1846.]

Questions proposed to Calvin by Servetus.

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was not approved by the Catholics; at Lyons it was placed upon the catalogue of prohibited books. Servetus remained in this quiet retreat twelve years, and was the regular physician of the city. But he could no longer continue in such pursuits. must again launch his frail bark as a reformer.

Correspondence with Calvin and the Preacher Pepin.

He

The first direct communication between Calvin and Servetus, after the proposed discussion at Paris previously mentioned, was not until about 1540. They, however, had not been unmindful of each other in the mean time. Servetus felt that Calvin was the leading spirit of the reformation, and the great hindrance to the success of his own projects. He accordingly wrote to him and desired him to answer three questions: "1. Is the man Jesus, who was crucified, Son of God, and how is he so? 2. Is the kingdom of God in men, when they enter this kingdom, when they are regenerated? 3. Must Christian baptism be received in faith like the Lord's Supper, and why are baptism and the Lord's Supper instituted in the new Covenant?" Calvin answered each of these questions specifically and kindly. But Servetus was not satisfied with his answer, and wrote him again a refutation of his solution of the questions proposed, and urged another reply. Calvin wrote to him a second time in a friendly manner, although with warmth, and with decided reproofs for his unreasonable demands upon him, and for his erroneous views. "I neither hate," he says, "nor despise you, nor would I knowingly inveigh against you with too much severity. But I should be harder than iron if I were not moved, when I see you with such shameless impudence assailing the truth."

There is much in Calvin's answer to the third question of Servetus upon baptism and the Lord's Supper, which shows that the severity which has sometimes been ascribed to his system of doctrines, is not altogether merited. "I do not doubt," he says, that when God removes infants from the world, they are regenerated by the secret influences of the Holy Spirit."1

In reference to several other interrogatories of Servetus, Calvin replied: "I would answer them if I could do it in few words; but my other engagements do not allow me time to write whole volumes to you alone. Besides you ask nothing which you may

1 Quos parvulos Dominus ex hac vita recolligit, non dubito regenerari arcana Spiritus operatione.

not find in my Institutes, if you will take the trouble to look there. Still I would not spare my own labor, if I knew the exact point at which you aim. But if I should undertake to discuss the subjects which you propose, what a forest I should find myself in." The proud Spaniard was so enraged at this answer, that, according to Calvin's account, he sent back to him his Institutes with the most bitter and taunting remarks upon the margin, and addressed to him several letters one after another, filled with reproaches, abuse and insults. Calvin however bore them with patience. It is true, that it has been questioned, but, as it seems to us, without reason, whether he was not too severe upon Servetus in his account of the matter. Calvin throughout his whole life showed himself scrupulously conscientious, and not subject to the failure of his memory in the statement of facts, and it is hardly to be supposed that here alone he would be found in fault. This argument in favor of Calvin receives double force from the perfect correspondence of this course of Servetus with the spirit which he manifested, and with his conduct on other occasions. As far as is known, Calvin never wrote to Servetus but two letters. The manner of his antagonist was disagreeable to him from the first, and he could not be prevailed upon to continue the controversy. He seems to have consented to answer him at all, in consequence of the request of a mutual friend, John Frellon, a book-merchant in Lyons. In a letter to him enclosing one to Servetus, Calvin says: "Sir John! I am very ready to gratify your wishes, although I have little hope of availing anything with a man of such a disposition as he seems to possess; but yet I will try whether there is any means of bringing him to reason, which may be accomplished if God shall work an entire change in him. Since he wrote me in so haughty a tone I have wished to humble his pride, by speaking to him with a little more severity than is my custom; I could not do otherwise, for I assure you, that no lesson is more necessary for him to learn than that of humility, which will come to him only through the influence of the Spirit of God. But still we must use our exertions for it. If God shall be so gracious to him and to us as to make this reply profitable to him, I shall have occasion for joy. But if he shall continue in his present course, you will lose your time if you solicit me to exert myself for him; for I have other duties which are more imperative, and I shall scruple to occupy myself longer with him, not doubting that he is a Satan, to turn me off from other more

1846.] Calvin's Impatience at Servetus' Importunity.

61

profitable studies. I therefore pray you to rest satisfied with what I have already done," etc.1

At the time of writing the above letter, Calvin hoped that Servetus might be turned to a better life by the influences of the Holy Spirit; yet he seems from a letter to Farel bearing date the same day, to have been quite exasperated by the numerous heretical documents sent him to read, and by the wish of Servetus to come to Geneva, if Calvin would afford him protection. "Servetus," he says, "wrote me recently, and sent with his letter a large volume of his reveries, full of the most pompous arrogance. He said; I should find stupendous things never before heard of therein! If I was willing, he would come here; but I am unwilling to give him my protection. For if he shall come, if my authority avails anything, I will not suffer him to go away alive."

