What is the significance of the discovery of Miguel Servetus in medicine, you will learn from this article.
Miguel Servet's contribution to medicine and biology
Miguel Servetus was born on September 29, 1511 in the town of Villanueva de Sihen, Kingdom of Aragon, Spain. In his youth, he studied law and geography at Zaragoza and the University of Toulouse in France. For some time he worked in Germany as secretary to the confessor of Emperor Charles V - Juan de Quintana.
Miguel Servetus became interested in medicine in 1535. On the recommendation of a physician to the Prince of Lorraine and his friend, he enters the University of Paris. Here he studied under the guidance of such famous doctors as Gunther and Sylvius. Soon he perfectly mastered the teachings of Galen, becoming an excellent connoisseur of anatomy.
For a long time, it was believed that Miguel Servet was the first doctor who described the pulmonary circulation. The scientist denied the prevailing theory that there are holes in the atrial septum. Through them, blood mixes with air. Servetus assumed that the red fluid from the right heart goes through a difficult path and enters the lungs. There it mixes with the inhaled air, and then goes to the left side of the heart. In this place, in his opinion, the spirit of life begins. Miguel Servetus mentioned that blood mixed with air gives off soot, which is exhaled back.
Over time, the fact that Servetus was the first to describe the pulmonary circulation was refuted. This happened in 1929, when a handwritten treatise by the Arab physician Ibn-an-Nafis was found in Damascus. It described the theory of pulmonary circulation. After comparing the works of the two authors, it turned out that the texts practically coincide. Scientists assume that Miguel was familiar with the writings of an Arab physician. However, Servetus is considered a talented doctor who saved many lives.
Miguel Servetus was born in Spain in 1511. He studied law and geography, first in Zaragoza, then in France, in Toulouse. For some time after graduation, Servetus served as a secretary to the confessor of the Emperor Charles V.
While at the imperial court, he lived for a long time in Germany, where he met Martin Luther. This acquaintance sparked an interest in theology in Servetus. Although in this area Servetus was self-taught, he nevertheless studied theology deeply enough that he did not always and in all agree with the teaching of the church fathers. Servetus did not hide his views, therefore, from the very beginning of his career, he met with hostility from many representatives of the clergy. And yet, at the age of only twenty, he dared to write a theological work in which he completely denied the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Influenced by the persuasion of his friend, the court physician of the Prince of Lorraine, Servetus rather late began to study medicine in Paris. After graduating from medical school, he settled in the town of Charlier in the Loire Valley, where he took up medical practice. But the fame of the heretic, following on his heels, prevented him from leading the quiet life of a provincial doctor. The local priest, who enjoyed the support of the highest church authorities, began to persecute Servetus at every step. As a result, Servetus had to flee and hide in Lyon for some time. By some strange and incomprehensible coincidence, he became the family doctor of the Viennese archbishop. in whose palace he spent twelve quiet years, working on the solution of some questions of medicine and on matters of faith. Servetus sent the manuscripts of his works to Calvin. One day he sent him comments on Calvin's book on the organization of the Christian religion. and received in response a letter filled with anger and indignation.
Several years later, Servetus published a collection of works entitled "The Restoration of Christianity", which came out of print in 1553. Then, on the way from Vienna to Italy, he stopped in Geneva to visit Calvin. The naive and simple-minded Servetus imagined that his correspondence with Calvin on the topic of faith was in the nature of a theoretical dispute and that Calvin's anger, expressed in his old letter, had long since passed. The disappointment was terrible. Servetus did not have time to settle in Geneva, as, by order of Calvin, he was captured and imprisoned. Servetus was accused of denying the divinity of Christ, was tried and, by the verdict of the church court, burned at the stake on October 27, 1553, when Servetus was only 42 years old.
