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Servetus THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 372 6ervia entirely lacking, and he even denied that one could sin, strictly speaking, before one had reached the age of twenty. Isis stress on intellectuality naturally had no place for infant baptism, and for this very reason he stressed the importance of adult baptism as the conferring of the Spirit, the Lord's Supper as the food of the Spirit, and good works, especially as ceticism, as the exercise of the Spirit. Eschato logically he maintained that the Christian is com pletely freed from the dross of earthly life by a purifying fire. As the physician-in-ordinary of the archbishop of Vienne, Servetus naturally endeavored to keep his authorship of the Restitutio secret, but Calvin recognized the source as soon as he became aware of the book, and at once assailed it as a most danger ous attempt to discredit and destroy nascent French Protestantism. It would seem that 4. Tried by Calvin's first information was gained the Inquisi- from a letter of a Protestant refugee tion. named Guillaume Trie, then residing at Geneva, to a Roman Catholic kinsman, Antoine Arneys, at Lyons, mocking at the ancient Church for harboring a heretic like Servetus. Ar neys, many allege at the indirect instance of Calvin, denounced Servetus to the Inquisiton. At the first trial Servetus denied all knowledge of the Restitutio, whereupon, at the instance of the Inquisitor Ory, Arneys wrote Trie asking for a complete copy of the work. This was no longer accessible, but instead Trie submitted as documents twenty-four letters of Servetus to Calvin, the Genevan theologian mean while seeking to avoid any suggestion that he might be a party to a trial before the Holy Office, deeply regretting that his plan of suppressing Servetus necessitated his formal cooperation, and later ex pressly denying that he had any part whatever in the proceedings. On Apr. 4, 1533, Servetus was arrested at Vienne and examined on the two days following, when he denied that he was Servetus, claimed to have adopted the name of that scholar that he might measure himself with Calvin in dialectics, and of fered to make complete retractation. On Apr. 7 he was permitted to escape, either to guard the archbishop and other noted friends of Servetus against further embarrassment, or to save the In quisition from being made a catspaw for Calvin. The trial, however, continued, and on June 17 Servetus was condemned to the stake, his books and his effigy being burned in his stead. Meanwhile Servetus, being unsuccessful in reach ing the Spanish line, sought to go to Italy by way of Switzerland, his route taking him through Geneva. Learning that his enemy was in the city, Calvin had him arrested on Sunday, Aug. 13, and 5. Before had his secretary, Nicolas de la Fon the Court taine, take the legally requisite duty of at Geneva. plaintiff, the charge being the circula tion of dangerous heresies, for which the defendant, a fugitive from justice, had already been imprisoned. Calvin drew up for De la Fontaine thirty-eight counts against Servetus, the special charges being antitrinitarianism and anabaptism. On Aug. 15 Servetus was brought to trial. As to the Trinity, he admitted that he used the term "Person" in a different sense from his con-
temporaries; he declared himself ready to retract his views on infant baptism; but he maintained that Calvin was guilty of grave errors of doctrine. Calvin now found himself obliged to come forward as the plaintiff, and on Aug. 17 the two opponents came for the first time face to face. In the beginning Servetus proved himself more than a match for Calvin, but so strong were his pantheistic expressions that the Council, feeling that the outcome would prove a tragedy, determined to get further information from Vienne. During the days of waiting which ensued, Calvin wrote Farel (Aug. 20) that he hoped Servetus would be sentenced to capital punishment, though not by a painful death; while Servetus (Aug. 22) vainly protested to the Council against being treated as a criminal, contrary to the tenets of the Apostles and the early Church. On Aug. 24 the prosecutor-general, Claude Rigot, presented a list of thirty charges which, ignoring the differences between Servetus and Calvin, and laying little stress on the Trinitarian problems, attacked primarily the basal ideas of the Restitulio that all Christianity which had previously existed was corrupt, that the Reformation was unChristian, and that all who differed from Servetus were damned, likewise casting suspicion on the private life of the accused. In reply the latter maintained that his intention was good, that he had the highest veneration for the Scriptures, and that he must consider his tenets to be true until they were proved to be false. On Aug. 31 an answer was received from Vienne with a request for the surrender of the fugitive; but Servetus, when offered his choice, preferred to stand trial at Geneva, especially as Calvin was already involved in his struggle with the Libertines. Exhausted by hearing a theological debate between the two principals on Sept. 1, the council determined that the remainder of the controversy should be carried on in writing, and on the following day Calvin declared that the Geneva preachers were ready to prove thirty-eight passages from Servetus to be either heretical, or blasphemous, or contrary to the Word of God and the teaching of the Church. Evidently learning of Calvin's dispute with Philibert Berthelier (see CALVIN, JOHN, § 13), Servetus changed his tone to one of more boldness. The council hesitated to condemn him, and on Sept. 19 determined to send the minutes of the proceedings to Bern, Basel, Zurich, and Schaffhausen, and to ask the advice of both the theologians and the councils of these four cities. At this juncture Servetus formally charged Calvin with deliberate suppression of Christian truth and the like, and demanded that the Geneva theologian be banished and his property confiscated in behalf of the plaintiff, requests which were naturally refused.
On Oct. 19 answers were received. from the four Swiss cities unanimously condemning the doctrines of Servetus and urging the obviation of a peril which threatened the entire Reformed Church, though without direct allusion to the death penalty. The Geneva council now proceeded to final action, and on Oct. 26 Servetus was condemned, not to a merciful death, as Calvin and the other Genevan ministers had wished, but to the stake. The antitrinitarian implored pity from Calvin, who replied