The refugees were indignant; they called upon Perrin to prove that they had any intention of 'throwing themselves again into the power of that Catherine who, with her husband, was bathed in the blood of their brethren.' The first syndic, Jean Lambert, laid their complaints before the Two Hundred: 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'I ask myself in vain, why Captain Perrin and M. Vandel are so furious against the foreign burgesses, saying that they desire to drive the elders from the city and to give it up to the king or to some other prince. Think for a moment if it is at all probable that such an accusation is true! These men came to us from different countries, with different manners, customs, and languages. What plan could be proposed in which they would all agree, or how could they be induced to unite in order to betray and expel us? They have forsaken their own country, their relations and friends, and all their worldly goods, to obey the commands of God; and now we are told that they intend to throw themselves back again into the power of those princes from whom they have escaped, and that they propose to betray the city which has given them shelter. Certes, Captain, I marvel greatly at your suspicions, for you were quite free from them seven years ago when you wished to admit two hundred dragoons into the city, sworn servants of the king of France. For my part I hold that we ought to grant every privilege to men who bring us fidelity, honour, and money. The city will be greatly improved if we can get men of good conduct and good report to become burgesses.' [Footnote 100]
[Footnote 100: Gaberel, i. 427-434. Bonnivard,De l'ancienne et nouvelle Police de Genève, pp. 127-131.]
At the beginning of the preceding year [Footnote 101] a concession had been made with which the Libertines might well have been contented.
[Footnote 101: January 16th, 1554.]
A resolution had been carried stating that eligible members of the Grand Council must have inhabited Geneva and shared its perils during the war of 1536—that is, at the period when the Reformation had been proposed and established. The fresh demands for the exclusion of the refugees, made by Ami Perrin, were rejected; and during the beginning of the year 1555, sixty new burgesses were received. The malcontents declared that 'many of the people regretted that so many new burgesses were admitted from the same country.' The complaints of the Libertines were changed to threats; they stated definitely to the Council that their 'opposition might stir up the people, and that it was absolutely necessary to put an end to these admissions in order to preserve the public peace.'
The Libertines took the initiative in the breach of the peace, and assumed the whole responsibility of it. Restless and defiant, they saw that their influence over the popular mind was diminishing rapidly, and they were driven to attempt a decisive blow by their own passions and by the knowledge of their approaching fall. On the 18th of May, 1555, three days after the Council had rejected their last demands, the leaders of the party supped together at a tavern, 'with many riotous companions,' says Bonnivard; 'they tore the Frenchmen and the receivers of Frenchmen to tatters with their sharp tongues. After the tongue had done its office, the wine induced the feet and the hands to do theirs. "Captain," said one of them to Ami Perrin, "I find you lukewarm, but the people trust you; take the affair into your own hands.""Forward, gentlemen!" said Perrin; "what we do is for the honour of Geneva!" They rushed out, and hurrying to all parts of Geneva, summoned their partisans: "To arms, to arms, all good citizens of Geneva! The French are going to sack the city. To the Rhone with the Frenchmen! Down with every French rascal that shows his head!" One of the bands attacked the Hôtel de Ville; another passed before the house of the syndic Aubert. The magistrate, hearing a great noise, goes down into the street in his dressing-gown, with his baton of office in one hand and a lighted candle in the other. He is knocked down and trampled under foot, but gets up again, and friends come to his aid. Another of the syndics rapidly calls together two or three companies of militia, and they hasten to the defence of the Hôtel de Ville. The struggle commences, many persons are killed, but the insurgents are everywhere attacked, defeated and pursued. Their resistance was as short as their attack had been sudden and violent; many were taken prisoners, but their leaders, Perrin amongst others, escaped and left the Genevese territory. The insurrection was quickly repressed, and the rioters were severely punished. When they were brought to justice, some of those who had been taken in combat were condemned to death, and executed; others were banished, and a hundred and fifty of their friends withdrew with them to the Bernese territory. But they did not consider themselves defeated. They asked the Bernese Government first to solicit and then openly to insist on their return, thus making Berne the judge between Geneva and those whom she had proscribed.The republic, after that, would only have needed to become the vassal, and then the subject of Berne. In order to allay this storm, much firmness and also much prudence were necessary; for Berne was powerful, and Berne had no love for Geneva. It was Calvin who conducted the whole business, and Berne was compelled to renounce her ambitious pretensions.' [Footnote 102]
[Footnote 102: Bungener, p. 339. Gaberel, i. 432-435.]
The Libertines now carried their animosity and treason elsewhere; they applied to the Duke of Savoy to subdue Geneva: 'See,' said they, pointing to the fortifications of their native city, 'look at those white walls; before long they will be so battered with cannon that there will not be one stone left upon another.' But the city had been put into a good state of defence, and it was not therefore attacked. The Libertines did not abandon their plots, but the Duke of Savoy adjourned his projects. Calvin asked the Council to ordain a Fast-day as a thanksgiving for great mercies, and the pious solemnity took place. After nineteen years of internal struggle the young republic, which in 1536, had so boldly ranged itself under the banner of the Reformation, was able, in 1555, to entertain the hope of living in peace under the influence of its great reformer.
