mpoon!

Naturally such tyranny produced a reaction. The enraged Libertines
nicknamed Calvin Cain, and saved from his hands the next personal
enemy, Ami Perrin, whom he caused to be tried for treason. [Sidenote:
October 16, 1551] A still more bitter dose for the theocrat was that
administered by Jerome Bolsec, who had the audacity to preach against
the doctrine of predestination. Calvin and Farel refuted him on the
spot and had him arrested. Berne, Basle and Zurich intervened and,
when solicited for {177} an expression on the doctrine in dispute,
spoke indecisively. The triumph of his enemies at this rebuke was hard
for Calvin to bear and prepared for the commission of the most
regrettable act of his career.

[Sidenote: Servetus, 1531]

The Spanish physician Michael Servetus published, in Germany, a work on
the _Errors concerning the Trinity_. His theory was not that of a
modern rationalist, but of one whose starting point was the authority
of the Bible, and his unitarianism was consequently of a decidedly
theological brand, recalling similar doctrines in the early church.
Leaving Germany he went to Vienne, [Sidenote: 1553] in France, and got
a good practice under an assumed name. He later published a work
called, perhaps in imitation of Calvin's _Institutio, The Restitution
of Christianity_, setting forth his ideas about the Trinity, which he
compared to the three-headed monster Cerberus, but admitting the
divinity of Christ. He also denied the doctrine of original sin and
asserted that baptism should be for adults only. He was poorly advised
in sending this book to the Reformer, with whom he had some
correspondence. With Calvin's knowledge and probably at his
instigation, though he later issued an equivocating denial, William
Trie, of Geneva, denounced Servetus to the Catholic inquisition at
Vienne and forwarded the material sent by the heretic to Calvin. On
June 17, 1553, the Catholic inquisitor, expressly stating that he acted
on this material, condemned Servetus to be burnt by slow fire, but he
escaped and went to Geneva.

Here he was recognized and arrested. Calvin at once appeared as his
prosecutor for heresy. The charges against him were chiefly concerned
with his denial of the Trinity and of infant baptism, and with his
attack on the person and teaching of Calvin. As an example of the
point to which Bibliolatry could suppress candor it may be mentioned
that one of the {178} charges against hi