Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Open Knowledge Commons http://www.arGhive.org/details/servetuscalvinstOOwill y- SERVETUS AND CALVIN By the same Author. BENEDICT D'ESPINOZA ; his Life, Correspond- ence, and Ethics. G. E. LESSING'S NATHAN THE WISE. With an Introduction. THE SUDORIPAROUS AND LYMPHATIC GLANDULAR SYSTEMS ; the Vital Nature of their Functions, and the Effect of Implications of these on the Diseases ascribed to Malaria. r\i^^el ^t/tAA^\x^ SERVETUS AND CALVIN A STUDY OF AN IMPORTANT EPOCH IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION R. WILLIS, M.D. Tlepl TTjs rpidSos — scis me semper veritum fore. Bone Deus, quales Iragietlias excitabit ad posteros hivc questio : el icrly vw6(nacns 6 \6yos ; (I iffrlv OnSffTaffis ri) irvivfial MliLANCIITHON HENRY S. KING C-r CO., LONDON 1877 Universal history is at bottom the history of the great men who have lived and worked here. And truly the inexhaustible, the perennial Epic is the story of man's life from age to age Thomas Carlyi.e {TJie rights of translation a in/ of reproduction are reserved) TO HIS FRIENDS SAMUEL DAVIDSON, D.D. AND R. W. MACKAY, M.A. S^^is Wiotk is ^fbkatcb WITH EVERY EXPRESSION OF AFFECTIONATE REGARD AND ESTEEM 1?Y THE WRITER PREFACE. Some years ago I was led to make a study of the Life and Writings of Spinoza, and took considerable pains to present the gifted Jew of Amsterdam in such ful- ness to the English reader as might suffice to convey a passable idea of what one of the great misunderstood and misused among the sons of men was in himself, in his influence on his more immediate friends and sur- roundings through his presence, and on the world for all time through all his works. This study completed, and leisure from the more active duties of professional life enlarging with increasing years, I bethought me of some other among the sufferers in the holy cause of human progress as means of occupation and im- provement. Spinoza led, I might say as matter of course, to Giordano Bruno, with whose writings I was familiar, and who was Spinoza's master, if he ever had a master. Ikit having, at a former period, undertaken viii PREFACE. to edit the works of Harvey for the Sydenham Society, and the discovery of the circulation of the blood hav- ing become renewed matter of discussion with medical men and others, labourers in the field of general litera- ture, I was turned from Bruno to Servetus, as the first who proclaimed the true way in which the blood from the right reaches the left chambers of the heart by passing through the lungs, and who even hinted at its further course by the arteries to the body at large. Of Servetus at this time I knew little or nothing, save that he had been burned as a heretic at Geneva by Calvin ; and of his works I had seen no more than the extract in which he describes the pulmonary cir- culation. But meditating a revision and prospective publication of the Life of Harvey, with which I had prefaced my edition of his works, I went in search of further information concerning the ingenious anatomist who had not only outstripped his contemporaries, but his successors, by something like a century in making so important an induction as the Pulmonary Circula- tion, Nor had I far to go. In the ample stores of the British Museum Library I found a complete mine of Servetus-literature, and with access to the ' Christian- ismi Restitutio,' as reproduced by a learned physician, Dr. De Murr, and other works of the unfortunate PREFACE. ix • Servetus, I encountered not only the physiologist already known to me, but the philosopher and scholar, the practical physician, freed from the fetters of mediaeval routine, the geographer and astronomer, the biblical critic, in days when criticism of the kind, as we understand the term, was unimagined, and, alas for him ! the most advanced and tolerant of the Reformers, — that sacred band to which Servetus by indefeasible right belongs, Luther, Calvin, and the rest repudiated the discipline and most of the outward rites and shows of the Roman Catholic Church ; but they retained the most abstruse of her creeds. Servetus went at least as far as they in the rejection of externals ; but, appealing to the scriptures of the New Testament, he satisfied himself and dared to say to the world that some of the fundamentals of Christianity as formulated by the Church of Rome, and acquiesced in by the Reformers of Germany, had no warrant in the teaching of the Prophet of Nazareth. Rejecting, as he did, the whole of the post-apostolic dogmatic accretions of the ^ Church of Rome, Servetus is the source of the more ' reasonable service ' we are now permitted to render, and — strange conjunction ! — through his disastrous in- tercourse with Calvin, in no small measure the original of the free enquiry that is leading on to conclusions yet X PREFACE. uncontemplated as to man's relations to the Unseen and the Eternal. The life and labours of the man of whom so much may be said can never be otherwise than interesting to the world. Nor is it in his life only that Servetus has been influential. His death has, perhaps, been even more influential than his life ; for when his pyre began to blaze, the beacon was lio-hted that first warned effec- tually from the shoals of bigotry and intolerance on which religion misunderstood has made shipwreck so long. The custom of consigning heretics, as dissidents in their interpretation of the Jewish Scriptures were called, to death by fire then began to fall into abeyance ; princes and chief magistrates ceased from assisting at autos-da-fe as edifying spectacles ; and persecution to less terrible conclusions — imprisonment, banishment, fine, and social ostracism — has been coming gradually, however slowly, to an end. We have more than one book in English purporting to give an account of the life of Servetus, but none, I think, that is not either a compilation at second hand, or a translation wholly or in principal part from the French. No one among us appears to have referred to the works of Servetus and his contemporaries for the information that would have enabled him to give PREFACE. xi something like a true presentment of the man as he Hved and died. To do this — to make the EngHsh reader acquainted with another of the great devoted men who have toiled on life's pilgrimage with bleeding feet, to smooth and make straight the way for others, healers in the strife and in front of the battle, not to strike but to staunch the wounds that men in their ignorance and madness make on one another — such is the purpose of the work now presented to the reader. In appealing mainly to the original sources of in- formation on the life of Servetus, I have still not failed to make myself master of what has been done in later days by others in this direction. The references that occur in the course of my book to the writings of La Roche, Allworden, Mosheim, D'Artigny, Trechsel, Rilliet, and, last but not least, of Henry Tollin, make it un- necessary for me to do more in this place than to acknowledge my obligations to them. One word on the portrait of Servetus. Of the original of this Mosheim gives a particular account ; but all ToUin's enquiries, as well as those I have made myself, lead to the belief that it is no longer in exist- ence. Doubt has even been expressed as to the authenticity of this portrait of which we have indiffer- ent engravings in Hornius' ' Kirchengeschichte,' in xii PREFACE. Allworden's ' Historia,' and in Mosheim's ' Ketzerge- schichte.' After careful study of these, my daughter has done her best to reproduce in the etching appended what must have been a striking and is certainly a typical Spanish countenance. The etching of Calvin is after an engraving from one of the numerous more or less authentic portraits of the Reformer that are extant. Barnes, Surrey : Midsummer 1877. CONTENTS. BOOK THE FIRST. EARLY LIFE WORKS ARREST AND TRIAL AT VIENNE. ClIArTER PAGE I. Michael Servetus : his Birth, Parentage, and EARLY Education 3 II. Service with Friar Juan Quintana, Confessor OF the Emperor Charles V 19 III. The Service with Quintana comes to an End . 29 IV. Intercourse with the Swiss Reformers • • • 33 V. The Reformers of Strasburg. Publication of the Work on Trinitarian Error yj VI. The Authorities of Basle. The Two Dialogues ON the Trinity. Leaves Switzerland . . .71 VII. Paris. Assumption of the Name of Villeneuve OR Villanovanus. Acquaintance with Calvin . 79 VIII. Lyons. Engagement as Reader for the Press with the Trechsels. Edits the Geography of Ptolemy 86 IX. Lyons. Dr. Symphorien Champier .... 99 •X. Return to Paris. Studies there. Jo. Winter of Andernach ; Andrea Vesalius. Degrees of M.A. and M.D. Lectures on Geography and Astrology 104 XI. The Treatise on Syrups, and their Use in Medi- cine MI CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XII. The Medical Faculty of Paris sue Servetus for LECTURING ON JUDICIAL ASTROLOGY . . . Il6 XIII. Charlieu. Attainment of his thirtieth Year. Views of Baptism 125 XIV. Settlement at Vienne under the Patronage of the Archbishop. Renewal of Intercourse with THE Publishers of Lyons. Second Edition of Ptolemy 130 XV. Edition of Santes Pagnini's Latin Bible with Commentary 139 XVI. Engagement as Editor by Jo. Frelon of Lyons. Correspondence with Calvin . . . .157 XVII. ' Christianismi Restitutio,' the Restoration of Christianity. Discovery of the Pulmonary Circulation 191 XVIII. Calvin receives a Copy of the 'Christianismi Restitutio' 231 XIX. Calvin denounces Servetus through William Trie TO THE Ecclesiastical Authorities of Lyons . 235 XX. Arrestof Servetus and Arnoullet, THE Publisher. The Trial for Heresy at Vienne. Servetus is suffered to escape from Prison .... 252 XXI. Discovery of Arnoullet's private Printing Estab- lishment. Seizure and Burning of the ' Chris- tianismi Restitutio,' along with the Effigy of ITS Author 269 BOOK THE SECOND. servetus in geneva, face to face with CALVIN. I. Servetus reaches Geneva. Detained there, he is arrested at the Instance of Calvin . . .281 II. Geneva, and the State of Political Parties at the Date of Servetus' Arrest 287 CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE III. Servetus is arraigned on the Capital Charge BY Calvin 304 IV. The Trial in its First Phase 314 V. The Trial in its Second Phase, with the At- torney-General OF Geneva as Prosecutor . 333 VI. The Trial in its Second Phase, continued . .351 VII. The Trial continued. The Attorney-General re- ceives fresh instructions from Calvin . . 366 VI 11. Servetus is visited in Prison by Calvin and the Ministers 386 IX. The Court determines to consult the Councils AND Churches of the four Protestant Swiss Cantons X. The Trial is interrupted through Differences between Calvin and the Council 391 393 XI. The Trial is resumed on new Articles supplied BY Calvin 398 XII. The Trial continued. Servetus addresses a LETTER TO CaLVIN AND PETITIONS HIS JUDGES . 423 XIII. Calvin anticipates the Judges in their Appeal TO the Swiss Churches 428 .XIV. Servetus sends a Letter and a second Remon- strance and Petition to his Judges . . 441 XV. The Swiss Councils and Churches are addressed HY the Council of Geneva 446 XVI. Servetus again addresses the Syndics and Coun- cil of Geneva, and accuses Calvin. The answers of the Councils and Churches con- sulted 450 XVII. The Attitude of Calvin. The Hopes of Ser- vetus 474 .Win. Thk Sentence and Execution. V/E Victis ! . . 480 CONTENTS. CHAPTER iJi-j>i XIX. After the Battle. V^e Victoribus ! ... 488 XX. Calvin defends himself 49^ XXI. Calvin's Defence is attacked 5 '7 XXII. Calvin's Biographers and Apologists . . .528 APPENDIX 535 BOOK I. EARLY LIFE— WORKS— ARREST AND TRIAL AT VIENNE 'y CHAPTER I. MICHAEL SERVETUS, HIS BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY EDUCATION. Michael Serveto, or as we know him best by his name with the Latin termination, Servetus, appears, from the most trustworthy information we possess, to have been born either at Tudela, in the old Spanish kingdom of Navarre, or at Villaneuva, in that of Aratrc^n ; but whether here or ihere, and in the \ car 1509 or 151 1, is an open question. In the course of the Trial he stood at Vienne in Dauphiny, in the spring of 1553, he says himself that he is a native of Tudela, and forty-two years of age ; which would make Navarre the country, and 151 1 the year, of his birth. But in the Geneva Trial, only four months later, he declares that he is of Villanova, and forty- four years old ; which would give us Aragon as the land, and 1509 as the date, of his nativity. When he spoke of himself as a Navarrese at Vienne, it may have been done to conciliate his French judges, Navarre having once been a province of France, and the natives of the two countries having still much in common. It was at a moment, too, when MICH A EL SER VET US. he had paramount motives for seeking to conceal his identity. When he said at Geneva that he was ' Espagnol Arragonois de Villeneuve ' and forty-four, he was face to face with one who knew him well, and when he had neither motive nor opportunity for concealment. Servetus's subscription of himself as ' Michael Serveto, alias Reves, de Aragonia, Hispanus,' on the title-page of his first work ; as ' Michael Villa- novanus,' on the titles of all the books he edited, and the name ' Villeneuve' by which alone he was known through the whole of the years he lived in France, to say nothing of the ' M. S. V.,' evidently Michael Servetus Villanovanus, on the last leaf of the ' Chris- tianismi Restitutio,' the printing of which led to his death, supply, as it seems, preponderating evidence as to the place of his birth, though the year may still be left uncertain. The alias Reves which appears on the title of the book ' De Trinitatis Erroribus,' the first- fruits of his genius, has hitherto been a puzzle and sub- ject of debate with his biographers, but can now be satisfactorily interpreted. Servetus's mother, it appears, was of French extraction, of the Reves family, and her son took occasion in his first work piously to preserve his mother's family name beside his proper patronymic.^ Of the parents of Servetus, hov/ever, we in fact know ^ The Reverend Henry ToUin, Pastor of the French Protestant Church, of Magdeburg, who has made the hfe and works of Servetus the particular subject of his studies for many years, inchnes to Tudela as the place, and 15 1 1 as theyear, of Servetus's birth. See his ' Servet's Kindheitund Jugend' in Kahnis^ Zeitschrift fiir die Hisiorische Theologie. Jahrg. 1875, S. 545. EARLY LIFE. little more than that we have from himself when, on his trial at Geneva, he informed the Court that they were d'anciejine race, vivaiits nobleinent, of old families and in- dependent, or in easy circumstances, and that his father was a Notary by profession. Report adds that he was of a. family which had been jurists for generations, and that his father was nearly related to Andrea Serveto d'Aninon, some time Professor of Civil Law in the Uni- versity of Bologna, subsequently member of the Cortes of Aragon, and one of the Council of the Indies. So much makes it clear that Michael Servetus was of gentle blood, of Christian parentage, and neither of Jewish nor Moorish descent, as has been said on no better ground apparently than that he shows he was acquainted with Hebrew, had read the Koran, and in his writings is not intolerant towards Jews and Ma- homedans, like his countrymen. Neither have we any very precise information as regards Servetus's earlier years and education. Of somewhat slender build, and so of presumably delicate constitution, though he showed no trace of this in after life, he is said to have been destined by his parents to the service of the Church ; in which view, whilst yet a youth, he was placed for nurture in one of the convents of his native town or its neighbourhood. And this we should imagine must almost necessarily be true ; for the rudiments of the liberal education Servetus shows himself to have received, could only have been obtained in the early part of the sixteenth century in the quiet MICHAEL SERVE T US. of the cloister, and under the fosterino- care of some monk more learned than the general. The precocious ability and pious temperament with which we must credit Servetus may have been a further motive for the line of life chalked out for him by his parents. The Church was then, as it still continues to be, the close through which an easy and a pious life can be best secured where there is neither talent nor aspira- tion ; as it is also the highway to w^orldly wealth and power, where there is ambition and ability to back what passes for piety. By mental and moral endow- ment Servetus probably appeared to all about him a born churchman, with the crosier, and even the cardinal's hat, in perspective. But side by side with so much that pointed in this direction, the reasoning, sceptical, and self-sufficing nature of the man that led the opposite way, as It had not yet appeared, so was it unsuspected. Servetus as a youth unquestionably re- ceived the education that would have fitted him for the Priesthood ; and we think complacently of the solace and relaxation from the monotony of monastic life, which the worthy brother we evoke as his principal teacher found in imparting all he knew, and pointing out the onward way to one both apt and eager to learn. Before leaving the convent, or the convent school, where he doubtless remained for several years, Servetus must have been not only a tolerable Latin scholar, but, it may have been, also grounded in Greek and the rudiments of Hebrew. EARLY LIFE. At what ao"e Servetus left his convent teachers we are not Informed ; some time however, we should imagine, before definitive vows are required of the youthful aspirant to the holy office, when aptitude for the prospective vocation is made subject of particular inquiry. Now it may have been that he was dis- covered to be indifferently qualified by mental con- stitution to follow further the line of life intended for him — a conclusion to which we are led from all we know of the man in his works. He was pious enough and credulous enouo^h throuo;"h life ; but his reliofion must be of the kind he thought out for himself, and his beliefs of his own fashioning, not such as could be pre- sented to him ready shaped for acceptance. The very air of Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century was alive with mutterings of the storm tliat had lonor been o:atherincr and found vent at lencfth through the manly voice of Martin Luther ; and when we find hints that fears of the Inquisition had had something to do with Servetus's subsequent move- ments, we are disposed to imagine that the call to free thought which had sprung up on the revival of letters and found out the northern Monk in his cell, had also reached the Friar of the south, and from him flowed over upon the receptive mind of his youthful scholar. Be this as it may, when twelve or fourteen years of age, Servetus appears to have entered as a student at the University of Saragossa, then the most celebrated MICHAEL SERVE TUS. in Spain ; and if he had Peter Martyr de Angleria among the number of his teachers, as we are assured he had,' he was in the hands of one of the most ac- comphshed as well as liberal-minded men of his age. Angleria was in fact still more distinguished as a scholar, diplomatist, teacher and writer, than as a soldier. Having come to Spain in the suite of one of the Italian embassies to Ferdinand and Isabella, he joined the army of the Catholic king and queen as a volunteer, and having distinguished himself on more than one occasion in the field, he was presented to the sovereigns on the conclusion of hostilities, entered the service of Isabella, in especial, and having taken orders — an indispensable condition to acknowledgment as a teacher — he was engaged by the queen as tutor and general supervisor of the education of the host of young noblemen and gentlemen who thronged the Court. The influence exerted by such a man in such a situa- tion cannot be doubted ; and it has been surmised that ' more than one of the distinguished personages who appeared in Spain, in the early part of the sixteenth century, owed not a little of all that made them notable in after life to their teacher. Angleria was in fact a ' Vide Tollin : ' Servet's Kindheit und Jugend,' in Kahnis' Zeit- schrtft fiir die Historische Theologie, 1875,8.557. We have, however, searched in vain for any evidence of Angleria's presence in Saragossa at any time, even as a casual resident. In his comprehensive and highly entertaining work, the ' Opus Epistolarum,' we find letters of his from Valladolid, Burgos, Vittoria, Madrid, and elsewhere, but not one from Saragossa during the years covered by Servetus's stay at the university, according to ToUin. EARLY LIFE. man in advance of his age, morally, and, we must believe, religiously also — although Spain was not always the devoted slave of Rome we have been ac- customed to think her in these our days. He had seen enough in his campaigning and its consequences to disgust him with conversions to Christianity at the point of the sword, and the wholesale deportation from their native country of a great civilised community because of their adhesion to the religion of their fathers. An Italian by birth, it was no part of Angleria's religion to hate Jews and Saracens with such a hatred as made baptizing, banishing, torturing and putting them to death the virtue it appeared in the eyes of the Spaniards. At Saragossa Servetus may have remained four or five years, working hard at all that qualified him to appear as he meets us in after life — perfecting himself in classics, and introduced not only to the Ethics of 7\ristotle and the scholastic philosophy, but also to the more positive domains of human knowledge — the mathematics, astronomy and geography — geography more especially, brought into vogue as it was by the great discoveries of Columbus, Vasco de Gama. and the hardy navigators and travellers who came after tliem, then made accessible to the general reader by the works of Angleria, Grynaeus and others. Having broken definitively with the idea of the Church as a calling, Servetus must now have made up his mind to follow what might fairly be spoken of as MICHAEL SERVE TUS. the hereditary vocation of his family — Law ; and the School of Toulouse being at this time the most cele- brated in Europe, to Toulouse he was sent as a student of Law by his father. Here he seems to have remained for two or three years — short while enough in which to fathom the intricacies of civil and canon law, to say nothing of other studies that must have continued to engage some share of his attention ; but that the time given to the study of Law at Toulouse was not misspent, is proclaimed by the occasional scraps of legal lore we notice interspersed in his writings. In the covenant between God and Abraham, to cite one among many instances, he observes that we have the first case on record of one of the four forms of unindentured contract, still spoken of as the form Facto ut facias. Elsewhere also, and at other times, on his trial at Geneva in particular, he is credited by his prosecutor with an adequate knowledge of the Pandects, although he says himself that he had never done more than read Justinian in the perfunctory manner usual with young men at college. On the occa- sion referred to, nevertheless, we find him quoting the decisions of jurisconsults in support of his conclusions. But Law, we believe, was never the subject that engrossed the thoughts of Servetus. The natural bent of his mind, and the teaching he had received during his earlier years, led him to Theology ; and it was at Toulouse, as he tells us himself, that he first made acquaintance with the Scriptures of the Old and New EARLY LIFE. Testaments. It is not difficult to imagine the effect which the perusal of these writings must have produced on the ardent religious temperament of Servetus. In his earliest work he speaks of the Bible as a book come down from heaven, the source of all his philosophy and of all his science— language, however, that is to be seen as hyperbole to a great extent ; for he was already imbued with scholastic philosophy, and, we must pre- sume, with patristic theology also, before he had read a word of the Bible ; and in his published works we find him at various times subordinating the teachinor of the Scriptures to the conclusions of his reason. Toulouse, indeed, in the early part of the sixteenth century, Avas an unlikely school for religious study in any but the most rigidly orthodox fashion ; and how far Michael Servetus swerved from this — to his sorrow — need not now be more particularly noticed. It was even the boast of the Toulousans for long, that their city had not been infected with what was spoken of as the poison of Lutheranism. So strict a watch had been kept over them by their shepherds, the priests, that, whilst in neighbouring and other more distant cities of France the Reformation had many adherents, it had none — openly, at all events — in Toulouse. It were needless to insist that training of a special kind, in addition to originality and independence of mind, was required to lead to views and conclusions such as those attained to by Servetus.* ' Tollin (Toulouser Studenten-Lcben im Anfang des i6ten Jahr- 12 MICHAEL SEE VET US. He had read the Bible, however, at Toulouse ; and there, too, if it were not at an earlier period, he must have met with some of the writings of Luther, of which several had been translated into Spanish soon after their publication.^ But there is another book which enjoyed an extensive reputation through the whole of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and seems to supply the kind of aliment precisely of which a mind constituted like that of Servetus must have felt the want. This is the ' Theologia Rationalis sive Liber de Creaturis' of Raymund de Sabunde, in which the Creator is reached by a gradual ascent from lower to higher grades of created things. The ' Rational Theology ' of Sabunde is indeed a most noteworthy book ; full of true piety, resting on the wider and surer grounds of nature at large in har- mony with human intelligence, than the dogmatic theo- logian can show in the written text and unwritten traditions on which he relies for his conclusions. Con- taining no word that is not thoroughly orthodox, doc- trine, nevertheless, is not that which it is the grand object of the ' Rational Theology ' of Sabunde to pro- pound. Neither is authority paraded, as it would have been had the book been written by a professed hunderts), in Riehl's Historisches Taschenbuch von 1874, S. 76, speaks as if he had been present with Servetus at Toulouse ; accompanied him over the St. Michael's bridge that spanned the Garonne ; beheld the iron cage suspended from its balk above the river for ducking heretics until they died; looked on at the religious processions that filed incessantly through the streets, etc. 1 McCrie's Hist, of the Reformatioti in Spain. EARLY LIFE. 13 theologian, instead of a pious naturalist ; for Sabunde was a physician, one of the guild whose destiny it is to lead the van of progress. We cannot believe that the work, though often reprinted, was ever heartily ap- proved by the heads of the Church of Rome. Its title went far to condemn it. The. Roman Catholic Church I requires faith, submissiveness, subserviency, not reason,^ j of its sons ; and we are not, therefore, surprised to find that though the ' Rational Theology ' of Sabunde, as a whole, long escaped being placed on the index of pro- hibited books, the prologue with which we find one of the early editions, if it be not the first (Argentorati, 1496), introduced, was soon ordered to be expunged ; nor, indeed, as culture extended and the Reformation spread, with ever-increasing alarm to the dominant Church, that the book itself was at length pointedly forbidden to be read by the faithful. It was put upon the ' Index' by the Congregation of the Council of Trent in 1595, the author 'holding too much by Nature,' say the reverend councillors, ' to give us a knowledge of God and his providential dealing with the world, and making too little reference to the Fathers and the authority of Holy Writ.' The Prologue of Sabunde is in truth a very re- markable piece of writing, the age considered in which it flowed from the pen. Beginning in the accredited orthodox fashion : ' Ad laudem et gloriam altissimai et gloriosissimcE Trinitatis,' &c., the author proceeds to say that his purpose is ' to expose the errors, as well 14 MICHAEL SERVETUS. of the ancient philosophers as of pagan and infidel writers, by the science he has to propound ; to set forth the cathohc faith in its infalhble truthfuhiess, and to show every sect opposed thereunto in its necessary falsity and erroneousness. Two books,' he / continues, ' are given to us by God for our guidance : y one, the universal book of created things, or the book of Nature ; the other, the boo^ of the sacred Scriptures. The first was given to man from the beginning, when the world was made ; the second is to supplement and solve the difficulties met with in the first. The book of the Creatures lies open to all ; but the book of the Scriptures can only be read aright by the clergy. The book of Nature cannot be falsified, neither can it be readily interpreted amiss, even by heretics ; but the book of the Scriptures they can misconstrue and falsify at their pleasure.' The author's design, therefore, is to write a book which gentle and simple alike may read and understand without a master ; and he ends his prologue with a compliment and submission to Holy Mother Church, which her hierarchs, however, have not accepted either gratefully or graciously ; for they did not of old, any more than they do now, want books that 1 would enable readers to go their own way without the guiding hand of a master. Shall we wonder, therefore, that this notable prologue was looked on at an early date as highly objectionable, and is not to be found in any of the later editions of the book ? ^ 1 The last edition of Sabunde we have seen is neat and available, EARLY LIFE. 15 Michel de Montaigne has given an interesting ac- cuunt of this ' Rational Theology ' of Sabunde. His father thought so highly of it that he set his son, the im- mortal Essayist, to translate it into French : a task which it were needless to say he performed in a very admirable manner, though the sire did not live to see the work in type and in the hands of the public he was anxious to reach through its means. The book, says Montaigne, is composed by a Spaniard, in indifferent Latin — basti dun Espagnol, baraguind des terminaiso7is Latmes — but well adapted to meet a want of the day. The novelties of Luther coming into vogue and shaking old beliefs, Sebonde, as he thinks, ' gives very good advice against a disease that ever tends towards execrable atheism.' If Sabunde does give ires boii advis, his * Book of the Creatures ' is nevertheless the text from which the most sceptical perhaps of the whole series of the * Essays ' is written ; and if the ' Theologia Ratio- nalis ' fell into the hands of the youthful Michael Servetus, as we believe it must almost necessarily have done, we have no difficulty in imagining that it influenced him in a still greater degree, and not much otherwise than it did young Michel de Montaigne. A rational exposition of God's revelation of himself in nature, we apprehend, must have been a craving in the soul of the serious Spaniard still more than in that of the lively Gascon.^ ' curante Joachim Sighart,' Solisbach. 1852, 8vo. It is unfortunately without the Prologue. ' There .is a copy of what we believe to be the second edition of i6 MICHAEL SERVETUS. But there is another writer whose influence on his age and the progress of free thought it is impossible to estimate too highly, and from whose teaching Servetus on his death-walk owned that he had had something. This is Erasmus. What Servetus had he does not say. Whatever it may have been, it was unaccompa- nied by the caution and cold discretion that distin- euished the grreat scholar of Rotterdam. In the Scholia which Erasmus added to his Greek New Testament, however, we fancy we see heralds of the far bolder and more original exegetical annotations with which Serve- tus, under his assumed name of Villanovanus, accom- panied his reprint of the Pagnini Bible, which we shall have to speak of by and by. In addition to all he learned from his convent teachers, from the professors of Saragossa and Toulouse, from Sabunde, Luther, Erasmus, and others on the subject of theology, Servetus must further have been well read in general history and the works of travellers in foreign lands, as we shall find when we come to study his edition of Ptolemy's Geography, and refer particularly to his biblical criticisms, in days when criticism of the kind he brought to bear on the text of the Scriptures was unknown. It was only in the early part of the sixteenth century that the Hebrew Bible and Greek Testament began to be appealed to by the Sabunde, fol. Argentorat. 1495, in the British Museum, over which we spent some hours with much deUght. Also a copy of Montaigne's translation, beautifully printed, and in fine preservation. — 8vo. Paris, 1569. EARLY LIFE. 17 learned, and made the subject of critical study in a way never thought of before. Long limited to the letter, the study was widened in its scope by Ser- vetus, and, embracing general history, made to include a new and highly important element in its bearing on the Reliofious Idea. If Servetus of himself arrived at the interpretation he gives of the Psalms and Pro- phetical writings of Israel, he must indeed have been possessed of no ordinary share of natural sagacity informed by study, and of moral courage in addition ; for it runs counter to all that had been assumed from the date of the New Testament writings almost to the present day. The free use he makes of his historical reading in its application to David, Cyrus, and Heze- kiah, may have been that which led some of his biographers to Imagine that he was of Jewish descent, and to say that he had visited Africa, and had had Mahomedan as well as Jewish teachers, from whom he imbibed his notions, hostile to the common or- thodox interpretation of the Prophets, and the con- ception of a Triune God. It were absurd to suppose that Servetus's early convent education and subsequent studies at Saragossa and Toulouse had made him all he shows himself to be in his works. He continued a student through the whole of his life, and it is indeed among the privileges of the physician that his education never ends ; but it was certainly at an early period of his career that he became possessed of the theological ideas which he 1 8 MICHAEL SERVETUS. went on elaborating, even to the day when his ' Restoration of Christianity ' was in type and ready for the pubHcation it did not obtain. It is therefore of moment with us to seize and follow up every incident in his life that induced or strengthened the bent of his mind towards theological speculation ; and the event which now befel, we must presume, had no slight in- fluence in this direction. SERVICE WITH QUINTANA. 19 CHAPTER II. SERVICE WITH FRIAR JUAN QUINTANA, CONFESSOR OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. School and college days come naturally to an end, or are cut short by one intervening incident or another ; and the studies of Michael Servetus at Toulouse were interrupted by an invitation to enter his service from brother Juan Quintana, a Franciscan friar, confessor to the Emperor Charles V., about to attend on his Sovereign to his coronation in the imperial city of Bologna, and, of still greater significance, to the Diet of Augsburg, which followed it closely. In what capacity Servetus joined Quintana we are not informed ; but if father confessors ever engaged private secretaries, we can hardly doubt that it must have been in the intimate relationship suggested, for which the accomplishments of the younger man so obviously qualified him. The in- vitation from Quintana is interesting on many accounts, and was certainly an important element in the mental development of Servetus. Though he may have quitted Spain hurriedly, perhaps secretly — in fear of the Inquisition, as said — he could have left nothing but a good name for conduct and accomplishment behind c 2 MICHAEL SERVETUS. him, otherwise he would never have been recommended as a fit and proper person to act as secretary to the confessor of the great Emperor. Not forgotten by his old masters of Saragossa, the clever student was thought of by them when Quintana made known his want of a secretary, and must have been recommended to him as in every way qualified to fill a situation of the kind. Michael Servetus, as we apprehend him, was one of those sensitive natures which, like the stainless plate of the photographer, retains at once and reflects every object presented to it ; his service with Quintana, con- sequently, was one of the incidents that influenced the whole of his after life. Up to the time of his engagement with the confessor he had been but one among hundreds of other students, known to his teachers as a young man of superior abilities, it may be, but not an object of more particular attention to any one of them. In the intimate relationship implied between the elderly prin- cipal and the youthful underling matters were entirely changed ; and recent inquiries^ lead to the conclusion that the hood of the barefooted friar Juan Quintana covered the head of a man of superior powers, cherish- ing larger, more liberal and more tolerant views than were current in his age, more especially among the class to which he belonged. Quintana appears to have attracted the notice of * Tollin : ' Die Beichtvater Kaiser Karls V. ; ' in Magazin fur die Literatiir des Auslandes, April, Mai, 1874. A series of three short papers, but of surpassing interest, to which we are happy to refer. SERVICE WITH QUINT AN A. the Emperor so far back as the date of the Diet of Worms, dunng the sittings of which he had distin- guished himself as a preacher and become generally known as a theologian and man of learning. He had at the same time, however, and in like measure, fallen out of favour with his party, opposed at every point to the reform movement, in consequence of the modera- tion of his views. Matters at Worms had gone in no wise to the satisfaction of the Emperor, owing in no inconsiderable degree, as he must have believed, to the intolerance and mismanagement of his clerical advisers. To give the approaching Diet of Augsburg, of which Charles was thinking far more seriously than of the pageant of Bologna when he made Ouintana his con- fessor, a chance of proving the bond of union he desired between the two great religious parties which now divided his empire, he saw that he must rid himself of the narrow-minded and utterly irreconcilable Domini- can Loaysa, whom he had had at Worms as his spiritual director. From Loaysa he knew he had no prospect of receiving those counsels of concession and com- promise which, as a politician, he saw were indispensable and to which he was himself at the moment by no means disinclined. He must have another confessor of more liberal views, not utterly opposed to the reformation of the Church in all its aspects and to the whole body of the Reformers with whom, as heretics, it was con- descension on the part of a Roman Catholic dignitary to communicate, and contamination, if it were not sin, to MICHAEL ShRVETUS. sympathise. The old director had therefore to be got rid of, for a time at least ; but he must suffer no slight, be subjected to no show of mistrust, to no seeming loss of confidence ; he must not even be superseded in his office, but only removed to a distance and so made innocuous. Charles therefore discovered that a repre- sentative, who must be presumed to be familiar with the most secret aspirations of his soul, would be required at Rome as the medium of communication between himself and his holiness the Pope, in connection with the important business in prospect at Augsburg. Loaysa, accordingly — greatly to his disgust beyond question — was dispatched with all the honours to Rome, whilst Juan Quintana, summoned from the quiet of the cloister to the bustle of the Court, found himself un- expectedly with a royal and imperial penitent at his ear in the confessional, and an upper seat in the council chamber pending the discussion of affairs of state. How should we imagine that an invitation to take service with a man possessed of qualities that brought him into such relationships could have been otherwise than instantly embraced by the youthful student of Toulouse ; or how doubt that intimate contact with so great a nature as Quintana's could fail to impress him deeply ? Attached forthwith to the service of the confessor and in the suite of the Emperor, not the least observant among all who accompanied him of the pomp and pageantry displayed at the SERVICE WITH QUINTAN A. 23 coronation at Bologna, the open-eyed secretary was witness of much besides that sank into his mind, gave matter for future thought, and found free but need- lessly offensive expression in his writings. Here, at Bologna, it was in fact, and not at Rome as has been said, that Servetus saw the Pope ' borne aloft above the heads of the people, the multitude kneeling in the dust, adoring him, and they among them who could but kiss his slipper accounting themselves blessed.' Nor was it the ignorant multitude alone that showed such abject servility. He saw in addition ' the most powerful prince of his age, at the head of twenty thousand veteran soldiers, kneeling and kissing the feet of the Pope ; ' ^ an exhibition which appears to have been thought of as simply degrading instead of edifying by the independent-minded secretary. So great an event as the coronation of the Emperor was too favourable an occasion to be neglected for a stroke of business by the financiers of the Romish Church : indulgences were in the market in plenty, and at prices to suit all purchasers, immunity from the pains u of purgatory being to be obtained for terms in the ratio of the money paid. How shall we imagine that so glaring an abuse could fail to touch Servetus, in the state of mind to which he must already have attained, in the same way as the proceedings of Tetzel and his coadjutors touched the common sense and conscience of Luther? It was doubtless with all he now observed ' Robertson, History of Ckarli's /'., \ol. ii. book v. p. 40 24 MICHAEL SERVE T US. before him that we, short while after, find him speaking in such virulent terms of the Papacy and exclaiming : ' O bestia bestiarum, meretrix sceleratissima' — 'O beast most beastly, most wicked of harlots ! ' ^ Some of Luther's epithets, we might conclude, had found their way into the vocabulary of Servetus ; and it may be that the violence of Luther's invective, unchallenged by the rest of the Reformers, led him to fancy that he too might indulge without impropriety in language of an unseemly kind. When we think of the times in which Servetus lived, his early education and subsequent surroundings, the violent hatred he seems already to have conceived against the Papacy is not a little extraordinary. We might be tempted to conclude that the free thought of Europe, of which the Reformation was the outcome and expression, had found even a more genial soil in the mind of this Spanish youth than in that of Luther himself, or any of his accredited followers. They went little way in freeing the religion of Jesus of Nazareth from the accretions which metaphysical subtlety, super- stition, and ignorance of the laws of nature and the principles of things had gathered around it in the course of ages. Their business, as they apprehended it, was to reform the Church rather than the religion of which it was presumed to be the exponent'; the task that Servetus set himself in the end was to reform religion, with little thought of a Church in any ' ' Christianismi Restitutio,' p. 462. SERVICE WITH QUI NT AN A. 25 sense in which an institution of the kind was con- ceived in his day, whether by Papist or Protestant, From reading the Bible at Toulouse and contrasting the humble life and simple theistic morality of the Prophet of Nazareth with the metaphysical subtleties and dogmatic deductions of the schoolmen, the pomp, the power, the tyranny and the greed of the priests so conspicuously displayed at Bologna, we can readily imagine the impression made on the independent spirit of Servetus — an impression that found more seemly utterance anon than that we have already quoted, and in words like these : ' For my own part I neither agree nor disagree in every particular with either Catholic or Reformer. Both of them seem to me to have some- thing of truth and something of error in their views ; and whilst each sees the other's shortcomings, neither sees his own. God in his goodness give us all to understand our errors and incline us to put them away. It would be easy enough, indeed, to judge dis- passionately of everything, were we but suffered with- out molestation by the Churches freely to speak our minds ; the older exponents of doctrine, in obedience to the recommendation of St. Paul, giving place to younger men, and these in their turn making way for teachers of the day who had aught to impart that had been revealed to them. But our doctors now contend for nothing but power. The Lord confound all tyrants of the Church! Amen.' — The voice of this nineteenth century verging on its close, from the 26 MICHAEL SERVE T US. mouth of a man little more than of age, living in the first half of the sixteenth ! ^ The business of the coronation at Bologna con- cluded, the Emperor betook himself to Germany in view of the great Diet of Augsburg, formally in- augurated in the summer of 1530, accompanied of course by his confessor, as the confessor was attended by his youthful secretary. And here it must have been that Servetus saw and may perchance have spoken with Melanchthon and others of the leading Reformers, among the number of whom, however, the greatest of them all did not appear. Luther's friends believed that the danger he must run by showing himself at Augsburg was too great to be incurred. The brave man would himself have faced the peril, but his princely protectors positively forbade the exposure. They feared that at Augsburg the Emperor might be tempted to violate the ' safe conduct ' he had been reproached by his Papal advisers with having so honourably observed at Worms ; for there were still some among the Roman Catholics, high in place, so ill-informed, so blind to events, as to believe that were the head of the man who had inaugurated the movement which compromised their power but off his shoulders, the Reformation would collapse and die ! Luther was ' Dialogi de Trinitate II., ad calcem (1532). ' Ce n'est point par des reticences hypocrites qu'on fait durer un jour de plus une croyance qui a fait son temps. Toute opinion librement con^ue est bonne et morale pour celui qui I'a congue. De toutes parts on arrive a resumer la legisla- tion exterieure de la Religion en un seul mot : LiBERTit.' Renan, "^ Fragments philosophiques,' 1876. SERVICE WITH QUI NT AN A. 27 therefore permitted by his friends to approach the scene of action on this occasion no nearer than Coburg. Neither at Augsburg any more than at Worms did matters proceed so entirely to the satisfaction of the Emperor as he wished, and may have anticipated. The Protestant princes, with httle cohesion among them- selves, showed, nevertheless, that severally they were more resolute than ever in their requirements touching religion, less obsequious too to the advances of their suzerain than he found agreeable. They felt them- selves in fact, and in so far, masters of the situation, and had mostly quitted Augsburg before the sittings of the Diet came to a close, content to leave Melanchthon and his colleagues to give final shape to the business for which the Diet had been mainly con- voked, and in the great Religious Charter of the Age — the Confession of Augsburg — to establish Protestant- ism as an integral and recognised element, not only in the religious, but in the political system of Europe. During his attendance on his chief at Augsburg, Servetus, though he saw and may have spoken with more than one of the distinguished Reformers, could have been an object of particular attention to none of them : his youth and subordinate position precluded the possibility of this. That he may have been dis- appointed at not seeing the original of the great move- ment v/hich had brought together the august assembly he looked on around him, we may well believe, but we 28 MICHAEL SERVETUS. find no evidence in contemporary documents that would lead us to think he had ever come into contact with Luther, as has been said.^ ^ By ToUin, who makes him visit Luther at Coburg, in company with Bucer. See his Luther mid Seruet, eine Qiiellenstiidie. 8vo. Berlin, 1875. SERVICE WITH QUI NT AN A ENDS. 29 CHAPTER III. THE SERVICE WITH QUINTANA COMES TO AN END. It is greatly to be regretted that we have nothing from Servetus on the other impressions he received, during the term of his service with Quintana, beside those con- nected with the pomp and power of the Papacy. We do not even know precisely how long he continued with the confessor of the Emperor, nor where, nor at what moment he left him. Neither have we a word of his whereabouts and mode of life, after vacatinor his office, until we meet him seeking an interview with Jehan Hausschein, the individual, with his name turned into Greek, so familiar to the world as QEcolampadius. From Servetus himself we have it that he quitted the service of Quintana on his death, which, he says, occurred in Germany. But the truth of this statement has been called in question on very sufficient grounds, Quintana having been seen alive in the flesh, and still in attendance on the Emperor, years after dates at which we know positively that Servetus had been in Basle and Strasburg, communicating with Qicolam- padius, Bucer, and others of the Reformers. More than this, he had come before the world as author of 30 MICHAEL SERVETUS. the book entitled ' De Trinitatis Erroribus,' a copy of which having been found by Joannes Cochla^us, an ecclesiastic in the suite of the Emperor, in a bookseller's shop at Ratisbon, was by him shown to Ouintana, who, we are informed, expressed extreme disgust that a countryman of his own and personally known to him — qziein de facie se nosse dicebat — should have fallen so far into the slough of heresy as to write on the mystery of the Trinity in the style of Michael Servetus, alias Reves.^ Nor indeed is this the last we hear of Quintana. After the settlement of affairs at Ratisbon and Niirn- berg, he attended the Emperor to Italy, and thence to his native Spain, where we find him installed as Prior of the Church of Monte Aragon and a member of the Cortes of the kingdom. Quintana appears in fact to have lived for yet two years, actively engaged in his duties, having only been gathered to his fathers towards the end of the year 1534.^ Servetus did not therefore leave the service of Quintana after, or in consequence of, the death of the confessor. We find it difficult indeed to think of one with the decidedly unorthodox opinions to which Servetus had attained at an early period of his life, continuing on terms of intimacy with a man of Quintana's capacity, without showing something of the leaven of unbelief that must have been already ferment- 1 Cochlseus, De Actis et Scriptis Martini Luther, p. 233, fol. Mogunt. 1549. 2 Tollin, Die Beichtvdter Karh V., S. 261. SERVICE WITH QUI NT AN A ENDS. 31 ing in his mind. There is, it is true, commonly enough, so much more of poHcy than of piety among hierarchs of the Church of Rome, and indeed of any church largely possessed of wealth and culture, that their real opinions and beliefs have often been made subject of debate. But Quintana was a monk, although a liberal one, and he was Charles V.,'s confessor. Of the Emperor's orthodoxy, bigotry, and hatred of heresy, however, there can be no question ; so that, though policy moved him for a time to entertain as his spiritual adviser a man more tolerant than the general, the occasion for this ceasing, Charles was not likely to find himself altogether at his ease with one at his elbow much more liberally disposed than himself. Quintana consequently on the return to Spain, being absolved of his office of confessor, but handsomely provided for in the Church, Charles recalled Loaysa, his former director in matters of faith, from Rome, and lapsed into the groove of intolerance from which considerations of state had for a moment withdrawn him. From the false account Servetus gives of the cause of his quitting Quintana, we therefore think it probable that soon after the settlement of matters at Augsburg in the early autumn of 1530, he had incautiously be- trayed the state of his mind on some point of the religious question, and been dismissed from his service by the confessor. Service of any sort, indeed, from the estimate we are led to form of the mental constitution of Michael Servetus, could onl)' have been a bondage 32 MICHAEL SERVETUS. never patiently to be endured, but to be shaken off at the earhest possible opportunity. His was not a nature that could brook a master ; and we have the assurance of CEcolampadius that Michael Servetus was in Basle and making himself obnoxious by his theolo- gical fancies previous to the month of October 1530. The coronation at Bologna having taken place in the autumn of 1529, and the Diet of Augsburg assembled at midsummer 1530, Servetus could not, thus, have been in the following of Quintana for more than a year, or eighteen months — no long term if reckoned by the lapse of time, but certainly covering a vast area in the sphere of his mental development. He may have had little leisure for the study of books, but he had his eyes open to the doings of men ; and his inner senses were awakened to truths, his reason to conclusions, that influenced him through the rest of his life, and possibly had no insignificant part in bringing him to his un- timely end. I WITH THE SWISS REFORMERS. 33 CHAPTER IV. INTERCOURSE WITH THE SWISS REFcmMERS. It would appear that CEcolampadius, Bucer, BulHnger, Zwingli and others, their friends, had had a sort of ' clerical meeting ' for talking over the theological questions of the day at Basle in the autumn of 1530. On this occasion CEcolampadius informed his friends that he had been troubled of late by a hot-headed Spaniard, Servetus by name, overflowing with Arian heresies and other objectionable opinions, maintaining particularly that Christ was not really and truly the Eternal Son of God ; but if not, then was he not, and could not be, the Saviour — wci^e Christus nit rdchtcr, warer, ewiger Gott, so were ei" dock tmd konte nit seyn unser Heiland. Waxing warm in his tale, and fearing that such poison, as he conceived it, would not be poured into his ears alone, but would reach those of others, he v/as minded that measures should be taken against such a contingency. To this Zwingli, addressing him as brother CEcolampady, replied, that ' there did seem good ground for theni to be on their guard ; for the false and wicked doctrine of the troublesome Spaniard goes D 34 iMICHAEL SERVETUS. far to do away with the whole of our Christian rehgion.' ' God preserve us,' said he, ' from the coming in among us of any such wickedness. Do what you can, then, to quit the man of his errors, and with good and whole- some argument win him to the truth.' ' That have I already done,' said QEcolampady ; ' but so haughty, daring and contentious is he, that all I say goes for nothing against him.' ' This is indeed a thing insuffer- able in the Church of God,' said Zwingli — Ein tmleyd- enliche Sack in dcr Kyrckcn Gottcs. Therefore do everything possible that such dreadful blasphemy get no further wind to the detriment of Christianity.' ^ Besides the personal communication with CEcolam- padius of which we have this interesting notice, Ser- vetus must have written him several letters — unfortu- nately lost to us — about the same time, for we have two from the Reformer to the Spaniard, which have happily been preserved. In one of these (probably the second that was written), Servetus having, as it seems, com- plained that he had been somewhat sharply handled by his correspondent, CEcolampadius replies that he, for his part, thinks that he himself has the greater reason to complain, ' You obtrude yourself on me,' he says, ' as if I had nothing else ado than to answer you ; asking me questions about all the foolish things the Sorbonne has said of the Trinity, and even taking it amiss that I do not criticise and in your way oppose myself to those ' Jfl. GLcoIanipadii et Hiildrici Ziviiiglii Epist. Lib. iv. Basil, 1536, fol. WITH THE SWISS REFORMERS. 35 distinguished theologians, Athanasius and Nazianzenus. You contend that the Church has been displaced from its true foundation of faith in Christ, and feign that we speak of his filiation in a sense which detracts from the honour that is due to him as the Son of God. But it is you who speak blasphemously ; for I now under- stand the diabolical subterfuges you use. Forbearing enough in other respects, I own that I am not possessed of that extreme amount of patience which would keep me silent when I see Christ dishonoured.' He then goes on to criticise and rebut Servetus's theological views — his denial of Two natures in the One person of Christ, and his opinion that in the prophetical writings of the Old. Testament it is alwa)'s a prospective or coming Son of God that is indicated. ' You,' continues CEcolampadius, ' do not admit that it was the Son of God who was to come as man ; but that it was the man who came that was the Son of God ; lansfuaee which leads to the conclusion that the Son of God existed not eternally before the incarnation.' To satisfy the Reformer, or seeking to get upon a better footing with him, Servetus appears now to have composed and sent him a Confession of Faith, which has come down to us. On the face of this there was such a semblance of orthodoxy that CEcolampadius found nothing at first to object to in its statements ; but having conversed with the writer and heard his explanations, he had come to see it as utterly fallacious, misleading, and inadmissible. Me concludes b)- exhorting his 36 MICHAEL SERVETUS. correspondent to ' confess the Son to be consub- stantial and coeternal with the Father, in which case,' he says, ' we shall be able to acknowledge you for a Christian.' ^ ^ Op. cit. ut supra. WITH THE REFORMERS OF STRASBURG. 37 CHAPTER V. THE REFORMERS OF STRASBURG PUBLICATION OF THE WORK ON TRINITARIAN ERROR. The letter of QEcolampadius, as we have it, is with- out date, but must have been written from Basle at the close of 1530, or the beginning of 1531, and so before the book on Trinitarian Error had been published, as we find no mention made of the work. By this time, however, Servetus must have had the treatise ready for press, for it was now that he put it into the hands of Conrad Kcenig or Rous, a publisher, having establish- ments both at Basle and Strasburg. Kcenig was not a printer himself ; but accepting the work for publica- tion he sent it to Jo. Secerius, of Hagenau, in Alsace, a well-known typographer of the day, to be put into type. To Hagenau accordingly went the MS., fol- lowed by the author to superintend the printing ; intend- ing from thence to proceed to Strasburg, where he was anxious to have interviews with the leading Reformers of that city, Martin Bucer and W. E. Capito, and pro- pound to them, as he had done to the Switzers, the new views of Christian doctrine at which he had arrived. 38 MICHAEL SERVETUS. From what we know already we might conclude that he found little more encouragement from the minis- ters of Strasburg than he had had from those of Basle. Servetus himself, however, appears to have thought otherwise, and left them with the Impression that neither of the Strasburgers was so wholly opposed to his views as CEcolampadius In particular had shown himself at Basle. We find him, by and by, In fact, speaking as If he even believed that In the first Instance they were alike disposed to abet rather than condemn his conclusions. And this, from what came out subse- quently, seems really to have been the case. In so far, at least, as Capito stands concerned. Caplto was, in fact, the most advanced and truly tolerant of all the early Re- formers, and if we may rely on the report we have of his opinions from the author of the ' Antitrlnitarian Library,'^ he was really not behind Servetus In his rejection of the orthodox tripartite Deity. A kindly sympathy with a young enthusiast, full of fancies on topics really beyond the reach of demonstration, may have induced Bucer as well as his colleague, Caplto, to feel a certain interest In the subject of our study, and so led them both to treat him otherwise than as the Irreverent dreamer he had appeared to CEcolampadius ; to see him, Infe word, as he was In truth — a well-read and piously disposed, albeit in their opinion a more or less mistaken, scholar. ^ Servetus undoubtedly possessed the character of the enthusiast In perfection, and by natural constitution ' 'EidSi&wM, Bibliotheca Antitrinitario-rum, 121110. F'leistadt. 1684. WITH THE REFORMERS OF STRASBURG. 39 was not only Indisposed, but to a certain extent inca- pable of seeing a question in any light save that in which he set it himself. Bucer, although he became hostile to Servetus in the end, must in fact have been not a little taken with him on their earlier intercourse, when in a letter to a friend he speaks of him as ' his dear son ' — ' filius mens dilectus.' When not curtly met as the rash innovator and heretic, Servetus was neither the proud nor the impracticable man he ap- ; peared to Qicolampadius and Calvin. During his visit to Strasburg, when he was doubtless busy with his * De Trinitatis Erroribus' — revising, polishing, and seeing it through the press — in a notable modification of the terms in which one of the cardinal points of his doc- trine is spoken of in an earlier and in a later passage of the work, Bucer's kindly counsel, it is presumed, may be detected. Whilst in Book IV. we find these words, ' The Word is never spoken of in Scripture as the Son ; the W^ord was the shadow onl)', Christ was the sub- stance,' in Book VII. he says, 'The Word is never spoken of in Scripture as the Son ; but to Christ him- self there is ascribed a kind of eternity of engender- ment. The things that were under the Laiv were shadows of the body of Christ.' ^ Whatever the two distinguished Reformers of Stras- burg may have said, however — and we can hardl)' doubt of their having tried to win him to the views that were commonly entertained — he was not stayed for a ' '\o\i\nm Ma^aziiifur ausldndischc Likraltir,]\\m 10, 1876. 40 MICHAEL SERVETUS. moment in his purpose of getting into print. Nay — and we know not why the right should be refused him — he seems to have thought himself at as full liberty as the leaders of the great movement then afoot to give his own interpretation of the kind of reform which not the Church only, but its doctrine, required. For such an undertaking he was as well qualified by culture as any of the Reformers — better qualified, in fact, than many among them, as in genius we believe he was surpassed, and in liberality and tolerance approached by none. Servetus, in truth, had started in the reform- ing race unweighted, and so, and in so far with a better chance of reaching the goal of simple truth than either Luther or Calvin ; for though he had received the edu- cation of the cloister, he was neither professed monk nor priest ; and, without detriment to the piety of his spirit, or his belief in what were held by the world as the oracles of God, he had freed himself from the fetters of necessary assent to the interpretations put upon these, formulated into dogmas, by the Church in which he had been born and bred. Servetus seems never to have had any misgivings about his title to show himself among the number of the Reformers. He was in Germany, the land of free thought, as he ima- gined ; among men who had thought freely, and whom he had been used to hear spoken of by his clerical sur- roundings, whilst in the suite of Ouintana, as heretics and blasphemers. These names he did not fear in such respectable company as he found the Reformers WITH THE REFORMERS OF STRASBURG. 41 of Switzerland and Germany to be ; and though he did not agree with them on some topics, he could bear with them as well in that wherein he differed from them as in that wherein they differed among them- selves, and saw no reason why they should not in like manner bear with him. He thouc^ht of nothinof, there- fore, but prospective fame for himself in the publication he contemplated. The names of Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, and the rest, appeared on the title-pages of their works : why, then, should his name be withheld from the world ? On the title-page of the ' Seven Books on Mistaken Conceptions of the Trinity' accordingly, which now came forth from the press, we find not only his family name, Servetus, but the alias, Reves, from his mother's side of the house, and the name of the country that called him son : — ' De Trinitatis Erroribus, Libri Septem. Per Michaelem Serveto, alias Reves, Ab Aragonia, Hispanum, The publisher and printer, having an eye to business, not notoriety, and suspicious in all probability ot the reception the article in the production of which they were aiding and abetting, might receive, were more cautious than the author ; for the name neither of i)rinter, publisher, nor place of publication, appears on the title-page. In the month of July, 1531, however, the book was to be bouL-ht at once in the 4042 MICHAEL SERVETUS. cities of Strasburg, Frankfort, and Basle : but no one knew for more than twenty years where it had been printed, nor who besides the author — who had also vanished out of sight — had been accessory to its publication. The truth only came out in the course of the author's trial at Geneva in the year 1553. Basle had the credit for a time of having hatched the cock- atrice ; and that the charge was taken seriously to heart appears from a letter of GEcolampadius to Bucer which has been preserved. The Swiss churches, as is known, were not all at one with Luther and his followers upon some of the transcendental topics of their common faith ; and Servetus in his book havinsf attacked the Doctrine of Justification by Faith — the leading feature in Luther's theology, in terms neither complimentary nor respect- ful, the Switzers were anxious to have the great head of the Reform movement informed that they had nothing in common with the Serveto, alias Reves, of the book * De Trinitatis Erroribus,' and that it had not fallen from any of the presses of their country. In his letter to Bucer dated from Basle, August 5, 1 53 1, GEcolampadius informs him that 'several of their friends had seen Servetus's book and were beyond measure offended with it.' ' I wish you would write to Luther,' he continues, ' and tell him it was printed elsewhere than at Basle, and without any privity of ours. It is surely a piece of consummate impudence in the writer to say that the Lutherans are ignorant ON TRINITARIAN ERROR. 43 of what Justification really means. Passing many- things by, I fancy he must belong to the sect of the Photinians, or to some other I know not what. Unless he be put clown by the doctors of our church, it will be the worse for us. I pray you of all others to keep watch ; and if you find no better or earlier op- portunity, be particular in your report to the Emperor in excusing us and our churches from the breaking in amonof us of this wild beast. He indeed abuses everything in his way of viewing it ; and to such lengths does he go that he disputes the coeternity and consubstantiality of the Father and the Son — he would even have the man Christ to be the Son of God in the usual natural way.' ^ Bucer having perused the 'De Trinitatis Erroribus' would seem to have been excessively disturbed or scandalised by its contents. Known as a man of a perfectly humane disposition in a general way, he is now violent even to slaying. Denouncing its author from the pulpit, he is said to have declared that the writer of such a book deserved to be disembowelled and torn in pieces ! Yet was not Martin Butzer always of this savage way of thinking. In a Preface and Postscript to an early work — a translation by a friend, of Augustin's Treatise 'on the Duty of the Ruler in matters of Religion,' ^ he is as mercifully disposed ' Epist. /.