It has been often said, that from this time forward Calvin was supreme in Geneva, and governed absolutely. His government has been sometimes called an ecclesiastical theocracy established in the midst of a Christian republic. The assertion is vague and inaccurate. There can be no doubt that the final defeat of the Libertines was a great victory for Calvin, and that it increased his general influence in Geneva enormously. On all subsequent occasions his opinion was relied upon. The civil magistrates often asked his advice. When any important question or grave difficulty arose with regard to the foreign policy of the little state, Calvin was frequently applied to, requested to take part in the negotiations, and to exercise in behalf of Geneva the influence which he had obtained in those parts of Europe where the Reformation had been adopted. But, although Calvin's influence in the republic was very powerful, it is a mistake to say that the government ever assumed an ecclesiastical character. The distinction between the civil and religious powers was strictly preserved, and their domains carefully separated.The civil magistrates recognised the rights of the Venerable Company, and of the Consistory, in all questions of faith and religious and moral discipline; but they resisted any extension of their power beyond its due limits, controlled it within these limits, and exercised due authority over the pastors themselves. The Venerable Company had transferred one of their pastors to a country parish without asking the Council to authorize this step; they were desired not to act in such a manner in future. The registers of the Council contain the following entry: 'Nicolas Vandert, preacher at Jussy, does not do his duty in his calling, and does not visit the sick; resolved that he shall be dismissed, and another put in his place.' A little later another pastor was dismissed 'for incontinence.' The Council is informed that Pastor Bernard preaches 'with closed doors,' and thereupon desires him to preach 'with open doors.' Another pastor is warned 'that he is not to speak evil of the magistrates in his sermons.' Even Calvin himself was not beyond the reach of similar admonitions; 'On the 21st of May, 1548, the Council was informed that, in his sermon yesterday, Calvin asserted, with much anger, that the magistrates tolerated many offences. Wherefore it is ordained that he shall be summoned before the Council, and asked what was his intention in preaching to that effect; and if there is any such offence in the city, then the officers of justice shall have orders to see the law carried out.' The mutual recriminations still continued; on the 9th of July, Calvin was denounced because 'yesterday he was very violent in his sermon, speaking against baptism and certain crosses worn upon the clothes.'The Council decides to summon all the ministers before them and remonstrate, telling them that 'they ought not to protest in public, but first of all to bring their grievances before the Council, and afterwards to address the public, if they find that the Council takes no notice of their complaints.' There can be no doubt that the power of the pastors was very great; but that of the civil magistrates was equally great, and they had no hesitation in using it. [Footnote 103]
[Footnote 103: M. Amédée Roget, in a little pamphlet on the Church and State of Geneva during the lifetime of Calvin, published at Geneva in 1867, has fully established the truth of these facts, which he quotes from the registers of the Council.]
Calvin remained the victor in his struggle with the political Libertines; but he was engaged in another contest—a series of theological controversies with the heretical Libertines. He was laying the foundations of the religious system and independence of the reformed Christian Church, but he was also labouring to uphold the Christian evangelical faith within that Church. The three principal and most formidable characteristics of the sixteenth century were its political disturbances, its public immorality, and its ardent outburst of intellectual life, and Calvin was simultaneously resisting all of them. I will not attempt to follow him into the arena where he successfully opposed the numerous speculative theologians who hovered around the great reformers of the century,—Caroli, Bolsec, Castellio, Westphal, Gribaldo, Valentinus Gentilis, Biandrata, Osiander, and many others.But I will select two of the most daring thinkers with whom he was brought into contact, Michael Servetus and Lælius Socinus; both of them celebrated, one for his tragical end, and the other as the forerunner of his nephew, Faustus Socinus, the founder of the well-known sect of Socinians. Two very different sides of the character of Calvin are displayed in his connexion with these two men; his harsh severity towards those opponents whom he despised, and his moderation and almost gentle tolerance towards those whom he esteemed, and believed to be sincere and humble.
In the year 1509, the very same year in which Calvin was born at Noyon, Michael Servetus was born at Villanueva, a city of Arragon, where his father, a burgess of some eminence, was a notary. He received his early education in a Dominican convent, and his father afterwards sent him to study law at Toulouse, just as Calvin's father had wished him to pursue the same study at Orleans and Bourges. In like manner as Calvin in his youth had received assistance and protection from an ecclesiastic, so also the first patron of Servetus was a priest,—Quintana, father-confessor of the Emperor Charles V., whom Servetus accompanied to Italy, an obscure member of the imperial suite. In spite, however, of this patronage and of his youth, he was strongly imbued with the novel opinions of the time; for when he afterwards recalled the recollections of his visit to Rome, he says: 'I saw there with my own eyes the Pope carried on the heads of the princes of the land, and worshipped in the public squares by a whole people on their knees; so much so that those who could kiss his feet, or even his shoes, thought themselves blessed above all others. O beast, the most murderous of all beasts! O harlot, the most shameless of all harlots! Surely this was the beautiful harlot described in the Book of Isaiah.' [Footnote 104]
[Footnote 104: Isaiah, chap, xlvii. Henry, iii. 107.]
