Nicholas de la Fontaine was a
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
refugee in
Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
who entered the service of
John Calvin as his secretary. De la Fontaine brought
Michael Servetus
Michael Servetus (; es, Miguel Serveto as real name; french: Michel Servet; also known as ''Miguel Servet'', ''Miguel de Villanueva'', ''Revés'', or ''Michel de Villeneuve''; 29 September 1509 or 1511 – 27 October 1553) was a Spanish th ...
to trial on August 14, 1553 on the charges of
heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
against
Calvinism
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
, as Calvin himself at this point was too incapacitated with various health problems to personally appear at the trial.
The Complaint of Nicholas de la Fontaine Against Servetus
In 1553, de la Fontaine published a list of "complaints" against Servetus regarding his supposedly heretical activities. There were originally forty articles in this text, but before the trial, this number was reduced to thirty-eight. Notable excerpts from the list include:
VIII: To wit, whether he has not written and falsely taught and published that to believe in a single essence of God there are three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, is to create four phantoms, which cannot and ought not to be imagined.
XXXII: Item, that little children are sinless, and moreover are incapable of redemption until they come of age.
XXXIV: Item, that the baptism of little children is an invention of the Devil, an infernal falsehood tending to the destruction of all Christianity.
XXXIX: Item, that in the person of M. Calvin, minister of the word of God in the Church of Geneva, he has defamed with printed book the doctrine which he preached, uttering all the injurious and blasphemous things which it is possible to invent.
External links
The Complaint of Nicholas de la Fontaine Against Servetus, 14 August 1553Hanover College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fontaine, Nicholas de la
Swiss Calvinist and Reformed Christians
People of the Protestant Reformation
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing
16th-century deaths