During the Crusades, when the Christians were wantonly fighting
against their superiors in civilisation and humanity, the doctrine, was
promulgated and obeyed that no faith should be kept with infidels,
and this was subsequently put in force against heretics. Thousands of
Mohammedan prisoners were butchered in cold blood, although their safety
had been confirmed by an oath; and this infamous practice was afterwards
pursued with respect to the "heretical" sects when the Papal troops
desolated some of the fairest parts of Europe. Not only was there
no salvation outside the Church, but even the ordinary laws of human
society were held to be abrogated. This wickedness, perhaps, reached
its culmination in the Spanish conquest of America. Few Christians were
civilised enough to condemn these purjured banditti, but Montaigne in
France, and Raleigh in England, were glorious exceptions, and both of
them were under a just suspicion of heterodoxy.
Protestants as well as Catholics were infected with this infamous
bigotry. Luther himself was not free from taint, and Calvin's treachery
against Servetus is an eternal blot on his character.
"No faith with heretics" took a new form when the downright violation of
an oath became too dissonant to the spirit of an improved civilisation.
It found expression in robbing the heretic of political and social
rights, and above all in treating him as outside the pale of honor.
Slandering him was no libel. Every bigot claimed the right to say
anything against his character, for the purpose of bringing his opinions
into hatred and contempt. All the dictates of charity were cast aside;
his good actions were misrepresented, and his failings maliciously
exaggerated. If Voltaire spent thousands in charity, he did it for
notoriety; if he wrote odes to beautiful or accomplished ladies, he was
a wretched debauchee. If Thomas Paine made sacrifices for liberty,
he did it because he had a private grudge against authority; if he
befriended the wife and family of a distressed Republican, he only
sought to gratify his lust; if he spent a convivial hour with a friend,
he was an inveterate drunkard; and if he contracted a malignant abscess
by lying for months in a damp, unwholesome dungeon, his sufferings were
the nemesis of a wicked, profligate life.
An English precursor of Voltaire and Paine wrote _A Discourse on
Freethinking_. His name was Anthony Collins, and in a certain sense he
was the father of English Freethought. He was a man of exemplary life
and manners, yet the saintly Bishop Berkeley said he "deserved to
be denied the common benefit of air and water." One of Collins's
antagonists was the famous Dr. Bentley; and although Collins was a
man of fortune, the ridiculous calumny was started that he sought and
obtained Bentley's assistance in adversity. The author of this calumny
was Richard Cumberland, a grandson of Bentley, and in other respects an
estimable man. His mistake was pointed out by Isaac D'Israeli, who told
him the person he meant was _Arthur_ Collins, the historical compiler.
But Cumberland perpetuated the calumny, remarking that "it should stand,
because it could do no harm to any but to Anthony Collins, whom he
considered little short of an Atheist."
Another story about Collins, which has frequently done duty in Christian
publications, is that a visitor found him reading the New Testament,
and that he remarked, "I have but one book, but that is the best."
Fortunately I am able to give the origin of this story. It is told of
_William_ Collins, the poet, by Dr. Johnson, and may be found in the
second volume (p. 239) of that writer's "Miscellaneous and Fugitive
Pieces," published by Davies in Johnson's lifetime. It was not Anthony
Collins, therefore; but what does that matter? It was a gentleman named
_Collins_; his other name is indifferent. Besides, the story is so much
more affecting when told of _Anthony_.
Look at the lying stories of infidel death-beds; glance at the
scurrilities of an outcast minister which are gratuitously circulated
by the enemies of Colonel Ingersoll; observe on how many platforms Mr.
Brad-laugh has pulled out his watch and given the Almighty five minutes
to strike him dead; listen to the grotesque libels on every leading
Freethinker which are solemnly circulated by Christian malice; and
you will behold the last fruit of a very old tree, which is slowly but
surely perishing. It once bore scaffolds, stakes, prisons and torture
rooms; it now bears but libels and insinuations.