This then in its latitude proving so pernicious to the pro- fession of the gospel, having for so long driven the woman into the wilderness, and truth into corners, being the main engine whereby the tower of Babel was built, and that which at this day they cry grace unto, as the foundation stone of the whole antichristian fabric/ we had need be cautious what use we make (as one terms it well) of the broom of an- tichrist, to sweep the church of Christ. Whether that we are in the truth, and they blinded with error, of whom we have spoken, be a sufficient plea, we shall see anon. In the mean time we may do well to remember what Lewis the Twelfth of France said, yea swore, concerning the inhabitants of Mi- rindol, whom, by the instigation of his prelates, he had or- dered to be slain, when news was brought him, what was •their conversation and way of life : * Let them be heretics if
y Bctanus dc fide lisereticis servanda. Bell, de Laicis, &c.
222 OF TO LF. II ATI ox.
you please/ saith he, ' but assuredly they are better than I, and my Catholics.* Take heed lest the punished be better than the punishers.
Let me add to this observation only this. That the at- tempt to suppress 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 ashes of one hath always proved the seed of many opinionatists. Examples are innumerable ; take one, which is boasted of, as a pattern of severity taken from antiquity. About the year 390, Priscillianus, a Ma- nichee, 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 Gra- tianus ; 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, renounces their communion who did it. The historian that reports it, giving this censure of the whole : ' Sic pessimo exemplo sublati sunt homines luce indignissimi :' though the men (Priscillian and his companions) were most unworthy to live, yet their sentence of death was most unjust. But no mat- ter for this. Was not the heresy suppressed thereby ? See what the same historian, who wrote not long after, and was able to testify the event, says of it :^ ' Non solum non re- pressa est hgeresis, sed confirmata, et latins 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 endea- vours.
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 the Fifth, the most mighty emperor of Germany, undertakes by violence to ex- tirpate the Lutherans and Calvinists out of the empire. After a tedious war, the death of many thousands, the wast- ing 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
' Severiis Sulpitius, lib. 2. Eccles. Hist.
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the Netherlands. What is the issue t 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 Scotland, by the procurement of a cardinal ; the cardinal is instantly murdered by some desperate young men, and a war raised there about religion, which was never well qui- eted, until having hunted their queen out of her native king- dom, 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 attempt- ing to suppress truth, not error: I shall answer him another time, being loath to do it, unless compelled. Only for the present I shall say, that error hath as much right to a force- able defence, as truth.
3. To stir us up yet farther to a serious consideration of the grounds and reasons which are laid down for the inflict- ing of punishment upon any for exorbitancies in things of religion (upon what hath been said) the perpetual coinci- dence of the causes by them held forth, who pretend to plead for just severity, with their pretences who have acted unjust persecution, would be well heeded.
The position is laid down in general on both sides. That erring 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 Pa- pists place the church's determination, where others thrust in the heretic's conviction, a thing much more obscure to by- standers and judges also. The appellations wherev/ith 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 arguments 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 blas-