The Complaint of Nicholas de la Fontaine
Against Servetus, 14 August, 1553
in Merrick Whitcomb, ed., Period of the later reformation
in Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of
European History, 6 vols.,
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania History Department,
1898-1912),
vol. 3, no. 3, pp.
Scanned by Mike Anderson, January 1998.
Whitcomb's Note: Among the possible reasons which prevented
Calvin from appearing personally against Servetus there was
one which must have seemed of itself sufficient. The laws
regulating criminal actions in Geneva required that in certain
grave cases the complainant himself should be incarcerated
pending the trial. Calvin's delicate health and his great
and constant usefulness in the administration of the state
rendered a prolonged absence from the public life of Geneva
impracticable. Nevertheless, Calvin is to be regarded as the
author of the prosecution, and in this and in the subsequent
burning of Servetus his course met the approval of the most
advanced theologians of the time. The idea that diverse religious
views might be tolerated in the same political area made little
headway in the sixteenth century. The Peace of Augsburg and
the Edict of Nantes are evidence of this. In so far, however,
as a broader concept was beginning to make its way, its beginnings
are not to be sought in the minds of those who were sharpening
their prejudice with acrimonious doctrinal disputation: and
even when a glimmering of the modern solution appears, as
in the public utterances of Chancellor L'Hopital, its expression
seems to have evoked no favorable response.
Process of 14 August, 1553, before the Lesser Council of
Geneva. Calvin : Opera. Vol. XIII, pp.727-731. French. Nicholas
de la Fontaine asserts that he has instituted proceedings
against Michael Servetus and on this account he has allowed
himself to be held prisoner in criminal process.
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In the first place that about twenty-four years
ago the defendant commenced to annoy the churches of
Germany with his errors and heresies, and was condemned
and took to flight in order to escape the punishment
prepared for him |
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Item,
that on or about this time he printed a wretched book,
which has infected many people |
III |
Item, that since that time he has not ceased
by all means in his power to scatter his poison, as
much by his construction of biblical text, as by certain
annotations which he has made upon Ptolemy |
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Item, that since that time he has printed in
secrecy another book containing endless blasphemies |
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Item, that while detained in prison in the city
of Vienne, when he saw that they were willing to pardon
him on condition of his recanting, he found means to
escape from prison |
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Said Nicholas demands that said Servetus be
examined on all these points |
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And since he is able to evade the question by
pretending that his blasphemies and heresies are nought
else than good doctrine, said Nicholas proposes certain
articles on which he demands said heretic be examined |
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To
wit, whether he has not written and falsely taught and
published that to believe in a single essence of God
there are three distinct persons, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost, is to create four phantoms, which
cannot and ought not to be imagined |
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Item, that to put such distinctions into the
essence of God is to cause God to be divided into three
parts, and that this is a three-headed devil, like to
Cerberus, whom the ancient poets have called the dog
of hell, a monster, and things equally injurious |
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Item, whether he has not maintained such blasphemies
most injuriously, as much as against the ancient doctors,
such as St. Ambrose, St. Augustin, Chrysostom, Athanasius
and the like as against all those who sought in our
times to elevate Christianity, even calling to Melancthon
a man without faith, son of the Devil, Belial, and Satan |
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Item, whether he does not say that our Lord
Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, except in so much
as he was conceived of the Holy Ghost in the womb of
the virgin Mary |
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Item, that those who believe Jesus Christ to
have been the word of God the Father, engendered through
all eternity, have a scheme of redemption which is fanciful
and of the nature of sorcery |
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Item, that Jesus Christ is God, insomuch as
God has caused him to be such |
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Item, that the flesh of Jesus Christ came from
heaven and from the substance of God |
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Item, that divinity was imparted to Jesus Christ
only when he was made man, and afterwards spiritually
communicated to the apostles on the day of Pentecost |
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Item, that when it is said that Jesus Christ
is of the same essence as his Father, it is the same
as saying that in this man Jesus Christ there is the
same Trinity, power and will as God, and not that the
word of God dwells and subsists in his essence |
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Item, whether he does not condemn those who
seek in the essence of God His holy spirit, saying that
all those who believe in the Trinity are atheists |
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Item, that those who believe in any distinction
of property in the essence of God dissipate His nature
and reduce it to fragments |
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Item, that the word of God is no other thing
than the flesh of Jesus Christ |
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Item, that the flesh of Jesus
Christ was engendered, out of the substance of God by
a word which he calls "seminal" |
