icelle se souvienne qu'elle combat pour la querelle de Dieu, et que
ceste a elle de faire ses vengeances (Rambouillet to Charles IX., Rome,
March 14, 1569; Bib. Imp. F. Fr. 16,039). Nihil est enim ea pietate
misericordiaque crudelius, quae in impios et ultima supplicia meritos
confertur (Pius V. to Charles IX., Oct. 20, 1569).]
[Footnote 143: _Correspondance de Philippe II._, ii. 185.]
[Footnote 144: Inspirato piu d' un anno fa di esporre la vita al
martirio col procurare la liberatione della religione, et delle patria
per mezzo della morte del tiranno, et assicurato da Theologi che il
fatto saria stato meritorio, non ne haveva con tutto cio mai potuto
ottenere da superiori suoi la licenza o dispensa.... Io quantunque mi
sia parso di trovarlo pieno di tale humilta, prudenza, spirito et core
che arguiscono che questa sia inspiratione veramente piuttosto che
temerita o legerezza, non cognoscendo tuttavia di potergliela concedere
l' ho persuaso a tornarsene nel suo covento raccommandarsi a Dio et
attendere all' obbedienza delli suoi superiori finche io attendessi
dallo assenso o ripulsa del Papa che haverei interpellato per la sua
santa beneditione, se questo spirito sia veramente da Dio donde si potra
conjetturare che sia venendo approvato da Sua Sta, e percio sara piu
sicuro da essere eseguito.... Resta hora che V.S. Illma mi favorisca di
communicare a S.B. il caso, et scrivermene come la supplico quanto prima
per duplicate et triplicate lettere la sua santa determinatione
assicurandosi che per quanto sara in me il negotio sara trattato con la
debita circumspetione (Sega, Desp. Paris, Jan. 23, 1591; deciphered in
Rome, March 26).]
[Footnote 145: Ferralz to Charles IX., Nov. 18, Dec. 23, 1572.]
[Footnote 146: De Castro, _De Justa Haeret. Punitione_, 1547, p. 119.
Iure Divino obligantur eos extirpare, si absque maiori incommodo possint
(Lancelottus, _Haereticum quare per Catholicum quia_, 1615, p. 579). Ubi
quid indulgendum sit, ratio semper exacta habeatur, an Religioni
Ecclesiae, et Reipublicae quid vice mutua accedat quod majoris sit
momenti, et plus prodesse possit (Pamelius, _De Relig. diversis non
admittendis_, 1589, p. 159). Contagium istud sic grassatum est, ut
corrupta massa non ferat antiquissimas leges, severitasque tantisper
remittenda sit (Possevinus, _Animadv. in Thuanum_; Zachariae, _Iter
Litterarium_, p. 321).]
[Footnote 147: Principi saeculari nulla ratione permissum est,
haereticis licentiam tribuere haereses suas docendi, atque adeo
contractus ille iniustus.... Si quid Princeps saecularis attentet in
praeiudicium Ecclesiasticae potestatis, aut contra eam aliquid statuat
et paciscatur, pactum illud nullum futurum (R. Sweertii, _De Fide
Haereticis servanda_, 1611, p. 36).]
[Footnote 148: Ad poenam quoque pertinet et odium haereticorum quod
fides illis data servanda non sit (Simancha, _Inst. Cath._ pp. 46, 52).]
[Footnote 149: Si nolint converti, expedit eos citius tollere e medio,
ne gravius postea damnentur, unde non militat contra mansuetudinem
christianam, occidere Haereticos, quin potius est opus maximae
misericordiae (Lancelottus, p. 579).]
[Footnote 150: De Rozoy, _Annales de Toulouse_, iii. 65.]
[Footnote 151: Alva to Philip, June 5, 1565; _Pap. de Granvelle_, ix.
288; _Comment. de Monluc_, iii. 425.]
[Footnote 152: Charles IX. to Mondoucet, Aug. 31, 1572; _Compte Rendu_,
iv, 349.]
[Footnote 153: _Bulletins de Bruxelles_, xvi. 256.]
[Footnote 154: Granvelle to Morillon, Sept. 11, 1572; Michelet, p. 475.]
[Footnote 155: Floquet, iii. 137.]
[Footnote 156: Walsingham to Smith, Nov. 1, 1572; Digges, p. 279. Ita
enim statutum ab illis fuit die 27 Octobris (Beza, Dec. 3, 1572; _Ill.
vir. Epp. Sel._ 621). La Mothe, v. 164; Faustino Tasso, _Historie de
nostri tempi_, 1583, p. 343.]