A little later, in 1530, Servetus was at Basle, holding communion with the already celebrated reformers who had taken up their abode there, with Œcolampadius, Capito and Bucer. Zwingli, the great reformer of German Switzerland, who was to be struck by death the following year on the battle-field of Cappel, was also at Basle, holding converse with his friends regarding the interests of their common cause. Œcolampadius said: 'I have got a rash, hot-headed Spaniard here, Michael Servetus, who is always raising the most difficult questions, and bothering me horribly. He is an Arian.' 'Brother Œcolampadius,' said Zwingli, 'look after him and be careful; the views of that Spaniard will be the ruin of the whole Christian religion. Unless Christ was truly God and the eternal God, he was not and could not have been our Saviour, and all that the holy prophets and apostles have taught must be false. Try by good and weighty arguments to bring the young man back to the way of truth.' 'I have tried,' answered Œcolampadius, 'but he is so vain, so presumptuous, and so argumentative that I can do nothing with him.' In 1534, four years later, Calvin also visited Basle, and made an impression upon these same reformers, the very reverse of that which Servetus had produced. They foresaw great danger to the reformed religion in one of these young men, and great strength and hope in the other. Their presentiments were not false.
Throughout 1531 and 1532 Servetus was wandering from Basle into Germany, and from Germany back to Basle; sometimes in the suite of the confessor of Charles V.; at others alone, and ardently engrossed by the notions which were seething in his brain, and from the realization of which he promised himself a brilliant future. There were no limits to his ambition and presumption; he proposed to inaugurate a very different kind of reformation from that which was going on around him: 'I am neither Catholic nor Protestant,' he said, and he already looked upon himself as the most important, as well as the newest reformer. He returned to Basle in 1531, and brought out his first work on the 'Errors of the Trinity.' It was printed at Hagenau, and he did not hesitate to put his real name on the title-page: 'by M. Servetus, otherwise Reves, a Spaniard from Arragon.' [Footnote 105]
[Footnote 105:De Trinitatis Erroribus, lib. vii. per M. Servetus,aliasReves, ab Aragonia Hispanum. In 8vo.]
The printer was more prudent; so great was the suspicion which the doctrines of Servetus had already inspired, that he did not put his own name on the book, nor that of the place at which it was published. The work was a violent attack upon the doctrine of the Trinity, written with vigour and a certain glitter of imagination and subtlety of thought, but its rash speculations were vague and superficial. It was received with prompt and severe disapproval both by Catholics and Protestants. Father Quintana spoke of Servetus with contempt, as a young man who had certainly belonged to his suite, and whom he knew by sight, but whom he had never suspected of holding such impious opinions. Even the most gentle of the German and Swiss reformers openly expressed their indignation. Melancthon urged Œcolampadius to take heed lest such doctrines should be imputed to the Swiss reformers.Bucer denounced the work from the pulpit, and went so far as to say that the author of it deserved to be torn limb from limb. The Government of Basle caused the book to be seized, and even, so it is said, imprisoned the author. But the imprisonment, if it took place, must have been short, for Servetus almost immediately published a second work [Footnote 106] on the same subject, still in his own name, in which he explained, apologized for, and retracted almost the whole of the first; not, however, on the ground that his notions were false, but that they were crude and imperfect.
[Footnote 106:Dialogorum de Trinitate. Lib. ii.de Justitia regni Christi, cap. iv. In 8vo. 1532.]
Indeed, in addition to the attacks on the Trinity, this book disclosed a much more wild and impious pantheism than the first had done. The second work received little attention, either favourable or unfavourable, but the impression produced by the first was permanent. Servetus saw that he had very little chance of success either in Germany or Switzerland, and he went elsewhere to try and realize his dreams of success and power.
