Rise and Establishment of Protestantism at Geneva - James Aitken Wylie

"But," says Rilliet, "the magistrates refused to
entertain the proposal, though Calvin for his part
agreed, and protested that, as far as regarded him,
'there was nothing that he more desired than to
plead such a cause in the temple before all the
people.'" Why, we ask, this refusal on the part of
the magistrates? Rilliet answers, "The Council
feared, no doubt, that it would thus dispossess itself
of the cognisance of an affair which stood
connected with the prerogatives of which it had
recently appeared so jealous;"[2] that is, the
Council was then struggling to shut out the
Consistory, and to secure to itself the spiritual as
well as the civil government of Geneva.
The preliminary examination of Servetus
ended, the Council, having regard to "his replies,
"found that the charges were true, and accordingly
Nicholas de la Fontaine was discharged from
prison, under obligation to appear as often as he
might be called, and to prosecute his case. The
Council, in coming to the conclusion that Servetus
was guilty, appear to have been influenced less by
his opinions on the Trinity than by his views on
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