The punishment of Servetus was a stroke of policy. Calvin gained in character with his contemporaries by it. He had justified his faith by his acts, and not left the Church of Rome the sole glory of taking vengeance on the enemies of Christ. All the Protestants approved; Melanchthon emphatically so. Calvin never repented it. Greatly as the Calvinistic Churches have served the cause of political liberty, they have contributed nothing to the progress of knowledge.

–Pattison, Mark. “Calvin at Geneva” in Essays by the Late Mark Pattison, Sometime Rector of Lincoln College, Volume II. 1889: 41