The Demons of Dort

To the city of Dordrecht (Dort) the children of “Lord Calvin” came. Once summoned from the world, the frenzied horde amassed and built an altar and inscribed upon it the “Doctrines of Grace.” And after many days “they leaped upon the altar which was made” and searched for a sacrifice to christen it, to christen it in blood. They found the Advocate of Holland, an Advocate of the innocent….

It was a bright morning in May [in the beautiful village capital… commonly called the Hague]. The white swans were sailing tranquilly to and fro over the silver basin, and the mavis, blackbird, and nightingale, which haunted the groves surrounding the castle and the town, were singing as if the daybreak were ushering in a summer festival….

But it was not to a merry-making that the soldiers were marching and the citizens thronging so eagerly from every street and alley towards the castle….

In front of the lower window, with its Gothic archway hastily converted into a door, a shapeless platform of rough, unhewn planks had that night been rudely patched together. This was the scaffold [and upon it]…. a squalid, unclean box of unplaned boards, originally prepared as a coffin….

Upon this coffin now sat two common soldiers of ruffianly aspect playing at dice, betting whether the Lord or the Devil would get the soul of Barneveld [Oldenbarneveld]. Many a foul and ribald jest at the expense of the prisoner was exchanged between these gamblers, some of their comrades, and a few townsmen, who were grouped about at that early hour. The horrible libels, caricatures, and calumnies which had been circulated, exhibited, and sung in all the streets for so many months had at last thoroughly poisoned the minds of the vulgar against the fallen statesman [who] … walked out upon the scaffold and calmly surveyed the scene. Lifting his eyes to Heaven, he was heard to murmur, "O God! what does man come to!" Then he said bitterly once more: "This, then, is the reward of forty years'
service to the State!"

La Motte, who attended him, said fervently: "It is no longer time to think of this. Let us prepare your coming before God."

… The old man knelt at once on the bare planks. His servant, who waited upon him as calmly and composedly as if he had been serving him at dinner, held him by the arm. It was remarked that neither master nor man, true stoics and Hollanders both, shed a single tear upon the scaffold. La Motte prayed for a quarter of an hour, the Advocate remaining on his knees….

The statesman then came forward and said in a loud, firm voice to the people:

"Men, do not believe that I am a traitor to the country. I have ever acted uprightly and loyally as a good patriot, and as such I shall die."

The crowd was perfectly silent.

He then took his cap from John Franken, drew it over his eyes, and went forward towards the sand, saying:

"Christ shall be my guide. O Lord, my heavenly Father, receive my spirit."…

… He knelt accordingly with his face towards his own house. The servant took farewell of him, and Barneveld said to the executioner:

"Be quick about it. Be quick."

The executioner then struck his head off at a single blow.

Many persons from the crowd now sprang, in spite of all opposition, upon the scaffold and dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, cut wet splinters from the boards, or grubbed up the sand that was steeped in it; driving many bargains afterwards for these relics to be treasured, with various feelings of sorrow, joy, glutted or expiated vengeance….

John Lothrop Motley, D.C.L., LL.D., The Life and Death of John of Barneveld: Advocate of Holland, (1874), Chapter XX1, pp.384-88.

Hear, O Israel

John Calvin, commonly regarded as the “Father” of Presbyterianism, was 6 when Luther nailed his grievances to a Wittenberg door. Supposedly endorsing a strict grammatical—historical hermeneutic, he clung to Luther’s Augustinian arrogance (cf. Romans 11:17-27) spiritualizing God’s promises for His first love Israel. Although grudgingly conceding in commentary that God will fulfill His Word for a “sanitized” remnant of the Jews, Calvin perpetuates Gentile arrogance toward the root of our faith, teaching that the Church has inherited the title: “The Israel of God.”

Their [the Jews] rotten and unbending stiffneckedness deserves that they be oppressed unendingly and without measure or end and that they die in their misery without the pity of anyone (John Calvin, Ad Quaelstiones et Objecta Juaei Cuiusdam Responsio, The Jew in Christian Theology, Gerhard Falk, McFarland and Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC and London, 1931).

As the angels of God ascended and descended upon a ladder set up on the earth, God made promises to Jacob and to his seed before it came to be (cf. Genesis 28:12-15). However, Calvin spiritualized these promises, using them to justify his doctrine of “infant baptism.”