[Footnote 157: _Discorso di Monsignor Terracina a Gregorio XIII.;
Thesauri Politici Contin._ 1618, pp. 73-76.]
[Footnote 158: Infin che ne vivera grande, o picciolo di loro, mai non
le mancheranno insidie (_Lettere del Muzio_, 1590, p. 232).]
[Footnote 159: Coupez, tronquez, cisaillez, ne pardonnez a parens ny
amis, princes et subiets, ny a quelque personne de quelque condition
qu'ils soient (D'Orleans, _Premier advertissement des Catholiques
Anglois aux Francois Catholiques_, 1590, p. 13). The notion that Charles
had displayed an extreme benignity recurs in many books: "Nostre Prince
a surpasse tout mesure de clemence" (Le Frere de Laval _Histoire des
Troubles_, 1576, p. 527).]
[Footnote 160: Serranus, _Comment._ iv. 51.]
[Footnote 161: Bouges, _Histoire de Carcassonne_, p. 343.]
[Footnote 162: _Sommaire de la Felonie commise a Lyon._ A contemporary
tract reprinted by Gonon, 1848, p. 221.]
[Footnote 163: On this point Smith may be trusted rather than Parker
(_Correspondence_, p. 399).]
[Footnote 164: _Bulletins de Bruxelles_, xvi. 249.]
[Footnote 165: Qui e venuto quello che dette l' archibusata all'
ammiraglio di Francia, et e stato condotto dal Cardinal di Lorena et
dall' Ambasciator di Francia, al papa. A molti non e piaciuto che costui
sia venuto in Roma (Prospero Count Arco to the Emperor, Rome, Nov. 15,
1572; Vienna Archives).]
[Footnote 166: Zuniga to Philip, March 4, 1573; _Arch. de l'Empire_, K.
1531, B. 35, 70. Zuniga heard it from Lorraine.]
[Footnote 167: Et est toute la dispute encores sur les derniers
evenemens de la France, contre lesquels l'Electeur est beaucoup plus
aigre qu'il n'estoyt a mon aultre voyage, depuys qu'il a este en
l'escole a Vienne (Schomberg to Brulart, May 12, 1573; Groen, iv. App.
76).]
[Footnote 168: Sattler, _Geschichte von Wuertemberg_, v. 23.]
[Footnote 169: Audio quosdam etiam nostralium theologorum cruentam istam
nuptiarum feralium celebrationem pertinaciae Gallorum in semel recepta
de sacramentalibus mysteriis sententia acceptam referre et praeter illos
pati neminem somniare (Steinberger to Crato, Nov. 23, 1572; Gillet,
_Craio von Crafftheim_, ii. 519).]
[Footnote 170: Heppe, _Geschichte des deutschen Protestantismus_, iv.
37, 47, 49.]
[Footnote 171: Hachfeld, _Martin Chemnitz_, p. 137.]
[Footnote 172: Sunt tamen qui hoc factum et excusare et defendere
tentant (Bullinger to Hotoman, Oct. 11, 1572; Hotoman, _Epis._ 35).]
[Footnote 173: Nec dubium est melius cum ipsis actum fuisse, si
quemadmodum a principio instituerant, cum disciplinam ecclesiasticam
inroduxere, viros modestos et piae veraeque reformationis cupidos tantum
in suos coetus admisissent, reiectis petulantibus et fervidis ingeniis,
quae eos in diros tumultus, et inextricabilia mala coniecerunt
(Dinothus, _De Bello Civili_, 1582, p. 243).]
[Footnote 174: Beza to Tilius, July 5, 1572; _Ill. vir. Epp. Sel._ 607.]
[Footnote 175: Quoties autem ego haec ipse praedixi! quoties praemonui!
Sed sic Deo visum est, iustissimis de causis irato, et tamen servatori
(Beza to Tilius, Sept. 10, 1572, 614). Nihil istorum non iustissimo
iudicio accidere necesse est fateri, qui Galliarum statum norunt (Beza
to Crato, Aug. 26. 1573; Gillet, ii. 521).]
[Footnote 176: Ut mihi quidem magis absurde facere videantur quam si
sacrilegas parricidas puniendos negarent, quum sint istis omnibus
haeretici infinitis partibus deteriores.... In nullos unquam homines
severius quam in haereticos, blasphemos et impios debet animadvertere
(_De Haereticis puniendis_, Tract. Theol. i. 143, 152).]
[Footnote 177: _Epist. Theolog._ 1575, p. 338.]
