" History of Reformation in Scotland.
224 OF 1'OLl.RATION.
phemeth to the heretic, wlio chargeth blai5phemy 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 objertion, that the church of Christ never burned a heretic, for Huss and Jerome were none ; Bellarmine answers, they were he- retics to them Catholics, which did suffice. De Laic. cap. 21. 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 persuaded it is their duty to suppress them, whom they ac- count heretics, and ansvverably have more or less acted ac- cording to this persuasion, until by blood, wars, and horrid devastations of nations, some of them have been wearied. From the first Croisade against the Albigenses, through the war of the Hussites under Zisca and the Procopii, those dread- ful massacres before recounted, what a stage of blood hath Europe been made upon this account? I desire that to this point the declaration of the Netherlands, at the beginning of their troubles (whom Bellarmine affirms to have petitioned for liberty of conscience, as he was writing de Hsereticidio, the thing being long before granted at Spira, at the conven- tion of the states of the empire, in the year 1526.) may be seriously considered.
4. For the necessity of courses of extremity against er- roneous persons for the upholding ' the faith once delivered to the saints,' and the keeping the churches in peace, it doth not appear to me to be so urgent as is pretended.
For three hundred years the church had no assistance from any magistrate against heretics ; and yet in all that space there was not one long-lived, or far-spreading heresy, in comparison of those that followed. As the disease is spiritual, so was the remedy which in those days was applied, and the Lord Jesus Christ made it effectual. The Christians also of those days disclaimed all thoughts of such proceed- inf>-s. The expressions of the most ancient, as Polycarpus, Ignatius, Irenaeus, concerning heretics, are sharp and cut-
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ting; their avoiding of them being admonished precise and «evere; their confutations of them laborious and diligent; their church censures and ejections piercing and sharp ; communion amongst the churches close, exact, and carefully preserved, so that a stubborn heretic was thrust out of Christian society. But for corporal punishment to be in- flicted on them, in their writings not a syllable. Until Augustine was changed from his first resolution and per- suasion, by the madness of donatistical Circumcellians, this doctrine had but poor footing in antiquity. And whether his reasons as to this point be convincing, let any impartial man read his Epistle 50. and determine. What some say. The Christians would have been of another mind, had they enjoyed Christian magistrates, is so suited to our present frame and temper, but so unworthy of them, that I should wrong them by a defensative. What was their sense of them in a spiritual way is clear. John, they say, would not abide in a bath where Cerinthus the heretic infected with Judaism and Paganism was; saying. Let us depart, lest the building fall on us where Cerinthus is. Iren. lib. 3. cap. 3. Euseb. Eccles. Hist, lib- 3. cap. 25. Marcion meeting Polycarpus, and asking him whether he knew him, or acknowledged him; his answer was, ' Yea, to be the first-born of the devil.' Euseb. lib. 4. cap. 14. Ignatius's epistles are full of the like expressions. Irenseus says, he would have no words with them, lib. 3. cap. 3. Tertullian's books testify for him at large, with what keenness of spirit he pursued the heretics of his days, though before the end of them he had the un- happiness to be almost one himself. Cyprian cries out, 'Nulla ^'-um talibus convivia, nulla colloquia, nulla com- mercia mis>ceanturi' Epist. 3. ad Cornel. ' Neither eat, nor talk, nor deai with them.' Antonius the hermit leaves tes- timony when ht was dying, ' That he never had peaceable conference with thom all his days.' Vita Anton, inter Oper. Athan. Surely had these men perceived the mind of God for their bodily punishment, they would not have failed to signify their minds therein; but truly their expressions hold out rather the quite contrary. Touc fiKrovvrag rbv ^ehvt yLiativ XQri aai Vfia^, koL IttX rotg t^Opotc avTov eKTriKea^aC ov fiJev Koi TViTTeiv outouCj ^ai Stancttv, KaOivg ra sS'vij to. fxri tlcoTa rov Kvpiov Koi ^eov, aXXa i)(Ppovg fXiv riytiaS^ai koi \wpinea^ai VOL. XV. Q
226 OF TOLERATION.
an avTLJv, says Ignatius, Epist. ad Philad. 'Count them enemies, and separate from them who hate God ; but for beating or persecuting them, that is proper to the heathen who know not God, nor our Saviour; do not you so.' Ter- tullian in very many places lays down general maxims tend- ing to more liberty than is now pleaded for. One or two places may be pointed at : * Videte ne et hoc ad irreligiosi- tatis elogium concurrat, adimere libertatem religionis, et interdicere optionem divinitatis, ut non liceat raihi colere quem velim, sed cogar colere quern nolim. Nemo se ab invito coli vellet, ne homo quidem.' Apol. cap. 23. And again to Scapula the governor of Carthage, to dissuade him from the persecution he intended : ' Tamen humani juris et naturalis potestatis est unicuique quod putaverit colere, nee alii obest, aut prodest alterius religio: sed nee religionis est cogere religionem, quae sponte suscipi debeat, non vi ; cum et hostise ab animo libenti expostulantur : ita et si nos compuleritis ad sacrificandum, nihil prsestabitis diis vestris, ab invitis enim sacrificia non desiderabunt.' And I desire to know, whether that which he maketh to be the plea of Christians, may not also be used by all erring persons. * Totum quod in nos potestis, nostrum est arbitrium. Certe si velim, Christianus sum, tunc ergo me damnabis, si dam- nari velim. Cum vero quod in me potes, nisi velim, non potes, jam mese voluntatis est quod potes, non tuaj potes- tatis.' Apol. cap. ult. Hence was that query of Lactantius : ' Quis imponet mihi necessitatem aut credendi quod nolim, aut quod velim non credendi ? And long after these Gregory of Rome, lib. 2. Epist. 52. tells us, * Nova et inaudita est ista praedicatio, quae verberibus exigit fidem ;' to beat in faith with stripes, was then a new kind of preach*'ng. These and the like were their expressions.