MICHAEL SERVETUS. 523 



of looking first for the historical and literal meaning is the 

 method of the modern school of scriptural exegesis. 



The book which immediately brought about the imprisonment 

 and death of Servetus was called Christianismi Restitutio the 

 Restoration of Christianity. It contained, besides a series of 

 chapters setting forth the various theological tenets of the au- 

 thor, thirty letters addressed to Calvin. The views of the writer, 

 although fantastical, and in many instances unintelligible, often 

 exhibit a broad and tolerant spirit, and always breathe intense 

 earnestness. He appears to have felt himself impelled to propa- 

 gate his opinions on these theological matters, and to have come 

 to regard this as his mission in life, which must be fulfilled at 

 any risk. So much, at least, is clear from the invocation to Christ, 

 with which he closes his introduction. "Thou hast taught us 

 that the light is not to be hidden, so woe to me unless I evangel- 

 ize." * He seems even to have thought that he had his vocation 

 shadowed out to him in his name. The angel 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 ! 



This book is now one of the rarest in the world. Two copies 

 only are known to be extant one at Paris and another at 

 Vienna. A copy of the latter, printed in 1790, is in the British 

 Museum. 



In this work, while writing on the Trinity (Book V), Servetus 

 introduces certain physiological statements in order to illustrate 

 some of his theological speculations. The passage, although lost 

 to the world for nearly a century and a half, has long ago become 

 famous. It was first brought to light in Wotton's Reflections 

 upon Ancient and Modern Learning, published in London in 1694. 

 It proves that the knowledge which Servetus possessed of the way 

 by which the blood passed from the right to the left side of the 

 heart was in advance of his time, and a step beyond that reached 

 by Galen. The latter had taught that the blood, for the most 

 part, passed through the septum, from one side of the heart to the 

 other. Servetus wrote : " This communication " (i. e., from the 

 right ventricle of the heart to the left) "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 color. Mingled 

 with the inspired air in this passage, and freed from fuliginous 



* " Lucemam non esse abscondendam, tu nos docuisti, ut vse mihi sit nisi evangelizem." 

 Christ. Restit., p. 2. 



