"that
the crowd fell back with a shudder!" Now it strikes me, an original MS.
of the work for which he was condemned still exists; and I, thinking
that others may feel the interest I have tried to sketch in its
existence, will now state the facts of the case, and lay my authorities
before your readers.

"We condemn you, said the council, Michael Servetus, to be bound
and led to Champel, where you are to be fastened to a stake, and
burnt alive together with your book, as well the printed as the
MS."

"About midday he was led to the stake. An iron chain encompassed
his body; on his head was placed a crown of plaited straw and
leaves strewed with sulphur, to assist in suffocating him. At
his girdle were suspended his printed books; and the MS. he had
sent to Calvin."

This MS. had been completed in 1546, and sent
to Geneva for his opinion. Calvin, in a letter to
Farel says:

"Servetus wrote to me lately, and accompanied his letter with a
long volume _of his insanities_."

This long volume was the MS. of the "Restitutio Christianismi," now
ready for the press. We {153} have seen that it was sent to Calvin. It
was never returned, but produced in evidence, and burnt with him at the
stake. Nevertheless, he either possessed another copy or took the pains
of writing it afresh, and thus the work was secretly printed at Vienna,
at the press of Balshazar Arnoullet in 1553. Of this edition, those at
Frankfort were burnt at the instance of Calvin; at Geneva, Robert
Stephens sacrificed all the copies which had come into his hands; so
that of an edition of one thousand, it is said only six copies were
preserved. These facts I owe to the excellent Life of Calvin by Mr. T.H.
Dyer, recently published by Mr. Murray. Now does the following MS. bear
relation to that described as recopied by Servetus, from which Arnoullet
printed? or is it the first rough sketch? Can any of your readers say
into what collection it passed?

The extract is from the Catalogue of the Library of Cisternay Dufay, by
Gabriel Martin, Paris, 8vo. 1725, being lot 764., p. 98., and was sold
for 176 livres.

"Librorum Serveti de Trinitate Codex MS. autographus. In fronte
libri apparet note quae sequitur, manu ipsius defuncti D. du Fay
exarata.

"Forsan ipsius auctoris autographus Codex hic MS. qui fuit
percelebris Bibliopolae Basiliensis Coelii Horatii Curionis.
Videtur prima conceptio (vulg