Defensio orthodoxæ fidei de sacra Trinitate contra prodigiosos errores Michaelis Serveti, Hispani; ubi ostenditur hæreticos jure gladii coercendos, et nominatim de homine hoc, tam impio, justè et merito sumptum Genevæ fuisse supplicium, per Johannem Calvinum. Apud Olivum Roberti Stephani, 1554, p. 262. 8vo. Both of the versions are subscribed by all the Genevese clergy, and though they differ somewhat in minute particulars, they agree in everything essential. We have fine copies of both originals in our national Library.
[109] For a more particular account of Calvin’s severities, the reader is referred to a paper by M. Galiffe in the Mémoires de l’Institut National de Genève for 1862, p. 79. But torture was an old institution in Geneva, and Servetus is said only to have escaped the rack on the remonstrance of Vandel, one of the senators of the libertine party. In older days we read of one Postel, who, failing to answer so satisfactorily as was desired when cited before the Roman Catholic bishop and his court, for some offence, was ‘suspended by the rope’—by the wrists we believe. A first suspension, however, not proving effectual, a second was ordered; but it being now dinner time, the culprit was suspended a second time whilst his lordship the bishop dined! In more recent times, and under Calvin’s rule, a certain Billiard, having been guilty of jeering at the thunder and lightning during a terrible storm, whilst the inhabitants of Geneva generally were on their knees praying to God for mercy, was adjudged to be lashed by the common hangman at the tail of a cart through the streets of the city! Germain Colladon declared that he deserved death; but as he had a wife and family they might be content with the scourging!
[110] Em. Saisset: Michel Servet comme philosophe. In Mélanges de Critique et d’ Histoire. 12mo., Paris, 1865.
[111] First printed by Mosheim from the autograph, in his Neue Nachrichten von dem berühmten Spanischen Aertzte Michael Serveto, Beilagen, S. 106. 8vo., Helmst. 1750.
[112] Corpus Reform. Ep. Melanch. ad An., 1554.
[113] Comment. in Acta Apostol. ad Regem Daniæ.
[114] Institutiones Religionis Christ. Lib. i. Cap. 2, of the earlier editions.
[115] Joris’s able letter in low German is given by Mosheim, op. cit., p. 421.
[116] The proper title of this rare book, of which we have a copy in the library of the British Museum is: De Hæreticis an sint persequendi et omnino quomodo sit cum eis agendum, doctorum virorum, tum veterum tum recentiorum, sententiæ, &c. The opinions of the learned, both of ancient and modern times, concerning heretics: Are they to be persecuted; or how otherwise are they to be dealt with? A book most necessary and useful in these distracted times to sovereign princes and magistrates in dealing with a matter of such difficulty and danger. 12mo., Magdeburgh, 1554.
[117] Contra libellum Calvini quo ostendere conetur hæreticos jure gladii coercendos esse. S. L. [1554]. Of this rare book I have not met with an original copy; but there is the reprint (after 1602) in the Brit. Mus. Library.