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:
‘From your letter, most excellent Brother (he says), I learn
that you have not been so accurately informed of the griefs
whereof I complain as I could have wished. The wicked people
about me, knowing that I am irritable, my stomach troubling me
often and in various ways, have lately been striving to get
the better of my patience. But sharp as the struggle has been,
they have not succeeded in turning me in the slightest measure
from my course. I have been armed against all the arrows they
have aimed at me. The Lord may have put me of late so sorely to
the proof among this people, that I might learn by experience
what heavy trials have to be borne by his ministers. He who has
upheld me hitherto will not, I trust, fail to possess me with
less fortitude in time to come. Wherefore, trusting in his aid,
I have never been really minded to quit the station in which he
has placed me. Never once, when your Walter was here lately,
did I think of giving way and yielding to the contumelies
and indignities that were heaped upon me. The report to the
contrary was raised by the factious, that they might injure me.’
Calvin then goes on to inform his friend of the affair of
Berthelier, and the permission he had received from the Council
to present himself at the Lord’s Supper, and continues:
‘Knowing the brazen face of the man who, with every occasion
given him, has still stood in my way; and believing that he
would be disposed to vanquish me if he could, I declared to
the Council that I would not administer to him, and said that
I would sooner die than prostitute the bread of the Lord by
giving it to dogs or such as made a mockery of the Gospel, and
trod the ordinances of the Church under foot. You have not
understood aright what I said. Do not imagine that anything
is changed. Something more may possibly be attempted at the
next meeting of the Council. May the Lord lead the perverse to
desist from their efforts! For my part, it is certain that I
will never suffer the discipline sanctioned by the senate, and
the decree of the people, to be set aside. If I am prevented
from discharging the duties of my office, I may have to yield
to force, but I will never renounce the liberty I possess;
for, that abandoned, my ministry would be in vain. I am not
made of such stubborn stuff, however, as not to feel sorely
distressed when I think of the future scattering of this flock;
but whilst I have the power, I shall do all I can to hold them
in the right way. Do you with your prayers come to our aid, and
entreat that Christ may keep to himself his flock of this place.
Things go on no better in France. Wherever there is the
pretext, they do not spare bloodshed. Three are condemned to
death at Dijon, if they be not already burned; and the danger
is that the commotions we hear of in Scotland will add fuel to
the fires. Seven or eight youthful persons have been thrown
into prison at Nemours, and in several other French towns many
more have met with a like fate. Farewell!
The letter which Calvin wrote about the same time to Sulzer, pastor
of Basle, also deserves a place here, as showing the pains he took
to influence the minds of his friends in his own favour and against
Servetus.
The name of Servetus, who, twenty years ago, infected the
Christian world with his vile and pestilent doctrines, is
not, I presume, unknown to you. Even if you have not read his
book, it is scarcely possible that you should not have heard
something of the kind of opinions he holds. He it is of whom
Bucer, of blessed memory, that faithful minister of Christ,
a man otherwise of the most gentle nature, declared that ‘he
deserved to be disembowelled and torn in pieces.’ As in days
gone by, so of late he has not ceased from spreading abroad his
poison; for he has just had a larger volume secretly printed at
Vienne, crammed full of the same errors. The printing of the
book having been divulged, however, he was thrown into prison
there. Escaping from prison--by what means I know not--he
wandered about in Italy for some four months; but driven hither
at length by his evil destiny--_tandem hic malis auspiciis
appulsum_--one of the syndics, at my instigation, had him
arrested.
Nor do I deny that I have been led by my office to do all in
my power to restrain this more than obstinate and indomitable
individual, so that the contagion should continue no longer.
We see with what licence impiety stalks abroad, scattering
ever new errors; and we have also to note the indifference of
those whom God has armed with the sword to vindicate the glory
of his name. If the Papists approve themselves so zealous and
so much in earnest for their superstitions, that they cruelly
persecute and shed the blood of innocent persons, is it not
disgraceful in Christian magistrates to show so little heart
in defending the assured Truth? But where there is the power
of prevention, there are surely limits to the moderation that
suffers blasphemy to be vented with impunity.
