§ 158. A Plea for Religious Liberty. Castellio and Beza.
§ 158. A Plea for Religious Liberty. Castellio and Beza.
Cf. § 126, p. 627, and especially Ferd. Buisson, Sébastien Castellion. Paris (Hachette et Cie), 1892. 2 vols. 8vo (I. 358–413; II. 1–28).
A month after Calvin’s defence of the death penalty of heretics, there appeared at Basel a pseudonymous book in defence of religious liberty, dedicated to Duke Christopher of Würtemberg.1213 It was edited and prefaced professedly by Martinus Bellius, whose real name has never been discovered with certainty. Perhaps it was Martin Borrhaus of Stuttgart (1499–1564), professor of Hebrew learning in the University of Basel, and known under the name of "Cellarius," in honor of his first protector, Simon Cellarius (not to be confounded with Michael Cellarius of Augsburg). He studied at Heidelberg and Wittenberg, appeared first among the Zwickau Prophets, and then in connection with Carlstadt (who ended his days likewise as a professor at Basel).1214 The book was misdated from Magdeburg, the stronghold of the orthodox Lutherans, in opposition to the tyranny of the Imperial Interim. A French edition appeared, nominally at Rouen, but was probably printed at Lyons, where Castellio had a brother in the printing business.1215
Calvin at once suspected the true authors, and wrote to Bullinger, March 28, 1554: "A book has just been clandestinely printed at Basel under false names, in which Castellio and Curio pretend to prove that heretics should not be repressed by the sword. Would that the pastors of that church at length, though late, aroused themselves to prevent the evil from spreading wider."1216 A few days afterwards Beza wrote to Bullinger about the same book, and gave it as his opinion that the feigned Magdeburg was a city on the Rhine [Basel], and that Castellio was the real author, who treated the most important articles of faith as useless or indifferent, and put the Bible on a par with the Ethics of Aristotle.1217
Castellio wrote, however, only a part of the book. He adopted the pseudonym of Basilius (i.e. Sebastian) Montfortius (i.e. Castellio).1218
The body of this work consists of a collection of testimonies in favor of religious toleration, extracted from the writings of Luther (his book, Von weltlicher Obrigkeit, 1523), Brenz (who maintain that heresy as long as it keeps in the intellectual sphere should be punished only by the Word of God), Erasmus, Sebastian Frank, several Church Fathers (Lactantius, Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustin, in his antiManichaean writings), Otto Brunsfeld (d. at Bern, 1534), Urbanus Rhegius (Lutheran theologian, d. 1541), Conrad Pellican (Hebrew professor at Zürich, d. 1556), Caspar Hedio, Christoph Hoffmann, Georg Kleinberg (a pseudonym) and even Calvin (in the first edition of his Institutes). This collection was probably made by Curio.
The epilogue is written by Castellio, and is the most important part of the book. He examines the different biblical and patristic passages quoted for and against intolerance. He argues against his opponents from the multiplicity of sects which disagree on the interpretation of Scripture, and concludes that, on their principles, they should all be exterminated except one. He justly charges St. Augustin with inconsistency in his treatment of the Donatists, for which, he says, he was punished by the invasion of the Arian Vandals. The lions turned against those who had unchained them. Persecution breeds Christian hypocrites in place of open heretics. It provokes counter-persecution, as was just then seen in England after the accession of Queen Mary, which caused the flight of English Protestants to Switzerland. In conclusion he gives an allegorical picture of a journey through the centuries showing the results of the two conflicting principles of force and liberty, of intolerance and charity, and leaves the reader to decide which of the two armies is the army of Jesus Christ.
Castellio anticipated Bayle and Voltaire, or rather the Baptists and Quakers. He was the champion of religious liberty in the sixteenth century. He claimed it in the name of the gospel and the Reformation. It was appropriate that this testimony should come from the Swiss city of Basel, the home of Erasmus.1219
But the leaders of the Swiss Reformation in Geneva and Zürich could see in this advocacy of religious freedom only a most dangerous heresy, which would open the door to all kinds of errors and throw the Church of Christ into inextricable confusion.
Theodore Beza, the faithful aid of Calvin, took up his pen against the anonymous sceptics of Basel, and defended the right and duty of the Christian magistrate to punish heresy. His work appeared in September, 1554; that is, five months after the book of Martinus Bellius. It was Beza’s first published theological treatise (he was then thirty-five years of age).1220
The book has a polemic and an apologetic part. In the former, Beza tries to refute the principle of toleration; in the latter, to defend the conduct of Geneva. He contends that the toleration of error is indifference to truth, and that it destroys all order and discipline in the Church. Even the enforced unity of the papacy is much better than anarchy. Heresy is much worse than murder, because it destroys the soul. The spiritual power has nothing to do with temporal punishments; but it is the right and duty of the civil government, which is God’s servant, to see to it that he receives his full honor in the community. Beza appeals to the laws of Moses and the acts of kings Asa and Josiah against blasphemers and false prophets. All Christian rulers have punished obstinate heretics. The oecumenical synods (from 325 to 787) were called and confirmed by emperors who punished the offenders. Whoever denies to the civil authority the right to restrain and punish pernicious errors against public worship undermines the authority of the Bible. He cites in confirmation passages from Luther, Melanchthon, Urbanus Rhegius, Brenz, Bucer, Capito, Bullinger, Musculus, and the Church of Geneva. He closes the argument as follows: "The duty of the civil authority in this matter is hedged about by these three regulations: (1) It must strictly confine itself to its own sphere, and not presume to define heresy; that belongs to the Church alone. (2) It must not pass judgment with regard to persons, advantages, and circumstances, but with pure regard to the honor of God. (3) It must proceed after quiet, regular examination of the heresy and mature consideration of all the circumstances, and inflict such punishment as will best secure the honor due to the divine Majesty and the peace and unity of the Church."
This theory, which differs little from the papal theory of intolerance, except in regard to the definition of heresy and the mode and degree of punishment, was accepted for a long time in the Reformed Churches with few dissenting voices; but, fortunately, there was no occasion for another capital punishment of heresy in the Church of Geneva after the burning of Servetus.
The evil which Calvin and Beza did was buried with their bones; the greater good which they did will live on forever. Dr. Willis, though a decided apologist of Servetus, makes the admission: "Calvin must nevertheless be thought of as the real herald of modern freedom. Holding ignorance to be incompatible with the existence of a people at once religious and free, Calvin had the schoolhouse built beside the Church, and brought education within the reach of all. Nor did he overlook the higher culture."1221
See above, p. 324. Beza thus reports this incident: "Not long after Calvin returned [from Angoulême, in 1534] to Paris, as if called there by the hand of God himself; for the impious Servetus was even then disseminating his heretical poison against the sacred Trinity in that city. He professed to desire nothing more earnestly than to have an opportunity for entering into discussion with Calvin, who waited long for Servetus, the time and place for an interview having been appointed, with great danger to his own life, since he was at that time under the necessity of being concealed on account of the incensed rage of his adversaries. Calvin was disappointed in his expectations of meeting Servetus, who wanted courage to endure even the sight of his opponent."
"If ever a poor fanatic thrust himself into the fire, it was Michael Servetus." Coleridge in his Table-Talk.
See the judgments below in § 139.
In a footnote in ch. LIV. of his work on the Decline and Fall of the R. E. (Smith’s ed. V. 552). He assigns three reasons for this judgment: (1) the zeal of Calvin was envenomed by personal malice and perhaps envy [?]; (2) the deed of cruelty was not varnished by the pretence of danger to the Church or State; (3) Calvin violated the golden rule of doing as he would be done by. Gibbon’s prejudice against Calvinism is expressed in the sentence (p. 551) that "many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant."
James Martineau states that "in his eighteen years of office, Cardinal Thomas de Torquemada had burned alive, it is computed, eighty-eight hundred victims, and punished ninety thousand in various ways, not for offences against the moral law, or crimes against society, but for thoughts of their own about religion, which only God, and not the pope, had allowed; or for being Jews that would not be apostates; or for refusing on the rack to confess what they had never done." The Seat of Authority in Religion, 1890, p. 156; comp. Llorente’s Histoire Critique de l’Inquisition, IV. 251 sq.
"Hoc crimen est morte simpliciter dignum, et apud Deum et apud homines." In the twenty-seventh letter to Calvin (Christianismi Restitutio, p. 656). He speaks there of the punishment of Ananias and Sapphira, who were "incorrigibiles, in malitia obstinati." Calvin refers to this admission of Servetus, and charges him with inconsistency. Opera, VIII. 462.
This is admitted now by all impartial historians. Michelet (XI. 96) calls this blot in Calvin’s life "crime du temps plus que de l’homme même.’
Responsio ad Balduini Convicia, Opera, IX. 575: "Iustas quidem ille poenas dedit: sed an meo arbitrio? Certe arrogantia non minus quam impietas perdidit hominem. Sed quodnam meum crimen, si Senatus noster mea hortatu, ex plurium tamen ecclesiarum sententia, exsecrabiles blasphemias ultus est? Vituperet me sane hac in parte Franciscus Balduinus, modo Philippi Melanchthonis iudicio posteritas mihi gratitudinem debeat, quia tam exitiali monstro ecclesiam purgaverim. Senatum etiam nostrum, sub cuius ditione aliquando vixit, perstringat ingratus hospes: modo idem Philippus scripto publice edito testetur dignum esse exemplum quod imitentur omnes christiani principes."
He called him at the trial Simon Magus, impostor, sycophanta, nebulo, perfidus, impudens, ridiculus mus, cacodaemon, homicida, etc.
