m was that he had asserted
Palestine to be a poor land. This was held to contradict the
Scriptural statement that it was a land flowing with milk and honey.
The minutes of the trial are painful reading. It was conducted on both
sides with unbecoming violence. Among other expressions used by
Calvin, the public prosecutor, were these: that he regarded Servetus's
defence as no better than the braying of an ass, and that the prisoner
was like a villainous cur wiping his muzzle. Servetus answered in the
same tone, his spirit unbroken by abuse and by his confinement in a
horrible dungeon, where he suffered from hunger, cold, vermin, and
disease. He was found guilty of heresy and sentenced to be burnt with
slow fire. Calvin said that he tried to alter the manner of execution,
but there is not a shred of evidence, in the minutes of the trial or
elsewhere, that he did so. Possibly, if he made the request, it was
purely formal, as were similar petitions for mercy made by the Roman
inquisitors. At any rate, while Calvin's alleged effort for mercy
proved fruitless, he visited his victim in prison to read him a
self-righteous and insulting lecture. Farel, also, reviled him on the
way to the stake, at which he perished on October 26, 1553, [Sidenote:
Death of Servetus] crying, "God preserve my soul! O Jesus, Son of the
eternal God, have mercy on me!" Farel called on the bystanders to
witness that these words showed the dying man to be still in the power
of Satan.

This act of persecution, one of the most painful in the history of
Christianity, was received with an outburst of applause from almost all
quarters. Melanchthon, who had not been on speaking terms with Calvin
for some years, was reconciled to him by what he called "a signal act
of piety." Other leading Protestants congratulated Calvin, who
continued persecution systematically. Another victim of his was
Matthew {179} Gribaldi, whom he delivered into the hands of the
government of Berne, with a refutation of his errors. [Sidenote:
1564.] Had he not died of the plague in prison he would probably have
suffered the same fate as Servetus.

[Sidenote: Complete theocracy, 1555]

Strengthened by his victory over heresy, Calvin now had the chance to
annihilate his opponents. On May 15, 1555, he accused a number of them
of treason, and provided proof by ample use of the rack. With the
party of Libertines completely broken, Calvin ruled from this time
forth with a