"Out of the Flames", reviewd by J. de Marcos
Por Jaume de Marcos
Fecha: 16/04/2004 Idioma: Inglés
 Some
time ago I expressed some criticism about the book on Michael
Servetus by Lawrence & Nancy Goldstone, "Out of the
Flames", mainly based on reports I had received from
Servetian scholars, and I was asked by some list members to
provide more details about this. I had bought the book from
Amazon and received it shortly afterwards. Now I am able to
give a more detailed account of this book's shortcomings.
I will give only a few striking examples that I have found.
Actually the book is very reader-friendly and it is written
almost like a mystery novel. Perhaps this is my main concern
about the book: it is so concerned about keeping interest
in the story, that it tends to dismiss scholarly care. For
example, there are no footnotes throughout the book. Thus
it is very difficult to verify some affirmations that are
made without any details about sources. This is understandable
for a popular book that aims at readability but its lack of
intellectual rigor may be annoying.
For example, I was rather astonished at the revelation of
Transylvanian king John Sigismund's alleged homosexuality
(p. 231). There is no footnote, no bibliographical reference
for this data. Being a rather famous historical character
in Unitarian records (the "only Unitarian king in history",
as Wilbur describes him), he appears in many books but it
is the first time that I have read about this aspect of his
personality. I would have liked to learn more about this,
but I have no help from the writers to check and investigate.
Although many biographical data about Servetus are correct
(including that he was born in Villanueva of Aragon and not
in Tudela of Navarre, as Wilbur, G. H. Williams and others
wrongly thought), there are also a few mistakes. For example,
Servetus did not escape from Vienne "on the eve of his
execution" (p. 2), but more than two months before it
actually took place "in effigy" (using a wooden
carving). On the day he ran away, there was not even a death
sentence yet, being the inquisitorial process still in the
interrogation phase! I guess that impending execution sounded
more dramatic for narrating the story, but historically it
is quite incorrect.
Some data seem more based on prejudice than on actual fact.
The authors describe Servetus's appearance as "almost
Moorish". However there is no hint of "Moorishness"
in Servetus. He was born in north-eastern Spain, in the old
Christian kingdom of Aragon, from a family whose ancestors
came from even further north, a hamlet on the slopes of the
Pyrenees. There were no Moors (i.e. Northern African Muslims)
in that area, and they had not been there at least for the
last four hundred years. Moreover the Servetus family were
proud of being "infanzones" (lesser rural nobility),
who could only be of "pure blood" (no mixed marriages
with Jews or Muslims for as many generations as they could
be traced back). Therefore their lineage could only be traced
back to the Romans, the Visigoths, or maybe the Basques, but
never to the Moors who were still inhabiting many areas in
the south of the country.
Unitarianism in Transylvania is not well documented either.
Almost all relevance is given to Biandrata's influence (although
I agree that he deserves much more recognition than it has
been given to him in Unitarian studies up to now), and Ferenc
Dávid is only mentioned in passing. Also, the authors
only refer to "the Unitarian church in Cluj", ignoring
the many Unitarian congregations in rural villages and small
towns in Transylvania.
I have also noticed that other historical data, not related
to Unitarianism, are either wrong or inaccurate. For example,
Phillip I of Spain did not lock up his wife Juana in a tower
because of her madness (p. 8). He suddenly died in his young
age and Juana was so overwhelmed by grief that she refused
to bury him, and the aristocrats of Castille were those who
finally decided to lock her up for life. Modern historians
have seen a political move to pass the crown to her son, the
future Emperor Charles V, rather than real concern for her
mental sanity.
Even geographical data are wrong. For example, Chapter 2
begins with: "Huesca, where Miguel Serveto grew up...
was heavily influenced both by France to the north and the
independent kingdom of Navarre less than twenty miles to the
west". Servetus was born in the province of Huesca, but
this is a modern division from the 19th century, not from
the 16th century when Servetus was born. If the authors mean
that Servetus grew up in the city of Huesca, they are wrong.
And anyway, Navarre is not "20 miles away" from
Huesca by any means, neither from the city nor from the province
(they are neighbouring provinces). Villanueva is also many
miles away from the limits of Navarre.
Finally, being a Spaniard myself, what upsets me most about
the authors' research is that there is total silence about
the Servetus legacy in his home country. In the Epilogue there
is no mention about the monuments and pictures of Servetus
in Spain (including one drawing by Picasso), no mention that
his family house is a museum and exhibition center (only a
comment that it "still stands"), not a single reference
in the bibliographical notes to Spanish authors and scholars,
or to Spanish translations of his books (nowadays it is easier
to find Christianismi Restitutio in Spanish than in the original
Latin, and the English version has not yet been published).
I cannot give opinions on the descriptions about the whereabouts
of the three only copies of his famous last book, which covers
the last third of the book and it is of more interest to me,
but taking into account that the facts that I do know include
so many inaccuracies and mistakes, I have some misgivings
about them.
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