Servetus nuper ad me scripsit ac litteris adjunxit longum volumen suorum deliriorum, cum Thrasonica jactantia, me stupenda et hactemus inaudita visurum. Si mihi placeat, huc se venturum recipit. Sed nolo fidem meam interponere. Namsi venerit, modo valeat mea auctoritas, vivum exire nunquam patiar." Opera, VIII. 283; Henry, III. Beil. 65-67; Bonnet-Constable, II. 17. Grotius discovered this damaging letter in Paris, which was controverted, but is now generally admitted as genuine. There is an exact copy of it in Geneva.
In the First Amendment of the Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Ex. 22:20; comp. Deut. 13:5-15; 17:2-5, etc.
Lev. 24:16; comp. 1 Kings 21:10, 13.
See the Theodosian and Justinian Codes under the titles: De summa Trinitate, De Catholica Fide, De Haereticis, De Apostatis. For a summary compare Gibbon, ch. XXVII. (vol. III. 197 sqq.), and Milman, Latin Christianity, bk. III. ch. V. (I. 512 sqq.). Gibbon says. "Theodosius considered every heretic as a rebel against the supreme powers of heaven and of earth; and each of these powers might exercise their peculiar jurisdiction over the soul and body of the guilty."
Comp. vol. III. 144 sq.
Summa Theol. Secunda Secundae, Quest. XI. (de haresi), Art. 3. In Migne’s ed. Tom. III. 107.
See Boehmer, Inst. Juris Canonici, 1747, lib. V. tit. 7, § 10.
Friedberg, Lehrbuch des katholischen und evangelischen Kirchenrechts, 2d ed. 1884, p. 221: "Im XIII. Jahrhundert erfolgt ueberall die rechtliche staatliche Feststellung der Todesstrafe und Vermoegensconfiscation für Ketzerei, und die Kirche hat diese staatlichen Strafen nicht nur gebilligt, sondern auch verlangt, und die weltliche Obrigkeit, die sie nicht verhaenge, selbst mit der Strafe der Ketzereibedroht."
Among these is Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore, who says (The Faith of our Fathers, Balto., 1890, 36th ed., p. 284 sq.): "I am not the apologist of the Spanish Inquisition, and I have no desire to palliate or excuse the excesses into which that tribunal may at times have fallen. From my heart I abhor and denounce every species of violence, and injustice, and persecution, of which the Spanish Inquisition may have been guilty. And in raising my voice against coercion for conscience’s sake, I am expressing not only my own sentiments, but those of every Catholic priest and layman in the land.
"Our Catholic ancestors, for the last three hundred years, have suffered so much for freedom of conscience, that they would rise up in judgment against us, were we to become the advocates and defenders of religious persecution. We would be a disgrace to our sires were we to trample on the principle of liberty which they held dearer than life."
Syllabus Errorum, § III. 15; VI. 55; X. 78.
See his Encyclicals of Nov. 1, 1885 (Immortale Dei), and of June 20, 1888 (Libertas praestantissimum naturae donum). They are printed in the latest ed. of Schaff’s Creeds of Christendom, II. 555-602.
Decline and Fall, ch. LIV. It should be remembered, however, that the most intolerant form of intolerance is the intolerance of infidelity as manifested in the French Revolution during "the reign of terror."
In his book Von weltlicher Obrigkeit wie weit man ihr Gehorsam schuldig sei (1523), in Werke XXII. 90: "Ketzerei kann man nimmermehr mit Gewalt wehren, es gehoert ein ander Griff dazu, und ist hie ein ander Streit und Handel, denn mit dem Schwert. Gottes Wortsoll hie streiten; wenn das nicht ausreicht, so wird’s wohl unausgerichtet bleiben von weltlicher Gewalt, ob sie gleich die Welt mit Blut füllet. Ketzerei ist ein geistlich Ding, das kann man mit keinem Eisen hauen, mit keinem Feuer verbrennen, mit keinem Wasser ertraenken. Es ist aber allein das Wort Gottes da, das thut’s, wie Paulus sagt 2 Cor. 10:4, 5: ’Unsere Waffen sind nicht fleischlich, sondern maechtig in Gott.’"
Conclus. LXXX. in the Resol. de Indulgentiis, 1518. This is one of the theses which the Sorbonne of Paris condemned in 1521.
His last liberal utterance on the subject is in his letter to Link, 1628: Nullo modo possum admittere, falsos doctores occidi: satis est eos relegari." Briefe, III. 347 sq. (De Wette’s ed.). In the same year he wrote his book Von der Wiedertaufe an zwei Pfarrherrn (Erl. ed. vol. XXVI) in which he treats the doctrines of the Baptists without mercy, but at the same time expresses sincere regret at the cruel treatment of them, saying: "Es ist nicht recht und mir wahrlich leid, dass man solche elende Leute so jaemmerlich ermordet, verbrennet und graeulich umbringt; man sollte ja einen jeglichen lassen glauben, was er wollt; glaubt er unrecht, so hat er genug Strafen an dem ewigen Feuer in der Hoellen. Warum will man sie denn auch noch zeitlich martern, so ferne sie allein im Glauben irren und nicht auch daneben aufruehrerisch sind oder sonst der Obrigkeit widerstreben! Lieber Gott, wie bald ist’s geschehen, dass einer irre wird und dem Teufel in Stricke faellt? Mit der Schrift und Gottes Wort sollt man ihnen wehren und widerstehen, mit Feuer wird man wenig ausrichten." I have quoted this and other passages in vol. VI. 59 sq., but could not well omit them here on account of the connection.
Von den Schleichern und Winkelpredigern, addressed to Eberhard von der Tannen on the Wartburg, 1531. Werke, XXXI. 214 sqq.
"Dass alle und jede Widertaeuffer und Widergetaufte, Mann und Weibspersonen verstaendigs Alters vom natürlichen Leben zum Tode mit Feuer, Schwert oder dergleichen nach Gelegenheit der Personen ohne vorgehende der geistlichen Richter Inquisition gerichtet oder gebracht werden." This was the same Diet in which the Lutheran Protestants entered their protest against the decision of the majority (hence their name); but they assented to the cruel decree against the Anabaptists, and also to the exclusion of the Zwinglians from toleration, with the exception of the Landgrave of Hesse, who protested also against this intolerance.
In 1540 he boasted that no Anabaptist had been executed for opinion’s sake by him, whereas in other German lands the number of such martyrdoms was, up to 1530, hard upon two thousand. "Wir koennen in unseren Gewissen nicht finden," he said to the elector, "jemanden des Glaubens halben, wo wir nicht sonst genugsam Ursache der Verwirkung haben moegen, mit dem Schwert richten zu lassen. Denn so es die Meinung haben sollte, müssten wir keinen Juden noch Papisten, die Christum am hoechsten blasphemiren, bei uns dulden und sie dergestalt richten lassen." G. L. Schmidt, Justus Menius, der Reformator Thüringens (Gotha, 1867), vol. I. 144. Comp. Corpus Reform. IX. 757.
He wrote beneath the judgment of the Wittenberg theologians: "Placet Mihi Martino Luthero. Wiewol es crudele anzusehen, dass man sie mit dem Schwert straft, so ists doch crudelius, dass sie ministerium verbi damniren und keine gewisse Lehre treiben, und rechte Lehre unterdrücken, und dazu regna mundi zerstoeren wollen." The last sentence refers to the chiliastic views held by many of the Anabaptists, for which they are condemned in the Augsburg Confession. Seidemann, in the sixth vol. of De Wette’s "Correspondence of Luther," p. 291. He assigns this document to the year 1541. Comp, Corp. Ref. IV. 737-740.
"Anabaptistae occidendi. D. dixit. Duplices sunt. Quidam aperte sediotiose docent contra magistratus; eos jure occidit elector. Reliqui habent fanaticas opiniones, ii plerumque relegantur." G. Loesche, Analecta Lutherana et Melanchthoniana. Tischreden Luthers und Aussprüche Melanchthons, Gotha, 1892, p. 137.
"Es ist nicht allein mein Bedenken, sondern auch demüthiges Bitten, E. F. G. wollten sie [die Wiedertaeufer] ernstlich des Landes verweisen, denn est ist gleichwol des Teufels Samen," etc. Luther’s Briefe, Sendschreiben und Bedenken, vol. VI. by Joh. Karl Seidemann (Berlin, 1856), p. 216.
This is the conclusion of my friend, Dr. Koestlin, of Halle, the distinguished biographer of Luther. In reply to a letter, March 12, 1892, he communicated to me his careful opinion as follows: "Nirgends, auch nicht in seiner spaeteren Zeit, that Luther Aeusserungen, in welchen er den Grundsatz des damaligen allgemeinen Rechts (auch der Carolina), dass z. B. Bestreitung der Trinitaetslehre oder andere bloss dogmatische Irrlehre schon als solche mit dem Tod bestraft werden sollte, sich angeeignet hatte. So weit wir sehen, hat er darin doch immer sehr von Calvin und auch von Melanchthon, ja von allen anderen Hauptlehrern der Reformation sich unterschieden. Insbesondere beschraenkt er sich, z. B. einem Antitrinitatier wie Joh. Campan gegenüber (’filium Satanae, adversarium Dei, quem plus etiam quam Arius blasphemat’), doch auf den Wunsch, dass die Obrigkeit ’tales furias non vocatas’ nicht zulassen moege. Briefe v. De Wette IV. 321. Auch die schaerfsten Ausserungen der Tischreden (cf. auch die Colloquien ed. Bindseil) gehen nie weiter, soweit sie dogmatische Irrlehren betreffen."
See L. Keller: Geschichte der Wiedertaeufer und ihres Reichs zu Münster, Münster, 1880, and his Die Reformation, p. 451, where he speaks of new sources discovered since 1880.
