It is more than questionable, indeed, whether Farel had ever read a word of Servetus’s writings. He was a man of action, fearless, full of fiery zeal, and a ready talker, but with no great amount of scholarly acquirement, and still less of philosophy. In anything of his we have seen, and save in what is said of his harangues, he never meets us otherwise than as a man of narrow mind, utterly intolerant and entirely under the influence of Calvin. If Servetus had sinned by persevering in heresy, and corrupting souls, so had he, so had Calvin, so had Melanchthon and the rest, in the estimation of their neighbours the Papists of neighbouring lands; and, though he speaks glibly of myriads who had lost their chance of salvation through Servetus, there was never a tittle of evidence adduced on the trial to show that even a single individual had been influenced by his writings. On the contrary, all who are brought forward in connection whether with the man or his works--Œcolampadius, Bucer, Melanchthon--are proof and more than proof against both him and them. Calvin and Farel, as we see, had made up their minds that Servetus was to be condemned to death weeks before the conclusion of his trial. CHAPTER XIV. SERVETUS SENDS A LETTER AND A SECOND REMONSTRANCE AND PETITION TO HIS JUDGES. Smarting under a sense of the unjustifiable treatment to which he was so relentlessly subjected, and weary of the delays that had taken place through the disputes between the Consistory represented by Calvin, and the Council, Servetus now gave vent to the pent-up storm within him in the following characteristic remonstrance. Alluding to the backing his persecutor received from the clergy, and the number of names attached to the Refutation of his Replies, he exclaims: Thus far we have had clamour enough and a great crowd of subscribers! But what places in Scripture do they adduce as their authority for the Invisible Individual Son they acknowledge? They refer to none; nor, indeed, will they ever be able to point to any. Is this becoming in these great ministers of the Divine Word, who everywhere boast that they teach nothing that is not confirmed by distinct passages of Holy Writ? But no such places are now forthcoming; and my doctrine, consequently, is impugned by mere clamour, without a shadow of reason, and without the citation of a single authority against it. MICHAEL SERVETUS, who signs alone, but has Christ for his sure protector!