Toleration
T is marvellous how deep rooted and wide-spread in the 16th century was the awful notion that a fersistent adherence to, and a determination in spreading, error should be punished by the state, and awarded with
death. No doubt, on account of the Papacy for so many
“ Bunceuer’s ‘‘ History of the Life, Labours and Writings of Calvin.”
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years claiming authority over kinys and princes, it seemed natural to the men of Geneva, even in drawing up laws to regulate a republic, to blend religion with the state to such an extent that to preach error was to disturb the peace of the society and endanger the safety of the nation.
We must not, however, confound this condition of society, whatever its dreadful results, with the intolerance of the Papacy. The Church of Rome would diligently seek after and burn men for their private opinions, and even for reading the Bible; while the laws of Geneva would only punish men who, by propagating their errors, were determined disturbers of the public peace, even as Servetus who had for about twenty years disturbed Christendom with his strange notions.
To us, in England, in the 19th century, with our advanced toleration, and its happy results, it may seem strange that Protestant Reformers should not have advocated far more liberal sentiments. We must not, however, suppose that that toleration which is good for a well regulated and peace seeking community to be good for every nation, and under all circumstances. Everything must be educated up to the same standard, or toleration would simply be confusion. It is the state of society that suggests right rules for its regulation. By the laws of Geneva, and this prevailing notion of state interference, we must account for Calvin giving notice of the presence of Servetus in the city, and demanding his apprehension.
A FRESH INDICTMENT AGAINST SERVETUS.
On August 23rd, 1553, however, Calvin was entirely relieved of this responsibility, and his indictment was virtually at an end. The prosecution was then taken entirely into the hands of the Attorney-General, and he produced a new indictment, which ran thus: ‘These are the interrogations and articles upon which the Attorney- General of this city desires to question Michael Servetus, a prisoner guilty of blasphemies, of heresies, and of disturbing Christendom.”
“Tf Servetus had had in the eyes of the Genevese justice, no other fault than that of which De la Fontaine had declared him guilty in regard to Calvin, his acquittal had been sure,” says Rilliet. ‘(If Calvin alone,” he con-
HIS LIFE AND TIMES.. 115
tinues, ‘had been concerned in the affair of Servetus, all his efforts would have been unavailing to secure his condemnation. Servetus was tried and condemned by the | majority of the judges not at all as the opponent of Calvin—scarcely asa heretic— but essentially as.seditious. Politics acted a much more important part than theology towards the close of the trial—they came on at this stage with the Attorney-General.” *
The idea that the Reformer entertained strong feelings of personal animosity against Servetus is without foundation. Calvin said at the trial he hated the errors, not the man, That Servetus ever regarded him as his most implacable enemy, even as the Pharisees regarded Christ because He told them the truth, cannot be doubted; and that Calvin, however wrongly, in common with all Europe, except a few personal enemies of the Reformer, regarded the death of Servetus as a political, social, and religious necessity, we will not deny, but that he was moved with godly zeal to preserve the Reformation from the hands of destroyers, and not from personal feelings of bitterness, we think the whole tenor of this trial fully demonstrates.
THE COUNCIL RELEASE BERTHELIER AND DEPRIVE CALVIN OF THE POWER TO EXCLUDE THE PROFANE FROM THE LORD’S TABLE,
It will be remembered that Philip Berthelier, assistant of the Lieutenant for Criminal Causes, had been excluded from the Lord’s table. Onthe morning of September 1st, he appeared before the Council and demanded that the sentence of the Spiritual Court should be annulled. Calvin hastened to warn the Council that to comply with Berthelier’s request was contrary to the edicts of the republic. Regardless, however, of the Reformer’s expostulations, whose authority they now held in contempt, they took this power into their own hands, and released Berthelier from the sentence of the pastors, giving him power to appear at the Communion table on the next Lord’s day. According to this sentence, Calvin was expected, as the servant or
* Rilliet, of Geneva, in his “ Life and Trial of Servetus ” p.181: “ Such is the dispassionate judgment of one who has thoroughly weighed the documentary and historical evidence of this melancholy affair, and who has suffered himself to be blinded by no veneration for Calvin or sympathy for his work.’’—Dr. Wylie.
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slave of the Council, instead of the Lord’s free man, to administer the symbols of the body and blood of the Lord, contrary to his conscience, to a man of ungodly life. Thus the Libertines were gaining victory upon victory, while Calvin was losing power.
In the afternoon of the same day Calvin and his colleagues were again called upon to confront Servetus in the prison. Here Perrin and Berthelier and their party, flushed with the morning’s victory, and seeing, as they supposed, the Reformer falling before them, proposed in the interests of Servetus, that the debate between him and Calvin should be continued in writing. Calvin was therefore ordered to make thirty-eight extracts from the works of the prisoner without note or comment, and these were to be handed to Servetus for his replies. The following Lord’s day, being the first of the month, Calvin and the other pastors would have to administer the Lord’s supper. Berthelier was expected by the Libertines to be present, and Calvin, by administering the supper to him, to throw the reigns of the Reformation into their hands.
THE SNARE AND THE DELIVERER.
