MICHAEL SERVETUS. 527 



lodged at the Rose Inn, intending to go by boat to Lausanne on 

 his way to Zurich. Calvin, however, learned that he was in the 

 town, and he immediately informed the first syndic, and caused 

 him to be apprehended; and here he was kept while proceed- 

 ings were being taken against him, from August 14th to Octo- 

 ber 27th. 



The people of Geneva, in the year 1553, were, and had been for 

 several years, divided into two hostile parties, struggling desper- 

 ately with each other for the supremacy. The austerity and 

 tyranny of Calvin had aroused against him many opponents, and 

 it seemed now as if these were on the point of attaining the ends 

 for which they had been so long striving. Calvin's earliest 

 attempts at ruling the Genevese had soon met with failure. He 

 had first settled in Geneva in 1536, but so unpopular had he 

 become in two years that he and his colleague, Farel, were for- 

 mally banished from the city. Passing from Basle to Strasburg, he 

 had taken up his residence in the latter city as Professor of The- 

 ology. But after two years, in response to a deputation which 

 came and besought his return to Geneva, he consented to go* back, 

 and in September, 1541, he took up his old position under greater 

 advantages than before. He then laid before the Council the 

 draft of his ordinances respecting church discipline, and these 

 were at once accepted. A consistory was formed, composed for 

 the most part of clergymen, with the addition of a few laymen, 

 " to watch over the support of the pure doctrine and of morals." 

 The tribunal called everybody, without exception, to account for 

 his slightest words or actions, and referred cases, where ecclesi- 

 astical censure was not sufficient, to the Council. Thus Calvin 

 had made himself director of the conduct as well as of the opinion 

 of the Genevese. His spirit governed exclusively in the Council 

 as in the Consistory, and no one could hope to succeed who set 

 himself in opposition to Calvin. 



Twelve years of such bondage, however, had not been borne 

 by the Genevese without indication of discontent and dissatisfac- 

 tion. The Council declared that clergymen could no 16nger be 

 admitted to its meetings, although they had not been previously 

 excluded; men who were under the consistorial ban for some 

 infringement of discipline were chosen as councilors, and even 

 open hostility was shown to Calvin, who wrote : " The accumu- 

 lated rancor of their hearts breaks out from time to time ; so that 

 when I show myself in the street, the curs are hounded on me." 



To the great misfortune of Servetus it was at such a time as 

 this that he arrived in Geneva. His case became the subject of 

 dispute over which the two factions fought one of their bitterest 

 struggles ; and although Calvin had declared some years before 

 that if the Spaniard ever came to that city he should not escape 



