726 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
clergy. Nobody suspected his heresy, or knew anything of his connection with the work on the " Errors of the Trinity."
He devoted his leisure to his favorite literary and theological studies, and kej)t the publishers of Lyons busy. We have already mentioned the second edition of his " Ptolemy," which he dedicated to Palmier with a complimentarypreface.
A year afterwards (1542) he published a new and elegant edition of the Latin Bible of Santes Pagnini, a learned Dominican monk and pupil of Savonarola, but an enemy of the Reformed religion.^ He accompanied it with explanatory notes, aiming to give "the old historical but hitherto neglected sense of the Scriptures." He anticipated modern exegesis in substituting the typical for the allegorical method and giving to the Old Testament prophecies an immediate bearing on their times, and a remote bearing on Christ. Thus he refers Psalms IL, VIH., XXH., and CX. to David, as the type of Christ. It is not likely that he learned this method from Calvin, and it is certain that Calvin did not learn it from him. But Servetus goes further than Calvin, and anticipates the rationalistic explanation of Deutero- Isaiah by referring " the servant of Jehovah" to Cyrus as the anointed of the Lord. Rome put his comments on the Index (1559). Calvin brought them up against him at the trial, and, without knowing that the text of the book was literally taken from another edition without acknowledgment, said that he dexterously filched five hundred livres from the publisher in payment for the vain trifles and impious follies with which he had encumbered almost every page of the book.^
1 The first edition of Pagnini had appeared at Lyons, 1528. The translation of the Old Testament rests on a good knowledge of Hebrew, and was much used by Protestants, e.g. Robert Olivetan in his French version.
2 Willis (p. 142) charges Servetus with gross plagiarism, since his edition is a literal reprint of the edition of Melchior Novesianus of Cologne, 1541, while he declared in the preface that his text was corrected in numberless places by himself.
§ 145. COllEESPONDENCE OF SERVETUS. 727
§ 145. Correspondence of Servetus tvith Calvin and Foupin.
While engaged in the preparation of his last work at Vienne, Servetus opened a correspondence with Calvin through Jean Frellon, a learned publisher at Lyons and a personal friend of both.^ He sent him a copy of his book as far as then finished, and told him that he would find in it " stupendous things never heard of before." ^ He also proposed to him three questions : 1) Is the man Jesus Christ the Son of God, and how ? 2) Is the kingdom of God in man, when does man enter into it, and when is he born again? 3) Must Christian baptism presuppose faith, like the Lord's Supper, and to what end are both sacraments instituted in the New Testament ? ^
Calvin seems to have had no time to read the whole manuscript, but courteously answered the questions to the effect, 1) that Christ is the Son of God both according to his divine nature eternally begotten, and according to his human nature as the Wisdom of God made flesh ; 2) that the kingdom of God begins in man when he is born again, but that the process of regeneration is not completed in a moment, but goes on till death; 3) that faith is necessary for baptism, but not in the same personal way as in the Lord's Supper; for according to the type of circumcision the promise was given also to the children of the faithful. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are related to each other as circumcision and the passover. He referred to his books for details, but was ready to give further explanation if desired.*
1 Frellon employed Servetus as an editor and translator, and was probably a Protestant, as we may infer from his friendly relation to Calvin. But Henry (III. 129) supposes that he was a Catholic. Henry (III. 129) thinks that the correspondence began as early as 1540.
2 See the letter of Calvin to Farel, quoted on p. 692.
* Calvin gives the questions and answers in his Refulatio Errorum Mich. Serveti, Opera, VIII. 482-484. Servetus omits them in the Restitutio.
* " Sed quia mihi videor omnibus objectis alibi satis/ecisse, fnsiorem erplicationem inde peti melim. Si quid deest, paratus sum adjicere, sifuero admonitus." Opera, VIII. 484.