In one of the theological writings of Servetus there are the following words: “... It is necessary first to establish how the spirit of life arises. It originates in the left ventricle of the heart. It owes its appearance to a large extent to the work of the lungs, because the air entering them mixes with the blood that enters the left ventricle from the right ventricle. However, blood does not penetrate - as it is thought - through the septum, but from the right ventricle it follows an unusually long and difficult path into the lungs. Here it mixes with the inhaled air, and soot is separated from it, which is removed from the body during exhalation. After the blood again mixes well with air during breathing, it enters the left ventricle of the heart ... "
How Servetus arrived at such an undoubtedly correct conclusion is difficult to establish. But he gave an excellent description of the pulmonary circulation, thus refuting Galen's theory of the passage of blood from the left side of the heart to the right, through small holes in the atrial septum.
A few years after the death of Servetus, the pulmonary circulation was rediscovered by Reald Colombo, who replaced Vesalius at the Department of Anatomy in Padua.
Servetus was an erudite person with knowledge of many sciences, including mathematics, astronomy and meteorology, geography, human anatomy, medicine and pharmacology, and jurisprudence. Servetus translated and researched the Bible from a scientific point of view in the original language.
Servetus was the first European to correctly describe the functions of the pulmonary circulation. He participated in the Protestant Reformation and spread anti-Trinitarian views. Miguel published his treatises On the Errors of the Trinity and Two Books of Dialogues on the Trinity, angered Catholics and Protestants with his understanding of Christology, and paid for it with his life. He was arrested in Geneva and burned at the stake as a heretic by order of the Protestant Governing Body.
Miguel Servetus studied in Zaragoza, Paris and Toulouse. Probably during his stay in the latter, Miguel gained access to forbidden religious books. At the age of 15, he entered the service of a Franciscan monk named Juan de Quintana. Quintana became Charles V's confessor in 1530, and Servetus was allowed to accompany the imperial retinue as a page or assistant. Miguel was simply outraged by the ostentatious splendor and luxury in which the Pope and his retinue bathed, so he decided to follow the path of the reformation.
By October 1530, Servetus had already begun to spread his theological conclusions. In July 1531, his treatise "On the Errors of the Trinity" was published, and a year later, the treatise "Two Books of Dialogues about the Trinity". Pursued by the Inquisition, Servetus fled to France and took the name Michael Villanovanus. He published the first French edition of Ptolemy's Geography and his version of the Bible translation.
From 1536, Servetus studied medicine at the University of Paris, earning a living teaching mathematics and astronomy. He predicted a lunar eclipse of Mars, made a lot of envious people and enemies, and even became a victim of an attack. Miguel managed to defend himself and wounded one of the attackers in a sword battle, for which he spent several days in prison. He became a doctor of medicine in 1539. Starting his medical practice, Servetus was appointed personal physician to the Archbishop of Vienna (Vienne) and Lieutenant Governor of Dauphiné.
For several years Servetus corresponded with the French theologian Jean Cauvin. The exchange of thoughts revealed a complete divergence of views, so that Calvin ultimately declared Servetus the worst enemy of all Christians. In 1553, Miguel published the religious work The Restoration of Christianity, where he sharply rejected the idea of predestination. He insisted that God does not blindly condemn to torment and does not throw anyone into a fiery hell who does not evoke condemnation in thought, word or deed. The first description of the pulmonary circulation was included in the same work.
According to Servetus' anti-Trinitarian theology, infant baptism made no sense, for the rite of baptism itself is a conscious dedication of oneself to the service of God. Touching upon the theme of the disembodied soul, Miguel tried in his writings to present blood as the abode of the soul. He hoped that the elimination of the Trinitarian dogma, "tritheism", would make Christianity more attractive to the followers of Judaism and Islam, where faith in one God was preserved.
When Servetus was captured for the first time on charges of heresy, he managed to escape from prison during his trial. After that, the dissenter was sentenced to death in absentia. Intending to take refuge in Italy (Italy), Servetus for some unknown reason stopped in Geneva, where he was discovered by Calvin and his henchmen. Miguel was arrested on August 13, 1553, when he appeared at Calvin's service.
Although Calvin objected to the method of execution of Servetus, considering it cruel to burn a man at the stake, he still believed that he deserved to die because of his "disgusting blasphemy." And yet, on October 24, 1553, the court sentenced Miguel to death by burning at the stake for denying the Trinity and the rite of infant baptism. Calvin asked to behead Miguel as a traitor, but the Protestant Governing Body of Geneva refused the request.
