776 THE EEFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
Swiss Churches as a basis of judgment. All this was fair and impartial.^
On the same day Calvin extracted thirty-eight propositions from the books of Servetus with references, but without comments.
Then, turning with astonishing energy from one enemy to the other, he appeared before the Little Council on the 2d of September to protest most earnestly against their protection of Berthelier, who intended to present hiiiiself on the following day as a guest at the Lord's table, and by the strength of the civil power to force Calvin to give him the tokens of the body and blood of Christ. He declared before the Council that he would rather die than act against his conscience. The Council did not yield, but resolved secretly to advise Berthelier to abstain from receiving the sacrament for the present. Calvin, ignorant of this secret advice, and resolved to conquer or to die, thundered from the pulpit of St. Peter on the 3d of September his determination to refuse, at the risk of his life, the sacred elements to an excommunicated person. Berthelier did not dare to approach the table. Calvin had achieved a moral victory over the Council.^
In the mean time Servetus had, within the space of twenty-four hours, prepared a written defence, as directed by the Council, against the thirty-eight articles of Calvin. It was both apologetic and boldly aggressive, clear, keen, violent, and bitter. He contemptuously repelled Calvin's interference in the trial, and charged him with presumption in framing articles of faith after the fashion of the doctors of the Sorbonne, without Scripture proof.^ He affirmed that
1 Opera, VIII. 796. The Latin text of the three documents is embodied in Calvin's Befutatio Errorum, ibid. 501-553.
2 See above, § 109, p. 513 sq.
^ VIII. 507 : " Earn sibi jam autoritatem arrogat Calvinus, ut instar magistrorum Sorbonicorum articulos scribat, et guidvis pro sua libidine damnet, nullam penitus ex sacris [c?e I'ecriture sainte'\ adducens rationem."
§ 152. THE SECOND ACT OF THE TRIAL. 777
he either misunderstood him or craftily perverted his meaning. He quotes from Tertullian, Irenaeus, and pseudo- Clement in support of his views. He calls him a disciple of Simon Magus, a criminal accuser, and a homicide.^ He ridiculed the idea that such a man should call himself an orthodox minister of the Church.
Calvin replied within two days in a document of twentythree folio pages, which were signed by all the fourteen ministers of Geneva.^ He meets the patristic quotations of Servetus with counter-quotations, with Scripture passages and solid arguments, and charges him in conclusion with the intention " to subvert all religion." ^
These three documents, which contained the essence of the doctrinal discussion, were presented to the Little Council on Tuesday the 5th of September.
On the 15th of September Servetus addressed a petition to the Council in which he attacked Calvin as his persecutor, complained of his miserable condition in prison and want of the necessary clothing, and demanded an advocate and the transfer of his trial to the Large Council of Two Hundred, where he had reason to expect a majority in his favor.* This course had probably been suggested to him (as Rilliet conjectures) by Perrin and Berthelier through the jailer, Claude de Geneve, who was a member of the Libertine party.
On the same day the Little Council ordered an improvement of the prisoner's wardrobe (which, however, was delayed by culpable neglect), and sent him the three documents, with permission to make a last reply to Calvin, but took no action on his appeal to the Large Council, having no disposition to renounce its own authority.
^ VIII. 515 : " Simonis Magi discipulust , . . accusator criminalis, et homicida."
2 Calvinus, Poupinus, Gallasius, Bernardus, Bourgoinus, Malisianus, Calvetus, Pyrerius, Copus, Baldinus, J. a Sancto Andrea, Faber, Macarius, Colladonus.
^ " Ut luce sance docfrinoe exstiyicta totam religionem everteret."
* Opera, VIII. 797, and Rilliet-Tweedie, p. 182.