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new edition of Ptolemy's Geography. He also practised physic at Paris, and published three or four detached pieces. One was an apo logy for Dr. Champier at Lyons: another a professional piece, De Syrupis. He had a dispute with the physicians of Paris, which ob liged him to publish an apology for himself. This dispute rose to a process before parliament, which was terminated by the suppression of the Doctor's apology, and an order of the house to the physicians to live on better terms with him, and to use him with humanity. This implies that their treatment of him had been reprehensible. It seems the misunderstanding with his brethren of the profession made his living at Paris disagreeable to him: accordingly we find, soon after the termination of the above process, he retired from that city.'

The succeeding passages will lead us to the epoch of the troubles that brought on the catastrophe, which so deeply tarnishes the lustre which the learning and spiritual ascendancy of Calvin had thrown around his name:

Leaving Paris, Servet us went to Lyons, where he made some stay. He made a journey to Avignon, returned to Lyons, and at last s ttled at Charlieu, where he practised medicine about three years '-

From Charlieu, Servetus returned to Lyons, where he met with Peter Palinier, archbishop of Vienne, in Dauphine. This prelate had been some time ago at Paris either a friend or pupil of the Doctor, who had given him lectures on Ptolemy's geography. Being a great lover of learned men, and fond of Servetus, he pressed him to go to Vienne, to practice physic, and offered him an apartment in his palace. This offer the Doctor accepted.

His friendship with the archbishop, and residence in his palace, led the enemies of Servetus to reproach him with hypocrisy as if two men of learning and liberal sentiments could not live together in peace, however different their opinions on certain subjects, without one of them being a hypocrite. Not knowing (says Mr. Robinson) either his or his patron's principles of religious liberty, knowing for certain that one was what they called a popish prelate, and the other an anti-trinitarian anabaptist; and judging of the conduct of both by their own maxims, they had no notion of two such men living together each in the enjoyment of his own religious principles, and neither presuming to offer any force to the other. This prelate seems to have been one of those, of whom there have been numbers in the catholic church, who think freely but do not act consistently, who regulate their own private conduct by principles the most virtuous and liberal, but who for reasons best known to themselves, adjust all their public measures by established rules of despotism, which they inwardly disapprove. It belongs to the great being alone to combine all the circumstances that go to make up the merit or demerit of such men and to him alone it must be left to pass the definitive sentence. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.' Happy would it be, if christians, of all parties, would treat each other with the forbearance and respect which this Roman catholic archbishop, and anti-trinitarian

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baptist, notwithstanding the known discordance of their opinions, appear to have manifested during their long intimacy.'- '

During a residence of about thirteen years, the Doctor seems to have been fully employed at Vienne, either in the duties of his profession, or in some literary occupation. During that period he lived upon good terms with his right reverend patron, enjoying safety under his auspices, and might have continued to have done so had not his repose been destroyed by the wicked machinatioms of his enemies.'

It is, we think, here satisfactorily shewn that the proceedings which obliged the unhappy Servetus to fly from Vienne were instigated by the secret machinations of Calvin. This fact is proved by a letter from a partisan of the reformer to his catholic correspondent at Vienne, which every one must believe to have been dictated by Calvin. The writer remonstrates against the cruelties practised by the Romanists towards those of the new communion, and then proceeds thus to censure their culpable want of vigilance in the case of the sceptical physician :