•ivinglii et QLcoliiDipadii. Basil. 1535, fol. "^ Vom A nipt der Obcrkait in Sachcn der Rcliirion. A in Bcricht auss qollicht-r Schriift des Jiaili^cn alien Lcrcrs und Bischoffs Augusiini, dr'c. 4to. Augsb. 1535. 44 MICHAEL SERVETUS. towards the erring as could be desired. They are to be prayed for, instructed, and it may be punished, but it is to be mildly ; they are never to be put to death. He refers to his ' Dialogues ' in which the subject is treated at length. Luther, too, must have read the work, and it is not a little interesting to us to be made aware from what he says himself that he, like others of the Reformers, as well as Michael Servetus, had been troubled with doubts about the conformity of the orthodox Trinitarian dogma with the dictates of simple reason. In the Table-Talk — TIsch-Reden — of 1532, he refers to what he characterises as ' a fearfully wicked book — ein greulich bos Buch — ' which had lately come out against the doctrine of the holy Trinity. ' Vision- aries like the writer,' says Doctor Martin, ' do not seem to fancy that other folks as well as they may have had temptations on this subject. But the sting did not hold ; I set the word of God and the Holy Ghost against my thoughts and got free.' Luther as usual Imagined that the doubts he felt were Inspired by the Devil, Instead of by God, through the reason given him for his guidance.^ But of all his contemporaries Melanchthon appears to have been more taken with the work on Trinitarian Error than any other of the leading Reformers ; and he is much more outspoken in expressing his opinion of the Incomprehensible and really unscriptural nature ' Luthci'i) Werke by Walch, vol. .wii. ON TRINITARIAN ERROR. 45 of the dogma which it is the gist of Servetiis's book to impugn. To one of his friends he begins his letter by teUing him ' that he has been reading Servetus a great deal — Servetiim mtilttiin lego — though I am well aware of the fanatical nature of the man. In his derisive treatment of Justification he sees nothing but the quality of Augustin ; and he plainly raves when, misinterpreting the text of the Old and New Testa- ment, he denies to the Prophets the Holy Spirit. I also think he does injustice both to Tertullian and Irenaeus, when, treating of the Word, he makes them question its being an hypostasis. But I have little doubt that great controversies will one day arise on this subject, as well as on the distinction of the two natures in Christ.' ^ To Camerarius, another friend, he writes : * You a.sk me what I think of Servetus ? I see him indeed sufficiently sharp and subtle in disputation, but I do not give him credit for much depth. He is possessed, as it seems to me, of confused imaginations, and his thoughts are not well matured on the subjects he discusses. He manifestly talks foolishness when he speaks of J ustification. TTept 77)9 TpiaSo<; — on the subject of the Trinity — you know, I have always feared that serious difficulties would one day arise. Good God ! to what tragedies will not these questions give occasion in times to come : et icrTLv vTroaracn^ 6 Xoyo? — is the Logos an hypostasis ? et i ' Der alte und der neue Glaube.' All Theists agree in this : that God is One, Changeless, and Eternal. But God without the Universe would not be the same as God with the Universe ; whence the conclusion that God and the Universe can only be conceived of as correlatives. Seeing the impossibility of dissevering Property from the Object in which it inheres, the modern philosopher discards hypothetical agencies, under the name of Spirits, of every kind ; from the all-pervading force that keeps suns and planets in their spheres, to such special agencies as those of brain and nerve. Servetus, we have seen, had himself got the length of saying that out of man there was no Holy Spirit. ^ To Calvin God was no other than the Immanent Pantheistic prin- ciple of Modern Philosophy : ' Ubique diffusus, omnia sustinet, vegetat et vivificat in coelo et in terra — everywhere diffused, he gives life and growth and continuance to all things in heaven and earth.' These are his words. He then goes on to say : ' Fateor quidem pie hoc posse dici, mode a pio animo proficiscatur, Naturam esse Dettm — I own, indeed, that provided v/e speak reverently it may be said that Nature is God.' As this would be a ' hard and inappropriate expression,' however, and as in using it ' God is confounded with his works,' he thinks it is objectionable. Jnstitnt. Religiojiis Christ lance, \, iv. 14, and I. v. 5 of an early edition. ON TRINITARIAN ERROR. 59 the beginning' was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,' Servetus maintains that the Greek \6yo% translated Word with us, does not designate an entity but utterance or speech, as appears by its etymology, derived as it is from Xeyw, to speak, to discourse. Of the Word of God, therefore, to make the Son of God is to do as did the heathen, who turned ideas or abstractions into mythical beings — Echo into a "Nymph, Fortitude into Minerva, &c., and so to bring discord and dissidence upon the truths of Scripture. (' De Tr. Err.' f. 47, b.) The Word spoken by God in the beginning implies fore-thought, fore- knowledge ; whence it is characterised as Wisdom, ' that was from the beginning or ever the earth was. Under the mystery of the Word, the older apostolic tradition understood a certain dispensation whereby God willed to reveal himself to mankind. The Word of God therefore is equivalent to the Act of God ; and even as Light came of the spoken word, so too came Creation, so too came Man.' In this way, says our author, do we readily comprehend the expression of John : ' The Word was made flesh,' and learn in what sense Christ is truly the Word: ' He is, as it were, the voice of God enunciating" to mankind the will of the Universal Father.' (lb. f. 49 b.) The Word, con- sequently, is nothing different from God, but is God himself evoking all things, Christ among the number in the fulness of time. If a reasonable meaning is to be attached to mystical language, it seems difficult to 6o MICHAEL SERVE TUS. imagine any more satisfactory interpretation than this of Servetus, with which we see that of a distinguished Hberal divine of our own day essentially to agree, as he says : ' The Logos of the New Testament means not only the Word as translated, but Reason, Intelligence, communicating itself in thought and speech. It is the divine wisdom which was from the beginning in the mind of God made manifest in time.' ^ The title Son of God, again, Servetus maintains is nowhere to be found in the Scriptures otherwise ap- plied than to a man — to the man Jesus in particular; and the word Person he insists is always to be under- stood in the sense of the Greek irpocrolTTov and the 'LdiXinpei'-sona, a mask, an appearance, and not any real or individual thing. With this style of exposition the Reformers could of course by no means agree. They had adopted all the symbols of their predecessors of the Church of Rome; and it seems to have been Servetus' insistance on his own divergent interpreta- tion of the language of John and the creeds that more especially aroused the enmity of Qi^colampadius, Bucer, Calvin, and the rest, they holding that to be accounted a Christian it was necessary not only to acknowledge Christ to be the Son of God, which Servetus was quite ready to do, in the way he under- stood the filiation, but to acknowledge him to be the Logos or Word of St. John, consubstantial and co- * Newspaper report of a Sermon preached by Dean Stanley on Christmas day, 1875. ON TRIMTARIAX ERROR. 6i eternal with the Father — which, to Servetus, was im- possible. It is probable that the way and manner ill which in any conceivable fashion such coeternity and consubstantiality could be apprehended was among the topics on which Servetus craved enlightenment from CEcolampadius ; and as he could obtain none, pique and personal dislike, opposition and enmity, took the place of dispassionate and friendly discussion ; precisely as happened in later years and mainly on tlie same subjects between our author and Calvin. In his attempt to develope and explain his own conception of the mystery of the Trinity — for it is a mistake to suppose that Servetus was opposed to something of the kind — he does not set out like the writer of the Fourth Gospel from the transcendental Word, but starts with the historical Jesus, the man, the reputed son of Joseph the Carpenter, but verily or naturally, as he says, the Son of God. To this son the name Jesus was given at the time of his circum- cision, the title Christ being conferred by his disciples ; whilst it was only at his baptism that he was designated Son of God. The Iloly Spirit and power of the Highest overshadowing the ^^irgin Mary, and acting in licr as generator or generative dew, Jesus tlie Son of God and her Son was engendered. It is not the Word consequently, but Jesus the Son of Mary who is a Son of God : ' The holy thing that shall be born of thee,' says the angel addressing the Virgin, 'shall ])(; called a Son of God.' 'They therefore 62 MICHAEL SEE VET US. plainly err,' says Servetus, ' who speak of the Word as the Son of God : the man Jesus was the Son of God, not the Word ; the man Jesus engendered, as stated above, by God in the womb of the Virgin,' ' All the Trinitarian errors,' he concludes, ' have arisen from not understanding the true nature of the Incarnation.' When he comes to speak of the Holy Ghost, Servetus unhappily forgets what is due to the dis- cussion of a subject that has engaged the serious thoughts of so many pious men. He would seem to have seen some portions of the catholic Christian dogma as so unreasonable that they were even open to ridicule ; and this leads him to the use of improper language. The Holy Ghost, he maintains, is never spoken of save confusedly in the Scriptures, the term being applied variously now to an angel, now to the soul of man, and again to nothing more than wind or breath (lb. f 22, a.). The Hebrew word Ruach, of which spirit or wind is a translation, has indeed a still greater variety of meanings. On a subject so in- definite and undefined as the Holy Spirit, we cannot wonder that CEcolampadius in one of his letters should declare he can make nothing of what Servetus says on the matter — ' dicit nescio qiiid — he says I know not what.' This much, however, we do make out as our author's opinion, viz. : that the Holy Spirit is nowhere spoken of in Scripture as a distinct and independent entity, but always as a motion, an agency, an afflatus of God or the power of God, — a view in which he OA' TRINITARIAN ERROR. 63 certainly had Melanchthon as his predecessor : * JVec aliud spi7''itiis sanctus est nisi viva Dei voluntas et agitatio! (' Loci Theol.' p. 128, ed. 1521.) Referring to the dogma of the ' Two Natures,' Servetus holds that this, too, is founded in error, ' To speak of the Nature of God,' he says, ' is absurd ; for the word nature can only apply to something created, something born (from the Latin natus). But God is from Eternity. For my own part,' he proceeds, ' I never take nature to signify aught but the thing to M'-hich the term is applied — the nature of a thing is the thing itself To use the word nature in connection with the name of God is, therefore, to speak of God himself And so of the Son of God : that which was an idea, image, or type of the Son in the mind of God, when the Word was made flesh, became or was Christ, Reality then superseding Idea {' De Tr. Er.' f. 92). There was consequently no aggregate of two natures or two different things in Christ ; he was one entity or person, in the usual sense of the word.' Servetus very incon- sistently, as it seems at first sight, often speaks of the man Jesus as God. But he can do so only on the same ground as Cyrus in the Bible, Augustus Caesar, and other rulers, are called Dii or Divi — gods. The Son of God, to Servetus, in conformity with the pantheistic idea, can only be an aspect or Mode of the One God. If this be not his meaning, I know not what it is. We have said above that Servetus is not opposed to the idea of a Trinity of dispositions, powers, or pro- 64 MICHAEL SERVETUS. parties in the Deity, but only denies such a trinity of persons or entities as is embodied in the symbols of orthodox Christianity. It is not unimportant, there- fore, to learn what the precise idea was which he had of the threefold state he acknowledged as extant in the essence of God. His words are these : ' Tres sunt admirandi Dei dispositiones in quarinn qualibet divinitas relucet, ex quo sanissime Trinitatem intelligere posses, &c. — There are three admirable dispositions in God, in each of which divinity appears, and from which you may satisfactorily understand the Trinity. For the Father is the one God, from whom proceed certain dispensations. But these imply no distinction into separate entities. By the economy of God — Dei olKovojjiLav — they are no more than so many forms or aspects of Deity ; for the divineness that is in the Father, the same is in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost' In another passage, he asserts his belief in a Trinity still more distinctly : ' I concede one person of the F'ather, another person of the Son, another person of the Holy Ghost : three persons in one God, and this is the true Trinity.' (lb. f. 64, b.) Had we not our author's explanation of the way in which he under- stands the word perso7i, this would make his concep- tion, in so far, not different from the orthodox interpre- tation of the mystery. But his language here must be regretted, for it is misleading, the word person with Servetus not signifying, as we have seen, any real or i ON TRIXITARTAN ERROR. 65 individual entity distinct from other entities, but pro- perty, appearance, or outward manifestation. The second and third persons, therefore, as understood by Servetus, are to be thought of as dispositions or modes of God, the universal Father, and not as individuals or persons in the usual acceptation of these words, though of them it is that distinct personages have been made, and spoken of as being at once God and other than God, as being three and yet no more than one. In sequence to this, our author goes on to say that * he will not make use of the word Trinity, which is not to be found in Scripture, and only seems to perpetuate philosophical error. It were well, indeed,' he continues, ' that all distinction of persons in the one God were henceforth abandoned and rooted out of the minds of men' (lb. f 64, b.); words in which we see reason getting the better of subserviency to the letter of Scrip- ture, and putting an extinguisher, as it were, upon his own as well as other vain attempts to give a rational explanation of the mystical Neo- Platonic Logos-Doc- trine of the F"ourth Gospel, of which the Trinitarian Church-Dogma is the outcome. Hampered, however, b)- the idea that everything in the Bible is the word of God, Servetus insists on trying to find, for himself and his readers, something like an acceptable interpretation of the leading words of the Imaginative Mystical Dis- course entitled the Gospel according to John. In this he fails, as might have been anticipated ; and then, his eyes being opened to the fact, he has nothing for it but F 66 MICHAEL SERVETUS. to conclude that the orthodox Trinitarian mystery were well discarded from the thoughts and the beliefs of man. ' To believe, however,' he continues, ' suffices, it is said ; but what folly to believe aught that cannot be understood, that is Impossible In the nature of things, and that may even be looked on as blasphemous ! Can it be that mere confusion of mind Is to be assumed as an adequate object of faith ?' (lb. f. 33, b.) The Trinitarian doctrine of dogmatic Christianity Servetus held to have been a great obstacle to the spread of the religion of Christ. Opposed to the con- ception of the Oneness of Deity to which the Jews had finally attained, the religious system in which it was made so prominent an element, could not possibly be accepted by them ; neither, on the same ground, could it be received by Islam ; for Mahomet, whilst he acknowledged Jesus as a prophet and power in the world, born of a Virgin, too, like other distinguished individuals, in some Incomprehensible manner, never , for a moment thought of him as the Son of God ; for ' God,' says he, ' as he is not engendered, so neither does he engender.' But It is not in connexion with the subject of the Trinity alone that Servetus shows the advances he had made on his age in the sphere of Biblical exposition. Commenting on the text, ' No man hath ascended up to heaven but he who came down from heaven' (John ill. 13), he says : ' It is the spiritual heaven that is here to be understood, and this exists wherever Christ is ; 4 aV TRINITARIAN ERROR. 67 " to ascend to heaven " means no more than to discourse of heavenly things. " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," says the text (lb. xiv. 9), i.e., says our ex- positor, ' he who appreciates the priceless treasures of Christ's love easily attains to a knowledge of God the Father. But how should an invisible, intangible Word give us to know God .? ' (' De Tr. Err.' f. 46 et seq. ) There are others among the accepted doctrines of the reformed Churches which, as repudiated by Serve- tus and so arraying the whole of their adherents ao-ainst him and influencing his fate, require a passing notice at our hands. Justification by Faith, for instance, he maintains, comes not by belief in the merits or suffer- ings of Christ, but by belief in his worth or dignity as Son of God. On this ground, he says, the Lutherans do not understand what Justification really is. It is by belief of the kind he specifies, however, that we show our obedience to God, accept the new covenant instead of the old law, become the children of our heavenly Father, and have the Holy Spirit imparted to us. Such belief is, in fact, the very kernel of the Christian dispensation, and that on which the new covenant of grace reposes. It is the real rock on which Peter was to build the Church, against which the gates of hell should not prevail. But as hell does seem to have got the upper hand, he adds, we can only conclude that neither the Church on the rock nor the true Faith is now to be found among us. The Lutheran Justification by F 2 68 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Faith, in a word, is mere magical fascination and folly (f 82-84, Conf. ' Ep. ad Calvin.' xiii.). But Faith, even the most fervent, is not yet sufficient for salvation. The Justification thereby attained is still no more than negative in kind ; to become positive, it must be associated with Love, i.e., with Charity in the widest sense of the word; with the Love, that is the fulfil- ment of the law, whereby alone do we secure for our- selves treasures in heaven. Faith is the entrance. Charity the sanctuary — Fides ostmm, Charitas perfectio ; and there is a fine passage in the ' Christianismi Restitutio ' (p. 349), comparable in some sort to Paul's eloquent outburst on the excellence of that much misused senti- ment. When Servetus speaks of Charity, therefore, it is not th -leemosynary idea of his day that is meant, with its me ^dicant friars, its convent doles, and its en- gendered sloi and beggary ; neither is it the mistaken view of later days, which gives indolence and impro- vidence a legal claim on industry and thrift. It is of the nobler, truer kind that, beside good works, gives man a right to think and to speak unfettered, and for- bids him to fancy that his brother is damned for divergency in theological opinion. To the leading Calvinistic doctrines of Predestina- tion and Election, involving as they do fettered instead of free will, Servetus is still more violently opposed than to the Lutheran Justification by Faith. ' In your fatal, not to say fatuous, necessity of all things, or your ser- vile will,' says he, at a later period in his life, ' there is ON TRIXITARIAN ERROR. 69 a certain show of folly, seeing that you would have a man do that which you must know he cannot do. You speak of free acts, yet tell us there is no such thing as free action. And it is absurd in you to derive the servile will you abet from this : that it is God who acts in us. Truly God does act in us, and in such wise that we act freely. He acts in us so that we understand and will and pursue. Even as all things consist essen- tially in God, so do all acts proceed essentially from him. But the power in us to do is one thing, the necessity of doing is another ; and though God may deal with us as the potter deals with his clay, it docs not follow that we are nothing more than clay, and have no power of action in ourselves.' (lb f. 79, b, et ' Epist. ad Calvinum,' xxii.) Another of the most essential doctrines underlying Pauline Christianity, original sin, is made little of by Servetus. Although I spent much time in reading his books, I do not appear to have made a note of more than one or two passages in which he refers to that subject ; and when he does, it is by the way rather than more particularly. It is on the necessit}' of faith in Christ, as he understands the Sonship, that he dwells continually, making of this the prime factor in his scheme of restored Christianity. ' This faith it is,' says he, * that first makes us aware of our poverty, of our misery ; for if we believe that Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour of tlie world, we already assume that the world is sinful, and requires saving " (' Chr. 70 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Rest.' p. 349). He does not refer particularly to what is called ' the Fall,' neither does he say very pointedly how the world came into the sorry plight in which he admits that he finds it. The reason usually assigned must have appeared unsatisfactory to an understanding so clear as that of Servetus, when unclouded by fancies of his own creating ; but we can hardly think he mends matters by ascribing the origin of sin to heaven and the rebellion of the angels, as he does, instead of to the earth and Adam's disobedience. Far from maintaining that the heart of man is corrupt and evil by nature, he holds that the cause of o-ood works and well-doing is proper and spontaneous to the individual, who is only answerable for his own sin, not for the sin of another. Faith in Christ, therefore, as the naturally-begotten Son of God ; Charity, in which are comprised all the virtues, and a o^ood life, in so far as we can make it out, form the backbone of Servetus's Christianity, as it is unfolded in his earliest work on ' Current Misconcep- tions of the Trinity.' ^ ' At the end of the copy of the ' De Trin. Error.,' which Alvvorden describes in his Historia MicJiaelis Serveti, now in the National Library at Paris, there is a MS. Refutation of the views of the writer, which Tollin ascribes with great show of probabihty to Bucer, who, as we know, was personally acquainted with Servetus. Of this Refutation (Confutatio). Tollin has given an extended analysis mRiehjii7i/id Kostliii's Thcologische Studien und Kr'itikcn fiir 1875, S. 711. ON TRINITARIAN ERROR. 71 CHAPTER VI. THE AUTHORITIES OF BASLE TAKE NOTICE OF HIS BOOK. HE WRITES TWO DIALOGUES BY WAY OF APPENDIX TO IT AND LEAVES SWITZERLAND. Failing to make any Impression on the Swiss and German Reformers whose countenance he had been so anxious to gain, we have seen Servetus in his letter to CEcolampadius declaring his readiness to quit Basle, to which he must have returned, if it were only not said that he went as a fugitive, and giving something like an engagement to his correspondent to review and, reviewing, to modify or retract some things he had said in his book. That some such engagement was given we conclude from the letter of CEcolampadius to the magistrates of Basle, to which we shall refer immediately, and from which it would seem that it was through the forbearance, if not even the more friendly interference, of the Reformer that our author escaped arrest and imprisonment at this time. The seven books or chapters on erroneous ideas of the Trinity had not fallen stillborn from the press ; neither hatl the presence of the writer in Basle passed unobserved. The book being seen as heretical in the 72 MICHAEL SERVETUS. highest degree by the ministers, the presence of its writer among them was felt as matter of grievance by both clergy and laity ; so that the Civic Council held it within the scope of their duties to take notice of the innovator, of whom they heard so much that was dis- creditable, and, by laying hands on him, either to make him pay in person then and there, or to send him away, like an infected bale, to spread his poison elsewhere. Previous to acting, however, they thought it would be well to have the opinion of their chief Pastor, Qicolampadius, on what had best be done, and so re- quested him to advise with them on the subject. He replied by a long letter in which he recapitulates the chief topics discussed by Servetus in his treatise. ' He, CEcolampadius, will do what he can to place the good man's views before them, — if indeed he may venture to speak of the writer as a good man ; for it seem.^ that he strives at times as much to darken the light as to enlighten the darkness, mixing up incon- gruities rashly and not seldom stopping short of con- tradicting himself. He opposes the orthodox doctors continually, and uses certain words in an arbitrary and unusual sense. He denies the coeternity of the Father and the Son, a doctrine hitherto held sacred by all the Christian churches ; and only recognises the sonship from the moment of the engenderment, or rather of the birth of Christ. He even derides the idea of God having a son from eternity, and asks ON TRINITARIAN ERROR. 73 whence the heavenly father had his wife, or whether he were of both sexes in himself? He will only recognise the eternity of the Son as an Idea in the divine mind : the Son was to be, but was not yet, until he appeared in the flesh. He will by no means con- cede that the Word of St. John was the Christ ; yet he speaks of three persons in the one God ; but it Is with glozing and an arbitrary meaning attached to the word person, and with reasonings which, if they sometimes make for his views, are at other times opposed to them, he neither thinking nor speaking as do the apostles, and wresting the words of the fathers — of Tertullian and Irenaeus especially — from the interpretation com- monly put upon them. ' Along with all this and much more that is objection- able, there are still some things in the book that are good ; nevertheless as a whole it could not but offend me. God grant that the writer acknowledge/ the rashness which has led him to speak so un- advisedly as he has done of matters which transcend our human intelligence, and that he may live to amend what he has said. As to the book, it would be well perhaps that it were either totally suppressed, or were read by those only who are not likely to be hurt by objectionable writings. The errors he has fallen into acknowledged, he luill retract in his writings — retrac- tdrit scriptis. Perhaps he was not himself aware of their extent, or they were not seen by him as of such importance as they are in fact. But I leave all to 74 MICHAEL SERVETUS. your prudence and discretion, humbly commending myself and my work to your favour.' ^ If we are to understand the retractdrit sn^iptis of the above as a promise from Servetus to retract in a future work what he has said in his first, he certainly did not keep his word in the ' Dialogi de Trinitate,' ''^ which he published in the course of the following year. In the Preface to these dialogues, it is true, he informs the candid reader that he retracts all he had ' lately written in the seven books of erroneous conceptions concerning the Trinity, not because what I say there is false, but because the work is imperfect and written as it were by a child for children. I pray you never- theless to hold by so much as you find there that may help you to understand the subjects discussed. All that is barbarous, confused and faulty, ascribe to my inexperience and the carelessness of the printer. I would not that any Christian were offended by what I say ; for God is used sometimes to make known his wisdom to the world by weak vessels. Look at the thing itself, therefore, I pray you, and if you take good heed, my stammering will prove no hindrance to you.' The reputed printer of Servetus's Treatise and Two Dialogues, Jo. Secerius, has no particular name as a ^ Conf. Epist. Z^uinglii et GLcolampadii. Basil, 1592. ^ Dialogi de Trinitate, i2mo. (1533), in the same form and type as the De Erroribus, and still without the name of the publisher or place of publication. ON TRINITARIAN ERROR. 75 typographer. But these Httle works are by no means incorrectly printed ; they show few typographical errors — so few that they must almost certainly have been read for press by the writer himself. The printer therefore is not to be blamed for any short- comings of the kind referred to by the author — if there be defect it is his own, and it was the matter not the manner that had been found fault with. But the Preface is apologetic in directions uncalled for, and is meaninsfless in fact. Servetus did not think himself a weak vessel ; neither did he look on his work as the work of a child for children ; and as for any retractation of his opinions, nothing seems to have been further from his mind. On the contrary the mysticism of the writer of the Fourth Gospel appears to have taken a firmer hold of our author than it had done before, and to have acted as fresh ferment to the mystical element so abundant in his proper nature. There may be modification of some of the views already enunciated, but from none of them is there recession. The opposition he met with from the leading Reformers seems even to have added point and precision to his writing. He is more outspoken than before, and is still less chary in the kind of language he uses towards opponents. The usual conception of a partitioned Deity he declares to be simply blssphemous ; they who seriously entertain it are fools, and so blind that were Christ to come among them now and declare he was the .Son of God, they would crucify him anew. 76 MICHAEL SERVETUS. The Dialogues, instead of any denial and retractation, are a reiteration and defence of almost all he has said in his first production ; although, indeed, we do observe that where he can he occasionally approximates some- what to more orthodox views ; in that passage very notably where he speaks of the Son being of the same essence (homousios), and even consubstantial with the Father. (' Dial.' i., f ii, b. ) But these are really no more than words set down under the varying impulses of mind to which the writer gave way, and are deprived of any meaning that might attach to them by some- thing that has either gone before or that comes im- mediately after. The discussion of Luther's Justification by Faith, to which it must be presumed his attention had been par- ticularly called by CEcolampadius as likely to be offen- sive to the Lutherans, is renewed in the Dialogues ; and the writer is so far carried away by his own exaggerated estimate of the mental condition implied in faith or belief, that he seems even to accept in to to the principle he would controvert. Though he is else- where and ever so emphatic in praise of good works or charity, we here find him not sparing in condemnation of those who hope through their doings of any kind to achieve salvation. Monks and nuns accordingly, who sin more especially in this direction and who by the assumption of peculiar habits and behaviour think to make themselves agreeable to God, are an especial abomination to him. Man, he declares, cannot be justi- ox TRINITARIAX ERROR. 77 fied by the observance of vows or rules of any kind ; for these are not written in the law of God, and in themselves are without significance. ' A most pestilent thing it is, that Papal decrees and monastic vows are assumed as means of salvation. When men bind themselves by vows to particular observances, they virtually declare that the salvation they have through Christ is insufficient, and lay themselves fast in those bonds of the law from which Christ came to set them free.' In spite of frequently recurring contradictions and something that is objectionable on the score of taste, we nevertheless think that no one, however little dis- posed to abet Servetus's general views, could peruse these dialogues without coming to the conclusion that the writer was a man of a sincerely pious nature, who had read much, and reiiected deeply, feeling it a ne- cessity of his nature to expend himself in the mystical verbiage in which religious enthusiasm loves to robe itself as in a sufficient and seemly garment. The seven Books and two Dialogues on the Trinity of Servetus have been spoken of as an attempt to hold a middle course between the Roman Catholic and the Reformed churches ; and there may be something to warrant such a conclusion from what is said in the chapter ' De Justitia Regni Christi.' But Servetus's Trinity is of another kind from that of either the older or the younger sister, and where not assimilable to the Neoplatonic ideas of Philo, it followed from the Pan- 78 MICHAEL SERVETUS. theistic principles which, Hke deep thinkers in general, he had adopted, God to Servetus was the %v koX ttolv, the One and the All ; and if at any time he speaks ol Christ as God, it is as a manifestation of the Divine in human form — a dispensation in his own phraseolog^y, a mode in Spinozistic language. The Divine Unity, and its manifestation in the world in infinite modes, may be said to be the fundamental idea in the philosophical as well as the theological system of Servetus.^ ^ Servetus's De Triiiitatis Erroiibiis is generally believed to be one of the rare books, yet it is commonly enough met with in England. So long ago as the year 1725, however, a copy bound with the Dialogi sold for the large sum of between four and five hundred French livres. There is a counterfeit edition published in Holland, and only to be distinguished from the original by the paper being somewhat better and the type a shade larger. The Book was never, in so far as we know, publicly con- demned and burned. It was translated into Dutch (4to. 1620) with the epigraph : Proeft alle Dingen ende behout het goede, i John iv. IX PARIS AS VILLENEUVE. 79 CHAPTER VII. PARIS. ASSUMPTION OF THE NAME OF VILLENEUVE OR VILLANOVANUS. ACQUAINTANCE WITH CALVIN. His indifferent reception by the German and Swiss Reformers must have satisfied Servetus that there was no abiding place for him among them. He was doubt- less disappointed and not a little disconcerted by the treatment he met with at their hands. He had come as a light-bringer, as a fellow striver for the Truth through independent reading of the Scriptures. Studious and learned ; smitten with divine philosophy ; emancipated from the fetters of the church of Rome ; tolerant and charitable, he doubtless thought that the liberal studies in Humanity and the Greek letters in which he knew the Reformers excelled, must as a matter of course have imparted to them something of the liberality and comprehensiveness he felt in himself Face to face with their leaders in Basle and Strasburg, however, he was undeceived ; and when he saw that his book on Trinitarian Error, instead of brineincr him fame and friends, earned him nothing but evil report and enemies, and might even compromise his personal 8o MICHAEL SERVETUS. safety, there was nothing left for him but to pack up and begone. He must have quitted Switzerland immediately after writing his letter to Qlcolampadius, and in all likelihood taken up his quarters at Hagenau, where he lived quietly for some weeks or months engaged in writing and supervising the printing of the ' Two Dialogues,' with which and the concluding anathema against all tyrants of the church, as a parting shot, he went on his way to France, reaching Paris towards the end of 1532. He had in fact made the German- speaking parts of Switzerland and Elsass where he was known, too hot for him, to use a familiar phrase ; and the parts where French was the mother tongue had not yet taken up with Calvin or another great name opposed to the Papacy, that might have led his thoughts towards them. He was besides but in- differently acquainted with the German language ; in circumstances, too, we may presume, that made it im- possible for him to remain in any place where he had .not remunerative occupation of some sort ; and this, with the whole world of the Reformation against him, he saw he could not now obtain in quarters where he had once hoped to find a welcome and a footing. He had therefore no choice left but retreat; and Paris was the place where accomplishments of the kind he possessed were most likely to find a market. With all his hardi hood and self-confidence; Servetus was not without so much prudence as assured him that IN PARIS AS VILLENEUVE. 8 1 a certain amount of caution and reticence was required of everyone who would live at peace among his fellow men. He doubtless imagined at one time, but had al- ready discovered his mistake, that among heretics, as he had been accustomed to hear the Reformers desig- nated, he might freely expend himself in heresy. To the very end of his life, he seems to have had some difficulty in divining why he had not been welcomed by them with open arms as a brother. But he was well aware that Roman Catholic France had yet less in common with Michael Serveto, alias Reves, author of the Seven books and Two dialo^rues on Trinitarian Error, than Protestant Switzerland and Germany. Servetus felt that the writer of these works could not safely show himself in Paris under cither his proper family or his maternal name, and so fell readily upon one derived from the town of his nativity, Vlllanueva. Servetus seems Indeed at no time to have been very l)artlcular as to his name and designation. On his trial at Yienne he is of Tudcla In Xavarre, on that at Geneva, of Vlllanova in Aragon ; and Tollln finds him inscribed in the academic register of Paris (1536) and In that of Montpellicr, wlilch he must have visited some time in 1540, as neither of Tudela nor Vlllanova, but of vSaragossa ! During all the years he lived in 1'' ranee, he was never known save as Monsieur Michel Vllle- neuve, or, when he wrote in Latin, as Michael \'Illa- novanus. Under the name of Vllleneuve he now announcjd himself, entered as student of mathematics c. MICHAEL SERVETUS. and physics at one of the colleges, and at a later period took his degrees of m.a. and m.d. in the University of Paris. Under the same name he subsequently wrote and edited various works at Lyons ; and it was as M. Villeneuve that he finally became known in the town of Vienne in Dauphiny, where he lived for twelve years engaged in the practice of medicine, and on terms of intimacy with the Archbishop and all the notabilities of the place, both lay and clerical. As a man of scholarly acquirements Servetus in the first instance probably found employment, and the means of living with some of the typographers of Paris, as reader and corrector of the press, a line of life which he certainly followed for the next three or four years, in the course of which we find notices of him first at Orleans, then at Avignon, and finally at Lyons, one of the chief centres of the printing and publishing business that had been called into such vigorous life by the revival of learning, the discovery of the art of printing with moveable types, and finally and very essentially by the Reformation. It was during his first residence of about two years at Paris, 1 532-1 534, that he made the acquaintance of the man who became in the end his most implacable enemy, and the immediate cause of his untimely and cruel death. This was no other than the celebrated John Calvin, then a young man and about the same age as himself. Partially emancipated from the fetters of the faith in which he had been born and bred, IN PARIS AS VILLENEUVE. %i but not less firmly bound in others of his own fashion- ing, Calvin had already attracted the notice of his friends and the public by his natural abilities and his scholarly acquirements, and been pointed out as likely to influence the progress of the Reformation in his native France. Hearing of Calvin's presence in Paris, Servetus as Villeneuve must have sought him out, and, still full of the familiar theological subject, have made an attempt upon him as he had already done upon CEcolampadius and the others, for countenance and approval in the discovery he had made of what he believed to be the true saving Christian faith. But with no better success we must conclude ; for thoueh the two young men met oftener than once in private, it was without coming to any agreement. They had, therefore, actually resolved on a public discussion, with a view to the voidance of their theological differences. This, however, never came to pass. Such an exhibi- tion, indeed, could not have taken place at the time without danger to both. Calvin, in his young zeal, and for what he held to be the honour of God, would have faced the danger, but the individual known to his Parisian friends and Calvin as IMichel Villeneuve must have seen on afterthought that he could make no public appearance as defender of the oiitrd opinions he entertained, without betraying the Michael Serveto of the De Trinitatis Erroribus and Dialogues who lay hidden behind the adopted name ; and this he knew would be not only to disconcert all his present plans, G 2 84 MICHAEL SERVETUS. but assuredly to compromise his life. Calvin, we must presume, had not at this time heard of Servetus's books ; very certainly he had not read them ; for one so acute and well-informed on theological matters as he, would not have been more than a few minutes face to face with their author without detecting him. But we find no hint in Calvin's writings that he then surmised who Villeneuve, his Parisian acquaintance, really was, and conclude that he lived for a dozen years or more with- out suspecting that the individual he discovered as Michael Serveto of the Book on Trinitarian Error ir his correspondent of Vienne, of the year 1546, was the same Villeneuve he had known in Paris in 1534. Calvin then would have faced the danger of the public discussion, though persecution was hot at the time against heresy, and he was not unsuspected on this score. The danger to him, however, would have been slight in comparison with that which Servetus must have incurred. Calvin would not have stood forth on this occasion as the defender of any heresy, but of the very fundamentals of the Christian faith as embodied in its Creeds ; to some of the most essential proposi- tions in which Servetus, on the contrary, must have shown himself diametrically opposed. Servetus there- fore, in this instance at least, saw perforce that discre- tion was the better part of valour, and wisely stayed away. He was in truth far too deeply compromised to venture on an appearance ; for if discovered to be Michael Serveto, nothing could have saved him from LY PARIS AS VILLENEUVE. the heretic's death. He had nothing for it there- fore but to forfeit his engagement and lay himself open to Calvin's reproachful ' vous avez fuy la hiitc " — you fled the encounter — of a later and to him more momen- tous epoch in their common lives. 86 MICHAEL SERVETUS. CHAPTER VIII. LYONS. ENGAGEMENT AS READER FOR THE PRESS WITH THE TRECHSELS. EDITS THE GEOGRAPHY OF PTOLEMY. Theology, however, after which we see Servetus still hankering — hceret latcri letalis arundo ! — and even the study of the mathematics on which he was now engaged, had to be abandoned for present means of subsistence ; and as Lyons seemed even a better field for the scholar than Paris, to Lyons, after a short stay at Avignon and Orleans, he betook himself. There he appears immediately to have found employ- ment as reader and corrector of the press in the house of the distinguished typographers, the Brothers Trechsel ; and if the Age have its character from the aggregate of its science and culture, and the Individual his bent from his more immediate surroundings, we cannot but think of Servetus's connection with these light-spreaders as another among the highly influential events in his life. Books in the early days of printing were much more generally written in Latin than in the vernacular, and ever more and more with references to Greek, IN LYONS AS READER AND EDITOR. 87 lately brought greatly into vogue by Erasmus and the Reformers. The reader for press in the best estab- lishments was therefore, and of necessity, a scholar and man of letters ; and the opportunities for improvement now put in the way of one like Servetus, even whilst pursuing the mechanical part of his duties, have only to be hinted at to be appreciated. The reading room of the distinguished typographers of those days was, indeed in some sort, a continuation of school and col- lege to the competent corrector of the press. Servetus's liberal elementary education, therefore, stood him in good stead at this time ; for the Trechsels ere lonof, instead of holdino- him to the subordinate though still important duties of reader and corrector, engaged him further as editor of various costly works that issued from their press. Among the number of these a handsome edition of the Geography of Ptolemy ^ deserves particular mention, both as evincing the good repute in which he stood when we find him entrusted with such a work, and also as showing the extent of his reading and general knowledge — strangely enough, also, as influencing in some remote degree the fate that finally bcfel him. Earlier editions of the Ptolemy were faulty in several ways, and disfigured in different degrees by ' ' Claudii Ptolemaci Alexandrini Geographical Enarrationis Libri Octo ; ex Bilibaldi Pirckhemeri Tralationc, sed ad Graca et prisca cx- cmplaria a Michaelc Villanovano jam primum rccogniti. Adjecta insupcr ab codem Scholia,' etc. Liigduni, ex Officina Mclcli. ct (3asp. TrechscI, 1535- Fol. MICHAEL SERVETUS. errors due, in part at least, to indifferent editing. These, where Hteral, Villanovanus corrected in the new issue ; and where the sense was obscure through faulty word- ing, he brought light by the better readings he sup- plied, having formed his text, as he says, by collating all the editions he could lay his hands on, and where these gave him no aid, by suggestions of his own. In his address to the reader, our editor, whom we shall often speak of under his adopted name of Villa- novanus, gives a short account of his author, Claudius Ptolemseus, his birth-place, the Roman emperors under whom he flourished, ' his knowledge of philosophy and the mathematics, and the more than Herculean glory he achieved by his successful but peaceful invasion of so many lands. Nor indeed was this all, for he may be said to have bound earth to heaven by assimilating the measurements of the one to those of the other ; and, coming after Strabo, Pliny, and Pomponius Mela, he as far surpassed them, as they excelled all the geogra- phers who had gone before them.' But Villanovanus did much more than edit and amend the text of Ptolemy. ' We,' he says, ' have added scholia to the text, whereby the book is made more interesting and more complete. Using our familiarity with the historical, poetical, and miscellaneous writings of the Greeks and Romans, in so far as they bear on our subject, we have given the names by which the countries, mountains, rivers, and cities were known to them ; and, to aid the tyro, have further translated the IN LYONS AS EDITOR. 89 ancient titles of places into those by which they are now designated — into French for France, Italian for Italy, German for Germany, &c., all of which countries we have seen, besides having a knowledge of their lan- guages.' Extending his vision beyond the mere physi- cal features of the lands he is passing under review, he might have added that he also gives short, but graphic accounts of their inhabitants, the prominent traits of their character, their manners, customs, &:c., which are extremely interesting. But Michael Villanovanus is not one of those Vv^ho hide themselves behind their good Avorks, and so is he now careful to inform his readers of the pains he has taken in their behalf. By them, he says, he hopes his vigils will be properly ap- preciated, ' for day and night have I laboured assidu- ously at my task — dies noctesquc jngitcr labor avi! He concludes his preliminary address in these words : ' No one, I imagine, will under-estimate the labour, though pleasant in itself, that is implied in the collation of our text with that of other earlier editions, unless it be some Zoilus of the contracted brow, who cannot without envy look on the serious labours of others. But thou, candid reader, whoever thou art, we trust wilt be well dis- posed, kindly to receive and to approve our work. Farewell ! ' Villanovanus's edition of the Ptolemy is ccrtainl)'an advance on that of Bilibald Pirckheimer, which formed its groundwork ; but it is not so free from literal errors as the laudatory address of the editor might lead us to 90 MICHAEL SERVETUS. expect. And it would have been better had he said that he had enlarged and improved the short and meagre scholia of his editorial predecessor than spoken as if he had supplied them wholly of himself. Villano- vanus's improved comments, however, impress us very favourably with a sense of the pains he must have be- stowed on the work, and arouse our respect for the extent and variety of the reading he had undertaken to obtain the information he brings to bear on the physical aspects and natural productions of the several countries described, as well as of the customs, manners, and moral qualities of their inhabitants. Now it was that the smattering of geographic and historic lore he may have picked up as a student at Saragossa and elsewhere stood him in good stead, enabling him, as it did, to advance and profit by the ample stores of infor- mation of the kind which the city of Lyons placed within his reach. Living immediately after the age of the great navigators — Columbus, Vasco de Gama, Ma- gellan, the Vespucii, and the rest — and in the very days when the works of Peter Martyr of Anghiera, Simon Grynseus, Sebastian Munster, and others enabled the educated to acquire something like a true knowledge of the world they lived in, the new edition of Ptolemy by Michael Villanovanus was a happy thought, and con- tributed, we need not doubt, no less to his own deve- lopment than to the spread of useful and humanising information. Engaged on the Ptolemy, the super- subtleties of scholasticism and theology seem to have IN LYONS AS READER AND EDITOR. 91 vanished before the Hght of the more positive kind of knowledge that now broke around him. When we turn to the writings of the able individuals mentioned above, we have no difficulty in discovering whence Servetus had most, perhaps all, of his geogra- phical and astronomical knowledge. The Opus Epis- tolarum of Angleria, in particular, seems to have been the mine from whence he made himself rich in mental wealth of many kinds. We find him imitating, and even improving upon, the lines which head Angle- ria's De Rebus Oceanicis and Grynseus's Typi Cosmo- graphici, as the reader may see by comparing the verse below ^ with the one he will find further on, which is prefixed to the 2nd edition of the Ptolemy. Turning to the Scholia of Villanovanus, we find it not a little interesting in these days to have a glimpse of ourselves in our sires, and of our neighbours in theirs, from the pen of a man of genius hard upon three cen- turies and a half ago ; and as Michael Servetus is really only known to us through his works and the judicial trials he underwent, we make no apology for referring briefly to his additions to the bald and matter-of-fact text of the original Ptolemy. The map of the first country in the series of fifty ' Accipe non noti prasclara volumina mundi, Occani ct magnas noscito lector opes. Plurima dcbctur typhis tibi gratia, gentes Iijnotas, ct avcs quas vchis orbe novo ; Magna quoque autori referenda ct gratia nostro (^ui facit hicc cunctis rcgna videnda locis. 92 MICHAEL SERVETUS. by which the work is illustrated is that of Great Bri- tain. The people of Scotland, Villanovanns informs his reader, are hot-tempered, prone to revenge, and fierce in their anger ; but valiant in war and patient beyond belief of cold, hunger, and fatigue. They are handsome in person, and their clothing and language are the same as those of the Irish, their tunics being dyed yellow, their legs bare, and their feet protected by sandals of undressed hide with the hair on. They live mainly on fish and flesh ; they have numerous flocks, mostly of sheep, for the country is free from wolves ; and they have milk and cheese in abundance. Their arms are bows and arrows and broad swords — lati gladii. Instead of wood, they have coal for fuel. Unlike the people of the last few generations, he says the Scotch are not a particularly religious people. He 'who never feared the face of man,' as the Earl of Morton said of Knox, when looking down on his dead body, had not yet made himself felt in the land of his birth ; and the School-house had not yet risen as a necessary complement to the Kirk and the Manse, to make the people of Scotland what they have become since his day — among the very foremost of the sons of men. England, Villanovanus observes, is wonderfully well peopled, and the inhabitants are long-lived. Tall in stature, they are fair in complexion, and have blue eyes. They are brave in war, and admirable bowmen. He has the familiar tale of the English children seen as captives at Rome by the blessed Gregory, who said IN LYOAS AS EDITOR. 93 they were called Angli, indeed ; but in form and fea- ture showed like Angeli. He must, as it seems, have given some little attention to the English language, if he did not study it more particularly. He says it is so difficult to learn and to pronounce, because the people who speak it are a compound of so many different races. Of Ireland and the Irish our editor does not speak so favourably. The country, he observes, is generally marshy, so that, unless the summers are dry, the cattle are apt to get lost in the bogs. It is free from noxious creatures of every kind, there being no reptiles, such as snakes, toads, and frogs, and no insects, such as spiders and bees — a state of things which, if it ever obtained, certainly does so no longer. The climate is very temperate, and the soil of great fertility ; but the people are rude, inhospitable, barbarous, and cruel, more given to hunting and idle play than to industry. Only three days' sail from Spain, the Irish, he sa}-s, have many customs in common with the Spaniards. Of Spain, the account given is particularly full, but by no means complimentary, and its people are con- trasted — not to their advantac^e — with their neighbours the French. The extreme dryness of the climate is noticed, which tends to make the country less fertile than bVance. Irrigation, however, being practised on an extensive scale in many parts, tends to make up for the infrequency of rain, the conduits being often carried to great distances from the rivers. His description of 94 MICHAEL SERVETUS. the people Is far from laudatory. ' The Spaniard,' he says, ' is of a restless disposition, apt enough of under- standing, but learning imperfectly or amiss, so that you shall find a learned Spaniard almost anywhere sooner than in Spain. Half-informed, he thinks himself brim- ful of information, and always pretends to more know- ledge than he has in fact. He is much given to vast projects, never realised ; and in conversation he de- lights in subtleties and sophistry. Teachers commonly prefer to speak Spanish rather than Latin in the schools and colleges of the country ; but the people in general have little taste for letters, and produce few books themselves, mostl}' procuring those they want from France.' The Spanish language, indeed, he speaks of as defective in many respects, and does not fail to remark on the number of Moorish words incor- porated with it. The people, he says, ' have many barbarous notions and usages,' derived by implication from their old Moorish conquerors and fellow-denizens. * The women have a custom that would be held barbar- ous in France, of piercing their ears and hanging gold rings in them, often set with precious stones. They besmirch their faces, too, with minium and ceruse — red and white lead — and walk about on clog's a foot or a foot and a half high, so that they seem to walk above rather than on the earth. The people are extremely temperate, and the women never drink wine. Spa- niards, he concludes, are notably the most superstitious people in the world in their religious notions ; but they heyl 1 IN LYONS AS EDITOR. 95 are brave in the field, of signal endurance under priva- tion and difficulty, and by their voyages of discovery have spread their name over the face of the globe.' Of France, j\L Villeneuve has less to say than of Spain ; but what he tells us of the royal touch for the cure of scrofula is still interesting in the annals of superstition. ' I have myself seen the king touching many labouring under this disease, but I did not see that they were cured.' Of Germany, and he uses the title in a very com- prehensive sense — he speaks at considerable length. Smartinof under the rebuff he had received at the hands of the Swiss and German Reformers, he is no- wise disposed to find the Teutons and their congeners or neighbours however designated, an interesting people, or their territories as in any way attractive. Referring to Tacitus's account of Germany proper, as overgrown by vast forests, and defaced by frightful swamps, its climate he says is at once as insufferably hot in summer as it is bitterly cold in winter. ' Hungary,' he observes, ' is commonly said to produce oxen, Bavaria swine, Franconia onions, turnips and liquorice, Swabia harlots, Bohemia heretics, Switzer- land butchers, Westphalia clieats, and the whole country gluttons and drunkards. The Germans, how- ever, are a religious people ; not easily turned from opinions they have once espoused and not readily per- suaded to concord in matters of schism, everyone valiantly and obstinately defending the heresy he has 96 MICHAEL SERVETUS. himself adopted ; ' words in which we may presume Villanovanus sought to give ease to the pent-up dis- pleasure he felt against his repudiators, the Reformers of Basle and Strasburg. Of Italy and its people he has little to say ; and that not good. The natives readily enough pretend to forgive injuries, but, occasion offering, none revenge themselves so savagely. They make use in their everyday talk of the most horrid oaths and impreca- tions. Holding all the rest of the world in contempt and calling them barbarians, they themselves have nevertheless been alternately the prey of France, of Spain, and of Germany. In his survey of Babyloxln, he refers to a certain abominable custom observed by young marriageable women, which is particularly mentioned by Herodotus and also by the writers of the Bible, when read by unsealed eyes, as obtaining among the Jews, and of the money, so objectionably earned in our estimation, being devoted to the service of the Temple. But the most interesting to us perhaps of all the commentaries attached to the Ptolemy, inasmuch as it influenced the fate of Servetus on his trial at Geneva, is the one appended to the map of Palestine or the Holy Land. Demurring to much that is said in praise of JuD/EA in the Bible and by Josephus, as a country specially blessed in various ways, as being well -watered, fertile, &c., the commentator says, that in so far aSj climate is concerned, it is a temperate land, obnoxious IN LYONS AS EDITOR. 97 to the extremes neither of heat nor of cold ; a condition of things that may have led the Israelites or Hebrews to imagine that it must be the land that was promised to their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ; a land metaphorically said to be flowing with milk and honey. ' The Israelites,' it is said in continuation, ' lived at length under laws received from Moses, although they had gone on piously and prosperously enough through countless ages, before his day, without any written law, having had regard to the oracles of divine or natural truth alone, gifted as they were with aptitude and greatness of mind. Moses, however, that distinguished theologian, thinking that no state could exist without a written code of law and equity, gave them one reduced to ten principal heads, engraved on two tables of stone ; with the addition of a great number of minor commandments for the res^ulation of their lives and dealings with one another. But any more particular notice of these, they being so numerous — great birds not sitting in little nests — must here be passed by. Know, however, most worthy reader, that it is mere boasting and untruth when so much of excellence is ascribed to this land ; the experience of merchants and others, travellers who have visited it, proving it to be inhospitable, barren, and altogether without amenity. Wherefore you may say that the land was promised, indeed, but is of Utile promise when spoken of in everyday terms.' The Ptolemy of Villanovanus was well received, H 98 MICHAEL SERVETUS. and though costly, a second edition was by and by required. We find it much commended in subsequent reprints by their pubHshers ; and no wonder, for the Ptolemy is really a sumptuous book, upon which a large sum of money must have been spent, the typography being excellent and the text profusely ornamented with woodcuts on the sides of the pages as well as at the heads and tails of the chapters.^ ^ Tollin has collected a great deal of very interesting information on Servetus's geographical studies, in his paper entitled ' Michel Servet als Geograph,' in the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fiir Erdktmde, 1875,5. 182 et seq. J LYONS. 99 CHAPTER IX. LYONS. DOCTOR SYMPHORIEN CHAMPIER. It was whilst engaged in the revision of such works as the Ptolemy and others on the natural sciences, anatomy, medicine, pharmacy, &c., in the service of the Trechsels, that Servetus may be said to have entered on the second, if it were not rather the third, stage of his mental development. The typographer's reading-room had in truth proved the means of his continued education ; each new volume he read and corrected being found a teacher not less influential than the Professor from his chair. The Convent school, Toulouse, and his engagement with Quintana had borne fruit of the kind we discover in the book on Trinitarian error ; it was the reading-room of the printers of Lyons that brought him back from the em- pyrean of metaphysics to the earth, and put him in the way of becoming the geographer, astrologian, biblical critic, physiologist and physician we are made familiar with in his subsequent life and writings. Among the learned works that flowed in a sort of ceaseless stream from the presses of the Trechsels during Servetus's tenure of his office as reader with H 2 loo MICHAEL SERVETLS them, were several from the fertile pen of Doctor Symphorien Champier, or, when he latinised his name, Campeggius, a man of large and liberal culture, of a truly noble nature, an admirer of learning and a patron of the learned ; possessed moreover of that restless vanity which made him feel it as much a matter of necessity to live in the eye of the world as to breathe ; the effect of which was that he exerted the widest and most beneficent influence among his fellow men. In- defatigable in his proper calling, there was yet nothing which interested the citizens of Lyons that did not interest him. Fearless in bringing help on the battle- field, to which he accompanied his chief the Duke of Lorraine, he was no less ready to brave pestilence in the city, and was as often to be seen in the hovels of the poor as in the palaces of the great and wealthy — inopibus et infortunatis ceque indiscriminatimqiie siiccurris opitularisve, says his biographer — a true physician, a great and good man.^ Among Champier's numerous works published about this time, we note the Pentapharmacum Gallicum (Lycns, 1534), which Servetus we believe read and corrected for press, the gist of the work being to show that each country produces the medicines best adapted to cure the diseases of its inhabitants, and that to them exotics are for the most part not only useless, but ^ Quoted by ToUin in his Essays : ' Wie Servet ein Mediciner wurde,' in Goschen's Deutsche Kli7iik, No. 8, 1875; and 'Servet und Symphorien Champier,' in 'Virschovf's A rchiv fur pathologische Anatovtie, Bd. 61. Berlin, 1875. AND SYMPHORIEN CHAM PIER. injurious ; an assumption in which he differs notably from present experience and the great writer, his coun- tryman, who came after him, and said that ' God had inflicted fever on Europe, but put its remedy in America.' Correcting the proofs of Champier's five- fold French Pharmacopoeia, Servetus must have intro- duced himself to, or become acquainted with, the author ; and if we may credit Pastor Henry Tollin, who will have everyone as truly interested in Servetus as himself, Champier was so much taken by the accom- plishments of the poor scholar as even to make a home for him in Lyons. Be this as it may, certain it seems that contact with Champier was that which led Servetus to study medicine, of which he had not thought until now, for it was a science much looked down on by Spaniards in general, its practice being mostly in the hands of Jews and Moors, whom to contemn, where not to oppress, was a religion with all who boasted of their blue blood. Another of Champier's books printed by the Trechsels, which we need not doubt Servetus had also read and put to use, was the ' Hortus Gallicus ' (Lyons 1533). But more influential on him still, though printed in another establishment (that of Seb. Gryphius) during the time he lived in Lyons, was the great Lyonnese Doc- tor's Cribratio Medicamentorum, with the Medulla Philosophic — the Marrow of Philosophy — appended. Ill liis cliapter on the Vital, Animal, and Natural Spirits (p. 137), Champier speaks of 'spirit as a subtle, aerial, translucid substance produced of the MICHAEL SERVETUS finest part of the blood, and carried by it from the heart, as principal vital organ, to all parts of the body. Spoken of as three,' he continues, ' there are in truth but two kinds of spirit, the vital and the animal.' The sameness of this to what we shall find in the ' Christian- ismi Restitutio ' will be obvious to all. It strikes us in fact that Villanovanus's first medical production — the Treatise on Syrups — was wholly inspired by this Marrow of Philosophy of Champier, in which we dis- cover much upon digestion and concoction, the matu- ration and evacuation of the humours, etc., precisely as in the treatise ' De Syrupis.' Nor did Champier's influence on our scholar end here. One of the Doctor's treatises is entitled, * Prog- nosticon perpetuum Astrologorum, Medicorum et Prophetarum — The guide of the Astrologer, Physician and Prophet in their prognostications or forecasts.' Like so many in his age, Champier was a devoted astrologer ; and it was he we may conclude who made Servetus one too. Champier having been attacked on the score of his astrology by Leonhard Fuchs, Pro- fessor of Medicine in Heidelberg,^ Michael Villanovanus, as grateful pupil, took up the pen in defence of his master, and replied by a pamphlet entitled, * Defence of Symphorien Champier, addressed to Leonhard Fuchs,^ and an Apologetic Dissertation on Astrology.' ^ Vlllano- ' Paradoxorimi Medicina;, Libri iii., fol. Basil. 1535. ^ In Leonhardjim Fnchsium Defcnsio Apologctica, pro Symphoriano Campeggio. ^ Disccptatio Apologdica pro Asb'ologia. 1 have searched the AND SYMPHORIEN CHAM PIER. vanus, it seems, would not neglect what he must have thought a favourable opportunity of showing himself to the world in company with so distinguished an indivi- dual as the great Physician of Lyons, to whom he owns himself much indebted — ad multimi dedeo, and venti- lating a subject that interested him, like so many of his age, only in a less degree than theology itself libraries of London in vain for either of these Treatises of Servetus. That the one addressed to Fuclis once existed among us, however, is certain ; for its title is to be seen in the catalogue of Dr. Williams's Library (Grafton Street, University College) ; but unfortunately the work is not now to be found — it had disappeared before the present Librarian, Dr. Hunter, came into office. Alosheim went so far as to maintain that the Defence of Chanipier was a myth (Versuch, &c., einer Ketzergeschichte, S. 72), and Dr. de Murr, though he did not question its existence, never saw it. {In Bibliothecas Hallerianas additamenta, 4to. Helmst.) The Rev. Henri Tollin of Magdeburg has been more fortunate ; for he has not only seen but actually possesses copies of both the Apologetic defences, as well as a copy of the pamphlet against the Parisian Doctors, if I understand him aright. In a letter with which I was lately favoured, he informs me that he intends to publish the more interesting passages from the Defence of Champier, aiitl the entire Tract on Judicial Astrology. I04 MICHAEL SERVETUS CHAPTER X. RETURN TO PARIS. STUDIES THERE. JO. WINTER OF ANDERNACH ; ANDREA VESALIUS. DEGREES OF M.A. AND M.D. LECTURES ON GEOGRAPHY AND ASTROLOGY. ViLLENEUVE, we must presume, had reached Lyons poor enough in pocket if rich in lore ; but so diHgently had he laboured and so liberally had he been paid by the princely publishers of the day, that within two years he found himself in funds sufficient to authorise a return to Paris with a view to the study of Medicine, which he had now resolved to make his profession for life. The rebuff he had had from CEcolampadius, Bucer, and the rest, had probably sickened him for a while with theology and scholasticism, from which, how- ever, we may presume he had only been diverted by his failure to make an immediate impression on the Reformers and the necessity of providing for his daily wants. But ' the fresh fields and pastures new' brought into sight by the study of Ptolemy, and the healthy influence of Champier, the physician and naturalist, gave another turn to his mind, and with the money he had earned in his purse, but still comporting himself as the poor scholar, he entered first the College of Calvi, IN PARIS. GUINTERUS, VESALIUS. 105 and then that of the Lombards. To these as a subject of the Holy Roman Empire he probably had ready access, and ir their quiet shades devoted himseli" to the new course of study he had determined to pursue. His larger experience and intercourse with Champier must have shown Servetus that medicine v,^as a more assured means of earning a subsistence than theology, and opened up a far wider field to his ambition than con- tinued service .vith the typographers. Without utterly neglecting older studies, therefore, he now gave his chief attention to the great and useful art and science of medicine ; and we shall find as we proceed that the lessons of such teachers as Joannes Guinterus (Jo.Winter of Andernach), Jacobus Sylvius (J. du Bois), Joannes Fernelius, and others of name and fame in their day, found congenial soil in the receptive mind of the student. Servetus, indeed, would seem immediately to have made his presence felt in the medical school of Paris ; he was at once more than a listener to the prelections of its professors. Associated with no less distinguished an individual than Andrea Vesalius, he was one of Winter of Andernach's two prosectors, and prepared the subject for each day's demonstration. And let not the conjunction of talent that meets us here be overlooked. Vesalius, repudiating the authority of Galen, became the restorer — the Creator of Modern Anatomy. Servetus, breaking with scholasti- cism in theology, and freeing himself from the shackles of Greeks and Arabians in practical medicine, inaugu- io6 MICHAEL SERVETUS rated Rational Physiology when he proclaimed the course of the blood from the right to the left side of the heart through the lungs. Working together as friends and fellow students for the Professor of Ana- tomy, Vesalius and Servetus, through diversity of men- tal constitution, yet saw things diversely. Vesalius, the observer, abiding by the co^ici'-ete, described with rare felicity and truthfulness what he witnessed ; Servetus, gifted with genius, aspiring to the ideal and inferring consequences, deduced the pulmonary circulation from the structure of the heart and lungs ! Nor were the two men associates only in their studies ; they were fellows also in the untoward fate that befel them both in after life ; for both may be said to have fallen victims to their zeal. Somewhat precipitate, we may presume, in his eagerness for information, the heart of a young nobleman who had died under his care and whose body Vesalius was inspecting, was either seen to palpitate, or was thought to have palpi- tated, when touched by the knife of the anatomist. Accused forthwith of murder, it was only by the inter- ference of Philip II. of Spain, whose physician VesalluS was, that a formal trial for manslaughter was commuted for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with confession and absolution at the shrine of the Holy Sepulchre. The penance was undergone, but the pilgrim, homeward bound, suffered shipwreck on the island of Crete, andl perished miserably there. Servetus again, as we shall see, in his eagerness to proclaim what he believed to b IN PARIS. GUINTERUS, VESALIUS. 107 the truth, and given no chance for his Hfe, had to abide the still more cruel death of the faggot and stake. Joannes Guinterus, it is interesting to know, bears honourable testimony to the merits of his two assistants. In the preface to his ' Anatomical Institutions ' he informs us that ' he had been most effectually aided in the preparation of the work, first by Andrea Vesalius, a young man, by Hercules ! singularly proficient in anatomy ; and after him by Michael Villanovanus, distinguished by his literary acquirements of every kind, and scarcely second to any in his knowledge of Galenical doctrine. Under the supervision and with the aid of these two,' he continues, ' I have myself examined in the Subject and have shown to the students the whole of the muscles, veins, arteries, and nerves, both of the extremities and internal parts of the body.' ^ From this we learn whence Servetus had the anatomical knowledge that enabled him as inductive reasoner — true forerunner here of our own immortal Harvey — to proclaim the pulmonary circulation. The practice of dissecting the human subject had therefore, by this time, extended to France — the bodies of one or more malefactors being now publicly ana- ' ' Qua in re auxiliarios habui, primiim Andrciim Vcsalium, juvenem Mehercule ! in Anatome diligcntissimiim ; post hunc, Michael Villano- vanus familiariter mihi in consectionibus adhibitus est, vir omni genere litcrarum ornatissimus, in Galeni doctrina vix uUi sccundus. Horum duorum pra;sidio atque opera, turn artuum, turn aliarum partium exte- riorum, musculos omnes, vcnas, artcrias et nervos in ipsis corporibus examinavi studiosisque ostendi.' lo. Gtiinteri Institutionum Anato- tnicaruiii, Lib. iv., 4to. Basil, 1539. lo8 MICHAEL SERVETUS. tomised n the course of each winter session.^ Had we no othe'- evidence of the genius with which Michael ServetuL was endowed, beyond the use he made of what he saw in these anatomical demonstrations, we should still feel entitled to speak of him as the most far-sighted physiologist of his age ; for he alone of all his contemporaries, though fettered by the prevalent metaphysical theories of life, the soul and the spirits, from which we ourselves have not yet escaped, not only divined, but positively proclaimed the passage of the blood, by way of the lungs, from the right to the left side of the heart, and thence — but stopping short of the whole truth, first proclaimed by Harvey— from the left ventricle of the heart to the body at large. But the book in which his important Induction is contained, though printed in his lifetime, was never published. Seen by none but a few theologians, who took no note of Its physiological contents, it remained unknown to the world for nearly a century and a half, after its author had fallen a victim to the hate of Calvin and the Into- lerance of his asfe. With the stimulus of necessity upon him, for he was poor, and the excitement of vanity, with which he was largely endowed, as he could not live on the learning he imbibed from his teachers, Servetus by-and-by ^ The i-eader who Is curious on this matter will find what I believe to be the firs;, representation of the anatomise engaged ir dissecting the human body in the Fasciculus Aledicincc of lo. a KcthaJii, fol. Venet. 1495, of which there is a copy in fine preservation in the library of the Royal College of Surgeons. LECTURES ON GEOGRAPHY AND ASTROLOGY. 109 appeared before the world as a teacher in his turn. Having by diligence and superior natural capacity, in a singularly short space of time, achieved the degrees of M.A. and M.D., which were required before he could present himself either as Professor or Physician within the domain of the University of Paris, Servetus now came forward as a Lecturer on the Geography of Pto- lemy and the science of Astrology — a term which then included the true doctrine of the heavenly bodies as well as the false doctrine of their presumed influence on the life of man and the current of events in the world. In this bold step we have another glimpse of the self-reliant, and it may be, somewhat presumptuous, character of the man ; for even as the emancipated novice of the monk's school and Saragossan professors, when little more than of age, showed himself as Theologian in the ' De Erroribus Trinitatis,' so did the newly becapped M agister Artium now come forward •as Lecturer on Geography and Astrology, and the scarce fledged doctor in physic, as a teacher of his fellows and the world at large, in the art and mystery of treating Disease. The course of Lectures on Geography and Astrology was a happy tliought, and proved highly successful. It was delivered to a large and distinguished audience, and besides supplying the professor with funds for all his wants, became a means of introducing him to friends, influential for good on his future life. Amongst the number of his auditors there was a young eccle- no MICHAEL SERVETUS, siastic, a scholar and man of talent, Pierre Paumier, who after employment in various offices of trust by his king, Francis the First, was transferred to a position of no less dignity and emolument than that of Arch- bishop of Vienne in Dauphiny. Under the auspices of the Archbishop, and as we believe on his invitation, it was that Servetus found a final resting place by his side. Fresh from editing Ptolemy, with the old stores of classic lore he had at command, and of anecdote and general information he had amassed in reading up for his editorial duties, aided by the natural fluency with which we venture to credit him, it is easy to imagine how interesting these Lectures must have been in days when the world was eager for information on the discoveries of the great voyagers and travellers of the age, and when books were still both scarce and costly, and little read by the many. But Servetus was a Physician as well as Geo- grapher and Astrologer, and not the man to hide any light he had under a bushel. He must appear in con- nection with his profession, as well as in the accessory field of general knowledge, by writing a book upon some properly medical subject, a business which he set about forthwith under the immediate inspiration of all he had learned from Dr. Champier of Lyons, as well as his professors of Paris. i RATIONALE OF SYRUPS. CHAPTER XI. THE TREATISE ON SYRUPS AND THEIR USE IN MEDICINE.^ The medical world in the early part of the sixteenth century was divided into two great hostile camps, respectively designated Galenists, or followers of the Greeks, and Averrhoists, or disciples of the Arabians ; the former swearing by Hippocrates and Galen, the latter by Averrhoes and Avicenna. Servetus's initiator into matters medical, Champier, was a fervent admirer of the Greeks ; and his pupil, led by his classical training as well as his master's example, naturally attached himself to the same school. Here, neverthe- less, as ever, he showed the independence of his nature by having open eyes for any truth the Arabian writers might present ; so that we find nothing of servility or one-sidedness in what he has to say. ' Syruponim universa Ratio ad Galeni censuram diligenter exposita ; cui, post integram de Concoctione disceptationem, prasscripta est vera purgandi methodus, cum cxpositione Aphorismi : Concocta medicari. Michaele Villanovano Authore. npof Tnv (piXiarpov. (vpoa nnirjaov raTtacofjLara TaTfnfnapcov Qfia Xvfj.o)v, ravrqs doynara 'iadi ^id\iov. Parisiis ex officino Simonis Colinaei. [1537]. MICHAEL SERVETUS. The treatise in which Villanovanus came before the public in his new capacity of physician was on the practical use of the class of medicines known in those days by the title of Syrups— sweetened decoctions or infusions of different kinds, still in vogue among the French under the name of Tisanes. These syrups appear to have been one of the bones of contention between the two parties, though neither was perfectly agreed in itself as to the indications for their use or of the principles on which they were to be prescribed. This question does not interest us here, and so we leave it ; but we turn to the work of Michael Villanovanus for intimations in its style of the intellectual and moral nature of its author. In his address to the reade^- he says, ' T should not have proposed, most learned reader, to take on my weak shoulders this weighty and so much disputed province of the healing art, had I not felt me forced, against my will as it were, to lend my aid in furthering medical studies by a fair defence of Galenical doctrine, and more especially still by my love of truth. ... I think it will be found that I have conciliated Galen so far with my own views as to dispel any doubts I may have had of a favourable award, if I have only ail equitable judge in my reader. Of this, at all events, f feel well assured that no studious person who carefully weighs what is here set forth will repent him of his reading.' This is not amiss from a Doctor of a year'i RATIONALE OF SYRUPS. 113 Standing ! But it is in his Preface to the work that Michael Villanovaniis, as we apprehend him, comes still more particularly before us. Aware, as he says, of the fate that so often befals the meddler in a quarrel not his own, and displaying a commendable amount of caution, not without a spice of mock modesty, our author is here considerate enough to tell us that ' he does not intend to offer himself as censor in the con- troversy, between the Galenists and Averrhoists, and by finding something to object to in the conclusions of each, to have them both fall foul of him as an enemy ; ' after which he proceeds, characteristicall)^ still, to say, ' but that I may not withhold from others that which I possess myself and gratefully acknowledge, which may be of use to my fellow men, I throw aside fear and pro- claim what I believe to be the truth.' The 'Syruporum Universa Ratio,' or general Rationale of Syrups, is in truth a very learned little book, extremely well written ; much of it, as becofnes tlie young practitioner, having reference to the writings of predecessors of the highest authority in medical science. Hippocrates and Galen, above all others, are freely quoted, and their views discussed, for Servetus was ' nothing if not critical,' and a variorum reading or two to show his scholarshij) is proposed. But he also refers to Avicenna, not thinking it amiss to learn of the enemy, and to Paul of y\cgina, Monardus and others, by which he proclaims the extent of his read- I 114 MICHAEL SERVETUS. ing, and his readiness to imbibe knowledge at every source. I looked with interest for some physiological hint or statement in this book, on Syrups or Diet drinks, that might have heralded the brilliant exposition con- tained in the latest product of his genius — the Christian- ismi Restitutio or Restoration of Christianity — con- cerning the way in which the blood from the right reaches the left ventricle of the heart through the lungs, but in vain. We must presume nevertheless that he was already possessed of the anatomical facts on which his later induction is founded. The only physiological reference I discovered in the book on Syrups was to the Mesentery as giving origin to the veins — a step in advance of his predecessors, with whom the liver was the source as it was also the laboratory of the blood, as the veins were the channels for its distribution to the body. It is not uninteresting, however, to observe the same tendency towards unity or oneness here, in the domain of positive knowledge, which we discover pervading Servetus's other works that lose themselves in the realm of metaphysical abstraction. He will not acknowledge two or any greater number of concoctions or digestions, whether in health or disease, such as were generally admitted in his day. The processes that take place in disease he declares to be of the same nature, though they are perverted, as those that occur in the healthy body. Diseases are therefore nothing more than per- RATIONALE OF SYRUPS. 115 versions of natural functions, not new entities introduced into the body ; a conclusion which, on physiological grounds, he sums up in these words : ' The rationale in the maturation of disease and in the digestion of the food is one and the same.' ^ ^ Syr. Uiiroersa Ratio, fol. 9. I 2 ii6 MICHAEL SERVETUS CHAPTER XII. THE MEDICAL FACULTY OF PARIS SUE VILLANOVANUS FOR LECTURING ON JUDICIAL ASTROLOGY. Servetus's fate on starting- in life was opposition ; and how should it have been otherwise ? — he found him- self through superior endowment and higher culture antagfonistic to almost all he saw around him in the world. We have already had him met as a trespasser on their domain by the Reformers of Basle and Stras- burg, and we have now to find him looked on as an in- truder by the Medical Faculty of Paris. The lecturer on Geography and Astrology had attracted a large amount of public attention, and the author of the book on Syrups began to get into vogue as a practitioner of medicine. The book had in fact been as well received as the lectures ; it was extensively read, much com- mended at the time, and reprinted oftener than once in after years. No wonder, therefore, that Michel Villeneuve M.D. had now as many eyes upon him in Paris as Michael Servetus had had in other days in Switzerland. Before he could well look about him, the whole faculty of Physicians and the heads of the University of Paris were in array against him. AND THE MEDICAL FACULTY OF PARIS. 117 It seems that he had gone out of his way in his lectures to say something disrespectful of the doctors, his contemporaries, accusing them of ignorance of many things necessary to the successful practice of their profession, particularly of Astronomy, or more properly Astrology, a science in which Villeneuve plumed him- self as being a master. The doctors naturally enough complained of such impropriety, and had him cited before their council. There he was told that something more of respectful bearing was due from him to men who had been his masters ; and above all that he was transgressing the boundaries of true science and common sense in making so much of Astrology. The Dean of the Faculty is even said to have had him several times privately before him, and warned him of the difficulties he would inevitably fall into, if he continued casting nativities and prescribing for the ailments of his patients from the aspects of the stars ; for this, it appears, was the principal element in his medical prac- tice. Servetus, unhappily for himself, was not one of those who could take even friendly advice in good part. As credulous as he was sceptical, and believing im- plicitly in himself and in stellar influences, he not only made no submission, but said that his ill-wishers should rue their opposition. The doctors on their part not only gave no heed to his threats, but joublicly denounced him from their chairs as an impostor and wind-bag ; with the conse- quence of arousing him to self-defence, and with his ii8 MICHAEL SERVETUS ready pen settino- him to work upon a pamphlet, in which he did not fail to lay bare some of the sore places in the persons of his adversaries, characterising them as mannerless and unlettered, and even holding them up in their ignorance as very pests of society. Once in the hands of the printer, Villeneuve's purpose to expose his detractors through the dreaded press became known ; and such alarm does his meditated attack appear to have excited that the Faculty of Phy- sicians, calling the Senate of the University to their side, petitioned the Parliament of Paris to forbid the publication of the pamphlet, as well as to interdict its author from continuing to lecture on Astrology, which they now characterised as Divination. The Parliament, with becoming judicial impartiality, would take no step in the matter until they had heard Villeneuve in his defence and had something tangible, such as the pamphlet which it was sought to suppress, before them. Nothing more was done, consequently, than the issuing of a summons to Villeneuve to appear at the bar of the house on a certain day and give an account of himself. This gave him all he required : time to have his pamphlet printed. Keeping the compositors at work, with a promise of higher pay if they used despatch, it was not only ready before the day of citation came round, but had been distributed gratis in numbers to the public as well as to the members of the medical profession. They reckoned without their host who thought that Michel Villeneuve i AND THE MEDICAL FACULTY OF PARIS. 119 was to be cowed by opposition, however imposingly headed. The doctors were naturally excessively wroth with this daring move on the part of the man they desired to crush. He had not awaited the decision of the Parliament ; and neither now did they pause ; for be- lieving they had a hold upon him on the score of heresy, implied in the practice of judicial astrology or divination, they had him summoned before the Inqui- sitor of the king as an enemy to the Church, and con- temner of its statutes. There was no regularly esta- blished Inquisition at this time in France ; but papal inquisitors, often Italians by birth, were commonly enough found accredited by the Holy See, with the sanction of the Sovereign, to the large towns of the country. There they held courts before which cases of imputed heresy were tried and adjudged — the deci- sions come to, however, being always made subject to revision by the civil tribunals of the realm. Nay, there was a right of demurrage to the jurisdiction of the inquisitor, at the option of the party incriminated, were he minded to be tried by the ordinary civil, rather than the extraordinary ecclesiastical, court. We might have imagined that Michael Servetus, with the experience he had had of ecclesiastical inca- pacity to hear reason and ' true judgment give,' as he interpreted it, would have paused before venturing to appear before tlic inquisitor of the king; but so safe must Michel Villencuve liavc felt ajrainst a chari/e of MICHAEL SERVETUS heresy at this time, and so secure in his new desig'na- tion, that he did not hesitate to obey the summons ; akhough we learn that had he been so minded, he might as a member of the Faculty of Physicians have even disregarded it entirely. He appeared accordingly at the proper moment ; and so well did he play his part, so thoroughly did he satisfy the inquisitor of the king that he was a good Christian, that he left the court with flying colours, absolved of all suspicion of heresy, to the utter discomfiture of his accusers, who had now nothing for it but patiently to wait the award of the Parliament. Before this tribunal, acting it would seem as a court of justice, a suit was regularly instituted, with the Rector of the University of Paris and the Dean and Faculty of Physic of the same as pursuers, on the one part, and Michael Villanovanus as defendant, on the other. For the University and Faculty, it was alleged that judicial astrology, otherwise to be styled divination, is forbidden by various statutes, as well canonical and divine as civil, the penalty for practising the same being death by fire, and that the defendant, a man of learning, and so incapacitated from pleading ignorance of these statutes, had notoriously lectured both in public and private on certain books of divina- tion, among others, on the works entitled ' De Alea- biticis' and 'De Divificationibus,' both of which are full of divination. It was alleged further, that he had been known to AND THE MEDICAL FACULTY OF PARIS. 121 make forecasts for various persons in respect of their fortunes from their nativities, on the assumption that according to the day and the hour of a man's birth, and the aspect of the heavens at the time, would for- tune of a favourable or adverse kind befal him ; all of which by the Faculty of Theology is held highly re- prehensible. That for his lectures and lessons, more- over, he takes money and attracts numerous auditors, who, seduced by the pleasantness of the poison he sells, have been debauched and led to forsake the true philosophy of Pico de Mirandola, who declares divina- tion to be the most pestilent of frauds, degrading philo- sophy, invalidating religion, strengthening superstition, corrupting morals, and making men miserable slaves instead of free men. Not stopping short at such public and private misdeeds, continue the pursuers, he has written and had printed a certain apology or defence of divination,^ with his name attached, which is of a highly objec- tionable character in every respect ; the Theological Faculty declaring in addition that the concluding sen- tence of this apology has an extremely suspicious ap- pearance, couched as it is in these words : ' On the following night Mars is eclipsed by the moon, near the star called the King, in the constellation of Leo ; whence I predict that in the course of this year the hearts of the Lions, i.e. the princes, will be greatly moved ; that with Mars in the ascendant war will pre- ' iJuiibtlcbb llic Di:>Lip(alio AJw/o^c/icii />io ^li,liologia. 122 MICHAEL SERVETUS vail, and much havoc be done by fire and sword ; that the Church will suffer tribulation, several princes die, and pestilence and other evils abound. To languish, to mourn, to die — all of good or ill that comes to man proceeds from heaven.' The petition of the pursuers on the above showing therefore is, that the defendant, Villanovanus, be inter- dicted for the future from professing and practising judicial astrology, whether in public or private ; that he be forbidden further to circulate his pamphlet against the Faculty, and commanded to call in all un- sold copies ; that for what has passed he own himself to blame, and be enjoined for the future to bear him- self respectfully towards the Faculty of Physic, to which he belongs. In his address to the court on behalf of his client, Villanovanus's counsel opined that the Faculty of Physic had descended somewhat from the dignity that became so great a body in taking steps against one, a stranger, who had been attracted to Paris by the science that distinguished it, of which he had heard so much. The cause of the hostility of the Faculty against his client, he said, was owing to his having insisted on the necessity of a knowledge of astronomy to the Physician. This had been turned into a know- ledge of judicial astrology by his enemies ; but there were many of his hearers who were ready to testify that he had never even mentioned judicial astrolog5^ As to the paragraph about the Lions, he had only AND THE MEDICAL FACULTY OF PARIS. 123 given it as illustrating the rules of astrological science, and the knowledge he has of the possible influence of the stars ; but he would by no means insist that events of the kind named must happen as matter of necessity. In all this, however, he is ready to submit himself to the judgment of the court, and on his words being pronounced objectionable, he is willing to be set right. With regard to what he says in his apology about physicians being the plagues of society, he of course only aims at the ignorant and unskilful among them ; the saying, indeed, is none of his, but Galen's, who speaks of the ignorant practitioners of medicine of his day in precisely the same words. The judgment of the court is nearly in the terms of the counsel's address for the prosecution. His statements appear to have been taken as trustworthy without further evidence adduced. Villanovanus is ordered to call in his pamphlet and deposit the copies with the proper officer of the court ; to pay all honour and respect to the Faculty of Physic in its collective and individual capacity, saying and writing nothing unbecoming of it, but conducting himself at all times peacefully and reverently towards its members ; the doctors, on their part, being enjoined to treat Villano- vanus gently and amiably, as parents treat their chil- dren. Villanovanus is then expressly inhibited and forbidden to appear in public, or in any other way, as a professor or practitioner of judicial astrology, other- wise called divination ; he is to confine himself in his 124 MICHAEL SERVETUS discussions of astrological subjects to the influence of the heavenly bodies on the course of the seasons and other natural phenomena, and not to meddle with questions or judgments of stellar influences on indivi- duals or events, under pain of being deprived of the privileges he enjoys as a graduate of the University of Paris. Done this iSth of March, 1538. ASTROLOGY. 125 CHAPTER XIII. CIIARLIEU ATTAINMENT OF HIS THIRTIETH YEAR HIS VIEWS OF BAPTISM. This decree and interdict of the Parliament of Paris could not have been satisfactory to Servetus. We need not question his belief in the reality of judicial astrology, nor doubt of the application of its presumed principles having been found profitable by him ; for a longing to pry into futurity is among the infirmities of human nature, and a belief in the influence of the stars on the fortunes oi men was all but universal in the age of Servetus. Nor is it even now entirely extinct in the world ; for the ' Vox Stellarum ' is still regularly printed in England, and finds a sale by thousands every year among the superstitious and the ill-educated of our population. Hardly, moreover, does a child come into the world among us now without a great fuss being made as to the precise moment of the birth ; though the particulars obtained may never be thought of afterwards, nor the end for which they were sought be even surmised. But when we look on the cornelian and clay cylinders dug up in such numbers from the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh, engraved with the ac- 126 MICHAEL SERVETUS ' 1 credited figures of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and the emblematical representations of the constellations, such as Cassiopseia, Hercules Ingeniculus, Ursa Major, Leo, Auriga, Cepheus, and others, still depicted on our celestial globes, we learn how old was the belief that every man and woman who came into the world was influenced in after life by the star under which he or she was born.^ Villeneuve might possibly have continued lecturing on astrology, composing horoscopes, and casting nati- vities, as others did in his day, had he but had the prudence to control his tongue, and not hold up his brethren of the Faculty of Physic to contempt by pro- claiminpf their ignorance of a science in which he him- self excelled and held necessary to treat disease in the most effectual manner ; but he had been indiscreet, and they had won the day. He could no longer go on making forecasts for a credulous public from the aspect of the heavens at the moment of their birth, and he must show himself forward to call in the unsold copies of his pamphlet which had been found so offen- sive, perhaps because so well directed and so true. It would have interested us in the present day to have known precisely wherein the sting of this apology lay; but like others among the host of ephemeral publica- tions, hurriedly produced to serve a purpose of the hour, it has perished. There were few collectors of ballads, broadsides, and tracts, three hundred and fift)- ' See Landseer's Salnran Rcsfarchcs, 410. London. LEAVES PARIS. 127 years ago; and all the searches for a copy of the philippic against the Parisian Faculty have proved in vain.^ From the estimate we are led to form of the self- sufficing and defiant character of Michael Serve tus, as displayed in his after life, we are disposed to wonder that he did not continue to dispute the field of Paris with his opponents. He had published his clever and scholarly treatise on Syrups, and through it achieved a title to consideration as a learned practi- tioner of medicine in the regular way. Such a man as he would soon have lived down the stigma his fellows had fastened upon him as a fortune-teller from the stars, and he must by and by have taken his place in the front rank of his profession. But the physician comes slowly into practice when public confidence is courted through the gate of science. Horoscope-making was probably the main source of Villeneuve's income ; and this forbidden, and the golden stream it fed, ar- rested, the cold shoulder shown him by his professional brethren, and the averted looks of the public at the man condemned by the Parliament of Paris, — all was against him ; his malignant star had culminated, and he seems to have thought it best to yield to fate, and give way. It must have been immediately after the conclusion of the suit against him that Servetus left Paris ; for we have news of him in the course of the same year ' Vide De Murr, Annotainaiia ad mbliotJiccas Hallcrianas, 410. Helinstadt, 1805. Since this was written I have an interesting letter from Pastor ToIHn, in which he informs me that he actually possesses a ropy of the pamphlet ! 128 MICHAEL SERVETUS. {1538) as a practitioner of medicine in the town of Charlieu, distant about twelve French miles from the city of Lyons. He may have been led to this retreat through knowledge gained in the course of his former residence in Lyons ; but he did not continue long there — certainly for not more than a year and a half, or so. Could we trust the report of one who speaks of him as ' a most arrogant and insolent person,' he must have embroiled himself with some of the more influential people of Charlieu, who, as said, made his position so uncomfortable that he was forced to quit and go farther afield.^ But Villeneuve had earned for himself an ill name by his dispute with the University and Medical Faculty of Paris ; and coming from the quarter it does, we orive no credit to the tale, led as we are by what we know to find a much better reason for the remove than any fresh personal dispute, though there does seem to have been something of the kind complicating matters, as well as certain ' love passages,' which, as they came to nothing, may have rendered longer residence in the place unpleasant. The residence of Villeneuve in Charlieu, however, is not without interest, as giving us a further insight into the character and predominant pious nature of the man. In the course of the year 1539, which he passed at Charlieu, Michael Servetus attained the thirtieth year of his age, the year according to his religious tenets in which only baptism could be rightly received. ' He who would follow the example of Christ,' says he in ' Bolsec, Vic dc Calvin, 121110. Paris, 1557. AT CHARLIEU—HIS BAPTISM? 129 his latest work, ' ought now to betake him to this Laver of Regeneration — Lavacrum Regeiierationis ; ' and from the particular account he gives of the manner in which they who think with him on the subject of baptism perform the rite, we can scarcely doubt of his having found occasion to have himself privately bap- tized b}' some Anabaptist acquaintance he had made. Servetus was unquestionably a man of so pious a nature, so sincere a believer in the divinity of Christ, according to his way of interpreting it, and so firmly persuaded that the closest possible imitation of him was necessary to salvation, that we may feel assured he found means to have a rite he held so indispensable properly performed at the proper moment. It must have been in the con- sciousness of having himself done what he thought right in this particular, that we find him by and by urgently exhorting Calvin, with whom he had entered into cor- respondence, and probably knew to be of his own age, to have himself baptized anew. ' Christ,' he says, ' as an infant, was circumcised, but not baptized ; and this is a great mystery ; in his thirtieth year, however, he received baptism ; thereby setting us the example, and teaching us that before this age no one is a fit reci- pient of the rite that gives the kingdom of heaven to man. It were fit and proper in you, therefore, would you show true faith in Christ, to submit yourself to baptism, and so receive the gift of the Holy Spirit pro- mised through this means.' (Epist. xv. ad Jo. Calvi- num, Christ. Restit., p. 615.) K I30 MICHAEL SERVETUS. CHAPTER XIV. SETTLEMENT AT VIENNE UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF THE ARCHBISHOP RENEWAL OF INTERCOURSE WITH THE PUBLISHERS OF LYONS SECOND EDITION OF PTOLEMY. It was while resident at Charlieu that Villeneuve again' met with Pierre Paumier, now Archbishop of Vienne, Dauphiny, whom he had known in Paris, who indeed had been among the number of his auditors when he lectured on geography and the science of the stars. Paumier had the reputation, well deserved as it ap- pears, of being a lover of learning for its own sake, and fond of the society of men learned like himself. Thinking, we may presume, that one with the accom- plishments of his old professor would be an addition to the society of the archiepiscopal city of Vienne, when he heard of Villeneuve's presence in Charlieu as a practising physician, he sought him out, and pressed him to quit the narrower for the wider field. This, under such auspices, we can well imagine Doctor Vil- leneuve was nowise loth to do ; so that we next hear of him installed at Vienne, with apartments found him in the precincts of the Palace, and so under the immediate patronage of the Archbishop. AT VIENNE—NEW EDITION OF PTOLEMY. 131 Not overburthened with professional work at first, Yilleneuve appears to have renewed, if he had not kept up, his connection with the publishers of Lyons ; and, as a means of income, continued his literary- labours in various directions for more than one of the fraternity. Among other works, the edition of ' Ptolemy ' he had supervised for the Trechsels, when in their service in 1535, being exhausted, a second was required ; and their old editor having already proved himself abundantly competent, overtures were made to him to undertake the work anew. A proposal of the kind we need not doubt was gladly received, and the Trechsels having set up a branch establishment at Vienne, and the Archbishop consenting to accept the dedication of the new ' Ptolemy,' our editor had an opportunity of saying something pleasant to his patron, and of showing himself advantageously to the public around him in connection with a handsome volume from a press- of their own city. The work accordingly was entered on with alacrity ; and as the editor was not only countenanced, but assisted by the Archbishop, himself no mean geographer, the new edition made its appearance in the course of 1541, amended and improved.^ ' The title is the same as before. In addition to the old address to his reader, however, Villeneuvc now appends these lines : — Ad Eundem. Si terras et regna hominum, si ingentia quaeque Flumina, cceruleum si mare nosse juvat, Si monies, si urbes, populos opibusque supcrbos, Hue ades, haec oculis prospice cuncta tuis. Which may be paraphrased thus : — K 2 132 MICHAEL SERVETUS. If the first ' Ptolemy' of Michael Villanovanus had been seen as an improvement on its predecessors, his second was a marked advance upon it, and is interest- ing to us on many accounts. Though much lauded and commercially successful, the first edition, in a literary point of view, was still far from what it was capable of being made. The ornamentation of the volume, though profuse, was not highly artistic, and the wood- cuts had already done duty in various other publishing ventures. There was ample room for im- provement both in the direction of greater accuracy of text and of better taste. In the re-issue, consequently, we find various alterations, and two or three omissions that are highly significant. It is printed on better paper, too, and new maps are added ; the coarse wood- cuts are left out, and the text in various parts is amended. Altogether the volume is a very handsome one, and was obviously produced with every care to secure accuracy and elegance. In his Dedication to the Archbishop, we have an assurance that life among the polished circles of Vienne had already had a mollifying influence on the hot- headed Michel Villeneuve of Parisian days. The polite terms in which, beside the Archbishop, all and sundry This world and all its kingdoms wouldst thou know, What mighty rivers to blue oceans flow, What mountains rise, what cities grace the lands, Thick-peopled, rich through toil of busy hands, — — If for such lore thou hast a mind to call. Open this book, and there survey it all. THE NEW EDITION OF PTOLEMY. 133 of mark and name in the city are spoken of, are par- ticularly notable. We know tTDw little there was of compliment in the words with which he took leave of his Swiss opponents, and imagine the sting there must be fh the paper with which he bade the Parisian Faculty farewell. But now, beneath the wing of the great church dignitary, and referring to the time when as professor of geography and astrology he had had him among the number of his auditors, Villanovanus tells us that he is especially encouraged in his purpose to produce a more correct edition of the great geographer's work, by the permission he has received to dedicate it to his patron, as well as by the assistance he has had from him in the amendment of numerous faulty passages. * For you,' continues our Editor, addressing the Archbishop, 'are the one among our church dignitaries I have known who, loving letters and favouring learned men, have given particular attention to geographical science. I am also incited to my work by the many favours I have received at your hand. Under what patronage but yours, indeed, could this work, amended, and printed at Viennc, appear, student as you are of ' Ptolemy,' and head of our Viennese society ? Nor, sooth to say, will our ' Ptolemy ' want a welcorhe from others about us interested in geography ; among the foremost of whom I may name your relation John Paumier, prior of St. Marcel, and Claude de Rochefort, yopr vicar, both of them highly accomplished men, commended of all, and to whom I may say that I 134 MICHAEL SERVETUS. myself owe as much in my sphere as students of geo- graphy owe to ' Ptolemy.' I must do no more than mention Joannes Albus, prior of St. Peter and St. Simeon ; for I am forbidden to speak of his virtues. Neither must I make other than a passing allusion to the noble triad, your officials ; for words would fail me to speak worthily of their great qualities ; and of Doctor John Perell, your physician, my old fellow- student in Paris, so learned in philosophy and skilled in the languages — I can only say that one more apt than I were required fitly to speak his praise.' From this we learn that Michael Villanovanus, all in laying on flattery somewhat thickly, could still show himself the grateful man ; as ready to acknowledge kindness as we have known him apt to take fire at opposition and ready to resent what he held to be unworthy usage. But the matter is even more interest- ing to us, as giving us to know the kind of society Servetus frequented in Vienne, and the consequent esteem in which he must have been held. The ' noble triad ' referred to, we imagine, may have consisted of M. Maugiron, the Lieutenant-General of Dauphiny ; M. de la Cour, the Vibailly ; and M. Arzelier, the Vicar-General. Among the alterations and omissions to be ob- served in the new edition of the ' Ptolemy,' the most notable occur under the heads of Germany, France, and Judaea. The edition of 1535 was set about and produced shortly after he had been so unhandsomely THE NEW EDITION OF PTOLEMY. 135 received, as he thought, by the Swiss and German Reformers ; and we are therefore sorry, though not surprised, to find that disappointment and pique had left him with httle indination to say much in praise either of themselves or their respective countries. Hence the generally evil report he makes of Germany, and the notice of Switzerland as remarkable for nothing but the production of butchers ! All this is either sup- pressed or toned down in the edition of 1541. The editor had had time for reflection ; and under the sooth- ing influences of the archiepiscopal city and profes- sional success, he now makes a more favourable report of the countries and peoples he had formerly gone out of his way to decry and defame. Instead of the forest- encumbered and swampy land with its inclement sky of the former edition, Germany is now a rcgio aincena, with a coehim satis clemens — a pleasant country with quite a temperate climate, and all the damaging state- ments in regard to its several divisions and their peoples are omitted. The graphic account we had formerly of the boast- ful, ignorant, and superstitious people of Spain is also left out in the reprint ; but we have an added notice of the people of France which shows us how little nations change in the course of three hundred and fifty years. ' Not only in the cities and country places,' says our editor, ' but even in single families, every Frenchman seems to think he has a right to rule over everybody else. The assertion of individual superiority is so uni- 136 MICHAEL SERVETUS. versal that every one among them would have every one else to do his bidding, he himself feeling bound to do the bidding of none.' ■ The Church and her favoured sons, the hierarchs thereof, having- still thriven in the shadow of the throne, as Villeneuve was now living amid the clerical society of an archiepiscopal city, it was thought that the few words in the former edition, which seemed to question the efficacy of the 'Royal Touch' in curing scrofula, would be out of place. They are, therefore, now found modified. For the ' I did not see that any were cured,' we find ' I have heard say that many were cured ! ' The new edition, moreover, being dedicated to the Archbishop of Vienne, it was felt that any word in dispraise of the Holy Land would seem disrespectful and improper. All that is said in connection with the map of Palestine contradictory to the Bible account of Judsea as a land flowing with milk and honey, or as of signal beauty and fertility, is accordingly entirely expunged from the new impression. These changes have been said to be due to warn- ings given by friends to Servetus, on the presumption, probably, that he could hardly have been living on terms of intimacy with many persons of note, both lay and clerical, without betraying something of the scep- tical element that distinguished him at the outset of his career, and that got the mastery of him with such disastrous consequences at last. But we have no posi- THE NEW EDITION OF PTOLEMY. 137 tive intimation that Servetus ever failed to keep his counsel, or that he was known to a soul in \^ienne, save as M. Michel \^illeneuve, the physician. Calvin certainly knew him by no other name in Paris when they met there in 1534, a date at which we have sur- mised he had not yet read the ' De Erroribus Trini- tatis,' and so escaped having his suspicions aroused through the sameness of the views propounded in that work, and those expressed by his acquaintance, Ville- neuve, that he had its author, Michael Serveto, alias Reves, bodily before him. That this was really the case is confirmed by the statement which he makes on his trial at Vienne, to the effect, that he had only been challenged by Calvin in the course of their correspondence, begun as many as fourteen years after the publication of his first book, with being no other than Servetus. Having read the ' De Erroribus ' subsequently, Calvin did not fail to discover Michael Serveto under the cloak of Michael Villanovanus, his correspondent of Vienne, and may consequently, some time after the year 1546, have written to Cardinal Tournon, as said by Bolsec,^ or hinted to a friend in Lyons, that they had an egregious heretic, the writer of the work on Trinitarian Error, living among them under an as- sumed name. But of so much as this we have no reliable assurance, and even if wc had, it could ' Vie de Calvin, &c. 138 MICHAEL SERVETUS. have no reference to the year 1541, the date of pubHcation of the second edition of Villanovanus's * Ptolemy.' ^ ' This, the second edition of Villanovanus's Ptolemy, is one of the very rare books. All of the impression that could be discovered when Servetus was burned in effigy at Vienne, along with his Christianisvii Restitutio, appears to have been seized and committed to the flames. I find both editions in the library of the British Museum. THE PAGNINI BIBLE. 139 CHAPTER XV. EDITION OF SANTES PAGNINl's LATIN BIBLE, WITH COMMENTARY. Servetl'S must have got through a very consider- able amount of Hterary work during the earHer years of his residence at Vienne. His time not being then fully occupied by professional duties, he had leisure and certainly no lack of inclination for other work, so that he seems to have been kept well employed by the publishers of Lyons. Hardly had the second ' Ptolemy' seen the light, than we find another handsome vo- lume in folio not only taking shape under his hands, but actually launched in the course of the following )ear, 1542. This was a new and elegant edition of the Latin Bible of the learned Santes Pagnini.^ ' Habes in hoc Libra, prudcns Lector, utritisque Instrumenti novam Tralationem editatn a Rcverendo sacrcc theologice Doctore Sancte Pagnini. Lugdun. 1527-28, fol. Such is the title of this, which we presume to be the first edition of Pagnini's Bible. Between it and the one of Cologne of 1 541, edited by Melchior Novesianus, we find no other until we come to that of Villanovanus. Pagnini is said in the letter of J. F. Pico de Mirandola, which precedes the text, to have been twenty-five years engaged on the work. It is accompanied by no fewer tiian two commen- datory epistles from Popes Adrian V'l. and Clement VII., and is said to be the first edition of the Bible that is found divided into chapters. Richard Simon {Hist, du victix Testament, liv. ii.) speaks slightingly of 140 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Appreciating the naturally pious bent of Servetus's mind, as we do, to edit the Bible, we imagine, must to him have been like rest to the weary, and we think of the delight with which he received the proposal of Hugo de la Porte, the publisher of Lyons, to undertake a task of the kind. In his own earliest work we have seen him speaking of the Bible as a ' book fallen down from heaven, to be read a thousand times over, the source of all his philosophy and of all his science.' But this is from the pen of the younger man ; for study and after thought, with the privilege he possessed through his self-reliant spirit of reading without a fore- ^ gone conclusion, enabled him by and by to discover that the accredited traditional interpretation of holy writ could not at all times be maintained without vio- lence, not only to reason and experience, but to history and the plain meaning of the text. He came to the conclusion, in fact, that whilst the usual prophetical bearino- ascribed to the Old Testament was ever to be kept in view, the text had a primary, literal, and im- mediate reference to the age in which it was composed, and to the personages, the events, and the circum- stances amid which its writers lived. In the Preface to his edition, consequently, we see that, having undertaken the responsible duty of editor, its merits ; but it has been highly prized by others, as good judges as he. To us it appears a very admirable version, our own English Bible being generally so like it, that we fancy it must have been used by our Translators. THE PAGNINI BIBLE. 141 Villanovanus means to be no mere follower in the beaten track, but to take an independent course of his own. * They,' he says, ' who are ignorant of the Hebrew language and history are only too apt to over- look the historical and literal sense of the sacred Scrip- tures ; the consequence of which is that they vainly and foolishly expend themselves in hunting after re- condite and mystical meanings in the text where nothing of the kind exists.' Before reading the pro- phets, in particular, he would therefore ' have every one make himself acquainted not only with the Hebrew tongue, but with Hebrew history ; for the prophets, without exception, followed history to the letter, although they also prefigured future events in their writings, led as they were by inspiration to conclusions having reference to the mystery of Christ. The power of the Scriptures, indeed, is of a fertilizing or prolific kind. Under a waning literal sense, they possess af vivifying spirit of renovation. It were, therefore, well that their meaning, apprehended as pointing in one direction, should not be overlooked as also pointing in another ; and this the rather, seeing that the historical sense comes out ever the more clearly when the pro- spective bearing, which has Christ for its object, is kept in view — veiled under types and figures, indeed, and so not seen of the Jews, blinded by their prejudices, but now revealed to us in such wise that we seem to see the very face of our God.' ' In our Commentaries,' concludes the Expositor, 142 MICHAEL SERVE TUS. ' it will consequently be found that we have made it our particular study to elicit and present the old historical, but hitherto neglected, sense of the Scriptures. In this view, and to make available the author's annotations, of which he has left a great many, we have taken no small amount of pains — noii parum est nobis desudatiun. Nor, indeed, had we to do with his annotations only ; for the text of the copy we followed is corrected in numberless places by the hand of the author himself. I may, therefore, venture to affirm that Pagnini's trans- lation, as it now appears, approximates more closely to the meaning and spirit of the Hebrew than any former version. But the Church, and those learned in the Hebrew tongue, must be the judges here — any others are incompetent' From what he says, Villanovanus would therefore lead us to believe that he had had the privilege of working from a copy corrected and annotated by Pag- nini himself, the author of the translation. But on a somewhat careful collation of the Villanovanus edition of 1542 with that of Lyons of 1527-28 (the cditio prin- ceps, we apprehend), and the reprint from this by Mel- chior Novesianus of Cologne, of 1541, we a/e forced on the conviction that Villanovanus followed no copy corrected and annotated by Pagnini, but the fine edi- tion of Novesianus, admirably edited by the learned publisher himself The text of this is in fact identical with that of Villanovanus, and the headings to the chapters and references to corresponding and corrobo- THE PAGNINJ BIBLE. 143 rative texts are all but uniformly alike in the two. There are no variorum readings, if we recollect aright, in the Novesianus ; but neither are there any of the slightest significance in the Villanovanus — unless per- chance the reader should think that the text is im- proved by Noah being directed in building the Ark to ' pitch it with pitch' — picabis earn pice, instead of bitu- men — bitiiminabis earn bihimine ! That Villanovanus followed Novesianus, and not any copy corrected and annotated by Pagnini, is, as it were, demonstrated by this, that each page of the Address to the Reader, with the single exception of the first, begins and ends with the very same word in the two editions — which could not have been accidental : the compositor followed the copy he worked from page for page, line for line, word for word. We are sorry, therefore, to find our editor taking credit to himself in directions where none was due, and seeking, as it might seem, to shelter himself under the pious cowl of the orthodox Pagnini for the new and daring interpre- tation he himself puts upon so many passages of the Psalms and Prophets. Pagnini, one of the most learned hebraists and classical scholars of his country, was also a thoroughly orthodox monk, and would assuredly have been not a little astonished, and hardly pleased, we imagine, could he have seen himself in the guise in which he is presented by Michael Villanovanus. Had we but a single note from the hand of the learned Italian — and to the best of our belief we have not one 144 MICHAEL SERVETUS. — it could not have failed to be of the most rigidly orthodox kind, his own edition having the inipri7nat2ir of no fewer than two Popes, and a laudatory epistle from Jo. Franciscus Picus, nephew of the celebrated Joannes Picus de Mirandola, distinguished alike as a philosopher and theologian. Villanovanus's procedure in respect of the Pagnini Bible, on the face of the matter, is much to be regret- ted, and indeed is hardly to be understood. He may possibly have had an annotated copy of his author sup- plied him by his publisher ; but if he had, in so far as we can see, he has followed Novesianus to the letter in his text and has given no comments but his own. The times in which Servetus lived, though different from ours in so many respects, were, as it seems, some- what like them in so far as the metLvi and ttmm in literature are concerned. Did we judge from the in- stance before us, we should say that they were still less respected three hundred years ago than they are in the present day. Calvin refers to Villanovanus's ' Pagnini ' in the course of the Geneva trial, and sub- sequently also in his ' Declaration pour maintenir la vraye foye.' But he seems not to have known of the Novesianus edition, or he would certainly have chal- lenged more than the comments, and had better grounds possibly than any he adduces for saying that the editor had dexterously filched — avail grippd beau ct belle — five hundred livres from the publisher for his labour. But all this, though illustrative of one element in THE PAGNINI BIBLE. 145 the character of the subject of our study, and not to be passed over by us, is of less moment than the insight we gain through the comments — assuredly referable to him alone — into the intellectual side of his nature. In so far as we know, Servetus is nowhere even named as a biblical critic and expositor ; yet did he precede by more than a century Spinoza, Astruc, Simon, Eich- horn, and others, founders of the modern school of Scriptural exegesis. The Old Testament texts re- ferred by the writers of the New Testament to events still in the womb of time — to the coming especially of a liberator from their misery for the people of Israel in the shape of an anointed King, the conception of a late epoch in Jewish history — Servetus maintained had individuals in view who were alive and influential when the words were written, although he also ad- mitted that they had a further prophetical or prospec- tive sense of the kind commonly ascribed to them. But he who believed in judicial astrology was not likely to have freed himself from that other still accre- dited form of superstitious belief which leads mankind, without so much as the aspects of the heavens to guide them, to fancy they can see into futurity. He had not divined, as we have now come to know, that even the oldest portions of the Hebrew Scriptures, in the shape in which they have reached us, date from no more remote an age than that which followed the Babylonian Captivity ; that we have the work of two different writers under the name of Isaiah, the second of whom 1. 146 MICHAEL SERVETUS. lived during or after the reign of Cyrus ; and that the Apocalyptic Book of Daniel was written long after the personages there darkly shadowed forth had lived and died, and the events referred to had come and gone. The narratives of the Pentateuch appear to have been accepted as properly historical by our editor. He did not, any more than the commentators who came after him almost to our own day, see them as mythical tales about individuals who lived, if they lived at all, and events that occurred, if they ever did occur, thousands — tens of thousands of years before any account of them could possibly have assumed the shape of legend, much less have been committed to writing. He has little, however, to say on the five books ascribed to Moses, and those of the quasi-historical complexion that follow them. Still his note on the words put into the mouth of Balaam, which tell of a stai'- to come out of Jacob and a sceptre to arise otct of Israel, is important. The prediction, as he interprets it, applies immediately to King David, though it has a farther prospective reference to Christ, with whose advent, as we know, it has long been all but exclusively connected. Our editor, however, was not helped by his superior knowledge of the stars to surmise that the writing was of a date long posterior to the reputed days of Balaam, the soothsayer of Mesopotamia, and Balak, king of Moab ; that the predictions put into the mouth of the seer were all made after the events they THE PAGNINI BIBLE. 147 pretend to foretell, and that King David had lived and died long before a word of the text was written ; neither did he see that the writer who had Kinpf David in his eye could not have been thinking of an anointed king or captain who was only to appear some six or seven hundred years after Israel's second sovereign had been grathered to his fathers. Villanovanus is much more copious when he comes to the Psalms. The words in the second of our col- lection of these sacred lyrics, so much made of in dog- matic lore, Yet have I set my King 2ipon viy holy hill of Z ion. . . . ThoiL art my son ; this day have I begot- ten thee — he explains thus : ' On the day when David had escaped from his enemy (Saul) he said. This day do I begin to live ; at length I am king.' The words in the fifth verse of that fine Psalm, the eighth, For thotc hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowiied him with honour and glory, he also refers immediately to King David, who, in times of persecution, abased himself; but, subsequently vic- torious, was crowned at last. The passages. In Jehovah I pnt my trnst, and How say ye to my sonl, Jlcc as a bird to yonr mountain, ol Psalm xi., he refers to the time when David in fear of Saul escaped from the land of Judah. The comment on the sixteenth verse of Psalm xxii., They pierced my ha?ids and my feet, is again applied to David, when, Hying from his enemies, and scrambling like a four-footed beast over rugged and thorny places, 148 MICHAEL SERVETUS. his hands and feet were lacerated — -fugiente David per abf^upta, instar quadrupedis, manus ejus et pedes lacera- banhir. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desii^e — Psalm xl, 6, signifies, says our commentator, that David, when a fugitive in the wilderness, offered no sacrifices. In the verse, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, Psalm xlv. 6, the word God, says our exponent, refers to Solomon, who, like Moses and Cyrus, is here styled Divus — God. They gave me gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar as drink^ of Psalm xlix. 22, says Villanovanus, is a passage referring to Nabal's refusal and churlishness when David asked him for meat and drink. The Lord said 2into my Lord, Sit thoii at my right hand until L make thine enemies thy footstool. Psalm ex. i. ' This refers to David and Solomon, types alike of Christ, when David, having set his son on the throne beside him, addressed him as My Lord, and styled him a priest after the order of Melchizedek.' Whilst thus in these and in many other instances referring the statements met with in the Psalms to individuals living or dead at the time they were written, and to events then in progress or past, Vil- lanovanus still imagines that everything said, besides its literal and immediate signification, is also typical of personages and events to come — a system of exposition that has been pushed beyond all reasonable lengths by THE PAGNINI BIBLE. 149 ignorance and superstition since his day We may indeed be well assured that the writers of the Hebrew Psalms knew no more of what would happen five or six centuries after they were dust than we know of what will be going on in the world five or six hundred years after we are no more. Prophets, Seers, Diviners, For- tune-tellers and the like are ignored by the science of our age, although under the first of these designations they are still acknowledged by pious persons in the history of the past, and in its bearing on the religion of the present. The excuse for this is that the Prophets of Israel were inspired, or exceptionally gifted, with the power of seeing into futurity. But God, as we now conceive God, makes no exceptions to his laws. As they are, so have they ever been, and so will they ever continue to be. Said not Servetus himself ariorht when he declared that out of man there was no Holy Spirit, or Spirit of Inspiration ^. But it is not on the Psalms that Villanovanus's ex- position, remarkable as it is, appears the most note- worthy. It is when he comes to the writings of the Prophets, as they are styled, that he puts forth his strength and shows his learning. And it shall come to pass in the last days that Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of the 7notintain, and all nations shall Jloiv unto it, says Isaiah (ii. 2 et seq.). These words, according to our expositor, refer to the reign of Hezckiah. Literally seen, they speak of the accession of Hezekiah, and the return of the captive Israelites :5o MICHAEL SERVETUS. to Jerusalem, the Assyrians having suffered a signal defeat without a battle fought. In like manner, commenting on the second verse of the fourth chapter of Isaiah, where it is said. In that day shall the branch of Jehovah be beautiful and glo^Hoiis, he says it is still Hezekiah and events trans- piring in his reign that are alluded to, the king never- theless being to be seen as a type of Christ. The remarkable fourteenth verse of chapter vii. of the same writer, of which so much has been made, Villanovanus refers immediately to the times in which it was written. Syria and Ephraim confederate, under their kings Rezin and Pekah, are at war with Judah and threatening Jerusalem, whose king, Ahaz, the Prophet comforts with. the assurance that the invasion, however formidable it looks, will come to nothing, and bids him ask for a sign from Jehovah that such will be the case. But Ahaz declining to do so, the Prophet volunteers a forecast of what he declares will come to pass, saying. Behold, a virgin (Almah — a young marriageable woman) shall conceive and beai'' a son, and shall call his name Immanuel ; and before the child shall know good from evil [arrive at years of discretion] the land will be freed from its enetnies. ' The Aramseans,' says Villanovanus, 'have come up in battle array against Jerusalem, and the prophet speaks of a young woman who shall conceive and bear a son, the young woman being no other than Abijah, about to become the mother of Hezekiah — strength or fortitude of God — and THE PAGNINI BIBLE. 