had written on the subject before him. More
systematic than Calvin, he first of all excludes those who are not
Christians--the Jews, Turks, and heathen--whom his inquiry does not
touch; "among Christians," he proceeds to say, "some are schismatics,
who sin against the peace of the Church, or disbelievers, who reject her
doctrine. Among these, some err in all simplicity; and if their error is
not very grave, and if they do not seduce others, they need not be
punished."[290] "But obstinate heretics are far worse than parricides,
and deserve death, even if they repent."[291] "It is the duty of the
State to punish them, for the whole ecclesiastical order is upheld by
the political."[292] In early ages this power was exercised by the
temporal sovereigns; they convoked councils, punished heretics,
promulgated dogmas. The Papacy afterwards arose, in evil times, and was
a great calamity; but it was preferable a hundred times to the anarchy
which was defended under the name of merciful toleration.

The circumstances of the condemnation of Servetus make it the most
perfect and characteristic example of the abstract intolerance of the
reformers. Servetus was guilty of no political crime; he was not an
inhabitant of Geneva, and was on the point of leaving it, and nothing
immoral could be attributed to him. He was not even an advocate of
absolute toleration.[293] The occasion of his apprehension was a dispute
between a Catholic and a Protestant, as to which party was most zealous
in suppressing egregious errors. Calvin, who had long before declared
that if Servetus came to Geneva he should never leave it alive,[294] did
all he could to obtain his condemnation by the Inquisition at Vienne. At
Geneva he was anxious that the sentence should be death,[295] and in
this he was encouraged by the Swiss churches, but especially by Beza,
Farel, Bullinger, and Peter Martyr.[296] All the Protestant authorities,
therefore, agreed in the justice of putting a writer to death in whose
case all the secondary motives of intolerance were wanting. Servetus was
not a party leader. He had no followers who threatened to upset the
peace and unity of the Church. His doctrine was speculative, without
power or attraction for the masses, like Lutheranism; and without
consequences subversive of morality, or affecting in any direct way the
existence of society, like Anabaptism.[297] He had nothing to do with
Geneva, and his persecutors would have rejoiced if he