790 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
pectecl at Geneva of being followers of Servetus. For the same reason some Anabaptists, like David Joris, who lived at that time in Basel under the assumed name of John von Bruck, took his part. Anonymous libels in prose and verse appeared against Calvin. He was denounced as a new pope and inquisitor, and Geneva, heretofore an asylum of religious liberty, as a new Rome.^ A hundred Servetuses seemed to arise from the ashes at Champel ; but they were all inferior men, and did not understand the speculative views of Servetus, who had exhausted the productive powers of antitrinitarianism.2
Not only dissenters and personal enemies, but also, as Beza admits, some orthodox and pious people and friends of Calvin were dissatisfied with the severity of the punishment, and feared, not without reason, that it would justify and encourage the Romanists in their cruel persecution of Protestants in France and elsewhere.
Under these circumstances Calvin felt it to be his disagreeable duty to defend his conduct, and to refute the errors of Servetus. He was urged by Bullinger to do it. He completed the work in a few months and published it in Latin and French in the beginning of 1554.-^ It had an
^ The Sicilian, Caraillo lienato wrote a long poem, De injusto Serveti incendio, which is copied by Trechsel, I. 321-28, from the Simler collection in Ziirich. Several poems came from Italian refugees in the Orisons.
2 On these later Antitrinitarians, see the preceding chapter. They were deistic ; Servetus pantheistic. Trechsel says (I. 269) : " In Servet schien sich die produktive Kraft des Antitrinitarianismus erschopft zu haben. Von der Hoke der Genialitdt und speculativer Welthetrachtung sank er zu der Stufe des trivialen ohnmdchtigen Zweifels hinunter, und die jugendliche Frische und Fiille, die sich in den Ideen des spanischen Arztes offenharte, wich einem altklugen, verstdndelnden, halbaufgekldrten Wesen, das sich in einer Fluth von suhjektiven Meinungen ohne Halt und innere Bedeutung zu erkennen gab. Nicht ivenig ivurde der kirchlichen Parthei und Calvin an ihrer Spitz durch die geistige Bedeutungslosigkeit ihrer Gegner der Kampf und Widerstand erieichtert, und dock dauerte er nock dreizehn lahre und endigte mit einer dhnlichen gewaltsamen Katastrophe, wie diejenige, mit welcker er begonnen hatte." He means the execution of Gentile at Bern, 1566.
^ Zerkinden in Bern received a copy Feb. 10, 1554 ; Sulzer in Basel, Feb. 26.
§ 157. Calvin's defence of the penalty. 791
official character aiul was signed by all the fifteen ministers of Geneva.^
Beza aided him in this controversy and undertook to refute the pamphlet of Bellius, and did so with great ability and eloquence.^
Calvin's work against Servetus gave complete satisfaction to Melanchthon. It is the strongest refutation of the errors of his opponent which his age produced, but it is not free from bitterness against one who, at last, had humbly asked his pardon, and who had been sent to the judgment seat of God by a violent death. It is impossible to read without pain the following passage: "Whoever shall now contend that it is unjust to put heretics and blasphemers to death will knowingly and willingly incur their very guilt. This is not laid down on human authority; it is God who speaks and prescribes a perpetual rule for his Church. It is not in vain that he banishes all those human affections which soften our hearts ; that he commands paternal love and all the benevolent feelings between brothers, relations, and friends to cease ; in a word, that he almost deprives men of their nature in order that nothing may hinder their holy zeal. Why is so implacable a severity exacted but that we may know that God is defrauded of his honor, unless the piety that is due to him be preferred to all human duties, and that when his
^ Defensio orthodoxce Jidei de sacra Trinitate, contra prodigiosos errores Michaelis Serveti Hispani : uhi ostenditur hoereticos jure gladii coercendos esse, et nominatini de homine hoc tarn impio jxiste et meri'to sumptuni Genevan fuisse supplicium. Per Johannem Calvinum. Oliva Robert! Stephani (261 pages). It is also quoted under the sub-title : Fidelis Expositio erroruin Mich. Serveti et brevis eorundem Refutatio, etc., or simply as Jiefutatio Erroruin M. S. The French version is entitled : Declaration pour maintenir la vraye foji que tiennent tons Cfiresfiens de la Trinite des personnel en un seul Dieu. Par Jean Calvin. Contre les erreurs de'testables de Michel Servet, Espaignol. Ou il est aussi monstre', qu^il est licite de punir les heretiques ; et qic'h bon droict ce meschant a estc execute par justice en la ville de Geneve (.3.56 pages). The work is accordingly cited under different titles — Defensio, Refulatio, Declaration. See the bibliographical notices in Calvin's Opera, VIII. Proleg. xxix-xxxiii,
^ See succeeding section.