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Untitled Article
nor would Calvin , perhaps , have been able to accomplish it at all , had not Servetus , in his zeal for the truth , and his indignation against error , ventured upon the publication of the work above-mentioned . His avowed object in the composition of this book was to bring back the Christian world to what he conceived to be the primitive standard of faith ; and it was for this reason that he entitled it " Christianismi Restitutio , " or " the Restoration of
Christianity . * ' It consists of seven parts . The first and last of these are particularly devoted to the doctrine of the Trinity ; and the fifth contains a series of thirty letters addressed to Calvin on various doctrinal subjects . No author ' s name is given in the title-page ; but M . S . V ., the initial letters of Michael Servetus Villanovanus , are placed , together with the date , ( 1553 , ) at the end of the work . It was no sooner published than the most strenuous efforts were made , both by Protestants and Catholics , to suppress it , and with such
effect , that not more than three copies are now known to exist . A facsimile of it was published in 1791 , but copies of this are almost as seldom to be met with as the original . It was in the ** Christianismi Restitutio " that Servetus promulgated his discovery of the circulation of the blood . This discovery he beautifully unfolds in a passage which is too long to be transferred to the present memoir , and from which therefore the following brief and necessarily imperfect extracts are taken : " Cor est pr imum vivens fons
calons , in medio corpore . Ab hepate sumit liquorem , quasi matenam et eum vice versa vivificat . " < c Vitalis spiritus in sinistro cordis ventriculo suam originem habet , juvantibus maxime pulmonibus ad ipsius generationem . " ** Ille itaque spiritus vitalis a sinistro cordis ventriculo in arterias totius corporis deinde transfunditur . " Calvin , who was always on the watch for something by which he might criminate Servetus , soon gave out that this
work was written by him ; and availing himself of the assistance of one William Trie , a native of Lyons , who happened at that time to be residing at Geneva , he caused Servetus to be apprehended , and thrown into prison , on a charge of heresy . Some of the friends and disciples of Calvin have attempted to free him from this odious imputation , and he has himself represented it as a calumny ; but the fact that Servetus was imprisoned at his sole instigation is too evident to admit of dispute . Abundant proofs of it
may be found in the accounts of La Roche , Allwoerden , Mosheim , and Bock . Servetus had adopted the name of Villanovanus at least twenty years before the publication of his " Christianismi Restitutio ; " and it was scarcely known that Villanovanus and Servetus were the same person , till Calvin , with studied malignity , wrote to his friends to inform them that " Servetus was lurking in France under a feigned name . " In order to prove this identity , William Trie was furnished b y Calvin with some of Servetus ' s original letters , which were transmitted to Vienne ; and the evidence supplied by them being
conclusive of the fact , Servetus was apprehended , and committed to prison without delay . But having so long and so reputabl y exercised his profession of a physician in that city , M . de la Court , Vice-bailiff and Judge of Dauphiny , gave orders to his gaoler to treat him with kindness , and permitted all his friends who wished it to have free access to him . After undergoing three separate examinations , in the last of which he acknowledged himself the
author of the letters to Calvin , he saw that his life was in jeopardy ; and availing himself of the carelessness or connivance of his gaoler , effected his escape * His intention now was to settle aa a physician at Naples , where $ ignor John Valdez , the subject of our next memoir , had already introduced tbg principles of Vnitarianism ; but he was induced by some strange fatality to go by way of Geneva , ; and Calvin , who had heard of his escape from
Untitled Article
362 Biographical Notices of Eminent Continental Unitarians .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1831, page 362, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2598/page/2/
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