Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 12.djvu/109

Rh printed books made use of scurrilous and blasphemous terms of reproach in speaking of Monsieur John Calvin and his doctrines."

Servetus's reply in his preliminary interrogatory was: that he was not conscious of having caused any trouble to the churches of Germany, and defied any one to prove it; that he was unaware that the book he owned to have had printed at Hagenau had produced any evil; that it was true he had commented on the above-mentioned books, but he had said nothing in them that was not the truth; and in the book lately printed he did not believe that he blasphemed, but if it were shown that he had said anything amiss, he was ready to amend it; that in the book he wrote on the Trinity he had followed the teaching of the doctors who lived immediately after Christ and the apostles; that previous to the Council of Nicæa no doctor of the Church had used the word Trinity; that his strong language against the Trinity, as apprehended by the modern doctors, was suggested by the belief that the unity of God was by them denied or annulled; that as regards infant baptism it was his belief that none should be baptized who had not attained the years of discretion; but he added, as ever, that if he were shown to be mistaken, he was ready to submit to correction; that Calvin had no right to complain of the respondent's abusive language, as he had been himself publicly abused by Calvin: he had but retaliated, and shown him from his writings that he was mistaken in many things.

On August 15th the council was formally installed as a court of criminal judicature, and the trial commenced; the answers of the prisoner to the articles being generally in the terms of his previous examination. The court closed the meeting with making good a petition of Nicolas La Fontaine to be discharged from prison, Servetus himself having given sufficient prima-facie evidence of his guilt. Bail was, however, required; and this was immediately forthcoming in the person of Monsieur Antoine Calvin, brother of the Reformer. The chef de cuisine was discharged, while Servetus was remanded to jail. About this time, in a letter to his bosom friend Farel, after relating the events of Servetus's arrest and of the proceedings against him, Calvin wrote, "I hope the sentence will be capital at least."

It would be most interesting to follow this unprecedented sham-trial in all its details, as Dr. Willis has done; but want of space limits us to mere outlines of it. The party of free thought, or Libertines, showing sympathy for the prisoner, the trial assumed the character of a struggle between the two factions in Geneva. It was necessary for Calvin to nip in the bud the new growth of rebellion against his authority; and, throwing aside disguise, he now came forward as prosecutor of Servetus. The Spaniard's opinions differed so obviously from all they had ever been led to believe, that it was easy for Calvin to satisfy the majority of the judges of Servetus's culpability on theological grounds. It seems, however, that a feeling in favor of the