The History of Freedom Part 13

"What remains of Christianity," exclaimed Beza, "if we silently admit what this man has expectorated in his preface?... Since the beginning of Christianity no such blasphemy was ever heard."[288] Beza undertook to defend Calvin in an elaborate work,[289] in which it was easy for him to cite the authority of all the leading reformers in favour of the practice of putting heretics to death, and in which he reproduced all the arguments of those who had written on the subject before him. More systematic than Calvin, he first of all excludes those who are not Christians--the Jews, Turks, and heathen--whom his inquiry does not touch; "among Christians," he proceeds to say, "some are schismatics, who sin against the peace of the Church, or disbelievers, who reject her doctrine. Among these, some err in all simplicity; and if their error is not very grave, and if they do not seduce others, they need not be punished."[290] "But obstinate heretics are far worse than parricides, and deserve death, even if they repent."[291] "It is the duty of the State to punish them, for the whole ecclesiastical order is upheld by the political."[292] In early ages this power was exercised by the temporal sovereigns; they convoked councils, punished heretics, promulgated dogmas. The Papacy afterwards arose, in evil times, and was a great calamity; but it was preferable a hundred times to the anarchy which was defended under the name of merciful toleration.

The circ.u.mstances of the condemnation of Servetus make it the most perfect and characteristic example of the abstract intolerance of the reformers. Servetus was guilty of no political crime; he was not an inhabitant of Geneva, and was on the point of leaving it, and nothing immoral could be attributed to him. He was not even an advocate of absolute toleration.[293] The occasion of his apprehension was a dispute between a Catholic and a Protestant, as to which party was most zealous in suppressing egregious errors. Calvin, who had long before declared that if Servetus came to Geneva he should never leave it alive,[294] did all he could to obtain his condemnation by the Inquisition at Vienne. At Geneva he was anxious that the sentence should be death,[295] and in this he was encouraged by the Swiss churches, but especially by Beza, Farel, Bullinger, and Peter Martyr.[296] All the Protestant authorities, therefore, agreed in the justice of putting a writer to death in whose case all the secondary motives of intolerance were wanting. Servetus was not a party leader. He had no followers who threatened to upset the peace and unity of the Church. His doctrine was speculative, without power or attraction for the ma.s.ses, like Lutheranism; and without consequences subversive of morality, or affecting in any direct way the existence of society, like Anabaptism.[297] He had nothing to do with Geneva, and his persecutors would have rejoiced if he had been put to death elsewhere. "Bayle," says Hallam,[298] "has an excellent remark on this controversy." Bayle's remark is as follows: "Whenever Protestants complain, they are answered by the right which Calvin and Beza recognised in magistrates; and to this day there has been n.o.body who has not failed pitiably against this _argumentum ad hominem_."

No question of the merits of the Reformation or of persecution is involved in an inquiry as to the source and connection of the opinions on toleration held by the Protestant reformers. No man's sentiments on the rightfulness of religious persecution will be affected by the theories we have described, and they have no bearing whatever on doctrinal controversy. Those who--in agreement with the principle of the early Church, that men are free in matters of conscience--condemn all intolerance, will censure Catholics and Protestants alike. Those who pursue the same principle one step farther and practically invert it, by insisting on the right and duty not only of professing but of extending the truth, must, as it seems to us, approve the conduct both of Protestants and Catholics, unless they make the justice of the persecution depend on the truth of the doctrine defended, in which case they will divide on both sides. Such persons, again, as are more strongly impressed with the cruelty of actual executions than with the danger of false theories, may concentrate their indignation on the Catholics of Languedoc and Spain; while those who judge principles, not by the accidental details attending their practical realisation, but by the reasoning on which they are founded, will arrive at a verdict adverse to the Protestants. These comparative inquiries, however, have little serious interest. If we give our admiration to tolerance, we must remember that the Spanish Moors and the Turks in Europe have been more tolerant than the Christians; and if we admit the principle of intolerance, and judge its application by particular conditions, we are bound to acknowledge that the Romans had better reason for persecution than any modern State, since their empire was involved in the decline of the old religion, with which it was bound up, whereas no Christian polity has been subverted by the mere presence of religious dissent. The comparison is, moreover, entirely unreasonable, for there is nothing in common between Catholic and Protestant intolerance. The Church began with the principle of liberty, both as her claim and as her rule; and external circ.u.mstances forced intolerance upon her, after her spirit of unity had triumphed, in spite both of the freedom she proclaimed and of the persecutions she suffered. Protestantism set up intolerance as an imperative precept and as a part of its doctrine, and it was forced to admit toleration by the necessities of its position, after the rigorous penalties it imposed had failed to arrest the process of internal dissolution.[299]