As regards this man, then, there are three things to be
considered: First, the monstrous errors with which he corrupts
all religion, the detestable heresies with which he strives to
overthrow all piety, and the abominable fancies with which he
surrounds Christianity, and seeks to upset from the foundation
every principle of our Faith. Secondly, the obstinacy with
which he has comported himself, the diabolical persistency
with which he has despised all the counsels given him, and
the desperate insistance wherewith he has been forward to
spread his poison. Thirdly, the daring with which he, even
now, produces his abominations. So far is he from showing
any sign or giving any hope of amendment, that he does not
scruple to fasten his plague-spot on those holy men, Capito
and Œcolampadius--as if they were his associates! Shown the
letters of Œcolampadius, he said he wondered by what spirit
he, Œcolampadius, had been induced to depart from his first
opinion!...
There is but one thing more on which I would have you advised,
viz.: That the Questor of our city, who will deliver you this,
is of a right mind in the business, which is, that the prisoner
shall not escape the fate we desire--_ut saltem exitum quem
optamus non fugiat_.
I say nothing now of French affairs; there being no news here
of which I imagine you are not as well informed as we, unless
it be that on last Sabbath-day three of our pious brothers
were burned to death at Lyons, and a fourth met a like fate in
a neighbouring town. It is scarcely credible how these men,
illiterate, but enlightened by the spirit of God, and ennobled
by the perfections of the Doctrine, behaved on the occasion;
with what unswerving constancy they met their fate. But it
is not there only; in other parts of France burnings of the
same sort go on incessantly; nor seems there any prospect of
mitigation. Farewell!
Geneva; v. of the Ides (19) of Septr. 1553.
Calvin, we see from this epistle, believed that he would be fully
justified in having Michael Servetus burned alive at Geneva because
they differed in their interpretation of the Trinity; but that the
Papists of Lyons were inexcusable for sending to a fiery death those
who with himself did not acknowledge the Pope as God’s vicegerent on
earth, and Romish doctrine as the true and only saving faith. It is
the _evil destiny_ of Servetus, too, that has led him into the toils
of the Reformer; and to be of a _right mind_ in the business of the
prosecution, then proceeding is, so to play into the hands of the
prosecutor that his victim shall not escape the death designed him!
It was of Zürich, however, more than of any of the Churches consulted,
that Calvin felt most in doubt. The tolerant views of Zwingli were in
some sort hereditary there; and Bullinger, who was its chief pastor,
had disappointed him in the case of Bolsec. But he must also have had
strong misgivings of Basle, when he was induced to write the long
and particular letter to Sulzer, its leading minister, which we have
just perused. The more refined and delicate tone that is said to
have pervaded society in the city of Basle indisposed its people to
violence or extremes; and ‘Thorough’ was always the word on Calvin’s
banner.
If he had doubts of Zürich and Basle, Calvin could place implicit
reliance on Neuchatel, where Farel, his oldest, most devoted, and most
obsequious friend presided as head of the Church. Addressing Farel soon
after the arrest of Servetus, he writes:
It is even as you say, my dear Farel,--we are indeed variously
and sorely tried and tossed about by storms! We have now a
_new_ business with Servetus--_jam novum habemus cum Serveto
negotium_. His intention may, perchance, have been to pass
through this city; but it is not precisely known why he came
hither. When he was recognised, however, I thought it right
to have him arrested, my man Nicholas presenting himself as
accuser on the capital charge, and binding himself by the law
of retaliation, to proceed against him. Articles of accusation
under as many as forty heads were presented in writing on the
day following the arrest. He prevaricated at first, which led
to our being called in. Recognising me, he behaved as though
he held me obnoxious to him. I, as became me, gave no heed to
him. The senate, in fine, approved of all the charges, and he
was sent back to prison. On the third day after, my brother
becoming bail for Nicholas, he was set at liberty.
I say nothing of the effrontery of the man; but such was his
madness that [in the course of the interrogatory] he did not
hesitate to say the Devil was in the Deity--_Diabolus inesse
Divinitatem_--and more, that in so many men there were so
many gods, Deity being substantially communicated to them,
as, indeed, he said it was to stocks and stones! _I hope the
sentence will be capital at the least--Spero capitale saltem
fore judicium_; but I would have the cruel manner of carrying
it out remitted. Farewell!
