Semitic Lanrnsses

Serpent THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG 368

of the Hesperides (ib. VI., xix. 8). Thetis trans­formed herself into a snake to escape from Peleus (ib. V., xviii. 5), and the existence of the winged snake is a belief of Greece as well as of Egypt and Arabia. The serpent Pytho guarded the oracle at Delphi and was killed by Apollo, who assumed the oracle (Hyginus, Fabula, cxl.; here original snake­worship is indicated). Hercules strangled two ser­pents sent against him by Hera, fought the Lernaean Hydra, and was the progenitor by the serpent Echidna of the snake worshiping Scythians (Herod­otus, iv. 9). Cadmus fought and killed a dragon and sowed its teeth, and he and his wife were trans­formed into serpents. Cecrops, first king of Attica, and Erechtheus of Athens (Iliad, ii. 547) were half serpents, and it is worth noting that Homer (Iliad, xi. 38) gives to Agamemnon the insignium of a three headed snake.

Several cycles of myths in Babylonia contain allusions to this animal, always hostile to gods and men. In the Gilgamesh epic the hero loses through a hostile serpent the herb which was to renew the youth of the aged; the Etana myth

s. Baby  has to do with one of these animals

Ionia and which plucked the wings of the eagle Egypt. that was to carry Etana to heaven; in

' the fragment of the Labbu myth a water serpent is one of the plotters against man; and the animal is brought into relation with the creation myth and chaos, the monster Tiamat ap­pearing in some of the representations to be not the griffin like beast but a serpent (W. H. Ward, in Bibliotheca Sacra, xxxviii., 1891, 209 253), while Tiamat gave birth to serpents and dragons, terrible and irresistible until Marduk arose as the champion of the gods. Babylonians had the conception of a huge snake which engirdled the world, as well as of another which lay in the depths of the sea and is reflected in Hebrew cosmogony. The origin of the Orontes in Syria has already received mention. In Egypt mere reference is needed to Apophis, the great serpent of the underworld, enemy of Horus, Ra, and Osiris, as well as of the dead, and the per­sonification of evil. Set was the snake which en­dured forever and punished wicked souls in hell (Budge, ut sup., i. 23 24, ii. 376 377). The text of Unas (fifth dynasty) gives sets of magical formulas by which to overcome the brood of serpents of the underworld (Budge, ut sup., i. 23). A huge snake thirty cubits long was believed to live in the " moun­tain of the sunrise." The myth of the winged ser­pent was widely current in Egypt and Arabia (cf. the conception of the feathered serpent of Mexico and Peru). So through the myths of other peoples runs the trail of the serpent. In India the sky snake Vritra or Ahi keeps away the rain that would break the drought, and is slain by the arrows of Indra; Rudra is the destroyer of serpents; Devi assumed this form to carry Vishnu through the deluge. The Scandinavian myth of the Midgard serpent which girdled the earth with its tail in its mouth comes readily to the memory (Prose Edda, 410 sqq.). For the Druid myth of the egg secreted by a writhing mass of snakes see DRUIDS. Among Mexicans the first woman's husband was a great male snake (see above under " Worship").

IV. In Symbolism: In religious art this animal has an important place throughout the world. With its tail in its mouth, sometimes combining the disc, probably uniting two ways of repre 

I. General. senting eternity or endless time, it ap­pears among the most unrelated na­tions in Egypt, Persia, India, China, and Mexico, This disc is sometimes interpreted as the solar disc, sometimes as the world egg, and is often figured, either winged or plain, with the serpent (or two ser­pents) issuing from it, passing through it or around it, or facing it. The employment of an effigy or rep­resentation of the animal to designate a deity or sovereign as sacred is common in both Egypt and India, and Persius (Satire, i. 113) notes that the sign of two serpents indicates a sanctuary. This sym­bolism is carried out even in the New World, as illustrated by the altars of the Guiana Indians, of the Moquis (among whom the snake signifies light­ning, and they incise or paint it on the wands and kilts worn in the snake dance), of the Natchez, and even of the Indians who inhabited Mexico and Peru at the time of the conquest (Prescott, Works, passim).