What a striking similarity is observable between the snare that was laid to entrap the godly Daniel and the trap laid to catch this man of God. The powers of hell and of ungodly men combined to bring forth nothing new. The same temptations and snares that we read of in the Word we find practised over again every day. ‘‘ Weshall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God” (Daniel vi. 5), said the presidents and princes of Babylon. The next step was to make a law that would give undue honour to the king; alaw that Daniel, as a man of God, would be compelled to break. Just so with the Libertines of Geneva. They had induced the Council to arrogate to themselves a power to which they knew the Reformer could not submit without effending his conscience and his God. They knew, too, that for Calvin to defy the Council was to endanger his life. Already they seemed satisfied of victory. Even Servetus in his cell, who heard through the gaoler of the Reformers impending downfall, changed his tone, and expressed himself as one who had his enemy under his feet. Had it not been the Lord who was on Calvin’s side, ‘‘men would have swallowed him up quick,” but the Lord is ‘‘a very present help 1y trouble,” God can deliver, when to reason there seems no way of escape. Many were the sighs and cries of the Lord’s praying people, we doubt not, on that
EVENTFUL OCCASION.
Dr. Wylie’s valuable “History of Protestantism,” says of Sunday, September 3rd, ‘‘ No more eventful day had for centuries risen over Geneva, or indeed over Christendom. This day it was to be seen whether Protestantism, which had retreated within its last stronghold, would recruit its powers and re-organize its forces, and from hence go forth to re-conquer Christendom, or whether it would relinquish the battle as beyond its strength. France, under. Henry | II., was blazing with martyr-piles. With Mary in England had come a fiercer tempest of persecution than that country had ever before known. On every side, up to the limits of Genevan territory, the Reformation was pursued by the tyrant and the inquisitor.
‘‘The customary hour of worship was now come. The throng of worshippers had rolled past, and now the streets which had resounded with their tread were empty and silent. It was around the pulpit of St. Peter’s, and the man with pale face, commanding eye, and kingly brow, who occupied it, that the heart of Geneva palpitated. The church was filled with an uneasy crowd. On the benches of the Consistory sat, unmoved, the pastors and elders, resolved to bear the greatest violence rather than not do their duty. A confused noise was heard within the temple, and a numerous band of men, of all ranks, their hands upon their sword-hilts, forced their way in the presence of the holy table.
‘‘Calvin, calm as ever, rose to begin the service. Hecould but see the group of Libertines in the vast congregation before, but he seemed as if he saw them not. He preached on the state of mind with which the Lord’s supper ought to be received. At the close, raising his voice, he said, ‘ As for me, as long as God shall leave me here, since He has given me fortitude, and I have received it from Hit, I will employ it whatever betide; and I will guide myself by my Master’s rule, which is to me clear and well known, As we are now about to receive the holy supper of our Lord Jesus Christ, if any one who has been debarred by the Consistory shall approach this table, though it should cost my life, I will show myself such as I
nad
CALVIN REFUSING THE LORD’S SUPPER TO THE LIBERTINES IN ST. PETER’S CATHEDRAL, GENEVA. *
ought to be.” Berthelier, who had received a voucher from the Council authorizing him to approach the table, did not enter the church with the band of Libertines, and a messenger was sent by the party at this juncture warning him not to come in.;
‘When the liturgies were concluded, Calvin came down from the pulpit and took his stand before the table. Having blessed the bread and wine, he was about to distribute them to the congregation. At that moment there was seen a movement among the Libertines, as if they would seize the bread and the cup.. The Reformer, covering the sacred symbols with his hands exclaimed with a voice that rang through the edifice; ‘These hands you may crush; these arms you may lop off; my life you may take; my blood is yours, you may shed it; but you shall never force me to give holy things to the profane, and dishonour the table of my God!’ These words broke like a thunder-peal over the Libertines. As if an invisible power had flung back the ungodly host they slunk away abashed, the congregation opening a passage for their retreat, A deep calm succeeded; and ‘ the sacred ordinance,’ says Beza, ‘was celebrated with a profound silence, and under a solemn awe in all present, as if the Deity Himself had been visible among them.” Thus Calvin acted, like Daniel, in the fear of the Lord, and God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths that they should not hurt him.
CALVIN TAKING FAREWELL OF HIS FLOCK.
In the afternoon of the same Sunday he ascended the pulpit to take farewell of the flock from which he expected the coming day would see him parted, probably, for ever. He chose as the subject of his discourse, Paul’s farewell address to the elders of the Church at Ephesus. Here he warned the people that he was not a man to teach others to fight against magistrates, although he had been compelled to act contrary to their edict. He exhorted the people to keep close to the doctrine which he had ever preached among them. At the close of the sermon he stretched forth his hands over his weeping and loving flock, and said, ‘‘ Since these things are so, allow me also, brethren, to usé these words of the Apostle, ‘I commend you to the Lord, and to the Word of His grace.’”
The next day the Reformer waited hour after hour for the order of banishment, but no order to this effect came, Calvin’s bright example of a faithful minister of Christ is most worthy of emulation. ‘‘ Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” is the
soul inspiring promise of the Son of Man who holds the seven stars in His right hand.
CALVIN PREACHING HIS FAREWELL SERMON,
“ The Christian warrior—see him stand In the whole armour of his God; The Spirit’s sword is in his hand, His feet are with the gospel shod.
Undaunted to the field he goes,
Yet vain were skill and valqur there, Unless, to foil his legion foes,
The trustiest weapon were ‘ all prayer.’
With this, omnipotence he moves, From this the alien armies flee;
Till more than conqueror he proves, Through Christ, Who gives him victory.
Thus, strong in his Redeemer’s strength, Sin, death, and hell he tramples down,
Fights the good fight, and wins at length, Through mercy, an immortal crown.”