which he had absented himself for several days. He came to save, if possible, the life of Servetus. He endeavoured to obtain the removal of the cause before the Council of Two Hundred for final adjudication; and it seems to be agreed, that if this could have been effected, that some means would have been found to prevent his condemnation. The merciful interposition however was unavailing. The influence of Calvin prevailed, and on the same day the trial was at last finished, and Servetus was condemned by a majority of his judges, to be burnt alive.*

Servetus was informed of his sentence. The wretched sufferer supplicated that he might be beheaded, lest he should be driven to desperation by the excess of his torments, and lose his soul. He protested, that if he had sinned, he had sinned through ignorance, for that his design and wish had always been to promote the glory of God. His prayer was denied.t

Two hours before the time of his execution, he sent to Calvin, to desire to see him. The latter accordingly went to the prison, but not alone. He was attended by two Senators. "Being asked," says Calvin, "what was his desire, he said that he desired my pardon." Calvin seems never to have been visited by any relentings of humanity. In return for this humbleness from a man, who wished to leave the world in peace, Calvin, after telling a great deal that was false and insulting about his own freedom from any desire of revenge, and about the mildness, forbearance, and benevolence, with which he had treated him, till "he had poured out against him madness, rather than anger;" then began to exhort him to ask pardon, not of him, but of God, and the Son of God, to both of whom he had offered the most atrocious insults. The poor prisoner, it

* La Roche gives us an extract from the Genevan records:Le 27 Octobre 1553. Le susdit Michel Servet a esté condamné á estre bruslé, et leuë la sentence par le Sieur Sindincq Darlod, a esté executeé, et les livres bruslés.

† Mosheim, Venema, Bockius, Hottinger hist. Ref. Helvet. p. 804. MS. -Castalio Miij.

seems, made little or no reply, for none is recorded by Calvin, from whom we borrow this account. Whereupon, says he, "I was not willing to be wise above what is written. For according to the precept of Paul, I departed from an heretic, who was condemned by himself."*

Farel, the colleague of Calvin, then came to accompany Servetus to the stake. He harassed the sufferer without success, to induce him to make a confession, contrary to the opinions which he had maintained. Servetus was conducted out of the city to the place of execution, called Champel, and Farel remained at his side. On his way he often exclaimed-“O God! save my soul. O Jesus, Son of the eternal God, have mercy upon me."t

When arrived at the places of execution, he fell prostrate on the earth, and prayed fervently. Farel meanwhile, if the thing be credible, thus addressed the multitude. "You see what strength Satan has, when he possesses any one;-this man is very learned, and perhaps he thought he was doing right, but now he is possessed with the Devil, which may equally happen to any one of you." When he rose up, Farel renewed his persecutions to induce him to make an orthodox confession. Servetus answered nothing, but uttered the exclamation, "O God! O God!" Farel asked him if he had nothing to say but that. He then answered, "of what can I speak but of God."‡

Servetus was then bound to the stake, with an iron chain, and a strong cord passed several times round his neck. His book was fastened to his thigh. He intreated the executioner not to torment him long. The fire was applied, and Servetus, worn out with disease and suffering, is said to have uttered a cry so terrible as to appal the spectators. The pile was scanty, of green oak branches, with the leaves still upon them,

Rogavi potius ut veniam ab eterno Deo petendam sibi cogitaret, in quem nimis atrociter contumeliosus fuerat, tres hypostaseis ex ejus essentia delere tentans; ac Cerberum tricipitem vocans, si realis inter Patrem et filium ejus et spiritum distinctio statueretur. Refut. Err. p. 511. † Mosheim $ 40. MS. Castalio Miij—iiij.

MS.

Ut Supra, also Beza de hereticis puniendis p. 98.9. Bock p. 376.

intermixed with smaller kindlings. He lingered a long time in torment; crying out with a piercing voice; "Jesus, Son of the Eternal God, have mercy upon me!" At last some of the spectators, out of compassion, threw faggots upon him to put an end to his misery. It was half an hour before he was dead

*

It was not pretended, by the enemies of Servetus, that his faith was shaken by his sufferings, or that he was ever so overcome, as to say any thing contrary to his belief. He died, says Calvin, without giving any sign of having come to a better mind.