[Footnote 178: Beza to Wittgenstein, Pentecost, 1583; Friedlaender, 143.]
[Footnote 179: Lobo de Silveis to De Thou, July 7, 1616; _Histoire_, xv.
371; J.B. Gallus, _Ibid._ p. 435.]
[Footnote 180: Le Cardinal Barberini, que je tiens pour Serviteur du
Roy, a parle franchement sur ceste affaire, et m'a dit qu'il croyoit
presqu'impossible qu'il se trouve jamais remede, si vous ne la voulez
recommencer; disant que depuis le commencement jusqu'a la fin vous vous
estes monstre du tout passionne contre ce qui est de l'honneur et de la
grandeur de l'Eglise, qu'il se trouvera dans vostre histoire que vous ne
parlez jamais des Catholiques qu'avec du mepris et de la louange de ceux
de la religion; que mesme vous avez blasme ce que feu Monsieur le
president de Thou vostre pere avoit approuve, qui est la S. Barthelemy
(De Breves to De Thou, Rome, Feb. 18, 1610; Bib. Imp. F. Dupuy, 812).]
[Footnote 181: Crudelitatisne tu esse ac non clementiae potius,
pietatisque putas? (_Resp. ad Ep. Casauboni_, 1612, p. 118).]
[Footnote 182: Quae res uti Catholicae Religioni sublevandae opportuna,
ita maxime jucunda Gregorio accidit (_Hist. Pontif. Gregori XIII._, p.
30).]
[Footnote 183: _Histoire d'Orleans_, pp. 421, 424.]
[Footnote 184: Germain to Bretagne, Rome, Dec. 24, 1685; Valery,
_Corresp. de Mabillon_, i. 192.]
[Footnote 185: Du Molinet, _Hist. S. Pont. per Numismata_, 1679, 93;
Buorranni, _Numismata Pontificum_, i. 336.]
[Footnote 186: _Annali d'Italia_ ad ann. 1572.]
[Footnote 187: Si huviera respirado mas tiempo, huviera dado a entender
al mundo, que avia Rey en la Francia, y Dios en Israel (_Vida de S.
Francisco De Borja_, 446).]
[Footnote 188: _Vita di Sisto V._, i. 119.]
[Footnote 189: Quo demum res evaderent, si Regibus non esset integrum,
in rebelles, subditos, quietisque publicae turbatores animadvertere?
(_Apparatus Eruditionis_, vii. 503; Piatti, _Storia de' Pontefici XI._,
p. 271).]
[Footnote 190: Per le notizie che ricevette della cessata strage
(Moroni, _Dizionario di Erudizione Ecclesiastica_, xxxii. 298).]
[Footnote 191: [1868.]]
[Footnote 192: _Kirchengeschichte_, iii. 211.]
V
THE PROTESTANT THEORY OF PERSECUTION[193]
The manner in which Religion influences State policy is more easily
ascertained in the case of Protestantism than in that of the Catholic
Church: for whilst the expression of Catholic doctrines is authoritative
and unvarying, the great social problems did not all arise at once, and
have at various times received different solutions. The reformers failed
to construct a complete and harmonious code of doctrine; but they were
compelled to supplement the new theology by a body of new rules for the
guidance of their followers in those innumerable questions with regard
to which the practice of the Church had grown out of the experience of
ages. And although the dogmatic system of Protestantism was not
completed in their time, yet the Protestant spirit animated them in
greater purity and force than it did any later generation. Now, when a
religion is applied to the social and political sphere, its general
spirit must be considered, rather than its particular precepts. So that
in studying the points of this application in the case of Protestantism,
we may consult the writings of the reformers with greater confidence
than we could do for an exposition of Protestant theology; and accept
them as a greater authority, because they agree more entirely among
themselves. We can be more sure that we have the true Protestant opinion
in a political or social question on which all the reformers are agreed,
than in a theological question on which they differ; for the concurrent
opinion must be founded on an element common to all, and therefore
essential. If it should further appear that this opinion was injurious
to their actual interests, and maintained at a sacrifice to themselves,
we should then have an additional security for its necessary connection
with their fundamental views.
