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    ¦ death , among the people " ( see the Number for May , p . 220 ) ; and this evidently with a view to jystify as much as possible the act of burning him . How is this consistent with the above professions ? Is this disliking persecution in " every form and degree ? ' ?• Really one is almost tempted to draw this inference : that when these gentlemen pretend to admit that Calvin was to blame for the said persecution , their meaning is , he was only a Kttle to blame , but not much ; and that they dislike per *

    secution only when it is carried on against men of their own opinion ; but should it be directed against a Servetus , a Priestley , or a Wakefield , they will wonderfully contrive to palliate the act , by representing those who suffer as blasphemers !

    But suppose , Mr . Editor , any one could be proved to be ati actual blasphemer , an - atheist , &c . are we authorised on that account to put him to death ? Would that be a likely Way to reclaim other blasphemers ? la iny opinion , it would rather tend to increase their number .

    Servetus ' s opponents ( somewhat sneeringly ) represent him , as having uttered nothing in the flames but the word T&iseri cordia , or" Mercy . " Yes , poor man , he did cry to his cruel persecutors for mercy * # nd not only when he was in the flames , but several times during his imprisonment ; but no mercy had he ; no not so much as is usually shewn to the worst malefactor ! Indeed , to have witnessed his dismal situation in prison , where his unrelenting enemies let him endure all the complicated miseries of disease , filth , and nakedness ; and to have seen him , when once brought out into Coqrt , bursting into tears , and throwing himself at the feet of the Magistrates , to implore their protection , would have moved any man ^ as Dr . Benson observes , but an inquisitor . *

    Let it not be supposed , that in thus animadverting on Calvin ' s conduct , I am calumniating the Reformation : nothing is further from my thoughts ; but I cannot avoid regretting that so glo ^ rious an event should have been disgraced by suqli outrages , nojf do I as yet believe that Mr . Roscoe intended any more when he said , " such were the first fruits of the Reformation . "— " The

    best way , " as the above-mentioned Dr . Benson remarks * ' " " support the Reformation is freely to condemn all the false principles and unjustifiable conduct of the Reformers . " Eminent as Calvin was in helping forward the Reformation , no lenity ought to be shown to his glaring faults and errors : the Spnp ture shows none to the faults of such eminent characters as Abra * ham , Lot , David , and Peter : let us therefore never screen persecution ^ but condemn and abfypr it in whomsoever it is found , whether in a friend or in an opponent , a Calvin or a Sociniis . ' , Trowbridge , May 27 . An Anti-Trinitarian * vol , i . z z

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    Calvin and Servetus . 353

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1806, page 353, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1726/page/17/