66

THE DEATH SENTENCE.

and painful confinement, he was utterly overcome, shedding tears and uttering cries for mercy.

His death-sentence, after reciting his heresies, of which the principal seems to have been that, "contrary to the true foundation of the Christian Religion, and detestably blaspheming the Son of God, he said that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God from all eternity, but only since his incarnation"-went on to decree, in the name of the Trinity, that he should be bound and conducted to the spot called Champel, there fastened to a stake and burnt alive, along with his manuscripts and printed book, till his body was reduced to ashes.*

When they summoned the condemned, next morning, to execution, he begged to be beheaded, instead of undergoing the torture of fire; adding that if he had erred it was from ignorance, and with pure and good motive, and to further the glory of God. Farell, Calvin's friend and colleague in the ministry, † who had been appointed as his escort, told him, for sole answer, that his best plan was to recant and so gain pardon. Servetus replied that he had committed no crime, nor ever deserved death; but that he prayed God to forgive his accusers the sin they were committing against him. This grievously offended the other, who retorted sharply; and Servetus ceased to beg further mercy of man. This submission so far moved Farell

"Au nom du Père, du Fils, et du sainct Esprit, toy, MICHEL SERVET condamnons a devoir estre lié et mené au lieu de Chapel et là devoir estre à un pilotis attaché et bruslé tout vif avec ton livre, tant ecrit de ta main qu'imprimé, jusqu'à ce que ton corps soit reduit en cendre."-Mosheim, p. 446.

One of the most eloquent and violent among the Protestant divines of that day. He was the author of the celebrated Placards, written at Geneva, posted in an evil hour (during the night of October 24–5, 1534), on the walls of Paris, even in the palace of Francis I., and which, by the gross intemperance of their spirit, and the virulent abuse of their language, arrested for the time the cause of the Reformation in France, defeated the efforts of the gentle Margaret, the king's sister, to procure toleration for the new creed, and brought to torture and to death thousands of brave and good men.

SERVETUS AT THE STAKE.

67

that he sent to the Council praying that Servetus' punishment might be commuted to death by the axe; but the judges were inexorable, and the procession moved toward the small mount outside of the walls where the sentence was to be carried into effect. On the way Servetus exclaimed aloud, from time to time, “O God, save my soul! O Jesus, thou Son of the eternal God, have mercy upon me!",

"Mend thy last words," said his ghostly comforter: "if thou wouldst save thyself, call on Jesus, the eternal Son of God." But he could not be moved to this. When he approached the fatal spot and saw the stake, with fagots piled around it, he fell on his face, praying in silence.

Then Farell harangued the crowd: "You see here," he said, "how mighty is the power of Satan. This wretch, who is about to suffer death, is a very learned man; and perhaps, even, he may think that what he has done is right. But the devil has him in his coils, having taken entire possession. Take heed that a similar calamity overtake not yourselves."

When Servetus arose from prayer, Farell made a last effort to procure from him a confession that Christ was God's son from all eternity. But, in reply, he only cried out: "My God, my God!" "Can't you say something better than that?" persisted the preacher. "What better," replied the poor wretch, "than to call on God in my utmost need?" Then he entreated the bystanders to pray for him.*

At the very last, before he was committed to the executioner's hands, Farell exclaimed: "The eternal Son of God, say but that! Not a word from the convict in reply! He was fastened to the stake by a strong chain about his body and a rope passed several times around his neck, the book which constituted his crime being bound to his loins.

When he saw the fagots kindled and felt the first touch of the flame, he cried out so piteously that the crowd around were

* Calvin (Refut. error. Serveti, p. 704) actually brings it up as an accusation against his victim that he asked the prayers of those whose faith he held to be false and heretical.

68

LAST WORDS OF SERVETUS.

thrilled with horror. The fuel was green oak wood and his torture lasted a full half hour. Some of the spectators, urged by irresistible compassion, flung burning fagots over his body, the sooner to end his agony. His very last words, pronounced in a loud voice, were these: "Jesus, thou Son of the eternal God, take pity upon me."

Thus perished, martyr to his religious opinions, a Protestant whom Mosheim declares to have been " one of the most thoughtful and learned men of his day."† death, but is not responsible for his torture.

Calvin caused his

Nor should we

* These and many other details will be found in Mosheim's Geschichte des Michael Serveto, § xxxi. pp. 225-228.

-"einer der tiefsinningsten und gelehrtesten Männer seiner Zeiten.”—MOSIIEIM: Geschichte des Michael Serveto, p. 230.

Science, too, owes a debt of gratitude to the Spanish physician. The author of the article "Circulation," in Rees' Encyclopedia, says: "The first ray of light was thrown on the circulation of the blood by a man (Servetus) whose name cannot be mentioned without feelings of compassion."