On October 27, 1553, Servetus was burned at the stake outside Geneva, believed to have the last copy of his book chained to his leg. Historians claim that before his death, Miguel uttered the phrase "Jesus, Son of the Eternal God, have mercy on me." By this, the antitrinitarian theologian Servetus, who became the first victim of Protestant fanaticism, once again made it clear that he considered Jesus to be the one who had a beginning, who was created by God.
In 1903, a monument was erected to Servet in Geneva, and then, in 1908, in Paris.
Miguel Servetus was born on September 29, 1511 in the town of Villanueva de Sihen in the Kingdom of Aragon (Spain). As a teenager, he studied law and geography, first in Zaragoza and then at the University of Toulouse in France. After that, he worked for some time in Germany as a secretary for the confessor of Emperor Charles V - Juan de Quintana.
At the age of 15, he set out to travel. For some time he lived in Basel, then in Strasbourg. At this time, he became disillusioned with Christianity and published treatises:
- "On the Errors of the Trinity",
- “Two Books of Dialogue on the Trinity,” which caused great outrage.
In 1535, Servetus became interested in medicine and, on the recommendation of his friend, the physician of the Prince of Lorraine, entered the University of Paris. He studied under the auspices of doctors such as Sylvius and Gunther. Soon he perfectly mastered the teachings of Galen and became an excellent connoisseur of anatomy.
However, in 1538 he was forced to leave the city due to persecution caused by his philosophical views. Under a false name, he wandered around France and was engaged in medical activities. As a result, by 1540 he became the personal physician of Archbishop Pierre Palmier. He lived next to him in the city of Vienne for 12 years, where he worked at the same time on the treatise The Restoration of Christianity. In 1553, a work was published anonymously, which reflected his philosophical and natural-scientific views. Here he first described the pulmonary circulation.
Remark 1
Servetus was critical of many Christian dogmas. In particular, he denied the "trinity" of God, the doctrine of "salvation by faith", did not recognize the baptism of infants, and denounced the papacy. He was persecuted by both Calvinists and Catholics. As a result, his book was declared heretical, and Servetus himself was arrested. During the trial, he managed to escape. From France he went to seek refuge in Italy, but on the way to Geneva he was caught by the Calvinists and, refusing to admit his views as heresy, was burned at the stake on October 27, 1553 at the age of 42.
In 1903, in Geneva, on the initiative of the Calvinist Church, a monument was erected in honor of Miguel Servetus.
Vlad in medicine
For a long time it was believed that it was Servetus who became the first doctor to describe the pulmonary circulation. He denied Galen's theory of the presence of holes in the atrial septum through which air mixes with blood. And he assumed that the blood in a complex way from the right ventricle of the heart enters the lungs, where it mixes with the inhaled air and is sent to the left half of the heart. This is where the spirit of life begins. Servetus also mentioned that when blood mixed with air, soot is separated, which is exhaled back.
Remark 2
Thus, Servetus gave a detailed and close to the truth description of the pulmonary circulation. Unfortunately, the recognition of the treatise as heresy left the doctor's discovery unnoticed. And shortly after the author's death, the pulmonary circulation was rediscovered by Reald Colombo, who worked as a professor at the University of Padua after Andreas Vesalius.
However, now the fact that Miguel Servetus was the first to describe the pulmonary circulation raises doubts. In 1929, a handwritten treatise by the Arab physician Ibn-al-Nafis was found in Damascus, which sets out the theory of pulmonary circulation. Comparison of the works of the two authors showed the presence of almost complete coincidences in the texts and gave reason to assume that Servetus was familiar with and used the work of an Arab doctor.
Despite the fact that Miguel Servet was a talented doctor, his contribution to the future of medicine was this moment causes controversy.
For if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged ... But being judged, we deny the Lord, so as not to be condemned in peace.
