792 THE FvEPOEMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
piory is to be asserted, humanity must be almost obliterated from our memories ? "
Calvin's plea for the right and duty of the Christian magistrate to punish heresy by death, stands or falls with his theocratic theory and the binding authority of the Mosaic code. His arguments are chiefly drawn from the Jewish laws against idolatry and blasphemy, and from the examples of the pious kings of Israel. But his arguments from the New Testament are failures. He agrees with Augustin in the interpretation of the parabolic words : " Constrain them to come in" (Luke 14 : 23).^ But this can only refer to moral and not to physical force, and would imply a forcible salvation, not destruction. The same parable was afterwards abused by the French bishops to justify the abominable dragoonades of Louis XIV. against the Huguenots. Calvin quotes the passages on the duty of the civil magistrate to use the sword against evil-doers (Rom. 13 : 4) ; the expulsion of the profane traffickers from the temple (Matt. 21 : 12) ; the judgment on Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5 : 1 sqq.) ; the striking of Elymas with blindness (13: 11); and the delivery of Hymenseus and Alexander to Satan (1 Tim. 1 : 20). He ansAvers the objections from the parables of the tares and of the net (Matt. 13 : 30, 49), and from the wise counsel of Gamaliel (Acts 5:34). But he cannot get over those passages which contradict his theory, as Christ's rebuke to John and James for wishing to call down fire from heaven (Luke 9 : 54), and to Peter for drawing the sword (Matt. 26 : 52), his declaration that his kingdom is not of this world (John 18 : 36), and his whole spirit and aim, which is to save and not to destroy.
1 In his commentary on that passage {Harm. Evaiig., Pars. II. 43, Tholuck's edition), Calvin says: " Non improbo, quod Augustinus hoc testimonio saepius contra Donatistas usus est, tit proharet, piorum principum edictis ad veri Dei cultum et Jidei unitatem licite cogi prcefractos et rebelles : quia, etsi voluntaria est fides, videmus tamen, iis mediis utiliter domari eorum pervicaciam, qui non nisi coacti parent."
§ 157. CALVIN'S DEFENCE OF THE PENALTY. 793
In his juvenile work on Seneca and in earlier editions of his Institutes, Calvin had expressed noble sentiments on toleration;! even as Augustin did in his writings against the Manichseans, among Avhom he himself had lived for nine years; but both changed their views for the worse in their zeal for orthodoxy.
Calvin's " Defence " did not altogether satisfy even some of his best friends. Zurkinden, the State Secretary of Bern, wrote him Feb. 10, 1554: "I wish the former part of your book, respecting the right which the magistrates may have to use the sword in coercing heretics, had not appeared in your name, but in that of your council, which might have been left to defend its own act. I do not see how you can find any favor with men of sedate mind in being the first formally to treat this subject, which is a hateful one to almost all." ^ BuUinger intimated his objections more mildly in a letter of March 26, 1554, in which he says: "I only fear that your book will not be so acceptable to many of the more simple-minded j)ersons, who, nevertheless, are attached both to yourself and to the truth, by reason of its brevity and consequent obscurity, and the weightiness of the subject. And, indeed, your style appears somewhat perplexed, especially in this work." Calvin wrote in reply, April 29, 1554 : " I am aware that I have been more concise than usual in this treatise. However, if I should appear to have faithfully and honestly defended the true doctrine, it will more than recompense me for my trouble. But though the candor and justice which are natural to you, as well as your love towards me, lead you to judge of me favorably, there are others who assail me harshly as a master in cruelty and atrocity, for attacking with my pen not only a
1 See Henry, II. 121-124 ; III. 224.
' " Ego non video gratiam aliquam te inire posse apud sedati animi homines, quod primus omnium ex professo fere hoc argumentum tractandum susceperis, omnibus ferme invisttm." Bibl. Gen. cod. 114. Treclisel, I. 2f)9; Opem, XV. 22.