Calvin’s charge was therefore, as we see, to no halting or half-way
conclusion. He proceeded from the first for a capital conviction--he
hoped it would be nothing short of this; and being so, he knew the kind
of death the man must die. It is a poor show of humanity, therefore,
that he makes at the end of his letter. But there is a phrase at
the beginning of the epistle which deserves very particular notice:
‘_Iam novum habemus cum Serveto negotium_--we have now on hand a _new
business_ with Servetus.’ But there was no _older business_ with
Servetus at Geneva. It was at Vienne that this took place. Writing to
Farel, his oldest and most trusted friend, Calvin reverts in mind to
the fact, and his words reflect or echo back his inward thought. Of
the justice of this surmise we seem to find confirmation in Viret’s
letter of August 22, which we have seen in reply to the one in which
Calvin inquires after a copy of the book on Trinitarian Error; for
there the pastor of Lausanne says: _Nunc vobis est alia cum Serveto
disputatio_--and now you have _another_ contention with Servetus;[96]
an obvious reference to a passage in one of the Reformer’s letters of
the same tenor as that he has just addressed to Farel. Calvin, it is
notorious, always shirked acknowledgment of the part he played in the
affair of Vienne. Even the self-complacency that comes of theological
zeal did not permit him to find an excuse for underhand dealing,
and the violation of a correspondence that was private and entirely
confidential. He was, by no means, insensible to the infamy that
cleaves to an act of the kind, however, and in his own case could say,
‘Zebedæus has been perfidiously showing confidential letters of mine,
which I wrote to him fifteen years ago from Strasburg!’[97]
Farel’s reply to the last epistle of Calvin, dated from Neufchatel on
September 8, is as follows:
I have returned from Normandy, restored to my usual good state
of health.... It is a wonderful dispensation of God that has
brought Servetus to this country. I wish he may come to his
senses, late though it be. It will indeed be a miracle if
he prefer death, and, turning to God, consent to edify the
spectators--he dying one death who has caused the death of so
many others!
Your judges will only show themselves hard-hearted contemners
of Christ, enemies of the true Church and of its pious
doctrine, if they prove insensible to the horrible blasphemies
of so wicked a heretic. But I hope God will so order it that
they may merit commendation by putting out of the way the man
who has so long and so obstinately persevered in his heresies
to the perdition of so many! In desiring to have the cruelty
of the punishment mitigated, you appear as the friend of him
who has been your greatest enemy. There are some, however, who
would let heretics be doing--as if there were any difference
between the office of the pastor and that of the magistrate!
Because the Pope condemns the faithful for the crime of heresy,
and hostile judges cause innocent persons to undergo the
punishment that should be reserved for blasphemers, it is
absurd to conclude that heretics are not to be put to death,
in order that the faithful may be preserved. But do you act,
I pray, in such a manner as to show that in time to come no
one will be suffered to promulgate new doctrines and to throw
everything into confusion, as this Servetus has done. For my
own part, I have often said that I should be ready to suffer
death did I teach aught that was opposed to the true doctrine,
and should deem myself deserving of the most terrible tortures
did I turn even one from the faith that is in Christ. I would
not, therefore, apply to another a different rule.
Farel is neither an elegant nor an agreeable, still less a logical,
writer; but he is zealous in behalf of the true doctrine--the doctrine,
to wit, he holds himself. God, the father of mankind, who sends the
rain and the sunshine indifferently on all, has, in the opinion of
this poor bigot, by a special dispensation of his providence, led a
sincerely pious man, according to his lights, to Geneva, there to be
first harshly and ignominiously treated by another sincerely pious man,
according to his lights; and finally through the influence he exerts
over its clergy and magistracy, to be put to a lingering death by slow
fire! Farel never thought of himself, with his ‘True Doctrine,’ as a
heretic in the highest degree in the eyes of his neighbours the Roman
Catholics of France with _their_ ‘True Doctrine.’
It is more than questionable, indeed, whether Farel had ever read a
word of Servetus’s writings. He was a man of action, fearless, full of
fiery zeal, and a ready talker, but with no great amount of scholarly
acquirement, and still less of philosophy. In anything of his we have
seen, and save in what is said of his harangues, he never meets us
otherwise than as a man of narrow mind, utterly intolerant and entirely
under the influence of Calvin. If Servetus had sinned by persevering
in heresy, and corrupting souls, so had he, so had Calvin, so had
Melanchthon and the rest, in the estimation of their neighbours the
Papists of neighbouring lands; and, though he speaks glibly of myriads
who had lost their chance of salvation through Servetus, there was
never a tittle of evidence adduced on the trial to show that even a
single individual had been influenced by his writings. On the contrary,
all who are brought forward in connection whether with the man or his
works--Œcolampadius, Bucer, Melanchthon--are proof and more than proof
against both him and them. Calvin and Farel, as we see, had made up
their minds that Servetus was to be condemned to death weeks before the
conclusion of his trial.