Besides this, Servetus farther charges him with writing to one William Trie, at Lyons, to furnish the magistrates of that city with matter of accusation against him. The author of the Bibliotheque before-mentioned, says this is a mere romance, dressed up by Servetus. I confess it doth not appear to me in so very romantic a light; at least Calvin’s vindication of himself, from this charge, doth not seem to be altogether sufficient. He says, “It is commonly reported that I occasioned Servetus to be apprehended at Vienne; on which account it is said, by many, that I have acted dishonourably, in thus exposing him to the mortal enemies of the faith, as though I had thrown him into the mouth of the wolves. But, I beseech you, how came I so suddenly into such an intimacy with the pope’s officers? It is very likely, truly, that we should correspond together by letters; and that those who agree with me, just as Belial doth with Jesus Christ, should enter into a plot with their mortal enemy, as with their companion: This silly calumny will fall to the ground, when I shall say, in one word, that there is nothing in it.” But how doth all this confute Servetus’s charge? For whatever differences soever there might be between Calvin and the Papists in some things, yet, why might he not write to the Papists at Vienne to put Servetus to death for what was equally counted heresy by them both, and when they agreed as the most intimate friends and companions in the lawfulness of putting heretics to death? What Calvin says of the absurdity of their intimacy and conspiracy with him their mortal enemy, is no absurdity at all. Herod and Pontius Pilate, though enemies, agreed in the condemnation of the Son of God.
Besides, it is certain, that the magistrates at Vienne had Servetus’s Manuscripts sent to them from Geneva, either by Calvin, or the magistrates of that city; and when Servetus was afterwards apprehended at Geneva, the magistrates there sent a messenger to Vienne, for a copy of the process that had been there carried on against him; which that messenger received, and actually brought back to Geneva. So that nothing is more evident, than that there was an intimacy and conspiracy between the Protestants of Geneva and the Papists at Vienne, to take away the life of poor Servetus; and that, though they were mortal enemies in other things, and as far different from one another as Christ and Belial, yet that they agreed harmoniously in the doctrine and practice of persecution, and were one in the design and endeavour of murdering this unhappy physician. And though Calvin is pleased magisterially to deny his having any communication by letters with the Papists at Vienne, yet I think his denial far from sufficient to remove the suspicion. He himself expressly says that many persons blamed him for not acting honourably in that affair; and the accusation was supported[supported] by Servetus’s complaint, and by what is a much stronger evidence, the original papers and letters which Servetus had sent to Calvin, which were actually produced by the judges at Vienne, and recited in the sentence as part of the foundation of his condemnation. And as Calvin himself never, as I can find, hath attempted to clear up these strong circumstances, though he owed it to himself and his friends, I think he cannot well be excused from practising the death of Servetus at Vienne, and lending his assistance to the bloody Papists of that place, the more effectually to procure his condemnation.
But he had the good fortune to make his escape from imprisonment, and was, June 17, 1553, condemned for contumacy, and burnt in effigy by the order of his judges; having himself got safe to Geneva, where he was re-condemned, and actually burnt in person, October 27, of the same year 1553. He had not been long in this city before Calvin spirited up one Nicholas de la Fountain, probably one of his pupils, to make information against him; wisely avoiding it himself, because, according to the laws of Geneva, the accuser must submit to imprisonment with the party he accuses, till the crime appears to have a solid foundation and proof. Upon this information Servetus was apprehended and imprisoned. Calvin ingenuously owns, that this whole affair was carried on at his instance and advice; and that, in order to bring Servetus to reason, he himself found out the party to accuse him, and begin the process against him. And therefore, though, as the fore-mentioned author of the Bibliotheque, for January, &c. 1729, observes, the action, after its commencement, was carried on according to the course of law; yet, as Calvin accused him for heresy, got him imprisoned, and began the criminal process against him, he is answerable for all the consequences of his trial, and was in reality the first and principal author of his death; especially as the penal laws against heretics seem at that time to have been in force at Geneva, so that Servetus could not escape the fire upon his conviction of heresy.
When he was in jail, he was treated with the same rigour as if he had been detained in one of the prisons of the inquisition. He was stripped of all means of procuring himself the conveniences and supplies he needed in his confinement. They took from him ninety-seven pieces of gold, a gold chain worth twenty crowns, six gold rings, and at last put him into a deep dungeon, where he was almost eaten up with vermin. All this cruelty was practised upon a protestant in the protestant city of Geneva. Besides this, he could never get a proctor or advocate to assist him, or help him in pleading his cause, though he requested it, as being a stranger, and ignorant of the laws and customs of the country. Calvin, at the request of the judges, drew up certain propositions out of Servetus’s books, representing them as blasphemous, full of errors and profane reveries, all repugnant to the word of God, and to the common consent of the whole church; and, indeed, appears to have been acquainted with, and consulted in the whole process, and to have used all his arts and endeavours to prevent his coming off with impunity.