151 Immanuel — God with us — before whose reign the two kings, the enemies of Judah, will have been discom- fited.' The For iinto us a child is bom, &c., of chapter ix., he further refers to Hezekiah, for it was in his reign that Sennacherib and the Assyrians suffered such a signal defeat, the angel of Jehovah, according to the account, having slain in one night an hundred and four score and five thousand of them. For they shall cry unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt, a7td he will send the^n a Saviour and he shall deliver them (lb. xix. 20). ' The Saviour,* says Villanovanus, ' is still no other than Hezekiah. Egypt as well as Judah, oppressed by the Assyrians, is relieved when the great army of Sennacherib is wrecked by the angel of Jehovah.' Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf be tin stopped {^0. xxxv. 5), i.e. ' Libera- tion from the yoke of the Assyrians will do much towards givmg the Jewish people clearer and better ideas of God.' Comfort ye my people. . . . The voice of one crying in the zvilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord., &c. (lb. xl. 1-3). ' These are words addressed to Cyrus, praying him to open a way through the desert for Israel, returning from the captivity of Babylon ; ' and the ninth verse, O Zio7i, that bringest good tidings . . . say unto the cities of J^Jidah, Behold your God, he says, ' refers literally to C)tus, who is here 152 MICHAEL SERVETUS. styled God ; as does also the eighteenth verse, To whom will ye liken God {i.e. Cyrus), or what likeness will ye compaj'e unto him? ' In many striking ways,' adds our expositor, ' the prophet would lead the rude Jews, on their redemption from the Babylonian cap- tivity, to cease from idolatry and to believe in God, the Creator of the world.' He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted zvith grief. Surely he hath borne our griefs . . . . he zvas wounded for oiir transgressions, &c. (lb. liii.). ' In these passages, which also involve a great mystery referable to Christ,' says Villanovanus, ' the Prophet laments over Cyrus, slain, as it were, for the sins of the people, who, however, will suffer still more under Cambyses, his successor, when the building of the Temple, now begun, will be interrupted.' Arise, shine, for thy light is come. . . . They from Sheba shall come, and shall bring gold and incense, &c., (lb. Ix.), i.e. ' taken literally, and as it stands, these words refer to the great days of the Second Temple, when Jerusalem was again in its glory.' Who is this that com.eth from Edom zvith dyed garmcjits from Bozrah (lb. Ixiii.), i.e. ' Cyrus has in- flicted severe chastisement on Edom, and brought back those who had been carried thither from Jerusalem into captivity, as we read in the fifteenth chapter, where it is said. The redee^ned of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion! Behold the days will come, saith the Lord, when I THE PAGNINI BIBLE. shall raise unto David a righteous bi'anch (Jerem. xxiii. 5). The individual here referred to our exponent believes to be Zerubabel. Know, therefore, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build f e^^usalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, is seve7t weeks, and three- score and two weeks . . . and after three- score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off and be no more (Daniel, ix. 25). ' The times specified,' says Villanovanus, * refer to those of the exile and the return of the captives by favour of Cyrus, who is the Messiah or Anointed 0\\^ of God, that is here spoken of. Sixty-two weeks having passed from the great event, Cyrus will have been cut off, and all have gone to wreck again.' Then shall fudah and Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, &c., i.e. ' Judah and Israel will have become united for a season, as they were under Hezekiah.' 71ie words of the second verse of chapter vi., After izoo days will he revive us ; in the third day he will raise 7is up, ' refer to the extraordinary discom- fiture of the Assyrians in the reign of Hezekiah.' For behold, in those days zuhen I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and y erusalem, I will also gather all the nations, &c. (Joel, iii. i). 'These words have a literal application to the defeat of the Assyrians and the glories of Hezekiah's reign. Disasters many have befallen the chosen seed ; but their oppressors will in 154 MICHAEL SERVETUS. turn be desolated, and Judah, restored, shall dwell for ever in Jerusalem.' The texts in Micaii generally spoken of as exclu- sively prophetical of Christ, our commentator thinks refer literally to Hezekiah and times subsequent to the defeat of the Assyrians. But thou, Bethleheni-Ephra- tah, 02it of thee shall he come foi'th to be a ruler in Israel, viz., ' Hezekiah, who will deliver the people from the Assyrian.' Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion ; shout, O ■ Daughter of J erusalem ; behold, thy King cometh unto thee lozvly, and iHding tipon an ass, everi on a colt, the foal of an ass. This text, which is referred to Christ in Matthew (chapter xxii.), is connected by Villano- vanus with the compassionate Zerubabel and his en- trance into Jerusalem. No one will be surprised to learn that these comments of the learned Villanovanus did not escape the notice of the great ecclesiastical centres of his day. That of Lyons is by-and-by found condemning outright both them and the book they pretend to illustrate. That of Madrid is content to order by far the greater number of the glosses to be expunged, but leaves the Bible itself available to the privileged ; whilst that of Rome, less tolerant, not only condemns the expositions, but puts the book upon the Index prohibitorhis. The perusal of such comments, preparatory to drawing the pen through them, it was surmised by the far-sighted ecclesiastics of Rome might lead to independent thought, THE PAGNINI BIBLE. 155 and this is precisely what the Church they represent would have every man, woman, and child in the land most carefully to eschew. Calvin, we may imagine, was not likely to think any better of Villanovanus's annotations than the heads of the Church of Rome ; on the contrary, pinning" his faith on its text as prophetical in the very strictest sense of the word, any attack on its sufficiency as a ground for dogmatic conclusion was felt by him to be a matter much more serious than by the Church of Rome, which sets its own traditions as equipollent to, where not even of higher authority than, that of the Bible on all matters of faith. To see the Scriptures of the Jews otherwise than as Calvin and the Reformers saw them was, in their eyes, to question the infallible book they had substituted for the infallible Pope so lately aban- doned by them. We should, therefore expect to meet Calvin, with occasion serving, making a point against our expositor on the ground of the Pagnini ; and ac- cordingly we find Servetus's comments brought up against him in the most marked manner during his Geneva Trial, whilst in the Declaration pour maintenir la vraye F'oye, and the Defensio orthodoxae P'idei, they are spoken of as impertinences and impieties, the Publisher being said at the same time to have been nothing less than cheated out of the money he paid the editor for his work. ' Who,' says Calvin, ' shall venture to say that it was not thievish in the editor when he took five hundred livres in payment for the vain trifles 156 MICHAEL SERVETUS. and impious follies with which he encumbered almost every page of the book ? ' (' Opusc. Theol. Om.' p. 703). Notwithstanding thegreat Reformer's denunciations, however, though we may not agree with Villanovanus in all his conclusions, nor approve of his passing with- out mention Melchior Novesianus, to whom he was indebted for his text, when we look on the beautiful volume he aided in producing, and think of him as the one man of his age who had independent opinions on the real or possible meaning of the poetical writings of the Hebrew people, consonant as these are in so many respects with the views entertained by the most advanced biblical critics of the present day, we are not disposed to think that he was overpaid. Had the Church dignitaries of Vienne seen the Pagnini Bible of Michael Villanovanus with the same eyes as the hierarchs of Rome, Madrid, and Lyons, the matter he added must needs have seriously compromised him with them. His numerous, excessively free, and highly heterodox interpretations of the Psalms and Prophets, nevertheless, in so far as we have been able to discover, appear to have lost Villeneuve neither countenance nor favour at Vienne, which is not a little extraordinary. ENGAGEMENT AS EDITOR. 157 CHAPTER XVI. ENGAGEMENT AS EDITOR BY JO. FRELON OF LYONS CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. The Pagnini Bible out of hand, Villanovanus's time would seem not yet to have been so fully occupied by his profession as to debar him from continuing to engage in a good deal of miscellaneous literary work for his friends the publishers of Lyons, among the number of whom we have now particularly to notice John Frelon, a man of learning, like so many of the old publishers, entertaining tolerant or more liberal views of the religious question, inclined towards, if not openly professing, the Reformed Faith, and the per- sonal friend of Calvin. For Frelon Villeneuve edited a variety of works, mostly, as it seems, of an educational kind, such as grammars, accidences, and the like ; translating several of these from Latin into Spanish, for the laity ; and, as the priesthood of the Peninsula appear not to have cultivated the classical languages of Greece and Rome to the same extent as those of France and German)-, also turning the Suinma Theologicc of St. Thomas Aquinas, a work entitled Desideruis peregritiiis, and 158 li'IICHAEL SERVETUS. another, the Thesaui'tts animcB ChristiancB, into their vernacular for them.^ Brought into somewhat intimate relationship with Villeneuve, whom Frelon at this time could not have known as Michael Servetus, the Reformation, its principles, its objects, and the views of its more distinguished leaders, would hardly fail to come up as topics of conversation between him and his learned editor. Frelon must soon have seen how much better than common Villeneuve was informed in this direction ; and it has been said, not without every show of truth, that at his suggestion Servetus, under his assumed name of Villeneuve or Villanovanus, was led to enter on the correspondence with Calvin which we believe had so momentous an influence on his future fate. Frelon saw Villeneuve full of unusual ideas on many of the accredited dogmas of the Christian faith ; and, not indisposed, though indifferently prepared, to discuss these himself, he very probably suggested the great Reformer of Geneva as the man of all others the most likely to feel an interest in them, as well as the most competent to give an opinion on their merits. Hence the correspondence which, begun in 1546, went en into 1547, and may even have extended into the following year. That Frelon was the medium of communication between Villeneuve and Calvin is satisfactorily shown by the publisher's letter to the Spaniard, inclosing one for him just received from the Reformer. The corre- ^ Sandius, Bibliotheca A)itit7-iniia}ioriim. CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. 159 spondence, however, must have already been started and Villeneuve been complaining to Frelon that he had been long without an answer to the last of his letters. Frelon, in turn, would seem to have written to Calvin, reminding him that his friend Villeneuve had for some time past been expecting to hear from him. Writing at length under his well-known pseudonym of Charles Despeville, in reply to Frelon, Calvin says : — * Seigneur Jehan, Your last letter found me on the eve of my departure from home, and I had not time then to reply to the inclosure it contained. I take advantage of the first moment I have to spare since my return, to comply with your wishes ; not indeed that I have any great hope of proving serviceable to such a man, seeing him disposed as I do. But I will try once more if there be any means left of bringing him to reason, and this will happen when God shall have so worked in him that he become altogether other than he is. I have been led to write to him more sharply than is my wont, being minded to take him down a little in his presumption ; and I assure you there is no lesson he needs so much to learn as humility. This may perhaps come to him through the grace of God, not otherwise, as it seems. But we too ought to lend a helping hand. If God give him and us such grace as to have the letter I now forward turn to profit, I shall have cause to rejoice. If he goes on writing to me in the style he has hitherto seen fit to use, however, you will only lose }-our time in soliciting me farther in his behalf; for I have other business that concerns me more nearly, and I shall make it matter of conscience to devote myself to it, not doubting that he is a Satan who would divert me from studies more i)rofit- ablc. Let me beg of you therefore to be content with what I i6o MICHAEL SERVE TUS. have already done, unless you see most pressing occasion for acting dififerently. * Recommending myself to you and praying God to have you in his keeping, I am your servant and friend — ' Charles Despeville. [Geneva] 'this 13 of February, 1546.' This is surely neither an indifferent nor an unrea- sonable letter ; yet does it give us to know that the epistle it enclosed, both in manner and matter, was likely to give offence to one with the haughty and self- sufficincr nature of Michael Servetus. He had ad- dressed the Reformer on transcendental dosfmatic subjects, and probably urged his views with the warmth that strong conviction lends to language, and without anything like the deferential tone to which Calvin was accustomed. This proved particularly distasteful to the head of the Church of Geneva, who had cer- tainly thought as deeply, and may even have enter- tained as serious misgivings, on some of the topics propounded, as his correspondent. Hence the unwonted s/iarpjtess of the reply ; hence, also, the fire which Villeneuve caught at being lectured like a schoolboy ; and hence, in fine, the irritating, disrespectful, and re- grettable character on either side of the correspondence that followed. In transmitting Calvin's letter to Villeneuve, Frelon addresses him thus : — CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. i6r ' Dear Brother and Friend ! You will see by the enclosed why you had not sooner an answer to your letter. Had I had anything to communicate at an earlier date, I should not have failed to send to you immediately, as I promised. Be assured that I wrote to the personage in question, and that there was no want of punctuality on my part. I think, how- ever, that with what you have now, you will be as well content as if you had had it sooner. I send my own man express with this, having no other messenger at command. If I can be of use to you in anything else, I beg to assure you, you will always find me ready to serve you. Your good brother and friend, Jehan Frelon. * To my good brother and friend, master Michael Villano- vanus. Doctor in medicine, Vienne.' It is matter of deep regret that with the exception of the first communication of Calvin to X'illeneuve, which is in the form of an essay rather than a familiar epistle, and was written some time before the stinging- missive sent throutrh Frelon, we have nothinfjf from him that would have enabled us to judge of the general style and character of his letters, though of this we may form an estimate from his subsequent writings. Calvin was far too much engaged to make copies of his letters, and we may feel certain that Villeneuve, on the first intimation of danger threatening him from the authorities of Vienne, destroyed every scrap of writing he had ever had from the Reformer, calculated as it was to compromise him in the eyes of Roman Catholics. F'orced, for the sake of his French corre- spondents, to resort to a pseudonym, Calvin had pro- M / i62 MICHAEL SERVETUS. bably addressed Villeneuve in his proper name. The letter to Frelon and the one from Frelon to Villeneuve must have been overlooked, or thought to contain nothing that could be adversely interpreted, and so found their way to the Judicial Archives of Vienne, whence they were recovered and published by Mosheim.^ The letters of Villeneuve to Calvin, or a certain number of them, at all events, have been transmitted to us by their writer in a section of his work on the Restora- tion of Christianity; and we turned to them with the interest of expectation, thinking we might there find a key to the singular and persistent hostility w^ith which Calvin shows himself to have been animated towards his correspondent. Nor were we disappointed. The style of address indulged in by Villeneuve, as the correspondence proceeds, is as if purposely calculated ( to wound, if not even to insult, a man in the position of John Calvin, conscious of his own superiority, jealous of his authority, and become so sensitive to everything like disrespectful bearing on the part of those who approached him. But of deference or respect, save at the outset, there is not a trace in any of the letters of Villeneuve. On the contrary, they have often an air of something like familiarity that must have been extremely disagreeable to Calvin. Add to this the unseemly and disparaging epithets Avith which he pelts the irritable Reformer, and we have warrant enough ^ Neiie Nachriditcn^ etc. Helmst. 175c, 4to., S. 89-90. CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. 163 for our assumption that, mainly out of this unfortunate epistolary encounter, was the enmity engendered which took such hold of Calvin's mind as led him to see in a mere theological dissident a dangerous innovator and deadly personal foe. The correspondence at the outset, however, had nothing of the unseemly character it acquired as it proceeded. Villeneuve approached the Reformer at first as one seekinor aid and information from another presumed most capable of giving both ; and this was precisely the style of address that suited Calvin. The subjects on Vv'hich he desired the Reformer's opinion were theological, of course, and of great gravity, involving topics of no less moment than the sense in which the Divinity and Sonship of Christ, the Doctrine of Regeneration, and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, were to be understood. In a letter to a friend of a later date Calvin speaks as if he believed that these questions had been pro- posed in mockery, or to get him into difficulty ; but this was an afterthought, and when he had come to persuade himself that vServetus was a man devoid of all religious principle. Nothing of any suspicion of the kind he hints at appears in his reply to the first com- munication he received, for it is sober, earnest, and to the point, each subject being taken up in succession and discussed, now in conformity with his own par- ticular views, and then with tlie interpretation of the Churches. 1 64 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Servetus's questions to Calvin, three in number, were propounded categorically, and in the following order : — 1st. — Was the man Jesus, who was crucified, the Son of God ; and what is the rationale of the Sonship (filiatio) ? 2nd. — Is the Kingdom of heaven in man ; when is it entered ; and when is regeneration effected ? 3rd. — Is Baptism to be received in faith, Hke the Supper ; and in what sense are these institutions to be held as the New Covenant ? To the first, Calvin replies : ' We believe and confess that Jesus Christ, the man who was crucified, was the Son of God, and say that the Wisdom of God, born of the Eternal Father before all time, having become incarnate, was now manifested in the flesh. Therefore do we acknowledge Christ to be the Son of God by his humanity ; therefore, also, do we say that he is God — sed idea quod Dcus. As by his human nature, he is engendered of the seed of David, and so is said to be the Son of David ; by parity of reason, and because of his divine nature, is he the Son of God. Christ, however, is One, not Two-fold ; he is at once the Son of God and the Son of Man. You own him as the Son of God, but do not admit the oneness, save in a confused wa}'. We, who say that the Son of God is our Brother, as well as the true Immanuel, nevertheless acknowledge in the One Christ the Majesty of God and the Humility of man. Biit you, confounding these, CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. 165 destroy both ; for, acknowledging God manifest in the flesh, you say the divinity is the flesh itself, the humanity God Himself.' To the second he answers : ' The Kingdom of God, we say, begins in men when they are regenerated ; and we are said to be regenerated when, enlightened by faith in Christ, we yield entire obedience to God. I deny, however, that regeneration takes place in a moment ; it is enough if progress be made therein even to the hour of death.' To the third he says : ' We do not deny that Baptism requires faith ; but not such as is required in the communion of the Supper ; and in respect of Baptism we see it as nugatory until the [)romise of God involved in the rite is apprehended in faith.' He concludes by assimilating the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper to the Circumcision and Pass- over of tlic olden time. Calvin, we thus see, addressed himself not onl)- to the questions sent, but also in answer to the letter which doubtless accompanied them, in which the writer must have given some intimation of his own views. That Calvin's communication, couched in rigidly orthodox terms, though unobjectionable in st)le, was not calculated to satisfy Villeneuve, we cannot doubt, liis mind was already as thoroiiglily made up — even more thoroughly made \\\\ we apprehend, on some of the points advanced — than Calvin's. We are nc^t sur- prised, therefore, to find that the (Jenevese Reformer's i66 MICHAEL SERVETUS. expositions were repudiated as little satisfactory by the l^hysician of Vienne, or to discover that the correspond- ence on his part was not suffered to drop. He appears to have replied immediately, and must have written in sequence no fewer than thirty letters to Calvin on his favourite theological subjects, so many being printed in the ' Christianismi Restitutio.' In answer to these Calvin must also have sent him more than one or two, though certainly many fewer than thirty ; for by the letter to Frelon, written evidently at an early period of the correspondence, we see him already weary of it. With his hands more than full in administering the affairs of the Genevese Church, holding his political opponents the Libertines in check at home, and corre- sponding with friends and the heads of all the other Reformed Churches abroad, it is not wonderful that, besides feeling disquieted by the matter and offended with the manner of Villeneuve's addresses, he had soon made up his mind to have nothing more to do with the writer. He saw, moreover, that he made no im- pression on him, each new epistle being, as he says to a friend, but ' a wearisome iteration of the same cuckoo note.' Calvin's vocation, however, was to be helpful in what he believed to be God's work, and to preach the Gospel as he apprehended it. True to his trust, therefore, and by way of meeting his troublesome cor- respondent's further importunities, — as a balsam com- petent to heal the wounds and strengthen the weak CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. 167 places in the soul of the distempered man, he seems to have thought he might escape further molestation by referring him to his own ' Institutions of the Christian Religion,' his master work, the canon of the Church of which he was the founder and acknowledged head. In this view, as we venture to presume, Calvin sent Villeneuve a copy of his ' Institutions,' and referred him to its pages for satisfactory replies to all his pro- positions. It is impossible to imagine that Servetus had con- tinued until this time unacquainted with Calvin's writ- ings ; he had doubtless read them all ; but he may not have made the 'Institutioxes Religionis Christian.e' the subject of the particular study on which he was now forced, as it were, by its author, and with the re- sult that might have been foreseen : there was hardly a proposition in the text that was not taken to pieces by him, and found untenable, on the ground both of Scripture and Patristic authorit)'. In the course of the correspondence hitherto, Calvin had stood on the vantage ground, as critic of his cor- respondent's views ; but matters were now reversed, for Villeneuve became the critic of the Reformer. He by and by returned the copy of the ' Institutions.' co- piously annotated on the margins, not only in no terms of assent, but generally with the unhappy freedom of expression in whicii he habitually indulged, and so little complimentary to tlie author himself, as it seems, that Calvin, in writing to a friend and in language not i68 MICHAEL SERVETUS. over-savoury, says : — ' There is hardly a page that is not defiled by his vomit' The liberties taken with the * Institutions,' we may well imagine, were looked on as a crowning personal insult by Calvin ; and, read- ing the nature of the man as we do, they may have been that, super-added to the letters, which put such rancour into his soul as made him think of the life of his critic, turned by him into his calumniator, as no more than a fair forfeit for the offence done. It was at this time precisely, as it appears, that Calvin wrote that terribly compromising letter to Farel, so long contested by his apologists, but now admitted on all hands — as indeed how could it be longer denied, seeing that it is still in existence ? — in which he says : * Servetus wrote to me lately, and beside his letter sent me a great volume full of his ravings, telling me with audacious arrogance that I should there find things stupendous and unheard of until now. He offers to come hither if I approve ; but I will not pledge my faith to him ; for did he come, if I have any authority here, I should never suffer him to go away alive.' ^ Nor is this the only letter written at this time by 1 ' Servetus nuper ad me scripsit, ac literas acijunxit longum vohimen suorum deliriorum, cum thrasonica jactantia, diccns me stupenda ct liactenus inaudita visurum. Si mihi placeat, hue se vcnturum rccepit. Sod nolo fidcm meam interponere. Nam si vcncrit, modo valeat mea authoritas, vivum exire nunquam patiar.' Cah in to Farel, dated Ides of Februar)-, 1546. From the original letter in the Paris Librar\- ; a certified copy, pubHshed by Paul Henry in his Lcben Johann Calvins, 3ter. Band ; Ikilagen, S. 65 ; from which the above paragraph is tran- scribed. CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. 169 Calvin which shows with what despite he regarded Servetus. Jerome Bolsec, a quondam monk, now a physician, opposed to the Papacy and but Httle less hostilely inclined to Calvin, speaking of the Reformer's persecution of Servetus — ' an arrogant and insolent man, forsooth,' — and of Servetus having addressed a number of letters to him along with the MS. of a work he had written, and a copy of the ' Institutions of the Christian Religion,' full of annotations little complimen- tary to the author, — goes on to say : ' Since which time Calvin, greatly incensed, conceived a mortal antipathy to the man, and meditated with himself to have him put to death. This purpose he proclaimed in a letter to Pierre Viret of Lausanne, dated the Ides of Feb- ruary (1546). Among other things in this letter, he says : " Servetus desires to come hither, on my invita- tion ; but I will not plight my faith to him ; for I have determined, did he come, that I would never suffer him to go away alive." This letter of Calvin fell into my hands by the providence of God, and I showed it to many worthy persons — I know, indeed, where it is still to be found.' Bolsec says further that Calvin wrote to Cardinal Tournon denouncing Servetus of heresy, some time before making use of William Trie in the same view to the authorities of Lyons and Vienne, and that the Cardinal laughed heartily at the idea of one heretic accusing another. ' This letter of Calvin to Cardinal Tournon,' says Bolsec in continuation, ' was shown to me by Tvl. du Gabre, the Cardinal's secretary. lyo MICHAEL SERVETUS. William Trie also wrote several letters to Lyons and Vienna at the instigation of Calvin, which led to the arrest of Servetus ; but he escaped from prison.' These statements of Bolsec, like the letter to Farel, have been called in question and their truth denied by Calvin's apologists ; but they tally in every respect with what else we know, and explain some things that would have remained obscure without them. If Calvin wrote to Farel in the terms he certainly did, we have no difficulty in believing that he addressed his alter ego, Viret, in the same way. What is said of the letter to Cardinal Tournon, also, has every appearance of truth. The Cardinal took no notice of the heresy pro- claimed from such a quarter as Geneva ; or if he hinted at the matter to his friend the Archbishop of Vienne, Paumier's good report of Doctor Villeneuve put a stop to further inquiry.^ More has probably been made of the letter to Farel, by the enemies of Calvin, than is altogether fair. Grotius, who was the first to notice it, says : ' It shows that Antichrist had not appeared by Tiber only, but by Lake Leman also.' When Calvin wrote to Farel, however, he did not contemplate the likelihood of Servetus ever falling into his hands. Neither, indeed, though grievously offending, had the Spaniard yet 1 Cont. Bolsec (Hieron. Hermes), Docteur Medecin a Lyon : Histoire de la Vie, Moeurs, Actcs, Doctrine, Co7i stance et Mort de Jean Calvin, Grand Ministre a Geneve. Paris 1577, i2mo. Also in Latin, but of later date — Vita Calvini, £^c. CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. 171 shown himself utterly incorrigible, a lost creature, fore- ordained of God, as it seemed, to perdition. At the time Calvin wrote the letter of February, 1546, to Farel His murder yet was but fantastical, It was at a later period, when the guilt as he held it of the man he persistently regarded as the enemy of God and all religion as well as of himself, was full- blown, and the ' Christianismi Restitutio ' appeared in print, that the threat of bygone years took the shape of present stern resolve. Had we but Calvin's letter to Villeneuve, 'written more sharply than was his wont,' we should, beyond question, find matter little calculated to flatter the somewhat presumptuous self-confident man, and may be fully as certain that the terms in which an)^ future missive was couched, were not more soothing or con- ciliatory. But Servetus had come to look on himself as commissioned in some sort by God to proclaim a purer form of Christianity to the world ; and any as- sumption of superiority on the part of Calvin, was met by a four-fold show of independence from himself. Yet does Servetus, once embarked in the correspon- dence, satisfy us that he had fallen under the spell of the great Reformer; fascinated as it seems by him and, far from being repelled by either his coldness or his harshness, finding it impossible to forbear making ever new attempts upon his patience for recognition, were it even of a little complimentary kind. MICHAEL SERVE! US. The ' great volume full of ravings,' spoken of in the letter to Farel, must have been a MS. copy of the ' Chris- tianismi Restitutio,' already written, but not perhaps finally revised. Upon this work it does not appear that Calvin ever condescended to offer any strictures ; although it was doubtless accompanied by a letter — not printed among the thirty — requesting an opinion on its merits. But even as he never had anything of the kind, neither, although repeatedly asked for, both directly and through others, as we learn, could Serve- tus ever get back his manuscript. Whether retained in mere contempt, or as evidence against the writer, with occasion presenting, as has been surmised, we do not know ; but certain it is that Calvin remained per- sistently deaf to all the writer's entreaties to have his work returned to him. If not purposely retained in view of the contingency hinted at, it was eventually used in such wise ; for it was among the Documents furnished by Calvin through Trie to the authorities of Vienne with the immediate effect of bringing about the arrest of its writer and imperilling his life. Turn we to the letters to Calvin, less in view of their theological import — the point from which alone they have hitherto been regarded by the biographers of Servetus— than as calculated to let us into the secret of the misunderstanding and enmity that took such entire possession of the mind of the Genevese Re- former. In Servetus's style of address, as we have said, we at once note an entire absence of the obseqiii- CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. 173 ousness to which Calvin was accustomed. Far from approaching the Reformer as a GamaHel at whose feet he was to kneel and take lessons, Servetus assumes the part, not merely of the equal, but often of the superior, and is by no means nice in the terms in which he challenges the points he holds erroneous in the doctrines of the great man he is addressing. In the very hrst of the thirty epistles he wrote, whilst stating an opinion which he knew Calvin must think heretical or even blasphemous, he 'desires him to remem- ber — niemineris qiiceso, &c. — that the Man, Jesus Christ, was truly begotten of the substance of God ; ' and in the second of the series informs him quite bluntly that he is mistaken in his interpretation of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. He even attempts to fix him on the horns of a dilemma by showing that Calvin's view, if accepted, would lead to the assumption not of one Son of God, but of three Sons of God. ' But all such tritheistic notions,' he continues, ' are illusions of Satan, and they who acknowledge the Trinity of the Beast (i.e. of Papal Christianity) are possessed by three spirits of demons. False are all the invisible Gods of the Trinitarians, as false as the gods of the Baby- lonians. Farewell!' This at the outset is certainly not very respectful from the physician of Viennc to the Spiritual Dictator of Geneva ! The third epistle commences in the same easy style : * Seep ins tc nionui — I have repeatedly admo- nished you.' It is on the way in which he imagines 174 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Christ to have been engendered by God, and so to be truly and naturally His Son ; adding that he has always taught the eternity of the Divine Reason, styled The Word, as prefiguring Christ, in whose face at the Incarnation, he says, Man first verily saw the face of God. ' You are offended with me,' he proceeds, ' for speaking as I do of the human form of Christ ; but have patience and I shall lead you up to my conclusion — te manducaml etc. Fancy John Calvin feeling himself taken in hand by Michael Servetus ! The fourth, sixth, and seventh epistles are remark- able for their pantheistic views. ' God,' says Servetus, * is only known through manifestation, or communica- tion, in one shape or another. In Creation God opened the gates of His Treasury of Eternity,' says Jie very grandly. ' Containing the Essence of the Universe in Himself, God is everywhere, and in every thing, and in such wise that he shows himself to us as fire, as a flower, as a stone.' Existence, in a word, of every kind is in, and of, God, and in itself is always good ; it is act or direction that at any time is bad. But evil as well as good he thinks is also comprised in the essence of God. This is indicated, he conceives, by the Hebrew word, »n^ (ihei) ; and he illustrates his position by the text : ' I form light and create dark- ness.' All accidents, further, are in God ; w^hatever befals is not apart from God. Without beginning and without end, God is always becoming — Semper est Dens in Jicri. CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. 175 In the eighth and ninth letters he informs Calvin that he 'would have him know how the Logos and Sapientia, the Divine Word, the Divine Reason, were to be understood, in order that he should not go on abusing these sacred words ; ' and it is here that we meet with various expressions which only acquire sig- nificance when the pantheistic ideas with which he is full are borne in mind. Here, too, we find the reason why he would not concede that Calvin and the Reformers held the true belief in Christ as the Son of God : — Ille est vere Jilius Dei qitem in miLliei^e genttit Dens, non ille quern tic somniasti ! Neither did the Reformers, in his eyes, rightly apprehend Ju.stificatiox, which, ac- cording to him, only comes through belief in the Son- ship of Christ as he conceives it. In the eleventh epistle he says he thinks it will be labour well spent if he exposes the error into which his correspondent falls in his interpretation of the Doctrine of James. Calvin and his sect, we know, set" little store by works of charity and mercy. ' All that men do,' proceeds our letter-writer, 'you say is done in sin and is mixed with dregs that stink before God, and merit nothing but eternal death. But therein you blaspheme. Stripping us of all possible goodness you do violence to the teaching of Christ and his Apostles, who ascribe perfection or the power of being perfect to us : " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matt. v. 4S.) You scout this celestial perfection because you have never tasted perfection of 176 MICHAEL SERVE TUS. the kind yourself. In the works of the Saintly, I say, there is nothing of the corruption you feign. The works of the Spirit shine before God and before men, and in themselves are good and proper. Thou reprobate and blasphemer, who calumniatest the works of the Spirit — Tit wiprobiis et blasphemiis qui opera Spiritiis cahnu- niaris ! ' Can we wonder at Calvin's rage with the man who dared to address him in such language as this ? On his trial at Geneva Servetus tells his judges that the correspondence between him and the Reformer degenerated by degrees on both sides into mutual re- crimination and abuse. In the above objectionable passage we see, if not the beginning, yet a significant sample of this unhappy style, which continues even to the end. Had we Calvin's letters, we should certainly find them not more guarded in expression — for Calvin was a master of invective, with a superabundant voca- bulary of epithets at command, and never choice in the use of those he applied to opponents — rascal, dog, ass, and swine being fourd of constant occurrence among them — had there been any stronger than scoun- drel and blasphemer, they would assuredly have been hurled at Servetus. Referring to the subject of Justification, Calvin, as we presume, must have said, in one of his letters, that Justification is impittcd by God, and that no change takes place in him who is justified. To this Servetus, in his thirteenth ejpistle, exclaims : ' What do I hear ? CORRESPOXDENCE WITH CALVIN. 177 The spirit of man suffers no change through sin ! But if sin cause changre, then must there also be chanore when sin is taken away. He, forsooth, who sits in darkness differs in nothing from him who sits in hght ! Your justification is Satanic merely if the conscience within you remains as it was before, and your new life of faith differs in nothing- from the old death. God grant, O Calvin, that, ridding you of your magical fascinations, you may abound to overflowing in all good things ; but Peter's disputation against Simon Magus refutes you, teaching, as it does, the excellence of works even in the heathen. The justification you preach, therefore, is mere magical fascination and folly.' In another of his letters Calvin must have asked Servetus where the Apostle John teaches that we in this world are such as was Christ ? Which his corre- spondent answers by referring him to the fourth chapter of the Epistle general, where he would find these words : ' Because as he is, so are we in this world.' We can fanc)' how vexed Calvin must have been with himself for the slip he had made, as well as angry with the triumph of his opponent, who con- tinues : ' But you neither rightly understand Faith in Christ, nor good works, nor the Celestial Kingdom. In the New Covenant a new and living way was inaugurated ; but you, true Jew — /?/ vera ytidaico — would shame me by a show of zeal and whelm me with contumely because I say with Christ, "Ho N 178 MICHAEL SERVETUS who is least shall in this Kingdom be greater than Abraham." ' If Calvin neither understands the nature of Faith, nor of Justification, we shall not wonder when we find that no more is he credited with comprehending Re- generation, ' You have not understood true Regenera- tion, nor the Celestial Kingdom, whereof Faith is the gate. Regeneration, I maintain, comes through baptism ; you say that Christ thought nothing of the water. But is It not written that we are born anew by water } and is it not of water that Paul speaks when he designates baptism the Laver of Regeneration, saying, "We are cleansed from sin by washing with water ? " Men, 3/ou say, are regenerate when they are enlightened ; you must therefore concede that they who are baptized in their infancy, being without understanding and so un- enlightened, cannot be regenerated. Yet do you contend that they are properly baptized. Dissevering regeneration from baptism you make baptism a sign of adoption ; but you deceive yourself in this, the Scrip- tures declaring that adoption is effected when to the believer is given the spirit of the divine Sonship — irvevixa 'TLo6ecrLo<5. On your own showing, then, infants, being unregenerate, can enter the Kingdom of Heaven neither by faith nor by hope ; and thou, thief and robber — hi F^lt et Latro (!) — keepest them from the gate. As a prelude to Baptism Peter required repent- ance. Let your infants repent, then ; and do you yourself repent and come to baptism, having true faith CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. 179 in Jesus Christ — poeniteat te igitttr,etvere JesiL Chris ti fide ad baptismum accede — to the end that you may receive the gift of the Holy Spirit promised therein. But you satisfy yourself with illusions, and say that the infants who die [unbaptized ?] were predestined, impu- dently misusing sacred speech as is your wont ; for in the Scriptures predestination is not spoken of save in connection with belief and believers. God, I say, sees no one justified from eternity unless he believes.' Let { us think of Calvin, spiritual dictator to one half of re-J formed Christendom, schooled in this style by the poor body-curer of Vienna ! called thief and robber to his face, and all the more irate with his teacher from feeling, as we fancy he must have felt, that he had not always the best of the argument. Servetus's dialectic is at least a match for his own. But our restorer of Christianity has not yet done with his paedo-baptism : the subject is continued in the next letter, which closes with a prayer in the very finest spirit of piety, but to Calvin may possibly have seemed profane, he having made up his mind that Servctus was not only without religion himself, but bent on effacing religion from the heart of man. Here is the prayer : — ' O thou, most merciful Jesus, who with such signs of love and blessing didst take the little ones into thine arms, bless them now and ever, and with Thy guiding hand so lead them that in faith they may become par- takers of Thy Heavenly Kingdom. Amen!' N 2 i8o MICHAEL SERVKTUS. Calvin, we believe, treats the ' Descent into Hell ' as legendary. Servetus thinks the Hebrew word Sclieol signifies the gi^ave as well as the traditional hell, and seems to make it a kind of resting-place for the unregenerate until the resurrection. Adam, he says, by his transgression fell both soul and body into the power of the Serpent. But where can the soul of him be after death who is the slave of such a master ? Are not the orates of Paradise closed aQ^ainst him ? — is not the whole man given over to the power of the mighty tyrant ? Who shall set him free ? No one, assuredly, but Christ ' — and so on, in terms entirely unobjection- able, and in complete conformity with accredited opinion ; but tending, we imagine, to what is called Universalisni, Servetus believing, as we read him, that all men would be saved in the end, though ordinary sinners would have to wait until the day of Judgment. He nowhere speaks of any lake of burning brimstone, fanned by the Devil, in which the wicked are tortured throughout eternity. Annihilation, with him, is the penalty of unpardonable sin. The Twentieth Epistle is especially interesting as showing us the very heart of the writer ; letting us into his secret, as it were, and showing us the ideas that led him to his scheme of restoring the lapsed faith of man- kind in Christ as the naturally begotten Son of God, and of reconstituting his Church, long vanished from the face of the earth. The true Church, however, is not to be thought of as an institution made by man, CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. but as a foundation originated by Christ. And the question as to where this true Church exists, is not difficult of determination if the authority of the Scrip- tures be admitted as paramount in matters of beHef. But the authority of the Scriptures, and of the true Church represented by those purified by the water of baptism and governed by the Holy Spirit, he says, is equal: ' The true Church of Christ, indeed, is inde- pendent of the Scriptures. There zvas a Church of Christ before there was any writing of the Apostles. But where is now the Church ? Ever present in celestial spirits and the souls of the blest, it fled from earth as many as i 260 years ago. It is in heaven, and typified by the woman adorned with the sun and the twelve stars (Revelation). Invisible among us now, it will again be seen before long. We with ours, the con- gregation of Christ, will be the Church. Towards the) restoration of this Church it is that I labour incessantly ; j and it is because I mix myself up with that battle of Michael and the Angels, and seek to have all the pious on my side, that you are displeased with me. As the good angels did battle in heaven against the Dragon, so do other angels now contend against the Papacy on earth. Do you not believe that the angels will prevail ? But as the Dragon could not, so neither can the Papacy, be worsted without the angels. The celestial regene- ration by baptism it is that makes us equals of the angels in our war with spiritual iniquity. See you not, then, that the Question is the restoration of the Church MICHAEL SERVETUS. driven from among us ? The words of John show us that a battle was in prospect : seduction was to precede, the battle was to follow ; and the time is now at hand. Who, think you, are they who shall gain the victory over the Beast ? They, assuredly, who have not received his mark. Grant, O God, to thy soldier that with thy might he may manfully bear him against the Dragon, who gave such power to the Beast. Amen ! ' In the above we have the whole mystical being of the man laid bare before us, and the nature of the cause in which he was enofaofed made known. Ser- vetus certainly believed that he was an instrument in the hand of God for proclaiming a better saving faith to the world. It was by a certain Divine impulse, he says himself, that he was led to his subject, and woe to him did he not evangelise ! He seems even to have thouQfht that he had his vocation shadowed out to him in his name. The ang-el Michael led the embattled hosts of heaven to war against the Dragon ; and he, Michael Servetus, had been chosen to lead the angels on earth against Antichrist ! The Roman interpreta- tion of Christianity, with its Pope and hierarchy, its as- sumed sovereignty, its pompous ceremonial and ritual- istic apparatus, had failed to make the world either wiser or better ; the entire system was rotten to the core ; hence the revolt of such scholarly monks as Erasmus and Luther, and of such learned priests as Zwingli, Calvin, Melanchthon, Bullinger, Bucer, and the CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. 183 rest. But they, too, still showed more or less of the * mark of the Beast' They had rid themselves of the Mass and Transubstantiation, of compromises for sin by payments in money, of monkeries, nunneries, the invocation of saints, prayers to the Virgin, and so on ; but they had retained much that was objectionable — particularly a Trinity of persons in the Godhead {tantamount, said Servetus, to the recognition of three Gods instead of one God), and infant baptism. By their strenuous insistance on the effects of^ Adam's transgression as compromising mankind at large, and Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his only son, they had moreover interspersed the religion of Christ with such an amount of Judaism that their Christianity was in many respects a relapse into the bonds of the Law, from which Christ had set us free. A reformation of the Church had been commenced, therefore, but was by no means completed ; much still remained to be done ; the world was waiting, in fact, for a better in- terpretation of Christ's life and doctrine as contained in the Gospels, and this the studies and meditations of Michael Servetus, he believed, qualified him in no mean measure to supply. Hence the books on Trinitarian Error and the Restoration of Christianity ; and hence, also, the hostility of Calvin and his followers, who were minded that they had already reformed and restored, and verily represented, or were in fact, the true Church. Like the leaders of other bands of enthusiasts of 1 84 MICHAEL SERVETUS. which the world has seen so many, Servetus, relying on the New Testament record, thought that the day was at hand when Christ should appear in the clouds to judge the world and consummate all things. He overlooked the fact that Paul, whom he resembled in so many respects, had had the same fancy fifteen hun- dred years before him, and that matters had neverthe- less gone on much as they had always done, without the day of judgment having dawned. Calvin with his educated understanding and his experience of the world, ought to have seen Servetus as the pious enthu- siast he was in fact, and not as the enemy of God and Religion, as well as of himself Failing to cure him of his extravagant fancies, he might safely have left him to indulge them, as being little likely to compromise his own or any other system of Christianity, the Papacy perhaps excepted, to which the would-be Restorer was truly much more violently opposed than the Reformer. But hate had blinded Calvin ; considerations personal to himself had complicated and in some sort superseded such as were associated with relifrion. On the subject of Faith, to which Calvin's system gave much less free play than Luther's, we find Ser- vetus sidino- with him of the North rather than him of the South. Neither of them, however, as we have seen, had any conception of faith In the way Servetus understood it. Faith, says he, consists in a certain compliant state of mind, proclaimed by unquestioning assent. This, the true saving faith, Is of the kind CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. 185 avowed by Peter when he declared Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the Hving God. Yet faith even of this kind, distinctly as it has the lead in Servetus's Christology, is not yet all in all : to become efficient or saving, it must be conjoined with Charity. ' If faith be not clothed with charity,' says he, ' it dies in nakedness ; and as habit is strengthened by action, the body by exercise, and the understanding by study, so is faith strengthened by good works.' The subject-will and fatalism, asserted by Calvin in his doctrine of predes- tination and election, have therefore no real foundation in Scripture ; nay more, there is unreason in the as- sumption of such a principle, and in the admonition! given to mankind to do that which it must be known beforehand they cannot do. ' You speak,' says our writer, ' of free acts, yet really say that there is no such thing as free action. But who so de^void of under- standing as to prescribe free choice to one incapable of choosing freely ! It is mere fatuity besides to derive subject-will from this : that it is God who acts in us. Truly God does act in us ; but in such wise that we act freely. He acts in us so that we understand and will, choose, determine, and pursue. Even as all things consist essentially in God, so do all things proceed es- sentially from him. The Spirit of God is innate in man, and as the power to do is one thing, so is the necessity to do another. Although God elects us as the potter does his clay, it by no means follows that MICHAEL SERVETUS. we are nothing more than clay. Paul's simile deceives you ; it is not universally applicable.' The Law of Moses, Calvin has said, is still in force and to be observed by us as truly as it was by the Jews ; violating it, he says, we violate the Law of God, Servetus's reply to this is the burden of the Twenty- third and three following Letters. ' I fancy I hear some Jew or Mussulman speaking here,' says our re- spondent. ' But to what is violence done — is it to a stone, or to certain letters cut in a stone ? Christ, I say, accomplished the Law and then it was abrogated ; in him we have the New Covenant, the Old super- seded ; in him are we made free. The law of Moses was unbearable ; it slew the soul, it increased sin, it beofat anofer ; virtue itself throuo^h it became at times transgression, and in compassion for our frailty it was annulled. You make God exercise a rude and miser- able people in a mill-round. What would you say were some tyrant to require mountains of gold or the stars of heaven from your Genevese, and threaten them with death for non-compliance with his demands ? But the Old Law bound men to impossibilities. Art thou not then ashamed of slavery and tyrannical vio- lence ? Inisisting on the observance of this law, you yet go on dreaming with your Luther, and saying that no one ever entirely fulfilled the commandment which says " thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and soul." David and others, then, who said that they sought God with all their heart and strove with CORRESPONDENCE WITH CALVIN. 187 all their might to keep his commandments, are but liars to you. And zv/iat, after all, are the laws of Moses? If conformable to Nature then are they the laws of God, the author of Nature, older than Moses, and to be observed of Christians indep evidently of Moses. But God never required obedience of the kind you imagined ; he but asks of each according to his strength. Cease then, O Calvin, to torture us with the law of Moses, and to insist on its observance. It looks as if you had a mind to be pitied of God in your impo- tency — of God who may be said so often to have had to take pity on the Jews when they were under the law.' Who shall say that Michael Servetus was not in advance of John Calvin ? The twenty-seventh, eighth, and ninth epistles are only significant as expositions of doctrinal views in their bearing on social life. Is it lawful, he asks, for a Christian to assume the magistracy ? to administer the laws of the land and to take the lives of evil-doers ? Of course it is. The order of the world is maintained by law and justice. But then to take life } Where there is hope of amendment, as in the case of the woman taken in adultery, we see the penalty of death remitted : Go, said Jesus to her, and sin no more. But even where there is malice and unyielding ob- stinacy, recourse. is to be had to chastisement of other kinds than taking life. Among these, banishment, ap- proved by Christ, and excommunication, practised by the Church, are to be commended. Schism and MICHAEL SERVETUS. heresy were punished in this way whilst traces of apostoHc tradition remained. Criminals, in matters not pertaining to the faith, are variously punished by the laws of every country ; and this is in conformity with natural law. They bear the sword aright and lawfully who bear it in the cause of justice and to the repression of crime ; and it is not against gospel pre- cepts that we serve as soldiers in defence of our lives and possessions. Servetus, we find, accords rather extensive powers to Bishops, whom, in opposition to Calvin, he recog- nises, and to Ministers of the Church generally. Bishops, like good shepherds, are to know their flocks, and to take care that no infection gets in among them ; ministers again — he does not use the word priests — are privileged to reconcile sinners to God, and to punish unbelievers by excommunicating them and delivering them over to Satan and spiritual death. Their authority, however, is only to be exercised under the guidance of the Spirit — what spirit he does not say. Confession, too, he approves of, but the minister is not to be consulted save in case of some grave doubt or difficulty arising. Our writer is greatly displeased with Calvin's inter- pretation of the parable of the labourers in the vine- yard, in which like wages are given to those hired at every hour of the day ; from which the Reformer infers that there is no difference or distinction in glory, in faith, or in works. ' To you truly,' says Servetus, CORRESPOXDENCE WITH CALVIN. 189 ' there needs no distinction as to less or more ; for with you these are all alike of non-avail, some as you maintain being saved with, as some are saved without, merit of their own. But it is faith that of the Impious makes the pious, of the dead the living. Ignorant of all gospel truth is he who does not attach supreme significance to faith in Christ as the Son of God.' The concluding epistle of the series must have given great offence to Calvin, the writer reproaching him with settinof the Christian on no higher level than the vulgar Jew. ' They are alike to you, Indeed, alike carnal, because to you are the benefits of Christ's coming unknown ; to you who in the Supper partake of nothing more than a trope or figure, and who treat baptism as the equivalent of a Levltical rite, the sign of a thing that is not. But In the Supper we, nourished by immortal food, for a terrestrial have a new celestial life imparted to us, and how should he perish who has once partaken of Christ ? May God give you to re- ceive all these things with a true understanding, led by the spirit of truth, by Jesus Christ and the Father. Amen.' Scoutino- the Roman Catholic dogfma of transubstantiatlon, as he did, we here find Servctus speaking as if he believed that it was the body of Christ indeed that was partaken of in the Supper ! To understand this in him his pantheistic notions must again be taken into account. But pantheism, when not detached from the idea of personality, in the usual ac- ce[)tation of the word, leads inevitably to such absurdity. I90 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Speaking as he does now, Servetus forgets his philo- sophy and yields himself up to his mysticism. With as much justice might he have said that Cannibals partake of God when they eat one another, as that the Christian communicant partakes of Christ when he joins the simple, solemn, commemorative feast. ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: 191 CHAPTER XVII. • CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO ' THE RESTORATION OF CHRISTIANITY — DISCOVERY OF THE PULMONARY CIR- CULATION. We have seen that Servetus could never recover his MS. of the Restoration of Christianity from the hands of Calvin. But he had not sent his work for the re- view of the Reformer without retaining a copy for him- self, and this he determined now to have printed and sent abroad into the world. With this view he forwarded the Manuscript to a publisher of Basle, Marrinus by name, with whom — if we may infer so much from the address of the publisher's letter to him declining the work — he must have been on terms of intimacy. Mar- rinus's letter is short, to the point, and in the following terms : — * Gratia et pax a Deo, Michael carissime! — the grace and peace of God be with you, dearest Michael ! I have received your letter and your book ; but I fancy that on reflection you will see why it cannot be pub- lished at Basle at this present time. When I have perused it [more carefully] I shall therefore return it to you by the accredited messenger you may send for 192 MICHAEL SERVE! US. it~ But I beg you not to question my friendly feelings towards you. To what you say besides I shall reply at greater length and more particularly on another occasion. Farewell ! Thy Marrinus. ' Basle, April 9, 1552.' The MS., even on a cursory perusal, had evidently frightened the worthy publisher of Basle : he would have nothing to do with it ; but this did not put our author from his purpose of publication. Not going so far afield as Basle, he took Balthasar Arnoullet, book- seller and publisher, and William Geroult, manager of his printing establishment, both of Vienne, into his confidence, giving them to understand that though the book he wished to have printed was against the doctrines of Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon, and other heretics, there were many reasons why neither his name as the author, nor Vienne as the place of publication, should appear on the title-page. Arnoullet, like Marrinus, must have had misgivings about the reception the book was likely to meet with from the clergy of France, and, aware of the danger he incurred who printed and published aught out of confor- mity with the doctrines of the holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, he too must have declined in the first instance to undertake the work. But Michel Villeneuve had been prosperous ; he had money in his purse, and engaging not only to take the whole of the expenses on himself, but to add a gratuity of 100 crowns to the cost, ' CHRISTIAN IS MI RESTITUTIO: 193 Arnoullet consented at last to run the risk of publication, meaning, however, that the world at large should know nothing of him as instrumental in the business. No one then knew that Secerius of Hagenau had printed the ' De Trinitatis Erroribus,' or that its author, Michael Servetus, was Doctor Villeneuve. Why should it ever transpire that Balthasar Arnoullet of Vienne had printed the ' Restitutio Christianismi,' or that iNIonsieur Michel Villeneuve the physician was its writer ? To keep the secret within their own circle, therefore, the work must not be composed in the usual place of business, and none but the most indispensable hands be employed upon it. /\, small house, away from the known printing establishment, was accordingly taken ; t)pe cases and a press were there set up, and the work once entered on proceeded regularly without interrup- tion during a period of between three and four months, when the impression, consisting of 1,000 copies, was successfully worked off. Arnoullet, although wc shall by and by find liim declarincr his entire i^morance of the burden of the book, and charging his manager, Geroult, with having deceived him on this head and b)- misrepresentations induced him to meddle with the publication at all. must nevertheless have been well aware of its nature. The measures taken to keep the outside world in ignorance of what was going on, the arrangement with the author to be his own reader for press, and the premium paid, give the lie to all his asseverations. Servetus, too, o 194 MICHAEL SERVETUS. in his determination to keep his name from the title- page, and leave this blank of the place of publication, shows that neither was he blind to the danger that waited on the production of such a book as the Resto- ration of Christianity in Roman Catholic France. The printing press, though eagerly welcomed on all hands at first, soon fell out of favour with the Church of Rome, and so continues with that conspiracy against the rights, the liberties, and the progress of mankind. But Michael Servetus was too vain, too thoroughly persuaded of his own apostolic mission to the world, to leave his book, the crowning labour of his life, without some sufficient mark of its paternity. On the last page, accordingly, we find the initials of his name and desig- nation in capital letters, thus, M.S. V., immediately over the date MDLIIL, the year of the intended publica- tion. But even so much was not wanted to proclaim the author. Innocently or inadvertently he says in his Preface that he had formerly treated briefly of the subjects he is now about to discuss at greater length ; and in the body of the work he may even be said to make his appearance in person, and in his proper name ; for we there have Michael and Peter as inter- locutors, precisely as in the old ' Dialogi ij de Trinitate ' of the year 1532. Printed with every precaution to secure secrecy, with nothing intentionally about it to lead the unini- tiated to suspect what was meant by the M.S.V. at the end, or a hint, even had it been divined that Michael ' CHRIS TIANI SMI RESTITUTIO: 195 Servetus Yillanovanus was thereby indicated, to show that he and Michel Villeneuve of Vienne were one and the same personage, it is obvious that the ' Christianismi Restitutio ' was not intended for pubHcation or sale either in Vienne or France — probably not even in Basle or Geneva, in the first instance. Villeneuve would keep the place where he lived, and the country that sheltered him, as well as the nearest neighbouring land, out of the storm which he plainly foresaw v/ould be raised by his daring innovations on accredited Christian doctrine, and his more than Luther-like denunciations of the Papacy. The whole impression was therefore made up into bales of 100 copies in each, of which five were confided to the safe keeping of Pierre Merrin, typefounder of Lyons — a brother in all likelihood of the Marrinus of Basle, with whose name we are already acquainted — in view of their being forwarded by water to Genoa and Venice. A bale or two we know were sent by Ar- noullet to his agent at P>ankfort ; and as Frelon was now in the secret of Servetus, we can hardly doubt of his having taken some share in the venture and des- patched at least a bale to the same great emporium of the book trade. It must have been from Frelon, indeed, that Calvin by and by obtained the couple of copies of the ' Restitutio' he required for the purposes of the pro- secution he had instituted against its author ; and it is almost certainly to him, not to Robert Pltienne, the bookseller of Geneva, as has been said, that Calvin refers in his letter to the Frankfurt Clergy ' as a well- o 2 196 MICHAEL SERVETUS. disposed person who will put no obstacle in the way of the seizure and destruction of the obnoxious book which he has learned had been sent for exposition and sale among them.' The remainder of the impression — and there could now have been little of it left on hand — for safe stowage away from the Archiepiscopal city of Vienne, was confided by Arnoullet to the custody of a friend, Bertet by name, resident at Chatillon.^ ' It is a capital mistake to suppose, as Mosheim and others have done, tliat the CJiristianismi Restitutio was ever exposed for sale, or readily to be had either at Geneva or elsewhere. It cannot be shown that more than four or five copies at most of the book ever left the bales in which the whole im- pression Avas packed. There \\?i%, firsts the copy sent, as I venture to think, by Servetus through Frelon to Calvin, which led to the arrest and trial at Vienne. Second, the copy taken from the five bales seized at Lyons for the use of the Inquisitor Ory. Third, the copy transmitted for their inspection to the Swiss Churches and Councils. Fourtli, the copy given to Colladon by way of Brief by Calvin, with the passages underscored, on which Servetus was finally arraigned and condemned. And Eifth, the copy which we find Calvin sending to Bullinger at his request. Of these copies one may even have served two ends : after making the round of the Churches and coming again into Calvin's hands, it may very well have been that which he despatched to Bullinger. That the book •vas not to be had immediately after the execution of Servetus is proved conclusively by what Sebastian Castellio, the accredited author of the \\ork entitled, Contra Libellunt Calviui, says on the subject : He had not been able to obtain a sight of .S'er7'etns's boo/:, so as to i)iforni himself of what he 7i>rites, Calvin having taken such pains to have it burned — ' einn Serveti libros, quippe conibustos diligentia Calvini, nan habearn, ut ex iis possemvidere quid scriberet i' The CJiristianismi Restitutio, 'm izct, xc- mained completely unknown in the Republic of Letters until its e.