My Lords,—I have been induced to write on Calvin’s paper as there are so many short, interrupted expressions which, apart from the context, would have neither sense nor signification. But doing as I have done, setting the pros and cons in juxtaposition, Messieurs the Judges will be able more readily to decide on the questions in debate. Calvin must not be offended with me for this, for I have not touched a word of his writing; and it was not possible, without infinite confusion, to do otherwise than as I have done. Be pleased, my Lords, to let those who may be appointed to judge or report, have the two books now sent, as they will be thereby spared the trouble of searching out the passages referred to, these being all duly indicated. If Calvin makes any remarks on what is now said, may it please you to communicate them to me.
Your poor prisoner,
Michael Servetus.
This epistle, like the petitions presented to them, received no notice from the Council, which at this time was seriously engaged with business more interesting to them in their civil and administrative spheres; so that for some fourteen days no heed was given to the unfortunate Servetus rotting in the felon’s gaol of Geneva, or to the preparation and despatch of the documents to be submitted to the Councils and Churches of the four Protestant Cantons.
CHAPTER XIII.
CALVIN ANTICIPATES THE JUDGES IN THEIR APPEAL TO THE SWISS CHURCHES.
Calvin, unlike Servetus, was never remiss. Sedulous to leave as little as might be to accident, and nothing, if he could guard against it, to independent conclusion, he did not fail to take advantage of the pause in the proceedings that now occurred, by being beforehand with the judges, and writing to the leading ministers of the Swiss Churches, every one of whom was of course personally known, and, with few exceptions, even servilely devoted, to him. Addressing Henry Bullinger, on September 7, he says:—
The Council will send you, ere long, the opinions of Servetus in order to have your advice. It is in spite of us that you have this trouble forced on you; but the folks here have come to such a pass of folly and fury that they are suspicious of all we say. Did I declare that there was daylight at noon, I believe they would question it. Brother Walter [Bullinger’s son-in-law] will tell you more [of the state of affairs here].
Calvin, it would therefore appear, did not like the appeal to the Churches. We have said that he had formerly been baffled in his pursuit of Jerome Bolsec, by the moderation they recommended when consulted on the case. He would have had his own and the Church of Geneva’s decision suffice; the motion for appeal to the wider sphere, moreover, seems really to have come from Servetus, and this of itself would have sufficed to make it distasteful to Calvin. The Council’s giving in to it must have been regarded by him, if not as an insult, yet as a mark of distrust: hence his angry allusion to the fury and folly of the Genevese. He made the best of the matter, however, as we have said, by having the start of the Council; and not only writing to the chiefs of the four Churches, but in the case of Zürich at least, by sending a messenger—Brother Walter—specially commissioned to give Bullinger, its head pastor, information of a kind he would not trust to writing.
Bullinger, in reply to the written and verbal communication, informs Calvin that—
‘Walter’s news has indeed saddened and disquieted him greatly.’ In some sort of trouble himself, as it seems, Bullinger can heartily sympathise with his brother of Geneva; yet is he ‘without fear for the future, though there be in the town around him more dogs and swine than he could desire! Still many things are to be put up with for the sake of the Elect, and we have to enter the Kingdom of Heaven through great tribulation. But do not, I beseech you, forsake a Church which has so many excellent men within its pale. Bear all for the sake of the Elect. Think what cause of rejoicing your retreat would give to the enemies of the Reformation, and with what danger it would be fraught to the French refugees. Remain! The Lord will not forsake you. He has, indeed, now presented the noble Council of Geneva with a most favourable opportunity of clearing itself from the foul stain of heresy, by delivering into its hands the Spaniard Servetus. You will have heard, of course, that he has put forth another book, wherein he surpasses himself in impiety; but if the blasphemous scoundrel be dealt with as he deserves, the whole world will own that the Genevese have the impious in horror, that they are forward to pursue the obstinate heretic with the sword of justice, and well disposed to assert the glory of the Divine Majesty! Nevertheless, and in any case should they not do so, you ought not to abandon your post and expose the Church to new misfortunes. Fight on bravely, then, trusting in God.’[95]
From what he says, we see that Bullinger had not been informed of all that had taken place in Geneva, and that the printing of ‘the other book,’ which he could not yet have seen, had been the occasion of its author’s arrest and trial. But the letter to Calvin, prompted by the news he had received through Brother Walter, satisfies us that Calvin at this time felt little at his ease in Geneva, and in nowise sure of the support he was to have from his friend Bullinger. He had no doubts as to the theological criminality of Servetus; neither had he any qualms as to the kind of punishment he designed for him; but he was wroth with the Council for the impartiality it showed towards one who had dared, as he believed, to beard him in his own domain, and ventured to subscribe himself as having the support of the great heavenly head of all the Churches. As Calvin interpreted the latest proceedings of the Council, they appeared simply hostile to himself. Failing now in his prosecution of the Spaniard, his social influence would be compromised, and with the check he had just received in the affair of Berthelier, and the power of the Consistory to excommunicate, whereby his religious foothold was seriously shaken, he must have threatened, if he did not really contemplate, the extreme step of abandoning the Genevese to their own evil devices. Bullinger probably took Calvin’s threat of quitting his charge in Geneva, as conveyed to him by Brother Walter, too literally. From the suspicion of any such purpose, we find him anxious immediately to clear himself by the letter he forthwith addressed to the Zürich pastor: