SI VENERIT, MODO VALEAT MEA AUCTOEITAS, VIVDM EXIRE NLXQUAM PATIAR."
Opera, VIII. 283 ; Henry, III. Beil. 65-()7 ; Bonnet-Constable, II. 17. Grotius discovered this damaging letter in Paris, which was controverted, but is now generally admitted as genuine. There is an exact copy of it in G-eneva.
§ 188. CATHOLIC INTOLERANCE. 693
and admire in both the loyalty to conscientious conviction. Heresy is an error ; intolerance, a sin ; persecution, a crime.
§ 188. Catholic Intolerance.
Comp. vol. VI. §§ 11 and 12 (pp. 50-80), and Sciiaff : The Progress of Religious Liberty as slioivn in the History of Toleration Acts. New York, 1889.
This is the place to present the chief facts on the subject of religious toleration and intolerance, which gives to the case of Servetus its chief interest and importance in history. His theological opinions are of far less consequence than his connection with the theory of persecution which caused his death.
Persecution and war constitute the devil's chapter in history; but it is overruled by Providence for the development of heroism, and for the progress of civil and religious freedom. Without persecutors, there could be no martyrs. Every church, yea, every truth and every good cause, has its martyrs, who stood the fiery trial and sacrificed comfort and life itself to their sacred convictions. The blood of martyrs is the seed of toleration ; toleration is the seed of liberty; and liberty is the most precious gift of God to every man who has been made in his image and redeemed by Christ.
Of all forms of persecution, religious persecution is the worst because it is enacted in the name of God. It violates the sacred rights of conscience, and it rouses the strongest and deepest passions. Persecution by word and pen, which springs from the hatred, envy, and malice of the human heart, or from narrowness and mistaken zeal for truth, will continue to the end of time ; but persecution by fire and sword contradicts the spirit of humanity and Christianity, and is inconsistent with modern civilization. Civil offences against the State deserve civil punishment, by fine, imprisonment,
694 THE EEFOKMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
confiscation, exile, and death, according to tlie degree of guilt. Spiritual offences against the Church should be spiritually judged, and punished by admonition, deposition, and excommunication, with a view to the reformation and restoration of the offender. This is the law of Christ. The temporal punishment of heresy is the legitimate result of a union of Church and State, and diminishes in rigor as this union is relaxed. A religion established by law must be protected by law. Hence the Constitution of the United States in securing full liberty of religion, forbids Congress to establish by law any religion or church.^ The two were regarded as inseparable. An established church must in self-defence persecute dissenters, or abridge their liberties ; a free church cannot persecute. And yet there may be as much individual Christian kindness and charity in an established church, and as much intolerance and bigotry in a free church. The ante-Nicene Fathers had the same zeal for orthodoxy and the same abhorrence of heresy as the Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers, the mediseval popes and schoolmen, and the Reformers ; but they were confined to the spiritual punishment of heresy. In the United States of America persecution is made impossible, not because the zeal for truth or the passions of hatred and intolerance have ceased, but because the union between Church and State has ceased.
The theory of religious persecution was borrowed from the Mosaic law, which punished idolatry and blasphemy by death. " He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto Jehovah only, shall be utterly destroyed." ^ " He that blasphemeth the name of Jehovah, he shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as
^ In the First Amendment of the Constitution : " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
2 Ex. 22 ; 20; comp. Deut. 13 : 5-15 ; 17 : 2-5, etc.