Daily camera., 1898-08-01
TWO HISTORIC STONES
They Are Set in Two of Chicago's
Leading Churches.
One Commemorates q Unitarian Mar
tyr and the Other Plymouth
Rock and an Old Eng
lish Sanctuary.

of each other stand two churches, one
Unitarian and the other Congrega-
tional, or, as the world puts it, one lib
eral and the other orthodox. The fact
that in the past liberality and ortho-
doxy each had it's share of persecu-
ton is attested by certain gray build
ing stones which form part OF the front
walls of both structures.
High above the apex of the
main portal of the Church Of the
Unity, set we'll into the wall, is
a gray stone whose front is about
six inches square. 1t is just the
color of the stones that surround
it, and may be distinguished from
them only by it's having about it mar
row rim of gold. The stone looks sim
ply as though the mortar which holds
it in place were of gold. This bit of
rock, for it is nothing less has held its
place above Unity church portal since
the year 1867 That part of the wall
which contains it, according to one OF
the church trustees, did not fall when
the rest of the church was destroyed by
| the great fire. This gold-rimmed stone
was scorched, smoked and blackened,
but it was not the first time it had
known touch of fire. Upon the small
rock from whence this bit of the wall
of Unity church was hewn rested the
feet of Servetus, when the fagots were
piled about him and he died at the
stake, a martyr to his Unitarianism.-
| Servetus has been called the first
| Unitarian martyr Rudely carved
Just above the gold rim of this historic
stone is the word "Champel," the name
of the place where, October 27, 1858,
Michael Servetus suffered for con-
science sake. The inscription cannot
be seen from the street, and the stone
itself, despite the gold about it, rarely
attracts the attention of the passer.
In fact, it's history and it's significance
are unknown to a goodly portion of
the congregation Of the church itself
1t is curious thing that the man
whose cxpoundiLg of the faith finds
followers in the church just one block
away was the man who was RESPONSE
BILE for the death of the Unitarian mar
tyr. It was John Calvin who supplied
the proof which gave the Roman Cath
olic theologians the opportunity to
condemn Michael Servetus to the
stake. Servetus was a physician and
polemic He was born in Navarro in
the year 1911, and his early training
was had at the university of Saragossa.
Afterward he studied law at Toulouse,
where he first became acquainted with
the Bible. Inwardly he turned
against the Roman church, though
outwardly he conformed to it's teach
ings. His first original essay was
crude in it's nature and was entitled
"De Trinitatis Erroribus." Servetus
went to Paris to study medicine and
there he met Calvin. They had theo-
logical discussion, for Calvin held Uni
tarianism in more utter adherence
than he did Romanism. Calvin went
back to Geneva and Servetus went to
Vienna, where he became confidential
physician to noted Roman Catholic
cleric. He conformed once more out
wardly to the forms of the church, but
he wrote Unitarian treatises, the
manuscript of which he sent to Calvin.
Calvin refused to return them, and
when they were rewritten by Servetus
and published anonymously Calvin
gave the Roman church authorities
some sheets of Servetus' original man
uscript, so that by comparison of
handwriting they were enabled to con-
vict the Unitarian of heresy and to
burn him at the stake. 1t is said that
his feet rested upon the very piece of
stone which now gold mounted, does
honor to his memory in the Chicago
Church of the Unity.
In the wall of the New England Con-
the Unitarian cdifice, is a piece of
Plymouth Rock upon which supposed
ly the Pilgrims first set foot in the
new world after fleeing from perse
cution. In the front of the church is
set stone, the inscription on which is
now badly marrcd and defaced. 1t is
stone taken from the parish church at
Scrooby Manor, England, where many
of the Pilgrims were born and where
in after years they were prosecuted.
The stone bears the name "Scrooby
Manor" and the date A. D. 1906.
Inside the New England Congrega-
tional church there is a stone baptis-
NAL font which did service in the
Scrooby Manor church for six cea-
turies and half. Tradition has it
that with water taken from this font
Miles Standish was baptized.
The low-lying winter sun lengthens
the shadow of the tower of the Con-
gregational church until it rests on
the threshold of its Unitarian neigh
Dor. The creed of the congregation
of the one is the antithesis of that of
the other. Each edifice has something
to mark the prosecutions which the
ancestors of the worshipers under
went in the years that are gone, one
set of them at least at the hands of the
founder of the sect of the others. Yet
to-day there are no two churches in
Chicago which are so closely knit fra