160 Jesus, Prophet of IslamSpain and Portugal-and they were spared the sword only if they
publicly confessed their faith to be that of the Roman Catholics,
publicly affirmed the formula of the Trinity, submitted to forced
baptism, and lived thereafter as Paulinian Trinitarian Christians.
On examining the Bible more closely, Servetus found that the
doctrine of Trinity was nowhere a part of its teaching. He further
discovered that the Bible did not always support what was being
taught or practised by the representatives of the established Church.
Servetus was only twenty years old when he decided to tell the
world the truth as he had found it, for it followed from his discov
eries that if the Christians accepted that there is only One God,
then all cause for strife between the Christians and the Muslims
would be ended, and both communities could live together in peace.
This sensitive but inexperienced youth, his imagination fired
with enthusiasm, felt that this end would most easily be achieved
with the help of the leaders of the Reformation, who had, after all,
already broken away from the Roman Catholic Church. The new
Protestant Churches would become Unitarian, he thought, and with
their help the Christians, the Muslims and the [ews would be able
to livetogetherin peace. Aworld of tolerationwouldthen become
possible, based on One God, the 'Father' of the family of mankind.
Servetus was too young to realise that the minds of the leaders
of the Reformation were still trapped in the same false metaphys
ics as those of the Roman Catholics. He was to find that both Luther
and Calvin would have nothing to do with his belief in the Unity
of Cod. They feared that the Reformation would go too far. A
number of the ceremonies practised by the Catholic Chureh had
been abolished, and they had rejected the authority of the Pope,
but they were afraid to rediscover the original teaching of Jesus,
since this would have added to their difficulties and entailed a di
minishing of their own power and reputation. Perhaps they were
unaware of just how far the praetices of the Roman Catholics had
deviated from the lue which Jesus lived. Certainly, they took great
pains to contain the reformed religion within the framework of
Catholic orthodoxy. Their quarrel was not so much with the theol
ogy of Rome as with its organisation, and particularly over the
question as to who should rule the Church.
The beliefs of Servetus posed a threat to both organisations, the
old and the new, because their authority depended on the same
Paulinian sources - and so, ironically, the appeal of Servetus to the
Reformists orny caused them to join forces with the Roman Catho
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