\istence was proclaimed by Wotton in his Reflections on Learning, Ancient and Modern, in the year 1694 fall but a century and a half after the death of its author), by the publication of the passage on the pulmonary circulation, extracted, we must conclude, from the copy that was then in England, and subsequently became, if it were not already, the property of Dr. I\leade — the identical copy with the name on the title-page of Germain Colladon, the advocate who prosecuted Servetus at the instance of Calvin, now in the national library of Paris. ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: 197 The book on the ' Restoration of Christianity,' ^ often spoken of, though so rare as seldom to be seen, com- prises a series of disquisitions on the speculative and practical principles of Christianity, as apprehended by the author ; thirty letters to John Calvin ; a disquisition on as many as sixty signs of the reign of Antichrist, and an apologetic address to Philip Melanchthon and Ills followers. ' The task we have set ourselves here,' says the Author in his Preface or Introduction, ' is truly sub- lime ; for it is no less than to make God known in his substantial manifestation by The Word and his divine communication by the Spirit, both comprised in Christ, througfh whom alone do we learn how the divineness of the Word and the S})irit may be apprehended in Man. Hidden from human sight in former times, God is now both manifested and communicated to the world, manifestation taking place l^y the Word, com- munication by the Spirit, to the end that wc may see liim face to face as it were in Creation, and feel him intuitively but lucidly declared in ourselves. It is hit:h time that the door leadin;/ to knowledge of this ' Tlic title f>f the ()ii;4inal, in full, is as follows : — C/ifistiiiiiisini Rcslitiitio. Totius ICcclcsia* Apostolical est ad sua limina vocatio, in Integrum Kcstituta Cognitionc Dei, Fidci Chiisti, Justitica- tionis nostra.^, Rcgenerationis Daptismi, ct Ccin c Domini Manducatinnis Restitutio denique nobis Regno Coclcsli, Jiabylonis impia Captivitatc ^iiluta, et Antirhiisto cum suis pcnitus destruclo. ib'n ns3*o nT^y smh nyn KcCi. iyivfTO TrdXf/iOf fV rto wj^avw. MDLIII. MICHAEL SER VE TUS. kind were opened ; for otherwise no one can either know God truly, read the Scriptures aright, or be a Christian.' How much the writer is in earnest is farther pro- claimed by the Invocation to Christ and the Address to the Reader with which he concludes his Introduction : ' O Christ Jesus, Son of God, Thou Who wast given to us from heaven, Thou Who in Thyself makest Deity visibly manifest, I, Thy servant, now proclaim Thee, that so great a manifestation may be made known to all. Grant then to Thy petitioner Thy good Spirit and Thy effectual Speech ; guide Thou his mind and his pen that he may worthily declare the glory of Thy Divinity, and give pious utterance to the true faith concerning Thee. The cause indeed is Thine, for by a certain Divine impulse it is that I am led to speak of Thy Glory from the Father. In former days did I begin to treat of this, and again do I enter upon it ; for now am I to be made known to all the pious ; now truly are the days complete, as appears from the certainty of the thing itself and the visible signs of the times. The Light Thou hast said is not to be hidden ; so woe to me do I not evangelise ! ' It rests with thee, then, O Reader, that thou show thyself well disposed towards Christ, even to the End, and that thou hear our subject discussed at length in words of truth without disguise.' After a somewhat careful perusal of the ' Christian- ismi Restitutio,' we know not how it could be better ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: 199 or more briefly characterised, in its theoretical portion at least, than as a paraphrase and new interpretation of the Gospel according to John, in which the Neo-pla- tonic doctrine of the Logos is particularly discussed, and copiously interfused with pantheistic ideas, whilst the dos^matic teaching: of the Church of Rome and its practical application is repudiated in toto, and the chief doctrines of Lutheran and Calvinistic Christianity are controverted. Assuming the leading positions of the writer as guides, we should say that in his philosophy he regards the world as a manifestation and communication of God in time and space, manifestation taking place, as he says, through the Word, communication through the agency called Spirit. The first of things in which God showed Himself, he says, was Light, which he speaks of as uncreated — lux increata, essence or first principle of things — all existence, all generation being effected by the energising power of light. In, and of, and first manifested by light, God, however, is not identified therewith, any more than with the things of creation, in all of which he is still held to be immanent. God indeed in himself is supersensuous and incompre- hensible, for he transcends all things — mind as well as matter. When not sought to be defined b)- negatives, God is to be thouQ-ht of as Absolute Beincr, and all existence, as deriving from him, is to be accounted divine, although in diverse degrees. The manifold manifestations whicli God makes of MICHAEL SERVETUS. himself in nature are referred to a single dispensation or mode, the mode of the Plenitude of Substance, which comprises all other modes or dispensations in their endless diversity, patterns or types of all things that be having been present in the mind of God before they were in themselves. An architypal universe is there- fore assumed as having existed before the actual world came into being, and this, says Servetus, is the Logos of Scripture and Philosophy — the Divine Reason, wherein reflected all things showed themselves visibly. Ea ipsa crat \6yo<;, erat ratio mirifica in qua omnia visibiliter relucebat. The Logos— Divine Word, Divine Wisdom, God himself, in fact — it is that is revealed or manifested in Creation, as in the fulness of time it also became incarnate in Christ ; for, even as before Creation the world existed ideally in God, so before the incarnation was Christ potentially present in the Divine mind as the Divine word, in the same way as the future plant is extant in the seed. From the be- ginning, therefore, it was a virtual or potential Son, not any actual co-eternal Son, who existed beside the Father, the Son first acquiring form and substance in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and being made parti- cipant of the Holy Spirit at the moment of his birth when he began to breathe ; for Servetus assimilated the abstraction entitled Spirit to breath or wind : God, say the Scriptures, breathed into the nostrils of man and he became a living soul. Possessed, as he was, by the principles of the Neo- ' CHIUSTIANJSMI RESTITUTIO: platonic and other more ancient philosophies, Servetus assimilates Christ to the Demiurgos, and makes of him the architect and fashioner of the world — ilic iimndi Architcdus CJiristus — Creator even of the elements from which, intermingled, are educed the substantial forms of things. How this was brought about if Christ only became a reality at his birth, he does not say. But it is not a little interesting to note how nearly our own Great King of transcendental song approaches some of these fancies of our author, for Milton too speaks of Light as Offspring of heaven firstborn, Or of the eternal coeternal beam ; Since God is h'ght, And never but in unapproached h'ght, Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate. A little further on he also has the Son as Acrent in o Creation : — And thou, my ^^'ord, begotten Son, by thee This I perform : speak tliou and be it done. Creation ended, he continues : — The filial Son arrived and sat him down \\\\\\ his great P\ither I Into what labyrinths arc mc-n led when the)' give the rein to imagination, and the demon of speculation divorced from science is suffered to have his uncon- trolled way! Coming to a more particular analysis of the ' Re- stitutio,' we find the first book treating' of the man MICHAEL SERVETUS. Jesus, in which he is shown to be, ist, Man; 2nd, Son of God ; and 3rd, God. I. The name Jesus [Joshua, Hebraice], says Servetus, is the name of a man and was given on the day of the Circumcision ; the cognomen Christ [Xpto-ros, Grsece, the anointed], was bestowed by the Disciples, but never admitted by the Jews, who only knew Jesus as the son of Joseph. There was indeed frequent dis cussion among the disciples themselves, whether Jesus was the Messiah or not ; and we know that kings, in virtue of the anointing at their coronation, were en- titled Christs — Cyrus, for instance, is called Masach by the Prophet, the word Christ being no more than the Hebrew title translated into Greek. II. It is as a Son of God, — mo? ©eov — that Jesus is spoken of in the Scriptures. But If so, then is he to be thought of as engendered by God as thou by thy father, God, it is true, is in a certain sense the Father of all men as he is of Jesus ; but we are his sons by adoption as Jesus is his Son by nature. Jesus, in- deed, was believed to be the son of Joseph, but he was truly the Son of God, having, without any sophistry, been engendered of his substance : the Word of God overshadowed the Virgin like a cloud, and acted in her as generative dew, comparable to the shower from heaven that causes the earth to bring forth flowers and fruit. It follows, therefore, that the son of the Virgin is also truly, naturally, the Son of God. III. Christ is God, and is so called because in him ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: is God substantially, corporeally present ; for he is God by his geniture as by his flesh he is man (p. 15), God and man being truly conjoined in one \ substance and made one body, one new man. As the Father is true God, so, in bestowing his divineness {Deltas) on his only Son, did he cause it to be that the Son should be true God. Having spoken of God and Christ, he treats next of the Trinity. In the beginning, it is said, was the word, *0 \6yof;, an expression whereby inward Reason and outward Speech are implied. Some, says the writer, have held that God can be defined no otherwise than by negations : ears have not heard God speak, save b)^ the voice of man ; hands have not touched Him, for He is incorporeal ; place holds Him not, for He cannot be circumscribed ; and time gives no mea- sure of Him, for, infinite, He is without beginning and without end. But all this only speaks of what God is not ; it does not teach what God is. Now, no one knows God who is ignorant of the mode in which He has willed to manifest Himself to us, plainly exposed though it be in the sacred oracles. These, however, the Sophists do not believe, because they will not see God in Christ (p. in). In the Word made flesh, in the face of Jesus Christ it is that we see the Litrht — God Himself — shining upon us. In thinking of the en- gendermcnt of Christ, and his appearance on earth, the. veil of any intervening time is to be rejected ; Christ 204 MICHAEL SERVETUS. being to be conceived of as having been eternally en- gendered in the mind of God, but only begotten of his substance in time in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The man Christ is therefore, and because of this, fitly spoken of as the first-born Son of God, begotten before all worlds (pp. 56, 57), substantially visible before creation, and possessed of eternal substance — visibikin etiut iC/irishnn) siLbstantialiter ante omnia juisse et sub- stantiam crtcrnain habere {^. 57) — the meaning of which we imagine to be this : that the idea of Christ, present in the mind of God from eternity, took form by his immediate agency in the womb of Mary, the wife of Joseph, whose son the man Jesus was believed by his contemporaries to be, though he was indeed the Son of God. One of the items of transcendental belief, therefore, in which Servetus differed wholly from the Reformers, had reference to the coeternity of the Father and the Son. On this head he says particularly, ' If there were in eternity two incorporeal beings alike and equal, then were these Twins rather than a Father and Son ; and were a third Entity added, like and equal to the other two, then were there a threefold Geryon produced.' These words, and others of corresponding import, were found highly objectionable or blasphemous by the Reformers, as we have already had occasion to say. In connection with this part of his subject the writer adds several of the comments he had appended to the Pagnini Bible, particularly the one in which he discusses * CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: the verse of Isaiah, beginnhig : ' A virg-'m shall conceive and bear a son,' &c., in which he maintains that the Almah, the marriageable woman mentioned, refers im- mediately to Abija, the youthful wife of Ahaz, then pregnant with Hezekiah. Thus far advanced, it is now that we find the pan- theistic conceptions of our author most fully enunciated. Referring to the words quoted by St. Paul, ' In God we live, and move, and have our being,' Servetus main- tains that God is in all things, and all things are in God ; in his own words, ' It is God who gives its esse or essential being to every existing thing — to inanimate creation, to living creatures in general, and to man in especial.' The fifth book treats of the Holy Spirit. * As the essence of God is the Word,' says our author, 'in so far as manifestation is made in the world, so, and in so far as communication is made, it is Spirit ; mani- festation and communication, however, being ever co-ordinate and conjoined. It is spirit that is the archi- type, eternally present in God, from whom it proceeds ' (p. 163). And it is in this place that our author ex- plains or illustrates some of his mctaph)sical positions by a reference to Anatomy, with which in various interesting particulars he shows himself more satisfac- torily intelligible than in his transcendental specula- tions. 2o6 MICHAEL SERVETUS. ' There is commonly said to be a threefold spirit in the body of man, derived from the substance of the three superior elements — a natural, a vital, and an animal spirit ; there are, however, not really three, but only two distinct spirits. One of these, the first, char- acterised as natural, is communicated from the arteries to the veins by their anastomoses, and is primarily associated with the blood, the proper seat or home of which is the liver and veins. The second is the vital spirit, whose seat or dwelling-place is the heart and arteries. The third, the anhnal spirit, comparable to a ray of light, has its home in the brain and nerves. In each and all of these is the force — energeia — of the one spirit and light of God comprised. Now, that the natural spirit is imparted from the heart to the liver, and not from the liver to the heart, is proclaimed by the formation of man in the womb ; for we see an ar- tery associate with a vein sent from the mother through the navel of the foetus ; and in the adult body we always find an artery and a vein conjoined. But it was truly into the heart of Adam that God breathed the breath of life or the soul. From the heart, there- fore, it is that life is communicated to the liver ; for by the breathinor into the mouth and nostrils it was that the soul was first truly imparted, the breath tending directly to the heart. ' The heart is the first organ that lives, and, situate in the middle of the body, is the source of its heat. From the liver the heart receives the liquor, the ma- ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: 207 terial as it were of life, and in turn gives life to the source of the suppl}\ The material of life is therefore derived from the liver ; but, elaborated as you shall hear, by a most admirable process, it comes to pass that the life itself is in the blood — }ea that the blood is the life, as God himself declares (Genes, ix. ; Levit. xvii. ; Deut. xii.). ' Rightly to understand the question here, the first thing to be considered is the substantial generation of the vital spirit — a compound of the inspired air with the most subtle portion of the blood. The vital spirit has, therefore, its source in the left ventricle of the heart, the lungs aiding most essentially in its produc- tion. It is a fine attenuated spirit, elaborated by the power of heat, of a crimson colour and fiery potency- — the lucid vapour as it were of the blood, substantially composed of water, air, and fire ; for it is engendered, as said, by the mingling of the inspired air with the more subtle portion of the blood which the right ventricle of the heart communicates to the left. This communication, however, does not take place through the septum, partition or midwall of the heart, as com- monly believed, but by another admirable contrivance, the blood being transmitted from the pulmonary artery to the pulmonary vein, by a lengthened passage through the lungs, in the course of which it is elaborated and becomes of a crimson colour. Mingled with the in- spired air in this passage, and freed from fuliginous vapours by the act of expiration, the mixture being 2o8 MICHAEL SERVETUS. now complete in every respect, and the blood become fit dwelling-place of the vital spirit, it is finally attracted by the diastole, and reaches the left ventricle of the heart. ' Now that the communication and elaboration take place in the lungs in the manner described, we are assured by the conjunctions and communications of the pulmonary artery with the pulmonary vein. The great size of the pulmonary artery seems of itself to declare how the matter stands ; for this vessel would neither have been of such a size as it is, nor would such a force of the purest blood have been sent through it to the lungs for their nutrition only ; neither would the heart have supplied the lungs in such fashion, seeing as we do that the lungs in the foetus are nourished from another source — those membranes or valves of the heart not coming into play until the hour of birth, as Galen teaches. The blood must consequently be poured in such large measure at the moment of birth from the heart to the lungs for another purpose than the nourishment of these oroans. Moreover, it is not simply air. but 7s\r mingled with blood that is returned from the lungs to the heart by the pulmonary vein. ' It is in the lungs, consequendy, that the mixture [of the inspired air with the blood] takes place, and it is in the lungs also, not in the heart, that the crimson colour of the blood is acquired. There is not indeed capacity or room enough in the left ventricle of the heart for so great and important an elaboration, neither does it ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: 20() seem competent to produce the crimson colour. To conclude, the septum or middle partition of the heart, seeing that it is without vessels and special properties, is not fitted to permit and accomplish the communica- tion and elaboration in question, although it may be that some transudation takes place through it. It is by a mechanism similar to that by which the transfu- sion from the vena porter to the vena cava takes place in the liver, in respect of the blood, that the transfu- sion from the pulmonary artery to the pulmonary vein takes place in the lungs, in respect of the spirit. ' The vital spirit (elaborated in the manner de- scribed) is at length tranfused from the left ventricle of the heart to the arteries of the body at large, and in such a way that the more attenuated portion tends upwards, and undergoes further elaboration in the retiform plexus of vessels situated at the base of the brain, in which the vital begins to be changed into the animal spirit, reaching as it now does the proper seat of the rational soul. Here, still further sublimated and elaborated by the igneous power of the soul, the blood is distributed to those extremely minute vessels or capillary arteries composi ^^ the choroid plexus, which contain or are the seat oi-, ^-^ soul itself. The arterial plexus penetrates every w^^ ,-riost intimate part of the brain, its constituent vess^, jg ^terwoven in highly com- plex fashion, being distri jp like^^^'' ^^^^ ventricles, and sent to the origins of th Jistrib^ which subserve the faculties of sensation anj^^^ jife o"- Most wonderfully MICHAEL SERVETUS. and delicately interwoven, these vessels, although spoken of as arteries, are really the terminations of arteries proceeding to the origins of nerves in the meninges. They are in truth a new kind of vessels ; for, as in the transfusion from arteries to veins within the lungs we find a new kind of vessels proceeding from the arteries and veins, so, in the transfusion from arteries to nerves, is there a new kind of vessels pro- duced from the arterial coats and the cerebral meninges.' ' Chr. Rest.' p. 170. There can be no question as to the fact that, in the above quotation, the passage of the blood from the right to the left side of the heart through the lungs by the pulmonary artery and vein, is proclaimed, and a farther transmission of its more subtle part at least from the left ventricle of the heart to the arteries of the body is indicated. After so much said, however, the account halts. There is no notice of any transfu- sion from the arteries to the veins of the body, and so of a return of the blood by their means to the right side of the heart — nor do we believe that anything of the kind was present to the mind of the writer. The truth is that Servetus was t thinking of a circulation of the blood in the sens '^^'vhich we understand the term, but of a means '^^^^Sgendering the vital and animal spirits. ' The ' " ^^^^ he says happily and well, ' is not sent to the lun • -'^ ^^ch large quantity for their nourishment only. /' ^^^^ "^ e foetus, so in the adult are they nourished f 1 ^ ^^ ^'^ler quarter.' To Servetus ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: as to his age the Hver was the fountain of the blood, and the venous system connected with it the channel by which materials for the growth and nourishment of the body were supplied. The heart again was the source of the heat of the body, and, with the concurrence of the lungs, the elaboratory of the vital spirits ; the ar- terial system in connexion with it being the channel by which the spirit that gives life and special endow- ment to the bodily organs is distributed. Though Servetus saw that the black blood which is attracted, as he says, by the diastole of the heart from the vena cava acquires the florid colour in its passage through the lungs, he never hints at the black blood of the systemic veins having been the florid blood of the arteries. We are not, however, to overlook his remark, though it is only by the way, of ' the natural spirits being communicated from the arteries to the veins by their ajiastoiiioscs! Servetus may consequently have had an intimatio7i of the systemic circulation ; but he did not think out his thought. He does not speak of an intermediate system of vessels between the arteries and veins of the bod)- as of certain other corresponding vessels of the lungs ; and when we find him making the arteries of the brain terminate in the nerves or meninges — the source of the nerves to the old physio- logists, we can only conclude that he believed the ar- teries of the body to end in like manner in the several tissues to which they are distributed. From what he says further concerning the life of the foetus in utero, MICHAEL SERVETUS. we learn positively that Servetus had not divined the systemic circulation. ' The embryo lives through the soul of the mother,' says he, ' it is as It were a part of the mother, the vital spirit being communicated to it by the umbilical arteries.' Instead of afferent canals of the blood from the heart of the foetus to the placenta of the mother, consequently, Servetus believed the umbilical arteries to be efferent channels of the vital spirit of the mother to the heart of the foetus. He at the same time, doubtless, saw the umbilical veins as the channels by which material for its growth and nutrition was brought from the mother to be distri- buted by the venous system proceeding from the liver and vena cava, in conformity with the physiological views of his agre. Servetus did not think of the fcetal heart save as the passive recipient of life. He never heard its rapid tick tack, nor dreamt of it any more than he did of the heart of the adult as the agent in the general distribution of the blood in a great circle from arteries to veins, from veins to arteries, unbroken in the embryo, but complicated when independent life is assumed by the necessary passage through the lungs. Imperfectly, incompletely, therefore, as the great function of the circulation is conceived by Servetus, his account of so much of it as belongs to the pul- monary system is all his own and an immense advance on aught that had been imagined before. Had his ' Restoration of Christianity' been suffered to get abroad ' CHRISTIAN/SMI RESTITUTIO: 213 in the world and into the hands of anatomists, we can hardly imagine that the immortaHt}^ which now attaches so truly and deservedly to the great name of Harvey would have been reserved for him. But save to a few theologians, who gave no heed to his physio- logical speculations, Servetus's book remained unknov/n in the republic of letters, for more tnan a century after it had fallen from the press — no naturalist had seen it during all that time. So effectually had it been hunted out and made away with, that of the thousand copies printed, two only, as we have seen, are now known to survive. The ' Christianismi Restitutio' of Michael Servetus, consequently, never influenced either specu- lation or discovery in connection with the circulation of the blood. But readino; the book as we are now suffered to do, let us not overlook in its author the Physiological Genius of his age. Who shall say what amount of influence the ' Restoration of Christianity ' might have had upon both Science and Religion had it been suffered to see the light ! For it is not the pos- session only, but the pursuit of truth that truly ennobles man ; and in Servetus's incomplete induction in the sphcTe of physics we see the path fairly entered on that has given to modern science all its triumphs. Nor pause we here : in the domain of letters and criticism, he is nowise less in advance of his age than in physiology. Who among biblical scholars before Servetus had seen the applicability of so ynuch. that is said in the Psalms and prophetical books of the Jewish 214 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Scriptures to men and events contemporaneous with, when they had not preceded, the times in which their authors Hved ? Servetus's contemporaries among the ,^K.eformers without exception set out from the letter of the New Testament as the source of their faith, j the warrant for the conclusions they built upon its text. ' But he declared that there was a Christian Doctrine before there was any New Testament ; and we now know that this came not into existence until thirty, . forty, sixty, and in parts as many as 150, years had \ passed after the great moral teacher of Nazareth had i . . . . I expiated his superiority to the shows and superstitions I and errors of his day by the cruel death of the cross. Had biblical criticism become a science a century sooner than it did, the world might now by possibility be nearer the goal of truth as regards the Religious Idea than it is, and grave doubts have sooner arisen as to the competency of the barbarous Jews to solve the mystery of the ' Something not ourselves ' which we are led by our nature to conceive and think of as Cause, and to imagine as over and above this ' bank and shoal of Time,' whereon we pass our lives. Quitting physiological discussion for his proper subject, our author approaches the practical part of his theory of Christianity. Faith is the first element, and is spoken of as an emotion rather than a cognition — a spontaneous movement of the heart, not an act of the understanding, its essence being belief in the man Jesus Christ as the Son of God (pp. 297-300). The end and ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: object of the whole New Testament teaching, he says, is to lead men to a belief of this kind (p. 293), whereby they are reconciled and made acceptable to God, con- ceive a detestation for sin and become exemplars and exponents of the Christian virtues — Love, Hope, and Charity. ' Faith of this kind,' he continues, ' makes us aware of our poverty, of our misery. For if we believe that the man Jesus is the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, we already admit that the world lies in sin and so needs saving.' Unlike the other Reformers of the Church, Serve- tus, in this his latest work as in his first, makes much less of the Fall of Man and the wrath of God as con- sequences of Adam's transgression. Original sin can hardly be said to have a place in his system. Sin, he even says, was not brought forth on earth, but arose in heaven, through a revolt of the angels under Satan, who, utterly opposed to God in all things, seduced man from his allegiance and so obtained the empire which it was the purpose of Christ's coming to regain. Instead of holding the heart of man as utterly evil and corrupt, he says, ' that good works are proper and spontaneous to the individual. By the death of a sinless being on whom, as sinless, Satan had no hold, he was thrown out of the law, forfeited the rights he had acquired, through the disobedience of man, and God recovered the empire he had lost,' Satan, therefore, performs a highly important part in the Christology of Servetus ; but it differs notably from that both of the Roman 2i6 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Catholic and Reformed Churches, in this : that Christ does not suffer death to satisfy divine justice and re- concile God to mankind, but to traverse the Devil in the rights he had acquired by guile. But all such specu- lations belong to a former age of the world. They are the fossils of the speculative stratum in the nature of man, and only of interest now to reasonable people as records of the chimseras and incongruities that are engendered by imagination dissevered from science, when the understanding, instead of leading, is led, and the unknowable is assumed as foundation adequate to support conclusions affecting the lives of men in this world and their fate in Eternity. Servetus then makes little or nothing of the ' Cor- ruption of human nature ' as consequence of Adam's transgression, so much insisted on by the Reformed Clergy, and he entirely rejects their assumption of man's incompetence of himself to do anything good. Satan, however, is still seen as the opponent of God in the Restored as in the Reformed system. ' The Devil intruded himself into all flesh,' says our ' Re- storer.' ' Satan is Sin dwelling within tts, and to us is disease and death (p. 385) ; these being the conse- quences of Adam's transgression (p. 358).' So much our author felt himself bound to accept in a literal sense, for so he finds it written ; but he proceeds forth- with to interpret the text in his own way, and declares that Adam's transgressio7i brongkt no real gtdltiness on mankind ; for such can never be inciLrred through 'CHRISTIAXISMI RESTITUTIO: 217 another s, btU only through each 7nans own deed, a previous knowledge of what is good and evil being the indispensable condition to responsibility. But as a knowledge of good and evil is only attained when men arrive at years of discretion, so did Servetus think that mortal sin was not committed, nor even guilt incurred, before the twentieth year (pp. 363 and 387). Though made subject to corporal death and scheol by Adam's fault, men do not for this die spiritually ; they will be restored at the last day when Christ comes to judge the world : ' As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive' (i Corinth, xv.), say the Scriptures [of the apostle Paul] ; and these words, according to our author, mean that men will not be condemned to the second or spiritual death because of Adam's dis- obedience, but only when, knowing good and evil, they have done much amiss of themselves. Servetus, therefore, speaks of that as a punishment for sin to which teeminir nations of the East look forward as re- ward for the ills of life — Nirwana, a state of uncon- scious, everlasting rest ! Servetus himself has no special place, — no hell either of temporary or eternal torture for wrong-doing. We do not remember to have met with the word atonement in Servetus's writings. He had evidently passed beyond the idea of the vengeful Hebrew God and the shedding of blood as a propitiatory means be- lieved ill by the Christians of his day, and still so com- monly accepted in our own ; Servetus's religion was as 21 8 MICHAEL SERVETUS. comprehensive as that of his great Master. ' Turks,' says he, ' pray aright when they address themselves to God, though they neither know nor believe that God ever promised anything to the patriarchs.' Justification is the dogma that is next entered on, and is said to be \>y grace : ' We are justified,' says Servetus, following Paul, ' when we believe in Christ as the Son of God,' — in the way he apprehended the sonship, being of course to be understood. But, es- caping from leading strings, we find him elsewhere declaring, and still in advance of his day, that all who of their own natural motion lead good lives, be they Jews or Pagans, are justified before God, and that the good life suffices to have men resuscitated in glory. ' God,' says he, ' does not repute us just of his own good grace only, but also by the merits of our works ; in other words, of our lives.' In the book on the perdition of the world and its restoration by Christ, which follows, our author has much on the subject of baptism — the means or pre- liminary, in his eyes, to Regeneration. He will not, however, allow that unbaptized infants can possibly be looked on as lost souls. ' The little children whom Christ blessed,' says he, 'were not baptized. How should the most clement and merciful Lord condemn those who had never sinned ? Did he ever say to the little ones unbaptized : Go ye accursed into everlasting 'CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: 219 fire ? How should he curse those he blessed ? They seem to me to attempt to befool me who say that the salvation of an unconscious infant depends on my will to baptize or to leave it unbaptized.' Opposed to the baptism of infants as a meaningless and inefficient ceremony, Servetus was all the more emphatic in his insistence on the indispensableness of the rite per- formed later in life. 'Jesus was circumcised indeed as an infant,' says he, ' but only baptized when he was thirty years of age. We ought not, therefore, to ap- proach the Laver of Regeneration before this age if we would imitate Christ.' ' Psedobaptism,' says he, ' is a detestable abomination, an extinction of the Holy Spirit in the soul of man, a dissolution of the Church of Christ, a confusion of the whole Christian faith, an innovation whereby Christ is set aside and his kingdom trodden under foot. Woe to you, ye baptizers of infancy, for ye close the kingdom of heaven against mankind — the kingdom of heaven into which ye neither enter yourselves, nor suffer others to enter — woe ! woe ! ' He who is baptized in his infancy, consequently, who believes that he is properly baptized and so neglects the regenerative rite in years of discretion, according to Servetus, loses his chance of instant entrance into Christ's kingdom on his death. In his comprehensive charity, however, we fancy Servetus must have a salvo for such neglect, though we have missed it. If he has failed to set it forth in words, we feel assured that It was nevertheless alive in his heart. MICH A EL SER VE TUS. In the book on the Power of Satan and Antichrist, Servetus attacks the Papacy in terms of measureless reprobation, hkening the Pope to the Antichrist of the Apocalypse, calling him the son of perdition, and speaking of his dominion as the reign of God's oppo- site on earth (p. 393). In exalting himself above his fellow-men and requiring them to look on him as a god, the Pope has usurped the forbidden kingdom. The imposition of a spiritual papacy, he maintains, has brought more mischief on the spiritual world than the carnal Adam brought on the world of flesh. For his sin was Adam condemned to the pain of corporeal death, and for theirs are the beast and his ministers (the pope and his council) doomed in the Apocalypse to the pains of everlasting fire (p. 394). Against monastic vows of all kinds, Servetus is here most vehemently outspoken. According to him, they are mere sacrileges of tradition. He does not object to the celibate life, however, which he says he has chosen for himself ; but Peter, he thinks, would be amazed did he see the shaven, cowled, and bedizened priests engaged in their mimic play, whereby they lead the people to the most open idolatry. But it is the men - dicant monk that he has in more especial abhorrence. Him he compares to the locust, which, eating up every- thing it encounters, leaves desolation behind. ' The locust,' he says, ' has by nature a sort of monk's cowl ; add to this a wallet, and you have a begging friar com- plete ; in other words, a hooded devil.' ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: In the book on the Lord's Supper, our author speaks of course of the papistical transubstantiation, the annihilation of the bread as bread and its trans- mutation into mere whitejiess. * I rather wonder,' says he, ' whether Satan was the circumcisor of common sense from the brains of those who of bread make not-bread, and in its stead produce a vendible white- ness ; for these puny sacrificators, for a mouthful of whiteness given without wine, make us count out our money (p. 510). To such degradation of mind are these men brought that they call that the true body of Christ, which, in the whiteness they imagine, rats and dogs might devour. Never was there any such blind- ness as this among the Jews — blindness the more notable as the Papists say they are infallible (p. 511). But as circumcision of the foreskin makes the Jew, and circumcision of the heart the Christian, so does circum- cision of the scalp make the sham Jew, the papal sacrificial priest and slave of Antichrist.' He is scarcely more complimentary when he speaks of the views of the Reformers on the subject of the Supper, styling the Lutherans Impanators, and the Calvinists Tropists, the Roman Catholics being of course Transtibstantiators. If we understand him aright, he looks on the Supper as something more than a simple commemorative feast, to be first partaken of immediately after adult baptism, to which it is the ne- cessary complement ; but we arc startled after v;hat, as we interpret it, he has just said in this sense, when we MICH A EL SER VE TUS. by and by find him speaking as if he beHeved that the body and blood of Christ were really partaken of in the Christian Communion (p. 28 1 and Letter xxx. to Calvin). The contradictory statements met with in the writings of Servetus, however, as we have had occasion oftener than once already to say, can only be harmon- ised by taking note of his pantheistic views. In the instance before us, for example, on the pantheistic principle, as God is in and of the substance of all things, so was He in Christ, or Christ, in so far, was God. In consonance with the letter, therefore the bread and wine of the solemn rite are flesh and blood. The language of mysticism, however, is often little intelligible to the naturalist, who in his incapacity here may be likened to those who, with ears otherwise acute, cannot distinguish certain extremely acute or grave sounds, or who, with eyes otherwise excellent, see no difference between such opposite colours as red and green. Like the Re- formers of all denominations, Servetus maintained the Cup to be an indispensable element in the celebration of the Supper. In the Papal Mass, he says, there is no true Communion. The bread is not broken in common, and the wine is appropriated by the Sacrifi- cator, even as the Babylonian Priests of old appro- priated the oblations of the altar : ' Quorban,' says the Popish Priest as he drinks, to the lookers on, ' it will do you good, too.' (p. 522). Singularly enough, when we think of what he has to say in disparagement of the Roman Catholic ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: 223 priesthood, we find him recognising in ministers a power to absolve men from their sins and reconcile them to God — potestas viinistris est remittendi peccata et reco7iciliandi homines Deo (p. 516). This, we can only conclude, is said because of what he found in the Sacred Text ; ^ no word of which, as we know, would he gainsay. But that Michael Servetus, mystic though he was, believed in his soul that one man can absolve another of his sin, we do not think possible. He did| not surmise that the fourth gospel was only written a j hundred and fifty years after the death of Jesus, andj by a Neo-platonic philosopher, presumably of Alexan- dria, fashioner, like Paul of Tarsus, of a Christology and Christianity of his own. In illustration of the character of the man, the study of whose life engages us, the prayer with which he concludes the book on the ' Restoration of Christianity ' — for here the work does end in fact, all that follows be- ing but by way of appendix — ought not to be over- looked. It is in immediate sequence to a renewed phillipic against the baptizers of infants, and to the following effect : — ' Almighty Father ! Father of all mercy, free us miserable men from this darkness of death, for the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ Our Lord. O Jesus Christ, thou Son of God, who died for us, help us, lest we " * Whose soever sins ye remit,' etc., John, xx. 23 — writing added to the original text, beyond doubt, and dating from long after the time of Jesus, when the Church had acquired a status and was looking for / power. MICHAEL SERVE TUS. perish ! We, thy suppliants, pray to thee as thou hast taught us, saying, Hallowed be thy Name ; thy kingdom come ; and do thou. Lord, come ! thy bride the Church, praying in the Apocalypse, says, Come ! The spirits of thy children, praying here, say. Come ! Let all who hear this pray and cry aloud, and with John exclaim, Come ! Thou Who hast said, I come quickly (Apocalypse xxii.) wilt surely come, and with thy coming put an end to Antichrist. So be it. Amen ! ' The first of the additions to the system of ' Restored Christianity ' are the thirty letters to Calvin, which we have already analysed, in what seemed the appropriate place. The book or chapter on the ' Sixty signs of the reign of Antichrist, and of his presence among us,' which follows, need not detain us. The signs are for the most part arbitrarily assumed by the writer, on the ground that his own views are the truth, those of the Papists and Reformers mistaken, false, or short of the truth. Having shown to his own satisfaction that every evil- doer, in the shape of an exalted personage who has ever appeared in the world, even from Satan, Nimrod, and Nebuchadnezzar, prefigured the Pope, and that the Pope is Antichrist, he then very logically concludes that all the dogmas and doctrines sanctioned by the Papacy are of the Devil. Under this category he places the doctrine of the Trinity in the foremost rank, ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: then the Baptism of Infants, the Mass, Transubstantia- tion, all but everything, in short, characteristic of Roman Catholic Christianity, As in so many other places, he is here also ready with a prayer, which we quote as ever-recurring testimony to the sincerely, but misun- derstood, pious nature of the man : — 'O Christ Jesus, Son of God, most merciful Libe- rator, who hast so often freed thy people from their straits, free us too from this Babylonian Captivity of Antichrist, from his hypocrisy, his tyranny, his idolatry! Amen.' The concluding part of the ' Restoration of Chris- tianity ' is an address to Melanchthon and his colleagues on the Mystery of the Trinity and the discipline of the ancient Church. We have seen that Melanchthon of all the Reformers was the one who seemed to be most taken by the theological speculations of the seven books on Trinitarian error. ' I read Servetus a great deal,' says he to his friend Camerarius ; and if he found the work objectionable in many respects, as he says, it yet contained matter that would not be put aside, but that forced itself on his attention, and may be presumed to have influenced his final conclusions on some of the highest and most difficult doctrines of orthodox Chris- tianity. Certain it is that the first and earlier editions of his highly popular work, the 'Loci Theologici,' differ notably from those that appeared subsequently to the publication of Servetus's ' De Erroribus Trinitatis.' In the first and earlier editions there is nothing said 2 26 MICHAEL SERVE TUS. of God, whether as One or Triune, of Creation, the Incarnation, and other purely speculative matters. ' These subjects,' he says, ' are wholly incomprehen- sible, and we more properly adore than attempt to investigate the mystery of Deity. What, I ask you/ he continues, ' has been the outcome of the scholastic and theological discussions that have gone on for all these ages ? ' But the metaphysics of Christianity were not passed over in any such way by Servetus. His earliest work even meets us in some sort as a complementary criticism of the ' Loci ' of Melanchthon, and that it was so held by the Reformer seems to be demonstrated by the many changes and additions to be noticed in the revised edition of the work of the year 1535, the first that was published after the appearance of the ' De Erroribus Trinitatis ' and ' Dialogi duo de Trinitate.' ^ Finding himself very freely handled in the revised editions of the ' Loci,' his erroi^s, as they are designated as matter of course, being assimilated to those of Paul of Samosata and others, and his references to Tertullian and the anteNicsean Fathers proclaimed irrelevant, Servetus retorts, and, throwing moderation to the winds, proceeds in the diatribe we have before us to ^ It were beyond the scope of my work to pursue this subject further ; but let me say that having compared the first edition of the ' Loci' (1521) with the one of 1536 and others, of which there are copies in the British Museum Library, I find it impossible to overlook the influence of Servetus on Melanchthon, as of Melanchthon on Servetus. For fuller in- formation the reader is referred to ToUin's exhaustive, Philip Melanchthon iind Midiacl Servet,ei)ie Quellensticdie. 8vo. 1876. ' CHRTSTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: 227 pour out the vials of his displeasure on the head of the great Wittemberg scholar and theologian. Our Re- storer of Christianity does, it is true, see Melanchthon as somewhat nearer the mark than Luther, Calvin, and CEcolampadius ; but the references made to Athanasius, Augustin, and the Fathers who came after the Council of Nicaea, are all put out of court — their conclusions are of non-avail ; for they had all bowed the knee to the Beast, and bore his mark. The true Church of Christ had already forsaken the earth in their day, and their teaching on the Trinity, Baptism, the Supper, &c., was nought. Strange to say, as proceeding from a scholar, himself no indifferent master of the Latin tongue, he reproaches Melanchthon with the elegance of his Latinity. The Holy Ghost, says he, never spoke in fine phrases ! (P. 674.) It is difficult to conceive a man not utterly bereft of reason and common sense, living among Roman Catholics and in times of deadly persecution for heresy, writing in the style of Servetus on the Papacy and the most accredited tenets of Christianity. Yet is it impossible to imagine that he was blind to the danger he incurred in doing so ; neither do we believe that he knowingly and advisedly staked his life- against the cause he certainly had so much at heart. He may have said, indeed, that he believed he should die for his opinions ; but we see him taking what he must have meant as sufficient precautions against such a contin- g 2 228 MICHAEL SERVETUS. gency ; and when first broug-ht face to face with the prospect of accompHshing the destiny he foreshadowed, we find him showing anything but the recklessness of the true martyr. We presume that the security in which he had dweh so long under his assumed name, the immunity from suspicion of heresy he had enjoyed since the publication of his first work, and the latitude allowed him by his clerical friends of Vienne in dis- cussing the heresies of the Reformers — and it may be also some of a minor sort of their own — misled him. His seven books on erroneous conceptions of the Trinity appear to have been little, if at all, known to the eccle- siastics of France ; and he probably imagined that in appealing to the press again and keeping his work from the booksellers' shops of the country of his adoption, he would continue to be overlooked. Anything of a heretical nature he should publish now might possibly be challenged by the German and Swiss Reformers ; but they were heretics in the eyes of the Viennese, and, provided he did not openly proclaim himself the author, their ill report, if perchance it ever reached France, would do the author of the ' Restoration of Christianity ' no harm, if it did not even tend to exalt him among orthodox adherents of the Church of Rome. Every reasonable precaution therefore taken that the new book on the Restoration of Christianity should not get abroad in France, Servetus seems to have thought himself safe against detection and pursuit. He was in fact altogether unknown, as we have said, ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: 229 in the place of his residence as Michael Serveto, alias Reves, of Aragon, in Spain. He was M. Michel Villeneuve, Physician of Vienne, and living under the patronage of its Archbishop. There was, however, so strong a family likeness between the ' Seven Books and Two Dialogues on Trinitarian Error' and the ' Restoration of Christianity,' or the views therein con- tained, that the most cursory comparison of the two works would have disclosed their common parentage, even if the writer of the * Restoration ' had not himself hinted plainly enough at the fact. He must have thought himself perfectly safe in his incognito at Vienne, and seems not to have dreamt of danofer from abroad. There could be no reason, therefore, why Calvin, and through him the other Reformers of Switzerland, should not be made aware of what he had been about. He would in truth take his place beside or above them all as the real Restorer of Chris- tianity, proclaimer, as he believed himself to be, of the true doctrine concerning Christ as the naturally begot- ten Son of God ; of the Salvation to be secured by faith in him as such ; of the Regeneration to be effected by baptism performed in years of discretion, and of the absurdity implied in imagining division in the essence of God, and instead of the One great Creator of heaven and earth, having a Three-headed chima^ra for a Deity ! In this view, as we conclude, he sent a copy of his book to Ca'vin ; and with consequences which it will now be our business to follow to their disastrous con- 230 MICHAEL SERVETUS. elusion ; for all that remains of the life of Michael Servetiis, cut short in the flower of his age, is entirely- subordinated to influences brought to bear on it through the printing of this work and the interference of the Reformer of Geneva.^ ^ For some account of the existing copies of the Christianistni Restitutio, see the Appendix to this book. 'CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO: 231 CHAPTER XVIII. CALVIN RECEIVES A COPY OF THE ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO.' Frelon, the publisher of Lyons, whom we already know as the medium of communication between Ville- neuve and Calvin in their correspondence, was proba- bly by this time in the secret of the Spaniard. The friend of Calvin as well as intimate with Villeneuve, had he not already been confided in by the subject of our study, he must have been informed by Calvin who Michel Villeneuve really was. The correspond- ence had long ceased, but the intercourse between the Bookseller and the Reformer continued, and the ' monthly parcel ' was still the vehicle for new books and literary gossip between Lyons and Geneva. By Frelon's February dispatch of the year 1553, we therefore conclude that there went a copy of the ' Christianismi Restitutio,' hot from the press, specially addressed to Monsieur Jehann Calvin, Minister of Geneva. That it was accompanied by a letter from Frelon we may also presume, giving in all innocency and confidence — little recking what use would be made 232 MICHAEL SERVETUS. of the Information — those particulars connected with the printing of the work which Frelon must have had from Villeneuve, and which Calvin by and by imparted to the authorities of Lyons and Vienne, Frelon may be supposed not yet to have read the ' Christianismi Restitutio ; ' but aware of Villeneuve's appreciation of the Church of Rome, and trusting to the author's own account of his work as especially hostile to the papacy, he may have thought that it would not be otherwise than well received by Calvin, It is only with Frelon as go-between that we can account for the book having reached Calvin at the early date it did, and for the particular information he possessed concerning Arnoullet as the printer, and the precautions that had been taken to keep the world ignorant of what had been done. That there was no intention of betraying trust on Frelon's part, we need not doubt ; and still less, as we believe, need we question the fact that it was not only with the author's consent, but by his express desire, that the first copy of the ' Christianismi Restitutio ' sent abroad went to the Reformer. Servetus himself could at this time have had as little idea, as Frelon, of the deadly hate with which Calvin was animated towards him. They had corresponded and dif- fered, had quarrelled and called each other opprobrious names ; but controversialists did so habitually, when they got heated ; and the epithets then so freely ban- died about were scarcely seriously meant, and hardly ever seriously taken : they were but the seasoning to ' CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUFIO.' 233 the matter, nothing more. Servetus was in truth far -C too vain, and at the same time too much under the spell of Calvin, to leave him of all men else in ignorance of the important work of which he had just been happily delivered. With the earliest opportunity therefore that occurred, and before the book had been seen by another, as we believe, he sent a copy to Calvin, mean- ing it doubtless as a compliment — a return perhaps for the copy of the ' Institutiones Religionis Christianae ' we credit him with having received from its author. It is not difficult to imaofine the alarm that must at once have taken possession of Calvin's mind when he saw the errors, the heresies, the blasphemies, as he re- garded them, which in bygone years he had vainly sought to combat, now confided to the printed page and ready to be thrown broadcast on the world. And more than this : if his ire had been already roused by the strictly confidential correspondence to the extent of leading him to threaten the life of the writer, did occasion offer, what additional anger must now have entered into his heart, when, besides the offensive heretical matter of the book, he found himself taken to task, publicly schooled, declared to be in error, and his most cherished doctrines not only controverted, but proclaimed derogatory to God, and some of them even as barring the gates of heaven against all who adopted them ! What, too, on second thoughts, may have been his exultation when, in perusing the book, he found his enemy committing himself so egregiously in abusing 234 MICHAEL SERVETUS. the Papacy, and supplying evidence that would convict him at once of blasphemy against God and the Church, and, in sending him to the stake — as he foresaw it must in a Roman Catholic country — would rid the world at once of an agent of Satan, and a personal enemy ! DENOUNCED BY CALVIN. 235 CHAPTER XIX. CALVIN DENOUNCES SERVETUS THROUGH WILLIAM TRIE TO THE ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITIES OF LYONS. Calvin's mind must have been immediately made up after perusing the ' Restoration of Christianity.' He would denounce its author as a heretic and blas- phemer to the ecclesiastical authorities of France, and — Deus ex machina — an instrument was at hand to further his purpose. There lived at this time in Geneva a certain William Trie, a native of Lyons, a convert from the Romish to the Reformed faith, and, as proselyte, well known to Calvin. Trie, it would appear, had not been left altogether at peace in his new profession of faith. He had a relation, Arneys byname, resident in Lyons, who did not cease from reproaching him by letter as a renegade, and exhorting him to think better of it, and return to the faith he had forsaken. Trie would seem to have been in the habit of showing his letters to Calvin, and of having aid and advice from him in answering them ; Calvin, it was said, upon occasion even dictating the episdes in reply. But now he could use the neophyte in his own as well as the general behalf, and set about the business forthwith 236 MICHAEL SERVETUS. under cover of a letter from the convertite Trie to his relation Arneys : — Monsieur mon Cousin, — I have to thank you much for your fine remonstrances, and make no question of your friendly purpose in seeking to bring me back to the point from which I started. As I am not a man of letters like you, I do not enter on the points and articles you bring up against me. Not, indeed, but that with such knowledge as God has given me, I could find plenty to say in the way of reply ; for, God be praised, I am not so ill-grounded as not to know that the true Church has Jesus Christ for its head, from whom it cannot be dissevered, and that there is neither life nor salva- tion apart from Holy Scripture. All you say to me of the Church, I therefore hold for phantasm, unless Christ, as having supreme authority, presides therein, and the Word of God is made the foundation of its teaching. Without this, all your formulas are nothing. . . . As to what you say about there being so much more of freedom, or latitude of opinion, with us here than with you, still we should never suffer the name of God to be blasphemed, nor evil doctrines and opinions to be spread abroad among us, without let or hinderance. And I can give you an instance which, I must say, I think tends to your confusion. It is this : that a certain heretic is countenanced among you, who ought to be burned alive, wherever he might be found. And when I say a heretic, I refer to a man who deserves to be as summarily condemned by the Papists, as he is by us. For though differing in many things, we agree in believing that in the sole essence of God there be three persons, and that his Son, who is his Eternal Wisdom, was engendered by the Father before all time, and has had [imparted to him] his Eternal virtue, which is the Holy Spirit. But when a man appears who calls the Trinity we all believe in, a Cerberus and Monster of Hell, who dis- DENOUNCED BY CALVIN. 237 gorges all the villanies it is possible to imagine, against ever>'thing Scripture teaches of the Eternal generation of the Son of God, and mocks besides open-mouthed at all that the ancient doctors of the Church have said — I ask you in what regard you would have such a man ? . . , I must speak freely : What shame is it not that they are put to death among you who say that one God only is to be invoked in the name of Christ ; that there is no service acceptable to God other than that which He has approved by His word ; and that all the pictures and images which men make are but so many idols which profane His majesty ? . . . What shame, say I, is it not, that such persons are not only put to death in no easy and simple way, but are cruelly burned alive ? Nevertheless, there is one living among you who calls Jesus Christ an idol ; who would destroy the foundations of the faith ; who condemns the baptism of little children, and calls the rite a diabolical invention. Where, I pray you, is the zeal to which you make pretence ; where are your guardians and that fine hierarchy of which you boast so much ? The man I refer to has been condemned in all the Churches you hold in such dislike, but is suffered to live unmolested among you, to the extent of even being permitted to print books full of such blasphemies as I must not speak of further. He is a Spanish-Portuguese, Michael Servetus by name, though he now calls himself Villeneuvc, and practises as a physician. I le lived for .some time at Lyons, and now resides at Vienne, where the book I speak of was printed by one Balthasar Arnoullct. That you m.ay not think I speak of mere hearsay I send you the first few leaves as a sample, for your assurance. You say that our books, which contain nothing but the purity and simplicity of Holy Scripture, infect the world ; yet you brew poisons among you which go to destroy the Scriptures and all you hold as Christianity. I have been longer than I thought ; but the enormity of the case causes me to exceed. 238 MICHAEL SERVETUS. I need not, I imagine, go into particulars ; I only pray you to put it somewhat seriously to your conscience, and conclude for yourself, to the end that when you appear before the Great Judge you may not be condemned. For, to say it in a word, we have here no subject of difference or debate, and ask but this : That God himself may be heard. Concluding for the present, I pray that He may give you ears to hear, and a heart to obey, having you at all times in His holy keeping. (Signed) GuiLLAUME Trie. Geneva, this 26th of February [1553]. This on the face of it is no letter from one young man to another, It is the artful production of the zealot and bigot in one, well informed of the ante- cedents of the man he is denouncing, and but poorly disguised by the name under which he is writing. The letter from first to last is Calvin's, and was accompanied by the two first leaves of the newly printed book, the ' Christianismi Restitutio,' containing the title and table of contents, sufficient, as Calvin knew full well, to alarm the hierarchs of Papal Christianity, which in their estimation needed no restoration, and was indeed susceptible of none ; whilst any discussion of such transcendental topics as the Trinity, Faith in Christ, Regeneration, Baptism, and the Reign of Antichrist, smacked at best of schism when undertaken by a lay- man even of orthodox views, but became flat blasphemy when treated by such a one in any adverse sense. Cardinal Tournon, at this time Archbishop of Lyons, was the implacable enemy of all innovators, and in his DENOUNCED BY CALVIN. 239 zeal for what he believed to be the truth well disposed to resort to the severest measures against the spread of heresy, which to hirn and his co-religionists, then as now, was most especially embodied in the principles of Luther and Calvin's Reformation. Exposed as were the south and east of France from their contiguity with Switzerland to infection of the kind, Tournon had not relied exclusively on himself and his own subordinate clergy as watchers over the faith of the district under his charge. He had further summoned to his aid one of the regularly trained inquisitors from Rome, Matthew Ory by name, who designated himself : Peiiitencier die Saint Sidge Apostolique, et hiqiiisitcur gdndral die Royaume de Fra7ice et dans toutes les Gattles. This man, as we may imagine, had a real relish for his calling and was watchfulness itself in ferreting out heresy, as, with all of his kind, he was relentless in pursuing it to the death. The notable letter of Trie to Arneys was imme- diately brought under the notice of the clergy of Lyons, as Calvin intended and foresaw that it would be ; and by one of them, was communicated to Ory, the Inquisi- tor, and to Bautier, Vicar-General, and Canon of the Cathedral Church of Lyons. Here was work of more than common interest to the Inquisitor, who proceeded forthwith, under date of March 12, 1553, to write to Villars, Auditor of Cardinal Tournon, absent at the mo- ment froni Lyons, but no farther away tJian his Chateau of Roussillon, a few miles distant from \'ienne. 240 MICHAEL SERVETUS. The letter of Ory is highly characteristic of the Jesuitical, stealthy, and underhand style of dealing with all that belongs to free thought and open speech. Premising a few sentences on indifferent and private matters, he comes anon to the real gist of his letter and says : ' I would advise you in all secrecy of some books that are now being imprinted at Vienne, containing execrable blasphemies against the divinity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity, the author and printer of which are both living among you. The Vicar-General and I have seen one of the chapters of this publication, and are of like mind about the propriety of your taking an early opportunity of conferring with Monseigneur (the Cardinal) and making him more particularly ac- quainted with the business ; so that on your return home the necessary orders may be given by Monseig- neur to M. Maugiron, the Vibailly of Vienne, and the police. So much at this time M. the Vicar-General desires that you should know through me ; but you are to proceed so secretly that your left hand shall not know what your right is about — mais si secreteinent qiLe vostre main senexti^e ncntend point ce que cest. Only whisper in the ear of Monseigneur and inform us if he has any knowledge of a certain Villeneufve, a physician, and one Arnoullet, a bookseller, both of Vienne, for it is to them that I refer.' On the following day the Vicar Bautier left Lyons for Roussillon and saw the Cardinal, who immediately sent a letter to Louis Arzelier, Grand Vicar of the See DENOUNCED BY CALVIN. 