SERVETUS, MICHAEL (1509?/11?–1553), born Miguel Serveto y Conesa was a Spanish biblical scholar, physician, and theologian. Servetus was born in Villanueva, Spain.

By the time he was fourteen, Servetus had learned Latin, Greek, and Hebrew and was ready to participate in the burgeoning new field of biblical scholarship. Spanish clerics were in the forefront of the movement, Cardinal Ximenes de Cisneros having published an edition of the Bible in three ancient languages, using the oldest available manuscripts, in 1522. Though extreme religious intolerance prevailed, it was still remembered in Spain that at one time Christians, Jews, and Muslims had lived and studied side by side, producing great works of literature, science, and mysticism. As Jews were crowded out of Spanish life, some became Christian. Not fully accepted, they were called conversos. According to Roland H. Bainton's Hunted Heretic: The Life and Death of Michael Servetus, 1511–1553 (1953), it was Bishop...