"Ein graeulich boes Buch." When Melanchthon informed him that the opinions of Servetus found much applause in Italy, he remarked that "Italy was full of pestilential opinions, and that if such errors as those of Servetus should get there, horrible abominations would arise" (horribiles abominationes ibi orituras). Bindseil, Martini Lutheri Colloquia, Tom. I. 376. Comp. Tollin, M. Luther und M. Servet, Berlin, 1875, and M. Servet und Martin Butzer (or Servet und die oberlaendischen Reformatoren, Berlin, 1880, vol. I. 105 sq.). Tollin tries to prove in both these books, on the strength of an obscure passage in a letter of Servetus to Oecolampadius, that Servetus accompanied Butzer as amanuensis in September, 1530, from Augsburg to Coburg to see Luther. But neither Bucer nor Luther say a word about it.
Erlangen ed., vol. XXII. 558 sq.
Corpus Reformatorum, vol. VIII. 520. He mentions among the heresies worthy of death the deliramenta Samosateni andManichaei.
Corpus Reformat. vol. VIII. 362 (also in Calvin’s Opera, XV. 268 sq.): Reverende vir et carissime frater: Legi scriptum tuum, in quo refutasti luculenter horrendas Serveti blasphemias: ac Filio Dei gratias ago, qui fuit brabeuthv"huius tui agonis. Tibi quoque ecclesia et nunc et ad posteros gratitudinem debet et debebit. Tuo judicio prorsus assentior. Affirmo etiam vestros magistratus juste fecisse, quod hominem blasphemum, re ordine judicata, interfecerunt."
(The rest of this letter is an answer to Calvin’s request that he should define his views on the predestinarian and eucharistic controversies. Melanchthon declined to do this for prudential reasons, but intimated his dissent from the carnal theory of the real presence by calling it ajrtolatriva, and expresses the hope of conversing with him once more, "antequam ex hoc mortali carcere mens discedat.")
Corpus Reform. VIII. 523. After thanking Bullinger for a number of books, he adds: "Legi etiam quae de Serveti blasphemiis respondistis, et pietatem ac judicia vestra probo. Judico etiam Senatum Genevensem recte fecisse quod hominem pertinacem et non omissurum blasphemias sustulit. Ac miratus sum, esse [aliquos], qui severitatem illam improbent. Mitto de ea quaestione breves pagellas, sed tamen sententiae nostrae testes." This refers to his consilium on the rightfulness of the punishment of heretics by the civil magistrate (1555).
Commonefactio de Thammero, vol. IX. 133: "Dedit vero et Genevensis Reipublicae Magistratas ante annos quatuor punitae insanabilis blasphemiae adversus Filium Dei, sublato Serveto Arragone pium et memorabile ad omnem posteritatem exemplum."
He wrote to Melanchthon, March 5, 1555: "Your letter, most reverend sir, was grateful to me, not only because whatever comes from you is dear to me, and because it has assured me that the affection, which you entertained for me in the commencement of our intercourse, still remains unaltered; but above all because in it I find a magnificent eulogy, in which you commend my zeal in crushing the impiety of Servetus. Whence also I conjecture that you have not been offended with the honest freedom of my admonitions." He referred to Melanchthon again in his reply to the Reproaches of Baudouin, 1562. See above, § 137.
So he wrote to Ambrosius Blaurer, Dec. 29, 1531: "Pestilentissimum illum de Trinitate librum novi, proh dolor, et hic in publicis praelectionibus nostris confutavi."
Dignum esse, qui avulsis visceribus discerperetur." So reports Calvin Sept. 8, 1553. This is confirmed by a letter of Professor Frecht of Tübingen to Capito, dated Nov. 25, 1538. See Tollin, Michael Servet und Martin Butzer, in the "Magazin für die Lit. des Auslandes," Berlin, 1876, and Servet und die oberlaendischen Reformatoren, Bd. I. (Michael Servet und Martin Butzer), Berlin, 1880, pp. 232 sqq. Tollin thinks that Bucer meant the book, not the person of Servetus; but books have no viscera.
See above, § 26, pp. 87 sqq.
The judgments of the magistrates and ministers of Zürich, Schaffhausen, Basel, and Bern are printed in Calvin’s Opera, VIII. 808-823 (in German and Latin). The judgment of the pastors of Zürich, dated Oct. 2, 1553, is also inserted in Calvin’s Defensio, ibid. fol. 555-558.
See Nippold, Ueber Leben, Lehre und Sekte des David Joris, in the Zeitschrift für historische Theologie," 1863, No. I., and 1864, No. IV.
See above, § 131, p. 658.
"Monstrum ex mera impietate horrendisque blasphemiis conflatum." Vita Calv. (Annal. XXI. 148).
See the whole passage in Trechsel’s Zusaetze to vol. I.
A. v. d. Linde, p. 3 sq., presents the contradictory statements of Servetus in parallel columns.
In the title of his first book. "Reves" is an abridged anagram of Serveto. Others derive it from the maiden name of his mother. But we know nothing of his family. The form "Servede" never occurs among his contemporaries, and not before 1697, but is used by several modern writers, as Herzog, Guericke, Hase, Dorner, Harnack.
Place and date are disputed. In the trial at Vienne be stated that he was born at Tudela in the old Spanish kingdom of Navarre, that he was then forty-two years old, which would put his birth in 1511. In the trial at Geneva he declared himself to be "Espagnol Arragonese de Villeneufve," and to be forty-four years old. This is confirmed by the author’s name on the title-page of his first book:, Per Michaelem Serveto, aliàs Reves ab Aragonia Hispanum," by the subscription at the end of his Restitutio " M. S. V." [Villanovanus] and by the name "Villeneuve," under which he was known in France. So also Willis and v. d. Linde. But Tollin decides for Tudela and for the year 1511. See his Servet’s Kindheit und Jugend, in Kahnis’ "Zeitschrift für Hist. Theol.," 1875.
Omnem philosophiam et scientiam ego in Biblia reperio .... Lege obsecro millies Bibliam." (De Trinitatis Erroribus, fol. 78b and 79.)
"Datus est de coelo liber ut in eo Deum investigemus, adjuvante ad hoc fide quae non est ille crudus sophistarum assensus, sed motus cordis, sicut dicit Scriptura, corde creditur." (Ibid. f. 107b.) "Figmenta sunt imaginaria quae Scripturae limites transgrediuntur." (Ibid. f. 81b.)
Tollin conjectures that he had read the writings of Luther, Melanchthon, and Bucer, and was especially influenced by Erasmus.
See Tollin, Die Beichtvaeter Kaiser Karls V., three short papers in the "Magazin für die Lit. des Auslandes," 1874, and Servet auf dem Reichstag zu Augsburg, in Thelemann’s "Evang. Reform. Kirchenzeitung," 1876, No. 1724.
"Primo, hic est Jesus Christus. Secundo, hic est filius Dei. Tertio, hic est Deus." (p. 1a.)
"Secundum carnem homo est, et spiritu est Deus, quia quod natum est de spiritu, spiritus est, et spiritus est deus. Et ita Esaiae 9. Puer natus est nobis, vocabitur nomen eius deus fortis. Vide clare et dei nomen et fortitudinem nato puero attributam, cui data est omnis potestas in coelo et in terra. Et Thomas Iohannis 20. eum appellat, Deus meus, Dominus meus. Et Rom. nono Christusdicitur in omnibus laudandus et benedicendus. Multisque aliis locis eius divinitas ostenditur, quia exaltatus est, ut acciperet divinitatem, et nomen super omne nomen." 10a.
"Notes differentiam inter hwhy proprium Dei nomen, et la ynda !yhla et alia similia Deo attributa. Et quod Thomas Iohannis 20. non Iehovah, sed Elohim et Adonai de Christo dixerit, infra probabo." 14a."Similiter et !yla de angelis et hominibus fortibus dicitur, Psal. 88 et Iob 41." 14b. He identifies Christ with the Elohim instead of Jehovah.
Lovgo" non philosophicam illam rem, sed oraculum, vocem, sermonem, eloquium Dei sonat. Usurpatur enim a verbo levgw quod est dico." 47a.
"Per sacramentum Verbi intelligit quandam in Deo dispositionem seu dispensationem, qua placitum est ei arcanum voluntatis suae nobis revelare. Et hoc Tertullianus oijkonomivan, et Irenaeus dispositionem scepissime appellant." 48a.
"Verbum in Deo proferente, est ipsemet Deus loquens. Post prolationem est ipsa caro, seu Verbum Dei, antequam sermo ille caro fieret, intelligebatur ipsum Dei oraculum intra nubis caliginem nondum manifestatum, quia Deus erat ille sermo. Et postquam Verbum homo factum est, per Verbum intelligimus ipsum Christum, qui est Verbum Dei, et vox Dei, nam, quasi vox, est ex ore Dei prolatus." 48a and b. He refers for proof to Rev. 19:13: to; o[noma aujtou' JO lovgo" tou' Qeou'.
"Tritheitae ... Athei, hoc est sine Deo." 21b.
"Debuissent dicere quod habebat [Deus] uxorem quandam spiritualem, vel quod solus ipse masculo-foemineus aut Hermaphroditus, simul erat pater et mater." 39b. This reminds one of the reasoning of the Mohammedans that God has no wife, therefore he can have no son. He approves of the objection of the Turks: "Nec mirum, si Turci nos asinarios vocant, postquam nos Deum vocare asinum non erubescimus." 12a.
The last expression I could not find in the work De Trinitatis Erroribus, but it occurs in his letters to Calvin, and in a letter to Poupin, where he says: "Pro uno Deo habetis tricipitem cerberum." Calvin’s Opera, VIII. 750. It was made the chief ground of the charge of blasphemy at the trial in Geneva. "Un Dieu party en trois ... est uti diable àtrois testes comme le Cerberus que les Poetesanciens ont appelléle chien d’enfer, un monstre." Ibid. 728, Art. IX. Tollin, in his article Der Verfasser de Trinitatis Erroribus ("Jahrbücher für protest. Theologie," 1891, p. 414), derives these offensive phrases from the papal controversialist Cochlaeus, who in his Lutherus septiceps, 1529, says: "Quid ad haec Janus Bifrons? Quid Geryon Triceps? Quid Cerberus trifaux? fabulae sunt poetarum et jocosa figmenta." Cochlaeus compared these fables with the seven-capped Luther, who surpassed them all in monstrosity.
