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    feaven of a persecuting spirit ; but he appears to hare gone beyond them . When we consider ^ besides this , his eruel treatment of Servetus , the horrid names he bestowed on his

    opponents , particularly on the amiable Castellio , he may in- * deed be well " singled out as possessing , in a peculiar man * ner , a persecuting spirit . " Vzritas further apologizes for Calvin , by telling us that

    Servetus was a blasphemer ; " and therefore he thinks that the burning of him could not " be equal to the murder of hundreds and thousands of the most eminent Christians by the Pagans * or of as many excellent Protestants by the Papists : " but pray , Sir , where is the difference ? Servetus was burnt for thinking :,

    speaking , and writing on religion , and for nothing else ; for defending , against Calvin and others , those religious tenets which he could not in conscience renounce ! And what more can be said of those <* eminent Christians and Protestants"

    alluded to by Veritas ? If this act , then , be not as atrocious and unjust as any that the annals of persecution can furnish , it will be difficult , I believe , for Veritas or any of his coadjutors in the said Magazine to define what is-meant by atrocity or injustice . To say that Servetus was a blasphemer , is no pallia ^ - tion at all , unless it can be proved that Veritas and his

    Calvinistic brethren are the only perfect jiidges of blasphemy ; for no poor creature was ever burnt for his religion but what was thought a blasphemer by some one . If Servetus was a blasphemer in Calvin ' s and Veritas s opinion , so was Calvin himself , and so were all his Protestant brethren , in the Papists * opinion : yes , the " hundreds and thousands of * excellent

    Protestants" whom they murdered were all charged with horrid blasphemy , for denying the divinity of the wafer , the power and dignity of the Virgin Mary , and the worship of saints , &c . The Pagans also viewed in the same light those multitudes of " eminent Christians" whom they put to death : they were just as ready to bring the charge of blasphemy against them , as

    Veritas is against Servetus , and if it is a palliation in one instance , why not in another ? Does Veritas really believe , thpt if a man is a blasphemer in the estimation of his opponents , it is no great harm to burn hiin ? Really one might think that such is his maxim ; but if this be admitted , the

    atrocity of all the persecutions in the world will vanish almost entirely away : let us no more view with such horror the conduct of the Jews in stoning our Saviour ; they said positively it was for blasphemy , John x . 33 . Neither let us so eagerly condemn the conduct of Queen Mary , in burning so many godly ministers and bishops , nor that of Louis XIV . of France , ia causing such a massacre of his Protestant subjects ; for both

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    Calvin and Servetus * S 31

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1806, page 351, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1726/page/15/