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have their reward irrespective of faith, and both Jews and the heathen will be participants of future blessedness.

Servetus as a public Lecturer and Physician.

After this first unsuccessful effort, Servetus seems to have concluded that it was not so easy to effect a reformation as he had supposed. Without the least particle of a martyr's heroism, notwithstanding all his vauntings, he left Germany, where so much hostility was shown to his doctrines, and determined to live in France. And in order to escape the inquisition he no longer retained either of the names, Servetus and Reves, by which he had been previously known, but called himself Michael of Villaneuva, from his native city. He says that in the year 1534 he studied mathematics and medicine in Paris at the Collège de Calvi and afterwards in the Collège de Lombards. It was in this year that the meeting was appointed for a discussion between him and the then youthful reformer, Calvin.2 After leaving Paris, he went to Orleans. Joh. Wier relates that when the notorious imposition of the Franciscan monks in calling up the ghosts of the departed was practised at Orleans, he had several friends of some reputation there, among others Michael Villanovanus. It should seem from the preface to Servetus' edition of Ptolemy's Geography that he went, about this time, to Italy, but it is possible that his first journey with Quintana is referred to. It is at least certain that his works were widely circulated in Italy, for one of his apologists Postellus says, that he had disciples there, and Melanchthon thought his influence sufficient to require a confutation of his errors, which was addressed to the council at Venice: "He," Melanchthon writes, "proclaims the condemned dogmas of Paul of Samosata, and subverts the doctrine of two persons in Christ. It is granted that the reason cannot comprehend the personality of the word, but we must rely with faith upon the teachings of the early church and the apostles, which are in direct opposition to those of Servetus." Some time after leaving Paris Servetus went to Lyons, where he prepared and published his Edition of Ptolemy's Geography with notes and was for some time corrector of the press for the firm of Trechsel, distinguished in that age for their beautiful typogra

1 In the sentence pronounced against him at Geneva it is said: Le dit servet rendu fugitif des dites Allemagnes à cause du dit Livre.

See Bib. Sac. Vol. II. p. 353.

1846.] Public Lectures and Treatises upon Medicine.

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phy. In 1537 he went again to Paris, took his degree of Doctor of Medicine, and lectured upon mathematics and astronomy. No one will affirm that Servetus was a man of inferior capacity. Although possessed of much theological learning, when he went to Paris, he applied himself with characteristic zeal to natural science, and was soon able to lecture upon it. He was also reckoned one of the most distinguished physicians in France. He even seems to have been the first to describe the circulation of the blood. In the mean time he did not lay aside his theological pursuits, but was preparing for the press an edition of the Bible. At this time he must have felt himself more prosperous than at any other period during his life. His lectures were attended by multitudes, and it is exceedingly to be regretted that he did not devote the remainder of his life to literary and scientific pursuits. He was of the Greek school of physicians in opposition to that of the Arabians, and in 1537 published a treatise on the Gallenists and Averrhoists. He also published an Essay upon the use of syrups which was highly approved. These works as well as his notes upon Ptolemy were written in very respectable Latin, compared with his theological treatises, which were barbarous. But his pride and arrogance did not suffer him long to occupy his honorable position. The University and Faculty of Paris opposed him, partly perhaps from envy, but more on account of his attacks upon many of the scholars of the capital, especially the professors in Natural History, who returned the assault in their public discourses. He then published a defence, in which he called his antagonists pests to the world, and other hard names. The result was that he was prohibited from lecturing on astronomy. With his usual impudence, he voluntarily appeared before the tribunal of the inquisition, trusting to the anonymous publication of his book, although every page of it, if proved upon him, would have subjected him to capital punishment, and he was acquitted.

From Paris Servetus went to Avignon, and thence back again to Lyons and in 1538 established himself in Charlieu near Lyons, as a physician. But even there he could not long remain quiet. He was thirty years old, and after the example of Christ, it was necessary, he thought, to be rebaptized. He placed great stress upon this duty. Faith, he held, justifies but baptism alone sancti

1 See Christianismi Restitutio, De Finit. Lib. V.; or an Extract from it in Henry, III. Beil. No. 3. a.

fies; faith is imperfect without baptism. It has indeed been sup posed, that he was baptized again in secret by some anabaptist in Switzerland or elsewhere, but Calvin believed that he never troubled himself about it, although he maintained that it was a necessary pledge of eternal felicity. He also seems, from a passage in his Restitutio, to have belonged to a secret sect which partook of the sacrament in a different manner from either Catholics or Protestants. The same qualities which did not allow him to live in peace in Paris soon drove him from Charlieu.1

In 1540 we find Servetus in Vienne in Dauphiny. The Archbishop of that city, Peter Palmier, a distinguished patron of literature who had heard the Spaniard's lectures in Paris, received him into his palace. Here he lived in quiet, and hypocritically conformed to all the usages of the Catholic church. How different is the conduct of this man from Calvin. The latter went straight forward in the path dictated by his conscience, without deviating for kings or princes, or for any selfish interest. How noble is his conduct in contrast with the wavering, changeable and even contradictory course of one who could revile with the most opprobrious language at one time, that which he approved and sanctioned by his conduct at another. Soon after his arrival in Vienna Servetus published a new edition of Ptolemy's Geography, dedicated to his patron, in which he suppressed a passage upon the barrenness of the promised land, which he feared might be offensive to the Archbishop.