I am obliged to speak freely; what a shame it is that those are persecuted to death, who say, That we must invoke one only God, in the name of Jesus Christ; That there is no other satisfaction but that which has been made in the death and passion of Jesus Christ; That there is no other purgatory but in his blood; That there is no other service agreeable to God but that which he commands and ap→ proves by his word; That all pictures and images counterfeited by men, are so many idols which profane his Majesty; That we ought to keep the sacrament after the usage appointed by Jesus Christ? But to see that they are not content with putting such people simply to death, but that they should be cruelly burned. And yet behold him who shall call Jesus Christ an idol; who shall de stroy all the foundations of faith; who shall gather together all the dreams of the ancient heretics; who shall even condemn the baptism of little children, calling it a diabolical invention; and yet he shall have the vogue amongst you, and be supported as if he had committed no fault. Where is, I pray you, the zeal you pretend to ? and where is the wisdom of this fine hierarchy you magnify so much? The man I speak of to you, has been condemned in all the churches you reprove. In the mean time he is tolerated amongst you, even to the printing of his books; which are so full of blasphemy, that I need not say any more of them. This man is a Portuguese Spaniard, called Michael Servetus for his proper name, but at present he calls himself Villeneuve, practising physic. He has made some stay at Lyons; just now he is at Vienne, where the book I have mentioned, has been printed by a certain person who has directed the press, called Balthazard Arnoullet; and that you may not think I talk upon hearsay, I send you the first sheet as a specimen. You say that such books as contain nothing else, but that, we must keep to the pure simplicity of the holy scripture, poison the world; and if they came

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from any other quarter, you would not suffer them; mean time you foster these poisons, which are enough to annihilate the holy scripture, and every article of the christian religion you believe.'

This letter was laid before the Inquisitor, who directed that farther inquiries should be made of the Genevese Calvinist ; and additional information was supplied in another letter, which led to the arrest, imprisonment, and flight of Servetus. A most friendly intercourse was carried on between the votaries of Rome and the disciples of the Genevese reformer, the object of which was to shed the blood of the unhappy unitarian. Servetus, in his absence, was condemned to be burned alive; and the sentence, in all its formalities, was executed on his effigy.

Four months Servetus concealed himself nobody knows where. At length he resolved to go to Naples, and to practise physic there. He took the way of Geneva, and arrived there on foot. How long he was there before he was arrested is uncertain; but it is natural to suppose he would not choose to stay long in a place where he knew his greatest adversary resided, and had great influence: and white there he kept himself very close. How Calvin learned that the Doctor was in Geneva we are not told; but so soon as he knew that he was in that city, he prevailed on the chief Syndic to cause him to be put in prison. There were found upon him ninety-seven pieces of gold, a gold chain, which weighed about twenty crowns, and six gold rings. Of these he was robbed. They were delivered to the jailor, and he never recovered them. What right had his persecutors to seize his property as if he had been a common thief? Did they apply it to defray the expenses of their murderous proceedings against him?

We cannot abstain from inserting the very just and pertinent reflections which the author makes on the arrest of Servetus:

• The arrest of Servetus at Geneva, was a gross violation of justice and hospitality, to say nothing of the principles of christianity. He was neither a member of Calvin's church, nor a subject of the Genevese state; consequently he could not be accountable to either the civil or ecclesiastical power in that city. He had published no book, nor committed any act of which the law could take cogni. zance, on the territory of the republic; it follows that, even allow. ing him to be a heretic, and heresy to be a capital crime, it was contrary to every rule of justice for the magistrates of Geneva to arrest him To seize the traveller who merely stays to refresh his weary body at an inn in their city, is most inhospitable. Was this their christian entertainment of strangers, to cast them into a damp prison as soon as they found them on their territory? Were these their bowels and mercies to a persecuted brother, who had narrowly es caped being burnt alive, in a slow fire, by the anti-christian church of Rome? Was this their cup of cold water to a disciple of Jesus, in

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the day of his adversity? Was Geneva reformed for no other pur pose than to intercept those who fled from the merciless fury of popish persecutors, to be a harbour of unsocial bigots, lordly usurpers of dominion over conscience? Poor Servetus! thou didst escape. from the jaws of the lion, but it was only to fall into the paws of the bear! It will be seen in the sequel, that the treatment of the Doctor in the prison of Geneva was far more brutal than that he received in the prison at Vienne. In the latter he was treated like a gentleman, but in the former, he was treated with rudeness and barbarity.