He adds in Greek that it is not profitable to inquire curiously into the ideas and differences of the divine persons. Opera, ed. Bretschneider, II. 630, and his letter to Brenz, July, 1533, II. 660. Also Tollin, Ph. Melanchthon und M. Servet, Berlin, 1876.
"Quae nuper contra receptam de Trinitate sententiam, septem libris, scripsi, omnia nunc, candide lector, retracto. Non quia falsa sint, sed quia imperfecta, et tamquam a parvulo parvulis scripta .... Quod autem ita barbarus, confusus et incorrectus, prior liber prodierit, imperitiae meae et typographi incuriae adscribendus est."
"Perdat Dominus omnes ecclesiae tyrannos. Amen."
The following is the full title of the second edition which I found (together with a copy of the first) in the library of the American Geographical Society at New York:—
"Claudii | Ptolemae | Alexan | drini | Geographicoe Enarrationis, | Libri Octo. | Ex Bilibaldi Pircke | ymheri tralatione, sed ad Graeca et prisca exemplaria à Michaele Villanouano | secundò recogniti, et locis innumeris denuò castigati. Adiecta insuper ab eodem scho | lia, quibus et difficilis ille Primus Liber nunc primum explicatur, et exoleta Urbium | nomina ad nostri seculi morem exponuntur. Quinquaginta illae quoque cum ueterum tum | recentium Tabulae adnectantur, variisque incolentium ritus et mores explicantur … . Prostant Lugduni apud Hugonem à Porta. | MDXLI." fol. Dedicated "Amplissimo illustrissimoque ac reverendissimo D. Dno Petro Palmerio, Archiepiscopo et Comiti Viennensi Michael Villanouanus Medicus G. D." Dated "Viennae pridie Cal. Martii, MDXLI." The last page has the imprimatur of Caspar Trechsel, Viennae, 1541. The work is illustrated with fifty maps. Willis (pp. 86 sqq.) gives condensed translations of some passages, which I have used, and compared with the original. Tollin represents Servetus as a forerunner of Karl Ritter in comparative geography, Michael Servet als Geograph, 1875 (pp. 182).
Editions were published at Rome, Bologna, Strassburg (1523 and 1525), Basel (1533, with a preface of Erasmus; 1546), Venice (1558). The last and best Graeco-Latin edition of Ptolemy is by Carl Müller, Paris, 1883 sqq.
"Ut alibi potius quam in ipsa Hispania Hispanum doctum invenias."
"Irrident Neapolitani Calabros, Calabri Appulos, hos autem omnes Romani, Romanos Hetrusci, quos et alii vicissim irrident: quin et mortales caeteros omnes irrident Itali, contemnunt et barbaros appellant: cum sint ipsi tamen nunc Hispanis, nunc Gallis, nunc Germanis praeda expositi .... Italia in universum magis adhuc superstitiosa gens quam pugnat. Superba Roma, gentium imperio viduata, sedes facta summi pontificis."
"Sunt enim Germani in Dei cultum propensi, semel tamen imbutas opiniones non facile deserunt, nec in schisimate queunt ad concordiam reduci, sed haeresim quisque suam valide tuetur."
"Suabia, ingenio singulari praedita, praestantissima Germaniae a Plutarcho dicta."
Syroporum universa Ratio ad Galeni censuram diligenter exposita, etc. Parisiis ex officina Simonis Colinaei, 1537; Venetiis, 1545 and 1548, and Lugduni, 1546 and 1547. Comp. Willis, ch. XI. 111 sq.; v. d. Linde, pp. 53 sqq. (with the full title on p. 54).
Restit. Christ., Bk. V. p. 170. See G. Sismond, The unnoticed Theories of Servetus, London, 1826; Flourens, Histoire de la decouverte de la circulation du sang, Paris, 1854; sec. ed. 1857; Tollin, Die Entdeckung des Blutkreislaufs durch Michael Servet, Jena, 1876 (comp. his Kritische Bemerkungen über Harvey und seine Vorgaenger, 1882); Willis (who is a doctor of medicine), pp. 210 sqq.; and v. d. Linde, pp. 123 sqq. Harvey probably never saw the Restitutio, and is therefore as much entitled to the merit of an original discovery as Columbus, who was ignorant of the expeditions of the Norsemen to North America.
Reprinted in Berlin, 1880.
V. d. Linde, pp. 65 sqq. In this respect Servetus was behind Calvin, who boldly attacked the superstition of astrology (see above, § 135, pp. 676 sqq.); but, strange to say, even in our days the "Vox Stellarum" is regularly printed in England and finds thousands of readers. Willis, p. 125.
Ep. XV. and XVI. ad Calv., in Christianismi Restitutio, pp. 613-619.
Bolsec (p. 18 sq.) reports that Servetus was "constrainct de se partir de Charlieu pour les folies lesquelles il faisoit."
The first edition of Pagnini had appeared at Lyons, 1528. The translation of the Old Testament rests on a good knowledge of Hebrew, and was much used by Protestants, e.g. Robert Olivetan in his French version.
Willis (p. 142) charges Servetus with gross plagiarism, since his edition is a literal reprint of the edition of Melchior Novesianus of Cologne, 1541, while he declared in the preface that his text was corrected in numberless places by himself,
Frellon employed Servetus as an editor and translator, and was probably a Protestant, as we may, infer from his friendly relation to Calvin. But Henry (III. 129) supposes that he was a Catholic. Henry (III. 129) thinks that the correspondence began as early as 1540.
See the letter of Calvin to Farel, quoted on p. 692.
Calvin gives the questions and answers in his Refutatio Errorum Mich. Serveti, Opera, VIII. 482-484. Servetus omits them in the Restitutio.
"Sed quia mihi videor omnibus objectis alibi satisfecisse, fusiorem explicationem inde peti melim. Si quid deest, paratus sum adjicere, si fuero admonitus." Opera, VIII. 484.
"Rogo te per Deum, postquam pollicitus es te paratum reliqua adjicere, si fueris admonitus, doce me primo quae est vera fides, et qualiter illa a spiritu regenerationis vivificetur. Secundo, an sine promissione possit quis justificari. Tertio, qualis sit internus homo, non ex sanguinibus genitus, sed ex Deo. Quarto, quis est homo ille qui a Christo alitur in coena, an vere, an imaginarie. Quinto, quae sit gratia adventus Christi. Annon eousque regnavit mors? annon patres omnes fuerunt antea in inferno? Demum te precor, ne graveris iterum legere quartum librum de Baptismo (in the printed Restitutio it is entitled De Regeneratione superna, et de regno Antichristi, pp. 355-576]. Nam videris eum nondum legisse. Deus misereatur nostri. Amen." Opera, VIII. 486.
VIII. 487-495.
"Quod me rogas tibi de aliis quoque capitibus respondeam, id facerem, Si possem breviter. Neque enim satis divino quid proprie desideres. Magis autem sum occupatas quam ut tibi uni vacet libros integros scribere. Deinde nihil quaeris quod non reperias in mea Institutione, si illinc petere libeat. Quanquam labori non parcerem, si mihi notus esset scopus quo tendis." P. 494.
"Quoscunque meos libros nancisci potuit, non destitit insulsis conviciis farcire, ut nullam paginam a suo vomitu puram relinqueret." P. 481. Comp. the French in the fifth footnote.
Calvin’s letter to Jean Frellon and Frellon’s letter to Servetus, both in French, found their way into the judicial archives of the archbishop of Vienne, and were first published by the Abbé d’Artigny, Paris, 1749 (in Nouveaux Mémoires d’histoire, tom. II. 70), and independently from a copy of the original, by Mosheim, Helmstadt, 1750 (in his Neue Nachrichten von Mich. Serveto, pp. 89, 90). They are reprinted in Henry, III. 132, and in Calvin’s Opera, VIII. 833 sq.
"Je luy ay bien voulu rabbatre un petit de son orgueil, parlant àluy plus durement que ma coustume ne porte."
On the envelope is written: "A mon bon frere et amy maistre Michel Villanovanus Docteur en Medicine soyt donnée ceste presente a Vienne."
See p. 692. Bolsec speaks of a similar letter to Viret, from which he quotes this passage: "Servetus cupit huc venire, sed a me accessitus. Egoautem nunquam committam, ut fidem meam eotenus obstrictam habeat. lam enim constitutum habeo, si veniat, nunquam pati, ut salvus exeat." But no such letter has been found. Perhaps it was the same as the letter to Farel, which may have been sent first to Viret, as Farel was at that time in Metz (Henry, III. 133). Bolsec asserts also (p. 21) that Calvin informed the Cardinal de Tournon of the heresy of Servetus, but that the Cardinal laughed at the idea of one heretic accusing another.
"A me nihil posthac extorquebit." See Henry, II. 460; III. 134.
Restit. pp. 577-664; reprinted in Calvin’s Opera, VIII. 645-714, from Chr. Theoph. de Murr’s ed., with marginal variations of the Paris copy. The manuscripts are not extant.
