maternal line descended from Jewish Conversos of the Monzón area. In 1524, his father Antonio Serveto (alias Revés, i.e. "Reverse"), who was a notary at the royal Monastery of Santa María de Sigena nearby, sent young Michael to college, probably at the University of Zaragoza or Lérida. Servetus had two brothers: one who became a notary like their father, and another who was a Catholic priest. Servetus was very gifted in languages and studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew. At the age of fifteen, Servetus entered the service of a Franciscan friar by the name of Juan de Quintana, an Erasmian, and read the entire Bible in its original languages from the manuscripts that were available at that time. He later attended the University of Toulouse in 1526 where he studied law. There he became suspect of participating in secret meetings and activities of Protestant students.
In 1529, Servetus traveled through Germany and Italy with Quintana, who was then Charles V's confessor in the imperial retinue. In October 1530 he visited Johannes Oecolampadius in Basel, staying there for about ten months, and probably supporting himself as a proofreader for a local printer. By this time, he was already spreading his beliefs. In May 1531 he met Martin Bucer and Fabricius Capito in Strasbourg. Then two months later, in July, he published De trinitatis erroribus ("On the Errors of the Trinity"). The next year he published Dialogorum de Trinitate ("Dialogues on the Trinity") and De Iustitia Regni Christi ("On the Justice of Christ's Reign").
He took on the pseudonym Michel de Villeneuve (i.e., "Michael from Villanueva"), in order to avoid persecution by the Church because of these religious works. He studied at the College Calvi in Paris in 1533. After an interval, he returned to Paris to study medicine in 1536. In Paris, his teachers included Sylvius, Fernel, and Guinter, who hailed him with Vesalius as his most able assistant in dissections.
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