No country employed the emblem more consist­ently and abundantly than Egypt, where it ap­pears in the head dress or crown or about the person elsewhere of gods and monarchs, ap­e. Egyptian, parently only to emphasize deity and

Mithraic, kingship. Gods crowned with the disc

and Indian and uraeus are Amen Ra, Ra Heru 

Art. Khuti, Nut, and Tefnut; the urs:us

appears in the crown or head dress of

Bast, Sebeknit, Haru Ur, Ptah Seker, Sebek Ra,

Isis, Horus, Ptah, Menthu, and Ba Neb Tatau, while

Renmut is urmus headed. Especially abundant is

the use of the serpent in the " Book of that which

is in the Underworld " (cf. Budge, ut sup., i. 204­

262), and the eleventh hour is well worth studying

for the elaborateness of serpent symbolism and

forms. Here the solar disc and serpent from the

prow guide Ra's boat, twelve gods carry the serpent

Me4en to the East, preceded by two cobras carrying

crowns, while the fourfooted serpent (cf. Gen. iii.

14; note also the dragon of China and Japan) with

wings is a prominent feature; in the sixth hour

a serpent with one snake head and four human

heads is seen, and the seven headed snake is also

known (Budge, ut sup., i. 267, who gives on ii.

64 one of the finest reproductions of the winged

serpent). Mithraic art employs this animal exten­

sively, especially with its figure of Kronos. Thus

this symbol is represented at Modena in the folds of

a serpent (Revue arcUologique, 1902, i. 1); another

found at Rome in the sixteenth century is entwined

with a serpent, the head of which passes over the

head of the statue and enters its mouth. The Mith­

raic bas relief of Apulum, Dacia, shows on the bot­

tom border the serpent which surrounds the world

(F. Cumont, Textes et monuments, p. 309, 2 vols.,

Brussels, 1896 99). A Mithraic cameo shows on the

reverse two serpents twined about wands, a third

forming the wood of a bow, and a fourth forming

the string, and on the obverse two snakes extended.

A Mithraic leontocephalous Kronos has about him a

number of serpents, and in another found at Flor 

869 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA $erDent

religion is furnished than in the body of common notions which gather about the serpent. This branch points the way to an understanding of many of the features already exhibited in the foregoing discus­sion of worship, mythology, and symbolism. The qualities ascribed to this animal by the common understanding may be grouped in five classes, vii., wisdom (including powers of healing), guardianship and protection, paternity or transmigration, the command over fertility, and hostility. These sev­eral ideas may be contemporaneously current in the same region; that is, it may be conceived that the serpent is both the protector and the enemy of man at the same time and place. Yet it must not be forgotten that often one or the other ideas either of benefaction or of maleficence may be dominant. As an illustration of the wisdom of the serpent (cf. Gen. iii.; it there is not only the most cunning of animals, it knows the qualities of the fruit of the tree) it serves in part to note that it was associated with Athene, Apollo, and Hermes, in Egypt with Kneph, in India with Siva (patron of the learned Brahmans), with Buddha, who is said to have com­municated his complete system only to the Nagas, a supposed snake like tribe, and with Vishnu, while in Tibet one of the sacred books was popularly sup­posed to have been derived from the Nagas. In its capacity as a healer in Greece it was associated with Xaculapius, in Egypt with Isis, Harpocrates, and Serapis, with Rudra in India, and with Ramahavaly in Polynesia. Ainus pray to it for a woman in labor, and for help against ague. It is often re­garded as knowing and applying the properties of healing herbs. Pliny (xxv. 14) tells that Tylon was fatally bitten by a serpent, that his sister Moir6 in­duced a giant to kill the animal, but that its mate brought a plant with which it touched the mouth of the dead snake and so revived it, and that Moire learned the lesson and restored her brother to life by the same means; similarly Appollodorus (Bib­liotheke, III., iii. 1) asserts that Polyidus in the same way gave life back to Glaucus; other examples are noted in Pausanias, iii. 65 sqq. In India the same belief obtains, also that in its nests it preserves a stone which is a remedy for its own bite. In Calabar one means of ordeal is the fang of a snake introduced beneath the eyelid (T. J. Hutchinson, Impressions of West Africa, London, 1858). The part of the snake as guardian of the tree of life in widely variant cycles has already been noted  of this the garden of the Hesperides is but one case; in India it is regarded also as the guardian of hidden treasure, and Kipling makes use of this in his Jungle Book. It is supposed to secrete in its own head a valuable jewel, and even has one which it worships. The belief in it as protector of the household existed not only in Egypt (cf. E. W. Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, i. 289, London, 1836), but in India, Korea, China, and Japan, while to kill one is unlucky. The idea of the connection of the serpent with fertility is world nzde. Some­times, as in India, its action is adverse, and it re­strains the showers till killed or forced by a god to release them. It is accredited with power over wind and rain, and in Chile was held to have caused the deluge. Yet in the Deccan offerings and prayers

