Let me add to this observation only this, that the attempt to sup- press any opinions whatsoever by force hath been for the most part fruitless. For either some few particular persons are proceeded against, or else greater multitudes; if some particulars only, the ai^hes of one hath always proved the seed of many opinionatists. Examples are innumerable; take one, which is boasted of as a pattern of
' " Becanus de fide lijcroticis servanda." — Bell., De Laicis, &.c.
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severity, taken from antiquity. About the year 890, Priscillianus, a Manichee, and a Gnostic, by the procurement of Ithacius and Idacius, two bishops, was put to death by Maximus, an usurping emperor, who ruled for a season, having slain Gratianus ; as that kind of men would always close with any authority that might serve their own ends. Now, what was the issue thereof? Martinus, a Catholic bishop, re- nounces their communion who did it ; the historian that reports it giving this censure of the whole, " Sic pessimo exemplo sublati sunt homines luce indig-nissimi ;" — though the men (Priscillianus and his companions) were most unworthy to live, yet their sentence of death was most unjust. But no matter for this, was not the heresy sup- pressed thereby? See what the same historian, who wrote not long after, and was able to testify the event, says of it:^ " Non solum non repressa est hseresis, sed confirmata, et latius propagata est," &c. ; — " The heresy was so far from being suppressed hereby, that it was confirmed and propagated." His followers, who before honoured him as a saint, now adore him as a martyr. The like in all ages hath been the issue of the like endeavours.
But now, if this course be undertaken against multitudes, what is or hath been the usual end of such undertakings? Take some examples of late days. Charles V., the most mighty emperor of Germany, undertakes by violence to extirpate the Lutherans and Calvinists out of the empire. After a tedious war, the death of many thousands, the wasting of the nation, in the close of all himself is driven out of Germany, and the business left much where it began, Sleid. Com. Philip of Spain, will needs force the inquisition upon the Netherlands. What is the issue? After the expense of an ocean of blood, and more coin than would have purchased the country twice over, his posterity is totally deprived of all sovereignty over those parts,
Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart are put to death in Scot- land by the procurement of a cardinal ; the cardinal is instantly mur- • dered by some desperate young men, and a war raised there about religion, which was never well quieted until, having hunted their queen out of her native kingdom, she had her head chopped off in England.^ The wars, seditions, tumults, murders, massacres, rapes, burnings, &c., that followed the same attempt in France, cannot be thought of without horror and detestation. Neither knew those things any end, until the present forbearance was granted. Instances might be multiplied, but these things are known to all. If any shall say, All these evils followed the attempting to suppress truth, not error, I shall answer him another time, being loath to do it unless com- pelled. Only for the present I shall say, that error hath as much right to a forcible defence as truth. ' Sulpitius Severus, lib. ii., Eccles. Hist. - Hist, of Reformation in Scotland,
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3. To stir us np 3"et fi'.rtlier to a serious consideration of the grounds and reasons which are laid down for the inflicting of punishment upon any for exorbitancies in things of rehgion (upon what hath been said), the perpetual coincidence of the causes by them held forth who pre- tend to plead for just severity, with their pretences who have acted unjust persecution, should be well heeded.
The position is laid down in general on both sides, That emng persons are so and so to be dealt withal, — that such is the power and duty of the magistrate in such cases. The definition of heresy is agreed on for the main; only the Papists place the church's deter- mination where others thrust in the heretic's conviction, — a thing much more obscure to bystanders and judges also. The appellations wherewith truth persecuted and error pursued are clothed, still the same. The consequences urged on all sides — of dishonour to God, trouble to the. state, and the like — not at all discrepant. The argu- ments for the one and other for the most part the same. Look what reasons one sect gives for the punishing of another, — the names being- changed, are retorted. He blasphemeth to the heretic, who chargeth blasphemy upon him. We use no other arguments, cite no other texts, press no other consequences for the punishing of other heretics, than the Papists, the wisest heretics breathing, do for the punish- ment of us.
No colour, no pretence, but hath been equally used in all hands. None can say, This is mine. To Luther's objection, that the Church of Christ never burned a heretic, for Huss and Jerome were none ; Bellarmine answers, they were heretics to them Catholics, which did suflice, De Laic. cap. xxi. And indeed this vicissitude of things is very pernicious. All Christians almost are heretics to some enjoying authority (as Salvian said the case was between the Homoousians and Arians in his time) ; and most of those enjoying authority are per- suaded it is their duty to suppress them whom they account heretics, and, answerably, have more or less acted according to this persuasion, until, by blood, wars, and honid devastations of nations, some of them have been wearied. From the first croisade against the Albigenscs, through the war of the Hussites under Zisea and the Procopii, those dreadful massacres before recounted, what a stage of blood hath EurojDe been made on this account ! I desire that to this point the declai'a- tion of the Netherlands, at the beginning of their troubles (whom Bellarmine affirms to have petitioned for liberty of conscience, as he was writing " De Hroreticidio," the thing being long before granted at Spira, at the convention of the states of the empu-e, in the year 1526), may be seriously considered.