Note 442 — CCCXXIV.—To his dearly Beloved, the Pastors of the Church of Frankfort.[442]

The rigour of the judges of Servetus could not fail to extend to the book which served as the basis of the judicial prosecution directed against his person. From the confession of the accused, there had been printed a thousand copies of the Christianismi Restitutio, of which a certain number were deposited at Frankfort. Calvin did not forget the latter portion of this acknowledgment, confirmed besides by a letter from the printer at Vienne, but wrote immediately to the Church of Frankfort, desiring the sequestration and destruction of this dangerous deposit. A clerk of the celebrated printer, Robert Stephens, then resident at Geneva, was charged with this mission, which he accomplished with so very great success, that there are only three copies of the original edition to be found at the present day; one in the Imperial Library of Paris, another in that of Vienna in Austria, and a third in a private collection.—Rilliet, Relation du Procès de Servet, p. 9.