me, denounced those who, for political causes, sought their
subversion; but though the monarchies it subverted were sometimes
tyrannical, and the seditions it prevented sometimes revolutionary, the
order it defended or sought to establish was never legitimate and free,
for it was always invested with the function of religious
proselytism,[282] and with the obligation of removing every traditional,
social, or political right or power which could oppose the discharge of
that essential duty.

The part Calvin had taken in the death of Servetus obliged him to
develop more fully his views on the punishment of heresy. He wrote a
short account of the trial,[283] and argued that governments are bound
to suppress heresy, and that those who deny the justice of the
punishment, themselves deserve it.[284] The book was signed by all the
clergy of Geneva, as Calvin's compurgators. It was generally considered
a failure; and a refutation appeared, which was so skilful as to produce
a great sensation in the Protestant world.[285] This famous tract, now
of extreme rarity, did not, as has been said, "contain the pith of those
arguments which have ultimately triumphed in almost every part of
Europe;" nor did it preach an unconditional toleration.[286] But it
struck hard at Calvin by quoting a passage from the first edition of his
_Institutes_, afterwards omitted, in which he spoke for toleration.
"Some of those," says the author, "whom we quote have subsequently
written in a different spirit. Nevertheless, we have cited the earlier
opinion as the true one, as it was expressed under the pressure of
persecution,"[287] The first edition, we are informed by Calvin himself,
was written for the purpose of vindicating the Protestants who were put
to death, and of putting a stop to the persecution. It was anonymous,
and naturally dwelt on the principles of toleration.

Although this book did not denounce all intolerance, and although it was
extremely moderate, Calvin and his friends were filled with horror.
"What remains of Christianity," exclaimed Beza, "if we silently admit
what this man has expectorated in his preface?... Since the beginning of
Christianity no such blasphemy was ever heard."[288] Beza undertook to
defend Calvin in an elaborate work,[289] in which it was easy for him to
cite the authority of all the leading reformers in favour of the
practice of putting heretics to death, and in which he reproduced all
the arguments of those who