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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
if not to justify , the conduct of Calvin in the burning of Servetus . The article is drawn up by a correspondent who , impro - perly , styles himself Veritas . In my opinion , Sir , this Veritas and the Conductors of the Evangelical Magazine would do better to let that matter alone , or else to avow at once , that
though Calvin was a great and an useful man , yet that act was a most foul blemish in his character . They will do themselves no goodj nor the memory of Calvin any honor , by attempting to palliate so glaring a fault , for some stains are of such a na ^ ture that they will not bear wiping ; it only renders them wider , and more exposed .
Veritas begins his apology with insinuating that Calvin only € C took part in the persecution of Servetus , ' * meaning , I sup ~ pose , that it was only some remote part he took , somewhat in the same way that Saul took part in the inurder of Stephen , when he held the clothes of those who put him to death : even a remote part in so atrocious an act would have been bad enough ; but there w as something beyond this , if history is to be credited . Calvin appears to have been the first mover in the horrid business , for though Servetus ' s writings had displeased some other reformers , the idea of burning him originated with Calvin . He was the principal director : other men acted only as his instruments or agents ; so that there is every reason to believe Servetus would not have been burnt but for Calvin ' s Instigation , Was it not -Calvin that procured the first imprisonment of Servetus at Vienne in Dauphine , by sending to the Magistrates there the private letters he had received from himi in order to furnish materials for prosecution ? And after the unfortunate man had escaped from thence , and was going
through Geneva on his way to Naples , was it not Calvin that got one of the Magistrates there to seize him again ? that employed a person to commence a prosecution against him , an , d furnished the several articles of impeachment ? Is this only < c taking part" in the persecution of Servetus ? Veritas would wish us to think so , but with just as much propriety may he say that David only took part in the murder of Uriah .
We are next told , that " Calvin lived in a day of universal intolerance , when al ! parties thought that heretics should be de * stroyed . " This ., it must be confessed , is the best apology that can be made for him ; but some , Mr . Editor , are of opinion , that if this is to be fully admitted , we may as well admit a
complete apology for the murderers of our Saviour ; for it is certain that ^ they acted under the influence of the prejudice of the times . This would have been a better apology , had Calvin retained only a common share of the prejudice of the times , or possessed no more than his contemporary reformers of the
Untitled Article
330 Calvin a ? zd Servetus .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1806, page 350, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1726/page/14/
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