It is but a poor and mean excuse that Calvin makes for himself in this respect, when he says; [[303]]“As to the fact, I will not deny, but that it was at my prosecution he was imprisoned:—But that after he was convicted of his heresies, I made no instances for his being put to death.” But what need of instances? He had already accused him, got him imprisoned, prosecuted in a criminal court for the capital crime of heresy, and actually drew up forty articles against him for heresy, blasphemy, and false doctrine. When he was convicted of these crimes, the law could not but take its course; and his being burnt to death was the necessary consequence of his conviction. What occasion was there then for Calvin to press his execution, when the laws themselves had adjudged him to the flames? But even this excuse, poor as it is, is not sincerely and honestly made: for Calvin was resolved to use all his interest to destroy him. In his letter to Farrel, he expressly says, “I hope, at least, they will condemn him to death, but not to the terrible one of being burnt.” And in another to Sultzer, “Since the papists, in order to vindicate their own superstitions, cruelly shed innocent blood, it is a shame that Christian magistrates should have no courage at all in the defence of certain truth.—However, I will certify you of one thing, that the city treasurer is rightly determined, that he shall not escape that end which we wish him.” And in another to the church at Franckfort,[[304]] “The author (Servetus) is put in jail by our magistrates, and I hope he will shortly suffer the punishment he deserves.”[deserves.”] There was but one way possible for him to escape; and that was by bringing his cause from the criminal court, where he was prosecuted, before the council of the two hundred. And this Calvin vigorously opposed and reflected on the syndic himself for endeavouring it. He says, “that he pretended illness for three days, and then came into court to save that wretch (Servetus) from punishment; and was not ashamed to demand, that the cognizance of the affair should be referred to the two hundred. However he was unanimously condemned.” Now, what great difference is there between a prosecutor’s endeavouring to prevent the only method by which a criminal can be saved, and his actually pressing for his being put to death? Calvin actually did the former, and yet would fain persuade us he had no hand in the latter.
It is much of a piece with this, his desiring that the rigour of Servetus’s death might be mitigated; for as the laws against heretics were in force at Geneva, the tribunal that judged Servetus could not, after his conviction of heresy, absolve him from death, nor change the manner of it, as Calvin says he would have had it; and therefore his desiring that the rigour of it might be abated, looks too much like the practice of the inquisitors, who when they deliver over an heretic to the secular arm, beseech it so to moderate the rigour of the sentence, as not to endanger life or limb.
This was the part that Calvin acted in the affair of Servetus, which I have represented in the most impartial manner, as it appears to me; and am sorry I am not able to wipe off so foul a stain from the memory of this otherwise excellent and learned reformer. But when his enemies charge him with acting merely from principles of malice and revenge in this matter, I think it an evident abuse and calumny. He was, in his own judgment, for persecuting and destroying heretics, as appears from the treatise he published in vindication of this practice, entitled, “A declaration for maintaining the true faith, held by all Christians concerning the Trinity of persons in one only God, by John Calvin, against the detestable errors of Michael Servetus, a Spaniard. In which it is also proved, that it is lawful to punish heretics; and that this wretch was justly executed in the city of Geneva.” Geneva, 1554.
This principle was maintained by almost all the fathers and bishops of the church since the three first centuries, who esteemed heresy as one of the worst of impieties, and thought it the duty of the civil magistrates to employ their power for the suppression of it, and for the support and establishment of the orthodox faith. And though the first reformers abhorred the cruelty of the papists towards the protestants, they had nevertheless the same abhorrence of what they counted heresy that the papists had, and agreed with them in the lawfulness of suppressing it by the civil power. So that Calvin acted in this affair from a principle, though a mistaken principle of conscience, and had the encouragement and approbation of the most learned and pious reformers of the times he lived in.
Melancton, in a letter to Bullinger, says[[305]] “I have read also what you have written concerning the blasphemies of Servetus, and I approve your piety and judgment. I think also, that the senate of Geneva have done right, that they have put to death that obstinate person, who would not cease to blaspheme; and I wonder that there are any who disapprove that severity.” He affirms the same also in another letter to Calvin himself. Bucer also said publicly in his sermon, that “He ought to have his bowels pulled out, and be torn in pieces,” as Calvin relates in his letter to Sultzer. Farrel in a letter to Calvin, says, that “He deserved to die ten thousand deaths; that it would be a piece of cruelty, and an injustice to Christ, and the doctrine of piety, for magistrates not to take notice of the horrible blasphemies of that wicked heretic. And he hoped God would so order it that as the magistrates of Geneva were very praise-worthy for punishing thieves and sacrilegious persons, so they would behave themselves well in the affair of Servetus, by putting him to death, who had so long obstinately persisted in his heresies, and destroyed so many persons by them.”
[[306]]The pastors of the church at Basil, in their letter to the syndics and senate of Geneva, express their joy for the apprehension of Servetus, and advise them first to “Use all endeavours to recover him; but that if he persisted in his perverseness, they should punish him according to their office, and the power they had received from God, to prevent his giving any disturbance to the church, and lest the latter end should be worse than the first.” [[307]]The ministers of the church of Bern were of the same opinion; and in their letter to the magistrates of Geneva say, “We pray the Lord that he would give you the spirit of prudence, counsel and strength, to remove this plague from the churches, both your own and others,” and advise them “to neglect nothing that may be judged unworthy a Christian magistrate to omit.” [[308]]The ministers of Zurich give much the same advice, and thought that there was need of a great deal of diligence in the affair; “especially as the reformed churches were evil thought of, amongst other reasons for this, as being themselves heretical, and favourers of heretics. But that, as the Providence of God had given them an opportunity of wiping off so evil a suspicion, and preventing the farther spreading of so contagious a poison, they did not doubt but their excellencies would be careful to improve it.” [[309]]Those of Scaffhusen subscribed to the judgment of those of Zurich, and declare, that they did not doubt, but that their prudence would put a stop to the attempts of Servetus, lest his blasphemies, as a canker, should eat up the members of Christ; adding these remarkable words, “That to endeavour to oppose his dreams by a train of reasoning, what would it be, but to grow mad with a madman?”