415 



SERVETUS, MICHAEL. 



SERVETUS, MICHAEL. 



416 



SERVETUS, MICHAEL (whose family name was Reves), was born 

 at Villanueva in Aragon, in the year 1509. He was the son of a 

 notary, who sent him while young to the university of Toulouse in 

 order to study the law, instead of which however he appears to have 

 devoted hia attention principally to theology during the three years 

 which he spent in that city. 



In his twenty-first year he quitted Toulouse, and journeying into 

 Italy in the suite of Quintana, confessor to the Emperor Charles V., 

 was present at the coronation of that monarch at Bologna, in Febru- 

 ary 1530. The death of Quintana soon left him at liberty to travel 

 into Switzerland and Germany, where he became acquainted with 

 mauy of the reformers. In the course of 1530 he took up his resi- 

 dence at Basel, and there he first broached those opinions which after- 

 wards drew down upon him the persecution of Calvin. He probably 

 met with few persons who were disposed to embrace his notions, for, 

 in the course of the same year, or early in 1531, he left Basel and 

 went to Strasbourg. His stay in Strasbourg however was short, since 

 he lived at Haguenau in Alsace during the printing of his treatise on 

 the doctrine of the Trinity. This, his first work, was published by 

 a bookseller of Basel in 1531, but the opinions which it contained 

 were so contrary to those usually received, that the man feared to 

 print it at Basel, and procured its publication at Haguenau, the name 

 of which place appears on the title-page. In the following year Ser- 

 vetus wrote a second treatise, in the form of dialogues, on the same 

 subject ; in which he corrected some errors in his former work, but 

 without retracting any of the opinions. 



"We are unacquainted with the exact time when Servetus quitted 

 Haguenau, but we next find him at Lyon, where he remained three 

 years, occupying himself principally with the study of medicine. It 

 is probable that during this time he supported himself by correcting 

 the press, and by other literary labours, among which was the publi- 

 cation of an improved edition of Pirkheimer's translation of Ptolemy's 

 Geography, which appeared in the year 1535. On leaving Lyon he 

 visited Paris, where he took the degree of M.A., and afterwards of 

 Doctor of Medicine. He was likewise admitted a professor of the 

 university, and delivered lectures on the mathematics. He was in 

 Paris in 1537, in which year he published an essay on syrups, the only 

 medical work that he wrote, but his ungovernable temper involved 

 him in disputes with the medical faculty, which compelled him to 

 leave the city. It is most likely that he again returned to Lyon, for 

 in 1540 we find mention of him as practising medicine, in the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood, at the village of Charlieu. His attempt to 

 obtain practice there seems to have been unsuccessful, and taking up 

 his abode once more in Lyon, he supported himself by correcting the 

 press for the Frellons-, the printers. He likewise superintended a new 

 edition of the Bible, which was published in 1542, and the notes which 

 he added afforded materials to strengthen the charge of heresy after- 

 wards brought against him. 



In the year 1543 Pierre Palmier, archbishop of Vienne in Dauphine", 

 meeting with Servetus at Lyon, induced him to return with him to his 

 see. Servetus devoted himself to the practice of medicine in this place, 

 where he remained until his trial for heresy ten years afterwards. 

 Theology however was still a favourite pursuit with him, and for many 

 years he carried on a controversial correspondence with Calvin, in the 

 course of which he sent him a portion of a manuscript containing many 

 of the opinions which subsequently appeared in his ' Christianismi 

 Restitutio.' Their private correspondence, never very friendly, dege- 

 nerated by degrees into quarrelling, and at length into scurrility ; and 

 Servetus having replied to a violent letter of Calvin concerning his 

 own opinions, by sending a list of what he called errors and absurdities 

 in Calvin's 'Institutes,' the latter angrily broke off all communication 

 with him. In the same year, 1546, Calvin wrote to Farel and Viret, 

 saying that, if ever Servetus came to Geneva, he would take care that 

 he should not escape in safety. He is stated by Bolsec even to have 

 denounced Servetus to Cardinal Tournon as a heretic, and the same 

 authority adds that the cardinal laughed heartily at one heretic accusing 

 another. 



Servetus, in a letter to one of his friends, had expressed the pre- 

 sentiment that he should suffer death for his opinions ; and he did not 

 publish the ' Christianismi Restitutio ' without taking every precaution 

 to conceal the fact of his being the author. He had endeavoured to 

 get the work published at Basel, but no bookseller would undertake 

 the dangerous engagement ; and he eventually had it printed at Vienne 

 in 1553, but without his own name or .that of the printer, or even the 

 date or name of the place. 



The work caused a great sensation ; but the author would have 

 remained unknown, had not Calviu recognised in the etyle, and in the 

 abuse of himself, the hand of Servetus. He immediately procured one 

 William Trie, a citizen of Lyou, but a recent convert to the reformed 

 religion, and then resident at Geneva, to write letters to the authorities 

 of the former city, containing many serious imputations against 

 Servetus, and charging him with having written the ' Christiauismi 

 Restitutio.' The Archbishop of Lyon, Cardinal Tournon, whose 

 diocese, from its proximity to Geneva, was peculiarly exposed to the 

 influence of heresy, no sooner received this intelligence than he wrote 

 to the governor-general of Dauphine", acquainting him with what he 

 had heard concerning Servetus. In consequence of the suspicion thus 

 thrown upon him, Servetus was arrested and imprisoned; but he would 



in all probability have been acquitted for want of evidence against him, 

 had not Calvin, through the medium of Trie, forwarded to the Inqui- 

 sition at Vienne a portion of manuscript and several private letters 

 which he had received from Servetus. By some writers, who would 

 extenuate the guilt of the reformer, it has been doubted or denied that 

 these letters were produced on the trial ; but in the condemnation of 

 Servetus by the Inquisition of Vienne, " letters and writings addressed 

 to Mr. J. Calvin" are especially mentioned. 



