SERVETUS.

HIS BOOKS--CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO--DE TRINITATE ERRORIBUS--DE

TRINITATE DIALOGORUM.

Mr. Dutens, in the course of his remarks on Servetus’s discourse

concerning the circulation of the blood, observes as follows:--

“Servetus published on this subject two different books. That for which

he was burnt at Geneva, in 1553, is entitled _Christianismi Restitutio_,

and had been printed but a month before his death. The care they took to

burn all the copies of it at Vienne in Dauphiny, at Geneva, and at

Frankfort, rendered it a book of the greatest scarcity. Mention is made

of one copy of it in the catalogue of Mr. de Boze’s books, p. 40, which

has been regarded as the only one extant. I have had in my hands a

surreptitious copy of it, published at London, which formerly belonged

to Dr. Friend; in the 143d, 144th, and 145th pages of which occurs the

passage (on the circulation.) The book is in quarto, but without the

name of the place where it was printed, or the time when, and is

incomplete, the bishop of London having put a stop to the impression,

which, if I mistake not, was about the year 1730. Care should be taken

not to confound this with another work of his, printed in 12mo. in 1531,

without mention of the place where, but supposed to be at Lyons. It is

entitled _De Trinitatis Erroribus Libri Septem, per Michaelem Serveto,

alias Reves, ab Aragonia Hispanum_; and there is along with it another

treatise, printed in 1532, entitled _Dialogorum de Trinitate, Lib. 2. de

Justitia Regni Christi, Capitula 4. per Michaelem Serveto, alias Reves,

ab Aragonià Hispanum_. This last, which is very scarce, and sold once

for one hundred pistoles, (that is 40_l._ sterl.) is in the library of

the duke of Roxburgh at London, where I have seen it, but it contains

not the passage referred to, which is only to be met with in the

corrected and enlarged edition of that work, published in 1553, and

entitled _Christianismi Restitutio_.”

Dr. Sigmond, in a recent work, entitled “The Unnoticed Theories of

Servetus,” speaks of a Life of Servetus in the Historical

Dictionary;[502] another, ascribed to M. de la Roche, in the

“Bibliothèque Angloise,” with extracts relating to Servetus’s Theory of

the Circulation of the Blood; and a third, by M. D’Artigny, in the

“Mémoires des Hommes Illustres,” who extracted the history of the trial

from the archives of the archbishop of Vienne in Dauphine. “And I have

lately read with considerable pleasure,” says Dr. Sigmond, “an Apology

for the Life of Servetus, by Richard Wright; not because he adds any

thing to our previous knowledge of his life and conduct, but that a

spirit of candour and liberality entitles the volume to much

consideration. He has evidently not met with the _Christianismi

Restitutio_.”

In relation to this latter work by Servetus, Dr. Sigmond says, “The late

Dr. Sims, for many years president of the Medical Society of London,

bequeathed to me his copy of Servetus, to which he has prefixed the

following note:--‘The fate of this work has been not a little singular;

all the copies, except one, were burned along with the author by the

implacable Calvin. This copy was secreted by D. Colladon, one of the

judges. After passing through the library of the landgrave of Hesse

Cassel, it came into the hands of Dr. Mead, who endeavoured to give a

quarto edition of it; but before it was nearly completed, it was seized

by John Kent, messenger of the press, and William Squire, messenger in

ordinary, on the 29th of May, 1723, at the instance of Dr. Gibson,

bishop of London, and burnt, a very few copies excepted. The late duke

de Valliere gave near 400 guineas for this copy, and at his sale it

brought 3810 livres. It contains the first account of the circulation of

the blood, above 70 years before the immortal Harvey published his

discovery.’”

“In justice to the memory of my late valued friend,” says Dr. Sigmond,

“I must state my conviction that this copy is not the original one; at

the same time, I firmly believe he imagined it to be that which he has

described. Yet he was well known as an accurate man, as a judicious

collector of books: and, indeed, to him is the Medical Society of London

indebted for its valuable and admirable library.” Dr. Sigmond’s

correction of Dr. Sims’s note is substantial; but it may be corrected

still further. Dr. Sims mistook as to the book having brought 3810

livres at the duke de Valliere’s sale. The duke gave that sum for the

book at the sale of M. Gaignat in 1769, and when the duke’s library was

sold in 1784, it produced 4120 livres. There is a particular account of

it in the catalogue of that collection, by De Bure, tom. i. p. 289. That

copy has hitherto been deemed _unique_. Is Dr. Sigmond’s _another_ copy

of Servetus’s own edition?

Dr. Sigmond’s own work, printed last year, is itself scarce, in

consequence of having been suppressed or withdrawn from

publication.[503] This circumstance, and the curiosity of its purpose,

may render an exemplifying extract from it agreeable:--

“I have quoted,” says Dr. S., “the whole of _Servetus’s_ theories

verbatim. Those that relate to the phenomena of mind, as produced by the

brain, will at this time have an additional interest, when Gall and

Spurzheim have attracted the attention of philosophers to the subject.

With some degree of boldness he has fixed upon the ventricles of the

brain, and the choroid plexus, as the seat of that ray divine which an

immortal Creator has shed upon man, and man alone. The awe and

veneration with which such a subject must be approached, are increased

by the conviction that though we may flatter our fond hopes with the

idea that some knowledge has been gained, we are still lost in the same

labyrinth of doubt and uncertainty that we ever were.

