For a government to have the right to punish the errors of men it
is necessary that their errors must take the form of crime; they
do not take the form of crime unless they disturbed society; they
disturb society when they engender fanaticism; hence men must avoid
fanaticism in order to deserve toleration.
If a few young Jesuits, knowing that the Church has condemned the
Jansenists, proceed to burn a house of the Oratorian priests because
the Oratorian Quesnel was a Jansenist, it is clear that these Jesuits
ought to be punished.
Again, if the Jesuits have acted upon improper maxims, and their
institute is contrary to the laws of the kingdom, their society must
be dissolved, and the Jesuits must be abolished and turned into
citizens. The evil done to them is imaginary--the good is real. What
hardship is there in wearing a short coat instead of a long black
robe, and being free instead of being a slave?
If the Franciscan monks, carried away by a holy zeal for the Virgin
Mary, go and destroy a Dominican convent, because the Dominicans
believe that Mary was born in original sin, it will be necessary to
treat the Franciscans in much the same way as the Jesuits.
We may say the same of the Lutherans and Calvinists. It is useless
for them to say that they follow the promptings of their consciences,
that it is better to obey God than men, or that they are the true
flock, and must exterminate the wolves. In such cases they are wolves
themselves.
One of the most remarkable examples of fanaticism is found in a
small Danish sect, whose principle was excellent. They desired to
secure eternal salvation for their brethren; but the consequences
of the principle were peculiar. They knew that all infants which die
unbaptised are damned, and that those which are so fortunate as to
die immediately after baptism enjoy eternal glory. They therefore
proceeded to kill all the newly-baptised boys and girls that they
could find. No doubt this was a way of securing for them the highest
conceivable happiness and preserving them from the sin and misery of
this life. But these charitable folk forgot that it is not lawful
to do a little evil that a great good may follow; that they had no
right to the lives of these children; that the majority of parents
are carnal enough to prefer to keep their children rather than see
them slain in order to enter paradise; and that the magistrate has to
punish homicide, even when it is done with a good intention.
The Jews would seem to have a better right than any to rob and kill
us. Though there are a hundred instances of toleration in the Old
Testament, there are also some instances and laws of severity. God
has at times commanded them to kill idolaters, and reserve only the
marriageable girls. Now they regard us as idolaters, and, although we
tolerate them to-day, it is possible that, if they became masters,
they would suffer only our girls to live.
They would, at least, be absolutely compelled to slay all the Turks,
because the Turks occupy the lands of the Hittites, Jebusites,
Amorrhæans, Jersensæans, Hevæans, Aracæans, Cinæans, Hamatæans, and
Samaritans. All these peoples were anathematised, and their country,
which was more than seventy-five miles long, was given to the
Jews in several consecutive covenants. They ought to regain their
possessions, which the Mohammedans have usurped for the last thousand
years.
If the Jews were now to reason in this way, it is clear that the only
reply we should make would be to put them in the galleys.
These are almost the only cases in which intolerance seems reasonable.