ence the head of the enfolding serpent rests on the head of the Kronoa. The plaques of the bull slay­ing Mithra show snakes in various positions (cf. F. Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra, pp. 21, 22, 23, 39, 55, 105, 106, 108, 110, 117, 124, 139, 151, 176, 222, Chi­cago, 1903). Cumont interprets the serpent in the Kronos figures as typifying the tortuous course of the sun in the ecliptic; but as Kronoa typifies time, it is better to take the presence of the serpent as merely intensive and suggesting unending time. In India the spectacled cobra is naturally most frequently represented, especially as an attendant upon deities. In this relation the animal is usually pictured with three, five, seven, or nine heads, the hood being in­flated, and generally shielding the head of the deity. The god may, however, simply repose on the coils of the animal, or may be enfolded within them; or the serpent may form the adornment as necklace, armlet, or girdle, or may be held in the hand. Not merely are Brahman and Hindu gods represented ac protected by the snake, but also the Jina (see JAINISM) and the Buddha (see BUDDHISM). In some of the great temples almost every architectural pos­sibility is seized for decoration with this figure, and this holds true not only for India, but for Burma, Java, and Ceylon, also for China and Japan, if the dragon be taken into account, while in similar situa­tions in Mexico and Peru the same is found.

The connection of the serpent with the tree of life, alWy suggested by its presence in the garden of the' Hesperides and with the golden fleece, is illus­trated in Babylonia, and the connection

3. In Other of this cycle with the serpent in Gen. Lands. iii. has been too often exploited to need more than mention here. In this region it also appeared among the decorations of the ap­proaches to temples and palaces (H. Gunkel, Schop­fung and Chaos, p. 154, Gottingen, 1895), while it is striking that the caduceus (a staff wound with two snakes) is carried by Ishtar (cf. W. H. Ward, Amer­ican Antiquarian, xx., 1898, p. 215), and this same serpent staff appears on a vase of Gudea (H. Gress­mann, Altorientalisehe Texte and Bilder, ii. 92, Tabingen, 1909). There come readily to mind the caduceus of Hermes in Greece, and the staff of lEsculapius twined with a single serpent. At Gour­nia in Crete the modern excavations have brought to light a goddess' image with serpents coiled about her; one at Cnossos is in the embrace of three, while a fourth projects its head above her tiara, and at Palaikastro a goddess holds a threefold serpent in her arms. It is but natural that the animal should appear on the coins of many cities. Thus a Tyrian coin carries a tree between two pillars or maZzeboth, and a snake twines about the tree; another coin bears the caduceus and also an altar, from the front corners of which snakes emerge; still another repre­sents the Tyrian Hercules contending with the ser­pent; a coin of Berytus has a nude man (or god) between two snakes which form a single coil; and numerous coins bear designs which are but vari­ants of these. Among cities which employed this animal on their coins, Pella and Adramyttium are representative.

V. In Folk lore: No better illustration of the right of folk lore as a handmaiden to the study of X. 24

8ervveet s THE NEW SCHAFF IIERZOG 370

for rain are made to the nag in spring and autumn; Semites generally bring it into relation with springs. It is at times the protector of persons of sanctity or eminence, as when Scipio Africanus and Nero were believed to have been watched over by a snake, or when two are reported to have observed the first purification of Confucius, or when one shielded the Buddha from the sun's rays. On the other hand, it may be regarded as malevolent, as when the Hurons see in it the cause of disease, Australian tribes re­gard it as bringing death into the world, and the Puma Indians as the source of kidney and stomach troubles in children. So St. Patrick drives it from Ireland, Rudra is its destroyer in India, Buddha in infancy strangles one, as does Krishna, while Her­cules kills two. In the Troad there was a tribe sprung from a serpent (Strabo, xiii. 1, 14), Xlian (De animalibus, xii. 39) tells of a race in Phrygia (Ophiogenae) who were sprung from a woman and a serpent; Alexander was credited with serpent paternity (Plutarch, " Life of Alexander," ii.), and the Natchez, Linni Lenape, Huron, and Menominee Indians claim ancestry from it as one of their totems, as do some African tribes. The reverse relation is held as true, and after death a man's soul may in­habit the body of a snake (for cases among the Afri­cans consult E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii. 8, 239 242, 310, 347, London, 1903) the case of Xneas has already been noted. It was constantly associated with tombs, and thence doubtless with the underworld, with which in part may be con­nected its repute for wisdom. In the Japanese Nihongi a hero is made to reappear in serpent form to take vengeance upon his murderers.

