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CHAPTER X.

Servetus arrives at Geneva-Is arrested and indicted-His Trial-Is claimed by the French Authorities-His Insolence-Opinion of Bullinger, Farel, and others, on his case-Brings a counter Accusation against CalvinThe Swiss Churches consulted-Their Replies-Servetus condemned and executed-His Character-General Indignation against CalvinCalvin's Book on the Punishment of Heretics-Grounds of his DefenseJustified by Melancthon and others-Calvin and the French InquisitionInquiry into his Motives-His Defense unsatisfactory-Replies to his Book.

ON escaping from the prison of Vienne, the first design of Servetus, if we may trust his depositions at Geneva, was to proceed into Spain. Alarmed by the pursuit of the gens d'armes, he abandoned this plan, and resolved to make his way to Naples; where he hoped to find subsistence by practicing medicine among the numerous Spaniards settled in that city. Reasons which he does not explain induced him to linger in France for upward of three months; and when he at last set off for Italy, he chose the road through Geneva and Switzerland. Calvin, however, did not believe this account, and suspected that this time had been passed in Italy.' In his examination on the 28th of August, Servetus was questioned as to whether he did not last come from Italy and Venice; but he stoutly denied it, and affirmed that he had never been at the latter place in his life. Venice appears to have been at that time the favorite seat of skepticism and heresy. We learn from a letter of Melancthon's to the Venetian senate, supposed to have been written in the year 1539, that the work of Servetus," De Trinitatis Erroribus," was even then much circulated in that city. Hence, probably, the origin of Calvin's suspicions. But as Servetus, in his trial at Geneva, avowed the authorship both of that

1 See Servetus's Examinations at Geneva, of the 17th, 23d, and 28th of August, in Trechsel, i., Beil. iii. In a letter to Sulzer (Ep. 156), Calvin says: "He (Servetus) has lately caused a larger volume to be secretly printed at Vienne, but made up of the same errors. When the affair was discovered, he was immediately imprisoned, but contrived to escape, I know not how, and rambled in Italy for nearly four months."-P. Henry (iii. 150, note) here accuses Calvin of error, and makes this period less by confound. ing the date of Servetus's escape with that of his sentence at Vienne. 2 See Trechsel, Antitr., i., 36-38.

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work and of the "Restitutio Christianismi," it is difficult to see how he could have benefited his cause by denying his journey to Italy, had he really been there; or why, if he had actually made his way to Venice, he should have been induced to travel back to Geneva, the residence of the man whom he knew to be his mortal enemy, in the short space of three months.

Whatever may be the truth of this matter, which is not very important, it is certain that Servetus arrived at Geneva about the middle of July, 1553. He was alone, and on foot, and took up his lodging at a small inn on the banks of the lake, called the Auberge de la Rose. He had slept the previous night at the village of Louyset, or Le Cuiset, at which place he had arrived from Lalenove, on a hired horse.1 His dress and manner bespoke something more than a foot traveler, and excited the attention of his host. He was well provided with money; for, on being committed to prison, he deposited in the hands of the jailer ninety-seven gold crowns, besides a gold chain worth twenty crowns, and six gold rings. He seems to have affected a free and careless manner, and to have conversed without reserve. His host asked him if he was married? to which question Servetus returned a light answer, savoring rather of the cavalier than of the learned doctor and would-be Reformer. He seems to have relied on his person being unknown, and this behavior was probably put on for the purpose of better concealment. On one occasion he was observed to enter the church while Calvin was preaching. After staying at the inn about a month he talked of proceeding to Zurich, and had actually hired a boat to convey him by the lake as far as possible in that direction; when, on Sunday, the 13th of August, an officer of police suddenly appeared, and arrested him in the name of the

council.

The manner in which Servetus was discovered is unknown, but it has been supposed that he was recognized in the church. It seems that he had only come to Geneva with the view of proceeding farther; and that Grotius was in error in saying that he went thither to consult Calvin: nor is there much probability in the supposition of Musculus, that he wished to avail himself of the ill-will of some of the principal citizens

1 Examination of 28th of August.

2 "On trouve bien assez de femmes sans se marier."-Ibid. 3"Qu'il se tenoit caché à Génève afin de s'en pouvoir aller sans être reconnu."-Examination of 23d of August.

SERVETUS ARRESTED AT GENEVA.

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toward Calvin, and to make Geneva a center for disturbing other churches.' Calvin avows that he was arrested at his instance.2

Servetus was confined in the old prison near St. Peter's church. According to the laws of Geneva, it was necessary that, in criminal cases of this description, the prosecutor should also be imprisoned, and make himself responsible with his life for the truth of his accusation. Nicholas de la Fontaine, who had formerly been cook to M. de Fallais, but who was now a student in theology, and Calvin's secretary was induced to undertake this office. On the third day, however, Nicholas was dismissed, Calvin's brother, Anthony, having become bail for him; and on the fourth, at the demand of Colladon, advocate for Nicholas, both he and his surety were entirely discharged from all responsibility.3

On the Monday following his apprehension, Servetus was brought before the court, when La Fontaine produced thirtyeight heads of accusation against him, drawn up by Calvin. In these he was charged with having disturbed the German churches by his heresies for four-and-twenty years; with having published his books, entitled, " De Trinitatis Erroribus," and " Restitutio Christianismi," and his notes on Ptolemy and on the Bible; and also with having escaped from the prison of Vienne. The rest of the charges turn

chiefly on points of doctrinal divinity; but in the eighth he is accused of maintaining his heresies in an insulting manner, not only against the ancient Fathers of the Church, as St. Ambrose, St. Augustin, and others, but also against modern doctors; and especially with calling Melancthon, "a man without faith, a son of the devil, Belial, and Satan." But the most remarkable of these articles is the thirty-seventh, which runs thus: "Item, That in the person of M. Calvin, minister of God's word in this church of Geneva, he has defamed in a printed book the doctrine preached in it, uttering all the insults and blasphemies it is possible to invent." In support of these charges, the manuscripts and printed books of Servetus were handed into court.

