Servetus again felt driven to publish his views for wide reading,
and he was the more strongly impelled to do this because he
was convinced by a passage of Scripture that the kingdom of
Antichrist (the Papacy) was to come to an end in 1585, and he
had the conviction that he himself was the Michael who it was
foretold was to put the great dragon under his feet. A Basel
printer friend of his to whom Servetus offered the manuscript
dared not print it, but at length after much difficulty, and
by paying a large bonus, he got it printed in great secrecy
in a vacant house in Vienne, of course with no indication of
place, printer, or author; though he could not resist the temptation
to put his own initials at the end, and to insert his name in
several places in the text. This work was entitled The Restoration
of Christianity (Christianismi Restitutio). About half of it
consisted of a recast of Servetus’s two earlier books
on the Trinity, to which he now added his thirty letters to
Calvin, and an address to Melanchthon, making in all a book
of over 700 pages. It contains Servetus’s plan for a more
thorough and complete reformation of Christianity than the Protestant
reformers had attempted. Though its thought is more developed,
it does not essentially differ from the earlier works; but it
is harsher than before, and while holding a position something
between Catholics and Protestants it is especially bitter toward
the reformers, while it violently attacks the traditional doctrine
of the Trinity with every weapon to be drawn from reason, history,
or Scripture. It is in this book that Servetus describes the
circulation of the blood referred in the "some excerpts"
section.
Some excerpts
The
following is Servetus' postulation of the secondary circulation
of the blood. He is credited with being the first to publish
this discovery! It was found in his final book, Christianismi
Restitutio:
“Not only because such gifts, but by reason of that one
alone who breathes the divine spirit into us, God is said to
give us his spirit, Gen. 2 and 6. Our soul is a kind of lantern
of God, Prov. 20. It is like a spark of the spirit of God, a
reflection of the wisdom of God, created yet very similar to
that spiritual wisdom, incorporated in it, retaining the innate
light of divinity, the spark of that prime wisdom and the very
spirit of divinity. God himself testifies, in chapter 6 above,
that the spirit of divinity was innate in man even after Adam's
sin. The dispensation of our life is given and is sustained
through grace from his breathe, as Job says, chap. 10 and 32
and following. God breathed the divine spirit into Adam's nostrils
together with a breath of air, and thence it remains, Isaiah
2 and Psa. 103. God himself maintains the breath of life for
us by his spirit, giving breath to the people who are upon the
earth and spirit to those treading it, so that we live, move
and exist in him, Isaiah 42 and Acts 17. Wind from the four
winds and breath from the four breaths gathered by God revive
corpses, Ezek. 37. From a breath of air God there introduces
the divine spirit into men in whom the life of inspired air
was innate. Hence in Hebrew "spirit' is represented in
the same way as "breath." From the air God introduces
the divine spirit, introducing the air with the spirit itself
and the spark of the very deity which fills the air. The saying
of Orpheus is true, that the divine spirit is carried by the
winds and enters through full inspiration, as Aristotle cites
in the books, De anima. Ezekiel teaches that the divine spirit
contains a kind of elemental substance and, as God himself teaches,
something in the substance of the blood. I shall explain this
matter at great length here so that you may thence understand
that the substance of the created spirit of Christ is essentially
joined to the very substance of the holy spirit. I shall call
the air spirit because in the sacred language there is no special
name for air. Indeed, that fact indicated that the divine breath
is in the air which the spirit of the Lord fills.
So that you, the reader, may have the whole doctrine of the
divine spirit and the spirit, I shall add here the divine philosophy
which you will easily understand if you have been trained in
anatomy. It is said that in us there is a triple spirit from
substance of three higher elements, natural, vital and animal.