Calvin ought to have been the last man in the world to call for the arrest of Servetus, and to promote a criminal prosecution against him. He could not do it without raising a suspicion that his own doctrines could not be supported by scripture and argument, with out the aid of penal laws, and persecuting measures, the props of pa pal superstition. He could not do it without laying himself open to the suspicion of acting under the influence of the base principle of personal revenge, on account of the personal altercation he had been engaged in with the Doctor. As he regarded Servetus in the light of an enemy, he had a fine opportunity of doing honour to his own cause, and of showing the influence of the gospel upon his mind; by manifesting to him the spirit of christian charity, receiving him with hospitality, protecting him from harm, guarantee ing to him his liberty and safety, and rejoicing in his escape from the fangs of persecution; but letting so glorious an opportunity slip, of doing honour to christianity, aud his own system in particular,, he disgraced the christian name, and rendered it impossible for any one to call himself a calvinist without taking a deliberate murderer for his leader. Ah calvanism! thou derivest thy name from a man stained with the blood of his christian brother, who differed from him in opinion.'

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The nominal prosecutor of Servetus was one la Fontaine, who is supposed to have been a poor scholar living in Calvin's family but it cannot be doubted that the prime mover in the proceeding was the reformer himself.-It ought not to escape notice that one of the charges exhibited against the unhappy yictim was, that in the person of Mr. Calvin, minister of the word of God in this church of Geneva, he had defamed in a printed book, the doctrine that is preached, uttering all the injurious and blasphemous words that can be invent-d.' The ambition, tyrannical temper, and ferocity displayed in the whole course of this affair shew that the Pope of Geneva would not have disgraced the Roman tiara; and the trial could not have been conducted with more oppression and severity by the Inquisition itself. Referring to this trial, Mr. Wright states that, in this proceeding, two things are observable, First, that the offence Servetus had given to John Calvin was one of the great crimes charged upon him, and supposed equal to blasphemy

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blasphemy against God. Second, that the Genevese were strangers to that excellent maxim of our law, that no man shall be compelled to answer questions that would criminate himself. The prisoner had petitioned "that he might on account of his ignorance of the laws of Geneva be permitted to have an Attorney to speak for him :" but, instead of complying with so reasonable a request,

The Attorney General represented to the judges, that Servetus varied in his answers; that they were full of lies, that he made a mock of God and his word, by alledging, corrupting, and wresting the pas sages of the holy scriptures to conceal his blasphemies, and avoid be ing punished. He added, that Servetus had made a wrong choice of the examples quoted by him, out of the Acts of the apostles; and that what he had said of the emperor Constantine was false. Besides, he alledged against the prisoner the laws of those emperors, who con demned heretics to death. He further said that Servetus was condemned by his own conscience, and sensible that he deserved death; and that like the anabaptists, he deprived the magistrates of the tight of the sword. Lastly, he concluded, that since Servetus knew so well how to tell lies he should not have an attorney, as he desired that such a thing was forbidden by the civil law, and never granted to such seducers.'

Many persons have entertained suspicions that Servetus was rather an indiscreet man than a heretic; and some passages, which occur in his answer to the charges brought against him, seem to countenance these doubts: ex. gr.

I said that the second person in the Deity, was formerly called a person, because it was a personal representation of the man Christ Jesus, hypostatically subsisting anciently in God, and visibly resplen dent in the Deity itself. But because this account of the word person, is unknown to Calvin, and because the whole affair depends upon it, I will produce several places here, out of the ancient doctors of the church.'

To the first article I have more than once answered; and it is evident from the authors, I have quoted, that in the divine essence and unity of God, there is not a real distinction of three invisible beings; but there is a personal distinction of the invisible Father, and the visible Son. I religiously believe a Trinity in this second way, not in the first.'

We shall give to our readers the concluding part of the sentence pronounced by the protestant magistrates of Geneva, against a stranger whom they seized while he was passing through their city in his way to another place :

By this our definitive sentence which we give in writing, we condemn thee MICHAEL SERVETUS to be bound, and carried to the place called Champel, and there to be fastened to a post and burnt alive with thy books, both written with thy own hand, and printed, till

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