Miguel Servetus, Spanish thinker, scientist, doctor, was born in 1509 in Villanueva, in Aragon. Received a medical degree and settled in Paris. He devoted himself to writing books on philosophy and theology, in which he criticized the foundations of Christian doctrine, in public polemics challenged the University of Paris, was forced to flee. Fate pushed Servetus against the powerful Geneva theologian Calvin. In 1553, on the denunciation of Calvin, he was arrested by the Inquisition, managed to escape and was captured a second time in Geneva. The story of Servetus' death was recounted, as always with astounding psychological skill, by Stefan Zweig:
“Isolated in his dungeon from all the world, Servetus for weeks and weeks indulges in exalted hopes. By nature, extremely prone to fantasy and, moreover, still bewildered by the secret whispers of his imaginary friends, he is more and more intoxicated by the illusion that he has long since convinced the judges of the truth of his theses and that the usurper Calvin is not today - tomorrow under curses and curses. will be driven out of the city in disgrace. The awakening of Servetus is all the more terrible when the secretaries of the Council enter his cell, and one of them with a stone face, opening a parchment list in detail, reads out the verdict. Like a thunderclap, this judgment breaks out over the head of Servetus. Like a stone man, not realizing that something monstrous has happened, he listens to the decision announced to him, according to which he will be burned alive tomorrow as a blasphemer. He stood for several minutes, a deaf person who did not understand anything. Then the nerves of the tortured person can not stand it. He begins to moan, complain, cry, a chilling cry of horror escapes from his throat in his native Spanish. "Misericordia!" ("Mercy!"). His infinitely wounded pride is completely crushed by the terrible news: the unfortunate, destroyed man stares motionlessly in front of him with frozen eyes, in which there is no spark of life.
And the stubborn preachers already believe that after the worldly triumph over Servetus a spiritual triumph will come, that it will be possible to snatch from him a voluntary confession of his delusions.
But it is surprising: barely the preachers of the word of God touch the innermost fibers of the soul of this almost dead man - faith, they hardly require him to renounce his theses, his former stubbornness powerfully and proudly flares up in him. Let them judge him, let them torture him, let them burn him, let them tear his body apart - Servetus will not abandon his worldview an inch ... He sharply rejects the persistent persuasions of Farel, who hastily arrived from Lausanne to Geneva to celebrate the victory with Calvin. Servetus argues that an earthly judgment will never decide whether a person is right in divine matters or not. To kill does not mean to convince. "
Before his death, Servetus asked for a meeting with his accuser, Calvin. Not to ask for mercy, but to ask for forgiveness in a truly Christian sense (forgiveness of the soul, not the body). Calvin was so pompously arrogant that he actually did not understand what was at stake. He still demanded that Servetus acknowledge his theological correctness, but there could be no Christian reconciliation between them.
“The end is terrible,” writes Zweig. - On October 27, at eleven in the morning, the sentenced person is taken out of the dungeon in rags. For the first time in a long time and for the last time the eyes, forever unaccustomed to the light, see the heavenly radiance; with a disheveled beard, dirty and emaciated, with chains clanking at every step. He walks, staggering, doomed, and his ashen decrepit face is scary in the bright autumn light. In front of the steps of the town hall, the executioners rudely, with force push the man who is hardly standing on his feet ... - he falls to his knees. To the declined, he is obliged to listen to the verdict, which ends with the words:
“We syndics, the criminal judges of this city, have pronounced and are setting out in writing our decision, according to which we condemn you, Miguel Servetus, in chains, to be taken to the Champagne square, tied to a pillar and burned alive along with your books, written and printed by you before complete incineration. This is how you must end your days to set a warning example for all others who will commit the same crime. "
Shivering from nervous shock and cold, he listens to the sentenced court decision. In mortal fear, he crawls on his knees to the members of the magistrate and begs them for a little leniency - to be executed by the sword, so that "the excess of suffering does not bring him to despair." If he sinned, he did it out of ignorance; he always had only one thought - to contribute to God's glory. At this moment, Farel appears on his knees between the judges and the man. He loudly asks the man sentenced to death if he agrees to abandon his doctrine that denies the trinity, in which case he will be entitled to a more merciful execution. But ... Servetus again decisively refuses the proposed bargaining and repeats his earlier words that for the sake of his convictions he is ready to endure any torment.
