[435] The dungeons in which Mathieu Dimonet still pined away, contained several other prisoners, Denis Peloquin of Blois, Louis de Marsac, gentleman of the Bourbonnais, and one of his cousins. It is to the two last, recently arrived at Lyons, that the letter of the Reformer is addressed. The prisoners maintained a pious correspondence with those outside their prison. Peloquin wrote to his relations,—"... My dear brothers and sisters, ... do not stay yourselves, I beseech you, upon the judgment of the world, which is so blinded, that it cannot find life in death, nor blessing in cursing. Let us know that the means of being confirmed in Jesus Christ ... is that we should carry our cross with him, for the servant is not greater than the master...." Louis de Marsac wrote to Calvin:—"Sir and brother, ... I cannot express to you the great comfort I have received ... from the letter which you have sent to my brother Denis Peloquin, who found means to deliver it to one of our brethren who was in a vaulted cell above me, and read it to me aloud, as I could not read it myself, being unable to see anything in my dungeon. I entreat of you, therefore, to persevere in helping us with similar consolation, for it invites us to weep and to pray."—Histoire des Martyrs, pp. 236, 251.
[436] King Edward VI. died a very pious death on the 6th of July preceding. See Burnet's History. Bullinger verified this mournful event to Calvin in the following words:—"I have received intelligence from England of a very sad occurrence. That most pious king departed to the Lord on the 6th of July; and he departed very happily indeed with a holy confession. The book which I here send you was written by him, and published in the month of May. You will see from it how great a treasure the Church of Christ has lost."—Bullinger to Calvin, August 1553. Eccl. Archives of Berne.
[437] We have already read at p. 30, of the present volume of Calvin's first connection with Servetus, and of the rupture of that connection as attested by the letter of Calvin to John Frellon (13th February 1546). Wandering by turns in France, Germany, and Italy, Servetus had taken up his residence at Vienne in Dauphiné, where he at once exercised the profession of a doctor, and persisted in his daring attacks on Christianity, for which he aspired to substitute a rational philosophy. Such is the drift of his book entitled Christianismi Restitutio, which he published anonymously in 1553, after having two-and-twenty years before directed his bold attacks against the doctrine of the Trinity, in his book De Trinitatis Erroribus, published at Haguenau in 1531. Accused by a Genevan refugee before the Inquisition of Lyons, as the author of these writings, Servetus was arrested, cast into the dungeons of Vienne, and condemned by Catholic judges to be burnt, from which he only escaped by flight. Hear how Theodore Beza recounts, in his letter to Bullinger, the preparations for the trial of Servetus, of his escape from prison, and of his arrival and arrest at Geneva:—"You have heard doubtless of that impious blasphemer Servetus. He caused a book, or rather volume of his blasphemies to be secretly printed at Lyons. Certain good brethren at Lyons informed the magistrate of this deceitful action. Persons were despatched to Vienne, where he was practising as a physician, to bring him bound [to Lyons]. He was seized, but soon after effected his escape by deceit. At length he came to Geneva, where he went skulking about. He was forthwith recognized, however, by a certain person, and cast into prison. Calvin also, whom he treated very unhandsomely by name in thirty printed letters, pled the cause of the Church against him in the Council, in the presence of a great assemblage of the pious. He continued in his impiety. What will come of it I know not. Let us pray the Lord to purge his Church of these monsters."—MSS. of Zurich. Letter of the 27th August 1553. Such was the opening of the process which terminated so fatally for Servetus. Born in an age not disposed to show mercy to errors of faith, he seems, says a historian, to have fled from Spain—the native country of the auto-da-fé—only to see his effigy burnt in a strange land by the torch of a Catholic executioner, and to come afterwards to expire amid flames kindled by Calvinistic justice.—Albert Rilliet, Relation du Procès Criminel intenté contre Servet. Genève, 1844. 8vo.—[Translated into English by the Rev. Dr. Tweedie.]
[438] Nicolas de la Fontaine, a servant of Calvin's, was made, conformably to the judicial usages then in operation at Geneva, criminal prosecutor against Servetus.—Registers of the Council, 14th August 1553.