GEo. W. GiLmORE.

BIHmoaRAPBY: On the serpent in the Bible consult: J. Buxtorf, Ezercitationee ad hddor;am, pp. 458 492, Basil, 1859; G. Menken, Schriften, vi. 349 411, Bremen, 1858; P. Scholz, Gtitzendiend and Zauberwesen bei den allen Hebrdern, pp. 101 104, Regensburg, 1877; W. R. Smith, Journal of Philology, ix (1880), 99 100; W. Sharpe, Hu­manity and the Serpent of Genesis, Boston, 1886; J. P. Val d Eremss, The Serpent of Eden, London, 1888; W. H. Ward, American Antiquarian, xx (1898), 162 165; J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough, ii. 428 427, London, 1900; V. Zapletal, Der Totemismus and die Religion rarael, pp. 88 89, Freiburg and Switzerland, 1901; DB, iii. 510 511; EB, iii. 3387 88; JE, ix. 212 213; R. G. Murison, in American Journal of Semitic Language and Literature, xxi. 115 130; and the commentaries on the passages ad­duced in the text.

On the worship, etc., outside of Biblical mention con 

sult: J. B. Deane, The Worship of the Serpent Traced

throughout the World, London, 1833 (most later books

cite Deane, but his work is to be used with the greatest

caution); H. R. Sehoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois: An•

tiquitim and general Hist. of Western New York, 1848;

W. H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, New

York, 1843 idem, Hid. of the Conquest of Peru, ib. 1847

(both of these works are standard, and exist in almost

numberless cheap reprints); E. G. Squier, The Serpent

Symbol and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles of

Nature in North America, New York 1851 (of little value);

J. C. M. Boudin, irtudes anthropolopiques, Paris, 1864;

J. Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, London, 1869

(one of the best); W. R. Cooper, The Serpent Myths o

Ancient Egypt, London, 1873; C. Schoebel, Le Myths de

la femme et du serpent, Paris, 1876; H. Clarke and C. S.

Wake, Serpent and Siva Worship in America, Africa, Asia,

London, 1877 (to be used with caution); H. Jennings:

The Rosicrucians, with a Chapter on Serpent Worshippers,

new ad.. London, 1879; W. H. Ward, in Bibliotheca Sacra,

xxxviii (1881), 209 253; J. G. Bourke. The Snake Dance

of the Moquis of Arizona, New York, 1884; A. Revilie,

Native Religions of Mexico and Peru, London, 1884; C. W. King, The Gnostics and their Remains, ib. 1887; C. S. Wake, Serpent Worship and Other Essays, London, 1887; idem, Serpent Worship and Totemism, ib. 1888; Ophiola­treia: an Account of . . . Serpent Worship, privately printed. 1889 (connects serpent worship and phallicism); C. F. Oldham, in Royal Asiatic Society's Journal, 1891, pp. 361 392, 1901, pp. 461 473 (on worship in India); F. T. Elworthy, The Evil Eye, London, 1895; J. W. Fawkes, Comparison of Sia and Tusayan Snake Ceremonials, Wash­ington, 1895; J. B. Ambrosetti, El Simbolo de la Srrpiente en la alfareria funeraria de la region calchaqui, Buenos Aires, 1896 D. G. Brinton, Myths of the New World, Phil­adelphia, 1896; J. W. Fawkes in Reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology, xvi (1897), 287 312, mix (1900), 957 1011 • Pausanias, ad. Frazer, 8 vols., London and New York 1898; A. Wilder, Serpent as a Symbol, in Metaphys­ical Magazine, xv (1901),1 20; E. Crawley, Mystic Rose, pp. 192 sqq., New York, 1902; H. R. Voth, The Oraibi Summer Snake Ceremony, Chicago, 1903; S. Reinach in Gazette des beaus arts, III., xxaii (1904), 13 23 (on finds in Crete); L. Frobenius Des Zeitalter des Sonnengottes, vol. i., Berlin, 1904; H. E. Sampson, The Message of the Sun, and the Cult of the Cross and Serpent, London, 1904; C. F. Oldham, The Sun and the Serpent: a Contribution to the History of Serpent Worship, London, 1905; E. Am€linesu, Du r6ledesserpentsdana Is croyances relipieumsdel1pypte, in RHR, li (1905), 335 360, Iii (1905), 1 32; R. M. Bur­rows, The Discoveries in Crete, pp. 137 138 et passim New York, 1907; J. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 2d ed., London and New York, 1908 (im­portant); J. Meier, in Anthropos, iii (1908),1005 1029 (New Pomerania); S. Reinach, Orpheus, passim, New York, 1909; C. Spiess, Die Joholn Gottheit and ihr Schlanpen­kult, Brunswick, 1910; G. A. J. Hazen, in Bijdrngen tot de taal lan den volkenkunde van Nederlandseh Indie, =mix. 175 204; A. Kemp Welch, The Woman headed Serpent in Art, in 18th Century and After, Iii. 983 991; L. Stjgda in Globus, Ixxv. 180 163; and, in general, works oa tMWs in various countries, as well as those on the different re­ligions of the world.