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Item, that the flesh of Jesus
Christ was engendered, out of the substance of God by
a word which he calls "seminal" |
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Item, that if Jesus Christ were
the Son of God otherwise than on account of his humanity,because
that is engendered out of the substance of God, then
he would not be really dead. For if he is dead he is
no longer the Son of God |
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Item, that when St. John says that the word
was in God, it is the same as saying that the man Jesus
Christ was there |
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Item, that the substance of Jesus Christ is
that which was in the skies, and that this is the same
substance whence proceed the angels and our souls |
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Item, instead of conferring three persons in
the essence of God, or three hypostases which have each
His property, he says that God is a single entity, containing
one hundred thousand essences, so that He is a portion
of us, and that we are a portion of His spirit |
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Item, in consequence whereof not alone the
models of all creatures are in God, but also the material
forms, so that our souls are of the substantial seed
of the word of God |
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Item, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God because
he has the elements of the substance of the Father,
to wit: fire, air and water |
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Item, that the soul of man is mortal, and that
the only thing which is immortal is an elementary breath,
which is the substance that Jesus Christ now possesses
in heaven and which is also the elementary and divine
and incorruptible substance of the Holy Ghost |
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Item, that the Fathers under the Law have never
received the spirit of regeneration |
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Item, that by the sin of Adam the soul of man
as well as the body was made mortal |
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Item, that little children are sinless, and
moreover are incapable of redemption until they come
of age |
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Item, that they do not commit mortal sin up
to the age of twenty |
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Item, that the baptism of little children is
an invention of the Devil, an infernal falsehood tending
to the destruction of all Christianity |
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Item, that the word of God is no longer that
which it was before the incarnation of Jesus Christ,
because its substance was the clearness of the skies
and is now made flesh |
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Item, that however much he confesses that the
philosophers have erred in saying that the word was
God Himself, he says that Jesus Christ, insomuch as
he is a man, was always in God and that from Him is
the divinity of the world |
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Item, that the air is the Spirit of God and
that God is called Spirit, because He breathes life
in all things by His spirit of air |
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Item, the soul of man insomuch as it possesses
many divine properties is full of an infinity of Gods |
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Item, that in the person of Msr. Calvin, minister
of the word of God in the Church of Geneva, he has defamed
with printed book the doctrine which he preached, uttering
all the injurious and blasphemous things which it is
possible to invent |
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And because he knows well that his
said book could not be tolerated even among Papists,
in somuch as it destroyed all the foundations of Christianity,
therefore he hid himself at the house of William
Guerou, at that time proof corrector, as said Guerou
has testified |
Said Nicholas demands that the said Servetus should be compelled
to respond as to the fact of the articles here presented,
without entering into dispute as to whether the doctrine is
true or not, because that will appear later on.
In the articles of the Procureur General are to be found
several charges not incorporated in the complaint of Nicholas
de la Fontaine. Among these are the following:
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Item,
whether he has married, and if he answers that he has
not, he shall be asked why, in consideration of his
age, he could refrain so long from marriage |
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Item, whether he did not know that his doctrine
was pernicious, considering that he favors Jews and
Turks, by making excuses for them, and if he has not
studied the Koran in order to disprove and controvert
the doctrine and religion that the Christian churches
hold, together with other profane books, from which
people ought to abstain in matters of religion, according
to the doctrine of St. Paul |
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Item, whether the said book Koran is not a bad book,
full of blasphemies |
Footnotes
[1] Nicholas de la Fontaine was a refugee in Geneva and entered
the service of Calvin, by whom he was
employed as secretary.
[2] There were as originally conceived forty articles, but
prior to the presentation the number was reduced
to thirty eight, and both sets of numerals, Roman and Arabic,
are preserved in the original document.
[3] It is impossible to substantiate this accusation except
in so far as it may be justified in the publication
of a book: De Trinitatis Erroribus, 1531.
[4] Dialogorum de Trinitate, 1532.
[5] Christianismi Restitutio, 1533.
[6] Servetus in the third interrogatory replies to this that
he does not apply the term atheist to those who
believe in the Trinity, but "those who disguise it as
something which it is not, that is to say, those
who make a real distinction in the divine essence, for these
in dividing God remove the unity of
the divine essence." Calvin insisted that the distinction
was a real one.
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