Servetus did not deny that he was the author of these works. He asserted that he did not think he had blasphemed; but

1 P. Henry, iii., 152.

2 "At length having come hither in an evil hour, one of the syndics, at my instance, ordered him to be imprisoned."-Calvin to Sulzer, Ep. 156. Compare the Refutatio Serveti, Opera, viii., 511, A., Amst. ed.

3 Calvin to Farel, Ep. 152, and Examination of 17th of August.

that if his blasphemies were pointed out, he was ready to retract them. He acknowledged having called the Trinity a Cerberus; yet he professed to believe in that doctrine, but declared that he interpreted the word person in a different sense from most modern expounders. To the charge of having insulted Calvin he answered: That M. Calvin had before abused him in several printed books; that he had replied and shown that Calvin was wrong in some passages; that when the said Calvin wrote that he (Servetus) was intoxicated with his opinions, he had retorted the charge, and affirmed that Calvin himself was often wrong."

On the following day, Tuesday, August the 15th, the court assembled at the Evêché. Among the judges we find the names of Perrin and Vandel, the leaders of the Patriot party; who were also present at some of the subsequent examinations. The same charges were preferred which had been exhibited the previous day, nor are there any material variations in the answers of Servetus; only he added that he had not abused Melancthon in any published work. He also affirmed that Calvin had persecuted him in such a manner that it was not his fault if he had not been burnt alive. He confessed that he was Servetus.

On the 16th and 17th his examination was renewed on the same articles. On the latter day the copy of Calvin's "Institutes," in which Servetus had made his notes, was handed into court, and also the letter which he had written some years previously to Abel Poupin, and which has been already mentioned.1

After this Servetus was remanded till Monday, the 21st of August. It had probably been discovered that Nicholas de la Fontaine was no match for his antagonist; for on the day mentioned Calvin appeared against him in person, supported by the other ministers of Geneva. The examination turned wholly on points of doctrine. Calvin refuted the opinions of Servetus from Clement, Justin, Origen, Tertullian, and other Fathers; and showed from Origen's "Homilies" that Servetus was wrong in asserting that the term "Trinity" had not been used previously to the council of Nice. Arguments were en

1 This letter will be found in Mosheim's Geschichte Servets, Beil. 415, and in the Bibliothèque Anglaise, ii., 130. The following is the most obnoxious passage: "Your gospel is without one God, without true faith, without good works. For one God you have a three-headed Cerberus; for true faith a fatal dream; and good works you call empty pictures. The faith of Christ is to you a mere inefficient pretense, man a mere log, and God the chimera of a will that is not free," &c.

TRIAL OF SERVETUS.

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tered into respecting the nature of the persons of the Trinity. As the interrogation proceeded Servetus demanded books, which he was allowed to have at his own expense, provided they could be procured at Geneva or Lyons. Calvin undertook to lend him Tertullian, Irenæus, St. Ignatius, and Polycarp. He was also to be furnished with ink and paper.

It was during this examination that Calvin led Servetus to expose his pantheistic principles, and even pushed him to declare his opinion that the divinity resided not only in stocks and stones, but in the very devils themselves. It is remarkable, however, that these words are not to be found in the records of the trial: Dr. Henry conjectures that the clerk may have omitted them out of moral feeling! The pantheistic notions of Servetus were founded on the axiom that there can be no action without contact. These views he developed in a paper which he afterward drew up and forwarded to Calvin. Servetus was really a man of talent; but he failed, as every man will fail, in the vain attempt to apply philosophy to religion.

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Proofs sought far and wide were adduced against him. The judgment of Ecolampadius, pronounced twenty-three years previously, was brought forward; and some passages from the Loci Theologici" of Melancthon, in which he is styled "a fanatic," a cunning and impious man. He was also charged with the passage in his notes on Ptolemy, which contradicted Moses' account of the Holy Land, but which, as we have seen, he had suppressed in his second edition. Servetus seems justified in treating this charge with contempt. He wiped his mouth, and said, "Let us go on ;" which highly offended Calvin. Other heads of accusation were, that he had rejected infant baptism; that he had called the doctrine of the Trinity a dream of St. Augustin; and that he had denied the immortality of the soul. The first of these charges was probably the most dangerous, as the Anabaptists were every where regarded with dread and suspicion, as the enemies of civil order. The last accusation, that he held the soul to be mortal, he

1 See Calvin's letter to Farel, Ep. 152, and the Refutatio Serveti, Opera, viii., 522, B. 2 Vol. iii., 157.

3 See Mosheim's Neue Nachrichten, p. 102.

4 The following seems to have been the objectionable part: "But know, excellent reader, that such good qualities have been ascribed to this country wrongfully, or out of pure boasting, since the experience of merchants and travelers shows it to be uncultivated, sterile, and altogether disagreeable." -See Mosheim, Geschichte Servets, B. ii., note 4.