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far to do away with the whole of our Christian religion.' 'God preserve us,' said he, 'from the coming in among us of any such wickedness. such wickedness. Do what you can, then,

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to quit the man of his errors, and with good and wholesome argument win him to the truth.' That have I already done,' said Ecolampady; 'but so haughty, daring and contentious is he, that all I say goes for nothing against him.' 'This is indeed a thing insufferable in the Church of God,' said Zwingli-Ein unleydenliche Sach in der Kyrchen Gottes. Therefore do everything possible that such dreadful blasphemy get no further wind to the detriment of Christianity.'1

Besides the personal communication with Ecolampadius of which we have this interesting notice, Servetus must have written him several letters-unfortunately lost to us-about the same time, for we have two from the Reformer to the Spaniard, which have happily been preserved. In one of these (probably the second that was written), Servetus having, as it seems, complained that he had been somewhat sharply handled by his correspondent, Ecolampadius replies that he, for his part, thinks that he himself has the greater reason to complain. You obtrude yourself on me,' he says, 'as if I had nothing else ado than to answer you; asking me questions about all the foolish things the Sorbonne has said of the Trinity, and even taking it amiss that I do not criticise and in your way oppose myself to those

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Jo. Ecolampadii et Huldrici Zwinglii Epist. Lib. iv. Basil, 1536,

distinguished theologians, Athanasius and Nazianzenus. You contend that the Church has been displaced from its true foundation of faith in Christ, and feign that we speak of his filiation in a sense which detracts from the honour that is due to him as the Son of God. But it is you who speak blasphemously; for I now understand the diabolical subterfuges you use. Forbearing enough in other respects, I own that I am not possessed of that extreme amount of patience which would keep me silent when I see Christ dishonoured.' He then goes on to criticise and rebut Servetus's theological views-his denial of Two natures in the One person of Christ, and his opinion that in the prophetical writings of the Old Testament it is always a prospective or coming Son of God that is indicated. You,' continues Ecolampadius, 'do not admit that it was the Son of God who was to come as man; but that it was the man who came that was the Son of God; language which leads to the conclusion that the Son of God existed not eternally before the incarnation.'

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To satisfy the Reformer, or seeking to get upon a better footing with him, Servetus appears now to have composed and sent him a Confession of Faith, which has come down to us. On the face of this there was such a semblance of orthodoxy that Ecolampadius found nothing at first to object to in its statements; but having conversed with the writer and heard his explanations, he had come to see it as utterly fallacious, misleading, and inadmissible. He concludes by exhorting his

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correspondent to confess the Son to be consubstantial and coeternal with the Father, in which case,' he says, 'we shall be able to acknowledge you for a Christian.'1

1 Op. cit. ut supra.

CHAPTER V.

THE REFORMERS OF STRASBURG-PUBLICATION

WORK ON TRINITARIAN ERROR.

OF THE

The letter of Ecolampadius, as we have it, is without date, but must have been written from Basle at the close of 1530, or the beginning of 1531, and so before the book on Trinitarian Error had been published, as we find no mention made of the work. By this time, however, Servetus must have had the treatise ready for press, for it was now that he put it into the hands of Conrad Koenig or Rous, a publisher, having establishments both at Basle and Strasburg. Koenig was not a printer himself; but accepting the work for publication he sent it to Jo. Secerius, of Hagenau, in Alsace, a well-known typographer of the day, to be put into type. To Hagenau accordingly went the MS., followed by the author to superintend the printing; intending from thence to proceed to Strasburg, where he was anxious to have interviews with the leading Reformers of that city, Martin Bucer and W. F. Capito, and propound to them, as he had done to the Switzers, the new views of Christian doctrine at which he had arrived.

From what we know already we might conclude that he found little more encouragement from the ministers of Strasburg than he had had from those of Basle. Servetus himself, however, appears to have thought otherwise, and left them with the impression that neither of the Strasburgers was so wholly opposed to his views as Ecolampadius in particular had shown himself at Basle. We find him, by and by, in fact, speaking as if he even believed that in the first instance. they were alike disposed to abet rather than condemn his conclusions. And this, from what came out subsequently, seems really to have been the case, in so far, at least, as Capito stands concerned. Capito was, in fact, the most advanced and truly tolerant of all the early Reformers, and if we may rely on the report we have of his opinions from the author of the 'Antitrinitarian Library,' he was really not behind Servetus in his rejection of the orthodox tripartite Deity. A kindly sympathy with a young enthusiast, full of fancies on topics really beyond the reach of demonstration, may have induced Bucer as well as his colleague, Capito, to feel a certain interest in the subject of our study, and so led them both to treat him otherwise than as the irreverent dreamer he had appeared to Ecolampadius; to see him, in a word, as he was in truth-a well-read and piously disposed, albeit in their opinion a more or less mistaken, scholar.

Servetus undoubtedly possessed the character of the enthusiast in perfection, and by natural constitution

1 Sandius, Bibliotheca Antitrinitariorum, 12mo. Freistadt. 1684.

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