"Draconis fuit haec triceps illusio, quae in sophistas facile irrepsit, instante regno Antichristi. An non legisti ibi spiritum draconis, spiritum bestiae, et spiritum pseudoprophetae tres spiritus ? Tres sunt vere daemoniorum spiritus, a quibus occupatitenentur, qui bestiae trinitatem agnoscunt. Orbem hi tres spiritus concitant contra agnum immaculatum Iesum Christum, filium Dei, apo. 16. Falsi ergo sunt trinitariorum invisibiles dii, adeo falsi, sicut dii Babyloniorum: cum praesertim dii illi in Babylone colantur. Vale." Restit. pp. 680, 581.
It was not signed, but written very legibly by his own hand, and was acknowledged as his. Henry gives a facsimile of it at the end of his third volume, from the archives of Geneva. It is reprinted in Opera, VIII. 750 sq. "Every line of this letter," as Dyer (p. 309) well says, "betrays the heated and fanatical imagination of the writer, and his hatred of Calvin and the Genevese Church."
"Evangelium vestrum est sine uno Deo, sine fide vera, sine bonis operibus. Pro uno Deo habetis tricipitem cerberum, pro fide vera habetis fatale somnium, et opera bona dicitis esse inanes picturas. Christi fides est vobis merus fucus, nihil efficiens; homo est vobis iners truncus, et Deus est vobis servi arbitrii chimaera. Regenerationem ex aqua coelestem non agnoscitis, sed velut fabulam habetis. Regnum caelorum clauditis ante homines, ut rem imaginariam a nobis excludendo. Vae vobis, vae, vae!"
"Mihi ob eam rem moriendum esse certo scio, sed non propterea animo deficior, ut fiam discipulum similis praeceptori. Hoc doleo, quod per vos non licuit mihi emendare locos aliquot in scriptis meis, quae sunt apud Calvinum. Vale, et a me non amplius literas exspecta. Super custodiam meam stabo, contemplabor, et videbo quid sit dicturus. Nam veniet, certe veniet, et non tardabit."
He declared at the trial in Geneva, Aug. 17, 1553, that he sent a copy to Calvin about six years before, in order to get his judgment ("il y a environ six ans, pour en avoir son jugement"). Opera, VIII. 734. Calvin informed Farel, Feb. 13, 1646, that Servetus had sent him a large volume of ravings, which must be the Restitutio.
Baron F. de Schickler, President of the "Société de l’Histoire du Protestantism français," informs me (June 3, 1892) that the library of this society (52 rue des Saint Pères, Paris) possesses a manuscript copy of the Restitutio, which was made with great accuracy, as he thinks, in 1613, from a copy, that existed at that time in the library of Cassel. But it seems that it was transcribed from a printed copy, for on the first page of the MS. is written: Hic liber erat in octavo (ut loquuntur) impressus, et paginas continebat 734 [the number of the printed pages]. Pertinebat ad Mauricii illustratissimi Hessiae principis ac Dom. bibliothecam quae Casellis est, urbe illius reaionis metropoli et principis sede."
In the first Dialogue on the Trinity between Peter and Michael. Peter says: "En adest, Servetus est, quem ego quaerebam." Restit. p. 199. This is a direct assertion of his authorship which he concealed on the title-page, and only intimated on the last page by the initials "M. S. V."
These facts came out at the trial of Vienne. On the few remaining copies of the original edition of the Restitutio see above, § 136, p. 682.
Zwingli, Oecolampadius, Capito, Luther, and Bucer had died (in this order) before 1552.
He calls it "Christocentrik," III. Preface, xiii. "Was den Servet zum Servet machte," he says, "ist seine Lehre von Christo." Comp. II. 151-159. He assumes that Servetus composed the seven books on the "Errors of the Trinity" at different times: books I. and II. at Toulouse in 1528, while yet a student of seventeen (!); books III. and IV. at Basel in 1531; the last three books at Strassburg; and that the two Dialogues on the Trinity represent the fourth, and the "Restitution" the fifth, phrase of his theology.
In the editions after 1543 he discussed the doctrine of the Trinity and of the person of Christ and opposed Servetus. See Baur, III. 19 sqq., and Dorner, II. 613 sqq.
For an account of their opinions see Trechsel, I. 13-55, and the great works of Baur and Dorner, above quoted.
Baur (l.c., III. 54) says: Die in den genannten Irrlehrern oder Schwarmgeistern, wie Luther sie treffend nannte, gleich Feuerfunken ausgestreuten und bald da bald dort an einen entzündbaren Stoff sich ansezenden Ideen erhielten erst in dem Spanier Michael Servet, welchen der Zug seines Geistes demselben Kreise zuführte, eine festere Consistenz und Haltung. Diess ist es, was Servet seine historische Bedeutung gibt. Er wurde der Mittelpunct, in welchem jene vereinzelten, noch formlosen Elemente sich zur Einheit zusammenschlossen und durch die Energie seines Geistes sich zu einer in sich zusammenhaengenden Theorie ausbildeten."
"Ipse homo Iesus est ostium et via, a quo et merito exordium sumam ... Pronomine ad sensum demonstrante ipsum hominem, verberibus caesum et flagellatum, concedam haec tria simpliciter vera esse. Primo, hic est lesus Christus. Secundo, hic est filius Dei. Tertio, hic estDeus." Rest. p. 5.
"Semper dixi, et dico, et dicam, esse omnia scripta, ut credamus, hunc Iesum esse filium Dei." Rest. 293.
"Ne unus quidem dari potest in scripturis locus, in quo ponatur vox filius quae non accipiatur pro homine filio." Rest. 689.
"Christus est Deus. Dicitur vere Deus, substantialiter Deus, cum in eo sit deitas corporaliter" (p. 14). He quotes in proof Isa. 9:6; 46:3; John 20:28; Rom. 9:5; Phil. 2:5-11.
"Negant, hominem esse hominem et concedunt, Deum esse asinum .... Ad eundem modum concedunt fieri posse, ut Deus sit asinus, et spiritus sanctus sit mulus, sustentans mulum" (p. 15). The same profane and offensive comparisons occur in his first book, and among mediaeval schoolmen, who illustrated the relations of the Trinity by the analogy of horse, ass, and mule (in mulo equus et asinus; in spiritu pater et filius). They also raised such foolish questions as, whether God might not have become an ass or a cucumber as well as a man, and what effect the sacrament would have upon a dog or a mouse. From reverence to profanity, as from the sublime to the ridiculous, there is only one step.
"Deus et homo unum sunt in Christo, quo vir et uxor unum sunt in una filii carne .... Magnum est mysterium, quod caro illa fit Deo homusios [homousios], in unam hypostasim ei connexa. Ita Deus coaluit cum humana natura, ut illum extolleret filium sibi hominem generando ... Deus et homo unum in ipso sunt." Rest. 269.
"Caro ipsa Christi est coelestis de substantia Dei genita." Rest. 74; comp. 48, 50, 72, 77.
Tollin (Thomas Aquinas, der Lehrer Servet’s, in Hilgenfeld’s "Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie," 1892) tries to show that Servetus only followed out consistently the view of Thomas Aquinas, who proved the simplicity of the divine essence from reason, but the Trinity only from the faith of the Church.
He calls Athanasius and Augustin worshippers of the beast and of images ("Athanasium imaginum cultorem cum charactere bestiae," p. 702; comp. p. 398). He probably confounded the first Council of Nicaea (325), where Athanasius was present, with the second Council of Nicaea (787), which sanctioned the worship of images. For this historical blunder Calvin takes Servetus, who set himself up as "temporum omnium censor," severely to task (Opera, VIII. 591 sq.).
"Veri ergo hi sunt tritoitae [for tritheitae], et veri sunt athei, qui Deum unum non habent, nisi tripartitum et aggregativum." Rest. 30; comp. 34.
Rest. 59, 119, etc. On these expressions, which shocked the pious feelings of all Christendom, see above, § 141, p. 719.
In his last reply to Calvin (Opera, VIII. 536), he tells him: "Mentiris. Trinitatem ego voco, et doceo, verissimam trinitatem .... Reale discrimen tollo, non personale .... Realem in Deo distinctionem ego repudio." Calvin, in his Institutes (I. ch. XIII. § 22) gives the following account of the trinity of Servetus: "The word Trinity was so odious and even detestable to Servetus, that he asserted all Trinitarians, as he called them, to be atheists. I omit his impertinent and scurrilous language, but this was the substance of his speculations: That it is representing God as consisting of three parts, when three persons are said to subsist in his essence, and that this triad is merely imaginary, being repugnant to the divine unity. At the same time he maintained the persons to be certain external ideas, which have no real subsistence in the divine essence, but give us a figurative representation of God under this or the other form; and, that in the beginning there was no distinction in God, because the Word was once the same as the Spirit; but that after Christ appeared God of God, there emanated from him another God, even the Spirit. Though he sometimes glosses over his impertinencies with allegories, as when he says that the eternal Word of God was the Spirit of Christ with God, and the reflection of his image, and that the Spirit was a shadow of the Deity; yet he afterwards destroys the deity of both, asserting that according to the mode of dispensation there is a part of God in both the Son and the Spirit; just as the same Spirit substantially diffused in us, and even on wood and stones, is a portion of the Deity."
"Verbum ipsum Dei quod erat semen generationis Christi .... Ipsa Christi generatio sit aliorum generationum omnium specimen et prototypus .... Vere fuit in Deo substantiate semen Christi, et in eo rerum omnium seminales rationes, et exemplares formae." Rest. p. 146.
!ymv, the dual. "Duos coelos ad literam accipimus aërium et aqueum," p. 157. He regards the Hebrew word as a contraction of !v and !ym, and equivalent to "waters " (p. 155); while it is derived from hmv, to be high.
"Omnia sunt unum in Deo, in quo uno consistunt." Rest. 161.
"Unicum est principium, unica verbi lux, lux omniformis, et caput omnium, Iesus Christus dominus noster, principium creaturarum Dei." Rest. 162.
