732 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
shut the kingdom of heaven against men. Woe unto you, woe, woe ! " ^
He concludes this remarkable letter with the prediction that he would die for this cause and become like unto his Master.2
§ 146. " The Restitution of Christianity ^
During his sojourn at Vienne, Servetus prepared his chief theological work under the title, " The Restitution of Christianity." He must have finished the greater part of it in manuscript as early as 1546, seven years before its publication in print; for in that year, as we have seen, he sent a copy to Calvin, which he tried to get back to make some corrections, but Calvin had sent it to Viret at Lausanne, where it was detained. It was afterwards used at the trial and ordered by the Council of Geneva to be burnt at the stake, together with the printed volume.^
^ " Evangelium vestrmn est sine uno Deo, sine fide vera, sine bonis operibus. Pro uno Deo habetis tricipitem cerberum, pro fide vera habetis fatale somnium, et opera bona dicitis esse inanes picturas. Christi fides est vobis merus fucus, nihil efficiens ; homo est vobis iners truncus, et Deus est vobis servi arbitrii chimcera. Regenerationem ex aqua coelestem non agnoscitis, sed velut fabulam habetis, Regnum coelorum clauditis ante homines, ut rem imaginariam a riobis excludendo. Vce vobis, vce, vce ! "
^ " Mihi ob earn rem moriendum esse certo scio, sed non propterea animo deficior, ut fiam discipulus similis proiceptori. Hoc doleo, quod per vos non licuit mihi emendare locos aliquot in scriptis meis, quce sunt apud Calvinum. Vale, et a me non amplius literas exspecta. Super custodiam meam stabo, contemplabor, et videbo quid sit dicturus. Nam veniet, certe veniet, et non tardabit."
3 He declared at the trial in Geneva, Aug. 17, 1553, that he sent a copy to Calvin about six years before,' in order to get his judgment (" il y a environ six ans, pour en avoir son jugement"). Opera, VIII. 734. Calvin informed Farel, Feb. 13, 1546, that Servetus had sent him a large volume of ravings, which must be the Restitutio.
Baron F. de Schickler, President of the " Socie'te' de I'Histoire du Protestantism fran^ais," informs me (June 3, 1892) that the library of this society (52 rue des Saint Peres, Paris) possesses a manuscript copy of the Restitutio, which was made with great accuracy, as he thinks, in 1613, from a copy that existed at that time in the library of Cassel. But it seems that it was transcribed from a printed copy, for on the first page of the MS. is written : " Hie liber erat in octavo (ui loquuntur) impressus, et paginas continebat 734 [the
§ 146. "THE RESTITUTION OF CHRISTIANITY." 733
The proud title indicates the pretentious and radical character of the book. It was chosen, probably, with reference to Calvin's " Institution of the Christian Religion." In opposition to the great Reformer he claimed to be a Restorer. The Hebrew motto on the title-page was taken from Dan. 12:1: " And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince " ; the Greek motto from Rev. 12:7: "And there was war in heaven," which is followed by the words, "Michael and his angels going forth to war with the dragon; and the dragon warred, and his angels; and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world."
The identity of the Christian name of the author with the name of the archangel is significant. Servetus fancied that the great battle with Antichrist was near at hand or had already begun, and that he was one of Michael's warriors, if not Michael himself .^
His " Restitution of Christianity " was a manifesto of war. The woman in the twelfth chapter of Revelation he understood to be the true Church; her child, whom God saves, is the Christian faith ; the great red dragon with seven heads and horns is the pope of Rome, the Antichrist predicted by Daniel, Paul, and John. At the time of Constantino and the Council of Nicsea, which divided the one God into three parts, the dragon began to drive the true Church into the wilderness, and retained his power for twelve hundred and sixty prophetic days or years ; but now his reign is approaching to a close.
number of tlie printed pages]. Pertinebat ad Mauricii ilhistratissimi HessicB principis ac Dom. bibliothecam qua-. Cisellis est, urbe illius reaionis metropoli et principis sede."
1 In the first Dialogue on the Trinity between Peter and Michael, Peter says: "En adest, Servetus est, quern er/o qucrrebam." Reslit. p. 100. This is a direct assertion of his authorship which he concealed on the title-page, and only intimated on the last page by the initials " M. S. V."