or some modification of its essential principles, is the form of religious faith that has been professed in the modern world by the most intelligent, moral, industrious, and freest of mankind. If Calvinism, however, tend to make men more manly and more fit for freedom, it has also a certain hardening influence on the heart, disposing to severity. Yet has not even this been without its compensating good; for when Calvin-impersonation of relentless rigour-sent the pious Servetus to the flames, it may be said that the knell of intolerance began to toll. Persistence in consigning dissidents from the religious dogmas of the day to death was made henceforth impossible, and persecution on religious grounds to any minor issue has come by degrees to be seen not only as indefensible in principle, but immoral in fact; for it strikes at the root of the very noblest elements in the constitution of humanity-Conscience and Loyalty to Truth.

But Calvinism has had its day. The free inquiry of which it sprang has slowly, yet surely, carried all save its wilfully blind or ignorant adherents beyond the pale of their old beliefs. More than a century ago the Church of Geneva broke not only with its Confession of Faith as formulated by its founder, but with confessions of faith of every complexion; so that one of its leaders, on occasion of the late tercentenary commemoration of the death of the Reformer, could say: Nous ne sommes plus Calvinistes selon Calvin. Nor has the defection of the Swiss been singular; they

have been followed more or less closely by the Dutch, the Germans, the more advanced of the Protestant Church of France, and finally and at length by the Scotch. In the land of Knox, the very stronghold of Judaic Christianity as defined by Calvin and his great disciple, open rebellion has broken out against the narrowness of the Creed and Catechism of the Westminster Assembly of Divines so obsequiously followed until now; prelude, doubtless, to further disruption and greater change than have yet been seen; for modern criticism and exegesis, and ever advancing science, proclaim arrest at any grade in the Religious Idea yet attained by the Churches to be impossible.

CHAPTER XXI.

CALVIN'S DEFENCE IS ATTACKED.

EVEN whilst the trial was proceeding, we have seen that Calvin was not without opposition in his pursuit of Servetus. Amied Perrin, his great political rival, had striven for mercy or a minor punishment to the last; and he was not without followers in the Council. But they were outnumbered and out-voted there, so that the light of the blessed quality that is not strained was quenched. Outside the circle of the governing body also, more than one voice was raised. against the manifest aim of Calvin to have his theological opponent capitally convicted. But it was by persons of inferior note. David Bruck, among others. a man of talent and quondam minister of a congregation of Anabaptists in the North, now living privately and respected under the name of David Joris at Berne, went so far as to speak of Servetus as a pious man, and to declare that if all who differed from others in their religious views were to be put to death, the world would be turned into one sea of blood.1

But the writer who received most notice from

1 Joris's able letter in low German is given by Mosheim, op. cit., p. 421.

Calvin and his friends was he who appeared under the assumed name of Martin Bellius. Taking as his text the 29th verse of the 4th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians: As then he that was born of the flesh persecuted him that was born of the Spirit, even so is it now,' Bell proceeded to show that persecution to death on religious grounds, though it might be Judaism was not Christianity, and that many learned men and eminent doctors of the Church, both of older and more modern times, had been emphatic in condemnation of all intolerance in the sphere of religion. Bell's book, small in bulk but weighty in argument, was felt as a home-thrust by the Reformer of Geneva, his own words in favour of toleration among others being quoted against him. It is often spoken of at the time as the Farrago-Calvin himself so designates it when sending a copy of it to his friend Bullinger. But neither Calvin nor his friends liked the book; and it is in depreciation of its real significance that it is spoken of as a medley.1

Premising an Introduction, addressed to Frederick, the reigning Duke of Würtemberg, in which the writer sets forth his own views, he asks the Duke whether

1 The proper title of this rare book, of which we have a copy in the library of the British Museum is: De Hæreticis an sint persequendi et omnino quomodo sit cum eis agendum, doctorum virorum, tum veterum tum recentiorum, sententiæ, &c. The opinions of the learned, both of ancient and modern times, concerning heretics: Are they to be persecuted; or how otherwise are they to be dealt with? A book most necessary and useful in these distracted times to sovereign princes and magistrates in dealing with a matter of such difficulty and danger. 12mo., Magdeburgh, 1554.

he should think a subject of his deserving of death who, avowing belief in God and his earnest desire to live in conformity with the precepts of Scripture, should say that he did not think baptism was properly performed on an infant eight days old; but was of opinion. that the rite should be deferred until years of discretion had been attained and the recipient could give a reason for the faith that was in him? Did the subject think further that if he were required by law to baptize infants he was running counter to Christ's ordinance, and felt that he was doing violence to his conscience, Bell asks the Duke again, Did he think, if Christ were present as Judge, that He would order the man who so delivered himself to be put to death?' Replying to his question himself, he says: 'I venture to believe that He would not.'

Our author then proceeds to quote from the works of many writers, who maintain that the punishment of heretics is no part of the civil magistrate's duty; from Erasmus, who declares that God, the Great Father of the human family, will not have heretics, even hæresiarchs, put to death, but tolerated in view of their possible amendment. When I think how reprehensible are heresy and schism,' says the great scholar, 'I am scarce disposed to condemn the laws against them; but when I call to mind the gentleness wherewith Christ led his disciples, I shrink from the instances I see of men sent to prison and the stake on the ground of their disagreement with scholastic dogmas.' From Aug. Eleutherius,