CHAPTER XVI.

SERVETUS AGAIN ADDRESSES THE SYNDICS AND
COUNCIL OF GENEVA, AND ACCUSES CALVIN.

IF Calvin, then, as we apprehend, had every reason to anticipate an answer in his favour from the Churches, so do we find Servetus possessed by the assured hope that he would be acquitted, or, at most, be found guilty of nothing involving a heavier penalty than banishment from the Republic of Geneva. Of heresy he did not think for a moment he had been more guilty than every one of the Reformers whom he had been accustomed to hear spoken of in the polite circles of Vienne not only as schismatics, but as heretics of the deepest dye. If his 'Restoration of Christianity' had been burned by the hangman of Vienne, had not Calvin's 'Institutions of the Christian Religion' been summarily condemned by the whole Catholic world, and put on the Index of prohibited books by the Roman Curia? So sure does Servetus appear to have felt of final acquittal at this time-guiltless of blasphemy as in his soul he knew himself to be, and bolstered by the

false hopes of his false friends, that whilst the scales of justice were still trembling on the beam, he, from his filthy cell, in rags, and devoured by vermin, even he aspired to become the accuser of the man by whom he was himself accused, and subjected to all the indignities he endured! It could only have been under the excitement of some such persuasion that he now wrote the following extraordinary letter to the Council :—

To the Syndics and Council of Geneva.

My most honoured Lords, I am detained on a criminal charge at the instance of John Calvin, who has accused me, falsely saying that in my writings I maintain

Ist. That the soul of man is mortal, and

2nd. That Jesus Christ had only taken the fourth part of his body from the Virgin Mary.

These are horrible, execrable charges. Of all heresies and crimes, I think of none greater than that which would make the soul of man to be mortal. In every other there is hope of salvation, but none in this. He who should say what I am charged with saying, neither believes in God nor justice, in the resurrection, in Christ Jesus, in the Scriptures, nor, indeed, in anything, but declares that all is death, and that man and beast are alike. Had I said anything of the kind-said it not in words only, but written and published it, I should myself think me worthy of death.

Wherefore, my Lords, I demand that my false accuser be declared subject to the law of retaliation, and like me be sent to prison until the cause between him and me, for death or

other penalty, is decided. To this effect I here engage myself against him, submit myself to all that the Lex Talionis requires, and declare that I shall be content to die if I am

not borne out in everything I shall bring against him. My Lords, I demand of you, justice, justice, justice !

From your prison of Geneva, this 22nd of September,

1553

MICHAEL SERVETUS,

pleading his own cause.

The letter was followed by a series of articles in form like those lately brought against himself, headed—

Articles on which Michael Servetus demands that John Calvin be interrogated.

I. Whether in the month of March last he did not write, by the hand of William Trie, to Lyons, and say many things about Michael Villanovanus called Servetus? What were the contents of the letter, and with what motive was it sent?

II. Whether with the letter in question he sent half of the first sheet of the book of the said Michael Servetus, entitled 'Christianismi Restitutio,' on which were the Title, the Table of Contents, and the beginning of the work?

III. Whether this was not sent with a view to its being shown to the authorities of Lyons, in order to have Servetus arrested and impeached, as happened in fact?

IV. Whether he has not heard since then that in consequence of the charges thereby brought against him, he, the said Servetus, had been burned in effigy, and his property confiscated; he himself having only escaped burning in person by escaping from prison ?

V. Whether he does not know that it is no business of a minister of the gospel to appear as a criminal accuser and pursuer of a man judicially on a capital charge?

My Lords, there are four great and notable reasons why Calvin ought to be condemned :

First: Because doctrinal matters are

no subjects for

criminal prosecutions, as I have shown in my petition, and will show more fully from the Doctors of the Church. Acting as he has done, he has therefore gone beyond the province of a minister of the Gospel, and gravely sinned against justice.

Second: Because he is a false accuser, as the above articles declare, and as is easily proved by reading my book.

Third: Because by frivolous reasons and calumnious assertions he would suppress the Truth as it is in Jesus Christ, as will be made obvious to you, by reference to my writings; what he has said of me, being full of lies and wickedness.

Fourth: Because he follows the doctrine of Simon Magus, in great part, against all the Doctors of the Church. Wherefore, magician as he is, he deserves not only to be condemned, but to be banished and cast out of your city, his goods being adjudged to me in recompense for mine which he has made me to lose. These, my Lords, are the demands I make.

MICHAEL SERVETUS,
in his own cause.

Although we have only conjecture to aid us in understanding the temper that now shows itself in Servetus, and the hope he evidently entertains of triumphing over his prosecutor, we cannot be mistaken in ascribing it to the influence of Perrin and Berthelier. They must have imagined that the same result would en sue from the appeal to the Churches as had followed the reference made to them in the case of Jerome Bolsec, and believed that the worst that would befal their puppet would be banishment from the city and territory of Geneva. If they could but cross and spite the refugee Frenchman, their clerical tyrant, through the

fugitive Spaniard, their end would be attained, although at the cost, perhaps, of a certain amount of inconvenience to their instrument. The conclusion of Servetus's last address to the Council shows clearly the opinion he had been led to form of Calvin's present position in Geneva. As the magician he is,' says Servetus, 'he ought to be condemned, and cast out of your city, his property being adjudged to me in recompense for all I have lost through him!' The Council appear to have taken no more notice of this last address and demand of their prisoner than they had of his preceding more reasonable petitions and remonstrances.

The pause in the proceedings that ensued, pending the receipt of replies from the Churches consulted; the silence of the Council upon his letter and inculpation of Calvin, combined with the effects of continued imprisonment, anxiety, and hope deferred, on a body not of the strongest, would seem before long to have induced a frame of mind different from that so unmistakably displayed of late by the prisoner. The petition forwarded three weeks later to the Council is pitched in a much lower key than the one last presented.

Most noble Lords, It is now about three weeks since I petitioned for an audience, and still have no reply. I entreat you for the love of Jesus Christ not to refuse me that you would grant to a Turk, when I ask for justice at your hands. I have, indeed, things of importance to communicate to you, very necessary to be known.