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Untitled Article
reviled the merciful Syndic , who tried to save Servetus hy aii appeal . ** He came into couft , " said he , sneeringly , 6 C truly , to save the wretch from punishment ! " 4 C In order to this /* be adds , ** he had the face to move that the cognizance of the
cause should be referred to the Council of Two Hundred /* The influence of Calvin prevailed ; the voice of the humane and merciful magistrate was . disregarded , and the destractioii of Servetus rendered inevitable . To give a more specious appearance to the approaching tnaged y ^ letters of approbatioft were now procured from the neighbouring ti > agistrat £ s dud ministers of Zurich , Schaffhausen , Basil , and Berne . When
the bloody business was ripe for execution , Calvin wrote to his friend Farrel , saying , " I hop § Servetus wiH b $ condemned to death ; but I wish the severity of the punishment may be softened : " the common cant of persecutors and inquisitors ; who , when they have contrived and accomplished the ruin of theifc hapless victims ,- and come to deliver them up to the civil
magistrate to be burnt as convicted heretics , desire that they would have mercy upon them ! Farrel , however , in his answer , is for shewing no favour , but says , that Servetus deserved to die ten thousand deaths ; ?) and intimates , th ^ tt " the Judges would be very cruel , and enemies to Christ and his church , if they did not proceed and make an example pf him . " T ^ of is it to be
doubted but that sill this was perfectly agreeable to the mind of his correspondent . Calvin glories in it , that Buqer ( whomhe fer presents as a moderate man !) had said in his pulpit concerning Servetus , that he deserved to have his entrails plucked out , and to be torn in pieces . Buliilger also intimated , that the magistrates acted bravely , and that punishing such obstinate heretics
was for the glory of God /* It is hard to say what good their separation from the church of Rome did to thpse men , as they evidently brought away with them the very worst part of popery—its persecuting and bloody spirit— -3-which reconciled them to some of the greatest atrocities , and made even ltmfder
appear not only harmless , but meritorious *—even an incumbent and important duty ! No wonder the slaves of bigotry and inT tolerance are still so numerous ajnong their followers and admirers !
On the 26 th of October the Judges condemned the unhappy Servetus to be burnt the next day , together with all his books , both printed and manuscript ; and Beza doth not spruple to
say , that ' « it was according to the opinion pf all the Helvetian churches / ' The more shame for them ! Their present 'I mperial conqueror , it is to be hoped , will teach their descendants a better lesson . The sentence , after reckoning up the several charges against the prisoner , concludes thus ; * Fop this qau £ e an ^
Untitled Article
512 Brief Account of' Serveius * .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1806, page 512, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1729/page/8/
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