These extracts, which are taken out of the letters printed at the end of Calvin’s Institutions, clearly demonstrate that he acted seriously and deliberately in the affair of Servetus; and that he consulted the neighbouring churches, and had their opinion of the lawfulness and expediency of putting him to death for his heresies. And though it doth not wholly excuse his fault, yet it ought in justice to be allowed as an abatement and extenuation of it; and, I think, evidently proves, what his enemies are very unwilling to allow, that he was not transported by rage and fury, and did not act merely from the dictates of envy and malice, but from a mistaken zeal against what he accounted blasphemy and heresy, and with the concurrent advice of his brethren in the ministry, and fellow-labourers in the great work of the reformation. And I think his eminent services to the church of God, both by his preaching and writings, ought, notwithstanding all his failings, to secure to his memory the honour and respect that is due to it: for he deserved well of all the reformed churches, and was an eminent instrument in the hand of Providence, in promoting the great and glorious work of saving men from the gross errors, superstitions and idolatries of the Romish church. And as I thought myself obliged impartially to represent these things as they appeared to me, I hope all who love to distinguish themselves by Calvin’s name, will be careful not to imitate him in this great blemish of his life, which, in reality, hath tarnished a character, that would otherwise have appeared amongst the first and brightest of the age he lived in.
In the year 1632, after Calvin’s death, one Nicholas Anthoine was condemned also by the council of Geneva, to be first hanged, and afterwards burnt; because, that having forgotten the fear of God, he had committed the crime of apostacy and high treason against God, by having opposed the Holy Trinity, denied our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, blasphemed his holy name, renounced his baptism, and the like.
SECT. III.
Persecutions at Bern, Basil, and Zurich.
Valentinus Gentilis,[[310]] a native of Cosentia in Italy, had the misfortune also to fall into some heterodox opinions concerning the Trinity, and held that the Father alone was αυτοθεος, God of himself, αγεννητος, unbegotten, Essentiator, the giver of essence to all other beings; but that the Son was Essentiatus, of a derived essence from the Father, and therefore not αυτοθεος, or God of himself, though at the same time he allowed him to be truly God. He held much the same as to the Holy Ghost, making them three eternal Spirits, distinguished by a gradual and due subordination, reserving the monarchy to the Father, whom he stiled the one only God. Being forced to fly his native country, on account of his religion, he came to Geneva, where there was a church of Italian refugees, several of whom, such as G. Blandrata, a physician, Gribaldus, a lawyer, and Paulus Alciatus, differed from the commonly received notions of the Trinity. When their heterodoxes came to be known at Geneva, they were cited before the senators, ministers, and presbyters, and being heard in their own defence, were refuted by Calvin, and all subscribed to the orthodox faith.
But V. Gentilis having after this endeavoured to propagate his own opinions, he was again apprehended, and forced by Calvin and others to a public abjuration, and condemned anno 1558, to an exemplary penance, viz. “That he should be stripped close to his shirt, then barefoot and bare-headed should carry in his hand a lighted torch, and beg God and the court’s pardon on his knees, by confessing himself maliciously and wickedly to have spread abroad a false and heretical doctrine; but that he did now from his heart detest and abhor those abominable, lying, and blasphemous books, he had composed in its defence; in testimony of which he was to cast them, with his own hands, into the flames, there to be burnt, to ashes. And for more ample satisfaction, he was injoined to be led through all the streets of Geneva, at the sound of trumpet, in his penitential[penitential] habit, and strictly commanded not to depart the city without permission.” And this penance he actually underwent.
But having found means to make his escape, he came at last to Gaium, a prefecture, subject to the canton of Bern, where he was seized and imprisoned by the governor, who immediately sent an account of his apprehension to the senate of Bern, who ordered him to be brought prisoner to that city, where they put him in jail. After they had seized all his books and papers, they collected several articles, with the heads of an indictment out of them to be preferred against him. Amongst others these were two, 1. “That he dissented from us, and all the orthodox, in the doctrine of the Trinity.” And 2. “That his writings contained many impious blasphemies concerning the Trinity.” And because he continued obstinate in his opinions, notwithstanding the endeavours of the divines to convert him, he was condemned by the senate, for his blasphemies against the Son of God, and the glorious mystery of the Trinity, to be beheaded; which sentence was executed on him in September, anno 1566.
[[311]]At Basil, also, heresy was a crime punishable with death, since the reformation, as appears from the treatment of the dead body of David George, an enthusiastical anabaptist. Having left Holland he went to Basil, and settled there as one that was banished out of his country for the sake of his religion, propagating his own doctrines by letters, books, and messengers in Holland. But his errors being discovered after his death, he was taken out of his grave, and together with his books and pictures burnt to ashes, by order of the magistrates, at the place of execution, without the walls of Basil, May 13, 1559. His opinions were first extracted from the printed books and manuscript papers found in his house, and himself declared an arch heretic.
[[312]]Zurich also furnishes us with an instance of great cruelty towards an anabaptist. A severe edict was published against them, in which there was a penalty of a silver mark, about four shillings English money, set upon all such as should suffer themselves to be-rebaptized, or should withhold baptism from their children. And it was farther declared, that those who openly opposed this order, should be yet more severely treated. Accordingly one Felix was drowned at Zurich, upon the sentence pronounced by Zuinglius, in these four Words, “Qui interum mergit, mergatur:“ He that re-dips, let him be drowned. This happened in the year 1526. About the same time also, and since, there were some more of them put to death. [[313]]From the same place, also, Ochinus was banished, in his old age, in the depth of winter, together with his children, because he was an Arian, and defended polygamy, if Beza’s account of him be true.
Lubieniecius,[[314]] a Polish Unitarian, was, through the practices of the Calvinists, banished with his brethren from Poland, his native country; and forced to leave several protestant cities of Germany, to which he had fled for refuge, particularly, Stetin, Frederickstadt, and Hamburg, through the practices of the Lutheran divines, who were against all toleration. At Hamburg he received the orders of the magistrates of the city to depart the place on his death-bed; and when his dead body was carried to Altenau to be interred, though the preachers could not, as they endeavoured, prevent his being buried in the church, yet they did actually prevent the usual funeral honours being paid him. John Sylvanus,[[315]] superintendant of the church of Heidelberg, was put to death by order of Frederick Elector Palatine, anno 1571, being accused of Arianism.