At the time when this involuntary change occurred the sects that caused it were the bitterest enemies of the toleration they demanded. In the same age the Puritans and the Catholics sought a refuge beyond the Atlantic from the persecution which they suffered together under the Stuarts. Flying for the same reason, and from the same oppression, they were enabled respectively to carry out their own views in the colonies which they founded in Ma.s.sachusetts and Maryland, and the history of those two States exhibits faithfully the contrast between the two Churches. The Catholic emigrants established, for the first time in modern history, a government in which religion was free, and with it the germ of that religious liberty which now prevails in America. The Puritans, on the other hand, revived with greater severity the penal laws of the mother country. In process of time the liberty of conscience in the Catholic colony was forcibly abolished by the neighbouring Protestants of Virginia; while on the borders of Ma.s.sachusetts the new State of Rhode Island was formed by a party of fugitives from the intolerance of their fellow-colonists.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 193: _The Rambler_, March 1862.]

[Footnote 194: "Le vrai principe de Luther est celui-ci: La volonte est esclave par nature.... Le libre examen a ete pour Luther un moyen et non un principe. Il s'en est servi, et etait contraint de s'en servir pour etablir son vrai principe, qui etait la toute-puissance de la foi et de la grace.... C'est ainsi que le libre examen s'imposa au Protestantisme.

L'accessoire devint le princ.i.p.al, et la forme devora plus ou moins le fond" (Janet, _Histoire de la Philosophie Morale_, ii. 38. 39).]

[Footnote 195: "If they prohibit true doctrine, and punish their subjects for receiving the entire sacrament, as Christ ordained it, compel the people to idolatrous practices, with ma.s.ses for the dead, indulgences, invocation of saints, and the like, in these things they exceed their office, and seek to deprive G.o.d of the obedience due to Him. For G.o.d requires from us this above all, that we hear His Word, and follow it; but where the Government desires to prevent this, the subjects must know that they are not bound to obey it" (Luther's _Werke_, xiii. 2244). "Non est, mi Spalatine, principum et istius saeculi Pontific.u.m tueri verb.u.m Dei, nec ea gratia ullorum peto praesidium" (Luther's _Briefe_, ed. De Wette, i. 521, Nov. 4, 1520). "I will compel and urge by force no man; for the faith must be voluntary and not compulsory, and must be adopted without violence" ("Sermonen an Carlstadt," _Werke_, xx. 24, 1522).]

[Footnote 196: "Schrift an den christlichen Adel" (_Werke_, x. 574, June 1520). His proposition, _Haereticos comburi esse contra voluntatem spiritus_, was one of those condemned by Leo X. as pestilent, scandalous, and contrary to Christian charity.]

[Footnote 197: "Nihil non tentabunt Romanenses, nec potest satis Huttenus me monere, adeo mihi de veneno timet" (De Wette, i. 487).

"Etiam inimici mei quidam miserti per amicos ex Halberstadio fecerunt moneri me: esse quemdam doctorem medicinae, qui arte magica factus pro libito invisibilis, quemdam occidit, mandatum habentem et occidendi Lutheri, venturumque ad futuram Dominicam ostensionis reliquiarum: valde hoc constanter narratur" (De Wette, i. 441). "Est hic apud nos Judaeus Polonus, missus sub pretio 2000 aureorum, ut me veneno perdat, ab amicis per literas mihi proditus. Doctor est medicinae, et nihil non audere et facere paratus incredibili astutia et agilitate" (De Wette, ii. 616).

See also Jarcke, _Studien zur Geschichte der Reformation_, p. 176.]

