There is but one thing more on which I would have you advised, viz.: That the Questor of our city, who will deliver you this, is of a right mind in the business, which is, that the prisoner shall not escape the fate we desire--_ut saltem exitum quem optamus non fugiat_. I say nothing now of French affairs; there being no news here of which I imagine you are not as well informed as we, unless it be that on last Sabbath-day three of our pious brothers were burned to death at Lyons, and a fourth met a like fate in a neighbouring town. It is scarcely credible how these men, illiterate, but enlightened by the spirit of God, and ennobled by the perfections of the Doctrine, behaved on the occasion; with what unswerving constancy they met their fate. But it is not there only; in other parts of France burnings of the same sort go on incessantly; nor seems there any prospect of mitigation. Farewell! Geneva; v. of the Ides (19) of Septr. 1553. Calvin, we see from this epistle, believed that he would be fully justified in having Michael Servetus burned alive at Geneva because they differed in their interpretation of the Trinity; but that the Papists of Lyons were inexcusable for sending to a fiery death those who with himself did not acknowledge the Pope as God’s vicegerent on earth, and Romish doctrine as the true and only saving faith. It is the _evil destiny_ of Servetus, too, that has led him into the toils of the Reformer; and to be of a _right mind_ in the business of the prosecution, then proceeding is, so to play into the hands of the prosecutor that his victim shall not escape the death designed him! It was of Zürich, however, more than of any of the Churches consulted, that Calvin felt most in doubt. The tolerant views of Zwingli were in some sort hereditary there; and Bullinger, who was its chief pastor, had disappointed him in the case of Bolsec. But he must also have had strong misgivings of Basle, when he was induced to write the long and particular letter to Sulzer, its leading minister, which we have just perused. The more refined and delicate tone that is said to have pervaded society in the city of Basle indisposed its people to violence or extremes; and ‘Thorough’ was always the word on Calvin’s banner. If he had doubts of Zürich and Basle, Calvin could place implicit reliance on Neuchatel, where Farel, his oldest, most devoted, and most obsequious friend presided as head of the Church. Addressing Farel soon after the arrest of Servetus, he writes: