RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Servetua Servia
that he had never been actuated by vindictiveness, and urged him to seek the divine forgiveness and mercy. On the following day the sen- 6. The tence was carried out, since Farel, whom Execution Calvin summoned to accompany the and Opin- condemned, was unable to induce Serions Re- vetus to retract. The execution of garding it. Michael Servetus involved Calvin in obloquy in his own and in succeeding generations, an obloquy partly merited and partly undeserved. Almost immediately after the event, in Feb., 1554, Calvin published his Defensio orthodoxcE fidei de sacra trinitate, which was followed by Beza's De hwreticis a civili magistratu puniendis, issued in September of the same year; while the dissatisfaction with the execution was voiced by the writings of Sebastianus Castellio (q.v.). On the 350th anniversary of the burning of Servetus an "expiatory monument" was erected near the scene of his execution. [A monument to Servetus was erected at Annemasse (4 m. from Geneva), on the French border. It represents Servetus in prison and has on it an extract from one of his prison letters. Professor Odhner of the Swedenborgian Seminary at Bryn Athyn, Pa., has discovered that Servetus in a remarkable manner anticipated the teachings of Swedenborg.]
(ElTGEN LACHENMANN.)
Bibliography: Sources are Calvin'a Opera, ed. Baum et al., viii. 453-872, xiv. 58 sqq., and xxvi. ; T. Beza, Calvini Vita, Geneva, 1554; the "Acts" of the trial at Vienne, ed. D'Artigny, Paris, 1749; and the " Acts " of the trial at Geneva, ed. J. H. A. Rilliet, Geneva, 1844. Besides the literature on Calvin, much of which discusses at length the relations of Servetus and Calvin and the execution of Servetus, consult: F. Trechsel, Michael Servet und seine Vorganger, Heidelberg, 1839; W. K. Tweedie, Servetus and Calvin, London, 1846; F. C. Baur, Die christliche Lehre von der Dreieinigkeit und Menschwerdung Gottes, iii. 54-103, Tubingen, 1843; I. A. Dorner, Lehre von der Person Christi, ii. 649-660, Berlin, 1853; E. Saisset, Melanges d'histoire, pp. 117-227, Paris, 1859; K. Brunnemann, Michael Servet, Berlin, 1865; A. Chauvet, Etude sur le systeme theologigue de Servet, Strasburg, 1867; H. G. N. Tollin, Luther und Servet, Berlin, 1875; idem, Melanchton und Servet, ib. 1876; idem, Charakterbild Michael Servets, ib. 1876; idem, Das Lehrsystem Michael Servets, 3 vols., Giitersloh, 1876-78; idem, Michael Servet und Martin Butzer, Berlin, 1880; G. C. B. Punjer, De M. Serveti doctrina, Jena, 1876; M. M. Pelayo, Hist, de las Heterodoxus Espanjoles, ii. 249-313, Madrid, 1877; A. Roget, Hist, du peuple de Geneve, vol. iv., Geneva, 1877; R. Willis, Servetus and Calvin, London, 1877 (the classic work); A. von der Linde, Michael Servet, een Brandoffer der Gereformeerde Inquisitic, Groningen, 1891 (hostile to Calvin); F. Buisson, S. Castellion, sa vie et son ceuvre, 2 vols., Paris, 1892; J. E. Choisy, La Theocratie a Gen&ve au temps de Calvin, Geneva, 1901; idem, in Revue chretienne, 1903; L. Monod, in Revue chretienne, 1903; A. Dide, Michel Servet et Calvin, Paris, 1908; W. Osier, Michael Servetus, London and New York, 1909; C. T. Odhner, Michael Servetus; his Life and Teachings, Philadelphia, 1910; Schaff, Christian Church, vol. vii., chap, xvi (where a discriminating list of literature, with notes, is supplied) ; and in general the works on the church history of the period.
SERVIA: A kingdom (after 1879) situated in the Balkan peninsula, in southeastern Europe, between Austria-Hungary on the north and Turkey on the south; area (estimated) 18,757 square miles; population (1905) 2,683,025, belonging mainly to the eastern Orthodox Church. This, according to art. 3 of the constitution of 1901, has the same dogmas as the Eastern Ecumenical Church, but is
independent and autocephalous. The Eastern Orthodox confession is the religion of the State, which the king and his children must profess (§ 7). By the terms of art. 33, proselyting is forbidden as an offense to the state religion; yet, according to the same paragraph, complete tolerance is practised, since it is stated that freedom of conscience shall be unrestricted. All recognized religious societies are legally protected, so far as their religious exercises do not violate public order and morality. According to § 98, all foreign religious societies may conduct themselves according to their own tenets, with the stipulation only that no manner of correspondence may be carried on between the church authorities of such religious societies and those abroad, without permission of the minister of worship. In like manner, no act of such foreign church authorities may be published in the kingdom without the same consent. It is thus not difficult for the officiating minister of worship to construe his power against communications between the pope and the Servian Roman Catholic clergy.
The independence and autonomy of the State Church grew up by degrees. The first foundation was granted by the sultan in Constantinople; when, in 1766, he created a vladika, or superior bishop, in Belgrade and abolished the former patriarchate of the Servian population in Turkey, previously located at Ipek in northern Albania. The vladika being a Phanariot, however, was amenable to the patriarch of the capital, and through him also to the sultan. Yet it was a form of church rule with its seat at Belgrade, and as such it might have asserted itself longer, had not the bribery and oppression of the Phanariot party proved too irritating; for the Greek metropolitans pursuing their own interests placed themselves actually in opposition to the efforts of the Servians for independence from Turkish despotism. In consequence, after many acts of violence by the Servian Prince Milosh, there resulted in 1852 the recognition of an independent metropolitan by the patriarchate; the latter only requiring the approval of the metropolitan by the patriarch, who was also to be regularly remembered in the prayers of the Church, and the recognition of the episcopal oversight of the patriarch by the annual contribution to him of 1,200 dinars ($234). But with the establishment of the Servian kingdom, all this was annulled.
The metropolitan and bishop of Belgrade now rules the State Church independently, which has a well-defined representative constitution; for the degrees of its order are in its representative bodies. The highest is the archihierarchical synod conducted and represented by the metropolitan. To this belong the other two bishops; namely, of Nish and Schitscha (a cloister near the Ibar, though the bishop resides at Tschatschak), also the two archimandrites (abbots), and the archpriests, one for each of the twenty-one eparchies (civil districts). It elects the metropolitan, subject to royal approval, and the archimandrites (priors of the cloisters), and is the bishops' court of justice. The intermediate ecclesiastical court is the appellate consistory, whose members are proposed by the metropolitan from the total body of clergy to the minister of worship,
Servia Seth