[Footnote 198: "Multa ego premo et causa principis et universitatis nostrae cohibeo, quae (si alibi essem) evomerem in vastatricem Scripturae et Ecclesiae Romanae.... Timeo miser, ne forte non sim dignus pati et occidi pro tali causa: erit ista felicitas meliorum hominum, non tam foedi peccatoris. Dixi tibi semper me paratum esse cedere loco, si qua ego principi ill. viderer periculo hic vivere. Aliquando certe moriendum est, quanquam jam edita vernacula quadam apologia satis aduler Romanae Ecclesiae et Pontifici, si quid forte id prosit" (De Wette, i.

260, 261). "Ubi periculum est, ne iis protectoribus tutus saevius in Romanenses sim gra.s.saturus, quam si sub principis imperio publicis militarem officiis docendi.... Ego vicissim, nisi ignem habere nequeam d.a.m.nabo, publiceque concremabo jus pontificium totum, id est, lernam illam haeresium; et finem habebit humilitatis exhibitae hactenusque frustratae observantia qua nolo amplius inflari hostes Evangelii"

(_Ibid._ pp. 465, 466, July 10, 1520).]

[Footnote 199: "Out of the Gospel and divine truth come devilish lies; ... from the blood in our body comes corruption; out of Luther come Muntzer, and rebels, Anabaptists, Sacramentarians, and false brethren"

(_Werke_, i. 75).]

[Footnote 200: "Habemus," wrote Erasmus, "fructum tui spiritus.... Non agnoscis hosce seditiosos, opinor, sed illi te agnosc.u.n.t ... nec tamen efficis quominus credant homines per tuos libellos ... pro libertare evangelica, contra tyrannidem humanam, hisce tumultibus fuisse datam occasionem." "And who will deny," adds a Protestant cla.s.sic, "that the fault was partly owing to them?" (Planck, _Geschichte der protestantischen Kirche_, ii, 183).]

[Footnote 201: "Ich sehe das wohl, da.s.s der Teufel, so er mich bisher nicht hat mogen umbringen durch den Pabst, sucht er mich durch die blutdurstigen Mordpropheten und Rottengeisten, so unter euch sind, zu vertilgen und auffressen" (_Werke_, xvi. 77).]

[Footnote 202: Schenkel. _Wesen des Protestantismus_, iii. 348, 351; Hagen, _Geist der Reformation_, ii. 146, 151; Menzel, _Neuere Geschichte der Deutschen_, i. 115.]

[Footnote 203: See the best of his biographies, Jurgens, _Luther's Leben_, iii. 601.]

[Footnote 204: "Quid hoc ad me? qui sciam etiam Turcam honorandum et ferendum potestatis gratia. Quia certus sum non nisi volente Deo ullam potestatem consistere" (De Wette, i. 236).]

[Footnote 205: "I beg first of all that you will not help to mollify Count Albert in these matters, but let him go on as he has begun....

Encourage him to go on briskly, to leave things in the hands of G.o.d, and obey His divine command to wield the sword as long as he can." "Do not allow yourselves to be much disturbed, for it will redound to the advantage of many souls that will be terrified by it, and preserved."

"If there are innocent persons amongst them, G.o.d will surely save and preserve them, as He did with Lot and Jeremiah. If He does not, then they are certainly not innocent.... We must pray for them that they obey, otherwise this is no time for compa.s.sion; just let the guns deal with them." "Sentio melius esse omnes rusticos caedi quam principes et magistratus, eo quod rustici sine autoritate Dei gladium accipiunt. Quam nequitiam Satanae sequi non potest nisi mera Satanica vast.i.tas regni Dei, et mundi principes etsi excedunt, tamen gladium autoritate Dei gerunt. Ibi utrumque regnum consistere potest, quare nulla misericordia, nulla patientia rusticis debetur, sed ira et indignatio Dei et hominum"

(De Wette, ii. 653, 655, 666, 669, 671).]

[Footnote 206: "Wir lehren die christlich Obrigkeit moge nicht nur, sondern solle auch sich der Religion und Glaubenssachen mit Ernst annehmen; davon halten die Wiedertaufer steif das Widerspiel, welches sie auch zum Theil gemein haben mit den Pralaten der romischen Kirche"

(Declaration of the Protestants, quoted in Jorg, _Deutschland von 1522 bis 1526_, p. 709).]

[Footnote 207: "As to your question, how they are to be punished, I do not consider them blasphemers, but regard them in the light of the Turks, or deluded Christians, whom the civil power has not to punish, at least bodily. But if they refuse to acknowledge and to obey the civil authority, then they forfeit all they have and are, for then sedition and murder are certainly in their hearts" (De Wette, ii. 622; Osiander's opinion in Jorg, p. 706).]

