no THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



several places in Germany and Italy, he settled down in Strassburg and there 

 published his first treatise, De trinltatis erroribus, in which he recorded the 

 results of his mystical religious speculations. He disapproved of infant 

 baptism and expressed a view of the Trinity which was regarded as Arian. 

 The book evoked a storm of bitter criticism from both Catholic and Protes- 

 tant theologians; Server had to flee from Strassburg and subsequently re- 

 appeared under a different name. In Lyons he found refuge with a physician, 

 who inspired him with a taste for medicine, and in order to continue his 

 studies he moved to Paris and there practised anatomy with Vesalius. At 

 the same time, characteristically enough, he lectured to the students on 

 astrology. His theories of the influence of the heavenly bodies upon the health 

 again brought him into trouble with the theologians and he had to flee from 

 Paris. In the city of Vienne, on the Rhone, he found employment as a phy- 

 sician and spent there a few peaceful and happy years. During that period he 

 recorded the results of his continued theological speculations in a book en- 

 titled Christianismi restitutio. He attempted by correspondence to win over to 

 his views the reformer Calvin, but was rebuffed. When, in spite of this, he 

 dared to publish his book anonymously in Vienne and concluded it with a 

 venomous attack on Calvin, the latter became furious and had the author 

 brought before the Inquisition in Vienne. Server was cast into prison, but 

 managed to escape, and this time sought refuge in Geneva, probably in order 

 to co-operate with the anti-Calvinistic party which was just then planning 

 an attack on the despotic reformer. Calvin, however, was on his guard; 

 Server was arrested and Calvin seized the opportunity offered by the trial of 

 this sectarian, so hated by the whole Christian community, to strengthen his 

 position. Having obtained the consent of several Protestant Church councils, 

 the court at Geneva condemned Server to be burnt at the stake, and the ver- 

 dict was carried out on the xyth October 1553, to the eternal shame of Prot- 

 estantism. Shortly before, the Catholic Inquisition in Vienne had caused 

 Server's portrait to be burnt in the absence of Server himself. Through his 

 death, however. Server won such renown as neither his personality nor his 

 writings in themselves warranted; the Catholics in particular have in latter 

 times honoured his memory, in order to annoy the Calvinists. Statues have 

 been erected to him in both Paris and Madrid. 



Servets investigation of the puhnonary system 

 Servet's principal work,^ On the Restoration of Christianity, is, as its title im- 

 plies, purely theological and discusses from a mystical spiritualistic point 



^ Of the original edition of Servet's Christianismi restitutio there are, as far as we know, 

 only three copies in existence; one in Vienna, one mutilated copy in Paris, and one defective 

 copy in Edinburgh. An attempt to republish the work in England in the seventeen-twenties 

 fell through owing to the opposition of the ecclesiastical authorities. In 1790 a new edition was 

 at last published in Nuremberg; even this edition is somewhat rare. 