This last unfortunate expression has given occasion for numerous needless calumnies and reproaches from the opponents of Calvin. The simple and unprejudiced state of the case seems to be this: Calvin had received and answered the request of Servetus and was giving an account of it to Farel. And this was a mere expression of impatience which he felt at Servetus' conduct, and the fear that he might give occasion for condign punishment. That he had deliberately designed to compass his death is confuted by the letter above quoted to Frellon, written the same day, in which he expresses the hope that Servetus may yet be turned from his errors to the truth. Besides, if he had desired the Spaniard's death, he would not have prevented him from coming to Geneva. It is to be regretted that Calvin gave way to his impatience, that "wild animal which he had not yet quite tamed," but we are not able to persuade ourselves that there was in this expression, a particle of deliberate malice. It was certainly much milder than the assertions of others who had not a tithe of the occasion for severity that Calvin had.2

The correspondence between Calvin and Servetus entirely ceased before 1548. For it appears from a letter from Calvin to Viret, that since Servetus could obtain no further answers from him, he had attacked Viret. I believe," Calvin says, "you once read what I answered that man. I wished not to contend any longer with one so desperately headstrong and heretical; and it was certainly well to obey the injunction of the apostle Paul. Now he has made an assault upon you. How far it will be adSee the declaration of Bucer quoted above P. 55. note.

1 Feb. 13, 1546. VOL. III. No. 9.

6

visable for you to withstand his frenzy, you can judge. He will extort nothing further from me."1

Servetus sent to Calvin the manuscript of his Restitutio, by means of the bookseller Frellon, in order to obtain his opinion upon it. He afterwards desired Calvin to return it, so that he might make alterations. But it was in the hands of Viret, in Lausanne, and was accordingly not sent. After all communication between him and Calvin was suspended, Servetus wrote to the preacher Pepin at Geneva, in order to obtain it through him; but as it did not come, Servetus made changes in another copy which he had, and gave it to the press. His third letter to Pepin has been preserved, and is well worthy of perusal, as indicative of the spirit of the man. It is as follows: "Although my letter (the twelfth) to Calvin shows very clearly that the law is no longer in force, yet I will refer to still another passage, in order that you may better comprehend the new order of things which has been introduced by Christ's coming. If you read Jer. xxxi. you will distinctly perceive that the obligatory force of the decalogue is superseded. The prophet there teaches, that the covenant with the fathers when they came out of Egypt, is abolished; so also Ezekiel, in Chapter xvi, and Paul in Hebrews viii. does not now receive us as his, on account of this covenant, but through faith alone in Jesus Christ, his beloved Son. See now what sort of a gospel you have, entirely confused as it is by the law. Your gospel is without the One God, without true faith, without good works. In the place of one God you have a threeheaded Cerberus, in place of true faith you have a hurtful fancy. Good works you consider as nothing more than vain shadows. Faith in Christ is to you a mere show without substance. Man is nothing more than a block of wood, and God a monster without free-will. The divine regeneration by water you do not understand, and it is only a fable to you. You close the kingdom of heaven to men, by excluding it from us as a mere imaginary thing. Wo, wo, wo to you. By this last letter I wish you to be warned, so that you may be turned to a better belief. This is the last of my admonitions. There is perhaps a feeling of vexation in you, that I join in this struggle of Michael, and wish you also to be a fellow combatant with him. Read attentively this passage (in the Revelation), and you will see that men are there spoken

1 A me nihil posthac extorquebit.-Mss. Gen. Sept. 1548.

2 Chapter xii.

1846.]

The Restitution of Christianity.

63

of who, placing their lives in jeopardy, shall conquer in the contest by the blood and as witnesses of the Lord. That they shall be called angels is customarily said in the Bible. Do you not see that the church of Christ, already so long wandering in the desert, is here spoken of? Is not a future state of the church here intended, as John himself affirms? Who is that accuser who formerly complained of us for trampling upon the law and the commands? Before the struggle, John says, will the accusation take place and the corruption of the world. Then shall the conflict ensue -and the time is near. Who are those who shall obtain the victory over the beast? and who shall not have his mark? I am well assured that I shall suffer death for this cause, but I am not troubled in spirit on that account, so that I, a disciple, may be like my master. I am sorry that I cannot through you obtain my manuscript which is in Calvin's hands, so as to improve some passages in it. Farewell and expect no more letters from me. I will stand upon my watch-tower and watch, to see what he will say; for he will come, he will surely come and will not delay."

The Restitution of Christianity.

Servetus' Work on the Restitution of Christianity' appeared in January, 1553. He attempted first to obtain a publisher for it at Basil, but did not succeed. The archbishop Palmier, his patron, had established some printers in Vienne, and to these he next turned. The overseer of the press, W. Gueroult, who had been banished from Geneva and was an enemy of Calvin, was easily induced to favor the work. The publisher, B. Arnoullet, hesitated to issue a book without the sanction of the clergy, but was finally prevailed upon by pecuniary inducements and by assurances of the harmless character of the book. Two presses

This work was an octavo, 734 pages, and the whole title is as follows: Christianismi Restitutio, totius Ecclesiae Apostolicae ad sua limina vocatio, in integrum restituta cognitione Dei, fidei Christi, justificationis nostrae, regenerationis baptismi, et coenae Domini manducationis. Restituto denique nobis regno coelesti, Babylonis impiâe captivitate soluta, et Antichristo cum suis penitus destructo.