Now there is a tragic procession ahead. And so it moved. Ahead, guarded by archers, are the lieutenant and his assistant, both with insignia; at the end of the procession an eternally curious crowd is crowded. All the way through the city, past innumerable, timidly and silently looking spectators; Farel, walking next to the convict, does not calm down. Continuously, without stopping for a minute, he persuades Servetus at the last hour to admit his delusions ... And having heard Servetus's truly pious answer that, although it is painfully difficult for him to accept an unjust death, he prays to God to be merciful to his, Servetus, accusers, the dogmatist Farel comes into a frenzy. "How! Having committed the worst possible sin, are you still making excuses? If you continue to behave in the same way, I will deliver you to the judgment of God and leave you, but I made up my mind not to leave you until your last breath. "
But Servetus is already speechless. Both the executioners and the disputants are disgusting to him: not a word more with them. Incessantly, as if intoxicating himself, this imaginary heretic, this man who supposedly denies the existence of God, mutters: “Oh God, save my soul, O Jesus, son of the eternal God, show me mercy.” Then, raising his voice, he asks those around him, along with pray for him. Even in the square where the execution is to take place, in the immediate vicinity of the fire, he once again kneels down to concentrate on thoughts of God. But out of fear that this pure act of the alleged heretic will impress the people, the fanatic Farel shouts to the crowd, pointing to the reverently bowed (Servetus):
“You see, what is the strength of Satan, who seized a man in his paws! The heretic is very learned and thought, probably, that he was behaving correctly. Now he is in the power of Satan, and this can happen to each of you! ”Meanwhile, disgusting preparations begin. Already the firewood is piled up near the pillar, the iron chains with which they tie Servetus to the pillar are already clanging, the executioner has already entangled the condemned man's arms, quietly sighing, “My God. Oh my God!"
Farel pesters Servetus for the last time, loudly shouting cruel words:
“Have you nothing more to say?” The stubborn man still hopes that, seeing the place of his last torment, Servetus will recognize Calvin's truth as the only true one.
But Servetus replies:
"Can I do other than talk about God?"
Deceived in his expectations, Farel retreats from his victim. Now it is the turn of the terrible work of another executioner - the executioner of the flesh. Servetus is tied to a post with an iron chain, the chain is wrapped around the emaciated body several times. Between the living body and the chains that harshly cut into it, the executioners squeeze the book and the manuscript that Servetus once sent to Calvin in order to have a brotherly opinion of her from him; finally, in mockery, they put on him the shameful crown of suffering - a wreath of greenery, showered with sulfur. With these terrible preparations, the executioner's work is completed. All he has to do is set fire to a pile of firewood, and the murder will begin.
Flames flare up from all sides, a cry of horror is heard, expelled from the chest of the martyr, for a moment the people surrounding the fire recoil in horror. Soon smoke and fire hide the suffering of a body tied to a pillar, but continuously from the fire slowly devouring a living body, more and more piercing cries of intolerable torment are heard and, finally, a painful, passionate call for help is heard:
"Jesus, son of the eternal God, have mercy on me!"
This indescribably terrible death agony lasts for half an hour. Then the fire, when it is full, subsides, the smoke dissipates, and on the smoky pillar one can see a black, smoky, charred mass hanging in red-hot chains, a disgusting jelly that does not in any way resemble a human being. The just thinking, passionately striving for the eternal earthly being, the thinking part of the divine soul has turned into a terrible, disgusting, fetid mass.
Calvin was not present at the execution. He chose to stay at home in his study. "
The book, which was burned down with Servetus, was published a few months before the execution in Vienne, France. Its title was "The Restoration of Christianity." She did not have time to spread. The executioners burned the entire edition, and for a long time it was believed that the work had not survived. However, many years later, one specimen was discovered in England. The book passed from hand to hand until it was acquired by the Parisian national library.
In the place where Servetus was burned down, in 1903 Protestants erected a monument to him.