“After giving his description of the passage of the blood from the right

ventricle of the heart through the lungs, to the left ventricle of the

heart, he gives his reasons for his belief in his doctrine of the

circulation, and observes that Galen was unacquainted with the truth. He

then commences that most extraordinary passage upon the seat of the

mind. The blood, he supposes, having received in its passage through the

lungs the breath of life, is sent by the left ventricle into the

arteries; the purest part ascends to the base of the brain, where it is

more refined, especially in the retiform plexus. It is still more

perfected in the small vessels, the capillary arteries, and the choroid

plexus, which penetrate every part of the brain, enter into the

ventricles, and closely surround the origin of the nerves. From the

vital spirit it is now changed into the animal spirit, and acts upon the

mass of brain, which is incapable of reasoning without this stimulus. In

the two ventricles of the brain is placed the power of receiving

impressions from external objects; in the third is that of reasoning

upon them; in the fourth is that of remembering them. From the

communication through the foramina of the ethmoid bone, the two

ventricles receive a portion of external air to refresh the spirit, and

to give new animation to the soul. If these ventricles are oppressed by

the introduction of noxious vapour, epilepsy is produced, if a fluid

presses on the choroid plexus, apoplexy; and whatever affects this part

of the brain causes loss of mental power.

“I have transcribed his notions on vegetable and animal life: they are

more curious than correct. They are contained in the second Dialogue on

the Trinity, which is remarkable from its being the best proof that the

doctrines of Servetus were completely at variance with the Unitarianism

of which he was accused. It is a dialogue between Peter and Michael,

‘modum generationis Christi docens, quod ipse non sit creatura, nec

finitæ potentiæ, sed vere adorandus, verusque Deus.’

“He here enters very minutely into the soul, as the breath of life; and

the whole of the theories he has advanced are in support of the passages

in the Bible, relative to the Almighty pouring into the nostrils of man

the breath of life. A long metaphysical and theological discussion,

difficult to be understood, follows; but not one syllable can be found

contrary to the precepts of Christianity, or to the pure faith he wished

to instil into the mind. In another part of the work there is a

dissertation upon the heart as the origin of faith, which he believes,

on the authorities he cites from the Bible, to be the seat of some

degree of mental power. The heart, he supposes, deliberates upon the

will, but the will obeys the brain.”

Persons disposed to inquiries of the nature last adverted to, may peruse

a remarkable paper on the functions of the heart, as connected with

volition, by sir James Mackintosh; it was drawn up in consequence of a

table conversation with Mr. Benjamin Travers, and is inserted by that

gentleman in an appendix to his work on Constitutional Irritation.[504]

It remains further to be observed respecting Servetus, that, according

to Dr. Sigmond, another of his theories was, that “in the blood is the

life.” His notions “on vegetable and animal life,” are in his work “De

Trinitatis Erroribus, Libri VII.” 12mo. 1531. This book appears in the

“Bibliotheca Parriana,” by Mr. Bohn, with the following MS. remarks on

it by Dr. Parr.

“_Liber rarissimus._ I gave two guineas for this book.” S. P.

“Servetus was burnt for this book. He might be a heretic, but he was

not an infidel. I have his life, in Latin, written by Allwoerden,

which should be read by all scholars and true Christians.” S. P.

Dr. Sigmond’s opinion of Servetus evidently concurs with Dr. Parr’s.

Towards the close of Dr. Sigmond’s Introduction to his “Dissertatio,

quædam de Serveto complectens,” he says, “Of his religious opinions I

have but little to say: the bitter prejudices, the violent hatred, the

unmanly persecutions that disgraced the early introduction of a reformed

religion, have fortunately given place to the milder charities of true

Christianity. The penalty of death, by the most cruel torture, would not

now be inflicted on a man who offered to the world crude and undigested

dreams, or the visionary fancies of a disturbed imagination; and these,

to say the very worst, are the sins for which Servetus expired at the

stake, surrounded by the books his ardent and unconquerable spirit had

dared to compose.

A sincere love of Christianity beams forth in every page of the work I

have before me. His great anxiety was to restore religion to that

purity, which he believed it to have lost. The doctrine he opposed was

not that of Christ; it was that of the churchmen who had established, in

his name, their own vain and fleeting opinions. The best proof that

Calvin and Melancthon had deserted the mild, the charitable, the

peaceful religion of truth, and that they followed not the divine

precepts of their gentle Master, was, and is, that they pursued, even

unto death, a helpless, poor, and learned man.”

It is well known that Servetus was denounced by Calvin to the government

of Geneva, and that the civil authorities referred the case back to

Calvin. “At the instance of Mr. Calvin and his associates he was

condemned to be burnt alive; which sentence was executed October 27,

1553. He was upwards of two hours in the fire; the wood being green,

little in quantity, and the wind unfavourable.”[505] It is not now the

fashion to burn a man for heresy: the modern mode is to exaggerate and

distort his declared opinions; drive him from society by forging upon

him those which he disclaims; wound his spirit, and break his heart by

continued aspersions; and, when he is in his grave, award him the

reputation of having been an amiable and mistaken man.

*

[502] Of which there is an English translation in 8vo.

[503] It is entitled “The Unnoticed Theories of Servetus, a

Dissertation addressed to the Medical Society of Stockholm. By George

Sigmond, M.D. late of Jesus College, Cambridge, and formerly President

of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh. London, 1826.” 8vo. pp.

80.

[504] “An Inquiry concerning that disturbed State of the Vital

Functions, usually denominated Constitutional Irritation. By Benjamin

Travers, F.R.S. Senior Surgeon to St. Thomas’s Hospital, and President

of the Medico-Chirurgical and Hunterian Societies of London, &c.

second edition. London, 1827.” 8vo.

[505] Dr. Adam Clarke; Bibliographical Dict. vol. vi.

* * * * *