In 1542 Servetus published, with a few changes, the translation of the Bible made by the learned monk Xantes Pagninus, to which he added his own ideas upon the interpretation of the Bible. His main object was, to show that the prophecies of the Old Testament were all fulfilled before the time of Christ, and only had respect to him in a spiritual sense. The ii. and xxii. Psalms, he supposed, referred directly to David, and the xlv, to Solomon, and designated Christ only as David and Solomon were types of him. The 'virgin' in Isa. vii. was Abia who was to be the mother of king Hezekiah. His remarks in the preface to this Bible, upon the Hebrew language and the impossibility of expressing the beauty of the original in a translation, make us. regret that such fine talents as he exhibits, could not have been regulated by sound principle, and dedicated to the cause of truth, which so much needed them at that time. This Bible of course

1 Ob ea quae illic stolide ac insolenter designaverat.-Bolsec.

1846.]

Questions proposed to Calvin by Servetus.

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was not approved by the Catholics; at Lyons it was placed upon the catalogue of prohibited books. Servetus remained in this quiet retreat twelve years, and was the regular physician of the city. But he could no longer continue in such pursuits. He must again launch his frail bark as a reformer.

Correspondence with Calvin and the Preacher Pepin.

The first direct communication between Calvin and Servetus, after the proposed discussion at Paris previously mentioned, was not until about 1540. They, however, had not been unmindful of each other in the mean time. Servetus felt that Calvin was the leading spirit of the reformation, and the great hindrance to the success of his own projects. He accordingly wrote to him and desired him to answer three questions: "1. Is the man Jesus, who was crucified, Son of God, and how is he so? 2. Is the kingdom of God in men, when they enter this kingdom, when they are regenerated? 3. Must Christian baptism be received in faith like the Lord's Supper, and why are baptism and the Lord's Supper instituted in the new Covenant?" Calvin answered each of these questions specifically and kindly. But Servetus was not satisfied with his answer, and wrote him again a refutation of his solution of the questions proposed, and urged another reply. Calvin wrote to him a second time in a friendly manner, although with warmth, and with decided reproofs for his unreasonable demands upon him, and for his erroneous views. "I neither hate," he says, "nor despise you, nor would I knowingly inveigh against you with too much severity. But I should be harder than iron if I were not moved, when I see you with such shameless impudence assailing the truth."

There is much in Calvin's answer to the third question of Servetus upon baptism and the Lord's Supper, which shows that the severity which has sometimes been ascribed to his system of doctrines, is not altogether merited. "I do not doubt," he says, that when God removes infants from the world, they are regenerated by the secret influences of the Holy Spirit."

In reference to several other interrogatories of Servetus, Calvin replied: "I would answer them if I could do it in few words; but my other engagements do not allow me time to write whole volumes to you alone. Besides you ask nothing which you may

1 Quos parvulos Dominus ex hac vita recolligit, non dubito regenerari arcana Spiritus operatione.

not find in my Institutes, if you will take the trouble to look there. Still I would not spare my own labor, if I knew the exact point at which you aim. But if I should undertake to discuss the subjects which you propose, what a forest I should find myself in." The proud Spaniard was so enraged at this answer, that, according to Calvin's account, he sent back to him his Institutes with the most bitter and taunting remarks upon the margin, and addressed to him several letters one after another, filled with reproaches, abuse and insults. Calvin however bore them with patience. It is true, that it has been questioned, but, as it seems to us, without reason, whether he was not too severe upon Servetus in his account of the matter. Calvin throughout his whole life showed himself scrupulously conscientious, and not subject to the failure of his memory in the statement of facts, and it is hardly to be supposed that here alone he would be found in fault. This argument in favor of Calvin receives double force from the perfect correspondence of this course of Servetus with the spirit which he manifested, and with his conduct on other occasions. As far as is known, Calvin never wrote to Servetus but two letters. The manner of his antagonist was disagreeable to him from the first, and he could not be prevailed upon to continue the controversy. He seems to have consented to answer him at all, in consequence of the request of a mutual friend, John Frellon, a book-merchant in Lyons. In a letter to him enclosing one to Servetus, Calvin says: "Sir John! I am very ready to gratify your wishes, although I have little hope of availing anything with a man of such a disposition as he seems to possess; but yet I will try whether there is any means of bringing him to reason, which may be accomplished if God shall work an entire change in him. Since he wrote me in so haughty a tone I have wished to humble his pride, by speaking to him with a little more severity than is my custom; I could not do otherwise, for I assure you, that no lesson is more necessary for him to learn than that of humility, which will come to him only through the influence of the Spirit of God. But still we must use our exertions for it. If God shall be so gracious to him and to us as to make this reply profitable to him, I shall have occasion for joy. But if he shall continue in his present course, you will lose your time if you solicit me to exert myself for him; for I have other duties which are more imperative, and I shall scruple to occupy myself longer with him, not doubting that he is a Satan, to turn me off from other more

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