102 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which he was wont to characterize his great Libertine opponent, and 



says : 



" Our comical Caesar (Perrin), having feigned illness for three days, mounted 

 the tribune at length, with a view to aid the ' wicked scoundrel ' to escape pun- 

 ishment. 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." 



The sentence was imparted to Servetns in the early morning of 

 the following day his last. Encouraged by the Libertines, and 

 knowing himself guilty of no intentional blasphemy, he had never 

 thought it possible that he would be condemned to death. He was 

 at first as if struck dumb by the intelligence. He did but groan and 

 sigh, as though his heart would burst, and cry, in his native language, 

 " Misericordia ! " Having by degrees recovered self-possession, he 

 requested to see Calvin. Accompanied by two councilors, Calvin 

 entered the prison and asked what he wanted of him. Servetus had 

 the heroic virtue to ask pardon of him the man who had brought 

 him to his death ! Hard to say : the intolerant despot of Geneva, 

 devoid of all humanity, had not a word of mercy for his victim, when 

 a word of his would have saved him ! 



An hour before noon of October 27, 1553, Servetus was taken from 

 his jail to receive his sentence from my lords the councilors and 

 justices of Geneva. The tribunal, in conformity with custom, assem- 

 bled before the porch of the Hotel-de-Ville, and received 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 coun- 

 try. Item. "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 execrable blas- 

 phemies against the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, the baptism of infants, and 

 other sacred doctrines, the foundation 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 demon or monster having three heads. Item. 

 With having blasphemed horribly, 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 constituent 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, 



