Switzerland suffered as much as England, for the Inquisition set up by Calvin at Geneva defied all description. While Calvin, as it is reported, was allowed to stigmatize those who differed from him as rogues, dogs, and scoundrels, their emperor vermin, and their fathers and mothers imps of Satan, the peasants who used rough language to their cattle were thrown into prison. Three children were publicly whipped because they had stolen away from the meeting-house to go and eat cakes. The registers of the town record that in the course of sixty years one hundred and fifty persons were burnt alive as sorcerers. Another crime punishable with death was “to speak ill of Calvin,” who made no secret of his feelings upon this point, as may be gathered from the following sentence in a letter he sent to one of his partisans: “Do not fail to purge the country of the fanatic scoundrels who go about exhorting the people to withstand us, who blacken our conduct, and who try to depict our creed as an empty dream. Such monsters ought to be put down.” On these grounds, the poet Gruet was put to the torture and beheaded “for having spoken ill of Calvin.” Michael Servetus, who practised medicine, astrology, and theology, ventured to contradict the teaching of the Reformer, especially in reference to the doctrine of the Trinity. Calvin wrote to Farel, under date of February 13th, 1546, the following letter, the original of which may still be seen in the National Library of Paris: “Servetus wrote to me the other day, and sent with his letter a large book filled with his vain and arrogant reveries, saying that I should find it full of wonderful and hitherto unknown subjects. He promises to come and meet me here, if I wish, but I do not care to enter into any arrangement, for, if he comes and I have my own way, I shall not let him escape with his life.” The unfortunate Servetus was obliged to repair thither under the following circumstances. He had clandestinely published at Vienne (Dauphiny) his book entitled “Christianismi Restitutio” (“The Restoration of Christianity”). Of this book Calvin procured a copy, which, he forwarded to the Cardinal-Archbishop of Lyons. Servetus, thanks to Calvin’s denunciations, was arrested and thrown into the ecclesiastical prison of Vienne, as this book contained many obnoxious statements tainted with heresy. It happened that the prisoner, a better doctor than he was theologian, had formerly saved the life of the only daughter of the bailiff of that town, and the gaoler received orders to favour his escape, which was effected without difficulty. Servetus unfortunately took refuge at Geneva. Calvin’s spies discovered him there; he was imprisoned on the 13th of August, 1553, and on the 26th of October, after a lengthened examination, during which he defended himself energetically against the accusations of impiety and atheism, he was condemned to be burnt alive. The sentence was carried out on the following day (Fig. 342).