Capital Laws of Connecticut, Established by the General Court,
December 1, 1642.
1. If any man after legal conviction shall have or worship any other
God but the Lord God, he shall be put to death. (Deut. 13 : 6; 17 :
2, 3, and Ex. 22 : 20.)
2. If any man or woman be a witch (that is, hath or consulteth with a
familiar spirit) they shall be put to death. (Ex. 20 : 18; Lev. 20 :
27; Deut. 18 : 10, 11.)
3. If any person shall blaspheme the name of God, the Father, Son
or Holy Ghost, with direct, express, presumptuous, or high-handed
blasphemy, or shall curse God in the like manner, he shall be put to
death. (Lev. 24 : 15, 16.)
4. If any person shall commit any wilful murder, which is manslaughter
committed upon malice, hatred, or cruelty, not in a man's necessary
and just defense nor by mere casualty against his will, he shall be
put to death. (Ex. 21 : 12, 13, 14; Numb. 35 : 30, 31.)
5. If any person shall slay another through guile, either by poisoning,
or other such devilish practice, he shall be put to death. (Ex.
21 : 14.)
6. If any man or woman shall lie with a beast or brute creature, by
carnal copulation, they shall surely be put to death, and the beast
shall be slain and buried. (Lev. 20 : 15, 16.)
7. If any man lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of
them have committed abomination, they both shall surely be put to
death. (Lev. 20 : 13.)
8. If any person committeth adultery with a married or espoused wife,
the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. (Lev.
20 : 10; 18 : 20; Deut. 22 : 23, 24.)
9. If any man shall forcibly and without consent ravish a maid or
woman, that is lawfully married or contracted, he shall be put to
death. (Deut. 22 : 25.)
10. If any man shall steal a man or mankind, he shall be put to
death. (Ex. 21 : 16.)
11. If any man rise up by false witnesses, wittingly and of purpose
to take away any man's life he shall be put to death. (Deut. 19 :
16, 18, 19.)
12. If any man shall conspire or attempt any invasion, insurrection,
or rebellion against the commonwealth, he shall be put to death.
"All these are copied from the capital laws of Massachusetts,
established (with her Body of Liberties) December, 1641,--except
the ninth (against rape of a married or betrothed woman), which was
enacted by Massachusetts in June, 1642. One of the Massachusetts laws
punished manslaughter with death, was not adopted by Connecticut,
and only the first clause of the Massachusetts law against conspiracy,
rebellion, etc. was taken." ("Blue Laws, True and False," by Trumbull.)
"December 1642, two additional capital laws were added to the statute
of Connecticut." (Ibid. p. 59.)
13. If any child or children about 16 years old and of sufficient
understanding, shall curse or smite their natural father or mother, he,
or they shall be put to death, unless it can be sufficiently testified
that the parents have been unchristianly negligent in the education
of such children or so provoke them by extreme and cruel correction
that they have been forced thereunto, to preserve themselves from
death or maiming. (Ex. 21 : 17, 15; Lev. 20 : 9.)
14. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son of sufficient years
and understanding, namely, 16 years of age, which will not obey the
voice of his father or mother, and that when they have chastened him,
will not hearken to them, then may his father and mother, being his
natural parents, lay hold on him, and bring him to the magistrates
assembled in court and testify unto them that their son is stubborn and
rebellious and will not obey their voice and chastisement, but lives in
sundry notorious crimes, such a son shall be put to death. (Deut. 21 :
20, 21.)
"Persuade men that when ascribing to the Deity justice and mercy,
they are speaking of qualities generally distinct from those which
exist among mankind--qualities which we are altogether unable to
conceive, and which may be compatible with acts which men would term
grossly unjust and unmerciful; tell them that guilt may be entirely
unconnected with a personal act that millions of infants may be
called into existence for a moment to be precipitated into a place of
torment, that vast nations may live and die, and then be rased again
to endure never-ending punishment, because they did not believe in a
religion of which they never heard, or because a crime was committed
thousands of years before they were in existence; convince them that
all this is part of a transcendentally perfect and righteous scheme,
and there is no imaginable abyss to which such a doctrine would not
lead." (Lecky's "Rationalism in Europe," vol. 1, p. 384.)
Lecky proceeds to show that men who believe in salvation by the
church will always persecute dissenters, and all history attests the
truth of his remarks. Catholics persecuted Protestants; Protestants
persecuted Puritans; and Puritans, in there turn, persecuted other
dissenters. Nor did the work stop here; though limited in their power,
yet these dissenters even to-day find ways by which they can persecute
dissenters from them without resort to physical means. There was not,
two centuries ago, a single sect that did not uphold persecution.
Galileo.
"For sixteen years the church had rest. But in 1632 Galileo ventured
on the publication of his work entitled 'The System of the World,'
its object being the vindication of the Copernican doctrine. He was
again summoned before the Inquisition at Rome, accused of having
asserted that the earth moves around the sun. He was declared to have
brought upon himself the penalty of heresy. On his knees with his
hand on the Bible, he was compelled to abjure, and curse the doctrine
of the movement of the earth. What a spectacle! This venerable man,
the most illustrious of his age, forced by the threat of death to
deny facts which his judges as well as himself knew to be true! He
was then committed to prison, treated with remorseless severity
during the remaining ten years of his life, and he was denied burial
in consecrated ground. Must not that be false which requires for
its support so much imposture, so much barbarity? The opinions thus
defended by the Inquisition are now objects of derision to the whole
civilized world." (Draper's "Conflict Between Religion and Science.")
Bruno.
"On the 17th of February, 1600, a vast concourse of people was
assembled in the largest open space in Rome, gathered together by
the irresistible sympathy which men always feel, with the terrible
and tragic in human existence. In the center stood a huge pile of
faggots, from out its logs and branches rose a stake, crowding around
the pile were eager and expectant faces, men of various ages and of
various characters, but all for one moment united in a common feeling
of malignant triumph, religion was about to be avenged; a heretic
was coming to expiate on that spot the crime of open defiance to
the dogmas proclaimed by the church--the crime of teaching that the
earth moved, and that there was an infinity of worlds. The stake is
erected for the 'maintenance and defense of the holy church, and the
rights and liberties of the same.' Whom does the crowd await? Giordano
Bruno--the poet, philosopher, and heretic--the teacher of Galileo's
heresy--the friend of Sir Philip Sidney, and the open antagonist
of Aristotle. A hush comes over the crowd. The procession solemnly
advances, the soldiers peremptorily clearing the way for it. His face
is placid though pale. They offer him the crucifix; he turns his head;
he refuses to kiss it! 'The heretic!' They show him the image of him
who died upon the cross for the sake of the living truth--he refuses
the symbol! A yell bursts from the multitude.
"They chain him to the stake. He remains silent. Will he not pray
for mercy? Will he not recant? Now the last hour has arrived--will
he die in his obstinacy, when a little hypocrisy would save him from
so much agony? It is even so; he is stubborn and unalterable. They
light the faggots; the branches crackle; the flame ascends; the victim
writhes--and now we see him no more. The smoke envelopes him; but not a
prayer, not a plaint, not a single cry escapes him. In a little while
the wind has scattered the ashes of Giordano Bruno." (G. H. Lewes's
"History of Philosophy.")
"What a contrast between this scene of manly honor, of unshaken
firmness, of inflexible adherence to the truth, and that other
scene which took place more than fifteen centuries previously by the
fireside in the hall of Caiaphas the high priest, when the cock crew,
and 'the Lord turned and looked upon Peter.' (Luke 22 : 61.) And yet
it is upon Peter that the church has grounded her right to act as
she did to Bruno.
"But perhaps the day is approaching when posterity will offer an
expiation for this great ecclesiastical crime, and a statue of
Bruno be unveiled under the dome of St. Peter's at Rome." (Draper's
"Conflict Between Religion and Science.")
"A divine revelation must necessarily be intolerant of contradiction;
it must repudiate all improvement in itself, and view with disdain
that arising from the progressive intellectual development of
man." (Draper's "Conflict Between Religion and Science.")
Torture.
"The system (of mediæval tortures) was matured under the mediæval habit
of thought, it was adopted by the inquisitors, and it received its
finishing touches from their ingenuity. In every prison the crucifix
and the rack stood side by side, and in almost every country the
abolition of torture was at last effected by a movement which the
church opposed, and by men whom she cursed." (Lecky's "Rationalism
in Europe," vol. 1, p. 333.)
"But the most powerful consideration with a truly benevolent man,
if he be a Christian, for the extirpation of heresy by force, is the
belief that its unfortunate victims will suffer unending torments in
hell. Not for a few days, not for a few years must they suffer, but
forever. Under the burden of such an awful thought can the sincere,
kind-hearted Christian fold his arms and look calmly upon the efforts
of men who are spreading unbelief or heresy in every direction,
who are not only going to hell themselves, but are taking with them
thousands of their fellow men. Is it not natural that the sincere
Christian, having the power, should suppress such opinions? that if
necessary he should resort to coercive measures? that if new heresies
are constantly springing up he should punish some of the offenders
with severity, and thereby endeavor to deter others from leaving
the true faith? Under the influence of such a faith, must not the
desire for the suppression of the heresy be a measure of the desire
for the suppression of the most injurious and dangerous errors? and
will not the zeal to destroy them be in proportion to the love of
truth and regard for the welfare of humanity? Will not, therefore,
the most sincere, earnest, and devoted Christians, in an age of
unquestioning faith, be the most active and zealous persecutors? On a
priori grounds we cannot help arriving at such a conclusion, and the
facts of history attest the correctness of the conclusion thus arrived
at from a consideration of the natural effects of the doctrine that
certain opinions involve merit and others guilt.
"It has been shown by Llorente that the men who founded the Inquisition
were men whose characters were free from the stains of vice, and
who were actuated in their cruel work of torturing and burning men,
by the most philanthropic motives. Many of the worst persecutors,
Catholic and Protestant alike, as Mr. Buckle has mentioned, have been
among the most conscientious of men and women. Their cruelty was the
result of their faith. What, they argued, are the fleeting pains of
a few thousand men compared with the eternal agony of the thousands
and tens of thousands they will, unless checked, lead to hell. Thus
argued the Christians when they first obtained power and used it
in killing Pagans; thus argued the Catholics of the Middle Ages;
thus argued the Protestants of Geneva; thus argued the advocates
of Episcopacy, the defenders of the Kirk of Scotland, and the pious
Puritans of New England. In proportion as men believe that correct
theological beliefs involve merit and are essential to salvation,
and that theological errors involve guilt and are punished with
torments in hell, and have power, they must be persecutors. Such
has been the case in the past. It was only when rationalism, acting
in opposition to the church, rendered persecution impossible, that
theologians discovered that the punishment of men was at variance
with their religion. 'With the merits of this pleasing though tardy
conversion,' says Lecky, 'I am not now concerned; but few persons,
I think, can follow the history of Christian persecution without a
feeling of extreme astonishment that some modern writer, not content
with maintaining that the doctrine of exclusive salvation ought not
to have produced persecution, have ventured, in defiance of unanimous
testimony of theologians of so many centuries, to dispute the plain
historical fact that it did produce it.'" ("History of Morals,"
vol. 1, p. 422.)
"But independently of the influence of the Old Testament teachings,
the Christian system makes persecution inevitable in proportion as
the system is believed. Intolerance and persecution are a natural
result of the doctrine that certain religious opinions involve moral
guilt. The Bible declares, 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved; he that believeth not shall be damned.' This makes unbelief and
heresy a crime, and unbelievers and heretics criminals. It makes it the
religious duty of Christians to legislate for the extirpation of the
former and the punishment of the latter. Can men treat with charity
and kindness those with whom they believe God is displeased--those
who are spreading doctrines that are regarded as plainly an offense
to God? Is it not the wish of God that unbelief and heresy should be
destroyed, and, as an obedient subject, is it not natural that the
Christian should, as far as possible, carry out the wishes of the
God he worships?"
The New Testament Teaches Intolerance.
"'He that believeth not shall be damned.' (Mark 16 : 16.) St. Paul
exclaims (Galatians 1), 'If any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.' He also says
(1 Tim. 6), 'If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to the
wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ ... he is
proud, knowing nothing ... from such withdraw thyself.' 'Of whom (1
Tim. 1) is Hymenæus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan,
that they may learn not to blaspheme.' In these passages persecution
and punishment are clearly taught for disbelief. And that such teaching
has had an immoral tendency the excommunications, the imprisonments,
and sacrifice of the lives of heretics in connection with the history
of Christianity abundantly prove."--B. F. Underwood.
"Are men restrained by superstition? Are men restrained by what you
call religion? I used to think they were not; now I admit they are. No
man has ever been restrained from the commission of a real crime,
but from an artificial one he has. There was a man who committed
murder. They got the evidence, but he confessed that he did it. 'What
did you do it for?' 'Money.' 'Did you get any money?' 'Yes.' 'How
much?' 'Fifteen cents.' 'What kind of a man was he?' 'A laboring
man I killed.' 'What did you do with the money?' 'I bought liquor
with it.' 'Did he have anything else?' 'I think he had some meat
and bread.' 'What did you do with that?' 'I ate the bread and threw
away the meat; it was Friday.' So you see it will restrain in some
things."--Ingersoll.