He hoped to do so in France, at Paris. He was there in 1534, and was, at the same time, a student and a professor. He both gave and received lessons in medicine, mathematics, and astronomy, and was soon noted for his rapid insight, brilliant imagination, marvellous powers of acquisition, and wealth of novel theories, often rash, but sometimes ingenious and happy. He conjectured, and almost described, the circulation of the blood, took part with the Greek against the Arabian physicians, speaking of all those who did not agree with him as 'fools and public pests.'He gave courses of lectures on mathematics and astronomy which were a mixture of science and chimerical conjecture, and he translated Ptolemy's Geography. The extent and versatility of his intellectual powers attracted large audiences; but at the same time his exacting and arrogant character, his overbearing and pretentious manners, his restless and quarrelsome temper soon embroiled him not only with the physicians who were his rivals, but with the whole University of Paris, which distrusted his views and detested his person. He lacked both personal influence and modesty; he was not only violent and abusive to his adversaries, like the majority of even the most eminent learned men in his time, but in every dispute he showed that presumptuous and arrogant self-complacence which inflicts far deeper wounds than open and even brutal anger. His theological heresies and astrological dreams furnished numerous pretexts against him. He was denounced to the 'Parlement' of Paris, and they condemned him to suppress an abusive treatise which he had published, and forbade him to teach astrology, or to prophesy and predict from the stars. Annoyed at this, and lacking stability of purpose, he left Paris and went to Lyons, where he obtained employment as corrector of the press to the celebrated printers Melchior and Caspar Trechsel; he returned to Paris, and left again; went first to Avignon, then to Charlieu, a small town near Lyons, changing his name and residence incessantly; sometimes eager for retirement and sometimes for display; desiring fame, and yet often in great need of concealment.At length, in 1540, he settled at Vienne, in Dauphiné, where the archbishop, Mgr. Palmier, who had attended some of his lectures in Paris took him under his protection.
He lived at Vienne twelve years, concealing his real name Servetus, and adopting that of Villanueva, his native city. He was in high repute as a physician, and conformed outwardly to the Roman Catholic religion; but he was more than ever absorbed in his projected religious reformation, and the great part that he was to play in it. He published numerous works; among others he brought out a translation of the Bible by a learned monk named Xantès Pagninus, then dead. But the Book of Revelations was the special subject of his study. In it he saw the signs of the times, and the approaching fall of Antichrist. 'The Dragon which tries to devour the woman and her child is the Pope; the woman is the Church; her child whom God takes away and saves is the Christian faith. [Footnote 107]
[Footnote 107: Revelation, chap. xii.]
For 1560 days, that is years, the Church has been under the yoke of Antichrist, but now the struggle with the Dragon is about to commence. Michael and his angels will triumph; we shall discover the divine Revelation from the very earliest ages—the great mystery of faith which is beyond all dispute; we shall see the face of God which has never yet been seen. We shall see the glory of his image in ourselves.' [Footnote 108]
[Footnote 108: Henry, iii. 125-128.]
Servetus did not assert that he himself was the archangel Michael, but he believed himself to be his ally, and one of our Lord's new apostles. In order to make known all these seething fancies, he prepared a new work entitledRestoration of Christianity.
The latest of Calvin's biographers, Stähelin, gives the following account of the doctrines contained in the work of Servetus, 'or rather of so much of them,' he says, 'as it is possible to make out from his involved and mystical language, and the attempted sublimity of his style. The fundamental principle of the whole book is the assertion of the one absolute and indivisible God. It would be impossible to imagine any direct action of God upon the world; he is separated from it by an immeasurable abyss. The instruments which he uses, the links which unite the finite and the infinite, are found in the world of thought. Every thought or idea must be contemplated as a personal reality, having its origin in the being of God, and itself an image of his eternal essence. Perfectly distinct, and yet not separate from God, these ideas animate matter, and thus unite it to God. There are therefore three worlds, each of which has its own separate existence, although they are all closely united one to the other,—God, ideas, and things or beings. All beings are contained in ideas, all ideas in God; God is all things, and all things are God.' [Footnote 109]
[Footnote 109: Stähelin, i. 432.]
In 1848, two years before the publication of Stähelin's work, M. Emile Saisset, a very distinguished philosopher of the contemporary French school, published in theRevue des deux Mondes[Footnote 110] an account of the doctrine of Servetus, which, although more fully developed, is in perfect agreement with that of M. Stähelin, the theologian of Basle.
[Footnote 110:Revue des deux Mondes, 1848, i. 605-611.]
That doctrine is, in fact, pantheism, with all its pretensions to explain everything in a rational way, and with the chaos of logic, mysticism, and mere words, which pantheism offers as rational explanation.
When Servetus was living at Vienne, he was in frequent communication with friends at Lyons, and was within a very short distance, almost within reach, of the religious influence of Geneva, that is of Calvin. I have already said that the two men met in Paris in 1534, commenced a controversy, and appointed a meeting so as to carry it on in public; that Calvin kept this appointment, and Servetus broke it. Whatever may have been the motive of Servetus in so doing, there can be no doubt that some contempt for an adversary who had thus escaped from a contest lingered in Calvin's mind. That which he afterwards heard respecting Servetus from the German and Swiss reformers had certainly confirmed the suspicion and disapprobation with which he was inclined to regard him. But, on the other hand, Servetus could not live so near Calvin without being struck by the importance which he had acquired, the greatness of his work, and the fame of his name. He wished to renew his acquaintance with Calvin, wrote to him, sent him questions, asked his advice, even sent him a copy of the book which he was preparing on the 'Restoration of Christianity;' no doubt for the purpose of finding out beforehand the objections of his formidable adversary. His letters bear the impress sometimes of philosophical inquiry, sometimes of undisciplined temper: 'I am always at work,' he wrote to Calvin, 'trying to revive the life of the Church, and you are angry with me because I associate myself with the angel Michael in such a contest, and because I am anxious that all pious men should do as I do.'