The most important example of this law is the Protestant theory of
toleration. The views of the reformers on religious liberty are not
fragmentary, accidental opinions, unconnected with their doctrines, or
suggested by the circumstances amidst which they lived; but the product
of their theological system, and of their ideas of political and
ecclesiastical government. Civil and religious liberty are so commonly
associated in people's mouths, and are so rare in fact, that their
definition is evidently as little understood as the principle of their
connection. The point at which they unite, the common root from which
they derive their sustenance, is the right of self-government. The
modern theory, which has swept away every authority except that of the
State, and has made the sovereign power irresistible by multiplying
those who share it, is the enemy of that common freedom in which
religious freedom is included. It condemns, as a State within the State,
every inner group and community, class or corporation, administering its
own affairs; and, by proclaiming the abolition of privileges, it
emancipates the subjects of every such authority in order to transfer
them exclusively to its own. It recognises liberty only in the
individual, because it is only in the individual that liberty can be
separated from authority, and the right of conditional obedience
deprived of the security of a limited command. Under its sway,
therefore, every man may profess his own religion more or less freely;
but his religion is not free to administer its own laws. In other words,
religious profession is free, but Church government is controlled. And
where ecclesiastical authority is restricted, religious liberty is
virtually denied.
For religious liberty is not the negative right of being without any
particular religion, just as self-government is not anarchy. It is the
right of religious communities to the practice of their own duties, the
enjoyment of their own constitution, and the protection of the law,
which equally secures to all the possession of their own independence.
Far from implying a general toleration, it is best secured by a limited
one. In an indifferent State, that is, in a State without any definite
religious character (if such a thing is conceivable), no ecclesiastical
authority could exist. A hierarchical organisation would not be
tolerated by the sects that have none, or by the enemies of all definite
religion; for it would be in contradiction to the prevailing theory of
atomic freedom. Nor can a religion be free when it is alone, unless it
makes the State subject to it. For governments restrict the liberty of
the favoured Church, by way of remunerating themselves for their service
in preserving her unity. The most violent and prolonged conflicts for
religious freedom occurred in the Middle Ages between a Church which was
not threatened by rivals and States which were most attentive to
preserve her exclusive predominance. Frederic II., the most tyrannical
oppressor of the Church among the German emperors, was the author of
those sanguinary laws against heresy which prevailed so long in many
parts of Europe. The Inquisition, which upheld the religious unity of
the Spanish nation, imposed the severest restrictions on the Spanish
Church; and in England conformity has been most rigorously exacted by
those sovereigns who have most completely tyrannised over the
Established Church. Religious liberty, therefore, is possible only where
the co-existence of different religions is admitted, with an equal right
to govern themselves according to their own several principles.
Tolerance of error is requisite for freedom; but freedom will be most
complete where there is no actual diversity to be resisted, and no
theoretical unity to be maintained, but where unity exists as the
triumph of truth, not of force, through the victory of the Church, not
through the enactment of the State.
This freedom is attainable only in communities where rights are sacred,
and where law is supreme. If the first duty is held to be obedience to
authority and the preservation of order, as in the case of aristocracies
and monarchies of the patriarchal type, there is no safety for the
liberties either of individuals or of religion. Where the highest
consideration is the public good and the popular will, as in
democracies, and in constitutional monarchies after the French pattern,
majority takes the place of authority; an irresistible power is
substituted for an idolatrous principle, and all private rights are
equally insecure. The true theory of freedom excludes all absolute power
and arbitrary action, and requires that a tyrannical or revolutionary
government shall be coerced by the people; but it teaches that
insurrection is criminal, except as a corrective of revolution and
tyranny. In order to understand the views of the Protestant reformers on
toleration, they must be considered with reference to these points.
While the Reformation was an act of individual resistance and not a
system, and when the secular Powers were engaged in supporting the
authority of the Church, the authors of the movement were compelled to
claim impunity for their opinions, and they held language regarding the
right of governments to interfere with religious belief which resembles
that of friends of toleration. Every religious party, however exclusive
or servile its theory may be, if it is in contradiction with a system
generally accepted and protected by law, must necessarily, at its first
appearance, assume the protection of the idea that the conscience is
free.[194] Before a new authority can be set up in the place of one that
exists, there is an interval when the right of dissent must be
proclaimed. At the beginning of Luther's contest with the Holy See
there was no rival authority for him to appeal to. No ecclesiastical
organism existed, the civil power was not on his side, and not even a
definite system had yet been evolved by controversy out of his original
doctrine of justification. His first efforts were acts of hostility, his
exhortations were entirely aggressive, and his appeal was to the masses.