Rest. 169: "Ut vero totam animae et spiritus rationem habeas, lector, divinam hic philosophiam adjungam, quam facile intelligis, si in anatome fueris exercitatus," etc. See above, § 143, p. 724.
"Ultimo ex praemissis comprobatur vetus illa sententia, omnia esse unum, quia omnia sunt unum in Deo, in quo uno consistunt." Rest. 161.
"Deitas in lapide est lapis, in auro est aurum, in ligno lignum, secundum proprias ideas. Excellentiore iterum modo, deitas in homine est homo, in spiritu est spiritus: sicut adjectio hominis in Deo est Deus, et adjectio spiritus hominis in eo est spiritus sanctus." Rest. 182.
"Semper est Deus in fieri."
Calv. Opera, VIII. 518, art. XXXIV.
Ibid. 550: "Sed hinc non sequitur in omnibus creaturis substantialem esse deitatem. Multo minus, quod ipse coram judicibus confessus est, pavimentum, quod pedibus calcamus, deitatis esse particeps, et in diabolis omnia deorum esse plena." In his Institutes (l. I. ch. 13, § 22), Calvin calls the promiscuous confusion of the Son of God, and the Spirit with all the creatures, "the most execrable (omnium maxime execrandum) of the opinions of Servetus.
"Cum Simone Mago tu Deum in angulo recludis: ego eum dico esse omnia in omnibus. Entia omnia dico in Deo sustineri." In his abusive notes on Calvin’s articles, written in prison. Opera, VIII. 548.
He also quotes for the same purpose Philo, Plutarch, Parmenides, Hermes Trismegistus, Zoroaster, and the Jewish rabbis, Aben-Ezra and Moses Egyptius.
"Mundum Zoroaster et Trismegistus dixerunt, esse magnum Deum. Nos Christum dicimus esse magnum Deum, mundi dominum, et omnipotentem .... Iesus Christus, factor mundi, fuit et est in Deo substantialiter, verius quam mundus, et per ipsum mundus secundario in Deo consistit." Rest. 213. "Unicum est principium, unica verbi lux, lux omniformis, et caput omnium, Iesus Christus dominus noster, principium creaturarum Dei." P. 162.
See here the book De Regenerations superna, et de regno Antichristi, in the Restit., pp. 355 sqq.
"Nullum est penitus nec in coelesti, nec in terrestri justitia, crimen, sine scientia boni et mali: quanquam sine ea sint nunc infantium animae sub tenebras in infernum deductae." Rest. 387.
"Circa vicesimum annum incipit vera peccatorum remissio, sicut tunc incipiunt vera, et actualia secundae mortis peccata." ... 363."Peccatum mortale non committitur ante vicesimum annum, sicut nec crimen corporali justitia capitale." 363 sq.
Rest. 366: "Quamvis autem universae carni intrusus nunc sit serpens, et originalem habeat etiam in carne infantum nidum: hoc tamen nec infantes illos damnat, nec tollitur per baptismum, cum sanctis etiam insit. Nec abjiciuntur carnis sordes in baptismo, nec tollitur lex membrorum, nec angelus Satanae. Perpetuo in nobis ipsis duos habemus pugnantes principes, Deum in spiritu et serpentem in carne." He calls original sin "serpentis occupatio, inhabitatio et potestas, ab ipso Adam ducens originem."
Rest. 369: "Adventus Christi omnia innovavit, et omnibus opem tulit, etiam parvulis, et eorum angelis. Coelestia, terrestria, et infernalia, adventum Christi senserunt, et per eum sunt immutata."
Rest. 568:, "Impietas nostra facit arbitrium ex libero servum."
634 sq.: "Philosophi veri, ac etiam theologi affirmant, esse menti hominis insitam divinitatem esseque animam Deo oJmoouvsion, consubstantialem."
Rest. 321: "Concludendum est igitur, veram Dei in omnes suas creaturas esse justitiam et misericordiam: at in pusillum gregem suum, solum sibi peculiariter praedestinatum, insignem gratiae sublimitatem." Melanchthon wrote to Camerarius that Servetus "de justificatione manifeste delirat," but Tollin (III. 194) maintains that he supplements the one-sided forensic view of the Reformers. Comp. also Henry, III. 267-272.
See the chapter De Charitate, quid fides efficiat, quid charitas, et opera, pp. 342 sqq., and the letters to Calvin, where he gives ten reasons for the utility of good works, and the letter to Poupin, where he charges the Church of Geneva that it had a gospel without good works.
De Circumcisione vera, eum reliquis Christi et Antichristi mysteriis, in Rest. 411 sqq., and De Baptismi efficacia, 483 sqq.
"Baptismo vere adest spiritus .... Per operationem spiritus habet baptismus eam efficaciam, ut vere dicamus, baptismum nos salvare, ad Tit. 3 et I. Pet. 3. Per solam enim fidem sine baptismo non complentur omnia salutis Christi mysteria. Baptismus nos salvat et lavat, sicut panis coenae corpore Christi nos cibat, interno mysterio." Rest. 497.
Rest. 484 sq.
"Mysterium magnum est. Triginta annorum Christus baptismum accepit, exemplum nobis dans, ac nos ita docens, ante eam aetatem non esse quem satis aptum ad mysteria reqni coelorum" (p. 412).
"Circumcisio illa carnalis fuit typus secundae circumcisionis spiritualis, quae per Christum fit, Roma. 2. et Colossen. 2." Rest. 411.
"Paedobaptismum esse dico detestandam abominationem, spiritus sancti extinctionem, ecclesiae Dei desolationem, totius professionis Christianae confusionem, innovationis, per Christum factae, abolitionem, ac totius ejus regni conculcationem." Rest. 576. Tollin (III. 136) is certainly mistaken when he asserts that Servet’s view of infant baptism was an exotic plant, foreign to his system. It is inseparable from it, and one of his fundamental doctrines.
"Parvulis, non baptizatis, data est a Christo benedictio. Clementissimus ille et misericors dominus, qui impiorum peccata gratis sustulit, quomodo eos, qui impietatem non commiserunt, tam rigide damnaret?" P. 357. A noble and truly Christian sentiment, which puts to shame his orthodox opponents. Calvin, however, did not make water baptism a necessary condition of salvation, and left the way open for the doctrine of universal infant salvation by sovereign election.
De Coena Domini, Rest. 502 sqq. Tollin (III. 136): "In keiner Lehre Servet’s zeigt sich so sehr als in der Abendmahlslehre sein vermittelnder Standpunkt. Tritt er doch wieder als Schiedsrichter auf zwischen dem magisch-materialistischen Katholicismus und dem quaekerischen Spiritismus, zwischen Realismus und Idealismus, zwischen lutherischer Mystik und zwingli’scher Rationalistik." He thinks that Servetus anticipated the eucharistic doctrine of Bucer and Calvin; but Bucer laid it down in the Tetrapolitan Confession in 1530, before he knew Servetus, and Calvin in his tract De Coena in 1540.
"Baptismus et coena Domini sunt vita et fomentum ipsius fidei: sunt vita, fomentum, et nutrimentum interni hominis, per fidem ex Deo geniti. Per praedicationem evangelii plantatur fides, quod nec sine operatione spiritus fieri potest .... Per coenam Domini, quae baptismum consequitur, nutritur, adolescit et incrementa vitae suscipit, ille in baptismo genitus novus homo. Magis et magis tunc in dies in nobis Christus formatur, et nos magis et magis in unum Christi corpus cum aliis membris aedificamur per charitatem .... Charitatis symbolum est coena .... Ita se habet coena adcharitatem, sicut baptismus ad fidem. Cana igitur et charitate neglectis, recedit a nobis Christus, arescit fides, evanescit spiritus, fame contabescit et moritur homo Christianus." Rest. 501 sq.
Transubstantiationists, Consubstantiationists, and Tropists. Tollin invents three corresponding German terms: Umsubstanzler, Einbroter, Figürler.
He says in this connection (p. 510): "Papistica omnia dogmata esse doctrinas daemoniorum et meras illusiones, 2 Thess. 2 et 1 Tim. 4."
"Non enim absentis rei sunt haec symbola, ut in umbris legis, sed est visibile signum rei invisibilis, et externum symbolum rei internae." Rest. 507 sq.
"An non monstrum erit, Christum vocari caput, si suis membris non jungitur? Res mortua est corpus totum, si ab eo caput separes. Pernitiosus admodum est error, et ipsissima regni Christi destructio, negare praesentiam ejus in nobis." Rest. 508.
"Non dixit, non ero vobiscum; sed, non videbitis me, et ego vobiscum sum." Rest. 609.
De fide et justitia regni Christi. Rest, 287 sqq. Signa sexaginta Regni Christi et Antichristi et revelatio eius jam nunc praesens, 664-670. Comp. above, 146.
"Quamvis post Christum mox coepit Antichristi mysterium: vere tamen emicuit et stabilitum est regnum tempore Sylvestri et Constantini. Quo tempore est mox oecumenico concilio a nobis ereptus filius Dei, fugata ecclesia, et abominationes omnes legibus decretae. Hinc transierunt tempus et tempora et dimidium temporis, anni mille ducenti sexaginta." Rest. 666.
Rest. 462 sq.: "O bestiam bestiarum sceleratissimam, meretricum impudentissimam .... Papa est Deus, in papatu est trinitas, draconis bestiae et pseudoprophetae. Trinitatem papisticam faciunt tres realiter distincti spiritus, qui Ioanni dicuntur tres immundi spiritus ranarum, multis rationibus. Quia sunt de abyssi aquis immundis, sicut ranae," etc. Comp. his exposition of prophetic passages, pp. 393 sqq. and 666 sqq.
"Libera nos miseros ab hac Babylonica Antichristi captivitate, ab hypocrisi ejus, tyrannide, et idololatria. Amen." Rest. 670.
