SKETCH OF MICHAEL SEE VET US. 



99 



printed books made use of scurrilous and blaspliemous terms of re- 

 proach in speaking of Monsieur John Calvin and his doctrines." 



Servetus's reply in his preliminary interrogatory was : that he was 

 not conscious of having caused any trouble to the churches of Ger- 

 many, and defied any one to prove it; that he was unaware that the 

 book he owned to have had printed at Hagenau had produced any 

 evil ; that it was true he had commented on the above-mentioned 

 books, but he had said nothing in them that was not the truth ; 

 and in the book lately printed he did not believe that he blasphemed, 

 but if it were shown that he had said anything amiss, he was ready 

 to amend it ; that in the book he wrote on the Trinity he had fol- 

 lowed the teaching of the doctors who lived immediately after Christ 

 and the apostles ; that previous to the Council of Nicrea no doctor of 

 the Church had used the word Trinity ; that his strong language 

 against the Trinity, as apprehended by the modern doctors, was sug- 

 gested by the belief that the unity of God was by them denied or an- 

 nulled; that as regards infant baptism it was his belief that none 

 should be baptized who had not attained the years of discretion ; but 

 he added, as ever, that if he were shown to be mistaken, he was ready 

 to submit to correction ; that Calvin had no right to complain of the 

 respondent's abusive language, as he had been himself publicly abused 

 by Calvin : he had but retaliated, and shown him from his writings 

 that he was mistaken in many things. 



On August loth the council was formally installed as a court of 

 criminal judicature, and the trial commenced ; the answers of the 

 prisoner to the articles being generally in the terms of his previous 

 examination. The court closed the meeting with making good a 

 petition of Nicolas La Fontaine to be discharged from prison, Servetus 

 himself having giveu sufficient prima-facie evidence of his guilt. Bail 

 was, however, required ; and this was immediately forthcoming in the 

 person of Monsieur Antoine Calvin, brother of the Reformer. The 

 chef de cuisine was discharged, while Servetus was remanded to jail. 

 About this time, in a letter to his bosom friend Farel, after relating 

 the events of Servetus's arrest and of the proceedings against him, 

 Calvin wrote, " I hope the sentence will be capital at least." 



It would be most interesting to follow this unprecedented sham- 

 trial in all its details, as Dr. Willis has done ; but want of space limits 

 us to mere outlines of it. The party of free thought, or Libertines, 

 showing sympathy for the prisoner, the trial assumed the character of 

 a struggle between the two factions in Geneva. It was necessary for 

 Calvin to nip in the bud the new growth of rebellion against his 

 authority; and, throwing aside disguise, he now came forward aa 

 prosecutor of Servetus. The Spaniard's opinions differed so obviously 

 from all they had ever been led to believe, that it was easy for Calvin 

 to satisfy the majority of the judges of Servetus's culpability on theo- 

 logical ^rounds. It seems, however, that a feeling in favor of the 



