in Vienne [a commune in south-eastern France]... The Catholic authorities
sentenced him [Michael Servetus] in absentia to death by slow burning.
... The difficulty in using Servetus as a weapon against Calvin was that
the heretical reputation of Servetus was widespread and most of the cities
in Europe were observing and awaiting the outcome of the trial. This posed
a dilemma for the libertines, so on 21 August the council decided to write
to other Swiss churches for their opinions, thus mitigating their own
responsibility for the final decision. While waiting for the responses, the
council also asked Servetus if he preferred to be judged in Vienne or in
Geneva. He begged to stay in Geneva. On 20 October the replies from
Zürich, Basel, Bern, and Schaffhausen were read and the council condemned
Servetus as a heretic. The following day he was sentenced to burning at the
stake, the same sentence as in Vienne. Calvin and other ministers asked
that he be beheaded instead of burnt. This plea was refused and on 27
October, Servetus was burnt alive—atop a pyre of his own books—at the
Plateau of Champel at the edge of Geneva.

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