§ 139. PROTESTANT INTOLERANCE. 701
from their benefices for non-conformity ; and the Episcopalians paid them back in the same coin when they returned to power. "The Reformers,'' says Gibbon, with sarcastic severity, "were ambitious of succeeding the tyrants whom they had dethroned. They imposed with equal rigor their creeds and confessions ; they asserted the right of the magistrate to punish heretics with death. The nature of the tiger was the same, but he was gradually deprived of his teeth and fangs." ^
Protestant persecution violates the fundamental principle of the Reformation. Protestantism has no rigfht to exist except on the basis of freedom of conscience.
How, then, can we account for this glaring inconsistency ? There is a reason for everything. Protestant persecution was necessary in self-defence and in the struggle for existence. The times were not ripe for toleration. The infant Churches could not have stood it. These Churches had first to be consolidated and fortified against surrounding foes. Universal toleration at that time would have resulted in universal confusion and upset the order of society. From anarchy to absolute despotism is but one step. The division of Protestantism into two rival camps, the Lutheran and the Reformed, weakened it ; further divisions within these camps would have ruined it and prepared an easy triumph for united Romanism, which would have become more despotic than ever before. This does not justify the principle, but it explains the practice, of intolerance.
The Reformers and the Protestant princes and magistrates were essentially agreed on this intolerant attitude, both towards the Romanists and the heretical Protestants, at least to the extent of imprisonment, deposition, and expatriation. They differed only as to the degree of
1 Decline and Fall, ch. LIV. It should be remembered, however, that the most intolerant form of intolerance is the intolerance of infidelity as manifested in the French Revolution during " the reign of terror."
702 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
severity. They all believed that the papacy is anti-Christian and the mass idolatrous ; that heresy is a sin against God and society ; that the denial of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ is the greatest of heresies, which deserves death according to the laws of the empire, and eternal punishment according to the Athanasian Creed (with its three damnatory clauses) ; and that the civil government is as much bound to protect the first as the second table of the Decalogue, and to vindicate the honor of God against blasphemy. They were anxious to show their zeal for orthodoxy by severity against heresy. They had no doubt that they themselves were orthodox according to the only true standard of orthodoxy — the Word of God in the Holy Scriptures. And as regards the dogmas of the Trinity and Incarnation, they were fully agreed with their Catholic opponents, and equally opposed to the errors of Servetus, who denied those dogmas with a boldness and contempt unknown before.
Let us ascertain the sentiments of the leading Reformers with special reference to the case of Servetus. They form a complete justification of Calvin as far as such a justification is possible.
Luther.
Luther, the hero of Worms, the champion of the sacred rights of conscience, was, in words, the most violent, but in practice, the least intolerant, among the Reformers. He was nearest to Romanism in the condemnation of heresy, but nearest to the genius of Protestantism in the advocacy of religious freedom. He was deeply rooted in medieeval piety, and yet a mighty prophet of modern times. In his earlier years, till 1529, he gave utterance to some of the noblest sentiments in favor of religious liberty. " Belief is a free thing," he said, " which cannot be enforced." " If heretics were to be punished by death, the hangman would be the most orthodox theologian." " Heresy is a spiritual thing
§ 139. PROTESTANT INTOLERANCE. 703
which no iron can hew down, no fire burn, no water drown." i '' To burn heretics is contrary to the will of the Holy Spirit." 2 " False teachers should not be put to deatli ; it is enough to banish them."-^
But with advancing years he became less liberal and more intolerant against Catholics, heretics, and Jews. lie exhorted the magistrates to forbid all preaching of Anabaptists, Avhom he denounced without discrimination as false prophets and messengers of the devil, and he urged their expulsion.* He raised no protest when the Diet of Speier, in 1529, passed the cruel decree that the Anabaptists be executed by lire and sword without distinction of sex, and
1 In his book Von weltlicher Ohriijkeit wie weit man ihr Gehorsam schuldig sei (1523), in Werke XXII. 90: " Ketzerei kann man nimmermehr mit Geivalt tcehren, es gehort ein under Griff duzu, und ist hie ein ander Streit und Handel, denn mit dem Schwert. Gottes Wort soil hie streiten ; wenn das nicht ausreicht, so wird's ivohl unausgerichtet bleiben von weltlicher Gewalt, ob sie gleich die Welt 7nit Blut fullet. Ketzerei ist ein geistlich Ding, das kann man mit keinem Eisen haiien, mit keinem Feuer verbreniien, mit keinem Wasser ertrdnken. Es ist aber allein das Wort Gottes da, das thut's, wie Paulus sagt 2 Cor. 10 : 4, 5 : ' Unsere Waffen sind nicht Jleischlich, sondern mdchtig in Gott.'"
- Conclus. LXXX. in the Besol. de Induhjentiis, 1518. This is one of the theses which tlie Sorbonne of Paris condemned in 1521.
3 His l.ast liberal utterance on the subject is in his letter to Link, 1528: " Nullo modo possum admitlerc, fulsos doctores occidi : satis est eos releqari." Briefe, III.- 347 sq. (De Wette's ed.). In the same year he wrote his book Von der Wiedertaufe an zwei Pfarrherrn (Erl. ed. vol. XXVI) in which he treats the doctrines of the Baptists without mercy, but at the same time expresses sincere regret at the cruel treatment of them, saying : " Es ist nicht recht und mir wahrlich leid, dass man solche elende Leute so jdmmerllch ermordet, verbrennet und grdulich umbringt ; man sollte ja einen jeglichen lassen glaiiben, was er wollt ; glaiibt er unrecht, so hat er genug Strafen an dem ewigen Feuer in der Hiillen. Warum will man sie denn auch noch zeitlich martern, so feme sie allein im Glauben irren und nicht auch daneben aufriihrerisch sind oder sonst der Obrigkeit widerstreben ! Lieber Gott, wie bald ist's geschehen, dass einer irre wird und dem Teufel in Stricke fdllt ? Mit der Schrift und Gottes Wort sollt man ihnen ivehren und ividerstehen, mit Feuer wird man wenig aitsrichten." I have quoted this and other passages in vol. VI. 59 sq., but could not well omit them here on account of the connection.
* Von den Srhleichern und Winkelpredigern, addressed to Eberhard von der Tannen on tlie Wartburg, 1531. Werke, XXXI. 214 sqq.