50 SERVETUS AND CALVIN. 



part, and a still greater one is it to have kept me locked up here without being 

 able to point out a single passage against me. My lords, I had also asked 

 you to allow me a counsel, or a lawyer, as you allowed one to the adverse 

 party, who does not stand so much in need of them as I do/ who am a 

 stranger, ignorant of the customs of this country. You have, however, 

 favoured him, to me you have granted no favour, and have let him go out of 

 prison without examining him. I request that my cause may be placed be- 

 fore the council of the two hundred, as well as my petitions. And if I am 

 allowed to appeal to it, I do appeal, protesting against my first accuser, as 

 well as Calvin, his master, who has espoused his cause, and that they be con- 

 demned to all the costs of the suits and to the pcena talionis. 



Written in your prison of Geneva, the 15th September 1553. Michael 

 Servetus, in his own defence." 



LETTER II. 



MOST HONOURED LORDS, I am kept in prison, and criminally accused by 

 Jehan Calvin who falsely states that I have written : First, That souls are 

 mortal; and also secondly, That Jesus Christ had only received from the Vir- 

 gin Mary the fourth part of her body. These are horrid and execrable accu- 

 sations. In every other heresy, or any other crime, there can be nothing so 

 wicked as to say that the soul is mortal. For in every other heresy there 

 may be hopes of salvation, but not in this case. He who asserts this, 

 neither believes in God nor in justice, nor in the resurrection, nor in Jesus 

 Christ, nor in the Holy Scriptures, nor in any thing, so that I am not only 

 made to say, but to write, that when a man dies, he is like the beast who dies 

 for ever. Now if I had said or written publicly such a thing, I would con- 

 demn myself to death. 



I therefore, my lords, demand that my false accuser be punished p&na ta- 

 lionis, and be committed to prison like myself, until the trial takes place, 

 which may either sentence him or me to death ; and to carry this into effect, 

 I require that the pana talionis be applied to him. I shall be satisfied to die 

 if I do not cause him to be found guilty, not only of this, but of other crimes 

 which I shall bring against him. I ask justice of you my lords, justice, justice, 

 justice! Done in y/nir prison of Geneva, the twenty-second Sept. 1553. 

 Michael Servetus, in his own defence." 



LETTER III. 



" MAGNIFICENT LORDS, It is now three weeks since I asked for an au- 

 dience and have not yet been able to obtain one. I entreat of you, for the 

 love of Jesus Christ, not to refuse me the justice you would not refuse a Turk. 

 I have to inform you of important and necessary circumstances. 



As to the orders you gave that I should have certain articles to keep 

 me clean, no attention has been paid to them, and I am worse off than ever. 

 And, moreover, the cold makes me suffer most cruelly, in consequence of my 

 colic and rupture, both of which produce other afflictions which I am ashamed 

 to write about. It is a cruelty that I am not permitted to speak of those things 

 which I stand so much in need of. For the love of God, my lords, give 

 orders to that effect, either through pity or duty. Done in your prison of 

 Geneva, the tenth October 1553. Michael Servetus." 