The Inquisition in Spain, 1568.
"Upon the 16th of February, 1568, a sentence of the Holy Office
condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to death as
heretics. From this universal doom, only a few persons, especially
named, were excepted. A proclamation of the king, dated ten days
later, confirmed this decree of the Inquisition, and ordered it to
be carried into instant execution, without regard to age, sex or
condition. This is probably the most concise death-warrant that was
ever framed. Three millions of people, men, women, and children,
were sentenced to the scaffold in three lines." (John L. Motley,
"The Rise of the Dutch Republic," vol. 2, p. 158.)
The Inquisition.
"In 1208. Innocent III. established the Inquisition. In 1209 De
Montfort began the massacre of the Albigenses. In 1215 the Fourth
Council of the Lateran enjoined all rulers, 'as they desired to be
esteemed faithful, to swear a public oath that they would labor
earnestly and to the full extent of their power, to exterminate
from their dominions all those who were branded as heretics by the
church.'" (Lecky's "Rationalism in Europe," vol. 1, p. 38.)
"Llorente, who had free access to the archives of the Spanish
Inquisition, assures us that by that tribunal alone more than 31,000
persons were burnt, and more than 290,000 condemned to punishment
less severe than death. The number of those put to death for their
religion in the Netherlands alone, in the reign of Charles V. has
been estimated by a very high authority at 50,000, and at least half
as many perished under his son. (Ibid. pp., 40, 41.)
The Church Opposed to Liberty.
"How has the church in every age, when in authority, defended
itself? Always by a statute against blasphemy, against argument,
against free speech. And there never was such a statute that did
not stain the book that it was in and that did not certify to the
savagery of the men who passed it. Never. By making a statute and by
defining blasphemy, the church sought to prevent discussion--sought
to prevent argument, sought to prevent a man from giving his honest
opinion. Certainly a tenet, a dogma, a doctrine, is safe when hedged
about by a statute that prevents your speaking against it. In the
silence of slavery it exists. It lives because lips are locked. It
lives because men are slaves." (Ingersoll, "The Reynolds Blasphemy
Trial.")
"So I say if you believe the Bible say so; if you do not believe it say
so. And here is the vital mistake, I might almost say, in Protestantism
itself. The Protestants when they fought the Catholics, said: 'Read
the Bible for yourselves--stop taking it from your priests--read the
sacred volume with your own eyes. It is a revelation from God to his
children, and you are the children,' and then they said: 'If after
you read it you do not believe it, and you say anything against it,
we will put you in jail, and God will put you in hell.' That is a fine
position to get a man in. It is like a man who invited his neighbor
to come and look at his pictures, saying: 'They are the finest in the
place, and I want your candid opinion. A man who looked at them the
other day said they were daubs, and I kicked him down stairs--now I
want your candid judgment.'" (Ibid.)
The Bible Opposed to Liberty.
To-day we say that every man has a right to worship God or not, to
worship him as he pleases. Is it the doctrine of the Bible? Let us see:
"If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter,
or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul,
entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which
thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;
"Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh
unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even
unto the other end of the earth;
"Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall
thine eye pity him; neither shalt thou conceal him;
"But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him
to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
"And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath
sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee
out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." (Deut. 13 : 6.)
And do you know according to that, if your wife--your wife that you
love as your own soul--if you had lived in Palestine, and your wife had
said to you, "Let us worship a sun whose golden beams clothe the world
in glory; let us worship the sun; let us bow to that great luminary;
I love the sun because it gave me your face; because it gave me the
features of my babe; let us worship the sun,"--it was then your duty
to lay your hands upon her, your eye must not pity her, but it was
your duty to cast the first stone against that tender and loving
breast. I hate such doctrine! I hate such books! I hate gods that
will write such books! I tell you that it is infamous.
"If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord
thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in
the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
"And hath gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, either the
sun, moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
"And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired
diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such
abomination is wrought in Israel;
"Then shalt thou bring forth that man, or that woman, which have
committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates even that man or that
woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die." (Deut. 17 :
2-5.)--Ingersoll.