But everything seemed to conspire against Servetus at the moment of his reaching Geneva; for almost immediately after his arrival there, and whilst his presence was still unknown to Calvin, the Reformer received a letter from a correspondent, Paul Gaddi of Cremona by name, that must have greatly strengthened his fears of Servetus’s objectionable influence in the world, and, on theological grounds, confirmed him in his purpose of pushing matters to extremities and silencing the dangerous heretic for ever, did he but find the opportunity. Gaddi, as it seems, had lately reached Zürich from the north of Italy. At Ferrara, he informs his correspondent that he had had many long and interesting conversations with the Duchess, who showed the very best and most friendly dispositions towards the Reformed Faith. But she was sorely in want of a competent person, ‘a faithful Minister of the word of God,’ as a guide against those by whom she was surrounded. Gaddi, therefore, at the desire of the Duchess requests Calvin to send her some one who would give her true instruction, and free her from the teaching ‘of the miserable Monk she has at her elbow, who seeks not after what Christ requires, but after the things that be profitable to himself.’
‘Much have I seen in these [northern] Italian cities,’ continues Gaddi, ‘and many have I met with who profess Christ; but few and far between are those who faithfully serve the Lord. Various, truly, are the heresies that there abound, so that the land is, in truth, a very Babylon. This, you may be sure, I have not beheld without extreme distress of mind and tearful eyes; but the heresy that flourishes the most of all, is the doctrine of the proud and Satanic Servetus, insomuch that many of the faithful entreat you to come forward, and controvert his writings; a task to which they think you are the more bound to apply yourself, as he boasts that no one has yet dared to write against him. I, too, if my entreaty may be of any avail, beseech you to undertake the business. I know the influence your writings have with all in Italy, who fear God. If you deigned to take pen in hand against George [he had published a tract against predestination], who was every way unworthy of your notice, for he was plunged in the deepest ignorance, how much rather ought you to come forward against this diabolical spirit, who is looked on by so many as having the highest authority in matters of doctrine. And truly his teaching, though it be of the most impious and pestilent kind, is calculated to impose on those whose eyes serve them not to see far before them. Wherefore, I entreat you yet again, to undertake the task I propose. Postpone, I pray you, for a few days your other studies; betake you to this most necessary work, and be the hammer that shall smite the enemy.
Your most devoted,
Paulus Gadius Cremonensis.Zürich, July 23rd, 1553.[71]
CHAPTER III.
SERVETUS IS ARRAIGNED ON THE CAPITAL CHARGE BY CALVIN.
In ordering the summary arrest of Servetus at the instance of Calvin, as we have seen, the Syndic only conformed with usage. But by the law of Geneva grounds for an arrest on a criminal charge must be delivered to an officer styled Le Lieutenant Criminel, or the Lieutenant of Criminal Process—a personage evidently holding a responsible position in the city—within twenty-four hours thereafter, failing which the party attached was set at liberty. To prepare the articles of impeachment required, Calvin must have spent the greater part of the night, turning over the leaves of the ‘Christianismi Restitutio,’ for the matter of his charges. These bear very obvious marks of the haste in which they were put together, several of them being repetitions of others that had gone before, and scarcely anything like order being observed in the arrangement of the particulars adduced. Within the legal time, however, the prosecutor was ready with his articles, no fewer than thirty-eight in number, upon which, as a preliminary to further proceedings, it was the duty of the ‘Lieutenant Criminel’ to interrogate the prisoner, and from his replies to determine whether or not there were grounds to found what we should call a True Bill against him.
Nor was this all. Criminal charges must be made at the instance of some one who should avow himself aggrieved, and not only bind himself over to prosecute the suit he sought to institute to a conclusion, but be content to go to prison with the party he accused, and, in conformity with the requirements of the Lex Talionis, or law of retaliation, engage, in case his charges were not made good, to undergo the penalty that would befall the incriminated party if they were substantiated.
It would of course have been not only inconvenient, but unbecoming for Calvin, the real prosecutor in the case, to go into durance vile, his presence in the outer world being so much required. He had therefore to procure a substitute; and we might have expected to find William Trie again brought forward, and made to figure in setting on foot the trial for life or death at Geneva, as he had already lent himself to figure in that of Vienne. But Trie was not produced; it was a certain Nicolas de la Fontaine, a French refugee in the service of Calvin, in what capacity report speaks variously, some designating him cook, whilst others, to enhance his dignity, call him the Reformer’s Secretary. Calvin himself speaks of him familiarly as Nicolaus meus, my man Nicolas. That Fontaine was really the Reformer’s cook seems now to have been satisfactorily ascertained; but he may have been a man of parts and education for all that; refugees for conscience sake could not always choose their calling in their new abodes.[72]
On the morning of August 14th, accordingly, Nicolas de la Fontaine presented himself before the Lieutenant Criminel, Tissot, and the prisoner having been produced, De la Fontaine declared himself formally the Prosecutor of Michael Servetus of Villanova on certain criminal charges, demanding at the same time that the prisoner should, under penalties, be required to answer truthfully to each of the articles now to be alleged against him.
These articles, thirty-eight in number, are taken exclusively from Servetus’s work entitled ‘Christianismi Restitutio,’ which is assumed as having been published and found detrimental to the public peace (although it had as yet been seen by no one in Geneva but Calvin himself), not any of them from the earlier work entitled ‘De Trinitatis Erroribus,’ the printing of which and its presumed influence in troubling the Churches of Germany, infecting the world with heresy and causing many to lose their souls, being nevertheless, as we see, the first item in the list of its author’s delinquencies. Calvin must have seen the propriety of producing the treatise on Trinitarian Error, published two and twenty years ago; but he had not a copy himself, neither could he hear of one either in Geneva or Lausanne; for he had written to his friend Viret for aid in the matter. But Viret could not help him—he had no copy himself; his friend Sonnerius, however, he thinks, has one; ‘were he at home he would not assuredly refuse us the use of it.’ Obtaining it on Sonnerius’s return, he will send it with the least possible delay to Geneva.[73]
The articles of impeachment, classified and summarised, with the answers of Servetus, are as follows: