usually established" (_Explicationes locorum
difficilium_, etc.). Peter d'Osma also, the Spanish theologian,
whose _Treatise on Confession_ was condemned by the Archbishop of
Toledo in the fifteenth century, might have esteemed himself
happy that only his chair shared the burning of his book.
Pomponacius, an Italian professor of philosophy, whose _Treatise
on the Immortality of the Soul_ (1516), was burnt by the
Venetians for the heretical opinion that the soul's immortality
was not believed by Aristotle, and could only be proved by
Scripture and the authority of the Church, seems to have died
peacefully in 1526, albeit with the reputation of an atheist,
which his writings do not support. Desperiers was only imprisoned
when his _Cymbalum Mundi_, censured by the Sorbonne, was
consigned to the flames by the Parlement of Paris (March 7th,
1537). And Luther, all of whose works were condemned to be burnt
by the Diet of Worms (1521), actually survived their burning
twenty-five years, though he himself had publicly burnt at
Wittenberg Leo X.'s bull, anathematising his books, as well as
the Decretals of previous Popes.

Less fortunate than these were the famous martyrs of free
thought, Dolet, Servetus, and Tyndale. All the works, which Dolet
wrote or printed, were burnt as heretical by the Parlement of
Paris (February 14th, 1543), and himself hanged and burnt three
years later (August 3rd, 1546), at the age of thirty-seven. The
reason seems chiefly to have been Dolet's unsparing exposure of
the immoralities of monks and priests, and of the plan of the
Sorbonne to put down the art of printing in France. In Peignot is
preserved a long list of the names of the works to the
publication of which he lent his aid.

The burning of Servetus, the Parisian doctor, at Geneva (October
27th, 1553), because his opinions on the Trinity did not agree
with Calvin's, is of course the greatest blot on the memory of
Calvin. All his books or manuscripts were burnt with him or
elsewhere, so that his works are among the rarest of
bibliographical treasures, and his _Christianismi Restitutio_
(1553) is said to be the rarest book in the world. But apart from
their rarity, I should hardly imagine that the works of Servetus
possessed the slightest interest, or that their loss was the
smallest loss to the literature of the world.

But if Calvin must bear the burden of the death of Servetus,
Christianity itself is responsible for the death of William