5 z8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



with his life,* yet probably the relentless Reformer was now bent 

 on his destruction quite as much by a desire to defeat the opposite 

 party as by the personal hatred he had for Servetus. 



The nominal prosecutor of Servetus was a creature of Calvin's 

 a certain Nicolas de la Fontaine who, in accordance with the 

 law, had not only to bind himself over to continue the suit to a 

 conclusion, but also to go to prison with the accused man, and, in 

 compliance with the requirements of the lex talionis, to engage, 

 in case his charges were not made good, to undergo the penalty 

 that would have fallen on the accused had they been established. 



Thirty-eight articles of impeachment were advanced against 

 Servetus. One of these was that he had defamed Mr. Calvin and 

 the doctrine that he preached. To this Servetus replied that he 

 had had abusive language from Calvin, and that he had only 

 answered in the same terms. La Fontaine produced Ptolemy's 

 Geography, the annotated Bible, the Christianismi Eestitutio, and 

 certain MS. letters, and Servetus admitted that he was the author 

 of all. It having been considered now that sufficient evidence 

 had been furnished to warrant prosecution by the attorney-gen- 

 eral, the court relieved La Fontaine of all charge, damage, and 

 interest in the matter, and Servetus was committed for trial. 



At the trial, passages from Ptolemy's Geography as to the 

 character of Palestine were adduced as proofs of the heretical 

 opinions of the prisoner, and when the latter added that the notes 

 contained nothing harmful, or that was not true, Calvin himself 

 warmly interposed. And writing afterward about the event, he 

 says : " When Servetus stood so plainly convicted of this his im- 

 piety he had nothing to allege in his vindication. The filthy cur, 

 laying aside all shame, asserted in one word that there was no 

 harm in it." 



The annotations of the Pagnini Bible were produced again, and 

 Servetus was examined as to his method of interpreting pro- 

 phetical passages, and then the meaning of certain extracts from 

 the Christianismi Restitutio was inquired into, and a letter from 

 Servetus, written about six years before to Abel Pepin, a preacher 

 at Geneva, was put in. It contained two remarkable passages : 

 " It is perhaps far from agreeable to you that I should concern 

 myself with Michael's war in the Apocalypse, or that I should 

 desire to bring you into the strife. But do so much as consider 

 that passage narrowly, and you will soon perceive who the men 

 were to be who would engage in that quarrel, namely, such as 

 were resolved to expose their lives to death for the blood and the 

 testimony of Jesus Christ. . . . That I must die for the cause I 

 have espoused I certainly know ; but I am not at all cast down 



* In a letter from Calvin to Farel, dated Ides of February, 1546. Now in Paris Library. 



