The Field of Calvin's Labour Fixed by God
HE work of Calvin was not yet finished at Geneva.
" Small as the city was, God had designed that it
should be a strong Protestant eminence, from which
the pen and tongue of the Reformer should speak to
the nations of Europe. Could the exasperated Libertines
have had their way, they would not only have waited upon
him with an order of banishment, but they would have led
him to the stake long before. God, however, was a wall
of fire around him, and the glory in the midst, and His servant was immortal till his work was done.
Of the real character of Calvin and of his bearing towards Servetus, much may be gleaned from our last chapter. Can we suppose him to have been a self-seeking, time serving man, full of rage against Servetus, when, at the very moment that both their lives were in the same balances, he endangered his own standing at Geneva, and put his life in the hands of his enemies rather than dishonour his God? Surely the true character of the faithful ambassador of Christ is here manifest to every honest mind that is acquainted with the circumstances. Had Calvin failed in his bold adventure, the probability is that he would have exchanged places with Servetus.
AN OFFICER FROM VIENNE DEMANDS SERVETUS.
On August 31st, three days before the memorable September 8rd, a state officer from Vienne arrived at Geneva to thank the magistrates for informing them of the detention of Servetus, and to beg that he might be sent back with him, that the sentence of slow burning already passed upon their prisoner might be carried into execution. It is remarkable that Roman Catholics, in the face of this fact, should not only unjustly charge Calvin with the martyrdom of Servetus, but reproach him with it as an act of cruelty. Considering, too, that the laws of the Papacy, by which hundreds of thousands of God’s children have been tortured and burned, are unrepealed to this day.
The officer was introduced to Servetus, and the latter was asked if he would prefer returning with him to Vienne, but he fell upon his knees and begged that he might remain and be judged in Geneva. ‘The sequel, however, proved that the unhappy man gained but little advantage from the choice. The government of Geneva had been remodelled, and some laws for the suppression of immorality had been introduced. But the old canon law of the Papacy for the burning of heretics was still in force, and Calvin having, at this time, lost his influence with the Council, his earnest entreaties that the sword might be substituted for the stake were disregarded.
THE ARTICLES OF ACCUSATION.
The articles which Calvin was ordered on September Ist to extract from the prisoner’s works were immediately prepared and handed to him for his replies. They chiefly contained blasphemies against Jesus and the Holy Ghost. Servetus complained of not having books for reference, but Calvin engaged to lend him such as he might require, that no injustice might be done to him. Servetus, trusting to the success of his friends, the Libertines, and viewing Calvin as already fallen, did not deem it necessary now to hide his real principles, nor, in his reply, to enter into an elaborate argument, but contented himself chiefly with
_abusing the Reformer. __
“The replies of Servetus to this document,” says Dyer, ‘‘are very insolent, and seem almost like the productiens of a madman.” The whole of his answer is interspersed with sentences like the following :—‘‘ Wretch, do not think to stun the ears of the judges by your barking! You have a confused intellect, so that you cannot understand the truth. Perverted by Simon Magus, you are ignorant of the first principles of things. You make men only blocks and stones, by establishing the slavery of the will. Deny yourself to be a homicide, and I will prove it by your acts. Who, therefore, can trust you as a good tree? In so just a cause my constancy is unshaken, and I fear not death.”
To the reply of Servetus, Calvin wrote an answer, which was signed by all the fourteen pastors of Geneva, and presented to the Council with notes of Servetus attached to the same.
THE CASE REFERRED TO THE CHURCHES AND MAGISTRATES OF SWITZERLAND.
After careful deliberation, the magistrates and Council of Geneva were unwilling to pass judgment without first obtaining the opinions of their Protestant allies. It was therefore resolved that a state messenger should be despatched with the documents, and letters addressed to the magistrates and pastors of the four reformed cities of Switzerland. On September 21st, Jacquemoz Jernoz started on the state errand to Berne, Zurich, Schaffhausen, and Basle, with special orders to give them time for careful deliberation. While this messenger is on his way, let us read
THE LETTER OF SERVETUS.
“Tn a letter to the Council he is ‘ content to die,’ he says. “If he does not succeed in confounding Calvin, he only asks that he may be detained a prisoner like himself, and once confounded, be put to death instead of him.’ ”
“On September 22nd he writes formally to the Council to demand that an accusation may be brought against Calvin, and in his turn he draws up a long list of ‘ articles about which Michael Servetus demands that John Calvin should be interrogated.’ He ends by saying that Calvin ought to be expelled from Geneva, ‘like a. magician, as he is, and his property ought to be adjudged to me, in compensation for mine which he -has caused me to lose.’ ” *
* Bungener, p..252,
THE VERDICT OF THE CITIES AND PASTORS OF SWITZERLAND.
