Dialogs On The Trinity.1531
Context
At the request of Oecolampadius, Bucer wrote a refutation
of Servetus’s book Trinitatis Erroribus (which, however,
he never ventured to publish), and he warned him that though
he would not himself do him the least harm, the magistrate
would no longer suffer him to stay at Strassburg, nor would
he himself intercede with the magistrate in Servetus’s
behalf. Servetus therefore returned to Basel, where he had
previously made at least a partial living by giving language
lessons; and he brought with him a part of the edition of
his book to dispose of there or to send on to the book fair
at Lyon. Here too he found the feeling against him so intense
that he scarcely knew what to expect next. Accordingly he
wrote to Oecolampadius offering to leave town if it were thought
best, but also saying that he was willing to publish a retraction
of what he had written. Indulgence was given him, and the
result was that the following spring he brought out another
and smaller book, entitled Dialogues on the Trinity; for the
dialogue was at that time a favorite form for discussing subjects
of every sort.
This new work was hastily and carelessly done, but it was
ostensibly meant to correct the errors and imperfections of
the former book which, he said, were due partly to his own
lack of skill, and partly to the carelessness of the printer.
It was in fact intended only to strengthen his former arguments
by meeting the objections which the reformers had raised against
them; and he prided himself that they had not brought forward
a single passage of Scripture to disprove what he had said.
He omitted, to be sure, some of the objectionable things in
the first book, and he restated his views in language somewhat
nearer the teaching of the Church; but so far as his main
purpose was concerned, it was the same thought as before,
only expressed more briefly, and in another form. His opponents
were in no wise appeased, and as he lacked both friends and
money, while his ignorance of German hindered him in trying
to earn his bread, he now left the German world, and for more
than twenty years was as completely lost to sight as if the
earth had opened and swallowed him up.
Some excerpts
“All that I have lately written, in seven Books,
against the received view as to the Trinity, honest reader,
I now retract; not because it is untrue, but because it is
incomplete, and written as though by a child for children.
Yet I pray you to keep such of it as might help you to an
understanding of what is to be said here. Moreover, that such
a barbarous, confused, and incorrect book appear as my former
one was, must be ascribed to my own lack of experience, and
to the printer's carelessness. Nor would I have any Christian
offended thereby, since God is wont sometimes to make his
own wisdom known through the foolish instruments of the world.
I beg you, therefore, to pay attention to the matter itself;
for if you give heed to this, my halting words will not stand
in your way. Fare you well.”
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“Petrucius. I hear the man speaking whom I was looking
for. Ho there! What are you saying to yourself here alone?
Michael. I am greatly tormented in mind when I see that the
minds of Christians are so estranged from any knowledge of
the Son of God.
Pet. I too have seen some carried away with their minds perfectly
enraged against you because you are bent upon taking away
from them a large part of their Gods.
Mich. With what reasons, or by what Scriptures, do they censure
me?"
Translated by WILBUR, E.M. The two treatises of Servetus
on the Trinity. London: Harvard University Press, 1932, p.
189.
Prints
Dialogorum de Trinitate libri duo. De Iustitia regni Christi,
capitula quatuor. per Michaelem Serveto, alias Reves, ab Aragonia
Hispanu Haguenau, 1532. Published by Johann Setzer. A second
pamphlet on the Trinity of 19 pages, to which he added a treatise
of 25 pages, De Iustitia regni Christi, capitula quatuor.
Several copies preservd in various libraries. Reprinted in
Regensburg, 1721.
Translations
English: in 1932 by Earl Morse Wilbur (1932). All three works
were reprinted: Servetus, M., De Trinitatis erroribus libri
septem, 1531. Dialogorum de Trinitate libri duo, 1532. De
Iustitia regni Christi, capitula quatuor, 1532. Minerva G.m.b.H.,
Frankfurt a.M. 1965
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