[Footnote 111 (no reference): Page 171.]
'Examine this passage in the Book of Revelations thoroughly, and you will see that the combat is waged by men, and that they lay down their lives to testify of the Christ. It is usual to call them angels in Scripture, because the regeneration from above makes us equal to the angels.'
To these letters, which were very numerous between 1540 and 1546, Calvin replied coldly but without acrimony. He evaded the questions of Servetus when they appeared insidious, and gave him wise and earnest advice; but he was evidently careful not to enter into regular correspondence with him, and anxious to avoid all appearance of intimacy, even as an opponent, with a man whom he did not esteem, and whose views and ideas outraged all his own. 'I was anxious to carry out your wishes,' he wrote to their common friend Frellon at Lyons; [Footnote 112] 'not that, from what I see of his present frame of mind, I have any great hope of doing much good to such a man, but in order to try once again if there are any means of subduing him;—which will be when God has so dealt with him that he is quite different to what he is now.'
[Footnote 112: February 13th, 1546.]
'As he wrote to me in a very haughty tone, I wished, if possible, to humble him by speaking more harshly than I am wont to do. I could do no otherwise, for I assure you that there is no lesson he is in such want of as one in humility; but it must come to him from God and no otherwise. Nevertheless we must put our hands to the work also. If by God's grace, shown both to him and to us, the answer you have asked me to send should prove profitable to him, I shall have reason to rejoice. But if he continues in his present mind, you will lose time if you entreat me to labour any further on his behalf, for I have other duties which are much more imperative. … I pray you to rest satisfied with what I have already done, unless you find him differently disposed.'
Servetus, however, continued to write to Calvin; no doubt hoping either to convince or to perplex him by his persistent correspondence and controversy. At length Calvin grew weary of it, and wrote: 'Neither now nor at any future time will I mix myself up in any way with your wild dreams. Forgive me for speaking thus, but truth compels me to do so. I neither hate you nor despise you; I do not wish to treat you harshly; but I must be made of iron if I could hear you rail against the doctrine of salvation and not be moved by it. Moreover, I have no time to concern myself any further with your plans and systems; all that I can say to you on this subject, is contained in my "Christian Institutes," to which I must now refer you.' [Footnote 113]
[Footnote 113: Henry, iii. 125-133. Stähelin, i. 429-431.]
Servetus was deeply wounded by this haughty language: he had made advances which Calvin had resisted, and laid snares from which he had escaped. The prudent reformer with his clear and resolute intellect could not show indifference to the self-confident visionary, who was capable both of lofty sincerity and low cunning, nor was it possible that he could be deceived by him. Even if there had not been any special and profound disagreement between these two men, they were antipathetic by nature, and anything that drew them together and brought them into contact, instead of uniting them, would only cause them to recoil more widely.From this time forward there was an end of all direct correspondence on the part of Calvin. He had previously written to Farel: [Footnote 114] 'Not long ago Servetus wrote to me, and sent with his letter a volume of his extravagant folly, which he put forward with great ostentation, and I was compelled to read the most unheard-of and bewildering things. He says that, if I like, he will come here; but I will not give him any assurance of my protection, for if he does come and if my authority prevails, I will never suffer him to depart from this city alive.' In September 1548, he wrote to Viret: 'I think you have seen my answer to Servetus. I have declined any further correspondence with such an obstinate and conceited heretic. It is certainly a case in which we ought to follow the precept of the apostle Paul. [Footnote 115] He is now attacking you, and it is for you to consider how far it is worth your while to refute his dreams. From henceforth he will get nothing more from me.'
[Footnote 114: February 13th, 1546.][Footnote 115: II Timothy ii. 23.]
Servetus was more annoyed by silence than he could possibly have been by controversy, and he sent back Calvin's copy of the 'Christian Institutes' full of marginal notes, in which he attacked the doctrines it contained. He determined at the same time to put forth his manifesto, his great work on the 'Restoration of Christianity;' which would, so he thought, effect a much greater social and religious revolution in Europe than the Reformation had done. But with a strange mixture of audacity and timidity, although he published it, he did not venture to proclaim himself as its author.He tried first of all to get it printed at Basle; not succeeding there he found a printer at Vienne, in the very diocese where he was living under the protection of the Archbishop, who consented to print it under the seal of secrecy. The production was completed in three months, between September 1552 and January 1553, under the superintendence of Servetus himself. Some say that one thousand and others that eight hundred copies were struck off, and bales were forwarded at once to Lyons, Châtillon, Frankfort, and Geneva. The book bore no name, either of author or printer, but, with an infatuation which would be incomprehensible if it were not for the paternal love of an author for his work, the three initial letters of the name and country of Servetus were placed at the end of it; M. S. V.—Michael Servetus, Villanueva.