The passage to which the above refers will be found quoted, at length, in An impartial History of Michael Servetus, burnt alive at Geneva for Heresie, London, 1724, p. 67.

were

When it seemed not unlikely that Perret and the other friends of moderation might carry the day and save Servetus' life, Calvin threatened, in that case, to leave Geneva and take up his abode elsewhere; whereupon his friend Heinrich Bullinger, hearing of such intention, thought it necessary to entreat him (by letter of September 14) not to desert a Church where so many good men were to be found; since 66 though swine and dogs " (the writer's paraphrase for heretics) more numerous than could be wished, yet we should bear much for the elect's sake, seeing that through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God."-MOSHEIM, p. 231. HENR. BULLINGER, in Epist. Calvini, No. 157, p. 295. The text is: "Ne recesseris, oro, ab ea ecclesia, quæ tot habet viros excellentes. Tametsi enim sunt porci et canes multo plures quam velimus, propter electos tamen multa sunt toleranda. Per multas tribulationes oportet nos ingredi in regnum Dei."

To console, under anticipated misfortune, a man who fears he shall not have the satisfaction of procuring the death of one who holds religious opinions at variance with his own, by reminding him that it is only

HIS SENTENCE APPLAU DED.

69

regard as feigned a zeal that errs only for lack of knowledge. We have no right to deny that, like Paul before his conversion, the Genevese Reformer verily believed that in persecuting those from whom he dissented he was doing God service. Certain it is, he boldly justified the deed.*

*

Nor he alone. Lamentable to relate, it was generally commended by the Protestants of that day as an act pleasing to God. Mosheim, speaking of the state of feeling among the Reformers, when the news of Servetus' death spread among them, says that while a few condemned the severity of the punishment, by far the greater number endorsed the deed and applauded, as worthy of immortal honor, Calvin's zeal for religion. The mild Melancthon, himself, writing to Calvin a year after the martyrdom of Servetus, scrupled not to say: "The Church owes you now, and will owe you in future times, a debt of gratitude. I affirm that your magistrates acted justly inasmuch as, by judicial sentence, they put to death that blasphemous man."‡

through much tribulation we can reach Heaven, is a very peculiar and very sixteenth-century idea.

However to the credit of the Genevese hierarchy be it said—as soon as it became known that Servetus was doomed to be burnt alive, Calvin and other preachers went in a body to the Council and sought to procure a commutation of the sentence to a miler form of death.-MosHEIM, p. 217.

* "Am I guilty of crime," Calvin wrote, "because our Senate, at my instance (meo hortatu), revenged itself of his (Servetus') execrable blasphemies?" (execrabilis eius blasphemias ultus est.)--CALVINUS, Responsione ad convitia Franc. Balduini, p. 429.

+ "Wenn der Haufe derer gezählet wird, die den Tod des Servet's bedauren, so ist er nur klein in Ansehen derer die sich über den Untergang eines so schädlichen Mannes freueten, und seinen Verfolger als einen um die Kirche unsterblich verdienten Eiferer lobeten."-Geschichte des Michael Serveto, p. 237.

"Tibi quoque ecclesia et nunc et ad posteros gratitudinem debet et debebit. Affirmo, etiam, vestros magistratus juste fecesse, quod hominem blasphemum, re ordire judicata, interfecerunt.-Me ancthon ad Calvinum, Oct. 14, 1554. Calv. Epist. No. 187, p. 341.

30

TOLERATION UNKNOWN THROUGHOUT

Whether Luther would have coincided in this opinion must ever remain matter of conjecture; he died seven years before Servetus suffered. Twenty-five years previous to that event he had written against capital punishment for opinion; de claring that false teachers ought to be banished only.*

§ 7. RELIGIOUS TOLERATION THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

In truth, as a general rule, the sixteenth-century Reformers rejected, in principle and in practice, the idea of religious freedom. Among all the noted theologians of the Reformation, I find but two who upheld man's right to liberty of conscience; Sebastian Castalio and Lælius Socinus; neither to be ranked among the influential leaders of the Protestant movement.† Castalio, French by birth, and for several years professor of classical literature at Geneva (but banished thence in the year 1544 because of a quarrel with Calvin), was the more outspoken. Socinus, an Italian of noble family, and (as is wellknown) an anti-trinitarian, timid by nature, spoke less openly.† *"Ego ad judicium sanguinis tardus sum, etiam ubi meritam abundat. Nullo modo possum admittere falsos doctores occidi: Satis est, eos relegari.--Lutheri Epistolæ (Ed. Aurifabri), vol. ii. p. 381.

Since writing the above I am glad to find, in a recent work, evidence going to prove that Zwingli should be added to the list. Lecky (Rationalism in Europe, vol. i. p. 382, New York Ed.) quotes from Bossuet (Variations Protestantes, Book 2, Chap. 19) an extract from a Confession of Faith, written by the Swiss Reformer, just before his death, in which Zwingli describes that "future assembly of all the saintly, the heroic, the faithful and the virtuous," when Abel and Enoch, Noah and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, will mingle with the sages and heroes of Greece and Rome, and when every upright and holy man who has ever lived will be present with his God. All honor to Ulrich Zwingli, gallant torch-bearer in a benighted generation! Bossuet, of course, adduces the sentiment as the climax of heresy.

Beza (Life of Calvin, Book 8) speaks of these two as the chief supporters of freedom of opinion at that day. In the preface to a Latin