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Vienne , and of the probability of his passing through Geneva on his way into Italy , was on the watch for him , and caused him to be apprehended immediately after his arrival . The laws of this city forbade that any one should be imprisoned , unless his accuser were imprisoned with him * Calvin , therefore , prevailed upon one Nicholas de la Fontaine to undertake the office
of prosecutor . Who this man was has never been clearly ascertained . Some say that he was a French cook in a gentleman ' s family . Others are of opinion that he was Calvin ' s own cook . La Roche conjectures that he united in his own person the two characters of a student and a domestic . But whatever was the precise nature of the relation in which he stood to Calvin , it appears evident , from a petition which Servetus presented to the
magistrates of Geneva , that Calvin was , in some sense , ' * his master . ' * This man , on the 14 th of August , 1553 , brought a formal accusation against Servetus , comprising no less than thirty-eight separate charges , to each of which he urged the Senate to demand a distinct answer . The thirty-seventh set forth , that Servetus had , in his published writings , severely inveighed against the doctrines taught by Calvin , which , by a decree passed on the 9 th of
November , in the preceding year , had been pronounced sacred and inviolable . When Servetus had replied to the charges exhibited against him , his accuser produced a printed copy of the ' * Christianismi Restitutio , " and likewise of the manuscript draught of this work , which Servetus had sent to Calvin about seven years before , and to which allusion has been made above . Of both these Servetus acknowledged himself to be the author . His prosecutor then laid before the Senate the editions of " Ptolemy's Geography" and " Pagnini ' s Bible , " which had been published under the superintendence of Ser ^ vetus , and demanded whether he was the writer of the notes inserted in those
two works : to which Servetus replied in the affirmative . The accuser and accused were then both remanded to prison ; but the former was discharged on the fourth day , Calvin's own brother giving bail for his appearance , whenever he should be called upon by the proper authorities . After a long and vexatious trial , conducted in the most arbitrary manner , and attended by circumstances which were a disgrace to the very name of justice , Servetus was at length condemned to be burnt to death by a slow fire . The conclusion of the sentence passed upon him we shall here give to our readers , as a specimen of the deliberate and solemn manner in which Bigotry can appeal
to Heaven to sanction its diabolical proceedings : " Having God and his holy Scriptures before our eyes , " say the iniquitous judges of this righteous man , " in the name of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , by this our definitive sentence , which we here give in writing , we condemn thee , Michael Servetus , to be bound , and carried to the Ldeu de Champel , and there to be tied to a stake , and burnt alive with thy book , written with thine own hand , and printed , till thy body is reduced to ashes : and thus shalt thou end thy days , to serve as a warning to others who are disposed to act in the same manner . And we command you , our Lieutenant , to cause our present sentence to be
carried into execution . " -The officer charged with this commission was not tard y in performing it ; and a bloodier page does not stain the annals of martyrdom than that in which this horrible transaction is recorded . On the morning of the 27 th of October , 1553 , the day after the above sentence was
passed , the Rev . William Farell , Pastor of Neufchatel , who was Calvin ' s in * tinnate friend , visited Servetus in prison , and strenuously urged him to re ^ cant : but Servetus , in reply to FarelPs repeated solicitations , implored him to produce one solitary passage in which it was stated that Christ was called the Son of God before his birth of the Virgin Mary ; and though he was
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'Biographical Notices of Eminent Continental Unitarians . 363
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1831, page 363, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2598/page/3/
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