782 THE REFORMATIOlSr IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
Calvin to substitute the sword for the fire was overruled, and the papal practice of the auto-da-fe followed, though Avithout the solemn mockery of a religious festival.
The judges, after enumerating the crimes of Servetus, in calling the holy Trinity a monster with three heads, blaspheming the Son of God, denying infant-baptism as an invention of the devil and of witchcraft, assailing the Christian faith, and after mentioning that he had been condemned and burned in effigy at Vienne, and had during his residence in Geneva persisted in his vile and detestable errors, and called all true Christians tritheists, atheists, sorcerers, putting aside all remonstrances and corrections with a malicious and perverse obstinacy, pronounced the fearful sentence : —
" We condemn thee, Michael Servetus, to be bound, and led to the place of Champel, there to be fastened to a stake and burnt alive, together with thy book, as well the one written by tliy hand as the printed one, even till thy body be reduced to ashes ; and thus shalt thou finish thy days to furnish an example to others who might wish to commit the like.
" And we command our Lieutenant to see that this our present sentence be executed." ^
Rilliet, who published the official report of the trial in the interest of history, without special sympathy with Calvin, says that the sentence of condemnation is " odious before our consciences, but was just according to the law." Let us thank God that those unchristian and barbarous laws are abolished forever.
Calvin communicated to Farel on the 26th of October a brief summary of the result, in which he says : " The messenger has returned from the Swiss Churches. They are unanimous in pronouncing^ that Servetus has now renewed those impious errors with which Satan formerly disturbed the Church, and that he is a monster not to be borne. Those
1 Opera, VIII. 827-830. See also Rilliet, and Henry (III., Beilage, pp. 75 sqq.). The sentence was in the usual legal form, like that of Vienne. ^ " Uno consensu pronunciant omnes," etc. Opera, XIV. 657.
§ 155. EXECUTION OF SERVETUS. 783
of Basel are judicious. The Ziirichers are the most vehement of all. . . . They of Schaffhausen agree. To an appropriate letter from the Bernese is added one from tlie Senate in which they stimulate ours not a little. Casar, the comedian [so he sarcastically called Perrin], after feigning illness for three days, at length went up to the assembly in order to free that wretch [Servetus] from punishment. Nor was he ashamed to ask that the case be referred to the Council of the Two Hundred. However, Servetus was without dissent condemned. He will be led forth to punishment to-morrow. We endeavored to alter the mode of his death, but in vain. Why we did not succeed, I defer for narration until I see you."
This letter reached Farel on his way to Geneva, where he arrived on the same day, in time to hear the sentence of condemnation. He had come at the request of Calvin, to perform the last pastoral duties to the prisoner, which could not so well be done by any of the pastors of Geneva.
§ 155. Execution of Servetus. Oct. 27, 1553.
Farel, in a letter to Ambrosius Blaarer, December, 1553, preserved in the library of St. Gall, and copied in the Thesaurus Holtinyerianus of the city library of Ziirich, gives an account of the last moments and execution of Servetus. See Henry, vol. III. Beilage, pp. 72-75. Calvin, at the beginning of his "Defence," Opera, VIII. 460, relates his own last interview with Servetus in prison on the day of his death.
When Servetus, on the folloyving morning, heard of the unexpected sentence of death, he was horror-struck and behaved like a madman. He uttered groans, and cried aloud in Spanish, " Mercy, mercy ! "
The venerable old Farel visited him in the prison at seven in the morning, and remained with him till the hour of his death. He tried to convince him of his error. Servetus asked him to quote a single Scripture passage where Christ was called "Son of God" before his incarnation. Farel could not satisfy him. He brought about an interview with