The public indignation was great; especially in Lyons and Geneva, the former the centre of Catholicism, and the latter of Protestantism. The people of Geneva marvelled that in a city like Lyons, where Cardinal de Tournon and the Roman Inquisitor Matthias Ory resided, no steps were taken to stop the circulation of such a book and to discover and punish the author. There was a French refugee at Geneva, Guillaume de Trie, a zealous Protestant and follower of Calvin, who was in correspondence with a relative at Lyons, Antoine Arneys, who was an ardent Catholic; and, in order to bring De Trie back to the bosom of the Church, Arneys accused the reformers of being without discipline or rules of faith, and of sanctioning the most unbridled licence. De Trie, in his turn, accused the Catholic Church of indifference and inability to repress licence in her own domains; and the name of Servetus, his previous works, his new book, recently printed at Vienne under the very eyes of the Archbishop, and the doctrines taught in the book, were all brought forward in De Trie's letter to the Catholic of Lyons, in proof of the justice of his reproaches.He added: 'In order that you may not think I speak from mere conjecture, I send you the first sheet of the work.' And he did, in fact, send the title-page, index, and first four pages of the 'Restoration of Christianity.'
The Inquisitor, the Cardinal, and the Vicar-General of the Archbishop of Vienne, immediately took the matter in hand. At their request Servetus was summoned to appear before Monsieur de Montgiron, theLieutenant-Général du Roi, [Footnote 116] in Dauphiné, whose physician he was, under the name of Villanueva. At the expiration of two hours, which even those who uphold Servetus say that he no doubt spent in destroying papers which might have compromised him, he appeared and answered all the questions put to him by a general denial. He said that 'for a long time he had lived at Vienne, and that he had often visited the preachers and other professors of theology. But they would not find that he had ever held heretical opinions or been suspected of heresy. He was willing that his apartments should be searched so as to remove all cause for suspicion, not only that of the court but of any other persons, for he had always desired to live so that there should be no cause for the said suspicion.' His dwelling and papers were searched.
[Footnote 116: The functions of theLieutenant-Général du Roiwere military, political, administrative, and, on special occasions, judicial also. This confusion of offices prevailed for a long time in the old French Monarchy.]
The printer Arnoullet and his workmen were examined; they were asked if they had seen the manuscript of the book of which the first few pages were shown to them—they answered that they had not, and produced a list of all the books printed by them within the last two years; there was not one of any kind in octavo. The questions put either to Servetus or to those who had assisted him, only led to absolute denial of all that was suggested, and the court decided that there was not sufficient evidence for taking any further proceedings, or for imprisoning the Spanish physician, Monsieur Villanueva.
The falsehood was rash and useless. Too many persons had been engaged in the production of the book, too many copies had been sent away, the initials M. S. V. (Michael Servetus Villanueva) too plainly indicated the author, and Servetus himself had too often boasted of his work, to make it possible that a serious inquiry could have any other result than a discovery of the whole truth. Cardinal de Tournon and the Inquisitor Ory applied to the source from whence they had received warning, for further help. They directed the Catholic Arneys, at Lyons, to write to the Protestant De Trie, [Footnote 117] at Geneva, and ask for the information and proof which they wanted, and amongst other things for the whole volume of which he had only sent a few pages: 'In order,' so said the letter, 'that the Genevese might see that there were people in France who laid to heart the honour of God and of the Christian faith, and that they were not all as lukewarm as those of Geneva imagined.'
[Footnote 117: According to Stähelin, i. 436, the Inquisitor, Matthias Ory, wrote to De Trie with his own hand.]
The inquiry at Vienne had taken place about the middle of March; De Trie's answer to Arneys arrived at Lyons on the 26th of the same month. It was as follows: 'When I wrote the letter which you communicated to those who were in it accused of indifference, I did not think that the matter would have gone so far. My only intention was to let you see the fine zeal and devotion of those who call themselves the pillars of the Church, and yet allow such evil to exist among them, whilst they harshly persecute poor Christians who desire nothing more than to serve God in all simplicity. As this was a striking example which had come under my notice, I thought that my letters—as I was writing on this subject—gave me a suitable occasion for mentioning it. But since you have made known that which I had intended to write for your own eyes only, may God so dispose all things for the best, that it may be the means of purging Christianity from such a foul pest. If those you speak of are really as much in earnest as you say, there will not be much difficulty in the affair (even although I am unable at present to furnish you with what you ask for, namely the book), for I can place in your hands that which is more convincing, namely about two dozen papers written by the person in question, and containing some of his heresies. If the printed book was placed before him, he might deny it, but he cannot deny his own writing. … But I must confess that I have had great difficulty in obtaining from Monsieur Calvin that which I send you; not that he is unwilling that such execrable blasphemy should be punished, but that it seems to him that, since he does not wield the sword of justice, it is his duty to confute heresy by sound doctrine rather than to seek to extirpate it by any other method.But I have importuned him so greatly, representing that I should be charged with making reckless assertions unless he came to my aid, that at length he has consented to give up that which I send you.' [Footnote 118]
[Footnote 118:Revue des deux Mondes, 1848, i. 822.]