He had translated the words of Plato: Su' ga;r oujk e[sh: "Après la mort tu no seras plus rien du tout," instead of "Car tu no seras plus," as the Sorbonne wanted. Tollin, III. 288, mentions this fact and refers to Reg. fac. Theol. Paris. MM. 248 in the Paris state archives.
"Christus reparator animas nostras reddidit immortales, et vitalem eorum spiritum incorruptibilem." Rest. 551. He distinguished between the soul and the spirit, according to the Platonic trichotomy. After the death of the body, the soul is a mere shadow.
Rest. 718.
"Quamquam tu cum vulgo papistico seniores illos omnes, et apostolicos viros, ut chiliastas rideas." Rest. 719.
"Dies baptismi assimilatur diei resurrectionis." Rest. 413.
"Deum ipsum tu beatus corporeis his omnibus tuis sensibus videbis, tanges, gustabis, olfacies et audies. Si hoc non credis, non credis carnis resurrectionem et corporeum tuorum organorum futuram glorificationem." Rest. 718.
"C’est un Espagnol Portugallois nomméMichael Servetus de son propre nom, mais il se nomme Villeneuve àprésent, faisant le Médecin. Il a demeuréquelque temps àLyon, maintenant il se tient àVienne, oùle livre dont je parle a étéimprimépar un quidam qui a làdresséimprimerie, nomméBalthazard Arnoullet. Et afin que vous ne pensiez que je en parle àcrédit, je vous envoye la première feuille pour enseigne." The specimens seemed to have been the title-page, the index, and, perhaps, a few pages, which did not prove the authorship of Villeneuve, nor his identity with Servetus. The three letters of Trie are published in French by D’Artigny (p. 79 sq.) and Mosheim (p. 90), and in Calvin’s Opera, VIII. 835-838, 840-844.
This was also the opinion of Bolsec and the pseudonymous Martinus Bellius, and is repeated by the Abbé d’Artigny, Wallace, Willis, and v. d. Linde, who charge Calvin with having deliberately and dishonorably betrayed Servetus. But this cannot be proven, and would involve a downright falsehood, of which Calvin was incapable.
He calls it a "futilis calumnia," and thinks it preposterous to suppose that he was in friendly correspondence with the popish authorities. "Unde mihi tanta cum papae satellitio repente familiaritas? unde etiam tanta gratia? Refut. error Mich. Serv., in Opera, VIII. 479.
"Nec sane dissimulo, mea opera consilioque jure in carcerem fuisse conjectum!’ Ibid. VIII. 461.
Trechsel thinks that it can by no means be proven that Calvin caused the letter of Trie, but that he probably gave occasion to it by incidental and unintentional expressions. "Wenn auch Calvin," he says, I. 144, "wahrscheinlich durch gelegentliche und unabsichtliche Aeusserungen zur Entdeckung Servets Anlass gab, so ist es doch durchaus unerwiesen, dass er Trie’s Brief provocirt oder gar dictirt habe." Dyer, who is not friendly to Calvin, gives as the result of his examination of the case, this judgment (p. 314): "The Abbé d’Artigny goes further than the evidence warrants, in positively asserting that Trie’s letter was written at Calvin’s dictation, and in calling it Calvin’s letter in the name of Trie. It is just possible that Trie may have written the letter without Calvin’s knowledge, and the latter is therefore entitled to the benefit of the doubt. He cannot absolutely be proved to have taken the first step in delivering Servetus into the fangs of the Roman Catholic inquisition; but what we shall now have to relate will show that he at least aided and abetted it." Principal Cunningham (The Reformers, pp. 323 sqq.) goes into an elaborate argument to vindicate Calvin from the charge of complicity, in opposition to Principal Tulloch, who denounces the conduct of Calvin, if it could be proven (he leaves it undecided), as "one of the blackest pictures of treachery." An evident rhetorical exaggeration.
"Sub sigillo secreti et comme fraternelles [sic] corrections." He himself, however, published in the Restitutio, as we have seen, thirty letters of his to Calvin without Calvin’s permission.
"Estre bruslétout vif àpetit-feu, tellement que son corps soit mis en cendre." The whole sentence of the tribunal is printed in Calvin’s Opera, VIII. 784-787. It was communicated to the Council of Geneva, as a ground for demanding the prisoner.
See Montgiron’s letter to the Council of Geneva in Opera, VIII. 791, and in Rilliet-Tweedie, p. 156.
Calvin’s Opera, VIII. 851-856 (copied from d’Artigny, II. 123, and Mosheim, Neue Nachrichten, etc., p. 100 sq.). Villanovanus is therein condemned as "maximus haereticus," and his scripta as "erronea, nefanda, impia, sacrilega, et plusquam haeretica."
"Nescio quid dicam, nisi fatali vesania fuisse correptum ut se praecipitem jaceret." Calvin. See Henry, III. 151.
Willis (p. 284) thinks that the enemies of Calvin detained him with the view to make political capital out of him. He infers this from the fact that the windows of his room were nailed up. As if he could not have passed out through the door! Moreover, it was not the windows of his room in the tavern, as Willis says, but the windows of the prison that were nailed up, as Servetus stated at the trial, to prove that he had no intercourse with outsiders. See Rilliet-Tweedie, p. 154.
"On trouve bien assez de femmes sans se marrier." Comp. Trechsel, I. 306.
He declared, Aug. 23, that he was impotent on account of a rupture. Opera, VIII. 769.
The following is an extract from the Registers of the Company of Pastore sub. Aug. 13 (in Opera, VIII. 725): "M. Servetus having been recognized by some brethren (par quelques frères), it was found good to cause him to be imprisoned, that he might no longer infect the world with his blasphemies and heresies; for he is known to be wholly incorrigible and desperate (du tout incorrigible et desesperé)."
In the Refutatio, Opera, VIII. 461, 725, and in letters to Farel (Aug. 20) and Sulzer (Sept. 8, 1553). "Servetus," he wrote to Sulzer in Basel, during the trial, "escaped from prison some way or other, and wandered in Italy for nearly four months. At length, in an evil hour, he came to this place, when, at my instigation, one of the Syndics ordered him to be conducted to prison; for I do not disguise it that I considered it my duty to put a check, so far as I could, upon this most obstinate and ungovernable man, that his contagion might not spread farther. We see with what wantonness impiety is making progress everywhere, so that new errors are ever and anon breaking forth; we see how very inactive those are whom God has armed with the sword for the vindication of the glory of his name." The reference to a four months’ wandering in Italy (per Italiam erravit fere quatuor menses, that is, from April 7th to the end of July) is an error. Servetus at the trial denied that he had been in Italy at that time or at Venice at my time.
Translated by Tweedie, p. 87.
Pernet de Fosses, Gaspard Favre, Claude Vandel, Pierre Vandel, and Baptiste Sept. See Opera, VIII. 737, note 6.
Letters of Nov. 26 and Dec. 30, 1553, in Bonnet-Constable, II. 422-430.
Ibid. III. 17. Comp. also his letter of Oct. 15, 1554, quoted in § 108, p. 496, and his letter to John Wolf of Zürich, Dec. 26, 1554.
Opera, VIII. 461: "Ex quo convictus est, me nullum de poena verbum fecisse, non solum boni omnes viri mihi testes erunt sed malis etiam concedo ut proferant si quid habent." Servetus complained of hard treatment in prison, but for this the Council and the jailer alone were responsible.
In his letter to Farel, Aug. 20, 1553: "Spero capitale saltem judicium fore; poenae vero atrocitatem remitti cupio."
The articles are given in full by Rilliet, and in Opera, VIII. 727-731. Calvin mentions forty articles in a letter to Farel (Aug. 20), but they are reduced to thirty-eight by the notation.
Respond quil croit en lessence divine en troys personnes et quil na point dogmatise en celle sorte. Vray est quil prent le nom de personne aultrement que les modernes ne le prennent et quil le prent comment les premiers docteurs de leglise et disciples des apotres lont prys." Opera, VIII. 738. I retain the ancient spelling.
"Interrogésil entend que la Trinitésoit troys diables et soit troys [un]Cerberus, respond que non, et quil ne la point dict en ceste sorte et quil ne le veult point maintenir." Comp. with this the passage in his letter to Poupin which was afterwards produced in evidence and acknowledged by him: "Pro uno Deo habetis tricipitem Cerberum."
On this and the subsequent encounter we have also an account from Calvin in his "Defence," which is more minute than the official report. Opera, VIII. 743 sqq.
"He could no more read Greek," says Calvin, in the Refutatio, "than a boy learning his A B C." Opera, VIII. 498.
Opera, VIII. 496: "ex traduce Dei orta (or, une partie et portion de Dieu) esse omnia, et rerum naturam esse substantialem Dei spiritum."
Articles du procureur-général in Opera, VIII. 763-766.
Opera, VIII. 797.
Opera, VIII. 789:, Et puys après a confesséquil avait pechéen ce, mais que cestoit par crainte de la mort."
Opera, VIII. 796. The Latin text of the three documents is embodied in Calvin’s Refutatio Errorum, ibid. 501-553.
See above, § 109, p. 513 sq.
VIII. 607: Eam sibi jam autoritatem arrogat Calvinus, ut instar magistrorum Sorbonicorum articulos scribat, et quidvis pro sua libidine damnet, nullam penitus ex sacris [de l’écriture sainte]adducens rationem."
VIII. 515: "Simonis Magi discipulus ... acctuator criminalis, et homicida."
Calvinus, Poupinus, Gallasius, Bernardus, Bourgoinus, Malisianus, Calvetus, Pyrerius, Copus, Baldinus, J. a Sancto Andrea, Faber, Macarius, Colladonus.
"Ut luce sanae doctrinae, exstincta totam religionem everteret."
