ever placed at the end. Calvin was in possession of the secret that Servetus was the writer of this obnoxious book, a copy of it having been forwarded to him by the author. By means of a young man named William Trie, a native of Lyons, then residing at Geneva in consequence of having embraced the reformed religion, he procured some sheets of it to be conveyed to France, and put into the hands of the inquisitor at Lyons, with an intimation that the author was in his neighbourhood. He afterwards sent several of the letters which, in the course of a confidential correspondence, he had received from Servetús, in order to furnish additional evidence to convict him of heresy and blasphemy. On the ground of these documents Servetus was arrested at Vienne, and committed to prison; whence, however, he soon effected his escape. After his flight he was tried, con

victed, and sentenced to the stake; his books were committed to the flames, and himself burnt in effigy.

Servetus escaped early in the month of June 1553. His intention was to proceed to Naples; and with this view, after wandering for some time, he went to Geneva, where he was recognised in the month of August, and at the instigation of Calvin committed to prison. Various attempts have been made by the apologists of the Reformer to remove from him the foul stigma of being the author of his adversary's arrest; but, in truth, Calvin himself never denied or disguised the fact. On the contrary, he expressly avows it in more than one of his printed works, and takes credit to himself for having thus acted towards a man whose

principles

principles he held in abhorrence, and whom, on more than one occasion, he thought fit to brand with the opprobrious epithet of DOG*.

Servetus, on being taken into custody, was deprived of the property he had about him, which was of considerable amount, and thrown, like a common malefactor, into a damp, squalid, and noisome dungeon. Proceedings were immediately instituted against him for his alleged blasphemies. The accusations were preferred by Nicholas de la Fontaine, a person residing in Calvin's house, either in a menial situation, or for the benefit of his instruction; but the real prosecutor, as was manifested in the course of the trial, was the Reformer himself. Servetus repelled

* Calvin, in his work Fidel. Expos. Serveti Errorum, thus avows the part he acted in this transaction: Quidquid in senatu nostro actum est, mihi passim adscribitur. Nec sane dissimulo, mea opera consilioque jure in carcerem fuisse conjectum. Quia recepto civitatis hujus jure, criminis reum peragere oportuit : causam huc usque me esse prosecutum, fateor. "All the proceedings of our senate are ascribed to me : and indeed I do not dissemble that he (Servetus) was thrown into prison through my interference and advice. As it was necessary according to the laws of the state that he should be charged with some crime, I admit that I was thus far the author of the transaction." Writing to Sultzerus, he observes, "When at last he was driven here by his evil destiny, one of the syndics, at my instigation, ordered him to be committed to prison: for I do not dissemble that I deemed it my duty to restrain as much as lay in my power a man who was worse than obstinate and ungovernable, lest the infection should spread more widely." Tandem huc malis auspiciis appulsum, unus ex syndicis, ME AUCTORE, in carcerem duci jussit. Neque enim dissimulo, quin officii mei duxerim, hominem plusquam obstinatum et indomitum quoad in me erat compescere, ne longius manaret contagio. Allwoerden, ubi supra, pp. 61, 62. Bock, tom. ii. p. 360.

the

the whole of the charges with great firmness, and openly avowed himself the author of the writings that were stated to contain the heretical opinions for which he was arraigned. His trial proved exceedingly tedious and vexatious, and lasted from the 14th of August to the 26th of October, when, a majority of his judges having decided against him, he was condemned to be burnt to death by a slow fire.