SERVATIUS, sir v6'shi us, SAINT: Gallic bishop of the fourth century. He is mentioned as one of those present at the Synod of Sardica in 347, and is apparently identical with one of the envoys from Magnentius to Constantius in 350, as well as with the Servatio, bishop of Tongres, who bravely de­fended Athanasian orthodoxy at the Synod of Rimini in 359. It is, on the other hand, doubtful whether he attended a provincial synod said to have been held at Cologne in 346. According to Gregory of Tours (Historia Francorum, ii. 5; cf. De gloria con­fessorum, hod.), a Servatius or Arvatius (the latter the better reading) was bishop of Tongres about the time of the Hun invasions under Attila. Learning of the approach of the barbarians, he made pilgrimages to Rome to avert, if possible, by prayers at the tomb of St. Peter the destruction which threatened Ton­gres, only to receive the divine command to return to his doomed city. He obeyed, and removed to Maestricht, where he died in 450, a year before Tongres was sacked by the Huns. It would seem, however, that the Hun invasion has here been con­fused with some earlier barbarian inroad.

A very ancient tradition of the Church at Mae­Stricht gives May 13, 384, as the date of the death of Servatius of Tongres, and his grave soon became a favorite place of pilgrimage, so that in 562 his re­mains were removed to a church erected in his honor. In 726, after the victory of Charles Martel over the Saracens on St. Servatius' day, the bones of the saint found their final resting place, though relics found their way to various places, as Duisburg, Worms, and especially Quedlinburg. In medieval

371 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Serpent

Servetus

art St. Servatius is represented as overshadowed by

an eagle soaring above him, or as lying in a grave

with three wooden shoes, the traditional instruments

of his martyrdom. (O. Z6cgLExt.)

BIBLjoaRAP87: An early Vita is given in the volume of Kurth noted below, and with other material in Analecta Bollandiana, i (1882), 85 111; similar early material is edited in MGM, Script., vii (1848), 172 sqq. and aii (1858) ; ASB, May, iii. 215 sqq. (with commentary from pp. 209 sqq.); and B. Kruseh's ed. of Pasaionea vitaqve aevi Mero­vingici in MGH, Script. rer. Merov., iii (1896), 83 (on which cf. G. Kurth in Analecta Bollandiana, 1897, pp. 164 172). Consult further: G. Kurth, Dew biographies inMites de St. Servaie, Lidge, 1881; idem, NouroelleB re­cherches Bur S. ServaiB, ib. 1884; P. F. %. de Ram, No­tice our S. Servais, premier l!vkue de Tongrea, 2d ed., Brussels, 1847; Corton, in De Katholiek, 1884; J. Branek­en. St. ServatiuB Legends, Maestricht, 1884; A. Prost, Saint ServaiB, Paris, 1891; F. Gdrres, in ZWT, 1898, pp. 7883; F. Wilhelm, Sanct Servatius odor wie das erde Reis in deutwher Zunpe peimpft wurde, Munich, 1910• Tille­mont, MAvwireB, viii. 839 sqq.; Rettberg. HD, i. 204  qq.; Friedrich, %D, i. 300 eqq.; Hauck, HD, i. 33 $4, 51 52; DCB, iv. 823.
SERVETUS, ser vf'tus, 111CHAEL

(MIGUEL SERVETO).
Early Life and Wanderings (¢ 1). Physician and Classical Scholar (5 2). Theological System (§ 3). Tried by the Inquisition (§ 4). Before the Court at Geneva (1 5). The Execution and Opinions Regarding it (§ 8).

Michael Servetus, famous as an antitrinitarian

and an opponent of Calvin, was b., probably at

Tudela (52 m. n.w. of Saragossa), Spain, Sept. 29,

1511, and was executed at Geneva Oct. 27, 1553.

