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    others moving thereunto , desiring to clear the church of such an infection , and cut oft' such a rotten member ; having consulted our citizens , and invoked the name of God , to give a right judgment , sitting in the place of our ancestors , having « God

    and the Holy Scriptures betore our eyes , saying , < In the name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost / by this our definitive sentence , which we give in writing , we condemn thee , Michael Servetus ^ to be bound and carried to the place called Champed and there to be fastened to a stake , and burnt alive , with thv books , both written with thine own hand and

    printed , till thy body be reduced to ashes : and thus thou sbalt end thy days , to give an example to others , who would do the like / ' They then added— " We command you , our Lieutenant , to cause our present sentence to be put in execution /' " Omitting a great number of manoeuvres of injustice and

    cruelty / ' says one of his biographers , QQ the last act of this tragedy was performed at Geneva , on the 2 Tth of October * 1553 . Calvin had drawn up the process against Servetus , and had extracted a catalogue of errors from his books : the Syndics and the Council had denounced sentence against him , that he should be burnt alive : and on this day , with many brutal

    circumstances , the sentence was executed , to the encouragement of Catholic cruelty—to the scandal of the pretended reformation —to the offence of all just men— -and to the everlasting disgrace of those ecclesiastical tyrants who were the chief instruments of such a wild and barbarous deed . Many have pretended to apologize for Calvin : but who is John Calvin , and what are his nostrums , which end in tyranny and murder , that the great voice of nature should be drowned in the din of vain babbling : about him ? Servetus was not the subject of the re- *

    public of Geneva ; he had committed no offence against the laws of the state ; he was passing peaceably on the road which lay through the city ; he was not a member of any reformed church ; he was a man of unimpeachable morality ; he was then the admiration of numbers of good judges , who afterward pleaded his cause ; for from him proceeded partly , if not wholl y ^ the Unitarian Baptist churches in most parts of Kurope * Calvin ' s hard heart never relented at the recollection , of this

    bloody action : " but if he himself died impenitent , or was never sorry nor ashamed on the occasion , it is surely high time that his followers should begin to be so , and bring forth fruits

    meet for repentance . " October 27 , 1553 , " says another" of Servetus ' s biographers , being th <* day appointed for his execution , he desired to see Calvin , two hours before he was burnt . Calvin went to him , accompanied with two of the magistrates ? Servetus

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    Brief Account of Servetus . 513

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    vol . i , 3 &

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1806, page 513, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1729/page/9/