blished
different treatises against the Trinity. He had disputed at Basel with
Oecolampadius, some time before this renegade from the Lutheran faith
"was strangled by the devil," if we are to believe the account given by
Doctor Martin Luther. Servetus boasted that he triumphed over the
theologian. Having left Basel in 1532, and crossed the Rhine, he came
to hurl a solemn defiance at Calvin; the gauntlet was taken up by the
_cure_ of Pont l'Eveque, the place of combat indicated, the day for the
tournament named, but at the appointed hour "the heart of this unhappy
wretch failed," says Beza, "who having agreed to dispute, did not dare
appear." Calvin, on his part--in his refutations of the errors of
Servetus, published in 1554--boasts of having in vain offered the
Spanish physician remedies suitable to cure his malady. Servetus
pretends that his adversary was laying snares for him, which he had the
good-fortune to avoid. At a later period he forgot his part, and came to
throw himself into the ambuscade of his enemy.

The parliaments redoubled their severity: Calvin was narrowly watched,
his liberty might be compromised, and even his life put in peril. He
resolved to abandon France, either from fear or spite--if we are to
credit an ecclesiastical historian--not being able to forgive Francis I
for the preference manifested by this Prince toward a relation of the
Constable, "of moderate circumstances," who was promoted to a benefice,
for which the author of the _Commentary on Seneca_ had condescended to
make solicitation. The testimony of the historian is weighty. Soulier
knows neither hatred, passion, nor anger; he seeks after the truth, and
he believes that he has found it in the recital which we are about to
peruse.

"We, the undersigned--Louis Charreton, counsellor of the King, dean of
the presidents of the parliaments of Paris, son of the late Andrew
Charreton, who was first Baron of Champagne, and counsellor to the high
chamber of the Parliament of Paris; Madam Antoinette Charreton, widow of
Noel Renouard, former master in the chamber of the courts of Paris, and
daughter of the late Hugh Charreton, Lord of Montauzon; and John
Charreton, Sieur de la Terriere; all three cousins, and grandchildren of
Hugh Charreton--certify that we have frequently heard from our fathers
that the aforesaid Sieur Hugh Charreton had several times told them that
under the reign of Francis I, while the court was at Fontainebleau,
Calvin, who