A Servetian Geography By A.J.Fincham, Miembro Ejecutivo de la Servetus International Society It is all too easy to take the central character of a tale as it’s most significant. The story teller’s craft demands that people, events, and even places, are seen to revolve around one central figure. The modern biographer goes further in a quest to portray the underlying psychological basis for such a progress, and to rationalize the sequence of events as a way to unlocking the thoughts and motivation of the subject mind. When the central figure is Michael Servetus, such perspectives are more often than not coloured by a need to view his actions in a religious context. Such a ‘distorting mirror’ of the reformation can cause much of the reality of life in early c.16th Europe to be relegated to second place. This brief series seeks to redress the balance by drawing attention to the ‘context of history’ in these Servetian geographies. And as the great art of the Renaissance shows, examination of the background detail is often most revealing. This first review looks at the town in which Michael Servetus settled for most of his life, and from which he was to escape to Geneva in 1553 to avoid trial for the publication of heresies in Christianismi Restitutio. Vienne Vienne was Servetus’ home for more than a decade of his life. On leaving Paris at the termination of his studies, Servetus moved south towards Lyon, living some five miles from that city for a short time, before settling in this ancient Roman city, twenty miles south on the banks of the Rhône. Vienne has played host a number of events of religious significance: the Roman’s created its first Christian martyr with the infamously barbaric death of Blandina. The Roman officer Maurice died nearby soon afterwards, for failing to sacrifice to pagan gods, and although no bull was required to administer the coup de grace, his canonisation was commemorated in the foundation of a major cathedral.  Under the medieval Christian church, Vienne was raised to become one of the very first Archbishoprics, and the capital of Dauphiné. This province remained formerly independent of the French kings, having sovereign princes of its own, called Dauphins from the dolphin motif first used by Count Guy VIII. The early c.14th saw it host one of the most disputed gatherings of the Church Council under Clement V, who met at Vienne in 1311 to establish a solution to the recover the Holy Land, reform the church and debate the future of the Order of the Temple, whose assets the Kings of France, Aragon and England had determined for their own. After six months deliberation, (during which the Church Fathers were afflicted equally with rising prices and deaths due to disease), the unrequested arrival of Phillippe IV with an armed force appeared to tip the balance against the Order. In April 1312, Vienne was witness to the irony of a Papal bull abolishing the Order (Vox in exelso), and the same Pope proclaiming from the same church the passagium generale crusade against the Saracens, which had been advocated by the Order’s Master, now languishing in chains and soon to be burnt as a heretic in Paris.      The seigneurie of the Dauphiné was to last little longer. Three decades later, Humbert II returned from the Holy Lands to find his wife dead. As the Author of ‘An Impartial History’ notes:   “…the last Dauphin, having had the misfortune to drop his only son into the Rhone, entered a monastery, anno 1349, and gave his country unto PHILIP of Valois, the French king; on condition , that the eldest son of the king should be called Dauphin for ever after. ” IH, p72 The facts tell of a Humbert as a profligate with ambition – and expenses which included the foundation of the University at Grenoble, religious establishments and a luxurious court. The King of France (now Phillipe VI) signed three treaties to transfer the principality –including the sum of 300,000 guilders and a promise of the huge life annuity of 24,000 pounds. Dauphiné was granted as an apanage to the heir of France, who would take the title of ‘Dauphin’. In July that year the Transport du Dauphiné à la France was signed and Humbert became one of the ‘Hounds of God’: he entered the Dominican order, where he died in 1355. Thus Dauphiné became one of the last territories to become a part of France. Yet it retained, (as so many French provinces do to this day) an ability both to remember its heritage and retain something of the former greatness – certainly up to the time of Servetus, Such a reputation for independence is perhaps confirmed by the actions of François I, when Servetus had barely entered the pages of history. By 1515, France had by established her predilection for Italian excursions, and one of the heros of the Italian Wars was Pierre Terrail. Described by the records as ‘chevalier sans peur et sans reproche’, the Grenoble born Lord Bayard was created Lieutenant General of the Dauphiné. It was a sign of the pedigree of the Dauphinios that the King of France requested that Bayard knight him on the field of battle after the victory over the Swiss Confederates at Marignano. Marignano has been described as the ‘Swiss Waterloo’ – no further power politics followed the defeat of the central Swiss after the withdrawl of their allies from Berne, Fribourg and Solothurn, and indeed, some date the legendary Swiss neutrality from that day. The apanage system, which provided the French Kings with a means of supporting their heir, also gave the Dauphine a measure of independence. As a result, the Dauphiné itself remained to some extent at arms length from the authority of the King of France. And through the belief in such tradition, a warrant of the Inquisition applied in Toulouse might yet not find its way to Vienne. From its inception, Charles V (of France, and not to be confused with his more illustrious Spanish namesake of some 150 years later) attempted to reform the apanage system without effect. In effect, the apanage states became de facto independent and hardly recognized the king's authority. Although in theory the apanages could be absorbed by the power of the King of France should there be no male heir, this disastrous situation was the one most kings worked hardest to avoid. Ultimately, the most independent states were confiscated. François I took the last, the Bourbonnais, in 1531. Yet the history of the Dauphiné played a role in making it the home of choice for Michael Villeneuve. And the legacy of Humbert made itself apparent in a minor detail at the start of the Servetian downfall. For the legal style of the accusation was made according to the form set out in the Transport of two hundred years before. As the author of the ‘Impartial History’ notes: “Nor are any edicts or declarations of the French king in force in that province, except in them they be stiled Dauphins of Viennois And this is the reason, that in the sentence against SERVETUS, mention is made of HENRY the IId. under the name of King Dauphin”. The accusation reads:  “Entre le procureur du roy Dauphin demandeur en crime d’heresie scandaleuse, dogmatisation, composition de nouvelles doctrines & livres heretiques schisme & perturbation de l’union & repos publiques, rebellion & disobeissence aux ordonnances faites contra les heresies, effraction & evasion de prisons royalles Delphinals, d’une parte; & Mre MICHAEL de VILLENEUFUE medecin, parcy devant prisoner aux prisone du pallaix Delphinal de Vienne, & a present fugitif a cause desdits crimes, d’autre.” A true footnote to history, perhaps?

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