Aphrodisaeus calls them three spirits. But they are not three
but once again of the single spirit (spiritus). The vital spirit
is that which is communicated through anastomoses from the arteries
to the veins in which it is called the natural [spirit]. Therefore
the first [i.e., natural spirit] is of the blood, and its seat
is in the liver and in the veins of the body. The second is
the vital spirit of which the seat is in the heart and the arteries
of the body. The third is the animal spirit, a ray of light,
as it were, of which the seat is in the brain and the nerves
of the body. In all these there resides the energy of the one
spirit and of the light of God. The formation of man from the
uterus teaches that the vital spirit is communicated from the
heart to the liver. For an artery joined to a vein is transmitted
through the umbilicus of the foetus, and in like manner afterward
the artery and vein are always joined in us. The divine spirit
of Adam was inspired from God into the heart before [it was
communicated into] the liver, and from there it was communicated
to the liver. The divine spirit was truly drawn into the mouth
and nostrils, but the inspiration extended to the heart. The
heart is the first living thing, the source of heat in the middle
of the body. From the liver it takes the liquid of life, a kind
of material, and in return vivifies it, just as the liquid water
furnishes material for higher substances and by them, with the
addition of light, is vivified so that [in turn] it may invigorate.
The material of the divine spirit is from the blood of the liver
by way of a remarkable elaboration of which you will now hear.
Hence it is said that the divine spirit is in the blood, and
the divine spirit is itself the blood, or the sanguineous spirit.
It is not said that the divine spirit is principally in the
walls of the heart, or in the body of the brain or of the liver,
but in the blood, as by God himself in Gen. 9, Levit. 7 and
Deut. 12.
In this matter there must first be understood the substantial
generation of the vital spirit which is composed of a very subtle
blood nourished by the inspired air. The vital spirit has its
origin in the left ventricle of the heart, and the lungs assist
greatly in its generation. It is a rarefied spirit, elaborated
by the force of heat, reddish-yellow (flavo) and of firey potency,
so that it is a kind of clear vapor from very pure blood, containing
in itself the substance of water, air and fire. It is generated
in the lungs from a mixture of inspired air with elaborated,
subtle blood which the right ventricle of the heart communicates
to the left. However, this communication is made not through
the middle wall of the heart, as is commonly believed, but by
a very ingenious arrangement the subtle blood is urged forward
by a long course through the lungs; it is elaborated by the
lungs, becomes reddish-yellow and is poured from the pulmonary
artery into the pulmonary vein. Then in the pulmonary vein it
is mixed with inspired air and through expiration it is cleansed
of its sooty vapors. Thus finally the whole mixture, suitably
prepared for the production of the vital spirit, is drawn onward
from the left ventricle of the heart by diastole.
That the communication and elaboration are accomplished in
this way through the lungs we are taught by the different conjunctions
and the communication of the pulmonary artery with the pulmonary
vein in the lungs. The notable size of the pulmonary artery
confirms this; that is, it was not made of such sort or of such
size, nor does it emit so great a force of pure blood from the
heart itself into the lungs merely for their nourishment; nor
would the heart be of such service to the lungs, since at an
earlier stage, in the embryo, the lungs, as Galen teaches, are
nourished from elsewhere because those little membranes or valvules
of the heart are not opened until the time of birth. Therefore
that the blood is poured from the heart into the lungs at the
very time of birth, and so copiously, is for another purpose.
Likewise, not merely air, but air mixed with blood, is sent
from the lungs to the heart through the pulmonary vein; therefore
the mixture occurs in the lungs. That reddish-yellow color is
given to the spirituous blood by the lungs; it is not from the
heart.
In the left ventricle of the heart there is no place large
enough for so great and copious a mixture, nor for that elaborate
imbuing the reddish-yellow color. Finally, that middle wall,
since it is lacking in vessels and mechanisms, is not suitable
for that communication and elaboration, although something may
possibly sweat through. By the same arrangement by which a transfusion
of the blood from the portal vein to the vena cava occurs in
the liver, so a transfusion of the spirit from the pulmonary
artery to the pulmonary vein occurs in the lung. If anyone compares
these things with those which Galen wrote in books VI and VII,
De usu partium, he will thoroughly understand a truth which
was unknown to Galen.
