Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/711

Rh SERVETUS 685 of his death. Here he found a friend in Dr Symphorien Champier (Campegius) (1472-1539), whose profession he resolved to follow. Accordingly he went (1536) to Paris, where he studied medicine under Johann Giinther, Jacques Dubois, and Jean Fernel. It was in 1536, when Calvin was on a hurried and final visit to France, that he first met Servetus at Paris, and, as he himself says, proposed to set him right in theological matters. 1 As assistant to Giinther, Servetus succeeded the famous anatomist Ves- alius ; Giinther, who pays the highest tribute to his general culture, describes him as specially skilled in dissection and " vix ulli secundus " in knowledge of Galen. He gradu- ated in arts and asserts that he also graduated in medicine, published a set of lectures on syrups (the most popular of his works), lectured on geometry and astrology, and de- fended by counsel a suit brought against him (March 1538) by the medical faculty on the ground of his astrological lectures. In June 1538 we find him at the university of Louvain (where he was inscribed on the roll of students as Michael Villanova on 14th December 1537), studying theology and Hebrew, explaining to his father (then resi- dent at San Gil) his removal from Paris, early in Septem- ber 1537, as a consequence of the death (8th August) of his master (el seiior mi maestro), and proposing to return to Paris as soon as peace was proclaimed. After this he practised medicine for a short time at Avignon, and for a longer period at Charlieu (where he contemplated marriage, but was deterred by a physical impediment). In Septem- ber 1540 he entered himself for further study in the medi- cal school at Montpellier. In 1541 he resumed editorial work for the Lyons booksellers, to whose neighbourhood he had returned. Among the attendants upon his Paris lectures had been a distinguished ecclesiastic, Pierre Paulmier, since 1528 archbishop of Vienne. Paulmier invited Servetus to Vienne as his confidential physician. He acted in this capacity for twelve years (1541-53), and made money. Outwardly he conformed to Roman Catholic worship ; in private he pur- sued his theological speculations. It is probable that in 1541 he had been rebaptized. He opened a correspondence with Calvin, and late in 1545, or very early in 1546, he forwarded to Calvin the manuscript of a revised and en- larged edition of his theological tracts, and expressed a wish to visit him at Geneva. Calvin replied on 23d Febru- ary 1546, in a letter which is lost, but in which, he says, he expressed himself "plus durement que ma coustume ne porte." On the same day he wrote to Guillaume Farel, " si venerit, modo valeat mea autoritas, vivum exire nunquam patiar," and to Pierre Viret in the same terms. Servetus had fair warning that if he went to Geneva it was at his peril. In his letter to Abel Pouppin (in or about 1547), after stating that he had failed to recover his manuscript from Calvin, he says, " mihi ob earn rem mori- enduin esse certo scio." The volume of theological tracts, again recast, was declined by a Basel publisher in April 1552, but an edition of 1000 copies was secretly printed at Vienne. It was finished on 3d January 1553; the bulk of the impression was privately consigned to Lyons and Frankfort, for the Easter market. But on 26th February a letter, enclosing a sheet of the printed book, and revealing the secret of its authorship, was written from Geneva by Guillaume H. C. de Trye, formerly ecJievin of Lyons, to his cousin Antoine Arneys in that city. This letter bears no sign of dictation by Calvin ; the history of De Trye shows that it may have been instigated in part by personal ill-feeling towards the Lyons booksellers. But Calvin furnished (reluctantly, according to De Trye) the samples of Servetus's handwriting enclosed in a subsequent letter, for the express purpose of securing his conviction. 