Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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ft1164 He declared, Aug. 23, that he was impotent on account of a rupture.
Opera, VIII. 769.
ft1165 The following is an extract from the Registers of the Company of
Pastore sub. Aug. 13 (in Opera, VIII. 725): “M. Servetus having been
recognized by some brethren (par quelques frères), it was found good
to cause him to be imprisoned, that he might no longer infect the world
with his blasphemies and heresies; for he is known to be wholly
incorrigible and desperate (du tout incorrigible et desesperé).”
ft1166 In the Refutatio, Opera, VIII. 461, 725, and in letters to Farel (Aug.
20) and Sulzer (Sept. 8, 1553). “Servetus,” he wrote to Sulzer in Basel,
during the trial, “escaped from prison some way or other, and
wandered in Italy for nearly four months. At length, in an evil hour, he
came to this place, when, at my instigation, one of the Syndics ordered
him to be conducted to prison; for I do not disguise it that I considered
it my duty to put a check, so far as I could, upon this most obstinate
and ungovernable man, that his contagion might not spread farther. We
see with what wantonness impiety is making progress everywhere, so
that new errors are ever and anon breaking forth; we see how very
inactive those are whom God has armed with the sword for the
vindication of the glory of his name.” The reference to a four months’
wandering in Italy (per Italiam erravit fere quatuor menses, that is,
from April 7th to the end of July) is an error. Servetus at the trial
denied that he had been in Italy at that time or at Venice at my time.
ft1167 Translated by Tweedie, p. 87.
ft1168 Pernet de Fosses, Gaspard Favre, Claude Vandel, Pierre Vandel, and
Baptiste Sept. See Opera, VIII. 737, note 6.
ft1169 Letters of Nov. 26 and Dec. 30, 1553, in Bonnet-Constable, II. 422-
430.
ft1170 Ibid. III. 17. Comp. also his letter of Oct. 15, 1554, quoted in § 108,
p. 496, and his letter to John Wolf of Zürich, Dec. 26, 1554.
ft1171 Opera, VIII. 461: “Ex quo convictus est, me nullum de poena verbum
fecisse, non solum boni omnes viri mihi testes erunt sed malis etiam
concedo ut proferant si quid habent.” Servetus complained of hard
treatment in prison, but for this the Council and the jailer alone were
responsible.
ft1172 In his letter to Farel, Aug. 20, 1553: “Spero capitale saltem judicium
fore; poenae vero atrocitatem remitti cupio.”