Expected to become a jurist, he first studied at

Saragossa, and in 1525 was made amanuensis to the

royal chaplain, Juan de Quintana, whom he accom­

panied to Toulouse in 1528. Here he continued his

legal studies, arid also became interested in the

Bible, holding private readings with some of his fel­

low students and likewise plunging

r. Early into the writings of Melanchthon and

Life and Paul of Burgos. In Feb., 1530, he at­

Wanderings.tended the coronation of Charles V. at

Bologna with Quintana, and then ac­

companied his patron, who had meanwhile become

confessor to the king, to Germany. While there is

no real basis for the story that he met Luther per­

sonally, it is not impossible that he went with But­

zer to Basel in the autumn of 1530, although the

only demonstrable fact is that he met G;colampadius

in October of the same year. By this time the anti­

trinitarianism of Servetus had been fully evolved,

and finally arousing the opposition even of the

kindly G;colampadius, he went to Strasburg, where

he was received by Capito and Butzer. When, in

1531, he printed at Hagenau his De Trinitatis errori­

bus libri sePtem, G;colampadius sought to have the

writings of Servetus officially suppressed, while

Zwingli issued an earnest warning against the tenets

of the Spanish teacher. In his Dialogorum de

Trinitate libri duo, with its appendix, De iusticaa

regni Christi et de caritate capitula quatuor (Hagenau,

1532) he now sought to obviate the unfavorable

impression of his previous work by making certain

formal concessions, though maintaining that neither

the ancient Church nor the Reformers understood

the Bible, and declaring himself unable either to agree or to disagree entirely with either party.

Disappointed in his far reaching. schemes, Serve­tus left Germany, and, dropping his theological pur­suits for the nonce, devoted himself to the study of medicine at Paris, taking the name of Villanovanus from his father's native city of Villanueva in Aragon. In 1534 he left Paris and lived for some years at

Lyons, where he gained partial sup­s. Physician port by proof reading, and then pub­and lished a new edition of Ptolemy (Lyons,

Classical 1535); but in 1537 he returned to

Scholar. Paris and gained distinction as a

physician, writing his Syruporum uni­versa ratio, ad Galeni cemuram dilVenter expolita. Cut post integram de concoctions discerptionem prm­scripta est vera purgandi methodus, cum expositions aphordsmi: concocts medicari (Paris, 1537). His views on the juridical value of astrology, however, as expressed in his Apologetics disceptatio de astro­logia (Paris, 1538), drew upon him such grave charges from the University of Paris that he was forced to leave the capital for Charlieu, where he practised medicine for the short time that he was permitted to remain. He then lived peacefully at Vienne for a number of years, and during this period issued an entirely revamped edition of Sanctes Pagninus' Latin translation of the Bible (see BIBLE VERSIONS, A, II., 3) . During these years, moreover, Servetus had been gradually formulating a work to prove that primitive Christianity had been corrupted by the early ecumenical councils. He then began correspondence with Calvin, apparently to gain the requisite approval for the publication of his conclu­sions; but the impudent tone assumed by Servetus finally angered the Genevan, who, on Feb. 13, 1546, wrote Farel: "If he [Servetus] comes [to Geneva], I shall never let him go out alive if my authority has weight" Servetus now entered upon negotia­tions with other Genevan preachers and with Viret, fully recognizing the personal peril in which he stood; and in 1553 he secretly printed at Vienne his Christianismi restitutio (reprint Nuremberg, 1791; Germ. transl., 3 vols., Wiesbaden, 1892 96), a book repeating with increased emphasis his old attacks on the doctrine of the Trinity, which he declared had arisen with the corruption of the Church.

The positive tenets of Servetus' Restitutio are equally difficult to deduce and to summarize. While rejecting the Trinity in essence, he maintained a Trinity of revelation in his theory of the twofold revelation of God, in the first of which the Word

was present as a divine primal light, 3. Theo  and in the second the Spirit as a divine logical primal power. After the creation the

System. Word was prefigured in Adam, the

theophanies, etc., until it became in­carnate in Christ; and through the exalted Christ, now Jehovah himself, the Spirit, formerly existent only as the world soul, the power of life, the natural apperception of the divine, and the Law, realizes its fulness as the principle of regeneration and im­mortality inherent in man. Such was the weight laid by Servetus on these problems that his system had room for faith only as the recognition of the divinity of Christ. Consciousness of sin was almost