God pronounces that he adopts our infants as his children before they are born, when he promises that he will be a God to us and to our seed after us. This promise includes their salvation (Institutes IV xv 20, emphasis added).

Calvin’s Gentile arrogance continued, making Geneva the headquarters of his “New Israel.”

The Genevan Confession was credited to John Calvin in 1536 by Beza who said Calvin wrote it as a formula of Christian doctrine suited to the church at Geneva. … The Confession of Faith which all the citizens and inhabitants of Geneva and the subjects of the country must promise to keep and hold (The Library of Christian Classics; Volume XXII; Calvin Theological Treatises; Translated with Introductions and Notes by the Rev. J. K. S. Reid; The Westminster Press: 1954. pp. 26-33, emphasis added).

And what was the consequence for those who would not submit to the "holy (sic) doctrine which no man might speak against" of Calvin’s Protestant “Papacy”?

Whoever shall now contend that it is unjust to put heretics and blasphemers to death will knowingly and willingly incur their very guilt. This is not laid down on human authority; it is God who speaks and prescribes a perpetual rule for his Church (John Calvin, as cited in: Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, Volume VIII: Modern Christianity, The Swiss Reformation).

Servetus, a physician condemned to death by the papists, fled to Geneva for refuge. Thought he had criticized Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion through prolonged correspondence with the author, he apparently trusted Calvin’s honor if not his “Christian” affirmation. Their differences predominated in regard to two theological principles: Servetus correctly challenged the absurdity of Calvin’s doctrine of infant baptism. And Calvin was incensed by Servetus’ rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity determined by the Catholic Council of Nicaea. So incensed, he confided to a friend: "si venerit, modo valeat mea autoritas, vivum exire nunquam patiar" (If he [Servetus] comes here, if my authority is worth anything, I will never permit him to depart alive). And opportunity presented its self. While preaching, Calvin recognized Servetus among those of his congregation and as “worship” concluded, he had his nemesis arrested.

At eleven o’clock on the 27th of October, Servetus was led from the prison to the gates of the City Hall, to hear the sentence read from the balcony by the Lord Syndic Darlod. When he heard the last words, he fell on his knees and exclaimed: ‘The sword! in mercy! and not fire! Or I may lose my soul in despair.’ He protested that if he had sinned, it was through ignorance. Farel raised him up and said: ‘Confess thy crime, and God will have mercy on your soul.’ Servetus replied: ‘I am not guilty; I have not merited death.’ Then he smote his breast, invoked God for pardon, confessed Christ as his Saviour, and besought God to pardon his accusers. On the short journey to the place of execution, Farel again attempted to obtain a confession, but Servetus was silent. He showed the courage and consistency of a martyr in these last awful moments. Champel is a little hill south of Geneva with a fine view on one of the loveliest paradises of nature. There was prepared a funeral pile hidden in part by the autumnal leaves of the oak trees. The Lord Lieutenant and the herald on horseback, both arrayed in the insignia of their office, arrive with the doomed man and the old pastor, followed by a small procession of spectators. Farel invites Servetus to solicit the prayers of the people and to unite his prayers with theirs. Servetus obeys in silence. The executioner fastens him by iron chains to the stake amidst the fagots, puts a crown of leaves covered with sulphur on his head, and binds his book by his side. The sight of the flaming torch extorts from him a piercing shriek of ‘misericordias’ in his native tongue. The spectators fall back with a shudder. The flames soon reach him and consume his mortal frame in the forty-fourth year of his fitful life. In the last moment he is heard to pray, in smoke and agony, with a loud voice: ‘Jesus Christ, thou Son of the eternal God, have mercy upon me!’ … The tragedy ended when the clock of St. Peter’s struck twelve (Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, Volume VIII: Modern Christianity, The Swiss Reformation).

Perhaps the most disconcerting part of this affair was Calvin’s apparent lack of remorse:

Many people have accused me of such ferocious cruelty that (they allege) I would like to kill again the man I have destroyed. Not only am I indifferent to their comments, but I rejoice in the fact that they spit in my face (John Calvin, Against the Errors of Servetus, Daniel-Rops, 46:191).

However questionable the doctrine contained in the book bound by his side, that was so soon reduced to ashes, Servetus strove to evangelize those who received the admonition: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deut 6:4).