The enmity of Calvin did not cease with the death of Servetus. In the treatise, that I have often quoted, which he wrote against him, he endeavoured, by every art in his power, to blacken and defame his memory. It is in this treatise that we find the following most remarkable passage.

"But," says Calvin, "that idle blockheads may not glory in the mad obstinacy of the man, as if he were a martyr, in his death there appeared a brutish stupidity; from which one may easily conclude, that there never was any thing serious in his religion. From the time his sentence of death was announced to him, he would now remain like one stupified, now he uttered deep sighs, and now he howled like a madman; which at last rose to such a degree, that he could only bellow out in the Spanish fashion-Mercy! Mercy!" "+

"There are those," to use the words of a friend, "there are those, who may think, that though Calvin has written eight folios of commentaries on the Bible, a system of Divinity, a treatise on the punishing of heretics, and remarks on Seneca upon Mercy, with all his learning, and all his zeal, this single sentence, which can never be blotted out, fixes on another than

Mosheim §lv. lvi. Bockius p. 377. MS. Cast. Miij. p. 2.

† Cæterum ne male feriati nebulones vecordi hominis pervicacia, quasi martyrio, glorientur; in ejus morte apparuit belluina stupiditas, unde judicium facere liceret, nibil unquam serio in rel gione ipsum egisse Ex quo mors ei denunciata est, nunc attonito similis hærere, nunc alta suspiria edere, nunc instar lymphatici ejulare. Quod postremum tantum sic invaluit, ut tantum Hispanico more reboaret, Miserecordia, miserecordia! Refut. Err. p. 523 col. 1, ed. Amst.

Servetus the character of brutish stupidity and insincerity in his religion."

Thus perished, in the forty fourth year of his age, the famous and unfortunate Michael Servetus. He has appeared from this account to have been a man, whose zeal outran his prudence, and who could not meet insult without indignation. For this there are many who will blame him, and in this there are many who will imitate him. This was his fault or his vice, the only one which is urged against him, with the shadow of pretence. While for his piety-God knows how sincere he was. His works and his conversation were those of a pious man. His unblemished character is testified by his standing in society, his respectability in his profession, by the eloquent silence of his enemies. His learning is marked in his writings; he was skilled in Spanish and French, probably in Italian and German; in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; and to him must belong the credit of the first intimation of the circulation of the blood, the greatest discovery in modern physiology; and who will deny his undaunted courage, his perseverance and heroic constancy, who has followed him through his trial and imprisonment to the stake?

LITERARY DEPARTMENT.

DRAYTON.

OUR old English poets, with the exception of Shakspeare, are not in high favor among the great mass of readers, in this or our parent country. Few, except poets themselves, now read the Faery Queene of Spenser; Ben Jonson is little known, and Drayton, that voluminous poet, and historian in verse, is still less known. It is not to be supposed, that those who read for amusement will travel through the long topographical, and historical, and legendary writings of this great antiquarian and inexhaustible versifier: but there is at least one poem among his works, which is not to be placed in the catalogue of wearisome didactic compositions. Nymphida: The Court of Fairy, is the poem in which Drayton displayed the greatest efforts of his imagination, and sportiveness of his fancy. In this, as in his other poems, he is free from that admixture of antiquated diction, that affectation of idioms foreign to our language, and that disgusting pedantry, which were the vices of his age, and particularly disfigured the pages of Jonson.

The ideal personages and agents in The Court of Fairy, are not of the poet's own invention. Drayton has them in common with Shakspeare, and they are to be found long before either, in ancient traditions and romances, with no small variety of powers and properties, and distinguished by a multifarious diversity of fantastical actions and offices, both good and evil. It is needless to dwell upon the use that Shakspeare has made of these imaginary beings; and I shall instance only by a general reference to the Midsummer Night's Dream.

Drayton's design is to describe the court of Oberon, king of the Fairies. After the introduction and invocation, he gives an account of the palace in the air.