‘‘At the end of nearly a month the messenger returned. The answers of the cities and pastors were given in to the Council on October 18th. They were eight in all, there being a deliverance from the government and a deliverance from the church in each case. The verdict, eight times pronounced, with awful unanimity, was death. Thus outside the territory of Geneva, was the case of Servetus decided.* The magistrates of Geneva closed their Diet of October 26th with a decree condemning Servetus to death. We record with horror the sentence, but it is the sentence, not of the magistrates of Geneva only, nor of the magistrates and pastors of reformed Switzerland only; it is the sentence of Christendom of that age. The Inquisition on one side and Melancthon, the mildest of the Reformers, on the other, are heard expressing their concurrence in it.
‘¢ At this supreme hour one man alone comes forward to attempt a mitigation of the punishment of Servetus. Who is that man? He is John Calvin. He earnestly interceded with the Council that the sword might be substituted for the fire; but he interceded in vain. ‘It is to him, notwithstanding,’ says Rilliet, ‘that men have always imputed the guilt of that funeral pile, which he wished had never been reared.’ ”
“The pile,” says Bungener, ‘whose bloody smoke has cast so odious a shadow over the whole life of Calvin, —Calvin did not demand it,—Calvin did not desire it,—Calvin wished that the guilty man might be exempt, from it. ”
NOW LET US REFLECT UPON THE WHOLE AFFAIR..
We must candidly confess that we never thoroughly investigated the case of Servetus till we commenced this memoir. Often have we been as deeply pained to hear it said, that ‘‘ the burning of Servetus would ever remain a blot upon the memory of Calvin,” as we have been perplexed to reconcile such an. act with the grace the Reformer possessed. Now, having carefully weighed all that ‘Theodore Beza, 'T. H. Dyer, Dr. Wylie, Felix Bungener,
* The replies of the magistrates and pastors of the four cities may be found in Ruchat, tom. vi., pp. 4848 and Dr. Tweedie’s translation of Rilliet. and some others, have written, together with the numerous authors they quote, we are relieved and gratified to find that the charges brought against the Reformer are most unfounded. He took no more part in this solemn matter than any honest Christian man, under the same circumstances, would be compelled to take. Roman Catholic authors, of course, feel justified in slandering a heretic, to serve their church according to Canon Law, which directs them to persecute the same unto death. The absurd things they sometimes publish respecting Calvin are self-evident falsehoods. Such things we pass over, leaving them till that day when ‘God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.”
If Calvin had been all powerful at the time of the trial at Geneva, we might safely conclude that his opinion must have weighed heavily on one side or the other. A careful review, however, of the events proves that the Council of whom Perrin, Calvin’s enemy, was chief, was in direct conflict with him during the whole period of the trial, and that he could therefore in no way have influenced the Council against Servetus. On August 15th, 1553, Servetus had his first hearing. Auguet 16th, the first day of the trial, Calvin and Servetus held a debate. At this meeting Berthelier, who was excluded from the Lord’s table by Calvin, undertook to defend Servetus. On the 21st, Calvin and his colleagues were ordered fo be present to assist the Council in understanding Servetus’ interpretation of the Fathers. August 31st, the state officer arrived from Vienne demanding their prisoner that he might be executed according to their wish.
On September Ist, the Council withdrew from the pastors the right to exclude from the Lord’s table, took the power into their own hands, and gave Berthelier a warrant to be at the communion against the wish of Calvin. On the same day Calvin had to meet the prisoner and discuss the different points of their faiths. September 2nd, Calvin appeared before the Council to demand the cancelling of the warrant, but they declined to comply. September 3rd, he withstood the order of the Council, and refused communion to the Libertines at the peril of his life; and preached what he supposed to be his farewell sermon,;
On September 4th, he waited for the order of banishment. September 5th, the documents of Servetus and Calvin were presented to the Council. September 7th, Calvin wrote to Bullinger saying, ‘“ Our Council will shortly send the dogmas of Servetus to you, to learn your opinion of them. I protest against them giving you this trouble; but they have arrived at such a pitch of madness and fury, that they are suspicious of all that I say; 80 that if I should affirm at midday that the sun shone, they would immediately begin to doubt.” By this time the trial was virtually at an end, so that it may easily be seen that Calvin was not all powerful with the Council as has been generally supposed.