[Footnote 208: "Da.s.s in dem Urtheil und desselben offentlicher Verkundigung keines Irrthums oder Ketzereien ... sondern allein der Aufruhr und furgenommenen Morderei, die ihm doch laut seiner Urgicht nie lieb gewesen, gedacht werde" (Jorg, p. 708).]

[Footnote 209: "Principes nostri non cogunt ad fidem et Evangelion, sed cohibent externas abominationes" (De Wette, iii. 50). "Wenn die weltliche Obrigkeit die Verbrechen wider die zweite Gesetzestafel bestrafen, und aus der menschlichen Gesellschaft tilgen solle, wie vielmehr denn die Verbrechen wider die erste?" (Luther, _apud_ Bucholtz, _Geschichte Ferdinands I._, iii. 571).]

[Footnote 210: Planck, iv. 61, explains why this was not thought of.]

[Footnote 211: Linde, _Staatskirche_, p. 23. "Der Papst sammt seinem Haufen glaubt nicht; darum bekennen wir, er werde nicht selig, das ist verdammt werden" (_Table-Talk_, ii. 350).]

[Footnote 212: Kaltenborn, _Vorlaufer des Grotius_, 208.]

[Footnote 213: Mohler, _Symbolik_, 428.]

[Footnote 214: "Quodsi unam legem Mosi cogimur servare, eadem ratione et circ.u.mcidemur, et totam legem servare oportebit.... Nunc vero non sumus amplius sub lege Mosi, sed subjecti legibus civilibus in talibus rebus"

(Luther to Barnes, Sept. 5, 1531; De Wette, iv. 296).]

[Footnote 215: "All things that we find done by the patriarchs in the Old Testament ought to be free and not forbidden. Circ.u.mcision is abolished, but not so that it would be a sin to perform it, but optional, neither sinful nor acceptable.... In like manner it is not forbidden that a man should have more than one wife. Even at the present day I could not prohibit it; but I would not recommend it" (Commentary on Genesis, 1528; see Jarcke, _Studien_, p. 108). "Ego sane fateor, me non posse prohibere, siquis plures velit uxores ducere, nec repugnat sacris literis: verum tamen apud Christianos id exempli nollem primo introduci, apud quos decet etiam ea intermittere, quae licita sunt, pro vitando scandalo, et pro honestate vitae" (De Wette, ii. 459, Jan. 13, 1524). "From these instances of bigamy (Lamech, Jacob) no rule can be drawn for our times; and such examples have no power with us Christians, for we live under our authorities, and are subject to our civil laws"

(_Table-Talk_, v. 64).]

[Footnote 216: "Antequam tale repudium, probarem potius regi permitterem alteram reginam quoque ducere, et exemplo patrum et regum duas simul uxores seu reginas habere.... Si peccavit ducendo uxorem fratris mortui, peccavit in legem humanam seu civilem; si autem repudiaverit, peccabit in legem mere divinam" (De Wette, iv. 296). "Haud dubio rex Angliae uxorem fratris mortui ductam retinere potest ... docendus quod has res politicas commiserit Deus magistratibus, neque nos alligaverit ad Moisen.... Si vult rex successioni prospicere, quanto satius est, id facere sine infamia prioris conjugii. Ac potest id fieri sine ullo periculo conscientiae cujuscunque aut famae per polygamiam. Etsi enim non velim concedere polygamiam vulgo, dixi enim supra, nos non ferre leges, tamen in hoc casu propter magnam utilitatem regni, forta.s.sis etiam propter conscientiam regis, ita p.r.o.nuncio: tutissimum esse regi, si ducat secundam uxorem, priore non abjecta, quia certum est polygamiam non esse prohibitam jure divino, nec res est omnino inusitata"

(_Melanthonis Opera_, ed. Bretschneider, ii. 524, 526). "Nolumus esse auctores divortii, c.u.m conjugium c.u.m jure divino non pugnet. Hi, qui diversum p.r.o.nunciant, terribiliter exaggerant et exasperant jus divinum.