241 of Vienne, summoning him to Roussillon. After a long conference, Arzelier was ordered to return to Vienne and deliver an autograph letter from the Cardinal to M. de Maugiron, Lieutenant-General of Dauphiny, in which however there is nothing said of the affair he has at heart (for this he will only trust to be communicated by word of mouth by M. the Vicar to M. the Lieutenant) ; but appealing to the known zeal of his correspondent for the honour of God and his church, and adding, in anticipation of what he knew would follow, a request that he should im- mediately summon the Vibailly to his assistance, in order that he, on his part, might undertake what M. the Vicar might see necessary to be done. Tavo things only are especially to be required of the Vibailly : the one that he use extreme dispatch, the other that the business be kept as secret as possible. Roussillon, March 15, 1553. Acting at once on the advice of the Cardinal, Maugiron sent to the Vibailly, bidding him hold him self ready to act in a certain unspecified contingency. Next day, March 16, the two Vicars in company with the Vibailly proceeded to the office of the Sieur Peyrolles, Lay official of the Primate, before whom Bautier, as the party immediately interested in virtue of his office, made a deposition to the effect that within the last few days letters had been received from Geneva addressed to a personage resident in Lyons, in which great surprise was expressed that a certain Micliael R 242 MICHAEL SERVE TUS. Servetus, otherwise called Villanovanus, should be then living unmolested at Vienne ; that four printed leaves of a book written by the said Villanovanus had also been forwarded from Geneva and examined by brother Ory, Inquisitor of the Faith, by whom they had been found heretical ; and, to conclude, that the Cardinal Archbishop, having been made acquainted with the matter, had written to M. de Maugiron requesting him to take cognizance of the business with all secrecy and dispatch. Bautier, at the same time, put in the Geneva letter of Trie, and the four leaves of the printed book entitled * Christianismi Restitutio^ in support of his allegations ; the letter of the Inquisitor and that of the Cardinal to Maugiron being added as further documents on which the Procurator of the King and the Justiciary were to proceed. The judicial authorities of Vienne lost no time in obeying their instructions. On the same day they met at the house of M. Maugiron, and having consulted with him, they sent to M. Michel de Villeneuve, desir- ing his presence and saying they had something to com- municate to him. Being from home when the message arrived, and not appearing for a couple of hours, the authorities were fearful that he had been somehow warned of the dan^jer which threatened him and so had fled ; but their fears were unfounded : he came at length, and with a perfectly confident air, it is said. The authorities informed him that they had certain informations against him which would make it neces- DENOUNCED BY CALVIN. 243 sary for them to visit and search his lodgings for books or papers of a heretical tendency. Villeneuve replied that he had lived long at Vienne on good terms with the clergy and professors of theology, and had never until now been suspected of heresy ; but he was quite ready to open his rooms to them or those they might deleL*'ate, to make what search they pleased. The Grand Vicar and the Vibailly, accompanied by the Secretary of the Cardinal Governor of Dauphiny, then proceeded with Villeneuve to his apartments, which adjoined and were among the dependencies of the archiepiscopal palace, and made a particular examination of his papers ; but they found nothing more compro- mising than a couple of copies of his apology or pam- phlet against the Parisian Doctors, of which they took possession. Next day, the i 7th, the Judges made a perquisition in the house of Arnoullct, the publisher and printer, in his absence, he being away at the time on business at Toulouse ; and there also they had Geroult, the super- intendent of the printing establishment, brought before them. After a lengthened interrogatory of the foreman, in which nothing was elicited, they proceeded to search the house and printing office, examinino- ArnouUet's papers minutely, but without finding a word to compromise liim in any way. The workmen on the establishment were then severally examined. They were shown the printed leaves o{ the ' Christianismi Restitutio ' and asked il they kiiew anything of the 244 MICHAEL SERVETUS. book of which the leaves were a part ; or if they re- cognised the type, or could give any information as to the books they had had a hand in composing or print- ing during the last eighteen months or so. But they all agreed in saying that the four leaves shown them had not been printed in the office ; and among all the books that had issued from their presses during the last two years, a list of which was supplied, there was not one in the octavo form. The search and inquiry over, the officials had the entire staff of the printing establishment brought into their presence, and cau- tioned them against saying a word of all they had been asked about, on pain of being declared suspected or even convicted of heresy and punished accordingly. On the 1 8th, Arnoullet, having but just returned from Toulouse, was visited and examined ; but all the papers about him being found in order and his replies in complete conformity with those of his manager Geroult, he too was dismissed. The authorities found themselves at fault, but by no means satisfied that the information they had had from Geneva was groundless. An adjournment was therefore resolved on, an in- formal consultation being, however, held meantime at the archiepiscopal palace of Vienne. And it is not perhaps without significance that it is only now that we find the archbishop of Vienne, Pierre Paumier, named in connection with the proceedings, and his palace spoken of as the place of assembly. It was at this moment in fact that Paumier had the first intimation DENOUNCED BY CALVIN. 245 of what was going on. At the meeting it was decided that nothing had been discovered sufficiently positive to warrant the arrest of anyone. The archbishop of Vienne, once made a party to the proceedings, appears to have taken up the case warmly. The known protector and frequent associate of Ville- neuve the physician, he seems to have thought it in- cumbent on him to show the world that he had no sympathy with heresy, and nothing in common with a suspected heretic. He accordingly wrote immediately to Brother Ory, the Inquisitor, begging him to come to Vienne and have some conversation with him on matters touching the Faith. In the course of the in- terview which followed, Ory suggested that, in order to have further or more satisfactory information against Villeneuve, Arneys should be made to write again to his relation Trie at Geneva, and ask him to send the whole of the printed book from which the leaves al- ready forwarded had been cut. Returning to Lyons, Ory himself, we must presume, dictated the letter which Arneys was required to write to his cousin Trie. This epistle unhappily has not reached us. It would have been both curious and interesting to have had the In- quisitor of three centuries and a half ago brought so immediately before us, as we should there have had him. But as Ory doubtless led the pen at Lyons, so did Calvin assuredly guide it again at Geneva in reply; and as his letter has been preserved, we come face to face with one who is still more, interesting to us than 246 MICHAEL SERVETUS. brother Matthew Ory, Inquisitor of the kingdom of France and all the Gauls — with the great head of the Reformed Churches of France and Switzerland, at the zenith of his power, though not without misgivings as to its stability, zealous as brother Ory could have been in upholding the Faith as he apprehended it, and as ruth- less as Cardinal Tournon in dealing with all who called it in question. The letter is to the following effect : — Monsieur mon Cousin ! — When I wrote the letter you have thought fit to impart to those who are taxed therein with indifference and neglect, I thought not that the matter would be taken up so seriously as it seems to be. My sole purpose was to show you the fine zeal and devotion of those who call themselves pillars of the Church, suffering as they do such disorder among themselves, yet persecuting so cruelly poor Christians who only desire to obey God in simplicity. As the instance was so notable, however, and I was advised of it, an opportunity presented itself, as I thought, of touching on it, the matter falling, as it seemed, fairly within the scope of my writing. But as you have shown to others the letter I meant for yourself alone, God grant that it tend to purge Christianity of such filth, of pestilence so mortal to man ! If your people are really so anxious to look into the matter as you say, there will be no difficulty in furnishing you, besides the printed book you ask for, with documents enough to carry conviction to their minds. For I shall put into your hands some two dozen pieces written by him who is in question, in which some of his heresies are set prominently forth. Did you rely on the printed book by itself, he might deny it as his ; but this he could not do if his own handwriting were brought against him. In this way, the parties you speak of; liaving the thing completely proven, will be without excuse if DENOUNCED BY CALVIN. 1M they hesitate further, or put off taking the steps required. All the pieces I send you now — the great volume as well as the letters in the handwriting of the author — were produced before the printed work ; but I have to own to you that I had great difficulty in getting these documents from IMons. Calvin. Not that he would not have such execrable blasphemies put down ; but that, as he does not wield the sword of justice him- self, he thinks it his duty rather to repress heresy by sound teaching, than to pursue it by force. I importuned him, how- ever, so much, showing him the reproaches I might incur did he not come to my aid, that he consented at length to en- trust me with the contents of my parcel to you. For the rest, I hope, when the case shall have been somewhat farther ad- vanced, to obtain from him something like a whole ream of paper, which the fine fellow — le Gahmd — has had printed. At the moment, I fancy you are furnished with evidence enough, and that there need be no more beating about the bush, before seizing on his person and putting him on his trial. For my own part, I pray God to open the eyes of those who speak of us so evilly, to the end that they may more truly judge of the motives by which we are actuated. As I learn by your letter that you will not trouble me further with the old proposals, I, on my side, will do nothing to displease you ; hoping nevertheless, that God will lead you to sec that I have not, without due consideration, taken the step you disapprove. Recommending myself to your favour, and praying God to give you his, &c., I remain, (Signed) Guii.LAUME Trie. Geneva, this 26th of Marcli. The art and purpose so plainly to be seen in the igoing letter need not be dwelt on. Anxious to fore: 248 MICHAEL SERVETUS. escape appearing in the odious light of informer, Calvin was still eager to furnish the zealots of the Church he had quitted himself, and by the heads of which he was looked on as standing in the foremost ranks of heresy, with evidence which he believed would assuredly bring the man he held in despite to a cruel death by fire. But Ory, whose special business was the prosecution of heretics, and who knew much better than Calvin what constituted evidence against them, was aware that the MS. book and the two dozen pieces, written as said by Michael Servetus, were not adequate to convict Michel Villeneuve of the charge against him. Handwriting, it seems, could be put out of court as evidence in cases of heresy, through simple denial on oath by the party accused. The point upon which evidence was particularly required, by Ory and his coad- jutors, was in fact the printing of the book entitled the ' Restoration of Christianity ; ' and none of the pieces furnished gave any assurance either that Michel Villeneuve was the writer, or Arnoullet and Geroult the printers of this. Arneys must therefore be desired to write to Cousin Trie once more, and ask him to do his best with M. Calvin to furnish evidence of the kind required. So anxious indeed were Ory and his friends for this, that they despatched this, the third letter of Arneys to Trie, by a special messenger, who was ordered to wait and bring back the answer with all speed. The answer came in due course, hardly, however, DENOUNCED BY CALVIN. 249 SO soon as we can fancy it was looked for, but to the followin clocumonts being diil)- 262 MICHAEL SERVE TUS. labelled and signed, the session was suspended until the morrow. Immediately after the second interrogatory to which he was subjected, Servetus on his return to prison sent his servant Perrin to the Monastery of St. Pierre to ask the Grand Prior if he had received the 300 crowns owing to him — Villeneuve by M. St. Andre. The money having been received, v^as remitted by the hands of Perrin to his master. Had Servetus put off his message to the Prior but for an hour, he would have lost his money, the Inquisitor Ory having given fresh orders to the gaoler to guard M. Villeneuve very strictly, and to suffer him to see and have speech of no one without his — the Inquisitor's express permis- sion. Ory, we may presume, had not only no favour for Servetus, but, with so much against him as already appeared, could have had little doubt of bringing con- viction home to him and so having him sent in smoke as an acceptable sacrifice to heaven. But Villeneuve had friends among his other judges who were every way disposed to aid him, if it were possible. Matters certainly looked very black indeed : Michel Villeneuve was plainly Michael Servetus of evil theological reputa- tion ; flagrant heresy was already manifest in the docu- ments produced, and his answers to the interrogatories were so little satisfactory that acquittal from the charges laid against him, even at the outset of the process, seemed out of the question. The judges, however, were not all Brother Orys nor Cardinal Tournons, THE ESCAPE FROM PRISON. 263 though most of them were churchmen, and, to their honour, both tolerant and merciful in circumstances where their creed prescribed intolerance and deadening of the heart to pity. Servetus had however to be sent back to his prison ; but the door of the cage might be left open and the bird allowed to fly. And everything leads to the conclusion that this was exactly what was done. Connected with the prison there was a garden having a raised terrace looking on to the court of the palace of justice ; and, abutting on the garden wall, a shed, by the roof of which and a projecting buttress on the other side a descent into the court-yard of the palace could easily be made. The garden as a rule was kept shut, but prisoners above the common in station were permitted to use it for exercise and also for occasions of nature. Having enjoyed this privilege from the first, Servetus appears to have scrutinised everything in the afternoon of April 6, after the conclu- sion of his second examination. On the morning of the seventh he rose at four o'clock and asked the gaoler, whom he found afoot and going out to tend his vines, for the key of the garden. The man, seeing his prisoner in velvet cap and dressing-gown, not aware that he was completely dressed and had his hat under his robe de chambre, gave him the key and went out shortly after- wards to his work. Servetus, on his part, when he thought the coast must be clear, left his black velvet cap and furred dressino^-c^own at the foot of a tree, leaped from 264 MICHAEL 6ERVETUS. the terrace on to the roof of the outhouse and from that, without breaking any bones, gained the open court of the Palais de Justice Dauphinal. Thence he made for the gate of the Pont du Rhone, which was at no great distance from the prison and passed into the Lyonnais —these latter facts being by and by deposed to by a peasant woman who had met him. Two hours or more elapsed before his escape became known in the prison, the gaoler's wife having been the first to discover it. She in her zeal and alarm committed a hundred extravagances ; and in her vexation tore her hair, beat her children, her servants, and some of the prisoners who chanced to come in hej way. Her rage that anyone should have had the audacity to break the dauphinal prison of Vienne, of which her husband was custodier, was such, that she even ran the risk of her life by clambering to the roof of a neighbouring house, in her eagerness to find traces of the fugitive. The authorities, informed of what had happened, did all that became them, ordering the gates of the town to be shut and more carefully guarded than usual through the next few days and nights. Proclamation was made by sound of trumpet and beat of drum, and almost every house not only of the town, but of the neighbouring villages, was visited. The magistrates of Lyons and other towns, in which it was thought pro- bable their late prisoner might have taken refuge, were written to by the Vienne authorities and inquiries made whether or not he had money in the bank, or had drawn AFTER THE ESCAPE FROM PRISON. 265 out any he might have had there. His apartments were again visited, and all his papers, furniture and effects inventoried and put under the seal of justice. In the town of Vienne it was generally thought that the Vibailly De la Cour had been the active party in favouring the evasion of Villeneuve. He was known to be intimate with the doctor, who had lately carried his daughter successfully through a long and dangerous illness, and had been loud in praise of the skill and devotion that had been shown with so happy a result. Chorier,^ the historian of Dauphiny, hints guardedly at something of the kind when he speaks of the im- prisonment of M. Villeneuve on religious grounds. ' It fell out,' says Chorier, ' that by his own ingenuity and the assistance of his friends, M. Villeneuve escaped from confinement.' In the record of proceedings after the flight the only thing mentioned is the fact of the gaoler having given the prisoner the key of the garden ; on all else there is absolute silence ; whence, as D'Artigny says, we may infer that there is mystery of some sort con- nected with the escape. We, for our part, should have no difficulty in finding a key to the mystery, had there been fewer grounds for the presumption of friendly connivance than there undoubtedly were in the business. John Calvin, arch-heretic in the eyes of the Gallic Church and its heads, could not, we must ' Chorier, Flat politique dc Dauphin!:, tome i.. p. 335, quoted by D'Arligny. 266 MICHAEL SERVETUS. presume, have been held in the highest possible esteem by the Cardinal Archbishop of Lyons, to say nothing of brother Mathias Ory, Inquisitor of the king of France and all the Gauls. But the arrest of Villeneuve and the proceedings against him thus far, had depended entirely on information supplied by the Reformer of Geneva. The managers of the process against Servetus were men much too astute, much too clear-sighted not to see that it was John Calvin who was writing under the mask of William Trie ; and one among them at least may have known that the state of feeling between the Reformer of Geneva and the Physician of Vienne had long been such that he of Geneva might not be indisposed to make use of them to wreak his vengeance against a personal enemy under the guise of a common heretic. The Judges indeed must all have seen from the letters of Villeneuve to Calvin that the two men were at daggers- drawn, and that the provocation on either part was neither new nor slight, but of long standing, and, judging by his present attitude, on Cal- vin's side deadly. We can fancy brother Mathias Ory chuckling over the sweet simplicity of the Viennese mediciner's sorry subterfuge in pretending to enact the part of ' Servetus the Spaniard, though he was no such personage, and knew nothing of the place in Spain where he was born ! ' The authorities of Vienne, however, had no desire to have their friend Villeneuve burned alive for heresy on AFTER THE ESCAPE FROM PRISON. 267 testimony gratuitously supplied by the arch-heretic of Geneva, and thereby give him, whom they hated and feared far more than a thousand lay schismatics, a triumph not only over an enemy, but over themselves, for their lack of insight and zeal as guardians of the only saving faith. And then, and in addition to all this, there was Monseigneur Paumier to be considered — Paumier, under whose patronage Villeneuve had settled at Vienne and lived so long in the very shadow of the archiepiscopal palace, on terms of intimacy with its distinguished oc- cupant. How should the great man escape suspicion of heresy himself if it were known that he had been living as a friend with one who held all the most holy mysteries of the Roman Religion as mere vanities or inventions of the Devil ! The man had lived, it is true, long and peaceably among them, respected in his life and trusted in his calling ; and if Calvin found heresy and to spare in his writings against the tenets which he as well as they held in common, they discovered outpour- ings enough there against Predestination and Election by the Grace of God, Effectual calling. Justification by Faith, and the rest, that formed the groundwork of the objectionable doctrines both of Luther and Calvin. If M. the Vibailly De la Cour connived at the escape of Villeneuve, and that he did there can hardly be a doubt, we may be well assured that he acted with the concur- rence of his more immediate associates in the adminis- tration of justice — lay and clerical. The Vibailly re- mained unchallenged in his office ; the gaoler was not 26b MICHAEL SERVETUS. dismissed, and Arnoullet the printer, for the present at least, was set at liberty. Nothing of all this could have happened had Justice not consented to be hood- winked. The gaoler's wife, in fact, seems to have been the only person in downright earnest in the business of the escape. ARNOULLETS PRIVATE PRINTING HOUSE. 269 CHAPTER XXI. DISCOVERY OF ARNOULLETS PRIVATE PRINTING ESTAB- LISHMENT SEIZURE AND BURNING OF THE ' CHRIS- TIANISMI RESTITUTIO ' ALONG WITH THE EFFIGY OF ITS AUTHOR. The remainder of the month of April was spent in making a renewed and more particular examination of the books, papers, and letters of Villeneuve, and in having copies made of the letters addressed to Calvin, the originals of which were placed for safe custody under the official seals. And here, if our surmises be well founded : that the authorities of Vienne had really no wish, on testimony supplied by Calvin, to convict of heresy a man who had always comported himself as a good Catholic and still professed himself a true son of the Church, every way disposed to receive instruc- tion and bow to the decisions of those who must know so much better than himself what was the true saving faith — the matter would probably havcf ended, in so far as those of Vienne were concerned. But Ory, the Inquisitor, nowise anxious like the others to hush up so promising an affair, had by some means been informed in the beginning of the month of May that 270 MICHAEL SERVETUS. there had been a couple of presses kept at work away from the proper printing establishment of Arnoullet. Of this significant fact, no mention had been made either by Villeneuve or Arnoullet on their examina- tion, and whence Ory had the intimation we are left to conjecture. There seems hardly room for doubt, however, that it reached him through the old channel, viz., Arneys ; that Arneys had the news he gave to Ory from Trie, and that Trie had the tale he told from Calvin, Frelon, as we have seen, must have been in the secret of Servetus, and Frelon was also the friend of Calvin ; from Frelon alone could Calvin have had the particular information he shows he pos- sessed concerning the terms on which the ' Christian- ismi Restitutio ' was printed ; and it was only from Calvin that Trie could have obtained intelligence of the kind he communicates to his relative Arneys of Lyons. The process against Servetus, as we know, began from Lyons ; and from Lyons was it now re- suscitated. But who living there was so likely to have heard of a printing press worked privately at Vienne, twelve miles away, as he who had all he knew about the heretic Villeneuve from Geneva, and had been the instrument in setting on foot the movement that was now to proceed to more disastrous issues ? With the new and important hint but just received, Ory sped off to Vienne from Lyons, his head-quarters ; and he may possibly have used even greater diligence on this occasion than he did before when he is said to ARNOULLETS PRIVATE PRINTING HOUSE. 271 have spurred his steed so vigorously. Summoning the Vibailly and Grand Vicar to his side, the three proceeded immediately to the premises that had been indicated as the private printing place of the publisher Arnoullet ; and entering, sure enough, they found three compositors at work, Straton, Du Bois, and Papillon by name. It is not difficult to imagine the terror of these men at the sight of such visitors. Before pro- ceeding to interrogate them severally, the Inquisitor took care to address them generally on the enormity of the crime of which he assumed they had been guilty, and to say that they deserved the severest punishment for having withheld the important information they could have supplied. When proceedings were com- menced against their master and M. Villeneuve, he said, they must be aware that it had been specially en- joined upon all and sundry, under pain of being dealt with as heretics, to communicate whatever they knew about the book, which he declared they must have known to be written by Villeneuve and printed by their master Arnoullet. Stretching a point, as we may ima- gine, he told the men further, that he had proofs in his hands that they were the very parties who had worked at the composition and printing of the book in question. He now, therefore, exhorted them to speak the truth and to ask pardon if they had been guilty or hoped for favour, the authorities he added, indeed, intendino- correction, not punishment. The workmen, terribly alarmed, fell as with one 272 MICHAEL SEE VET US. accord upon their knees, and Straton, speaking for himself and the others, owned that they had printed an octavo volume entitled ' Christianismi Restitutio,' but were not aware that it contained heretical doctrines, being ignorant of the Latin language in Avhich it was written, and never having heard that it did, until after the prosecution had been set on foot. He informed his questioner further that he and his associates had been steadily engaged on the book from the feast of St. Michael to January 3 last — ^over three months — when the printing was completed ; yet more, that they had not dared to give information of their part in the business for fear of being burned alive ; and to con- clude, they now sought forgiveness, and threw them- selves on the mercy of the authorities. More parti- cularly questioned, Straton said that Michel de Ville- neuve had had the book in question printed at his own expense, and had corrected the proofs in person. To end the tale, and he may have thought to make amends for his past silence, he said further that on January 13 he had despatched five bales of the book to the care of Pierre Merrin, typefounder, of Lyons. Delighted with the great discovery just made, in- asmuch as they would now have grounds of their own to proceed upon, the three associates hastened to com- municate the information they had acquired to the Archbishop of Vienne, who in turn imparted it to Cardinal Tournon. Next day the Inquisitor Ory and the Grand Vicar Arzelier set off for Lyons. Proceeding THE 'CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO' IS SEIZED. 273 at once to the establishment of Pierre Merrin, they questioned him as to what he knew of the business, and particularly about certain bales, five in number, that had lately come into his possession and were believed to contain heretical books. Merrin, having no motive for concealment, informed his visitors that about four months back he had received by the canal boat of Vienne five bales with the following address : From M. Michel deVilleneuve, doctor in medicine, these five bales, to be delivered to Pierre Merrin, typefounder, near Notre Dame de Confort, Lyons. On the day the bales were received, he added, a priest of Vienne, Jacques Charmier by name, had come to him and requested him to keep the bales until called for, saying that they contained nothing but printing-paper. From tlie time named, however, he had heard nothing from the sender, neither had anyone called to enquire after the bales or to take them away ; and for his part he knew not whether they contained white paper for printing as said, or printed books as now alleged. Having finished their interrogatory and seen the bales, the Inquisitor and Vicar made no scruple about seizing them in the name of the public authorities. Carrying them off at once, they were taken to Vienne and deposited in a room of the Archiepiscopal palace. The priest Charmier was of course the next person visited and questioned. He persistently denied all knowledge of the contents of the bales wliich he, as he was proceeding to Lyons, recommended to the care of r 274 MICHAEL SERVETUS Merrin, at the request of M. Villeneuve. The mere act of the poor priest, however, and his known intimacy with Villeneuve, were held to have compromised him to such an extent that he was put on his trial some time afterwards, and sentenced to imprisonment for three years ! The bales once safe in the Archiepiscopal palace of Vienne, were speedily undone, and there, sure enough, as Straton had said, five hundred copies of the ' Christianismi Restitutio,' complete, were displayed to the eager eyes of the lookers-on. A single copy was abstracted and given to Ory, to enable him at his leisure to extract and take exception to such passages as he might deem heretical ; the rest were left in safe custody under the palace roof. Every information up to June 17 — for so long had it taken to get at the facts as they have been stated — having now been acquired, and the proofs in the process being held complete, the Vibailly of Vienne, in a session of the Court duly summoned, and in the absence of Michel de Villeneuve, proceeded to pass sentence on him, finding him attainted and convicted of the crimes and misdemeanours laid to his charge, viz., Scandalous Heresy and Dogmatisation ; Invention of New Doctrines ; Writing heretical books ; Dis- turbance of the public peace ; Rebellion against the King ; Disobedience of the ordinances touching heresy, and Breach of the Royal Prison of Vienne. ' For re- paration of the crimes and misdeeds set forth,' said the /S BURNED IN EFFIGY. 275 Judge, 'we condemn him, and he is hereby condemned, to pay a fine of 1000 Hvres Tournois to the King of Dauphiny ; and further, as soon as he can be appre- hended, to be taken, together with his books, on a tumbril or dust-cart to the place of public execution, and there burned alive by a slow fire until his body is reduced to ashes.' The sentence now delivered, more- over, is ordered to be carried out forthwith on an effigy of the incriminated Villeneuve, which is to be publicly burned along with the five bales of the book in ques- tion, the fugitive being further condemned to pay the charges of justice, his goods and chattels being seized and confiscated, to the advantage of anyone showing just claims to the proceeds, the fine and expenses of the trial, as aforesaid, having been first duly discharged. On the same day about noon the effigy of Villeneuve, made by the executioner of the High Court of Justice, having been put upon a tumbril along with the bales of the book, was paraded through the streets of Vienne, brought to the place of public execution, hanged upon a gibbet erected for the purpose, and finally set fire to, and with the five bales burned to ashes. The matter, however, did not rest here ; it was not yet concluded in all its parts. The secular arm had done what was required of it, having burned the criminal in effigy, failing his person, along with his heretical book ; but the ecclesiastical authorities must also have their say in the case. When the utterance came, and it came not until six months after the civil r 2 276 MICHAEL SERVETUS. trial and sham execution, it was in every particular confirmatory of the sentence already delivered, the grounds of the decision however being gone into with greater minuteness than before. Among other matters particularly mentioned now, are the marginal notes in the handwriting of the culprit on two printed leaves, cut out of a cop^ of Calvin's ' Institutions ; ' Seventeen letters addressed to John Calvin and acknowledged by Villeneuve to be from him ; his answers to the Inquisi- tor Ory, the Vibailly, and the rest, and the minutes which had been made of his escape from the prison ; finally, his books, one entitled ' Christianismi Restitutio,' and another in two parts : ' De Trinitatis Erroribus, Libri septem,' and ' De Trinitate, Dialogi duo.' ' From all that has been brought to light,' the judgment pro- ceeds, ' it is made manifest that the said Villeneuve is a most egregious heretic, and as such is hereby adjudged, convicted and condemned, his body to be burned, and his goods to be confiscated, the judicial expenses in- curred and yet to be incurred to be defrayed out of the proceeds of the sale.' All the books written by Ville- neuve are further ordered to be diligently searched for, and wherever found, to be seized and burned. It is not unimportant to notice that Arnoullet, the publisher and printer, is associated with Servetus in this ecclesiastical judgment. ' The said Villeneuve and Balthazar Arnoullet are attainted and to be held con- joined in the sentence because of their complicity and connection.' Arnoullet however was more mercifully ARNOULLET AND CHARMIER. 277 dealt with than Villeneuve ; he was not condemned to be burned alive ; neither did he suffer imprisonment for any great length of time, but was by and by set at liberty on giving security for his good behaviour in future. If Charmier, the priest, was sentenced to incar- ceration for three years, having, as far as we know, done nothing more than deliver a message from Ville- neuve to Merrin the type-founder, we might have imagined that Arnoullet would scarcely have escaped with so little scath ; for to have aided and abetted in the printing of such a book as that entitled the ' Res- toration of Christianity,' which impugned the system that placed the whole of his judges — Cardinal Tournon, Archbishop Paumier, Ory, Arzelier, and the rest — in positions of affluence and influence, could only have been looked upon as a crime little less heinous than that of which the author of the book himself had been guilty. But Charmier was known to have been on friendly terms with Villeneuve ; and Paumier may have guessed what that implied ; for let us not forget that all we speak of came to pass shortly after Giovanni de Medici, under the title of Leo X., had been Pope ; and that if the Reformation had more well-wishers in France than dared to proclaim themselves, Scepticism too, and of the deepest dye, was at the same time rife in high places. The poor priest Charmier, however, being of the rank and file only, must pay for having meddled ; but let us hope that Archbishop Paumier interfered in due season and succeeded in greatly abridging the term of his imprisonment. BOOK II. SERVETUS IN GENEVA, FACE TO FACE WITH CALVIN. ^CA^ /f^ I (/i/-^^**i^^Aiy) CHAPTER I. SKRVKTUS REACHES GENEVA DETAINED THERE, HE IS ARRESTED AT THE INSTANCE OF CALVIN. Escaped from the Dauphinal prison of Vicnne, Scr- vetus must, in all likelihood, have found hiding at first with friends in Lyons. But there, as indeed anywhere else in France, his life was in imminent danger ; so tliat for his own sake, as well as that of his friends, terribly compromised by his presence, he had to seek safety at a distance — even in another country. Nor was it present safety only that was in question : the means of living in time to come had further to be thought of But master of a profession that is wel- come everywhere, he may have had little anxiety on that score ; and he who had lived so long unmolested as Villeneuve or Villanovanus, after compromising himself as Serveto, alias Reves, would have been at no loss to find another name to shield him from recognition. I lis first thoughts carried him in the direction of Spain, but he found so many difficulties from the French gendarmerie, that he turned back ; believing then that the best course he could follow would be to betake ]iims(-]f to Naples, wIhtc he knew there was a large 28* MICHAEL SERVETUS settled population of his own countrymen, among whom he would find a sufficient field for the exercise of his callinof. Calvin — erroneously beyond question — speaks of Servetus having wandered for four months in Italy after his escape from the prison of Vienne. Had he reached Italian ground at this time, he would not have returned upon Geneva, and then — presuming that he escaped Calvin's further pursuit — he might have lived, usefully engaged, to a good old age, and died quietly in his bed. Servetus arrived in Switzerland from the side of France, and must have been in hidingf in that country, or wandering about in disguise from place to place between April 7, the date of his evasion from Vienne, and the middle of July when he reached Geneva. The hue and cry from Vienne was probably not of a kind to be heard afar ; they who left the prison door open may have seen to that — Servetus indeed says himself that they did. It was not such, at all events, as to prevent his baffling pursuit and es- caping recognition : for he entered Geneva in safety ; and feelinof the soil of a state beneath his feet where other than Roman Catholic views of religion prevailed, he could hardly have thought that he would suffer molestation did he but keep quiet during the day or two he meant to remain in order to rest and recruit. The experience Servetus had had so lately must have satisfied him that he could hope for nothing from the forbearance of Calvin ; but he did not mean to put REACHES GENEVA. 283 this to the test : his business was to make no noise, and to be gone as quickly as possible. Though he had made the latter part of his journey on horseback, the usual mode of locomotion in those days, he even deemed it prudent, as less likely to attract attention, to enter Geneva on foot. He therefore discharged his steed at Louyset, a village a few miles distant, where he passed the night, and reached the city in the early morning of some day after the middle of July, 1553. Putting up at a small hostelry on the banks of the lake, having the sign of the Rose, he appears to have lain there privily and unchallenged for nearly a month. What could have induced Servetus to linger in a place where we see, from the precautions he took both in arriving and subsequently, that he could not have thought himself safe, long remained a mystery ; but is cleared up in a great measure by the information we obtain through the particulars of the trial to which he was immediately subjected, and of which it is only of late years that a full and entirely satisfactory account has been obtained. We were disposed, at one time, to ascribe the delay in setting out for Italy to the fasci- nation which the strong have over the weak, and to imagine that our wanderer was still anxious for the personal interview with Calvin he had formerly sought, but been forced to forego, in Paris, and for which, as we learn by the letter of Calvin to his friend Farel, he had made fresh proposals at a later date.^ He was ' Calvin lo Earcl, Book I., p. i6y. 284 MICHAEL SERVETUS now aware, however, that it was by Calvin he had been denounced to the authorities of Lyons and Vienne, arrested in consequence, put upon his trial, and only saved his life by escaping from prison. He could not possibly, therefore, have flattered himself that the man who was so disposed towards him would receive him in any friendly mood ; though it probably never came into his mind to irnagine that the Reformer would be disposed to take the knife in hand himself. As we now read the tale, we perceive that Serve- tus's presence in Geneva could not have been unknown to all in the city, even from the day of his arrival ; and our persuasion is, that for some time at least he was kept there against his will. On his trial we find him stating, incidentally, that the windows of the room he occupied at the Rose had been nailed np ! What interpretation can possibly be put on this ? The nailing up could not have been done to keep anyone otU of a place of public entertainment. It was therefore to keep someone in. Servetus must in fact have been anxious from the first to be gone ; but he was detained by certain parties in Geneva, not among the number of Calvin's friends, who thought to make political capital out of his pre- sence among them. Nor were it hard to imagine that he, smarting as he then was under the sense of all that had but just be- fallen him through the interference of the Reformer, and listening for the moment to the influential persons who promised him support, and possibly redress, was not alto- IS ARRESTED IN GENEVA. 285 gether indisposed to pay his enemy back for die irrepa- rable injury he had suffered at his hands. But there is nothing in all we know of Michael Servetus that leads us for a moment to think of him as a revengeful man ; and though he may have lent an ear for a while to the suggestions of his new friends, he must soon have come to conceive misgivings as to the real meaning of their attentions. Even whilst lying hidden in his inn he could hardly have failed, after a while, to learn something of the state of political partisanship prevalent in the theocratic republican city of Geneva, and so have been more than ever anxious to be gone. Hence the nailing up of his chamber windows. On Sunday, August 13, he had even spoken to the landlord of the ' Rose ' to procure him a boat for the morrow, to take him by the Lake as far as possible on his way to Zurich. But his resolu- tion to delay his departure no longer was taken too late. Weary of confinement, and always piously dis- posed, he ventured imprudently to show himself at the evening service of a neighbouring church ; and being there recognised, intimation of his presence in Geneva was conveyed to Calvin, who, without loss of a moment, and in spite of the sacredness of the day, denounced him to one of the Syndics, and demanded his immediate arrest. To effect this in the city of Geneva of the year of grace 1553 was no matter of difficulty, little being made in those days of seizing on tlie person, and not 286 MICHAEL SERVETUS. much of taking the Hfe. The accredited officer, armed with a warrant, found Servetus in his inn ; informed him he was to consider himself a prisoner ; led him away, and threw him into the common jail of the town. GENEVA AV 1553. 287 CHAPTER II. GENEVA AND THE STATE OF POLITICAL PARTIES AT THE DATE OF SERVETUS's ARREST. ' The year 1553/ says Beza, in his life of Calvin, ' by the impatience and fury of the factious, was a year so full of trouble that not only was the Church, but the Republic of Geneva, within a hair's breadth of being- wrecked and lost ; all power had fallen into the hands of the wicked (i.e., the patriotic party of freethought, opposed to Calvin, and designated the Libertines), that it seemed as though they were on the point of attaining the ends for which they had so long been striving.' Eighteen years had then elapsed since the Reformation first found footing in Geneva, and twelve since Calvin had resumed his position — interrupted during a period of two years — as a sort of spiritual dictator — ' the Lycurgus of a Christian Democracy' — not only as Or- ganiser of the Faith, and Minister in the Church, but as regulator and supervisor of the morals and manners of the people. The Reformation, in so far as Geneva was con- cerned, seems to have been hailed on political much more than on religious grounds. Emancipation from MICHAEL SERVETUS. the yoke of the Roman CathoHc bishop, under which its citizens had long fretted, meant escape from the poUtical machinations, through the Priest, of France on the one hand, of Savoy on the other. The change from Romanism to Protestantism appears to have been due, in fact, to no particular discontent of the Genevese with the old Popish forms, or to any zeal for the new doctrines of Luther and his followers, but to a cherished hope of being suffered to pass their lives with as little control as might be from authority of any kind, and that little imposed and administered by them- selves. Moral discipline was notoriously lax over Europe in the early years of the sixteenth century, nowhere perhaps more so than at Geneva ; and the liberty after which its people sighed was often understood as license rather than as life within the limits of moral law. Accident, however, having brought John Calvin, already a man of mark, to Geneva in the course of the year 1536, he was seized upon by William Farel, then in principal charge of the spiritual concerns of the city, and yielding to his most urgent entreaties — conjured, indeed, in the name of God, to remain and aid in the work of the Reformation — Calvin consented to cast in his lot with the Genevese, still jubilant over their lately recovered liberties and little amenable to discipline of any kind. A more unlikely conjunction of elements can hardly be conceived than that of the ascetic, gloomy Calvin I GENEVA IN 1553. 289 with the hvely, self-indulgent Genevese, to whom life \ meant present enjoyment, and religion a pleasant addi- tion to existence on festivals and Sundays, to be put off and on with their holiday garments and less to be thought of than the next excursion to the mountains in summer, or the approaching assembly for merriment and the dance in winter. To Calvin life and its import wore a totally different aspect. To him the present was but a prelude to the 1 future, a discipline preparing for eternity, and religion therefore the great end and aim of existence. An- chorite himself in the truest sense of the word, he would possibly have had herbs the food, the crystal spring the drink of the community. Fatalist too to a great extent through his doctrine of election and predes- tination, the joys of life — if life perchance had any joys — and its trials — and they were many, were to be taken with like passiveness and equanimity. Even the incle- mencies of the seasons, as dispensations of providence, were not to be over-anxiously guarded against : the school-house windows, it is true, were to be glazed or protected in some sort by diaphanous skins or horn ; but this was to be no higher than their lower halves ; and in so much only that the snow-drift, the wind and the rain might not interfere with the work of the scholars. Conscious himself, through natural endowment and added learning, of superiority to all about him, Calvin had little or no sympathy with the liberty the Genevese u 290 MICHAEL SERVETUS. were so proud of having achieved. A despotism was his ideal of civil government ; and his proclaimed purpose from the first in settling at Geneva was to make the city a stronghold of the Gospel, its people subjects of the Lord, and their faith and morals a model of all that had been proposed by the Reformation in the sense in which he understood it. And how much he differed in this from Luther, and Zwingli, need not be said. The Wer liebt nicht Weiber, Wein und Gesang Ein Narr ist er und bleibts sein Lebenslang ^ of him of the Wartburg, must have sounded as simple profanity to Calvin. That Calvin's heavy hand was borne with by the Genevese for two years, in the first instance, with no small amount of discontent, indeed, but with no out- break of rebellion, must be set down, we imagine, to the credit of human nature, which endures for a season the irksome and even the ill, in hope of the good to follow ; but when the pressure is crushing, and there is no prospect of alleviation, resistance, inevitably, follows in the end. Calvin and the special Court he had inaugurated under the title of the Consistory, had been anxious to impose some new and still more stringent ordinance on the city, but the Council, whose sanction was required before any of the consistorial edicts could have way, 1 Who loves not woman, wine, and song, A fool is he his life-time long. GENEVA IN 1553. 291 refused assent, and the citizens, emboldened by this, . forthwith appeared in open rebeUion against what they \ rightly construed as the tyranny and self-assertion of / the clergy. So unpopular in fact did the whole clerical ; party become at this time, that its leader and his col- league Farel were formally banished from the city, and / the subordinate ministers had to shrink into something I like obscurity if they would escape the necessity of ac-j companying them. In sore displeasure with the ungrateful conduct of the people, as he regarded it, Calvin sought shelter first in Basle and then in Strasburg, where he was welcomed by his brother Reformers, and by and by provided with honourable means of subsistence, by an appointment as Professor of Theology in the Uni- versity. But he was not destined long to enjoy the leisure of the Professor's chair. Before two years had elapsed, the more moderate, orderly, and pious party had come again into power in Geneva, and he was waited on by a deputation, headed by Amied Perrin, a man of the highest influence among his fellow citizens, and en- treated to return and save them from themselves ; orderly existence, not otherwise attainable as it seemed, being seen after all to be not too dearly bought even by heavy payments in the shape of subserviency to theocratic rule. Calvin returned to Geneva, then, and under cir- cumstances that gave him a great advantage over the u 2 292 MICHAEL SERVETUS. difficulties he had formerly encountered in carrying into effect the system of discipline he was bent on in- troducing. Perrin's appearance at the head of the de- putation to Strasburg, he had seen as an omen of the best augury ; for Perrin's influence in the Civic Council was very great, and his approval of any measure pro- posed, was taken as a sufficient guarantee by the citi- zens at large, of its value. But Perrin was ambitious, and certainly reckoned without his host when he hoped by patronising John Calvin to make him in any way the instrument of his own selfish or party designs ; Two stars keep not their orbit in one sphere ; and if Perrin was bent on power, so was Calvin. Perrin, it may be, had never heartily sympathised with the Reformation in its religious aspects ; he cer- tainly sympathised still less with the Reformer. A man of pleasure at heart, he was perhaps somewhat indifferent to religion. Ready enough to abet Calvin in his austerities towards the many, he was minded to keep his own neck and the necks of his friends out of the yoke. Calvin, however, had no idea of anything of the kind : his law was of general application, or it had no significance ; his rule was 07ie and it was for all. No wonder, therefore, that Perrin's league with the Reformer came to an end ere long ; and that when it was not open dissidence between them, it was always smouldering enmity. Calvin's grand instrument in enforcing his discipline GENEVA IN 1553. 2$, was the Consistory, an assembly made up of the entire acting clergy of Geneva, with a limited number — no more than twelve — of the laity added. This body was entrusted with very extensive powers, which it may be imagined were not suffered to lie idle, when we find it pretending to regulate the head, and even the foot, gear of the women ; intruding itself into the dwellings of the people, too, and looking into their saucepans and pint pots to see that there was no indulgence in the way of eating and drinking ! Supported by a certain number of the native Genevese, Calvin's hands were immensely strengthened by the crowd of refugees for conscience sake who poured into Geneva from France and Italy, to escape the persecution that had already begun to rage in these countries. Henry II. of France, having pre^ ^ sented his mistress, Diana of Poitiers, with the pro- ceeds of all confiscations for heresy, her agents were , indefatigable in hunting out converts to the doctrines 1 of Luther and bringing them to justice, as it was called : I the greater the number of heretics burned, the higher rose the fame for piety of the profiigate king, and in / like measure the revenue of the heartless courtesan. ^ The refugees as a rule, and almost as a matter of necessity, were entirely devoted to the Reformer ; and having been most liberally met by the Genevese at first, and put on a footing of all but perfect political equality, they made themselves felt, through their numbers, in the frecjuently recurring elections that ,.94 MICHAEL SERVETUS. formed elements in the Genevese Republican system. Favoured in all by Calvin, the strangers, as they in- creased in numbers, came at length to be ever more and more disliked and distrusted by the native popu- lation ; so that Calvin may be found using language such as this, when, speaking in the same breath of the fugitives, his friends, and of the people who sheltered both him and them within their walls : — * They (the Genevese) are dissatisfied with you (the Refugees), because you run not riot with them in their disorderly and barren lives.' The native population, in a word, found themselves, ere long, controlled and overcrowed by a host of aliens, led by a bigoted and intolerant eccle- siastic — a state of things never to be patiently endured, but to be ended at the first favourable moment ; and it is to the culminating dissatisfaction of the Genevese with clerical rule in 1553, much akin to that of the year 1538, when Calvin had been forced to quit the field, that Beza refers in the passage quoted above. I So unpopular had Calvin again become in the year I 1553, that, in writing to one of his friends, he speaks of ] discontent and distrust as universally prevalent, especi- ' ally among the more youthful of the population. ' The accumulated rancour of their hearts,' he says, 'breaks out from time to time ; so that when I show myself in the street, the curs are hounded on me : hiss ! hiss ! is shouted to them ; and they snap at my legs and tear my clothes.' Calvin must in truth have had a trying time of it during most of the years he lived among the GENEVA IN 1553. 295 Genevese ; his own bed could as little have been of roses without thorns, as he suffered the beds of the citizens to be of down ; for, save during brief lulls, he and they seem to have passed their lives in a state of covert, when it was not one of open, warfare. One of the earlier hostile moves of the civil Council in the present crisis against the Reformer was the exclusion, from the Greater Council of the State, of some members of the Minor Council, known to be among the number of his adherents. More than this, his enemies having come to outnumber his friends in the lately elected Council, he found himself frequently outvoted in directions in which he had been used to think of his wish or his will as already the law. Among those who had now obtained a seat in the Supreme Council, was one whom he had put under the consis- torial ban for some infringement of discipline, and for- bidden, until he showed signs of amendment, to present his child for baptism. To choose Councillors from among persons such as this, however, was, in Calvin's eyes, to fly in the face not only of all authority, but of the Almighty himself. Another move a Your judges will only show themselves hard-hearted con- temners of Christ, enemies of the true Church and of its pious doctrine, if they prove insensible to the horrible blasphemies of so wicked a heretic. But I hope God will so order it that they may merit commendation by putting out of the way the man who has so long and so obstinately persevered in his heresies to the perdition of so many ! In desiring to have the cruelty of the punishment mitigated, you appear as the friend of him who has been your greatest enemy. There arc some, however, who would let heretics be doing — as if there w^ere any difterence between the office of the pastor and that of the magistrate ! Because the Pope con- demns the faithful for the crime of heresy, and hostile judges cause innocent persons to undergo the punishment that should ^ Calvin to Bullinger, April 21, 1555, in Epist. Calvini, 8vo. Hanov. 1597- CALVIN ANTICIPATES THE JUDGES. 439 be reser\-ed for blasphemers, it is absurd to conclude that heretics are not to be put to death, in order that the faithful may be preserved. But do you act, I pray, in such a manner as to show that in time to come no one will be suffered to promulgate new doctrines and to throw everything into con- fusion, as this Servetus has done. For my own part, I have often said that I should be ready to suffer death did I teach aught that was opposed to the true doctrine, and should deem myself deserving of the most terrible tortures did I turn even one from the faith that is in Christ. I would not, there- fore, apply to another a different rule. Farel is neither an elegant nor an agreeable, still less a logical, writer ; but he is zealous in behalf of the true doctrine — the doctrine, to wit, he holds himself. God, the father of mankind, who sends the rain and the sunshine indifferently on all, has, in the opinion of this poor bigot, by a special dispensation of his providence, led a sincerely pious man, according to his lights, to Geneva, there to be first harshly and ignominiously treated by another sincerely pious man, according to his lights ; and finall}% through the in- lluence he exerts over its clergy and magistrac}', to be put to a lingering death by slow fire ! Farel never j thought of himself, with his ' True Doctrine,' as a Ia^^ heretic in the highest degree in the eyes of his neigh- //, bours the Roman Catholics of France with their ' True Doctrine.' It is more than questionable, indeed, whether b'arel had ever read a word of Servetus's writings. He was a man of action, fearless, full of fiery zeal, and a read}- 440 MICHAEL SERVETUS talker, but with no great amount of scholarly acquire- ment, and still less of philosophy. In anything of his we have seen, and save in what is said of his harangues, he never meets us otherwise than as a man of narrow mind, utterly intolerant and entirely under the influence of Calvin. If Servetus had sinned by persevering in heresy, and corrupting souls, so had he, so had Calvin, so had Melanchthon and the rest, in the estimation of their neighbours the Papists of neighbouring lands ; and, though he speaks glibly of myriads who had lost their chance of salvation through Servetus, there was never a tittle of evidence adduced on the trial to show that even a single individual had been influenced by his writings. On the contrary, all who are brought forward in connection whether with the man or his works — CEcolampadius, Bucer, Melanchthon — are proof and more than proof against both him and them. Calvin and Farel, as we see, had made up their minds that Servetus was to be condemned to death weeks before the conclusion of his trial. PETITIOXS HIS JUDGES. 441 CHAPTER XIV. SERVETUS SENDS A LETTER AND A SECOND REMON- STRANCE AND PETITION TO HIS JUDGES. Smarting under a sense of the unjustifiable treatment to which he was so relentlessly subjected, and weary of the delays that had taken place through the disputes between the Consistory represented by Calvin, and the Council, Servetus now gave vent to the pent-up storm within him in the following characteristic remonstrance. Alluding to the backing his persecutor received from the clergy, and the number of names attached to the Refutation of his Replies, he exclaims : Thus far we ha\'c had clamour cnouc,^h and a cjrcat crowd of subscribers ! ]Jut what places in Scripture do they adduce as their authority for the Invisible Individual Son they ac- knowledge ? They refer to none ; nor, indeed, will they ever be able to point to any. Is this becominc,^ in these great ministers of the Divine Word, who everywhere boast that they teach nothing that is not confirmed by distinct passages of I loly Writ .'' But no such places are now forthcoming ; and m\- doctrine, consequently, is impugned by mere clamour, withoutj a shadow of reason, and without the citation of a single authority against it. Michael Servetus, who signs alone, but has Christ for his sure protector ! 442 MICHAEL SERVETUS Engaged with more Immediate and interesting business in the pohtical and administrative sphere of their duties, the Council had, in fact, left that in which their prisoner Michael Servetus was so particularly concerned'unnoticed for something like fourteen days. This long delay gave him reasonable cause for com- plaint, and furnished him with grounds not only for the outburst given above, but for a further petition and re- monstrance to the followlnor effect : o To tJic Syndics and Council of Geneva. My most honoured Lords ! — I humbly entreat of you to put an end to these great delays, or to exonerate me of the criminal charge. You must see that Calvin is at his wit's end and knows not what more to say, but for his pleasure would have me rot here in prison. The lice eat me up alive; my breeches are in rags, and I have no change — no doublet, and but a single shirt in tatters. I made another request to you, which was for God's sake ; but to prevent your granting it, Calvin alleged Justinian against me. It is surely unfortunate for him that he brings against me that which he does not himself believe. He neither believes nor does he agree with what Justinian says of the Church, of Bishops, of the Clergy, nor of many things besides connected with religion. He knows well enough that [in Justinian's day] the Church was already corrupted. This is disgraceful in him — all the more disgraceful as he keeps me here for the last five weeks in close confinement, and has not },"et adduced a single passage [of Scripture] against me. I have also demanded to have counsel assigned me. This would have been granted me in my native country ; and here I am a stranger and ignorant of the laws and customs of the PETITIONS HIS JUDGES. land. Yet you have given counsel to my accuser, whilst refusing it to me, and have further set him at large before ha\-ing taken any true cognisance of my cause. I now de- mand that my cause may be referred to the Council of Two Hundred. If I am permitted to appeal to it, I hereby appeal ; declaring, as I do, that I will take on me all the expenses, damages, and interests, and abide by the award of the Lex Talionis as well in respect of my first accuser [De la Fontaine] as of Calvin his master, who has now taken the prosecution into his own hands. From your prison of Geneva, this 15th of Septr. 1553. Michael Servetus, in his own cause. « The Council appear to have been nowise moved by this very reasonable petition. The request for counsel, here reiterated, was not noticed — it had al- ready been disposed of, and could not be granted ; but the petition to have his case referred to the Council of the Two Hundred was discussed and rejected : the tribunal before which he was on his trial was competent in every respect by the laws of the State. Orders, how- ever, were given that the articles of clothing he required should be procured for him at his proper cost ; but as it seems to have been the business of no one to see the order carried into effect, or because the Council and custodians of the gaol of Geneva were accustomed to see their prisoners in rags and devoured by vermin, it was unheeded at the time, although attended to at a somewhat later period in this eventful history. 444 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Had there been no resolution to take the opinion of the Councils and Churches of the confederate Re- formed Cantons, everything necessary to a decision was again before the Court. The term had indeed been exceeded within which by the law of Geneva the proceedings ought to have ended — the law positively forbidding the protraction of a criminal suit beyond the term of a calendar month. The law had, therefore, been violated ; but there was no one to urge the point in behalf of the prisoner, any more than there had been to expose Calvin's disobedience of the Council's orders to present his Articles of Incrimination without note or comment. Neither the Clerical nor the Libertine party, however, had yet done with the unfortunate Servetus, although it was not before their meeting of September 2 1 that the Council found itself at leisure to take up the tangled skein of the Servetus-prosecution again, and to order the necessary documents to be prepared for submission to the Councils and Churches they had determined to consult. Before despatching these when ready, they seem to have thought it would be well to show Calvin the short demurrers of Servetus to his elaborate Refutation ; expecting, probably, that he would have something to say to them, but not meaning to let Servetus see anything Calvin might think proper to add. There was no occasion however, as it fell out, to act on this rather partial reservation. The Reformer did not think fit to notice even one of the unhappy annotations of his enemy, in which the lie direct is given THE TRIAL IN ITS FINAL PHASE. 445 him something Hke fifty times ; and the epithet nebulo — knave — is not the most offensive that is apphed to him. He did not add a word to what he hadah-eady written. A mere glance at the unhappy jottings sufficed, as it seemed, to make liim feel sure of his suit ; Servetus, he saw, stood self-condemned in his neglect to adduce vScripture authority for his peculiar views, or to show that they had cither been misinterpreted or misunder- stood by his pursuer. The abusive epithets so plenti- fully heaped on Calvin only recoiled upon himself. 446 MICHAEL SERVETUS. CHAPTER XV. THE SWISS COUNCILS AND CHURCHES ARE ADDRESSED BY THE COUNCIL OF GENEVA. From the duel as heretofore carried on between Calvin, backed by the Ministers of Geneva, and Servetus, seconded by Christ alone, as he said, the process was now to be widened in its scope and debated between the solitary stranger and the Reformation at large, or so much of it at least as was represented by the Pro- testant Churches of Berne, Basle, Zurich, and Schaff- hausen. As many as four copies of the writings that had passed between the prosecution and the prisoner had, therefore, to be made, and for this a couple of days were required ; so that it was not until after the third week of September that the messenger usually charged by the authorities of Geneva with their despatches was furnished with his credentials to the Councils and Ministers of the four towns named. The documents forwarded were copies of the ' Christianismi Restitutio,' and of the works of Tertullian and Irenaeus ; the thirty- eifrht articles from the writincrs of Servetus extracted by Calvin ; Servetus's replies to these in defence of his views ; and Calvin's Refutation of his errors, as he THE SWISS CHURCHES ARE CONSULTED. 447 characterised them, having Servetus's jottings, dis- claimers, and abusive epithets interspersed. Ground- ing their opinions on these lengthy documents, the Swiss Churches were requested to declare themselves on the orthodox or heretical nature of the passages inculpated, and so, in fact, to pronounce on the guilt or innocence of the prisoner in respect of the heresy and blasphemy imputed to him ; their standard being, of course, the particular form of Christianity professed by the prose- cutor and themselves. In referring to the Churches in communion with that of Geneva, the Council is careful to say that it would not be supposed to entertain any doubts of the competency of the Church of Geneva to pronounce a definitive opinion on the questions at issue ; it would only have further light before coming to a decision in a matter of so much moment. The style of address adopted by the Council ot Geneva to the Councils and Churches of the Cantons consulted will be sufficiently appreciated from the letters sent to Zurich. And first the one addressed to the Ministers : Geneva, September 21, 1553. Honourable Sirs ! — Well assured that you are every way disposed to persevere in the good and holy purpose of uphold- ing and furthering the Word of God, wc have thought we should do you an injustice did we not inform you of the busi- ness in which we have been engaged for some time past. It is this. There is a man now in prison with us, oMichael Scrve- tus by name, who has thought fit to write and have printed certain books on the Holy Scriptures, containing matters which 44!