The packet contained: I. Some pages of a copy of Calvin's 'Christian Institutes,' on the margin of which Servetus had written with his own hand, occasionally using very violent language, some of his theories which were utterly opposed to the Christian dogmas recognised both by Protestants and Catholics. II. Several autograph letters from Servetus to Calvin, in which he brought forward and maintained the pantheistic notions upon which his recent work, the 'Restoration of Christianity,' was based.
Calvin has been strongly blamed for giving up these private letters and marginal notes to the Catholic authorities, who had already commenced proceedings against Servetus. It has been said that he laid the whole plot, and caused Servetus to be denounced, in order to destroy a religious adversary and personal enemy, by the instrumentality of the Catholic Church. His hesitation as to whether he ought to give up the papers and allow them to be sent to Lyons, shows that he had some doubt as to the moral rectitude of his conduct; but it shows an extraordinary misapprehension of his character to imagine that this hesitation was an act of hypocrisy, and that the surrender of the papers was a piece of premeditated perfidy. There are no errors, or rather no vices, with which it is so impossible to charge Calvin as with untruth and hypocrisy.During the whole course of his life he openly avowed his thoughts and acknowledged his actions; he left his native country for ever, and the country of his adoption for a long period, just because he was resolved to assert his opinions, and to act according to his opinions. In his transactions with Servetus, he was brought into contact with a man who, whilst he aimed at becoming the most radical of reformers, lived for twelve years at Vienne as a strict Catholic, and secretly printed and distributed a profoundly anti-Christian book; then, seeing that he was in danger, denied his work and his acts, and protested 'that he had never desired to teach or maintain any doctrine opposed to the Church or the Christian religion.' Calvin felt the greatest contempt for so much untruth and cowardice; he openly condemned the book and the conduct of Servetus from the very first; he considered it both a right and a duty to prove the truth of that which he had affirmed, and to show at Lyons as well as at Geneva that the opinions of Servetus were the same as those put forward in the condemned volume, and that Servetus was really the author of it. 'It is reported,' said he, 'that I have contrived to have Servetus taken prisoner in the Papal dominions, that is at Vienne; and thereupon many say that I have not acted honourably in exposing him to the deadly enemies of the faith. There is no need to insist on my vigorously denying such a frivolous calumny, which will fall flat when I have said in one word that there is no truth in it. … If there were any truth in the charge, I should not deny it, and I do not think that it would be at all discreditable to me.' [Footnote 119]
[Footnote 119: Bungener, p. 362.]
The effect produced by this information was what might have been expected. The proceedings at Vienne were at once resumed. Servetus was called upon to explain the marginal notes in the 'Christian Institutes,' and the letters he had written to Calvin. He was greatly troubled, and fell into all kinds of strange and contradictory statements and denials: 'He says that, at first sight, it is impossible for him to say if the letter is his or not, because it has been written so long; however, having looked at it more closely, he certainly thinks that he must have written it; and says that whatever is found in it contrary to the faith, he submits to the decision of our holy Mother Church, from which he has never wished, nor would ever consent to be separated. And if he has written any such things, he says that he wrote them heedlessly, by way of argument and without serious thought.' And then he is said to have burst into tears and uttered the most unexpected lie, denying that he was Servetus: 'I will tell you the whole truth. Twenty-five years ago, when I was in Germany, a book by a certain Servetus, a Spaniard, was published at Aganon (Hagenau); I do not know where he was then living. When I entered into correspondence with Calvin, he charged me with being Servetus, on account of the similarity of our views, and after that I assumed the character of Servetus.' [Footnote 120]
[Footnote 120: Henry, iii. 146.]
This incoherent mass of untruth and confession caused the proceedings to be carried on in a more serious manner. Servetus was arrested and imprisoned. The gaoler received orders to watch him carefully. Nevertheless he was treated with an indulgence by no means common at that time. He was allowed to have his own servant, to keep possession of a gold chain and some rings which he wore, and to send a demand for the payment of 300 crowns which were due to him.He had undoubtedly many staunch friends; probably the vice-Bailli of Vienne, whose sick daughter he had cured, was one, and possibly Monsieur de Montgiron, theLieutenant-Généralin whose service he had been, was another. It was afterwards proved that a servant of the gaoler had said to the servant of Servetus, 'Go and tell your master to escape by the garden.' On the 7th of April, 1553, two days after his imprisonment, Servetus did, in fact, escape in the early morning by a garden which led into the courtyard of thePalais de Justice. He hurried across the bridge over the Rhone, and thus passed from Dauphiné into Lyonnais; at least this was the account given by a peasant, who had met him but was not interrogated until three days after his escape. [Footnote 121]
[Footnote 121: Henry, iii. 147; Gaberel, ii. 248;Revue des deux Mondes, 1848, i. 824.]
