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enjoy a remarkable career in the inter-
twined worlds of Spanish politics and mili-
tary life. Following the overthrow of the
E
SPARTERO
regency in 1843 Serrano gained
an increasing ascendancy over the young
queen I
SABELLA
II, attaining promotions in
both the army and the legislature, with
their relationship becoming the object of
scandalous rumors. After a series of intrigues
Serrano emerged as an ally of L
EOPOLDO
O'D
ONNELL
when the latter seized control
of the government in 1856. Having served
as ambassador in Paris, Serrano was made
captain general of C
UBA
in 1860 and while
in that post brought about the reoccupa-
tion of Santo Domingo (D
OMINICAN
R
EPUB
-
LIC
) by Spain. For those services Serrano
was created duque de la Torre after his
return home.
Taking the leadership of the Liberal
Union Party following the death of his col-
league O'Donnell, Serrano plunged into a
new round of political maneuvers that led
to his banishment to the C
ANARY
I
SLANDS
,
from which he escaped to lead an insurrec-
tion in 1868 against Isabella. Following the
deposition of the queen, Serrano became
successively head of the provisional gov-
ernment, regent of the realm, and prime
minister after the new ruler, A
MADEO
I,
took the throne in 1871.
Although Serrano would continue to
play a prominent part in Spanish public
life during the 1870s, the ultimate restora-
tion of the Bourbons in 1875 marked the
beginning of his eclipse. His previous
maneuvers, regarded by some as patriotic
initiatives and others as opportunistic
treachery, suggested to A
LFONSO
XII that it
was time for the general's retirement. In
an era when army leaders kept the coun-
try in almost perpetual turmoil, few could
compare with Serrano in his perennial
readiness to make the destiny of Spain
conform to his own desires.
Serveto, Miguel (Michael Servetus)
(1511-1553)
Spanish theologian and physician
Born at Villanueva in N
AVARRE
, this most
celebrated Spanish “heretic” of the Refor-
mation era was variously known as Miguel
Servet, Michael Servetus, and Michel Vil-
lenueve, his pseudonym. He came of a
well-to-do family and was able to pursue
studies in theology, medicine, and law in
France, after mastering Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew in Spain. Appointed secretary to
the confessor of C
HARLES
I (Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V), he also spent time in
Germany, where he met prominent leaders
of the Protestant Reformation. A stay in
Switzerland stimulated his interest in radi-
cal religious ideas but earned him the hos-
tility of local reformers. He returned to
France in 1536 and earned a doctorate in
medicine. Most of his time thereafter was
spent in France practicing as a physician,
editing editions of learned works, and writ-
ing the excursions into heretical theology
that earned him his greatest fame.
An audacious thinker who pursued his
philological speculations wherever they
took him, Serveto became an anti-Trinitar-
ian who denied the divinity of Christ and
published a treatise on a whole series of
other “errors” that he found in Christian-
ity. He did not hesitate to quarrel, in per-
son or in writing, with all the leading
personalities in both Catholic and Protes-
tant theology. Calvin, in particular, was
the object of his scorn and became his
implacable enemy.
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