HERESY
202
HERETICS, BAPTISM BY
The Reformation protested against these doctrines. Luther, from the tirst, denounced all attempts to over- come heresy by sword and fire instead of the Word of God, and held that the civil power shoidd leave her- etics to be dealt with by the Church. On this g;round he opposed Carlstadt. Yet it was a fundamental prin- ciple with all the Reformers, that governments are bound to prevent blasphemy, to see that the people receive from the Church built on the Word of God the pure teaching of that word, and to prevent all attempts at creating sects. This led to the adoption of preventive measures in the place of the former penalties of confis- cation, bodily punishment, and death. These preventive measures confined the heresy to the individual, and ex- tended as far as banishment, when no other means would avail. Luther admitted the use of secular punishment against heretics only in exceptional cases, and then not on account of the heresy, but of the resulting disorders. Even then he considered banishment sufficient, except when incitations to revolution, etc., required more se- vere punishment, as was the case with the Anabaptists; yet he often declared against the application of capital pimishment to such heretics. Zwingle took nearly the same stand as Luther on this point, yet was somewhat more inclined to the use of forcible means. The Ana- baptists were treated in a summary manner in Switz- erland. Calvin went fiu-ther, and with his theocratic ideas considered the state as bound to treat heresy as blasphemy, and to punish it in the severest manner. His approbation and even instigation of the execution of Servetus gave rise to a controversy on the question whether heresy might be punished with the sword (com- pare Calvini Defensis orthodoxm Jidei, etc.). Calvin's views were attacked not only by Bolsec, but also by Cas- tellio, who, under the pseudonym of Martin Bellius, wrote on this occasion his De hcereticis (Magdeb. 1554), quoting against Calvin the opinions of Luther and of Brentius. Lalius Socinus, in his Diulogus inter Calvinum et Vaticanum (1554), also advocated toleration. Among all the German theologians, Melancthon alone sided with Calvin, consistently with the views {Coi-ji. Ref. ii, 18, an. 1530 ; and iii, 195, an. 153G) which he had long pre- viously defended against the more moderate views of Brentius (see Hartmann and Jtiger, Johann Brenz, i, 299 sq.).
In England, in the first year of queen Elizabeth, an act of Parliament was passed to enable persons to try heretics, and the following directions were given for their guidance : " And such persons to whom the queen shall by letters patent under the great seal give author- ity to execute any jurisdiction spiritual, shall not in any wise have power to adjudge any matter or cause to be heresy, but only such as heretofore have been adjudged to be heresy, by the authority of the canonical Scriptures, or hj some of f he first four gemral councils, or by any other general council wherein the same was declared heresy by the express and plain words of the said canonical Scrip- tures, or such as hereafter shall be judged or determined to be heresy by the high court of Parliament, with the assent of the clergy in their convocation." " This stat- ute continued practically in force, with certain modifi- catidns, till the 29 Charles II, c. 9, since which time her- esy has been left entirely to the cognizance of the ec- clesiastical courts ; but, as there is no statute defining in what heresy consists, and as, moreover, much of the ju- risdiction of the ecclesiastical courts has been withdrawn by the various toleration acts ; and, above all, as the ef- fect of various recent decisions has been to widen almost indefinitely the construction of the doctrinal formularies of the English Church, it may now be said that the ju- risdiction of these courts in matters of heresy is practi- cally limited to preventing ministers of the Established Church from preaching in opposition to the doctrine and the articles of the establishment from which they derive their emoluments, and that, even in determining what is to be considered contrary to the articles, a large trOleration has been juridically established. See the re-
cent trial of Dr. Rowland Williams, and the judgment given by Dr. Lushington in the Coiurt of Arches" (Cham- bers, Cjjclopmdia, s. v.). The Protestant churches gen- erally, in the 19th centurj', deny the power of the State to punish heresy. The Roman Church retains its old theories upon the subject, but its power is limited by the progress of civilization. See Toleration.
The histori/ of the various heresies is given, with more or less fulness, in the Church histories. Walch's Entw. einer vollstdnd. Historic d. Ketzereien, etc. (1762- 1785, 11 vols.), gives a history of doctrines and lieresies (so-called) up to the 9th centurj-. "As a history of her- esies, divisions, and religious controversies, it is still in- dispensable. Walch is free from polemic zeal, and bent upon the critical and pragmatic representation of his subject, without sympathy or antipathy" (Schaff, Aposf. Histori/, § 31). See also Lardner, Historij of the Here- tics of the first two Centuries, with additions hy Hogrj (Lond. 1780, 4to ; and in Larchier, Works, 1 1 vols. 8vo) ; Flissli, Kirchen-u.-Ketzerhistorien d. mittlei-n Zeit (Frcft. 1770-1774,3 vols.) ; Baumgarten, Gese AjcAfe d.Religions- partheien (Halle, 1706, 4to). Professor Oehler com- menced in 1856 the publication of a Corpus Haresiolog- icum, designed to contain, in 8 vols., all the principal works on heresies, with notes and prolegomena. See also Burton, Enquiry into the Heresies of the Apostolic Age {Hampton Lecture for 1829, 8 vo) ; Campbell, /"re- liininary Diss, to Comni. on Four Gospels ; Herzog, Reul- Encyklopddie, v, 468 ; Elliott, Delineation of Romanism, bk. iii, ch. iii, et al. ; Cramp, Text-hook of Popery, p. 252, 480; Dorner,Persowo/"C/irw<(Edinb.transl.),i,344; Ne- ander. History of Dogmas (Ryland's transl.), i, 16. See also H^KETico CoJiBURENDO ; Persecution ; Toler- ation.