When the prohibition of his New Testament confirmed him in the belief
that no favour was to be expected from the princes, he published his
book on the Civil Power, which he judged superior to everything that had
been written on government since the days of the Apostles, and in which
he asserts that authority is given to the State only against the wicked,
and that it cannot coerce the godly. "Princes," he says, "are not to be
obeyed when they command submission to superstitious errors, but their
aid is not to be invoked in support of the Word of God."[195] Heretics
must be converted by the Scriptures, and not by fire, otherwise the
hangman would be the greatest doctor.[196] At the time when this was
written Luther was expecting the bull of excommunication and the ban of
the empire, and for several years it appeared doubtful whether he would
escape the treatment he condemned. He lived in constant fear of
assassination, and his friends amused themselves with his terrors. At
one time he believed that a Jew had been hired by the Polish bishops to
despatch him; that an invisible physician was on his way to Wittenberg
to murder him; that the pulpit from which he preached was impregnated
with a subtle poison.[197] These alarms dictated his language during
those early years. It was not the true expression of his views, which he
was not yet strong enough openly to put forth.[198]
The Zwinglian schism, the rise of the Anabaptists, and the Peasants' War
altered the aspect of affairs. Luther recognised in them the fruits of
his theory of the right of private judgment and of dissent,[199] and the
moment had arrived to secure his Church against the application of the
same dissolving principles which had served him to break off from his
allegiance to Rome.[200] The excesses of the social war threatened to
deprive the movement of the sympathy of the higher classes, especially
of the governments; and with the defeat of the peasants the popular
phase of the Reformation came to an end on the Continent. "The devil,"
Luther said, "having failed to put him down by the help of the Pope, was
seeking his destruction through the preachers of treason and
blood."[201] He instantly turned from the people to the princes;[202]
impressed on his party that character of political dependence, and that
habit of passive obedience to the State, which it has ever since
retained, and gave it a stability it could never otherwise have
acquired. In thus taking refuge in the arms of the civil power,
purchasing the safety of his doctrine by the sacrifice of its freedom,
and conferring on the State, together with the right of control, the
duty of imposing it at the point of the sword, Luther in reality
reverted to his original teaching.[203] The notion of liberty, whether
civil or religious, was hateful to his despotic nature, and contrary to
his interpretation of Scripture. As early as 1519 he had said that even
the Turk was to be reverenced as an authority.[204] The demoralising
servitude and lawless oppression which the peasants endured, gave them,
in his eyes, no right to relief; and when they rushed to arms, invoking
his name as their deliverer, he exhorted the nobles to take a merciless
revenge.[205] Their crime was, that they were animated by the sectarian
spirit, which it was the most important interest of Luther to suppress.
The Protestant authorities throughout Southern Germany were perplexed by
their victory over the Anabaptists. It was not easy to show that their
political tenets were revolutionary, and the only subversive portion of
their doctrine was that they held, with the Catholics, that the State is
not responsible for religion.[206] They were punished, therefore,
because they taught that no man ought to suffer for his faith. At
Nuremberg the magistrates did not know how to proceed against them. They
seemed no worse than the Catholics, whom there was no question at that
time of exterminating. The celebrated Osiander deemed these scruples
inconsistent. The Papists, he said, ought also to be suppressed; and so
long as this was not done, it was impossible to proceed to extremities
against the Anabaptists, who were no worse than they. Luther also was
consulted, and he decided that they ought not to be punished unless they
refused to conform at the command of the Government.[207] The Margrave
of Brandenburg was also advised by the divines that a heretic who could
not be converted out of Scripture might be condemned; but that in his
sentence nothing should be said about heresy, but only about sedition
and murderous intent, though he should be guiltless of these.[208] With
the aid of this artifice great numbers were put to death.
Luther's proud and ardent spirit despised such pretences. He had cast
off all reserve, and spoke his mind openly on the rights and duties of
the State towards the Church and the people. His first step was to
proclaim it the office of the civil power to prevent abominations.[209]
He provided no security that, in discharging this duty, the sovereign
should be guided by the advice of orthodox divines;[210] but he held the
duty itself to be imperative. In obedience to the fundamental principle,
that the Bible is the sole guide in all things, he defined the office
and justified it by scriptural precedents. The Mosaic code, he argued,
awarded to false prophets the punishment of death, and the majesty of
God is not to be less deeply reverenced or less rigorously vindicated
under the New Testament than under the Old; in a more perfect revelation
the obligation is stronger. Those who will not hear the Church must be
excluded from the communion; but the civil power is to intervene when
the ecclesiastical excommunication has been pronounced, and men must be
compelled to come in. For, according to the more accurate definition of
the Church which is given in the Confession of Schmalkald, and in the
Apology of the Confession of Augsburg, excommunication involves
damnation. There is no salvation to be hoped for out of the Church, and
the test of orthodoxy against the Pope, the devil, and all the world, is
the dogma of justification by faith.[211]