Rise and Establishment of Protestantism at Geneva - James Aitken Wylie

Chapter 22
Condemnation and Death of
Servetus
IN the resolution to which the magistrates of
Geneva had come, to lay the affair of Serveins
before the Swiss Reformed Churches, we see the
Churches of Helvetia formed into a jury. Pending
the verdict, which it would seem Servetus did not
for a moment doubt would be entirely in his favor,
the accused took another step against Calvin. From
his prison, on the 22nd of September, he sent to the
Council a list of "articles on which M. Servetus
wishes J. Calvin to be interrogated." He there
accuses Calvin of having falsely imputed to him
the opinion that the soul is mortal. "If I have said
that--not merely said it, but publicly written it--to
infect the world, I would condemn myself to death.
Wherefore, my lords, I demand that my false
accuser be punished, poena talionis, and that he be
detained a prisoner like me, till the cause be
decided for his death or mine, or other
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