1 Beza incorrectly makes Servetus the challenger and the date 1534. The inquisitor-general at Lyons, Matthieu Ory, set to work on 1 2th March ; Servetus was interrogated on 1 6th March and arrested on 4th April. Under examination his defence was that, in correspondence with Calvin, he had assumed the character of Servetus for purposes of dis- cussion. At 4 A.M. on 7th April he escaped from his prison, evidently by connivance. He took the road for Spain, but turned back in fear of arrest. How he spent the next four months is not known ; Calvin believed he was wandering in Italy ; the idea that he lay concealed in Geneva was first started by Spon. On Saturday 1 2th August he rode into Louyset, a village on the French side of Geneva. Next morning he walked into Geneva, and ordered a boat, to take him towards Zurich on his way for Naples. He was recognized that day at church and immediately arrested. The process against him lasted from 14th August to 26th October, when sentence "estre brusle tout vyf z " was passed, and carried out next day at Champel (27th October 1553). Calvin would have had him beheaded. Meanwhile the civil tribunal at Vienne had ordered (17th June) that he be fined and burned alive ; the sentence of the ecclesiastical tribunal at Vienne was delayed till 23d December. Jacques Charmier, a priest in Servetus's confidence, was condemned to three years' imprisonment at Vienne. The life of Servetus is full of puzzles ; his writings give the impression not only of quick genius but also of transparent sincerity ; they throw, how- ever, little light on the mysterious parts of his story. Don Pedro Gonzalez de Velasco (see his Miguel Servet, 1880) has placed a statue of Servetus in the porch of the Insti- tute Antropologico at Madrid. The opinions of Servetus, marked by strong individuality, are not easily described in the terms of any current system. His ana- baptism, with, his denial of the tripersonality of the Godhead and of the eternity of the Son, made his views abhorrent to Catholics and Protestants alike ; while his intense Biblicism, his passionate devotion to the person of Christ, and the essentially Christocentric character of his view of the universe give him an almost unique place in the history of religious thought. He is sometimes classed with the Arians ; but he endorses in his own way the homoousian formula, and speaks contemptuously of Arius as " Christi glorise incapacissimus. " He has had many critics, some apologists (e.g., Postel and Lincurius), and few followers. The fifteen condemnatory clauses, introducing the sentence of Servetus at Geneva, set forth in detail that he had been found guilty of heresies, expressed in blasphemous language, against the true foundation of the Christian religion. It is curious that one instance of his injurious language is his employment of the term " trinitaires " to denote "ceux qui croyent en la Trinite. " No law, current in Geneva, has ever been adduced as enacting the capital sentence. Claude Rigot, the pro- cureur-general, examined Servetus with a view to show that his legal education must have familiarized him with the provisions of the code of Justinian to this effect ; but in 1535 all the old laws on the subject of religion had been set aside at Geneva ; the only civil penalty for religion, retained by the edicts of 1543, was banish- ment. The Swiss churches, while agreeing to condemn Servetus, give no hint of capital punishment in their letters of advice. The extinct law seems to have been arbitrarily revived for the occasion. A valuable controversy followed, on the question of executing here- tics, in which Beza (for), Mino Celsi (against), and several caustic anonymous writers took part. The works of Servetus are not so rare as is often supposed, but the most common are his earliest, in which he approaches nearer to the position afterwards taken by F. Socinus than he does in his more matured publications. The following is an enumeration of them in the order of their appearance. (1) De Trinitatis Erroribus Libri Scptem, 1531, 16mo. (2) Dialogorum de Trinitate Libri Duo, 1532, 16mo ; four chapters are added on justification and kindred topics. These two books have been twice reprinted and manuscript copies are common ; a Dutch version, by Reynier Telle, was pub- lished in 1620. (3) Claudii Ptolmnsei Alexandrini Geographic^ Enarrationis Libri Octo: ex Bilibaldi Pirckheymcri translatiome, sed ad GrsBca et prism exemplaria a Michaele Villanovano jam primum recogniti. Adjecta insuper ab eodem scholia, &c., Lyons, (Melchior & Caspar Trechsel), 1535, fol. ; 2d ed., Lyons (Hugo a Porta), 1541, i.e., 1542 ; printed by Caspar Trechsel at Vienne, fol. ; on this work Tollin founds his high estimate of Servetus as a comparative geographer ; the passage incriminated on his trial as attacking the authority of Moses is an extract from Lorenz Friese.