calls the Trinity we all believe in, a Cerberus and Monster of Hell, who disgorges all the villainies it is possible to imagine, against everything Scripture teaches of the Eternal generation of the Son of God, and mocks besides open-mouthed at all that the ancient doctors of the Church have said--I ask you in what regard you would have such a man?... I must speak freely: What shame is it not that they are put to death among you who say that one God only is to be invoked in the name of Christ; that there is no service acceptable to God other than that which He has approved by His word; and that all the pictures and images which men make are but so many idols which profane His majesty?... What shame, say I, is it not, that such persons are not only put to death in no easy and simple way, but are cruelly burned alive? Nevertheless, there is one living among you who calls Jesus Christ an idol; who would destroy the foundations of the faith; who condemns the baptism of little children, and calls the rite a diabolical invention. Where, I pray you, is the zeal to which you make pretence; where are your guardians and that fine hierarchy of which you boast so much? The man I refer to has been condemned in all the Churches you hold in such dislike, but is suffered to live unmolested among you, to the extent of even being permitted to print books full of such blasphemies as I must not speak of further. He is a Spanish-Portuguese, Michael Servetus by name, though he now calls himself Villeneuve, and practises as a physician. He lived for some time at Lyons, and now resides at Vienne, where the book I speak of was printed by one Balthasar Arnoullet. That you may not think I speak of mere hearsay I send you the first few leaves as a sample, for your assurance. You say that our books, which contain nothing but the purity and simplicity of Holy Scripture, infect the world; yet you brew poisons among you which go to destroy the Scriptures and all you hold as Christianity. I have been longer than I thought; but the enormity of the case causes me to exceed I need not, I imagine, go into particulars; I only pray you to put it somewhat seriously to your conscience, and conclude for yourself, to the end that when you appear before the Great Judge you may not be condemned. For, to say it in a word, we have here no subject of difference or debate, and ask but this: That God himself may be heard. Concluding for the present, I pray that He may give you ears to hear, and a heart to obey, having you at all times in His holy keeping. (Signed) GUILLAUME TRIE. Geneva, this 26th of February [1553].