If Servetus cannot be commended for the temper with which he sometimes replied to his accuser, it is impossible to view without feelings of disgust, mingled with deep concern, the manner in which Calvin acted during the whole of these iniquitous proceedings; and particularly to observe the savage tone of exultation with which, immediately after his conviction, he stated to a friend the effects produced upon his victim by the communication of his sentence. "But lest idle scoundrels should glory in the insane obstinacy of the man, as in a martyrdom, there appeared in his death a beastly stupidity; whence it might be concluded, that on the subject of religion he never was in earnest. When the sentence of death had been passed upon him he stood fixed now as one astounded; now he sighed deeply; and now he howled like a maniac ; and at length he just gained strength enough to bellow out after the Spanish manner, Misericordia! Misericordia!"* The truth, however, is, that Servetus bore

his

*Ceterum ne male feriati nebulones, vecordi hominis pervicacia, quasi martyrio glorientur in ejus morte apparuit belluina stupiditas, unde judicium facere liceret, nihil unquam serio in religione ipsum egisse. Ex quo mors ei denunciata est, nunc at

his fate at this trying season with great firmness and serenity, disturbed indeed, occasionally, by the view of the terrific apparatus which was preparing for his execution. He never wavered in his religious faith. When exhorted on the last morning by Farell, the minister of Neufchatel, and the friend of Calvin, who was appointed to attend him, to return to the doctrine of the Trinity, he calmly requested his monitor to convince him by one plain passage of Scripture, that Christ was called the Son of God before his birth of Mary.

The day following that whereon sentence had been passed upon him he was led to the stake, praying, "O God, save my soul; O thou Son of the Eternal God, have mercy on me." In order to aggravate his sufferings he was surrounded by green faggots, which, after half an hour of excruciating tortures, completed the work of death. In the same fire was burnt, attached to his body, his last book, Christianismi Restitutio. Thus perished Servetus at the age of forty

four,

tonito similis hærere, nunc alta suspiria edere, nunc instar lymphatici ejulare. Quod postremum tandem sic invaluit, ut tantum Hispanico more reboaret, Misericordia, Misericordia! Allwoerden, ubi supra, p. 113. Bock, tom. ii. p. 371.

* Bock (Hist. Antitrin. tom. ii. p. 376,) has extracted from another author the following interesting particulars of the execution of Servetus. Ita ductus est ad struem lignorum, fasciculis quernis viridibus, adhuc frondosis, admixtis lignis taleis constructam. Impositus est Servetus, trunco ad terram posito, pedibus ad terram pertingentibus. Capiti imposita est corona, vel straminca, vel frondea, eaque sulphure conspersa: corpus palo alligatum ferrea catena, collum autem fune crasso quadruplici aut quintuplici laxo, liber femori alligatus. Ipse carnificem roguvit, ne se diu torqueret. Interea carnifex ignem in ejus conspectum, et deinde in orbem admovit: Servetus viso igne horren¬

dum

four, in a PROTESTANT state, for exercising that right of private judgement in the formation of his religious opinions, which his persecutors had themselves acted upon in dissenting from the Church of Rome!

The intolerant spirit displayed by the Reformers, both in Germany and Switzerland, towards those who went beyond themselves in the freedom of their inquiries, and avowed or embraced sentiments in any respect different from their own, especially in relation to the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, rendered it necessary for all persons who came under this description, and were unwilling to conceal or abandon their principles, to seek a safer asylum in some other country. The state of Poland at this period, the freedom of its constitution, and the tolerant spirit of the reigning sovereign, Sigismund the Second, who had permitted the open profession in his dominions of the Reformed religion of the schools both of Wittemberg and Geneva, naturally directed their views to. that quarter. Among the persons who first emigrated

dum exclamavit, et universum populum perterrefecerit. Cum diu langueret, accesserunt ex populo, qui fasciculos confertim in eum conjecerunt. Ipse horrenda voce clamans, Jesu, Fili Dei, miserere mei, post dimidiæ circiter horæ cruciatum exustulatus et fumo suffocatus, animam exspiravit. It is asserted by some, and the circumstance derives great probability from the rest of his conduct in this business, that when Calvin beheld Servetus led out to execution, he laughed immoderately, and was, obliged to conceal his face in his mantle. Bock, vol. ii. p. 377. Allwoerden, p.121, note. There is a very valuable memoir of Servetus, grounded chiefly on Bock's materials, inserted in the fifth volume of the "Monthly Repository of Theology and general Literature," a work which periodically conveys to the public a rich store of interesting and important materials.