[439] It is curious to read on this point the reply of Farel to Calvin:—"In desiring to mitigate the severity of his punishment, you act the part of a friend to a man who is most hostile to you. But I beseech you so to manage the matter that no one whatever may rashly dare to publish new dogmas, and throw all things into confusion with impunity for such a length of time as he has done." In his relentless rigour against heresy, Farel did not hesitate to pronounce himself even to be worthy of death if he should teach any dogma opposed to the faith. His words deserve to be recorded:—"When I read Paul's statement that he did not refuse to suffer death if he had in any way deserved it, I saw clearly that I must be prepared to suffer death if I should teach anything contrary to the doctrine of piety. And I added, that I should be most worthy of any punishment whatever, if I should seduce any one from the faith and doctrine of Christ."—8th Sept. 1553. Calv. Opera, tom. ix. p. 71
[440] Occupying the same cell during the last days of their captivity, the two prisoners were only separated to die. Denis Peloquin was taken from his prison the 4th September, and conducted to Ville Franche, where his heroic constancy at the stake excited the wonder and tender sympathy of the spectators. Louis de Marsac, with two other victims, Etienne Gravot of Gyen, and Marsac, his cousin, who had followed him into his dungeon, "gave thanks to God for the inestimable honour which he conferred upon them of suffering for his name." At the moment when the three condemned were about to be led to the place of execution, a rope was put about their neck, according to custom. "Louis de Marsac, seeing that they spared him in that particular, out of some regard to his quality, asked in a loud voice if the cause of his two brethren was different from his, adding these words, 'Alas! do not refuse me the collar of so excellent an order.' The lieutenant agreed to his wish, and the three martyrs, chanting with one voice the song of deliverance, shortly after mounted the pile prepared on the Place des Terreaux, and expired in the midst of the flames."—Hist. des Martyrs. Lib. iv. p. 254. Hist. Eccl. tom. i. p. 92.
[441] Michael Girard. In a note in the History of the Martyrs, this Michael Girard did not persevere.
[442] The rigour of the judges of Servetus could not fail to extend to the book which served as the basis of the judicial prosecution directed against his person. From the confession of the accused, there had been printed a thousand copies of the Christianismi Restitutio, of which a certain number were deposited at Frankfort. Calvin did not forget the latter portion of this acknowledgment, confirmed besides by a letter from the printer at Vienne, but wrote immediately to the Church of Frankfort, desiring the sequestration and destruction of this dangerous deposit. A clerk of the celebrated printer, Robert Stephens, then resident at Geneva, was charged with this mission, which he accomplished with so very great success, that there are only three copies of the original edition to be found at the present day; one in the Imperial Library of Paris, another in that of Vienna in Austria, and a third in a private collection.—Rilliet, Relation du Procès de Servet, p. 9.
[443] A serious conflict came to be raised between the ministers and the magistrates of Geneva. A chief of the Libertins, Philibert Berthelier, was excommunicated by the Consistory for his irregular habits, and appealed to the Council of State, which annulled the ecclesiastical sentence, and gave Berthelier authority to go forward to the Supper. The experiment was decisive; it was made to know whether or not Calvin would abandon ecclesiastical discipline, or resist the government. This letter of the Reformer to Viret, shows us with what energetic resolution and heroic constancy he resolved, in this instance, to maintain the honour of Christ. This conflict, which mutually divided the representatives of the spiritual and civil powers, could only be terminated by the solemn intervention of the Helvetian Churches.—Registers of Council, anno 1553. See also the various histories of Geneva, Spon, Picot, &c.
[444] In a letter to Theodore Beza of 30th August 1553, he gave eloquent expression to his deep anxiety for the Church of England:—"Scarcely has any other thing so much distressed me as this English affair. Let us earnestly implore mercy of God, that he may have pity on us, and upon his most afflicted Church. But where is our Martyr? where John A Lasco? where is Hooper, Bishop of Worcester? where is Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury? where is the Duke of Suffolk? where are numberless other excellent men? Lord, have mercy upon them. I cannot easily express how greatly these things distress me."—Zurich Letters, 1st series, vol. ii. p. 741.