No traces of him can be discovered between April and July 1553. He was wandering either in French or Swiss territory; and when, at a later period, he was asked where he had intended to go after his escape from Vienne, he varied in his answers, sometimes naming Spain and at others Italy as his proposed place of refuge. I am inclined to believe that from the very first he intended to make his way to a much nearer spot. Be that as it may, whilst he was wandering from place to place, either undecided as to his future course, or waiting for a fitting opportunity of carrying out his plan, sentence was pronounced upon him by the Catholic judges at Vienne; and on the 17th of June he was condemned 'to be burnt alive over a slow fire, at the place of public execution, so that his body should be reduced to cinders as well as his book.'
A month later—on the 17th of July Servetus entered a little inn on the banks of the lake at Geneva, called theAuberge de la Rose. He was alone and unknown: he said that he wanted a boat across the lake, so that he might go on to Zurich. He did not cross the lake, but stayed for twenty-seven days at Geneva, greatly exciting the curiosity of his host, who asked him one day if he was married: 'No,' he said, 'there are plenty of women in the world without marrying.' He seems to have walked out and seen several persons. It is even asserted that he went to church and heard Calvin preach. Calvin afterwards said, 'I do not know how to account for his conduct, unless he was seized by a fatal infatuation and rushed into danger.' [Footnote 122]
[Footnote 122: Henry, iii. 149-151; Rilliet,Procès de Michel Servet, p. 20;Revue des deux Mondes, 1848, i. 826.]
The result shows the infatuation of his prolonged visit to Geneva, but I think that this visit bears equally strong proof of premeditated design. Precisely at this period Calvin was engaged in the contest which I have recently described with the Libertines, on the subject of excommunication from the Lord's Supper.When Servetus entered Geneva, the Libertines had some reason to expect that they might triumph; one of their leaders, Ami Perrin, was first syndic; they believed themselves sure of a majority in the Council of Two Hundred, and almost sure of one in the lesser Council which possessed the executive power. A man of their party, Gueroult, who had been banished from Geneva, had been corrector of the press to the printer Arnoullet at Vienne, at the time when the 'Restoration of Christianity' was published. Thanks to the influence of his patrons, the Libertines, Gueroult had returned to Geneva, and he would naturally be the medium between them and Servetus. I do not find any definite and positive proof of his intervention at this particular time; but taking a comprehensive view of the whole case and the antecedents of all those concerned in it, I am convinced that Servetus, defeated at Vienne, went to Geneva, relying on the support of the Libertines, whilst they on their side expected to obtain efficacious help from him against Calvin.
But neither the Libertines nor Servetus knew the resolute adversary with whom they had to deal. From the moment that Calvin heard Servetus was in Geneva, he did not hesitate for one instant, although he was already engaged in a fierce and perilous struggle. He added a second contest to the first, and resolved to obtain two victories instead of one—the victory of Christianity over a pantheistic visionary, and the victory of religion and morality over a licentious faction. He wrote to one of the syndics requesting him, 'in virtue of the power granted to his office by the criminal edicts of Geneva, to arrest Servetus.' On the 13th of August, 1553, Servetus was arrested.'I do not deny,' wrote Calvin on the following 9th of September, 'that he was imprisoned at my instance.' But, according to the laws of Geneva, in order that the imprisonment should not be merely temporary, it was necessary that there should be a formal accusation, and a prosecutor who consented to submit to imprisonment, and to hold himself criminally responsible for the truth of the charge. It was Calvin who also provided for this necessity. Nicolas de la Fontaine, a French refugee, his secretary and intimate friend, consented to undertake the painful office. 'I do not conceal the fact,' says Calvin, 'that by my wish, Servetus was apprehended in this city, that he might be compelled to give an account of his misdeeds. And since malevolent and evil-disposed persons gabble all kinds of things against me, I frankly confess that as, in accordance with the laws and customs of this city, no one can be imprisoned unless there is a prosecutor, or some previous knowledge of his crimes, therefore in order to bring such a man to reason, I arranged so as to procure a prosecutor.' The first examination of Servetus took place the day after his arrest, and on the 15th of August his trial commenced.
This theological tragedy lasted for two months and thirteen days. There was great variety in the scenes of which it was composed, corresponding to the different incidents in the political and social struggle with the Libertines which Calvin was carrying on. I do not intend to give a detailed account of this prolonged trial, but I am anxious that its essential character and principal phases should be clearly apprehended.