Servetus escaped from prison, where he had not been strictly 

 guarded, but was burnt in effigy at Vienne on June 17, 1553. He 

 fled to Geneva, in which town he kept himself closely concealed, but 

 was arrested, through Calvin's influence, on the day before that on 

 which he was about to start for Zurich on his way to Italy. He was 

 arrested contrary to law, the city of Geneva having no authority over 

 him, who was merely journeying through it : when in prison he was 

 treated with the greatest cruelty, and he was denied the assistance of 

 counsel. His private papers, and a volume of Calvin's ' Institutes,' in 

 which he had made some notes with his own hand, were brought in 

 evidence against him. Calvin's own servant, one La Fontaine, appeared 

 as the accuser, Calvin not caring to submit to the ' lex taliouis ' of 

 Geneva, which imprisoned the accuser as well as the accused ; though, 

 in direct opposition to this law, La Fontaine was released after being 

 only one day in prison. Servetus was brought to trial on August 14, 

 1553 ; and on that day, and on several days following, he was examined 

 publicly before his judges. Calvin drew up the articles of accusation, 

 in which the calumnies against himself are alleged as part of the crime 

 of Servetus ; and further, he reserved to himself the office of disputant 

 upon theological subjects with the prisoner. Many of the charges 

 against him were frivolous and vexatious in the extreme, but it is 

 certain that he did not anticipate so severe a sentence as was passed 

 upon him ; for when, on August 26, the vice-bailiff of Vienne, having 

 come to Geneva, requested that Servetus might be given up to him in 

 order to undergo the sentence passed upon him by the Inquisition, 

 he threw himself at the feet of his judges, begging that they would 

 rather try him, and pass on him whatever sentence they might 

 think fit. 



On September 1 Servetus was called before his judges, and ordered 

 to be ready to reply in writing to a set of written charges which Calvin 

 was instructed to draw up. On September 15 he wrote a touching 

 letter, complaining of the harsh treatment he had undergone, begging 

 that his case might speedily be decided, since he had been already 

 detained five weeks in prison, and appealing from the private hatred 

 of Calvin to the decision of the council of two hundred. This appeal 

 however was rejected, and Servetus was furnished with a copy of the 

 charges against him drawn up by Calvin. To these he sent in a brief 

 written answer, and it does not appear that after September 15 ho 

 defended himself in open court, where he was much inferior to Calvin 

 as a disputant. Calvin's refutation of Servetus's reply greatly exaspe- 

 rated him ; he did not attempt any regular answer to it, but contented 

 himself with adding a few notes in the margin grossly abusive of 

 Calvin. 



It was now secretly determined in the council of Geneva to put 

 Servetus to death : but the matter being one of great importance, and 

 Servetus having appealed to the judgment of others,, it was thought 

 advisable to send copies of his works and of the evidence against him 

 to the clergy of the four Protestant cantons of Zurich, Basel, Berne, 

 and Schaff havisen, and to ask their opinion concerning his guilt. These 

 letters were despatched about the end of September : the reply from 

 Zurich was received on October 2 ; that from Basel and from Schaff- 

 hausen on October 18 ; and the date of the arrival of the answer from 

 Berne is not stated. They all concurred in condemning the writings 

 of Servetus, but did not recommend that the author should be put to 

 death, though Calvin chose to put that construction on their replies. 

 As soon as these answers had arrived the council was once more con- 

 vened, and sentenced Servetus to be burned to death by a slow fire. 

 Servetus had one friend in the council, Amadaeus Gorrius by name, 

 who in vain endeavoured to obtain a pardon for him, or at least that 

 his case should be brought before the council of two hundred ; but 

 the violence of Calvin and his party prevailed. Calvin however did 

 attempt to obtain for him the favour of a less painful death, though 

 without success. Accordingly, on October 27, 1553, Servetus was 

 brought to the stake, and his sufferings are stated to have beeu 

 unusually severe and protracted. No act of barbarity perpetrated by 

 the Roman Catholics ever surpassed the burning of Servetus, in which 

 Calvin appears to have been actuated by private hatred almost as much 

 as by religious fanaticism, and in which he filled all the parts of 

 informer, prosecutor, and judge. 



The works of Servetus have had an adventitious value imparted to 

 them by their extreme rarity. With the exception of the short essay 

 on 'Syrups,' published while Servetus was at Paris, they are theolo- 

 gical and metaphysical treatises on the most abstruse subjects, such 

 as the doctrine of the Trinity. Mr. Hallam is of opinion that the 

 notions of Servetus concerning the Trinity were not Arian, but rather 

 what are called Sabellian. The ' Christianismi Restitutio ' contains a 

 passage which has led some to say that Servetus well nigh discovered 

 the circulation of the blood, and that consequently the merits of our 

 illustrious countryman Harvey are small. Such however is by no 

 means the case. Servetus knew that the septum of the heart is not 



