people to revolt from the pure doctrine of
God--then it is necessary to have recourse to the extreme remedy, so
that the evil may not spread farther" (pp. 48, 49).]

[Footnote 413: See Calvin to C. and T. Zollicoffre, March 28, and the
same to Peloquin and De Marsac, Aug. 22, 1553. Servetus was burned Oct.
27.]

[Footnote 414: Two months before the execution Calvin wrote to Farel,
Aug. 20, 1553: "Spero capitale saltem fore judicium _poenae vero
atrocitatem remitti cupio_;" and on the 26th of October, he again wrote,
"_Genus mortis conati sumus mutare_, sed _frustra_. Cur non
profecerimus, coram narrandum differo." Calv. Opera, ix. 70, 71. As it
is thus in evidence not only that Calvin _did not burn_ Servetus, but
_desired him not to be burned_, and made an ineffectual attempt _to
rescue him from the flames_, we might anticipate for the stale calumny a
speedy end, were not the tenacity of life characterizing such inventions
so notorious as to have passed into a proverb.]

[Footnote 415: Melanchthon, for example, after expressing his entire
satisfaction with Calvin's treatise, and his conviction that the church
both now and hereafter owes and will owe him gratitude for it, adds:
"Affirmo etiam, vestros magistratus _juste fecisse, quod hominem
blasphemum_, re ordine judicata, _interfecerunt_." Mel. to Calvin, Oct.
14, 1554, Opera (Bretschneider), viii. 362.]

[Footnote 416: Laborie, one of the heroic "five," sending from prison an
account of his examination, states that, when one of his judges asked
him whether he did not know that God had by Moses sanctioned the
punishment of heretics, he freely admitted it: "Haereticos certe
puniendos _facile concessi_, et in exemplum proposui _impurum illum
canem Servetum_, qui Genevae ultimo supplicio affectus fuit: verum sedulo
caverent, _ne in Christianos et Dei filios_ velut haereticos
animadvertant," etc. Letter in Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta Martyrum
(Genevae, 1560), fol. 291.]

[Footnote 417: "Ego qui natura timido, molli et pusillo animo esse
fateor." Preface to the Psalms.]

[Footnote 418: "Porro, an propositum esset mihi famam aucupari, patuit
ex brevi discessu, praesertim quum nemo illic sciverit me authorem esse."
Ibid.]

[Footnote 419: "Me tamen non tanta sustinnit magnanimitas, quin
turbulenta ejectione plus quam deceret laetatus sim." Ibid.]

[Footnote 420: "Praestantissimus Christi minister, M. Bucerus me iterum
simili qua usus fuerat Farellus, obsecratione