the epoch of his incarnation. Christ, however, he says, was prefigured by the angels who make their appearance from time to time in the Hebrew Scriptures. When persons are spoken of, further, they are to be thought of as images, formalities, not real entities or individuals; so that the three persons he acknowledges in the Godhead are but so many dispensations, modes, or manifestations which the Invisible God makes of himself in creation.

XXIV., XXV. and XXXV. These articles bear upon Servetus's conceptions of the Deity, in whose Oneness of Being he declares that he yet acknowledges not merely three hypostases, as generally said, but a hundred thousand dispositions or dispensations, so that God is part of ourselves, we part of His Spirit; the ideas or patterns of all creatures and of all things having been eternally present in the Divine Mind, though they only acquired form and substance in Creation.

XXVII. and XXIX. Item: That he had said that the soul of man was mortal; that there was nothing immortal in fact, but an elementary breath, the soul having become mortal after Adam's transgression.

He replies by denying the allegations, and declares that he never thought the soul of man to be mortal; all he has said in his writings in connection with the subject of immortality being to the effect that the soul was clothed in corruptible elements which perished, not that the soul itself was mortal or died in its essence.

XXX., XXXI., and XXXIII. Item: That he

had spoken of Infant Baptism as a diabolical invention, competent to destroy the whole of Christianity.

He admits that he has said so, and is still of this opinion; believing as he does that none should be baptized until they had attained to years of discretion. But he adds, that if it be shown him he is mistaken in this, he is ready to submit to correction.

XXXVII. Item: That in his printed book he has made use of scurrilous and blasphemous terms of reproach in speaking of M. Calvin and the Doctrines of the Church of Geneva.

Replies That he himself had had abusive language applied to him by Calvin in public; Calvin having said that he, Servetus, was intoxicated with his opinions; a reproach which had led him to reply in similar terms to his opponent, and to show at the same time from his writings that he was mistaken in many things.

XXXVIII. Item: That knowing his last book would not be suffered, even among the Papists, he had concealed his views from Geroult, the superintendent of the office where it was printed.

Replies: That he corrected the press at Vienne, but did not conceal his views from Geroult, who knew well enough what his opinions were.

August 15. The information taken by the Lieutenant in conformity with the course of procedure required having been communicated to the Syndics

and Council now constituted Judges in a criminal case, and, the Court of Judicature solemnly inaugurated, the prosecutor and prisoner were produced; when Nicolas de la Fontaine made a formal demand that Michael Servetus of Villanova, whom he charged with heresy, should be put upon his trial. He presented an address or petition, at the same time, in which the heads of the charges he proposed to prove against the prisoner were briefly enumerated, namely, the grave scandals and troubles he had caused among Christians for twenty-four years or thereabout; the heresies and blasphemies he had spoken and written against God with which he had infected the world; the wicked calumnies and defamations he had published against the true servants of God, more especially against Monsieur Calvin, whose honour as his Pastor, he-the prosecutor felt bound to uphold if he himself would be accounted a Christian, and also because of the discredit that would attach to the Church of Geneva, did the prisoner go at large, condemning, as he does, and in an especial manner, the doctrine that is there preached. In as much, therefore,' continues Calvin through the mouth of Fontaine, 'as the prisoner on his examination yesterday replied in nowise satisfactorily and simply by yea or nay to the questions put to him, as you must have perceived, the greater number of his answers being mere frivolous songs, may it please your Lordships to compel him to answer formally, without divergence or circumlocution, to each of the articles.

proposed; to the end that he be not suffered to go on mocking God and your Excellencies, and that the proponent be not frustrated in his rights.

'Now the proponent having prima facie made good his allegations and satisfied you that the prisoner has been guilty of writing heresy and dogmatising in the manner alleged, he begs you humbly to recognise the prisoner Michael Servetus as a criminal deserving of prosecution by your attorney-general; and that he, the proponent, be now declared free of all charge, damage, and interest in the business. Not that he shuns or declines to follow up a cause of the kind, which every child of God ought indeed to pursue to the death, but in compliance with the usages of your city, and because it is not for him to undertake duties that belong to another.'

Having taken this petition into consideration, and determined that there was prima facie evidence of criminality on the part of the prisoner, the Council proceeded in the afternoon of the same day to the old Episcopal Palace, now turned into the Court in which criminal causes were tried, and commenced proceedings according to the forms in such cases used and provided.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TRIAL IN ITS FIRST PHASE.

FORMALLY installed in the Court of Criminal Judicature, Nicolas de la Fontaine and Michael Servetus were ordered to be brought before them by the Judges; and the prosecutor declaring that he persisted in his allegations, and the prisoner being put on his oath to speak the truth under penalties to the extent of 60 sols, the Trial commenced.

To the question as to his name and condition, the prisoner replied that his name was Michael Serveto, of Villanova, in the kingdom of Aragon, in Spain, and that by profession he was a physician. The articles of impeachment already produced were then restated seriatim, and to each he was required to answer categorically. This he did, and generally in the terms he had used in his preliminary examination, but accusing Calvin, and Calvin alone, more imperatively than before, of having provoked his arrest and prosecution at Vienne, adding that had Calvin had his way, he the prisoner-would assuredly have been burned alive. To all that had reference to the Doctrine of the Trinity, the Nature of Christ, the relations