Opera, VIII. 797, and Rilliet-Tweedie, p. 182.
"Mentiris" occurs in almost every sentence. He naively apologizes for writing on Calvin’s own paper, because there were many little words, such as "mentiris," which would not be otherwise understood; and he hopes that Calvin would not be offended, as there would have been inextricable confusion had he not adopted this method.
"Michael Servetus subscribit solus hic quidem, sed qui Christum habet protectorem certissimum." From the MS., in Opera, VIII. 553, note.
"Ie demand que mon faulx accusateur soyt puni poena talionis; et que soyt detenu prisonier comme moy, jusques àce que la cause soyt definie pour mort de luy au de moy ou aultre poine." The petition concludes: "le vous demande justice, messeigneurs, justice, justice, justice." Opera, VIII. 805.
See above, pp. 708 sqq., and Calvin’s Opera, VIII. 806 sq.
Opera, VIII. 827-830. See also Rilliet, and Henry (III., Beilage, pp. 75 sqq.). The sentence was in the usual legal form, like that of Vienne.
"Uno consensu pronunciant omnes," etc. Opera, XIV. 657.
"Ut Deus accusatoribus esset propitius." Farel. This is certainly a Christian act. Henry (III. 191) admits that Servetus in his last moments showed some noble traits towards his enemies.
It is now covered by a beautiful villa, gardens, and vineyards. The pleasant road of half an hour from the city to Champel is called "the Philosophers’ Way," on which Arminius, when a student of Beza, is said to have begun his meditations on the mysteries of predestination and free-will, which immortalized his name. So Henry reports in his small biography of Calvin, p. 346, and in his large work, III. 198, note 1.
Farel does not mention this, nor some other circumstances which are more or less apocryphal (and omitted by Rilliet): for instance, that the executioner did not understand his business, and piled up green oak-wood; that many threw dry, bundles into the slow-burning fire, and that Servetus suffered nearly half an hour. See the anonymous Historia deMorte Serveti, ascribed to a Genevese, who was an enemy of Calvin. Henry, III. 200 sq.
Jean Senebier (b. at Geneva, 1742; d. 1809), Hist. litter. de Genève (Gen. 1786, 3 vols.), I. 215: "Il seroit àsouhaiter que nos larmes eussent pu éteindre le bûcher de cet infortuné." Quoted by Henry, III. 207.
Leben Joh. Calvin’s, III. 209 sq.
Mosheim compares him with Calvin in genius, yet calls his method "a model of confusion." Staehelin (I. 428) likewise thinks that in intellectual endowment he was equal (ebenbürtig) to the greatest men of his great century, even to Calvin, but that he lacked the chief qualification of a reformer—moral character. Tollin puts him on a par with Calvin and Luther. But such exaggeration is refuted by history. The fruits are the test of a man’s true greatness.
Restit. pp. 564, 570, 586, 664, 700, 718.
Tollin (Charakterbild, p. 38) defends Servetus’s veracity by resolving his contradictory statements into innocent errors of memory and comparing them to the variations in the four Gospel narratives!
Rest. p. 356: "O Christe Jesu, domine Deus noster, adesto, veni, vide, et pugna pro nobis." P. 576: "O pater omnipotens, pater misericordiae, eripe nos miseros ab his tenebris mortis, per nomen filii tui Jesu Christi domini nostri. O fili Dei, Jesu Christe, qui pro nobis mortuus es, ne moreremur, succurre, ne moriamur," etc. Comp. also the prayer at the beginning of his book, quoted above in § 146.
The Sicilian, Camillo Renato wrote a long poem, De injusto Serveti incendio, which is copied by Trechsel, I. 321-28, from the Simler collection in Zürich. Several poems came from Italian refugees in the Grisons.
On these later Antitrinitarians, see the preceding chapter. They were deistic; Servetus pantheistic. Trechsel says (I. 269): "In Servet schien sich die produktive Kraft des Antitrinitarianismus erschoepft zu haben. Von der Hoehe der Genialitaet und speculativer Weltbetrachtung sank er zu der Stufe des trivialen ohnmaechtigen Zweifels hinunter, und die jugendliche Frische und Fülle, die sich in den Ideen des spanischen Arztes offenbarte, wich einem altklugen, verstaendelnden, halbaufgeklaerten Wesen, das sich in einer Fluth von subjektiven Meinungen ohne Halt und innere Bedeutung zu erkennen gab. Nicht wenig wurde der kirchlichen Parthei und Calvin an ihrer Spitze durch die geistige Bedeutungslosigkeit ihrer Gegner der Kampf und Widerstand erleichtert, und doch dauerte er noch dreizehn Jahre und endigte mit einer aehnlichen gewaltsamen Katastrophe, wie diejenige, mit welcher er begonnen hatte." He means the execution of Gentile at Bern, 1566.
Zurkinden in Bern received a copy Feb. 10, 1564; Sulzer in Basel, Feb. 26.
Defensio orthodoxae fidei de sacra Trinitate, contra prodigiosos errores Michaelis Serveti Hispani: ubi ostenditur haereticos jure gladii coërcendos esse, et nominatim de homine hoc tam impio juste et merito sumptum Genevae fuisse supplicium. Per Johannem Calvinum. Oliva Roberti Stephani (261 pages). It is also quoted under the subtitle: Fidelis Expositio errorurm Mich. Serveti et brevis eorundem Refutatio, etc., or simply as Refutatio Errorum M. S. The French version is entitled: Declaration pour maintenir la vraye foy que tiennent tous Chréstiens de la Trinitédes personnes en un seul Dieu. Par Jean Calvin. Contre les erreurs détestables de Michel Servet, Espaignol. Oùil est aussi monstré, qu’il est licite de punir les heretiques; et qu’àbon droict ce meschant a estéexecutépar justice en la ville de Genève (356 pages). The work is accordingly cited under different titles—Defensio, Refutatio, Declaration. See the bibliographical notices in Calvin’s Opera, VIII. Proleg. xxix-xxxiii.
See succeeding section.
In his commentary on that passage (Harm. Evang., Pars. II. 43, Tholuck’s edition), Calvin says: "Non improbo, quod Augustinus hoc testimonio saepius contra Donatistas usus est, ut probaret, piorum principum edictis ad veri Dei cultum et fidei unitatem licite cogi praefractos et rebelles: quia, etsi voluntaria est fides, videmus tamen, iis mediis utiliter domari eorum pervicaciam, qui non nisi coacti parent."
See Henry, II. 121-124; III. 224.
"Ego non video gratiam aliquam te inire posse apud sedati animi homines, quod primus omnium ex professo fere hoc argumentum tractandum susceperis, omnibus ferme invisum." Bibl. Gen. Cod. 114. Trechsel, I. 269; Opera, XV. 22.
"Alii me durius exagitant, quod saevitiae et atrocitatis sim magister, quod mortum hominem, qui manibus meis periit, calamo proscindam. Sunt etiam quidam non malevoli, qui argumentum illud nunquam me attigisse cuperent, de haereticis puniendis. Dicunt enim alios omnes, ut invidiam fugerent, data opera tacuisse. Sed bene se habet, quod te habes culpae socium, si quae tamen culpa est, quia mihi auctor et hortator fuisti. Vide igitur, ut te ad certamen compares." Henry, III. 236 and Beilage, p. 87; Opera, XV. 124.
1213 De haereticis, an sint persequendi, et omnino quomodo sit cum eis agendum multorum tum veterum tum recentiorum sententiae. Liber hoc tam turbulento tempore pernecessarius. Magdeburgi [false name for Basel] per Georgium Rausch, anno Domini 1554, mense Martio (173 pp., 8vo). The name of the editor who wrote the dedicatory preface is given as Martinus Bellius (in French, Martin Bellie), which was explained by the contemporaries as "Guerre àla guerre, guerre àceux qui usent du glaive." Buisson, I. 358. A copy which belonged to Boniface Amerbach, is in the University Library of Basel (II 15).
1214 See Riggenbach in Herzog,2 III. 166, and Buisson, II. 10 sq.
1215 Traictédes hérétiques, àsavoir si on les doit persécuter, et comme on se doit conduire avec eux, selon l’advis, opinion, et sentence de pleusieurs auteurs tant anciens que modernes: grandement nécessaire en ce temps plein de troubles, et tris utile àtous, et principalement aux Princes et Magistrats, pour cognoistre quel est leur office en une chose tant difficile et périlleuse. Rouen, Pierre Freneau, 1554 (139 pp., 8vo). I copy the title from Buisson, I. 358. He gives a full analysis and extracts (pp. 360 sqq.). The book is exceedingly rare.
1216 Opera, XV. 96.
1217 Opera, XV. 97.
1218 As Schweizer has shown, see above, p. 627. Buisson ignores Schweizer, but comes to the same conclusion (I. 404): "Basile est un équivalent trés plausible de Sébastien, et Montfortéveille une idée toute voisine de celle de Castellumou de Chatillon."
1219 Michelet (Renaissance) says: "Un pauvre prote d’imprimerie, Sébastien Chateillon, posa pour tout l’avenir la grande loi de la tolérance." Buisson has chosen this sentence as the motto of his work. He calls Castellio (II. 268) "dans le protestantisme français, le premier des modernes."
1220 It was entitled: De haereticis a civili magistratu puniendis libellus, adversus Martini Bellii farraginem et novorum Academicorum sectam, TheodoroBezaVezelioauctore. Oliva Roberti Stephani, MDLIIII (271 pp., 8vo). Reprinted in his Tractationes Theologicae, 2d ed., 1582, pp. 85-169. Nicolas Colladon published a French translation: Traittéde l’authoritédu magistrat en la punition des hérétiques, etc., 1560. Buisson, II. 19.
1221 Servetus and Calvin, p. 614. See below, § 161.