^ MICHAEL SERVETUS. we think are nowise according to God and the holy evangeli- cal doctrine. He has been heard [in his defence] by our ministers, who have drawn up Articles against him, to which he has replied, and to his replies answers have been given — all in writing ; and we pray you, for the honour of God, to take the papers now forwarded to you into consideration, and to return them by the same messenger with your opinion and advice. We beg you further to look into the book which will be delivered to you by our messenger, so that you may be well and fully informed of the unhappy propositions of the writer. In writing thus and asking your advice we desire to say that we do so without any mistrust of our own ministers. To the Btirgomasicr and Council of Zilrich. Geneva, September 22, 1553. High and mighty Lords ! — We know not if your Lordships are aware that we have in hand a prisoner, Michael Servetus by name, who has written and had printed a book containing many things against our religion. This we have shown to our ministers ; and, although we have no mistrust of them, we desire to comnmnicate the work to you, in order that, if it so please you, you may lay it before your clergy, together with the replies and rejoinders that have been made in connection therewith. We therefore pray you to be good enough to submit the documents now sent to your ministers and request them to give us their opinion of their merits, to the end that we may bring the business, to which they refer, to a close. On the result of the course now taken the fate of Servetus evidently depended. Did the four Swiss Churches find the extracts from his writings heretical and blasphemous, the Council of Geneva, in their capa- city of criminal judges, would find themselves justi- THE SWISS CHURCHES ARE CONSULTED. 449 fied in passing upon him the extreme sentence of the law ; and Calvin's determined pursuit not only of his theological opponent and personal enemy, but of his political antagonist and, in some sort, rival, as he had been made to appear through the espousal of his cause by the leaders of the Libertine party, would be brought to the conclusion he desired. G G 450 MICHAEL SERVE TUS. CHAPTER XVI. SERVETUS AGAIN ADDRESSES THE SYNDICS AND COUNCIL OF GENEVA, AND ACCUSES CALVIN. If Calvin, then, as we apprehend, had every reason to anticipate an answer in his favour from the Churches, SO do we find Servetus possessed by the assured hope that he would be acquitted, or, at most, be found guilty of nothing involving a heavier penalty than banishment from the Republic of Geneva. Of heresy he did not think for a moment he had been more guilty than every one of the Reformers whom he had been accustomed to hear spoken of in the polite circles of Vienne not only as schismatics, but as heretics of the deepest dye. If his ' Restoration of Christianity ' had been burned by the hangman of Vienne, had not Calvin's ' Institu- tions of the Christian Religion ' been summarily con- demned by the whole Catholic world, and put on the Index of prohibited books by the Roman Curia ? So sure does Servetus appear to have felt of final acquittal at this time — guiltless of blasphemy as in his soul he knew himself to be, and bolstered by the HE ACCUSES CALVIN. 451 false hopes of his false friends, that whilst the scales of justice were still trembling on the beam, he, from his filthy cell, in rags, and devoured by vermin, even he aspired to become the accuser of the man by whom he was himself accused, and subjected to all the indignities he endured ! It could only have been under the excitement of some such persuasion that he now wrote the following extraordinary letter to the Council : — To the Syndics and Council of Geneva. My most honoured Lords, — I am detained on a criminal charge at the instance of John Calvin, who has accused me, falsely saying that in my writings I maintain — 1st. That the soul of man is mortal, and 2nd. That Jesus Christ had only taken the fourth part of his body from the Virgin Mary. These are horrible, execrable charges. Of all heresies and crimes, I think of none greater than that which would make the soul of man to be mortal. In every other there is hope of salvation, but none in this. He who should say what I am charged with saying, neither believes in God nor justice, in the resurrection, in Christ Jesus, in the Scriptures, nor, indeed, in anything, but declares that all is death, and that man and beast arc alike. Had I said anything of the kind — said it not in words only, but written and published it, I should myself think me worthy of death. Wherefore, my Lords, I demand that my false accuser be declared subject to the law of retaliation, and like me be sent to prison until the cau.se between him and me, for death or other penalty, is decided. To this effect I here engage myself against him, submit myself to all that the Lex Talionis requires, and declare that I shall be content to die if I am <; G 2 452 MICHAEL SERVETUS. not borne out in everything I shall bring against him. My Lords, I demand of you, justice, justice, justice ! From your prison of Geneva, this 22nd of September, 1553- Michael Servetus, pleading his own cause. The letter was followed by a series of articles in form like those lately brought against himself, headed — A rticlcs on ivJncJi Michael Servetus demands that John Calvin be interrogated. I. Whether in the month of March last he did not write, by the hand of William Trie, to Lyons, and say many things about Michael Villanovanus called Servetus .'' What were the contents of the letter, and with what motive was it sent ^ II. Whether with the letter in question he sent half of the first sheet of the book of the said Michael Servetus, entitled ' Christianismi Restitutio,' on which were the Title, the Table of Contents, and the beginning of the work .'' III. Whether this was not sent with a view to its being shown to the authorities of Lyons, in order to have Servetus arrested and impeached, as happened in fact .'' IV. Whether he has not heard since then that in conse- quence of the charges thereby brought against him, he, the said Servetus, had been burned in e^gy, and his property confiscated ; he himself having only escaped burning in person by escaping from prison .'' V. Whether he does not know that it is no business of a minister of the gospel to appear as a criminal accuser and pursuer of a man judicially on a capital charge 1 My Lords, there are four great and notable reasons why Calvin ought to be condemned : First : Because doctrinal matters are no subjects for HE ACCUSES CALVIN. 453 criminal prosecutions, as I have shown in my petition, and will show more fully from the Doctors of the Church. Acting as he has done, he has therefore gone beyond the province of a minister of the Gospel, and gravely sinned against justice. Second: Because he is a false accuser, as the above articles declare, and as is easily proved by reading my book. Third: Because by frivolous reasons and calumnious assertions he would suppress the Truth as it is in Jesus Christ, as will be made obvious to you, by reference to my writings ; what he has said of me, being full of lies and wickedness. Fourth : Because he follows the doctrine of Simon Magus, in great part, against all the Doctors of the Church. Where- fore, magician as he is, he deserves not only to be condemned, but to be banished and cast out of your city, his goods being adjudged to me in recompense for mine which he has made me to lose. These, my Lords, are the demands I make. Michael Servetus, in his own cause. Although \vc have only conjecture to aid us in understanding the temper that now shows itself in Servetus, and the hope he evidently entertains of triumphing over his prosecutor, we cannot be mistaken in ascribing it to the influence of Perrin and Berthelier. They must have imagined that the same result would ensue from the appeal to the Churches as had followed the reference made to them in the case of Jerome Bolsec, and believed that the worst that would befal their puppet would be banishment from the city and territory of Geneva. If they could but cross and spite the refugee Frenchman, their clerical tyrant, through the 454 MICHAEL SERVE TUS. fugitive Spaniard, their end would be attained, although at the cost, perhaps, of a certain amount of inconveni- ence to their instrument. The conclusion of Servetus's last address to the Council shows clearly the opinion he had been led to form of Calvin's present position in Geneva. ' As the magician he is,' says Servetus, ' he ought to be condemned, and cast out of your city,, his property being adjudged to me in recompense for all I have lost through him ! ' The Council appear to have taken no more notice of this last address and demand of their prisoner than they had of his pre- ceding more reasonable petitions and remonstrances. The pause in the proceedings that ensued, pending the receipt of replies from the Churches consulted ; the silence of the Council upon his letter and inculpa- tion of Calvin, combined with the effects of continued imprisonment, anxiety, and hope deferred, on a body not of the strongest, would seem before long to have induced a frame of mind different from that so unmis- takably displayed of late by the prisoner. The petition forwarded three weeks later to the Council is pitched in a much lower key than the one last presented. Most noble Lords, — -It is now about three weeks since I petitioned for an audience, and still have no reply. I entreat you for the love of Jesus Christ not to refuse me that you would grant to a Turk, when I ask for justice at your hands. I have, indeed, things of importance to communicate to you, very necessary to be known. HE ACCUSES CALVIN. 455 As to what you may have commanded to be done for me in the way of cleanliness, I have to inform you that nothing has been done, and that I am in a more filthy plight than ever. In addition, I suffer terribly from the cold, and from colic, and my rupture, which cause me miseries of other kinds I should feel shame in writing about more particularly. It is ver>^ cruel that I am neither allowed to speak nor to have my most pressing wants supplied ; for the love of God, Sirs, in pity or in duty, give orders in my behalf From your prison of Geneva, Michael Servetus. October lo, 1553. This appeal to the duty as well as the compassion of the Council was the first of any he had addressed to It which met with an immediate response. One of the Syndics, attended by the Clerk of the Court, was commissioned to visit the prisoner, and inquire into his state, being requested, further, to see measures taken to have him furnished with the articles of clothing he required, so that the resolution formerly come to in this direction should no longer remain a dead letter. October 19 and 23. A month had all but elapsed before the messenger to the Councils and Churches of the Protestant Swiss Cantons returned with the replies of the Magistrates and Pastors to the Documents submitted to them by the Council of Geneva. But he came at last. As the answers were in Latin, transla- tions into French had to be made for the behoof of those among the councillors of Geneva who were in- differently versed in the Latin tongue. Some days 456 MICHAEL SERVETUS. more were required for this ; so that though the mes- senger arrived on October 1 9, the papers in Latin and French were only ready on the 23rd, when they were laid before the Council, once more solemnly assembled in its judicial capacity, with the prisoner before them. The Church of Berne which was the first referred to [and had its head pastor, Haller, as reporter of its conclusion ?], blames Servetus not only for his heresies, but for his insolence and want of respect for Calvin. He seems (says the report) to have thought himself at liberty to call in question all the most essential elements of our religion, to upset everything by new interpretations of Scripture, and to corrupt and throw alL^urto confu sion by ; reviving the poison of the ancient heresies. . . . We pray 'that the Lord will give you such a spirit of prudence, of counsel, and of strength, as will enable you to fence your Church and the other Churches from this pestilence, and that you will at the same time take no step that might be held unbecoming in a Christian magistracy. The Church of Zurich [of which Bullinger must have been the reporter], replied at greater length than that of Berne, or, indeed, any of the other Churches, going minutely into the question of Servetus s opinions, which are pronounced to be at once heretical and blasphemous. The Ministers of this Church are particular also in insisting on the propriety of uphold- ing Calvin in his prosecution of the heretic. We trust (say the pastors of Zurich), that the faith and zeal of Calvin, your pastor, and our brother, his noble devo- tion to the refugees and the pious, will not be suffered by you THE CHURCHES CONSULTED REPLY. 457 to be obscured by the unworthy accusations of this man, against whom, indeed, we think you ought to show the greater severity, inasmuch as our Churches have the evil reputation abroad of countenancing heretics, and even of favouring heresy. But the holy providence of God, they proceed, waxing in fervour, presents you at this moment with an opportunity of clearing yourselves as well as us, from such injurious imputa- tions, if you but resolve to show yourselves vigilant, and well disposed to prevent the further spread of the poison. We do not doubt, indeed, that your Excellencies will act in this wise. Schaffhausen was content to subscribe to all that had been said by Zurich (whose conclusion, conse- quently, had been communicated to it) ; but could not resist insinuating how it thought the Spaniard should be dealt with. We do not doubt (say its Ministers) that you, with com- mendable prudence, will so repress this attempt of Scrvetus, that his blasphemies shall not be suffered to eat like a gan- grene into the limbs of Christ. To use lengthy reasonings with a view to free him from his errors, would but be to rave with a madman. The pastors of the Church of Basle [with Sulzer as reporter], the last consulted, are rejoiced to see Servetus in the hands of the magistrates of Geneva ; feeling persuaded that they will not be wanting either in saintly zeal or Christian prudence, in finding a re- medy for an evil that has already led to the ruin ot vast numbers of souls. The theological culpability of the man is also much aggravated in their opinion by the obstinacy and insolence with which he persists in 458 MICHAEL SERVETUS. ^ 9^ his errors, instead of yielding to the reflections which imprisonment and the instructions of the pastors of Geneva ought to have led him to make. We exhort you, therefore (they conclude), to use, as it seems you are disposed to do, all the means at your command to cure him of his errors, and so to remedy the scandals he has occasioned ; or, otherwise, does he show himself incurably anchored in his perverse opinions, to constrain him, as is your duty, by the powers you have from God, in such a way that henceforth he shall not continue to disquiet the Church of Christ, and so make the end worse than the beginning. The Lord will surely grant you his spirit of wisdom and of strength to this end. We thus see that the Churches, whilst they all agree in condemning, refrain from declaring in precise terms the kind of punishment they would have awarded the prisoner — they do not in so many words say they would have him put to death ; but finding him guilty of heresy and blasphemy, they knew that by the law of the land he must die. Condemning him unequivocally, therefore, for his theological views, they, in fact, pro- nounce his doom. To have done so directly, would have been trenching on the rights of the Council of Geneva, by whom, under the circumstances, a covert wish was sure to be better taken than an open recom- mendation. And let us not overlook the base and selfish motive that underlies the severity counselled : by putting the heretical Spaniard to death, the Swiss Churches will free themselves from the imputation of favouring heresy ! THE COUNCILS CONSULTED. 459 So much for the conclusions and implied wishes of the Ministers. The Magistrates of the cities con- sulted, differ but litde, if at all, from their Clergy. The Council of Berne express a hope that their bro- thers of Geneva will not allow the wickedness and evil intentions of their prisoner to make further head, all he says being so manifestly opposed to the Christian religion, which they think it must be his purpose to vilipend and do what in him lies to exterminate. They, therefore, ' entreat the Senate of Geneva so to comport themselves — and they do not question their inclination in this — that such sectaries and disseminators of error as their prisoner shall no longer be suffered to sow in the Church of Christ.' The reply of Berne is said by Calvin to have had greater influence on the Judges of Servetus than that of any of the other Councils. Geneva had oftener than once in former years been indebted to Berne for assist- ance in her straits, and still continued, to a considerable extent, under the influence of the Canton that was looked up to as Chief in the Swiss Confederation. The Ma- gistrates of Berne, moreover, were more outspoken, perhaps, than those of any of the other Cantons. But we discover, after all, that neither the Churches nor Councils were acting independently and of know- ledge self-acquired of the business. The Clergy were dominated by Calvin, the Councils by the Clergy ; and there appears to have been collusion and concert among the reporters both of the Churches and Senates. 46o MICHAEL SERVETUS. Yesterday (September " 26), (writes Haller of Berne, to Bullinger of Zurich) we received the documents in the case of Servetus, and have since been studying them in view of our reply. But we should like to know what your answer is before we send ours. We therefore entreat you immediately to inform us of its tenor. Yet wherefore so much ado ! the man is a heretic, and the Church must get rid of him. Let me, however, I beseech you, speedily know the conclusion you have come to. The Zurich pastor would seem to have been the most active of all the ministers in collecting and im- parting information of a kind that would lead to unani- mity of conclusion among the Churches and Councils. His friend, Ambrose Blaurer, acknowledging receipt of a letter from him communicating the decision of Zurich, says that he ' had thought the pestilent Serve- tus, whose book he had read twenty years ago, must long since have been dead and buried.' But the self- righteous man must add further : ' We are surely tried by heresies and satanic abortions of the sort, in order that they who are steadfast in the faith may be made known.' Sulzer of Basle has also been primed by him of Zurich, for, in reply to the intimation he has received of what has been done, he says that he, Sulzer, ' is rejoiced to have heard of the arrest of Servetus in a quarter where it seems he may be effectually kept from infecting the Church with his heretical dogmas in time to come ; although I know there be some who are violently opposed to Calvin's proceedings, and the subserviency of the Senate in the business.' THE CHURCHES AND COUNCILS CONSULTED. 461 So much for the Churches and Councils of the Can- tons consulted ; and how little the latter were disposed to act, or, indeed, were capable of acting of themselves, and on their own appreciation of the questions submitted to them, is made manifest by the letter which Haller wrote to Bullinger at this time : I have to give you my best thanks, dear Sir and Brother, for your diligence in communicating with the Genevese [and, of course, with the Bernese also] so speedily. Our Council have been of the same mind as yours in their reply. We, as ordered by thon, have exposed the principal errors of Servetus, article by article. When our Councillors had been made aware of their nature, they were so horror-struck, that I have no doubt, had the writer been in prison here, he would have been burned alive. But as the matters in question were very little intelligible to them, they desired that I should reply in a letter as from myself to the Council of Geneva. They added, however, from themselves, that they exhorted the Genevese so to deal with the poison that it should not, by any negligence of theirs, be suffered to spread to neighbouring districts ; and, indeed, it has often happened that commotions in Geneva have extended from its walls and got footing within ours. I think I need not send you a copy of our reply, as it agrees so entirely in every respect with your own. Yours most truly, J. Haller. Berne: October 19, 1553. The Churches and Councils consulted, then, were at one in their condemnation of Servetus. But it has been presumed that ecclesiastical conclusion and in- uendo backed by civilian assent, might still have failed 462 MICHAEL SERVETUS. to bring matters to the issue aimed at by the prosecu- tion, had not pohtical considerations intervened to com- phcate and sway judicial action. We are ready enough to beHeve that there was so much common sense in the Senate of Geneva, and such a feehng of the im- possibihty of attaining to absolute certainty in ques- tions of dogmatic theology, that they were even more indisposed than they plainly show themselves to have been to come to a final decision in the case of their prisoner. But to assume that political considerations had the lead in the condemnation of Servetus, would, we venture to think, be a great mistake. To remove the prosecution from the sphere of theology to that of policy, were to take from it its chief interest and signi- ficance. But the arrest was made, the trial was begun, and the sentence was delivered exclusively on theolo- o-ical grounds. The political element that got mixed up with the business, was no more than an accident, and cannot truly be said to have influenced the judgment finally given. The four Swiss cantonal Councils and Churches which condemned Servetus, condemned him on theological grounds alone ; they knew little or no- thing of the political strife that agitated Geneva, and were not swayed by it in their decision. Servetus himself, ill-advised and misled by those who had access to him, fully persuaded of the truth of his opinions, and relying on their consonance with Scripture, as he read it, may be said to have left his Judges one way only out of the difficult and delicate EFFECT OF 1 HE DECISIONS OF THE CHURCHES. 463 position in which they found themselves ; and this was by finding him guilty of the theological errors laid to his charge. He appeared to be opposed not only to every religious principle as known to them, and as understood alike by Catholics and Protestants, but he had used such objectionable language in speaking of subjects held so sacred as the Trinity and the Baptism of Infants, that even the most tolerant in the present day would find it inexcusable ; how much less warrant- able must it have appeared amid the universally preva- lent intolerance of three centuries ago ! Nevertheless, it may be that the mind of every member of the Council had not yet been made up as to the degree of the pri- soner's guiltiness, or even granting him" guilty of every- thing imputed to him, that he, therefore, deserved to die ; and die he must if they so declared him. All the grounds for a definitive decree being before the Court on their meeting of the 23rd, we must presume that the sense of the members generally as to the guiltiness of the prisoner had been ascertained, and that the opinion of the majority to this effect was only not formulated and pronounced because of the absence of some of the leading Councillors — that of Amied Perrin, the first Syndic, being particuarly re- marked. An adjournment was therefore moved ; but to afford no further excuse for delay in bringing the protracted business of the Servetus Trial to an end, summonses for a special session on the 26th were 464 xMICHAEL SERVETUS. ordered to be issued. Doubtful of the decision, as it might seem, and anxious for delay in consequence of the tenor of the letters from the Churches,. Perrin had absented himself from the meeting of the 23rd, through indisposition, as he said himself, through feigned indisposition, according to Calvin, as we learn from a letter of his to his friend Farel of the 26th, in which he speaks of his great political antagonist by the derisive title of CcEsar comiciis. Meantime, the members of the Court present determined to proceed to the gaol, and inform the prisoner of their purpose to have him before them with the least possible delay, to hear their final award. Before taking their leave, and as if to intimate to the unhappy Servetus what was to follow, they placed him under the care of two special warders, who were to hold themselves responsible with their lives for his safe custody. The unusual visit of his Judges, and the additional guard set over him must, we should imagine, have sent a chill to the heart of the unfortunate Ser- vetus, and gone far to damp out the hope he had been led to entertain either of acquittal or a sentence short of that which he knew Calvin had made up his mind from the first to extort. Yet does he not appear even now to have thought it possible that his Judges would condemn him to death. Self-conscious rectitude alone, and a better belief than it deserved in the world's will to do justly and mercifully, had blinded him to the fate that awaited him. EFFECT OF THE DECISIONS RECEIVED. 465 During the three days' pause that now ensued, some faint show of s}'mpathy for the prisoner was manifested outside the walls of the Council chamber ; but it came from no one of weight or standing in the Republic. Zebedee, the pastor of Noyon, a known opponent of Calvin on some of his theological tenets, and Gribaldo, an Italian by birth, by profession a lawyer, now a re- fugee from his home for conscience' sake, were bold enough to proffer something in his behalf ; Gribaldo even going so far as to defend certain of his conclusions, and having a word to say in favour of toleration. But he was not backed by the congregation of his country- men, domiciled in Geneva, so that the move he made had no result. The show of opposition on the part of the Italian to his sovereign will and pleasure was not, however, forgotten by Calvin. Denounced by him at a later period for irregularity of some sort, in contra- vention of consistorial law, Gribaldo found it advisable for safety's sake to quit Geneva. Still there were not Avanting many, both laymen and clerics, natives of Geneva, as well as refugees, de- voutly attached to Calvinistic doctrines, who showed a lively repugnance to pushing matters the length of capital punishment in cases of heresy ; the instinctive feeling of all pointing to this as the conclusion aimed at by the prosecution. For Reformers — heretics them- selves in the eyes of the dominant European Church — to have recourse to measures that appeared in such an odious light when brought into requisition by Roman 11 II 466 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Catholics, seemed illogical, unwarrantable, and danger- ous. But the number who raised their voices in this direction was small. The prisoner was not an object of interest to the Libertine party in general ; a stranger in Geneva, he was in some sort the particular puppet of Perrin and Berthelier, rather than the representative of a principle. Even to the leaders he was nothing more than a counter in the political game of the day. In a word, and in so far as anything was known about him to the public, the man entertained extraordinary, and what seemed blasphemous opinions on religion, as they had learned to understand the word, and so must be a wicked and worthless person, who might safely be left to be dealt with by the ministers and civil authorities in the way they judged best. Calvin, at this momentous juncture, maintained an attitude of entire confidence as to the pending decision. He had been informed of the tenor of the letters re- ceived from the Swiss cities ; and, aware of their uni- form agreement in the theological culpability of Ser- vetus, he could rely on the effect this must produce on the minds of the Judges. He seems even to have thought it unnecessary any longer to exert the special influence he could always bring to bear on any question in debate before the Council — he refrained from preaching against the prisoner and holding him up as a blasphemer against God and religion, as had been his wont. October 26. — The Council, in its capacity of High DELIBERATIONS OF THE COUNCIL. 467 Court of Criminal Justice, solemnly convoked for this day, was well attended, though not quite com- plete as to numbers ; Amied Perrin, cured of his indis- position, presiding. The Governing Body of the Republic of Geneva consisted, as we have seen, of two extreme and mutu- ally opposed parties — the Libertines, or patriots, and the Clericals, or abettors of Calvin and theocratic rule. Each of these had representatives in the Council whose voices could be implicitly relied on. But — as in all general assemblies that ever came together, there are still found a certain number of neutrals or waverers, men of no strong convictions one way or another ; too weak in some cases to rely on themselves and act independently ; too strong in others to be led by any convictions but their own, whose votes could make the balance incline one way or another, so were they not wanting in the Council of Geneva at this time. Now, in the fateful meeting of October 26, it was ob- served that several of the most constant opponents of Calvin had absented themselves, whilst not one of his regular supporters failed to appear. The resolution to be come to was delicate, on matters unfamiliar, and apt to excite the scruples of the conscientious and timid. It was the life of no brutal offender against person or property, no criminal, in fact, save by construction, that was in debate, but that of a scholar of varied accomplishments, against whom no social delinquency had been charged, or, if H H 2 MICHAEL SERVETUS. charged, which had not been rebutted, and fallen to the ground. Yet was this man accused of heresy and blasphemy against God and religion, not only by the distinguished head of the Church of Geneva and its other ministers, but was now found guilty of these theological crimes, involving, as they were said to do, disruption of the entire social fabric, by every one of the Confederate Churches and Councils consulted. What, forsooth, could be urged in behalf of him who had spoken of the Trinity as a three-headed monster, comparable to the hell-dog of the heathen poets, and declared the Baptism of Infants to be an invention of the devil ? And then, and yet more, it was not by the Re- formed Churches only that the prisoner had been challenged for heresy, and found guilty ; he had been tried and convicted on this ground by their neighbours the Roman Catholics of Vienne, been burned in effigy by them along with his books, and only escaped burning in person by breaking from his prison. The Genevese, moreover, had been frequently reproached as well by papists as by professors of other forms of Christianity akin to their own, with laxity in matters of doctrine, and even called abettors of heresy and shelterers of heretics ; and they had, indeed, been in- vaded of late by a host of individuals fleeing for their lives, through entertaining all manner of new and hitherto unheard-of opinions on religion. Weary on every side of wranglings upon subjects DELIBERATIONS OF THE COUNCIL. 469 they did not understand, the clerical party in the Senate would not be thought less than zealous for the true Faith — the Faith which Avas their own ; whilst the more timid of their adversaries sought excuse and es- cape from responsibility by absenting themselves at the moment the vote must be given on the guilt or inno- cence of the prisoner. But everything at the moment conspired to associate theological dissidence with social criminality, and to make of the independent critic of particular religious dogmas the enemy of all religion. In the light, therefore, in which Servetus was re- garded, his cause was not seen as one through which, in the event of a decision in his favour, the Liberal party in the Council of Geneva might hope to find greater freedom to lead their lives in the way they listed ; neither, through a sentence adverse to him, was it one through which they foresaw that the iron hand of Calvin would be made either lighter or heavier than it was. There were, in fact, more reasons for letting Calvin have his way here than for opposing him — for suffering Servetus to burn, than for saving his life. The Council had been hard upon the Re- former of late, and were not disposed to quarrel with him in a matter that had but a remote connection witli their domestic concerns. Backed as their great theo- logian was by the Swiss Churches, they believed that they might safely and with propriety now show them- selves on his side, by condemning the heretic to death. 470 MICHAEL SERVE TUS. The meeting of the Court on the 26th, then, not so fully attended as we have said by the usual opponents of Calvin as by his supporters, had to face the painful duty of pronouncing sentence on their prisoner at last. A resolution finding him guilty of the charges al- leged, and so deserving of death, must now have been moved by one of the members — by whom we are not informed — for we find it immediately met, on the part of Perrin, by a counter-resolution, declaring him not guilty. Perrin, we must presume, maintained that the charges were not of a nature that fell properly under their cognisance as a Court of Criminal Justice. Nothing had been brought home to the prisoner that showed him to be a disturber of the public peace, and so came within the sphere of what he held to be their proper jurisdiction. Perrin must, therefore, have argued that the Court could only pronounce him not guilty. But this would plainly have been to stultify the whole of their proceedings during the last two months and more. The Court, by the laws of the country, was competent in causes of every complexion, and the prosecution had proceeded from the first on the ground of theological criminality. The proposition of the First Syndic, consequently, could not be entertained, but was rejected as a matter of course. Perrin then moved that the cause should be remitted to the Council of the Two Hundred. But this proposal was also negatived : the General Council In Its capacity of Criminal Court, could not waive its right of decision in THE SENTENCE. 47 1 a case in which its competence was recognised, and such ample pains had been taken to get at the merits of the case. Perrin must then, doubtless, have pleaded for some punishment short of the extreme penalty of death awarded to the heretic by the law of the land. This last effort failing like the others, and the Records of the Court giving no intimation of any further motion in favour of the prisoner, the following resolution was moved, and by a majority of votes adopted : ' Having a summary of the process against the ]:)risoner, Michael Servetus, and the reports of the parties consulted before us, it is hereby resolved, and, in consideration of his great errors and blasphemies, decreed, that he be taken to Champel, and there burned alive ; that this sentence be carried into effect on the morrow, and that his books be burned with him.'^ The sentence once resolved on, appears to have been immediately communicated to Calvin, and he in the same hour proceeded to inform his most intimate friend Farel of the result. In anticipation of the event, he liad, indeed, written to Farel some days before, begging liim to come to Geneva. The clergy of the city having acted with Calvin to a man in the prosecution, it was thought more seemly that a stranger should attend the prisoner in his last moments, than one of themselves ; ^ Vuc Ic sommairc du proccs dc Michel Scrvct, piisonnicr, Ic rap- port dc ceu.s, esquel on a consultcz, ct considcrc Ics grands crreurs ct blasfdmes — Est este arretd : II soyt condamnd h estre mend a Champel, et la brulcz tout vivfz, ct soyt exequctd a dcmain, et scs livrcs bruslds. 472 MICHAEL SERVETUS. hence Calvin's first letter of October 14, in anticipation of the final sentence, and to the following effect : I have no words, my dear Farel, adequately to express my thanks to you for your great solicitude in respect of ourself and our Church. I purposely abstained from writing to you for fear of inducing you to take horse so soon {Farel had been dangerously ill), and I would not be troublesome to you until time pressed. You say, indeed, that you do not thank me for sparing you ; and I know how willing, nay, how eager you are at all times to labour for the Church of God, how ready ever to come to our aid. As to the state of affairs with us, I imagine you are already well informed, through Viret, or rather through my letters to him, which, however, were really meant for you both in com- mon. The enemy is now intent on the business that comes on for discussion before the General Council about the Ides of November, and I think it would be well were Viret to come to us then ; but I would have you here somewhat sooner — about the time when the affair of Servetus will be drawing to a close ; and this I hope will be before the end of the ensuing week. ... I would not, however, incommode you, or have you stir, where no immediate necessity compels. Farel had not arrived so soon as Calvin expected, so he writes again on the 26th, and informs his friend that answers had been received from the Churches unanimous in their condemnation of Servetus. Alluding to the proceedings during the last few days of the trial, when Perrin, the First Syndic, made vain attempts by delay and entreaty to save the prisoner's life, Calvin speaks of the merciful man by the nickname under which he was wont to characterise his great Libertine opponent, and says : CALVIN SENDS FOR FAREL. 473 Our comical Caesar having feigned illness for three days, mounted the tribune at length with a view to aid the wicked scoundrel — istum sceleratiim — to escape punishment. Nor did he blush to demand that the cause might be remitted to the Council of the Two Hundred. But in vain, all was refused, the prisoner was condemned, and to morrow he will suffer death. Self-centred, resolute as he was, \ve yet see in Calvin's anxiety to have Farel beside him, that he felt the want of such support as an all-devoted friend alone can give in supreme moments of our lives. His last letter could not have reached Farel in such time as would have enabled him to be in Geneva on the day of the execution ; but when it was despatched Farel was already on his way from Neuchatel, and reached Geneva in the evening of the 26th, so that he had the news of all that had taken place, and of the fate that awaited the unhappy Servetus on the morrow, from the mouth of Calvin himself. 474 MICHAEL SERVETUS CHAPTER XVII. THE ATTITUDE OF CALVIN THE HOPES OF SERVETUS. Informed of the decree of the Court, Calvin tells us that he bestirred himself to have the sentence carried out in the way usual in criminal cas'es, by beheading with the sword, instead of burning by slow fire. The heretic must be got rid of, he must die, but the Re- former would o-ive a civil rather than an ecclesiastical complexion to the business, and escape imitation of the Roman Catholic cruel mode of putting God's enemies, as heretics were called, to death. The Council, how- ever, did not enter into his views. The Canon Law, still in force over Europe, condemned the convicted heretic to death by fire, and the majority of the Court determined to abide by the statute as it stood. Bigotry and intolerance, fanned to fever heat, were in the as- cendant, and would forego none of their most terrible means of punishing the offender, and striking terror into the vulgar mind. The oblation in such cases pro- vided, would even have appeared to lose its significance, had it been presented otherwise than as 'a sacrifice of a sweet savour made by fire to the Lord ' ; for still in- fluenced by the ritual of the old Hebrew Law, which. hX ANTICIPATION OF HIS SENTENCE. 475 in earlier days, required the first-born of man and beast for the ahar, and had criminals of all sorts ' hung up before the sun,' lives forfeited for theological errors, were, in reality, offerings to appease the wrath or win the favour of the Supreme ! Servetus, meanwhile, made aware that the trial was at an end, and that nothing more remained for him but to learn his fate, though he may have been alarmed by the additional measures taken for his safe custody, seems not yet, as we have said, to have abandoned the persuasion that he would either be acquitted or sub- jected to some minor or merely nominal penalty. He was not conscience-stricken ; he knew himself guilty of no impiety or intentional blasphemy ; his object from first to last had been to present what he thought were higher, truer views of the Revelation which he believed God had made of himself to mankind in the olden time in Judaea ; and the proclaimed purpose of his latest work, as he said himself to his J udges, was the Restora- tion, not the destruction of Christianity. More than this : he was not now among Papists bound to intoler- ance by their creed, but among Protestants in Geneva— tlie stronghold of free thought and its necessary logical adjunct, toleration ; among men who had studied, reasoned, and, like himself, put their own construction on writings which he as well as they believed to be the Word of God. And then, had he not all along been upheld by Perrin and Berthelier, in the belief of tri- umphing over his persecutor ? How should hopes of 476 MICHAEL SERVETUS. longer life in view of further effort in the cause that was dear to him, and of freedom to shape out thoughts on matters high and holy, have forsaken him ? True, Calvin had aimed at his life through the people of Vienne ; and in his present bonds, and all the unworthy usage he suffered, he could not fail to realise the per- sistent hostility of the man who held him in such de- spite. Still he was in Geneva, though a prisoner, and Calvin was not all in all within that Republican city. There was a powerful party opposed to the tyranny and self-assertion of the ecclesiastic, the distinguished heads of which gave him their countenance and support — there seemed hardly room for doubt : he would not be found guilty of having blasphemed, but would be ac- quitted and set at liberty. Cherishing such hopes and so supported, are we to wonder that the Sentence of Death took the unhappy Servetus entirely by surprise ? Only imparted to him in the early morning of the day on which he was doomed to die, he was at first as if struck dumb by the intelligence. He did but groan aloud and sigh as if his heart would burst ; and when he recovered speech at length, it was only to rave like one demented, to strike his breast, and cry in his native Spanish, Misericordia, Misericordia ! By degrees, however, he recovered his self-possession and became more calm. Master of him- self, and reverting in thought to his pursuer, his first coherent words were to request an interview with Calvin, which he, we need not doubt, was nowise slow HE IS VISITED BY CALVIN. 477 to grant, for he must have thought it both a flattering and a hopeful proposal. Now had the sinner come to his senses ; now would he make a clean breast of it, abjure the convictions of his life, and with a lie on his lips be made meet for glory ! But nothing of all this was in the mind of Servetus. He had no mis- givings about his theological conclusions ; in these he was securely anchored ; but he felt like a true man in the face of impending fate, and would own that he had not comported himself with all the respect that was rightfully due to his theological opponent. Hence his request for the interview. Accompanied by two of the Councillors, Calvin en- tered the prison an hour or two before noon of the fateful October 27, 1553, and prefacing the account he has left us of what transpired at the meeting, by say- ing that Servetus had received the notice of his sen- tence and im.pending doom with a * sort of brutish stupidity — cum belluina stiipiditate', he proceeds : ' I asked him what he wanted with me — qitidnavi vclld f To which he replied, that he desired to ask my par- don.' I then said that I had never prosecuted an)- one on merely personal grounds ; that I had admon- ished him with all the gentleness I could command as many as sixteen years ago, and not witliout danger to my own life had spared no pains to cure him of his errors. But all in vain ! my expostulations appeared rather to excite his bile. Quitting speecli of myself, however, I tlien desired him rather to ask pardon of 478 MICHAEL SERVETUS. the Eternal God, towards whom he had shown him- self but too contumelious, presuming, as he had done, to take from his Essence the three hypostases that pertain to it ; and saying that were it possible to show a personal distinction between the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we should have a three-headed Cer- berus for a God ; with much beside that need not now be repeated. Seeing, ere long, that all I said went for nothing, and feeling indisposed to trespass on the time of the Magistrates, or to appear something more than my Master, in obedience to the precept of Paul, I took my leave of the heretic, avTOKaTCLKpLTos — self-con- demned.' ^ But there is a deep-lying truth in the French adage : ' Qui s'excuse s'accuse — /ic who exaises accuses Jibnself! The first impulse of the tolerant Servetus, on coming to his senses, was to ask pardon of the man who had brought him to his death ; the first impulse of the implacable Calvin was to apologise for his deed, and to shift to a sense of public duty, a course to which his secret soul informed him he had been mainly prompted by private hate. Nor is that which Calvin connects with his apology, when he speaks of having imperilled his life for Servetus's sake, to be received as true in fact. That he would have braved any danger that might have accompanied the public dis- cussion of their opinions proposed by Servetus in 1534, we can well believe ; but he was not required ' Defensio Orthodoxse Fidei, &c. HE IS LEFT FOR EXECUTION. 479 to face it, and all their subsequent correspondence, private and confidential as it was, could have been attended with peril neither to him nor Servetus — or if to either it must have been to Servetus had he been discovered in correspondence with the arch-heretic of Geneva. We can hardly imagine Calvin to have been so totally devoid of humanity as to have felt no compunctious visitings when he stood face to face with the man whom his persistent enmity alone had brought to such a pass ; but he would also have been other than he meets us in history, and otherwise circum- stanced than he was as avTOKparajp — despot of Geneva — had he not felt something of self-gratulation and even of triumph, when pardon was asked of him by his humbled foe. MICHAEL SERVETUS. CHAPTER XVIII. THE SENTENCE AND EXECUTION. An hour before noon of October 27, 1553, the ' Lieutenant Criniinel,' Tissot, accompanied by other officials and a guard, entered the gaol, and ordered the prisoner to come with them, and learn the pleasure of My Lords the Councillors and Justices of Geneva. The tribunal, in conformity with custom, now as- sembled before the porch of the Hotel de Ville, re- ceived the prisoner, all standing. The proper officer then proceeded to recapitulate the heads of the process against him, Michael Servetus, of Villanova, in the Kingdom of Aragon, in Spain, in which he is charged — First : with having, between twenty-three and twenty-four years ago, caused to be printed at Hagenau, in Germany, a book against the Holy Trinity, full of blasphemies, to the great scandal of the Churches of Germany, the book having been condemned by all their doctors, and he, the writer, forced to fly that country. I/e^u. With having, in spite of this, not only persisted in his errors and infected many with them, but with having lately had another book clandestinely printed at Vienne in Dauphiny, filled with the like heresies and exe- crable blasphemies against the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, the Baptism of Infants, and other sacred doctrines, the founda- THE SENTENCE AND EXECUTION. 481 tions of the Christian religion. Item. With having in the said book called all who believe in a Trinity, Tritheists, and even Atheists, and the Trinity itself a daemon or monster having three heads. Item. With having blasphemed horribl}', and said that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God from all Eternity, but only became so from his Incarnation ; that he is not the Son of David according to the flesh, but was created of the substance of God, having received three of his consti- tuent elements from God, and one only from the Virgin Mary, whereby he wickedly proposed to abolish the true and entire humanity of Jesus Christ. Item. With declaring the Baptism of Infants to be sorcery and a diabolical invention. Item. With having uttered other blasphemies, with which the book in question is full, all alike against the Majesty of God, the Son of God, and the Holy Ghost, to the ruin of many poor souls, betrayed and desolated by such detestable doctrines. Item. With having, full of malice, entitled the said book, though crammed with lieresies against the holy evangelical doctrine, ' Christianismi Restitutio — the Restoration of Christianity,' the better to deceive and seduce poor ignorant folks, poisoning them all the while they fancied they were sitting in the shadow of sound doctrine. Item. With attacking our faith by letters as well as by his book, and saying to one of the ministers of this city that our holy evangelical doctrine is a religion without faith, and indeed without God, we having a Cerberus with three heads, for our God. Item. For having perfidiously broken and escaped from the prison of Viennc, where he had been confined because of the wicked and abominable opinions confessed in his book. Item. For continuing obstinate in his opinions, not only against the true Christian religion, but, as an arrogant innovator and inventor of heresies against Popery, which led to his being burned in effigy at Vienne, along with five bales of his book. Item. And in addition to all of winch, being confined in the gaol of this city, he has not ceased 1 I 482 MICHAEL SERVETUS. maliciously to persist in the aforesaid wicked and detestable errors, attempting to maintain them, with calumnious abuse of all true Christians, faithful followers of the immaculate Chris- tian religion, calling them Tritheists, Atheists, and Sorcerers, in spite of the remonstrances made to him in Germany, as said, and in contempt of the reprehensions and corrections he has received, and the imprisonment he has undergone as well here as elsewhere. Now, we the Syndics and Judges in criminal cases within this city, having reviewed the process carried on before us, at the instance of our Lieutenant having charge of such cases, against thee, Michael Servetus of Villanova, in the Kingdom of Aragon, in Spain, whereby guided, and by thy voluntary confessions made before us, many times repeated, as well as by thy books produced before us, we decree and determine that thou, Michael Servetus, hast, for a long time, promulgated false and heretical doctrine, and, rejecting all remonstrance and correction, hast, maliciously, perversely, and obstinately, con- tinued disseminating and divulging, even by the printing of books, blasphemies against God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in a word, against the whole foundations of the Christian religion, thereby seeking to create schism and i trouble in the Church of God, many souls, members of which may have been ruined and lost — horrible and dreadful thing, scandalous and contaminating in thee, thou, having no shame nor horror in setting thyself up in all against the Divine Majesty and the Holy Trinity, and having further taken pains to infect, and given thyself up obstinately to continue infecting the world with thy heresies and stinking heretical poison {tcz heresies et puante poyson Jiereticale) — case and crime of heresy grievous and detestable, deserving of severe corporal punishment. These and other just causes moving us, desiring to purge the Church of God of such infection, and to cut off from it so THE SENTENCE AND EXECUTION. 483 rotten a member, we, sitting as a Judicial Tribunal in the seat of our ancestors, with the entire assent of the General Council of the State, and our fellow-citizens, calling on the name of God to deliver true judgment, having the Holy Scriptures before us, and saying : In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we now pronounce our final sentence and condemn thee, Michael Servetus, to be bound and taken to Champel, and there being fastened to a stake, to b^" burned alive, along with thy books, printed as well as written by thy hand, until thy body be reduced to ashes. So shall thy days end, and thou be made an example to others who would do as thou hast done. And we command you, our Lieutenant, to see this our sentence carried forthwith into execution. The staff, according to custom, was then broken over the prisoner, and there was silence for a moment. The terrible sentence pronounced, the pause that followed was first broken by Servetus ; not to sue for mercy against the final award, from which he knew there was no appeal, but to entreat that the manner of carrying it out might be commuted for one less dreadful. ' He feared,' he said, ' that through excess of suffering he might i^rove faithless to himself, and belie the convic- tions of his life. If he had erred, it was in ignorance ; he was so constituted mentally and morally as to desire the glory of God, and had always striven to abide by the teachings of the Scriptures.' The appeal to the humanity of the Judges, however, met with no response, r^arel, indeed, who was present, interposed, telling him that to obtain any favour he should begin by acknow- ledging and showing contrition for his errors. But he I I 2 MICHAEL SERVETUS. r> gave no heed to this, and went on to say that ' he had done nothing to deserve death ; he prayed God, nevertheless, to forgive his enemies and persecutors.' Rising from the supphant attitude he had assumed, he exclaimed, ' O God, save my soul ; O Jesu, Son of the eternal God, have compassion upon me ! ' From the porch of the Hotel de Ville, where the sentence was delivered, a solemn procession was now formed for Champel, the place of execution, passing by the Rue St. Antoine, and leaving the city by the cor- responding gate : the ' Lieutenant Criminel,' and other officers on horseback, a guard of archers surrounding the prisoner and Farel, who accompanied him on his death walk, and did not cease from efforts to wring from him an avowal of his errors. But in vain ; he had no answer other than broken ejaculations and in- vocations on the name of God. ' Is there no word in your mouth but the name of God ? ' said Farel. ' On whom can I now call but on God ? ' said the unhappy Servetus. ' Have you no last words for anyone — for wife or child, perhaps, if you have either ? ' said the well-meaning pastor; but he met with no reply ; though when admonished to do so, the doomed man made no difficulty about asking the people to join him in his prayers. This gave Farel an opportunity to say to the crowd, ' You see what power Satan has when he has taken possession of the soul. This is a learned man, who perhaps even meant to do well ; but he fell into the power of the devil, and the same thing might THE SENTENCE AND EXECUTION. 485 happen to any one of you. Though he has said that you have no God, he yet asks you to join him in his prayers ! ' But this is not all we have on the last moments of Servetus. Writing to his friend, Ambrose Blaurer, soon after the fatal October 27, Farel says, ' You ask me about Servetus, so justly punished by a pious magis- tracy. I was at Geneva when the sentence was de- livered, and with him when he died. The wretched man could not be brought to say that Christ was the Eternal Son of God. When I urged him on the subject, he desired me to point to a single place in the Scriptures in which Christ is spoken of as the Son of God before his birth. All that could be done had no effect in turning him from this error ; he said nothing against what was urged, but went on his way ; we could by no means obtain what we desired, viz., that he should own his error and acknowledge the truth. We exhorted, we entreated, but made no impression. He beat his breast, asked pardon for his faults, invoked God, confessed his Saviour, and much besides, but would not acknowledge the Son of God, save in the man Jesus. Nor was I alone in my exhortations; some of the brethren also interposed, and admonished him ingenuously to admit and say that he hated his errors ; but he only replied that he was unjustly condemned to death. On this I said : " Do you, who have so greatly sinned, presume to justify yourself.-^ If you go on thus I shall leave you to the judgment of God, and 486 MICHAEL SERVETUS. accompany you no farther. I meant to exhort the people to pray for you, hoping you would edify them ; and thought not to leave you till you had rendered your last breath." After this he said nothing more of him- self, although when I spoke of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, whom we preach in our churches, and in whom the faithful believe, he said that it was right and good to do so ; but when I went on to say that he did not really think thus, and had written otherwise, he would not admit it. He told me by the way that he had had some things from a man who enjoyed no small reputation among some of us. But though I do not doubt of Erasmus having been infected in no trifling degree by the writings of the Rabbins, I know that in his later works at least he expresses himself other- wise than in those of earlier date. But the unhappy Servetus could not readily be made to imbibe the truth and put it to increase ; neither could he be cured of his errors by the sound teaching of others. ' It were long did I repeat — I do not think, indeed, I can remernber — all that was said between seven in the morning and mid-day. In sum, however, although he made no particular confession of his faith, God hin- dered his name and doctrine from being impugned by any open contumelious expression.' When he came in sight of the fatal pile, the wretched Servetus prostrated himself on the ground, and for a while was absorbed in prayer. Rising and advancing a few steps, he found himself in the hands THE EXECUTION. 4S7 of the executioner, by whom he was made to sit on a block, his feet just reaching the ground. His body was then bound to the stake behind him by several turns of an iron chain, whilst his neck was secured in like manner by the coils of a hempen rope. His two books — the one in manuscript sent to Calvin in confidence six or eight years before for his strictures, and a copy of the one lately printed at Vienne — were then fastened to his waist, and his head was encircled in mockery with a chaplet of straw and green twigs bestrewed with brim- stone. The deadly torch was then applied to the faggots and flashed in his face ; and the brimstone catching, and the flames rising, wrung from the victim such a cry of anguish as struck terror into the sur- rounding crowd. After this he was bravely silent ; but the wood being purposely green, although the people aided the executioner in heaping the faggots upon him, a long half-hour elapsed before he ceased to show signs of life and of suffering. Immediately before giving up the ghost, with a last expiring effort he cried aloud : ' Jesu, Thou Son of the eternal God, have com- passion upon me ! ' All was then hushed save the hissing and crackling of the green wood ; and by-and- by there remained no more c f what had been Michael Servetus but a charred and blackened trunk and a handful of ashes. So died, in advance of his age, one of the gifted sons of God, the victim of religious fana- ticism and personal hate. 488 MICHAEL SERVETUS. CHAPTER XIX. AFTER THE BATTLE V/E VICTORIBUS ! Even before the trial of Servetus had come to an end we have seen it attracting the attention of some of the freer minds of Geneva — such as were not over- awed by the dominant spirit of Calvin or not absorbed in the political strife of the hour. A criminal suit on the ground of a new interpretation of Scripture, as it had been made in fine so clearly to appear, struck reason- able men not only as illogical but as indefensible in a city whose autonomy and entire religious system were founded on a right of the kind assumed by itself. Calvin's dictum, that Servetus's purpose was the over- throw of all religion, was not seen to be borne out by the facts of the case when calmly considered, and, to the popular apprehension, was wholly belied by the pious bearing of the man in the last hours of his life. Even Farel, misled as he was by his fanaticism, could not help saying to the people, that ' after all the man may have meant well.' The protracted trial at an end, the sacrifice made, the Councillors of Geneva seem immediately to have come to their senses, and discovered that they had trans- AFTER THE BATTLE. 489 gressed the true limits of their authority in condemn- ing to death one who owed them no allegiance, who had been guilty of no crime or misdemeanour whether within the bounds of their jurisdiction or elsewhere, and whose heresies implied no rejection of the Scrip- tures as the Word of God, or of the teaching of Christ and his Apostles as the means of salvation. Servetus's heresy amounted to no more than repudiation of what he maintained to be erroneous interpretations of the language of the Gospels, of metaphysical as- sumptions from heathen philosophies, and mystical procedures unwarranted by a line whether of the Old or the New Testament. They overlooked the fact that the presence of the man among them was due to flight from the fate that waited on all who had the courage of their opinions amid the blood-stained in- tolerance of Roman Catholicism ; that he was only another among the host of refugees — their spiritual Dictator himself not excepted — who now crowded the streets of Geneva ; and that, but for the hostile inter- ference of Calvin, he, like so many more, would have been welcomed as ' a bird escaped from the net of the fowler ; ' sheltered had he elected to remain, fur- thered on his way had he chosen to depart. That thoughts of the kind had taken possession of the Council is proclaimed by the fact of their quash- ing the indictment preferred by Farel and the Con- sistory against Geroult, Arnoullct's foreman, three days after the death of Servetus, on the score of the 490 MICHAEL SERVE TUS. part he had had in printins;- the ' Restitutio Christian- ismi,' and concealing the character of its contents from his master. Farel and the clergy in their blind zeal would have persevered in their efforts to have another victim. But the civilians interposed. Enough — more than enough had already been done to satisfy the outer world that the Genevese, if reputed heretics themselves, were no favourers of heresy of another complexion than their own. Left to calm reflection, the Council may well have come to see that they had only lent themselves to theological intolerance, when they imagined they were fulfilling an important part of their macristerial duties. The entire ground, indeed, on which the trial had been instituted would not bear close scrutiny. The book, on the presumed publication and dissemination of which it had been set on foot, had not yet been seen in Geneva save by Calvin : there was not then another copy in the city but the one sent, as I believe, by its hapless author through Frelon to the Reformer. Neither had the ostensible institutor of the suit, Nicolas de la Fontaine, the shadow of a grievance agfainst Michael Servetus. the writer of the book. He could never have seen it out of Calvin's hands, he was almost certainly unacquainted with the language in which it was wTitten, and, if he were not, he could still never have read a word of it but at Calvin's prompting — he had not, in all probability, even heard the name of Servetus until he had it from the mouth AFTER THE BATTLE. 49 1 of his master ! De la Fontaine, moreover, was no citizen of Geneva any mere than Calvin himself^ — neither of them could have had a legal title to prefer a criminal charge ; master and man were aliens alike, and in Geneva on the same plea as Servetus ; they fleeing for their lives from the Inquisitors and agents of the concubine of Henry of France, he from the In- quisitor and Church authorities of Dauphiny. More than this. ' He,' it is said, ' who casts the first stone should be himself without sin.' Calvin pursued Servetus to death mainly on the ground of his diver- gent interpretation of the Trinitarian mystery. But was Calvin himself quite sound on this head, and was he equally hostile to all who called the dogma in question ? We have had him saying that he only objected to speak of God and Nature as signifying the same thing, because of the harshness or impro- priety of the expression. But he who so delivers him- self identifies God and the Universe, and excludes ideas of personality and subdivision in the essence of the Deity. No wonder, therefore, that Calvin was oftener than once charged with unorthodoxy from the Catholic point of view on the subject of the Trinity. In the Confession of Faith which he formu- lated for the Church of Geneva in the year 1536, it is certain that neither the word Trinity nor the word ' Calvin only took letters of n.ituralisation as a citizen of Ciencva four years before his death in 1564, eleven years after the death of Servetus. 492 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Person is to be found ; ^ and when challenged at a later period by Caroli, the colleague of Viret at Lau- sanne, on the matter, he did not so express himself as to satisfy his accuser. In a remarkable note, more- over, ' On the word Trinity and the word Persons,' written apparently to meet the surmises suggested by the absence of the sacred vocables from the Confession, Calvin says : ' Inasmuch as these words, ' Trinity' and ' Persons,' are found by us to be very serviceable in the Church of Christ, as by them the true distinction of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is more clearly expressed, and controversial discussions are better served by their means, we say that we have no such objection to them as forbids us to receive them from others or to make use of them ourselves. Therefore, do we again declare, as we have formerly declared, that we accept the words, and would not that they ceased to be used in the Churches. For neither in our expositions of the Scriptures or when preaching to the people do we shun them ; and we have instructed others [in private] — docehimus alios, that they should not superstitiously avoid them. Did anyone, however, from religious scruples, feel indisposed to make use of the words — although we avow that such superstition is not approved by us, and we shall continue striving to correct it — still, this seems no sufficient reason why a man, otherwise pious and having like religious views as ourselves, should be rejected. His want of better knowledge in this direction ought not to carry us the length of casting him out of the Church, or lead us to conclude that he was therefore altogether unsound in the faith. Neither, meantime, are we to think ^ See the Confession in full, in Ciinitz and Reuss's edit, of the Opcra^ Calvini, viii. 704. AFTER THE BATTLE. 493 evilly of the Pastors of the Church of Berne, if they refuse to admit anyone to the ministry who declines to use the words.' ^ We leave the reader to draw his own conclusions from this, and only ask him to say, on its showing, what excuse can be found for Calvin's deed in burning Servetus ? Scattered throughout the writings of the Genevese Reformer we encounter many expressions which prove plainly enough how much against the grain he finally confessed partition in the unity of God. ' The first principle to be acknowledged in the Scrip- tures,' he says, 'is the Being of One God ; but as the same Scriptures speak of a Father, a Son, and a Holy Ghost, what have we for it — quid aliud restat — but to own three Persons in the Godhead ? These, however,' * De Voce Trhiitate et Voce Persona} Quoniam voces istas Trinitatis et Personarum plurimum Ecclesias Christi commodare intelligimus, ut et vera Patris, Filii et Spiritus Sancti distinctio clarius exprimatur, et contentiosis controversiis melius occurratur, ab his usque adeo non abhorremus, ut libenter aniplexemur, sive ex aliis audienda2 sive a nobis usurpanda; sint. Itaque quod anlea a nobis factum est, in posterum quoque operam daturos, quoad licebit recipimus, ne earum usus in Ecclesiis nostris aboleatur. Nam neque ab iis inter scribendum, vel in Scriptura^ennarrationibusin concionibus ad popu- lum, abstinebimus ipsi, et alios docebimus ne superstitiosc refugiant. Si quis autem, pra^postera religione, teneatur quominus cas usurparc libenter ausit, quanquam ejusmodi superstitioncm nobis non probaii testamur, cui corrigendae non sit defuturum nostrum studium ; quia tamen non vidctur nobis haec satis firma causa cur vir alioqui pius et in eandem religionem nobis sensu consenticns repudietur, ejus impcritiam hac in parte catenus feremus ne abjiciamus ipsum ab Ecclesia, aut lanquam male sentientem de fide notemus. Neque, interim maligne intcrpretabimur si Bernensis Ecclesiae Pastores eos ad verbi ministcrium admiltere non sustineant quos comperint voces istas aspernari. • Op. sup. cit. viii. p. 707. 