Svědomí proti násilí - Castelliův zápas s Kalvínem – Zweig Stefan (2025)

Zweig's book, genre-wise on the border between essay, novel, and historical study, was first published in Vienna in 1936, just two years before the author's homeland was engulfed by Hitler's Germany. Although its protagonists – Castellio, Calvin, and Servetus – are historical figures from the 16th century, it is a passionate and uplifting defense of the most fundamental values of European civilization: freedom, tolerance, life, and humanity against any violent, totalitarian ideology.

Castellio's struggle with Calvin, the 'fight of a mosquito against an elephant,' is portrayed by Zweig as a battle of the fearless conscience and thought of the individual against a violent theocratic dictatorship. Their confrontation culminates after the burning of the humanist scholar Miguel Servetus in Geneva, carried out at Calvin's behest. In opposition to this judicial murder and in defense of other 'heretics,' Sebastian Castellio steps forward, risking his own life. He is the first to formulate a groundbreaking theory of tolerance and acceptance in his time, the core of which can be captured in the words that burning a heretic is nothing but murder and that 'to burn a man does not defend a doctrine, but kills a man.' Although the mosquito temporarily succumbs in the battle against the elephant, Castellio's thoughts and works revive several decades later in many...