Nos contra exaggeramus in rebus politicis auctoritatem magistratus, quae profecto non est levis, multaque justa sunt propter magistratus auctoritatem, quae alioqui in dubium vocantur" (Melanchthon to Bucer, Bretschneider, ii. 552).]

[Footnote 217: "Suadere non possumus ut introducatur publice et velut lege sanciatur permissio, plures quam unam uxores ducendi.... Primum ante omnia cavendum, ne haec res inducatur in orbem ad modum legis, quam sequendi libera omnibus sit potestas. Deinde considerare dignetur vestra celsitudo scandalum, nimirum quod Evangelio hostes exclamaturi sint, nos similes esse Anabaptistis, qui plures simul duxerunt uxores" (De Wette, v. 236. Signed by Luther, Melanchthon, and Bucer).]

[Footnote 218: "He that would appear wise will not be satisfied with anything that others do; he must do something for himself, and that must be better than anything. This fool (Copernicus) wants to overturn the whole science of astronomy. But, as the holy Scriptures tell us, Joshua told the sun to stand still, and not the earth" (_Table-Talk_, iv.

575).]

[Footnote 219: "Das ist die christliche Freiheit, der einige Glaube, der da macht, nicht da.s.s wir mussig gehen oder ubel thun mogen, sondern da.s.s wir keines Werks bedurfen, die Frommigkeit und Seligkeit zu erlangen"

(_Sermon von der Freiheit_). A Protestant historian, who quotes this pa.s.sage, goes on to say: "On the other hand, the body must be brought under discipline by every means, in order that it may obey and not burden the inner man. Outward servitude, therefore, a.s.sists the progress towards internal freedom" (Bensen, _Geschichte des Bauernkriegs_, 269.)]

[Footnote 220: _Werke_, x. 413.]

[Footnote 221: "According to Scripture, it is by no means proper that one who would be a Christian should set himself against his superiors, whether by G.o.d's permission they act justly or unjustly. But a Christian must suffer violence and wrong, especially from his superiors.... As the emperor continues emperor, and princes, though they transgress all G.o.d's commandments, yea, even if they be heathen, so they do even when they do not observe their oath and duty.... Sin does not suspend authority and allegiance" (De Wette, iii. 560).]

[Footnote 222: Ranke, _Reformation_, iii. 183.]

[Footnote 223: Ranke, iv. 7; Jurgens, iii. 601.]

[Footnote 224: Newman, _Lectures on Justification_, p. 386.]

[Footnote 225: "Was durch ordentliche Gewalt geschieht, ist nicht fur Aufruhr zu halten" (Bensen, p. 269; Jarcke, _Studien_, p. 312; Janet, ii. 40).]

[Footnote 226: "Princes, and all rulers and governments, however pious and G.o.d-fearing they may be, cannot be without sin in their office and temporal administration.... They cannot always be so exactly just and successful as some wiseacres suppose; therefore they are above all in need of the forgiveness of sins" (see Kaltenborn, p. 209).]

[Footnote 227: "Of old, under the Papacy, princes and lords, and all judges, were very timid in shedding blood, and punis.h.i.+ng robbers, murderers, thieves, and all manner of evil-doers; for they knew not how to distinguish a private individual who is not in office from one in office, charged with the duty of punis.h.i.+ng.... The executioner had always to do penance, and to apologise beforehand to the convicted criminal for what he was going to do to him, just as if it was sinful and wrong." "Thus they were persuaded by monks to be gracious, indulgent, and peaceable. But authorities, princes and lords ought not to be merciful" (_Table-Talk_, iv. 159, 160).]

[Footnote 228: "Den weltlichen Bann sollten Konige und Kaiser wieder aufrichten, denn wir konnen ihn jetzt nicht anrichten.... Aber so wir nicht konnen die Sunde des Lebens bannen und strafen, so bannen wir doch die Sunde der Lehre" (Bruns, _Luther's Predigten_, 63).]

[Footnote 229: "Wo sie solche Rottengeister wurden zula.s.sen und leiden, so sie es doch wehren und vorkommen konnen, wurden sie ihre Gewissen graulich beschweren, und vielleicht nimmermehr widder stillen konnen, nicht allein der Seelen halben, die dadurch verfuhrt und verdammt werden ... sondern auch der gauzen heiligen Kirchen halben" (De Wette, iv.

355).]