494 MICHAEL SERVETUS. he proceeds in the usual orthodox fashion to say, and in contradiction to the words first made use of, ' imply no plurality of persons, neither do they destroy the essential unity of God ; for v^^here were Quaternity to be found does the one God comprise in himself three properties — 7ibi autem qiiaternitas reperiiur si 2mus Detis tres in sc propriciates contineat ? ' ^ Where, indeed ! But the question is of persons not of properties ; as in the affair with Caroli it was of an Eternal Son not of an Eternal Word. In another place we find him using such language as this : ' The words of the Council of Nicaea are these : God of God — a hard expression I admit, for the removal of the ambiguity of which no better inter- preter can be found than Athanasius, who indited it — DeiLVi a Deo — dura loqitiUio fateor, scd ad cnpis tol- Iciidain ambiguitatem nemo potest esse magis idoneus interprcs quani Atkanasiits qui earn dictavit! Elsewhere, though we have omitted to note the place, he declares that the Athanasian symbol was never approved by any of the legitimate [i.e. Protest- ant] Churches — ciijtis symbolum nulla 2inquain legitima ecclesia approbdsset! ^^ Such writing is surely very noteworthy. Calvin's acknowledgment of a Trinity is neither of his understanding nor his faith ; it is en- forced merely and obviously in opposition to the reason ' Fidelis expositio Erj'orum Michaelis Serveti, ^c. "^ These words I have, however, since found quoted by Henry : Leben Calviiis, i. iSi, and by Kampschulte, Jo]ian7i Cah'in, i. 297. AFTER THE BATTLE. 495 he had from God for his guidance. But Michael Servetus, whom he sent to a fiery death, not only does not deny, but expressly, and oftener than once, avows that he acknowledges a Trinity in the Essence of God. He, too, found the words Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the Scriptures ; and, as little disposed as Calvin to gainsay a word they contain, he actually uses language the simple sense of which is that precisely under which Calvin seeks to shield himself; only he employs the word dispositions instead of properties. Calvin, when he attempts to reconcile the ideaof a Trinity of persons co-existing with an unity of Being, and does not use language that contradicts itself, speaks no otherwise than Servetus, and arrives in fine at the same inter- pretation of the Trinitarian Dogma : the persons are dispositions to the one, properties to the other ! After the most careful study of the writings of Ser- vetus we have been able to bestow, we have it forced upon us that had Calvin been so minded he could from them, more readily, and far more consistently, have defended their author as a sincerely pious, though in his opinion, a much mistaken man in his interpretation of Christian doctrine, than prosecuted him as the enemy of all religion, a monster, as he says, made up of mere impieties and horrible blasphemies ! But to tlie in- tolerant bigot, engrossed by liis own conceits and dishkes, all Servetus's confiding piety was hypocris)', his touching prayers mockery, and his elofiuence as 496 MICHAEL SERVETUS. becoming in him as a coat of mail to a hog — * qiiune jaserame 2111 Tmiie ' (!) ^ Nor can Calvin have credit given him for rehgious zeal, as the principal, still less as the sole ground for his prosecution of Servetus. He would condone the Church of Berne for repudiating him who denied the Trinitarian mystery, but could not forgive the Span- iard's intemperate and disrespectful style of address to himself. In this lay the prime cause of offence to the man, accustomed to have all the world bowing down before him, who was always addressed as ' Mon- sieiir,' not as ' Maitrel like the rest of the clergy, and whose appointments, however modest in our eyes, equalled those of a dignitary of the Church in neigh- bourinof lands. One of Nicolas de la Fontaine's counts against the man he did not even know, but whom he arraigned for life or death, is the objectionable language indulged in towards his pastor ; and we have Calvin's own words against himself when he says that Serve- tus's ' arrogance, not less than his impiety, led to his destruction ; ' whilst he elsewhere owns, that ' had Gervetus but been possessed of even a show of modesty he would not have pursued him so determinedly on the capital charge.' By way of conclusion here, let us observe that Calvin's fundamental principle of Election by the Grace of God ought to have stayed his hand from all persecution on religious grounds. He is constantly spoken of as a man possessed of a peculiarly logical AFTER THE BATTLE. 497 mind. But if it be by the eternal decrees of God that some are ordained to salvation and some to perdition, how should Servetus or anyone else come between God and his purposes ? How should the Elect be prejudiced, or the Reprobate made worse by the act of man ? K K MICHAEL SERVETUS. CHAPTER XX. CALVIN DEFENDS HIMSELF. Dissatisfaction with what had been done appears to have become general immediately after the execution of Servetus. It extended beyond the walls of the Council chamber and found wider expression than in the arrest of proceedings against Geroult. Ballads and pasquinades, little complimentary to Calvin and his party, circulated freely, and were all the more per- sistently spread in private if none dared to utter them in public or sing them in the streets. Calvin himself acknowledges that fear alone of consequences repressed for a time any open expression of abhorrence for the death of Servetus. Certain it is, that before the year was out, save among friends and obsequious followers, the act in which he had taken the jDrominent part came to be so unfavourably construed that he felt forced to appear as his own apologist, and in justification of his deed to proclaim his victim not only a heretic because of theological dissidence, with which the people of Geneva were familiar enough and not always greatly scandalised, but to hold him up as wholly without religious convictions himself, the open CALVIN DEFENDS HIMSELF. 499 enemy of all religion in others, the conspirator against the moral well-being of the world, and the conscience- stricken craven in face of his impending fate ! To this task Calvin would seem to have been more"! especially incited by Bullinger, who loses no oppor- / tunity of showing himself hostile to Servetus ; and even thinks that ' were Satan to come back from hell and 1 take to preaching for pastime, he would make use of much the same language as Servetus the Spaniard.' ^ Writing to Calvin at this time, and thinking doubtless^ of the growing unpopularity of his friend, Bullinger says : ' See to it, dear Calvin, that you give a good ac- count of Servetus and his end, so that all may have the beast in horror — nt cnincs abhorreaiit a bestial' To which Calvin replies : ' If I have but a little leisure I shall show what a monster he was; - Such were the inducements Calvin had for entering on the apologetic defence of himself through denouncing the errors, impugning the motives, and blackening the fame of Servetus to which he now applied himself and had ready for publication both in French and Latin early in the year 1554, the title of the French book in brief being ' Ddclaration pour maintcnir la vraye Foy ; ' that of the Latin, ' Defensio Oi'thodoxcu Fidei dc saa'a Trinilatc co7iira errores Michaelis Scrvcti, &c' "' ' Fufssii, Epistolce ab Ecdesia Helvct. Reformatoribus. 8\'o. Tigur. 1748. - Ciihniii Epist. et Rcspons. ' The full titles are these : Ddclaration pour maintenir la vraye Foy que tienncnt tous Chretiens de la Trinitd dcs Pcrsonnes en un scul Dieu. K K 2 500 MICHAEL SERVE T US. In his Introduction Calvin informs the reader that he had ' not at first thought it necessary to come forward with any formal refutation of the errors of Servetus,' the ponderous absurdity of his ravings ap- fpearing so plainly that he imagined it would be like winnowing the wind to do so, for there was really no danger of anyone of sound mind and ordinary under- standing not being found superior to such follies. ' But better informed, knowing the poison to be deadly in its kind, and having regard to the amount of stupidity and confusion which God, to avenge Himself, inflicts on all who despise his doctrine, I have felt myself compelled as it were to take up the pen, and in exposing the errors of the man to furnish grounds for better conclusions. When Servetus and his like, indeed, presume to meddle with the mysteries of religion, it is as if swine came thrusting their snouts into a treasury of sacred things. May God pay all with the wages they deserve whose vicious proclivities lead them to burn after one novelty or another, which they can no more resist than can the Par Jean Calvin. Centre les Erreurs de Michel Servet, Espaignol ; ou il est aussi monstre qu'il est licite de punir les heretiques ; et qu a bon droit ce meschant a este execute par justice en la Ville de Geneve. Chez Jean Crespin. A Geneve, 1554, p. 356. 8vo. Defensio orthodoxse fidei de sacra Trinitate contra prodigiosos errores Michaelis Serveti, Hispani; ubi ostenditur hxreticosjuregladii coercendos^ et nominatimde honiine hoc, tarn impio, juste et merito sumptum Genevas fuisse supplicium, per Johannem Calvinum. Apud Olivum Roberti Stephani, 1554, p. 262. 8vo. Both of the versions are subscribed by all the Genevese clergy, and though they differ somewhat in minute par- ticulars, they agree in everything essential. We have fine copies of both originals in our national Library. CALVIN DEFENDS HIMSELF. 501 man from scratching who has the itch ! — pas phis que cchii qui a la ratcllc qui ddmange! ' The punishment that befel Servetus/ he continues, ' is ahvays ascribed to me. I am called a master in cruelt}', and shall now be said to mangle with my pen the dead body of the man who came to his death at my hands. And I will not deny that it was at my instance he was arrested, that the prosecutor was set on by me, or that it was by me that the articles of inculpation were drawn up. But all the world knows that since he was convicted of his heresies I never moved to have him punished by death. There needs no more than simple denial from me to rebut the calumnies of the malevo- lent, the brainless, the frivolous, the fools, or the dis- solute.' There is much in what precedes to challenge com- ment, and the language, self-condemnatory of the writer in one respect, if not purposely meant to mislead, is yet greatly calculated to do so in another. If Servetus' teaching was such ponderous folly that it could by no possibility have any influence in the world, why did Cal- vin proceed against him from the first on the capital charge ? It is God, too, who inflicts such stupidity on mankind as makes the intervention of John Calvin necessary to set things right ; and the denial and vitu- perative epithets at the end of the paragraph last quoted do not cover an obvious intention on his part to have the reader conclude that he had had nothing to do with tlie doom which befel the Spaniard. But Calvin knew 502 MICHAEL SERVETUS that by the law of Geneva the convicted heretic must die ; and he had written to his friend Farel on August 20, within a week of the arrest, that he hoped the sen- tence would be capital at the least — spero capitate saltern jzcdicium fore. All the favour Calvin ever asked for Servetus was that he might die by the sword instead of by brimstone and slow fire. He does not say so much indeed, but it almost looks as if he would have the world believe that he had moved to save the man's life ! We have his own acknovv^ledgment, however, of the active part he took in the prosecution of Servetus at Geneva, and his expressed hope of what the sentence should be. This much he could not deny ; the facts of the case put it out of his power. But he always shirked complicity with all that happened at Vienne. There there was underhand dealing and betrayal of trust, and he would fain have the world believe that he had had nothing to do with the ugly business. But here, too, everything we know, is against him, and all he says by way of freeing himself from the charge of having denounced Servetus to the authorities of Lyons seems but to strengthen the conclusion that he did. Calvin was an able man undoubtedly, but he was not a cunning man, and often lets his pen give expression to thoughts of things gone by, which he would not have suffered to appear had he been more artful. In one of his epistles he says, ' Nothing less is said of me than that I might as well have thrown Servetus amid a pack of wild beasts as into the hands of the professed enemies of CALVIN DEFENDS HIMSELF. 503 the Church of Christ ; for I have the credit given me of having caused him to be arrested at Vienne. But why such sudden familiarity between me and the satellites of the Pope ? Is it to be believed that confidential letters could have passed b'stween parties who had as little in common as Christ and Belial ? Yet why many words to refute that which simple denial from mc suffices to answer ! Four years have now passed since Servetus himself spread this report. I only ask why, if he had been denounced by me, as said, he was thereafter suffered to remain unmolested for the space of three whole years ? It must either be allowed that the crime I am charged withal is a pure invention, or that my denuncia- tion did him no harm with the Papists.' True, and answers to all he says are not far to seek. Why the familiarity with the satellites of the Pope ? That he might be avenged through them on one whom he regarded at once as a dangerous heretic and a personal enemy. How should confidential letters have passed between parties who had so little in com- mon as himself and the Roman Catholics of Lyons ? Pjecausc he would have had them the instruments of his vengeance. If denounced by him, as said, how did Servetus remain unmolested for three whole years ? Because denunciation for heresy of one who lived in good repute with his friends as a true son of the Church, by another standing in the very foremost ranks of heresy, was taken no notice of by Cardinal Tournon and his advisers. — All that Calvin says now seems but to demonstrate the truth of what we have fromi Bolsec, and may possibly have been the ground 504 MICHAEL SERVETUS. of the warning against the over free expression of his opinions which Servetus is said to have received long before the dcnoncment that followed the printing of the ' Christianismi Restitutio.' Calvin continues : 'Would that the errors of Servetus might have been buried with him ; but as his ashes continue to spread a pestiferous stench I go on to expose his heresies, a task delayed till now through no fear of measuring myself with one like him, for I have coped with adversaries much more redoubtable than he, but because I had other work in hand of more importance as I believed. He, however, who con- tends that it is unjust to punish heretics and blasphemers, I say, becomes their deliberate associate. You tell me of the j authority of man ; but we have the word of God and his ! eternal laws for the government of his Church. Not in vain I has He commanded us to suppress every human affection for I the sake of religion. And wherefore such severity, if it be , not for this, that we are to prefer God's honour to mere i human reason.' But the St. Bartholomew and all the nameless horrors that have been perpetrated in the name of religion and to uphold what is called the honour of God, are the logical outcome of principles that lead to such lano^uao^e. Calvin's treatment of Servetus was in truth nothing less than a direct encouragement to the Roman Catholics of France to persevere in their atrocities towards the Protestants. Geneva, which had been looked on as the bulwark of independent thought and of freedom to worship God according to conscience came to be regarded as the seat of an- other Inquisition. All and sundry who pretended to CALVIN DEFENDS HIMSELF. 505 think for themselves, and who did not include Election and Predestination in their creed, must be silent. Did they speak or say a word against the rules and regula- tions of the modern propounder of the doctrine of God's partiality, they were mercilessly hunted down, fined, imprisoned, scourged on the back, branded on the cheek, banished from their homes, or, as in the case of Servetus, put to death ; even as the moving cause of all these atrocities would himself have been dealt with in France had he there avowed what were there styled the heretical opinions he entertained — the damnable doctrines he taught. Persecution which follows necessarily from the principles on which the Church of Rome is founded, could not be entered on by the Reformed Churches without a total abnegation of those to which they owe their existence.^ But it is not with Servetus's doctrines alone that ' For a more particular account of Calvin's severities, the reader is referred to a paper by M. Galiffe in the Mcvwircs dc Vlnstitut National de Geiihve for 1862, p. 79. But torture was an old institution in Geneva, and Servetus is said only to have escaped the rack on the remonstrance of Vandcl, one of the senators of the libertine party. In older days we read of one Postel, who, failing to answer so satisfactorily as was desired when cited before the Roman Catholic bishop and his court, for sonic offence, was ' suspended by the rope ' — by the wrists we believe. A first suspension, however, not proving effectual, a second was ordered ; but it being now dinner time, the culprit was suspended a second time whilst his lordship the bishop dined ! In more recent times, and under Calvin's rule, a certain Billiard, having been guilty of jeering at the thunder and lightning during a terrible storm, whilst the inhabitants of Geneva generally were on their knees praying to God for mercy, was adjudged to be lashed by the common hangman at the tail of a cart through the streets of the city ! Germain Colladon declared that he desened death ; but as he had a wife and family they might be content with the scourging ! 5o6 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Calvin occupies himself in his ' Declaration ' and ' De- fence.' He must further darken the fame of the man whom he slew, for the consistency and fortitude he dis- played when confronted with death, as we have seen him essaying to detract from the purity and probity of his life on his trial. ' Servetus,' says Calvin, ' was only bold when he had no fear of punishment before him ; but so overwhelmed was he in face of his im- pending fate, that he was lost to all and everything about him. Praying with the people he had said were Godless, he yet prayed as if he had been in the midst of the Church of God, and thereby showed that his opinions were nothing to him ! Giving no sign of regret or repentance, saying never a word in vindica- tion of his doctrines, what, I ask you, is to be thought of the man who, at such a time, and with full liberty to speak, made no confession one way or another, any more than if he had been a stock or a stone ? He had no fear of having his tongue torn out ; he was not for- bidden to say what he liked ; and though at last he declined to call on Jesus as the eternal Son of God (Calvin omits to say that he called devoutly with his latest breath on Jesus as Son of the eternal God), inasmuch as he made no declaration of his faith, who shall say that this man died a martyr's death ? ' ' Theo- logical hatred,' says a late esteemed writer,^ * never inspired words more atrociously cruel and unjust than ' Em. Saissct : Michel Scrvet comme philosophe. In Melanges de Critique et d'Histoire. i2mo., Paris, 1865. CALVIN DEFENDS HIMSELF. 507 these of Calvin ; ' and we do not hesitate to indorse the dictum. Calvin's challenge of Servetus's fortitude in the face of death is most unjust. Servetus went bravely to his death ; though to him, in the vigour of life, and possessed of all his powers, With thoughts that wandered through Eternit}-, life assuredly was sweet ; and to lose it not only for no crime, but for the avowal of what he believed to be holy truth, was hard indeed. To Servetus existence was not summed up in ministering to mere material wants and putting off and on at eve and morn ; it meant doing in the knowable, specidating in that which transcends the known, furthering knowledge of the world we live in, striving after congruous conceptions of the Almighty Cause of the good, and ministering to the ill that befals — a truly noble life ! But Calvin could no more forgive Servetus his constancy and consistency than he could endure his theological divergences and his personal insults. ' Could we but have had a retractation from Servetus as wc had from Gentilis ! ' exclaims he, upon another occasion. Strange ! that men in whom the religious sense is strong should still be blind to the truth that if there be sincerity in the world, they, too, who feel strongly though divergently on religion, must be as truly religious and sincere as themselves ; and that convictions in the sphere of faith — those garments of the soul — cannot be put off and on at pleasure, like the garments of the body ! 5oS MICHAEL SERVETUS. - It were needless to say that Calvin's refutation, or shall we say condemnation of Servetus, is full and com- plete, if it be not at all times of the complexion which unimpassioned weighing of the argument, considerate appreciation of the purpose, and truthful interpretation of the language of an opponent would have secured. Both of the forms in which the book appeared were well received by the public ; the ' Declaration pour Maintenir la Vraye Foy ' having been extensively read by those who were not masters of the Latin ; the ' Fidelis expositio Errorum ' by those who were. Bullinger, it appears from what Calvin says, must for- merly have urged him on to severity ; and, as we have just seen, now shows himself anxious to have his friend appear in defence of what had been done. Writing immediately after the publication of the book, he con- gratulates the writer on his work ; the only fault he has to find with it being the terseness of the style, which leads at times to obscurity, and its brevity. Calvin, in reply, excuses himself for the conciseness of his lan- guage and the modest length of his work. But his letter, in so far as it relates to our subject, is too im- portant not to h3.ve a place in our narrative. Your last letter, Calvin says, was duly delivered by our excellent brother Tho. Jonerus. I was from home at the time, so that I could not show him the hospitality he deserved, but it so fell out that the Lord in my absence provided for him in a way that could not have been bettered. ... I have always feared that in my book my conciseness may have CALVIN DEFENDS HIMSELF. 509 occasioned some obscurity ; but I could not well guard against it. I may say, indeed, that with the end I had in view other motives led me to the brevity you speak of. In v/riting at all it was not only my principal but my sole object to expose the detestable errors of Servetus. It seemed to me that the subjects handled were best discussed in the plainest terms, and that the impious errors of the man should not be over- laid by any lengthy or ornate writing of mine. I, therefore, say nothing more of the severity of the style on which you animadvert. I have, indeed, taken every possible pains to show the common reader how without much trouble the thorny subtleties of Servetus may be exposed and refuted. I am not blind to the fact, however, that though I am wont to be concise in my writings I have felt myself more bound to brevity here than usual. But so it be only allowed that the sound doctrine has been defended by me in sincerity of faith and with understanding, this is of far more moment than any regrets I may feel for having been forced on the task. You, however, for the love you bear me, and led by the candour and equity of your nature, will judge me favourably in what I have done. Others may construe me more harshly ; say I am a master in severity and cruelty, and that with my pen I lacerate the body of the man who came to his death through me. Some, too, there are, not otherwise evilly disposed, who say that the world is silent as to what was done, and that no attempt is made to refute my argument on the punishment of heresy, through fear of my displeasure. But it is well that I have you for the associate of my fault, if, indeed, there be any fault ; for you were my authority and instigator. Look to it, therefore, that you gird yourself for the fight. . . . Jo. Calvix, Geneva, November 3, 1554. This interesting letter' seems to show that Calvin ' First printed by Moshcini from the autograph, in his Neue Nac/i- 5IO MICHAEL SERVETUS. had already conceived misgivings of his conduct in the affair of Servetus. When J ohn Calvin condescends to seek support beyond himself, and to charge a friend with having egged him on to the deed whose memory seems now to rankle in his mind, he must have felt less sure than was his wont that all he did was well done • This even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chaHce To our own lips ; (and tells us) we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor. Self-reliant as he was, and ready else to take on him- self the responsibility of his acts, we yet see that he, the strong man among the strong, now felt the want not only of sympathy and approval, but of some one to share the ' fault, if fault there were,' in a relentless pursuit and terrible deed. When he would thus asso- ciate Bullinger with himself in his pitiless persecution of the ill-starred Servetus, Calvin must refer to the letter he had had from the Ziirich pastor of September 14, as well as to the one in which the reply of the Church of Zurich to the Council of Geneva is couched — reply of which there need be no question Bullinger was the writer. Of all the ministers of the Swiss Churches Calvin, we believe, had the highest respect for Bullin- ger, who, as he did not always truckle to him, fell out of favour at times, but only to come back anon with heartier consideration than before. richten von dem beriiJunten SpaiiiscJiai Aertzte Michael Setveto, Beilagen, S. 106. 8vo,, Helmst. 1750. CALVIN DEFENDS HIMSELF. 511 Melanchthon, too. whom we have found taking- more notice of the work on Trinitarian Error than any of the other Reformers, would seem to have gone on to the end of his life increasing in hostihty to its author. He, indeed, shows httle of the mildness with which he is commonly credited whenever in later years the name of Servetus meets him. Writing to Calvin in October 1554, a year consequently after the death of Servetus, and when he had probably read the ' Apologia de Mysterio Trinitatis,' addressed to him, and printed at the end of the ' Christianismi Restitutio/ Melanchthon congratulates the Reformer ' for all he had done in bringing so dangerous a heretic to justice.' ' I have read your able refutation of the horrible blas- phemies of the Spaniard ; and for the conclusion at- tained give thanks to the Son of God who was umpire in your contest. The Church, too, both of the day and of the future, owes you thanks, and will surely prove itself grateful.' ^ Calvin's more intimate friends and partisans, with few exceptions, approved of his zeal in vindicating the honour of God, as they said, and treading out, as they imagined, the threatening spark of heresy kindled by Servetus. Later admirers and adherents, again, unable to condone his deed, attempt to find, and flatter them- selves that they do find, excuse for him in the ruder and sterner temper of the times in which he lived. But we own, regretfully, that with all vvc know, we ' Corpus Reform. Ep. Mehxmh. ad An., 1554. 512 MICHAEL SERVETUS. cannot follow them in this. Calvin was not only a man of the highest intelligence, he was also possessed of a carefully cultivated mind. An admirable scholar, deeply read in the humanities, and familiar with history, he had in earlier life, and in face of the persecution for conscience' sake beginning under Francis I., manfully raised his voice for toleration. He had even gone out of his way, as we have seen, and spent his money in republishing Seneca's * Treatise on Clemency,' with added comments of his own, by way of warning, beyond question, to his sovereign against the fatal course on which he saw him entering. Addressing another amonor the monarchs of the earth in a later work, ^ he says : ' Wisdom is driven from among us, and the holy harmony of Christ's kingdom, that makes lambs of wolves and turns spears into pruning-hooks, is compromised when violence is im- pressed into the service of religion,' And yet again we have him using words like these : ' Although we are not to be on familiar terms with persons excommu- nicated by the Church for infractions of discipline, we are still to strive by clemency and our prayers to bring them into accord with its teaching. Nor, indeed, are such as these only to be so entreated ; but Turks, Sa- racens, and others, positive enemies of the true religion, also. Drowning, beheading, and burning are far from being the proper means of bringing them and their like to proper views.' ' ' Comment, in Acta Apostoi. ad Reg cm Dania. 2 Institutioncs Rcligionis Christ. Lib. i. Cap. 2, of the earlier editions. INFLUEXCE OF CALVIN. Calvin had, therefore, got beyond his age and its spirit of intolerance ; and, having turned his back on the Church of Rome, no shelter can be found for him in an appeal to its sanguinary principles and practice. Calvin, in a word, is inexcusable for refusing to Ser- vetus the liberty he arrogated for himself, and for turning the city that sheltered him into a shambles for the man of whom reli^i-iousness alone had made an enemy, and persecution had driven into his power. Servetus, however, it is said, was a heretic, a blas- phemer. But what was Calvin in the eyes of those he had forsaken ? The most egregious of heretics, whose teaching had led thousands from the faith of their fathers, and imperilled their salvation ; a traitor, too, whose independent principles turned subjects into rebels, and tended to make despotic rule by Priest and King impossible. And this is true ; for we are not to overlook the fact that it is to Calvin, with however little purpose on his part, that we mainly owe the large amount of civil and religious liberty we now enjoy. Of Calvin, more truly perhaps than of any man that ever lived, may the dictum of the poet, where he says : The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones, be held to be reversed. In Calvin's case it was the ill he did that died, the good that lived. With no respect for civil liberty himself, and still less for religious liberty beyond tlie pale of his own narrow confession of faith, Calvin must nevertheless be thought of as the real L L 514 MICHAEL SERVETUS. herald of modern freedom. Holding ignorance to be incompatible with the existence of a people at once religious and free, Calvin had the school-house built be- side the church, and brought education within the reach of all. Nor did he overlook the higher culture. He restored the College of Geneva, founded half a century before by a pious and liberal citizen, but utterly neg- lected in Roman Catholic times ; and as a complement to the University he founded the Academy. Forbidden to set foot on the land of his birth, he was nevertheless the genius of its religious growth, and in company with this, of its aspirations after freedom. But for the fickle- ness and falseness of its princes, France might have had reformed Christianity for her faith ; and with the intelli- gence, morality, and true piety of her Huguenot sons in possession of their homes, might possibly have been spared her Grand Monarques and despotism, her Revolutions, her Buonapartes, and her wars that have drenched the soil of Europe in blood ever since Henry of Navarre proved untrue to himself and Liberty. But Scottish Presbyterianism and English Puritanism and Nonconformity in its multifarious, sturdy, self- sufficing forms, and 1688, were each and all the legiti- mate outcome of a system which told the world that there was no such thing in the law of God as divine right to govern wrongly ; and in asserting free-thought for itself in matters of opinion, by indefeasible logic gave a title to all to think freely. There can be little question, in fact, that Calvinism, CALVINISM. 51; or some modification of its essential principles, is the form of religious faith that has been professed in the modern world by the most intelligent, moral, indus- trious, and freest of mankind. If Calvinism, however, tend to make men more manly and more fit for free- dom, it has also a certain hardening influence on the heart, disposing to severity. Yet has not even this been without its compensating good ; for when Calvin — im- personation of relentless rigour — sent the pious Ser- vetus to the flames, it may be said that the knell of intolerance bes^an to toll. Persistence in consio^nine dissidents from the religious dogmas of the day to death was made henceforth impossible, and persecu- tion on religious grounds to any minor issue has come by degrees to be seen not only as indefensible in principle, but immoral in fact ; for it strikes at the root of the very noblest elements in the constitution of humanity — Conscience and Loyalty to Truth. But Calvinism has had its day. The free inquiry of wliich it sprang has slowly, yet surely, carried all save its wilfull}' blind or ignorant adherents beyond the pale of their old beliefs. More than a century ago the Church of Geneva broke not only with its Confes- sion of Faith as formulated by its founder, but with confessions of faith of every complexion ; so that one of its leaders, on occasion of the late tercentenary commemoration of the death of the Reformer, could say : Nous nc somnies plus Calvinistes selon Calvin. Nor has the defection of the Swiss been singular ; they L L 2 5i6 MICHAEL SERVETUS. have been followed more or less closely by the Dutch, the Germans, the more advanced of the Protestant Church of France, and finally and at length by the Scotch. In the land of Knox, the very stronghold of Judaic Christianity as defined by Calvin and his great disciple, open rebellion has broken out against the narrowness of the Creed and Catechism of the Westminster Assembly of Divines so obsequiously followed until now ; prelude, doubtless, to further disruption and greater change than have yet been seen ; for modern criticism and exegesis, and ever advancing science, proclaim arrest at any grade in the Religious Idea yet attained by the Churches to be impossible. CALVIN'S DEFENCE ATTACKED. 517 CHAPTER XXI. Calvin's defence is attacked. Even whilst the trial was proceeding, we have seen that Calvin was not without opposition in his pursuit of Servetus. Amied Perrin, his great political rival, had striven for mercy or a minor punishment to the last ; and he was not without followers in the Council. But they were outnumbered and out-voted there, so that the light of the ' blessed quality that is not strained ' was quenched. Outside the circle of the governing body also, more than one voice was raised against the manifest aim of Calvin to have his theo- logical opponent capitally convicted. But it was by persons of inferior note. David Bruck, among others, a man of talent and quondam minister of a congre- gation of Anabaptists in the North, now living pri- vately and respected under the name of David Joris at l^erne, went so far as to speak of Servetus as a pious man, and to declare that if all who differed from others in their religious views were to be put to dcatli, the world would be turned into one sea of blood.' l)Ut the writer who received most notice from ' Joris's able letter in low German is given by Mosheim, op. cit., p. 421. 5T,S MICHAEL SERVETUS. Calvin and his friends was he who appeared under the assumed name of Martin BelHus. Taking as his text the 29th verse of the 4th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians : ' As then he that was born of the flesh persecuted him that was born of the Spirit, even so is it now,' Bell proceeded to show that persecution to death on religious grounds, though it might be Judaism was not Christianity, and that many learned men and eminent doctors of the Church, both of older and more modern times, had been emphatic in condemnation of all intolerance in the sphere of religion. Bell's book, small in bulk but weighty in argument, was felt as a home-thrust by the Reformer of Geneva, his own words in favour of toleration among others being quoted against him. It is often spoken of at the time as the Farraoj'O — Calvin himself so desis^nates it when sending a copy of it to his friend Bullinger. But neither Calvin nor his friends liked the book ; and it is in depreciation of its real significance that it is spoken of as a medley.-^ Premising an Introduction, addressed to Frederick, the reigning Duke of Wiirtemberg, in which the writer sets forth his own views, he asks the Duke whether ^ The proper title of this rare book, of which we have a copy in the library of the British Museum is : De Hcereticis an sint perseqne7idi et oinntjio quo7iwdo sit cum eis agendum, doctorum viroruni, tu7n veterimi turn recentiorum, sententia:, &c. The opinions of the learned, both of ancient and modern times, concerning heretics : Are they to be persecuted ; or how otherwise are tliey to be dealt with ? A book most necessary and useful in these distracted times to sovereign princes and magistrates in dealing with a matter of such difficulty and danger. i2mo., Magde- burgh, 1554. MARTIN BELL. 519 he should think a subject of his deserving of death who. avowine behef in God and his earnest desire to Hve in conformity with the precepts of Scripture, should say that he did not think baptism was properly per- formed on an infant eight days old ; but was of opinion that the rite should be deferred until years of discretion had been attained and the recipient could give a reason for the faith that was in him ? Did the subject think further that if he were required by law to __baptize in- fants he was running counter to Christ's ordinance, and felt that he was doing violence to his conscience, Bell asks the Duke again, ' Did he think, if Christ were present as Judge, that He would order the man who so delivered himself to be put to death ? ' Replying to his question himself, he says : ' I venture to believe that He would not.' Our author then proceeds to quote from the works of many writers, who maintain that the punishment of heretics is no part of the civil magistrate's duty ; from Erasmus, who declares that God, the Great Father of the human family, will not have heretics, even haeresi- archs, put to death, but tolerated in view of their pos- sible amendment. ' When I think how reprehensible are heresy and schism," says the great scholar, ' I am scarce disposed to condemn the laws against them ; but when 1 call to mind the gentleness wherewith Christ led his disciples, I shrink from the instances I see of men sent to prison and the stake on the ground of their disagree- ment with scholastic dogmas.' From Aug. Eleutherius, 520 MICHAEL SERVETUS. who opines that 'they are not always truly heretics whom the vulgar so designate.' From Lactantius, who says * Force and violence are out of place in matters of faith ; for religion cannot be forced on mankind ; words not stripes are here the proper instruments of persuasion.' From Augustin, who goes so far as to say that ' for the sake of peace even dogs are to be tolerated in the Church. The Catholic servants of God are not to stain themselves with the blood of their enemies, but to be examples of patience and forbear- ance. It is no business of theirs to gather the tares for burning before the harvest is ready ; they who err are men, and it is man's part to bear with the erring ; the tares do no real harm to the wheat ; and if the erring be not cured here, they do not escape punish- ment hereafter.' There is much besides from others, which we spare the reader ; but we have to show that clemency for theological divergence was no novelty in the age of Calvin ; and no one will imagine for a moment that he had forgotten what he had written himself, or was ienorant of a word that had ever been said on the sub- ject by others. Martin Bell's tractate was so eagerly seized upon by the public, and proved so influential in turning the tide of self-o"ratulation on which Calvin had been floatino- somewhat at his ease since the appearance of his ' De- claration' and 'Defence,' that it was thought necessary to find an antidote to the bane of reason and mercy, DE BEZA ANSWERS BELL. 521 SO modestly but so convincingly presented in its pages. Calvin would probably have felt himself constrained to take the field again, and, ' confronting Bell with self- comparisons,' to answer him ' point against point ' in person, had he not had his friend De Beza at hand to take his place. Engaged at the moment with his Commen- tary on Genesis, Calvin felt little disposed to interrupt his work by entering anew on an old theme, though ever ready to gird himself for the fight on one with novelty to recommend it. The task of meeting Martin Bell he therefore delegated to De Beza, who appeared anon in a volume three or four times the size of the Farrago in answer to its plea for latitude in the inter- pretation of the Scriptures, and against the infliction of death for the religious divergence called heresy in any or all of the multifarious forms in which it shows itself. With the terrible text of the Jewish Bible, ' If thy brother, thy son, the wife of thy bosom, or the friend that is as thine own soul, entice thee, saying, Let us go and serve other Gods ; thou shalt not consent to him, neither shall thine eye have pity on him, neither shalt thou spare him, but thou shalt surely kill him, thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death,' &c. (Deut. xiii. 6 and seq.), and much besides, akin to this, assumed as the command of God, Beza had no very diffi- cult task before him in persu.iding himself and his party tliat they had abidden by the Law in all that had been done , satisfied as they were besides that those who 522 MICHAEL SERVETUS. eainsaid them were the enemies of God and man when they presumed to defend doctrines dishonouring, it was said, to the Supreme and destructive of the peace of the world. — God, in a word, was with them ; the Devil and corrupt humanity on the side of their oppo- nents, and there an end. We do not observe, however, that Beza's reply, though very ably conceived, and written with the skill of the practised controversialist, had any great influ- ence. It was not reprinted in a separate form, and although translated into Dutch, seems to have been little read beyond the circle of Calvin's friends and followers. Short as was the time that had elapsed since Servetus perished, the apologists of the man who sent him to his death were already in the rear of public opinion on the subject. The jurisdiction of the magistrate had come to be seen ever more and more clearly to lie within the sphere of Act, and to have nothing to do with Opinion. A conclusion so wholesome as this was greatly strengthened by the appearance of another book in im- mediate reply to Calvin's ' Declaration ' and ' Defence,' entitled : ' Contra Libellum Calvini, &c. against Calvin's book, in which he strives to show that heretics are to be dealt with capitally.' ^ This is the little work that is often referred to as ' a Dialogue between Cal- ' Cojitra libellum Calvini quo ostcndcrc conetur hccrcticos Jure gladii cocrccndos esse. S. L. [1554]. Of this rare book I have not met with an original copy ; but ther^ is the reprint (after 1602) in the Brit. Mus. Library. VATIC ANUS ET CALVINUS. 523 vin and Vaticanus,' ' Dialogus inter Calvinum et V^ati- canum.' In the Preface to the copy I have used, the work is ascribed to Sebastian CasteHio, and several short papers from this distinguished scholar are ap- joended to the text ; but he most certainly was not its author. An old and determined opponent of Calvin, whose doctrine of Predestination and Elec- tion he had had the hardihood, in a special pamphlet, to criticise and controvert, Castellio had aroused the ire of Calvin ; and it was on this ground probably that he had the credit given him of having written the ' Dialogus.' Calvin's displeasure, we know, never meant anything less than personal hate and persecution, so that, in his answer to what he styles the ' calumnies ' of Castellio, after the preliminary abuse in which he calls him ' faithless and unmannered,' he says, ' They who do not know thee to be shameless and a deceiver, do not know thee aright. I should like to be informed how thou wilt prove that I am cruel ? By throwing the death of thy master Servetus in my face, perhaps ; and saying, that with my pen I mangle the body of the man who came to his death through me ; but did I not entreat for him .-* His judges will bear me out in this ; two of whom, at least, were his particular patrons.' ' In the passage just quoted, Calvin seems to reply to what Vaticanus has said in his introduction to the ' Conf. l-'uessli : Sebastian Casialio, cine Lcbensgeschichtc ztir Erlau- tcfitng dcr Rcfonnation. 8vo. Zurich unci Leipz. 1767. 524 MICHAEL SERVETUS. book that engages us, viz., that Servetus was the first who had been put to death at Geneva on grounds of rehgion, and that it was done at the instance and on the authority of Calvin — 'impidsorc d aiLthore Calviiio! Vaticanus continues : * Calvin will perhaps say, as is his wont, that I am a disciple of Servetus. But let not this frighten anyone. I am no defender of the doc- trines of Servetus, but I shall so expose the false doc- trines of Calvin, that every one shall see as plain as noonday that he thirsted for blood. I shall not deal with him, however, as he dealt with Servetus, whom he proceeded to tear in pieces with his pen, after having burned him and his books. I do not, therefore, discuss the Trinity, Baptism, &c., seeing that I have not the books of Servetus, whence I might learn what he says on these subjects, Calvin having taken such pains to have them burned — qidppc combitstos diligentia Cal- vini. I shall not burn the books of Calvin ; their author is alive, and his books may be had both in French and Latin, so that every one may see whether I falsify aught he writes. But Servetus was a blasphemer of God, says Calvin. The man himself, however, believed that he honoured God, and per- suaded himself that he frlorified God in his death. But the persuasion is false, says Calvin. Be it so ; yet Servetus himself was not false ; had he been so, he would assuredly have saved his life ; he therefore died for his opinions.' Without defending- the views of Servetus we thus MINUS CELSUS. 525 see Vaticanus asserting the courage and consistency of the victim which had been unjustly called in question by Calvin. Coming to the burden of the book we find as many as 150 passages from Calvin's ' Defensio orthodoxse fidei ' commented and controverted, and in addition, four from the reply of Zurich to the Council of Geneva. By much the most complete and able of the works against Calvin and those who would have heretics punished by being put to death, is that of Minus Celsus of Sienna.^ A fugitive from his native country to escape arrest and punishment for having forsaken Popery, Minus Celsus found safety at length after passing through many perils in Switzerland. ' Escaped from the hands of Antichrist, as he says, and safe amid the Rhetian Alps,' he was not a little scandalised to find nothing of the unity of doctrine among the Reformed Churches he had been led to expect before leaving his native country. ' They held together as one, indeed, in hate of the Pope, calling him Antichrist and looking on the Mass as idolatry, but they differed on innumerable other points among themselves, and not only persecuted but went the length of putting each other to death, and this in no such primitive way as by stoning, in old Hebrew fashion, but by roasting the living man with a slow fire, viviuii lento ig)ic torrendo — punishment more horrible than Scythian or Cannibal ever contrived.' ' Mini Cclsi Scncnsis dc Ihcrcticis capitali siipplicio affi.cientibus ; adjiincta sunt Theod. Bcso" cjiisdcm ixr<:;nmc}iti ct And. Dtiditii F.pistolic dua contrariic, 8vo. s. L. 1 584. 526 MICHAEL SERVETUS. Celsus had heard of the execution of Servetus at Geneva, and been assured by some who were present, persons worthy of all trust, that the constancy of the sufferer was such that many of the spectators, finding it impossible to imagine anything of the kind endured without the immediate support of God, instead of feeling horror for a blasphemer rightfully put to death, were led to look on him as a martyr to the cause of truth, and so made shipwreck of the faith in which they had hitherto lived. This led Celsus to think of the treatise he had formerly written in his native language on the proper way of dealing with heresy, and turning it into Latin he resolved to have it jDrinted. He did not live, how- ever, to carry out his purpose ; his book was only pub- lished some years after his death by a friend who gives no more than the initials of his name, J. F. D., but adds M.D,, whereby we learn that he was a physician. ' No man,' says Mosheim,^ 'can write more amiably or controvert more gently than this Minus Celsus. He never uses a word that is either bitter or insulting. His principal opponents are Calvin and Beza, of course, but he does not name them specially when he controverts their conclusions, although he proclaims his horror of all violence in matters of faith. He does, indeed, speak of Calvin once by name, but it is with mingled com- mendation and sorrow that 'one who had deserved so well of the Church on many counts, and who thought ' Ketzergeschichte, S. 301. MINUS CELSUS. 527 in earlier years that religion was not to be furthered by- severity or violence, should have finally fallen away from his better persuasion. Why he changed, I know not : God knows.' Calvin did not live to see this excellent work of the Siennese Celsus. Although written in his lifetime, the great Reformer died twenty years before it saw the light. How it would have affected him we can only say with our pious Celsus, God knows ! 528 MICHAEL SERVETUS. CHAPTER XXII. Calvin's biographers and apologists. Among writers nearer our own time there are few who openly and unreservedly uphold Calvin in his conduct to Servetus, none who now advocate persecution unto death for divergence in religious opinion. Even they who hold the memory of Calvin in the highest honour are driven, as we have seen, to find excuses for him in his pursuit of the indiscreet but pious Spaniard. We in these days do, indeed, believe that they who should approve his deed would sin even as he did. Paul Henry, the author of one of the latest lives we have of Calvin, and his measureless partisan and apologist, even with the moderate acquaintance he has with Servetus' works, feels himself forced at times to pause in the unmitigated condemnation of their author he is dis- posed to indulge in. Like Farel, in contact with the victim, telling the people that ' after all the man perhaps meant well ; ' Henry says, that ' from the executed man, der Gerichtete, we hear certain echoes of Christianity which sadden as they flow not from the true faith. But his pyre still gleams portentous to the world, and even when it burned it was a herald of the CALVIN'S APOLOGISTS. 529 dawn of better days to come. Servetus, in his steadfast protestation even unto death, became a true Reformer. His fate has for ever impressed the Protestant (Henry has the EvangeHcal) Church with hate of the besetting sin of the Church of Rome, the crime of deahng with rehgious error by inflicting death. It has even fami- harised the world with the thought that there is a still higher development of the religious principle in man than has yet found expression in either the Roman or Reformed Churches, awaiting a coming time.' This surely is noble writing. Nor does the apolo- gist pause here, but goes on to speak of him who to Calvin and his age was a blasphemer of God, as being really and in truth ' a pious man.' ' Were an assembly of Deputies from every Christian Church now to meet on Champel,' says Henry, * to take into consideration all that is extant on the life and fate of Servetus, and to review the facts in the light of the times to which they refer, they would speak Calvin free from reproach and pronounce him not guilty ; of Servetus, on the other hand, they would say, guilty, but with extenuating cir- cumstances.' We venture to believe, and trust we have shown cause sufficient to warrant our conclusion, that the sentence would be precisely the reverse. Calvin would be found guilty, but with extenuating circum- stances ; Servetus not guilty in all but the use of in- temperate and sometimes improper language. Henry, to his honour, goes yet farther ; he does uol approve of Calvin's attempt to detract from the horror M M 530 MICHAEL SERVETUS. and pity we feel for Servetus' fate, by charging him with cowardice in the face of death. ' Let us observe in Servetus,' says the biographer of Calvin, ' those beau- tiful traces of the true life which he showed at the last : his regret for former tergiversations, his humility, his constancy, his earnest prayer to God, and his forgive- ness of his enemies. Had he but had the truth in his heart he would have died a true martyr ; but he must tremble in his death hour, for he had blasphemed the Majesty of God.' But Servetus did not tremble in his death hour, he never blasphemed the Majesty of God, and he died in charity with all men, even with him who had brought him to his untimely end, and who ten years after the death of his victim had no better title for him than Chieri et meschant Garnement, — dog and wicked scoundrel ! Mosheim, to whom we owe the gathering and pre- servation of much that is interesting in connection with Servetus, working in the middle of the bygone century, and referring to what Calvin himself avows, viz., ' that he would not have persevered so resolutely on the capital charge had Servetus been but modest and not r rushed madly on his fate,' exclaims, ' What an avowal ! 1 Servetus, after all, must burn not because he had out- raged the word of God, and infected the world with ' error, but because he had addressed John Calvin in disrespectful language ! Calvin's avowal is truly a hard knot for those to untie who hold that revenge had nothing to do with the death of Servetus. For my CONCLUSION. own part I am not bound to weigh all the grounds that tell for or against the Reformer, and I am not, perhaps, altogether impartial. I am minded, however, that they are not wholly in the right who say that Calvin pro- ceeded against the unhappy Spaniard led on by hatred and revenge alone ; and I am not so certain that they are in the wrone who think it was not mere reliofious zeal which suggested and carried the tragedy to its conclusion. What is man ! The very best often serve God and themselves when they fancy they are serving God alone.' With these words of the pious historian of the Church we conclude ; tempering the severer criticism suggested by the facts as they present themselves, with the more charitable construction of the ecclesiastic. M M APPENDIX APPENDIX. An account of the extant copies of the ' Christianismi Restitutio ; ' of the reprints of the work by Dr. de Murr and Dr. Mead, and of the notices the work has received in earher and Liter times. The ' Christianismi Restitutio ' of Michael Servetus is one of the rarest books in the world. Of the thousand copies known to have been printed, two only are now known to sur- vive ; one of these being among the treasures of the National Library of Paris, the other among those of the Imperial and Royal Library of Vienna. The history of both of these copies, curiously enough, is complete from rather a remote date, and it is somewhat provoking to know that both of them were once in this country ; but bigotry sent the one, and want of religious sympathy, presumably, suffered the other to leave our shores. The Paris copy certainly belonged to Dr. Richard Mead, the distinguished physician and medallist, who lived in the reign of Queen Anne, and is believed, before it came into Mead's possession, to have formed part of the Library of the Landgrave of Kur-Hcsse. How it got dissevered from this is not known. It was probably stolen and brougiit to England as to a sure market. Mead, liberal in politics and presumably in religion also, appears to have felt so much in- terest in Servetus' work, not only by reason of the physio- logical matter it contained, but because of tlie free spirit of inquiry it breathed, that he was minded to have it reprinted 536 APPENDIX. and made generally accessible. He had accordingly got half- way with a new and handsome edition of the work in 4to. form, so far back as the year 1723, when his purpose reached the ears of Gibson, the then Bishop of London. Alarmed at the idea of light being let in on the world that had not been strained through the haze of Episcopalian orthodoxy, Gibson addressed himself immediately to the Censor of the Press for an injunction ; and at his instance and order the impression, so far as it had gone, was seized, adjudged heretical, and pub- licly burned. A few copies of the reprint, however, must have escaped the conflagration, of which one is now in the Library of the London Medical Society. This I have had an opportunity of examining, and find that there wanted but little to have completed the most essential part of the work, the last page printed being the first of the chapter entitled ' De Justitia Regni Christi.' Disgusted, we may imagine, with the bigotry of Bishop Gibson and his abettors, and, it may be also, to secure his copy of the original against the chance of seizure, confiscation, and the fire, Doctor Mead exchanged it with M. de Boze, Member of the French Academy of the Fine Arts, for a series of medals, of wdiich the Doctor was a known collector. The library of M. de Boze being purchased after his death by M. Boutin, late Intendant of Finance, and the President de Cotte, in common, the Servetus fell to the share of De Cotte, who sold it by-and-by at an exorbitant price, as said, to M. Gaignat, who parted with it in turn for a still larger sum — as much as 3,810 livres — to the Due de la Vailliere, the greatest book collector of the age. On the death of De la Vailliere, and the dispersion of his magnificent library under the hammer, in 1784, the ' Rest. Christianismi,' believed at the time to be the only copy in existence, was secured for the sum of 4,120 livres tournois for the Bibliotheque du Roi, and it now remains one of the treasures of the great National APPENDIX. 537 Library of France. Much of the above information we gather from the letter of M. I'Abbe Rive, Librarian to the Due de la Vailliere, which is appended to the London edition of Dutens' ' Recherches sur I'origine des Decouvertes attributes aux Modernes,' of the year 1766. But this is not all, nor even the most interesting of all we know about the. Paris copy of the rare and remarkable book. It has the name of ' Germain CoUadon ' on the title-page, and the various passages on w^hich Servetus was finally ar- raigned and condemned are underscored. It can, therefore, be no other than the copy which belonged to Colladon, the barrister, who prosecuted Servetus at Geneva, and must have been given him along with his brief by the attorney in the case. But the attorney in the case of Servetus was John Calvin ; and we need not, therefore, doubt that the underlining is by * I'impitoyable Calvin ' — the ruthless Calvin, as M. Flourens, who gives so much of the foregoing information as we have not supplemented, characterises the Genevese Reformer. The book shows What M. Flourens supposed to be scorching in one part ; and this he gratuitously accounts for, by supposing that it is the copy which was to have been burned along with its author, but was saved in some unac- countable way. That copy, we may be well assured, was re- duced to ashes and scattered to the winds with those of its hapless writer ; and the presumed scorching, on the careful examination it received from the Rev. Henry ToUin, turns out to be the effect of damp. See Flourens' ' Histoirc de la De- couvertc de la Circulation du Sang' (Paris, 1854), 2nd Ed. lb. 1857, p. 154. The Vienna exemplar of the ' Christianismi Restitutio,* again, when we first meet with a notice of it, belonged to Markos Szent Ivanayi, a Transylvanian gentleman, resident in London in the year 1C65. Szent Ivanayi must, we pre- sume, have held Unitarian princi[)les, and on his return to his 538 APPENDIX. native country (in some districts of which Unitarianism is the estabhshed or prevailing form of religion), he presented his copy of the ' Restitutio ' to the Congregation of Claudiopolis, with which he was in communion ; and they, at a later date, by the hands of their superior, Stephen Agh, gave it, as the most valuable thing they possessed, to Samuel, Count Teleki de Izek, in acknowledgment of some act of favour from the magnate. The Count, on his part, informed of the rarity of the book, and rightly deeming that it was a gift such as a subject might offer to his sovereign, presented it to the Emperor Joseph the Second of Austria, by whom it was graciously accepted and forthwith enshrined in the great Library of Vienna. This copy of the ' Restitutio ' is in better condition than that of Paris — ' prcEstat nitiore^ says Dr. de Murr, from whom we have the foregoing information (De Murr, Chr. Th., M.D., 'Adnotationesad Bibliothecas Hallerianas, cum variis ad Scripta Michaelis Serveti pertinentibus.' 4to. Erlangen. 1805). The authorities of Roman Catholic Austria, in 1790, more liberally disposed than those of Protestant England in the year of grace 1723, not only gave Dr. de Murr permission to have a transcript made of the ' Restitutio,' but raised no objec- tions to his having his copy printed and published — a task which he happily accomplished in 1791, 'when the work ap- peared anew, like a Phoenix from its ashes,' as he says. The reprint is, indeed, an exact counterpart of the original — line for line, page for page being followed throughout ; and as the letter and paper have also been chosen to correspond as nearly as possible with those of the prototype, it might have been found difficult to distinguish between the one and the other, were a third copy of the original ever to turn up, had not Dr. de Murr put a mark upon his edition in the date of its publication in extremely small figures — thus, 1791, at the bottom of the last page. This, too, is a scarce book, so we presume the edition was small. APPENDIX. 539 The earliest intimation the world at large received of the existence of the ' Christianismi Restitutio ' of Servetus is to be found in Dr. Wm. Wotton's ' Reflections upon Learning, Ancient and Modern ' (London, 1694) ; but his re- ference is to nothing more than the passage bearing on the way in which the blood from the right side of the heart reaches the left. ' The passage,' says Wotton, ' was com- municated to him by his friend Mr. Charles Barnard, a very learned chirurgeon, who had had it transcribed for him by a friend who copied it from Servetus' book.' Wotton, therefore, had never seen the book himself The copy from which the passage was transcribed, in all likelihood was the one which cither was at the time or afterwards became the property of Dr. Mead. The next writer who refers to Servetus and his new views of the pulmonic circulation is Dr. James Douglas, in his ' Bibliographias Anatomical Specimen ' (London, 171 5). But neither had Douglas had an opportunity of examining the work for himself. He does no more, in fact, than copy the passage as given by Wotton. The first member of the medical profession who gave any account of Servetus' physiological and psychological opinions from an actual survey of the ' Christianismi Restitutio,' from De Murr's reprint, I believe to have been the late Dr. G. Sigmond, an amiable man and accomplished scholar, who has not been very long gone from among us. Sigmond, however, has left us the result of his study in an appreciative Disserta- tion in Latin and English ; the introduction being in our mother tongue, the text in the old language. Sigmond's work is entitled, ' The Unnoticed Theories of Servetus ; a Dissertation addressed to the Medical Society of Stockholm. 8vo., London, 1826.' To his great honour, Dr. Sigmond is the first naturalist in these days who dared to sec Michael Servetus for wliat he was in truth : an accomplished and sin- 540 APPENDIX. cerely pious man, but dififering, to his sorrow, from both Catholics and Protestants on some of the dogmatical assump- tions of their common creeds. The copy of the 'Chris- tianismi Restitutio ' which Dr. Sigmond possessed, as said above, was one of Dr. de Murr's reprints, which had been bequeathed to him by his friend Dr. James Sims, for many years President of the Medical Society of London, a learned man and lover of books, who believed it to be the original — a belief not shared in by Sigmond, however, though he seems to have known nothing of De Murr or his edition. This copy, I think, must be the one which is now in the Library of the British Museum, purchased in 1855, when Sigmond, having lost the property he inherited from his father, seems to have parted with his books, though he only died in 1873. The question touching the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood, which will ever make Servetus an object of interest to the medical profession, and had been in abeyance for some considerable time past, has been brought under re- newed consideration of late, and busts and statues of several learned and meritorious individuals have been inaugurated to their memory as * discoverers of the circulation.' In the porch of the Instituto Antropologico of Madrid, for example, there is a statue raised by Dr. Velasco to the memory of Michael Servetus on this score, and we have but just heard of a bust set up at Rome to Andrea Caesalpino on the same ground. So dis- tinguished a physiologist as Dr. Valentin, moreover, has come forward as an advocate of the claims of another and until now unheard of discoverer of ' the great physiological fact ' in antici- pation of Harvey. In his work entitled, ' Versuch einer physio- logischen Pathologic des Herzens,' Leipzig, 1866, Dr. Valentin will be found saying that ' it must now be conceded that the pulmonary circulation was known to Servetus in 1553 [and he might have added, to Realdus Columbus in 1559], and both this and the general systemic circulation to Ruini, APPENDIX. 541 in 1 598. That the pulmonic or lesser circulation — more pro- perly the passage or mode of transference of the blood from the right to the left side of the heart — was known to Servetus and to both Columbus and Caesalpinus after him, there can be no question ; but I have assured myself, from a careful study of the works of these distinguished individuals, that none of them, least of all Ruini [Dell' Anatomia del Cavallo, Bologna, 1598], was fully or truly informed on the subject. None of them apprehended the circulation of the blood as did Harvey, and as we his followers do in the present day. 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DATE BORROWED DATE DUE DATE BORROWED DATE DUE m 3 J 1964 ca8(2si)iooM R^Sa.See W67 77illis Servetus and Calvin ^ <5 1954^^ -)^ 14 APR 2' 6 m^KHi-Jluf-^ my I IB II hi I ii I Ml