And so that vital spirit is then transfused from the left ventricle
of the heart into the arteries of the whole body so that which
is more rarefied seeks the higher regions where it is further
elaborated, especially in the retiform plexus situated under
the base of the brain, and approaching the special seat of the
rational soul, the animal spirit begins to be formed from the
vital. Again it is more greatly rarefied by the firey force
of the mind, elaborated and completed in the very slender vessels
or hair-like (capillaribus) arteries which are situated in the
choroid plexuses and contain the mind itself. These plexuses
penetrates all the inmost parts of the brain, internally girdling
the ventricles of the brain, and those vessels, enfolded and
woven together as far as the origins of the nerves, serve to
introduce in these last the faculties of sensation and of motion.
Those vessels in a very remarkable way are woven together very
finely, and even if they are called arteries, nevertheless they
are the termination of arteries extending through the assistance
of the meninges to the origin of the nerves. It is a new kind
of vessels. For just as in the transfusion from the veins into
the artery, so in the transfusion from the arteries into the
nerves there is a new kind of vessels from the tunic of the
artery in the meninx, since especially do the meninges preserve
their tunics in the nerves. The sensibility of the nerves is
not in their soft material, as in the brain. All nerves end
in membranous filaments which have the most exquisite sensibility
and to which for this reason the spirit is always sent. And
from those little vessels of the meninges, or choroid plexuses,
as from a source, the clear animal spirit is poured forth like
a ray through the nerves into the eyes and other sense organs.
By the same route, but in reverse, light images of things causing
sensation, coming from without, are sent to the same source,
penetrating inwardly, as it were, through the clear medium [i.e.,
spirit].
From these things it is sufficiently clear that that soft mass
of the brain is not properly the seat of the rational soul,
since it is cold and lacking in sensation. But it is like a
bolster for the aforesaid vessels lest they be broken, and like
a custodian of the animal spirit lest it blow away when it must
be communicated to the nerves; and it is cold that it may temper
that fiery heat contained within the vessels. Hence also it
happens that the nerves serve the tunic of the membrane in the
internal cavity, which is common to the aforesaid vessels as
a faithful guardian of the spirit, and they hold this [away]
from the thin meninx just as they hold another from the thick.
Also those empty spaces of the ventricles of the brain which
puzzle philosophers and physicians contain nothing else but
the spirit. But the ventricles were made in the first place
like a cloaca for the reception of the purgings from the brain
so that they may test the excrementa received there, from which
morbid defluxions arise, and provide a passage to the palate
and nostrils. And when the ventricles are so filled with pituita
that the arteries themselves or the choroid plexuses are immersed
in it, then suddenly apoplexy is aroused. If a very noxious
humor obstructs a part, and its vapor infects the mind, epilepsy
occurs, or another disease, according to the part into which
it settles when it has been expelled. Therefore let us say that
it is the mind which we clearly perceive to be afflicted. From
the immoderate heat of those vessels, or from the inflammation
of the meninges, obvious delirium and frenzy occur. Whence from
the diseases occurring by reason of site and substance, by force
of heat and because of the ingenious construction of the vessels
containing it, and from the actions of the mind apparent there,
we always conclude that those little vessels must be given first
consideration because all the rest serve them and because nerves
of sensation are tied to them so that they may receive their
force from them. Finally, because we perceive the intellect
exerting itself there when, as a result of concentrated thought,
those arteries are pulsating as far as the temples. He who has
not seen this thing will scarcely understand. Those ventricles
were made for a second reason, that a portion of the inspired
air penetrating through the ethmoid bones to their empty spaces,
attracted by diastole from the vessels of the spirit, may refresh
and ventilate the animal spirit contained within and the soul.
In those vessels are mind, soul, and fiery spirit requiring
constant fanning; otherwise, like an eternal fire which has
been covered up, there would be suffication. As in the case
of ordinary fire, there is required not only fanning and blowing
upon so that it may take fuel from the air, but also that it
may discharge its sooty vapors into the air. And just as this
is common external fire is bound to a thick earthy body, because
of a common dryness and because of a common form of light, so
that which has the liquid of the body as its food is blown upon,
supported and nourished by the air; thus that fiery spirit and
our soul are similarly bound to the body, making one with it
and having blood as food; it is blown upon, supported and nourished
by the airy spirit through inspiration and expiration, so that
there is a double nourishment for it, spiritual and corporeal.”
