[1003] Lubienecius, Hist. Beformat Polonicæ. Rees, History of Racovian Catechism. Bayle, art. Socinus. Mosheim. Dupin. Eichhorn.
28. As this is a literary, rather than an ecclesiastical history, we shall neither advert to the less learned sectaries, nor speak of controversies which had chiefly a local importance, such as those of the English Puritans with the established church. Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity will claim attention in a subsequent chapter.
Religious intolerance. 29. Thus, in the second period of the Reformation, those ominous symptoms which had appeared in its earlier stage, disunion, virulence, bigotry, intolerance, far from yielding to any benignant influence, grew more inveterate and incurable. Yet some there were, even in this century, who laid the foundations of a more charitable and rational indulgence to diversities of judgment, which the principle of the Reformation itself had in some measure sanctioned. It may be said that this tolerant spirit rose out of the ashes of Servetus. The right of civil magistrates to punish heresy with death had been already impugned by some Protestant theologians, as well as by Erasmus. Luther had declared against it; and though Zuingle, who had maintained the same principle as Luther, has been charged with having afterwards approved the drowning of some Anabaptists in the lake of Zurich, it does not appear that his language requires such an interpretation. The early Anabaptists, indeed, having been seditious and unmanageable to the greatest degree, it is not easy to show that they were put to death simply on account of their religion. But the execution of Servetus, with circumstances of so much cruelty, and with no possible pretext but the error of his opinions, brought home to the minds of serious men the importance of considering, whether a mere persuasion of the truth of our own doctrines can justify the infliction of capital punishment on those who dissent from them; and how far we can consistently reprobate the persecutions of the church of Rome, while acting so closely after her example. But it was dangerous to withstand openly the rancour of the ecclesiastics domineering in the Protestant churches, or the usual bigotry of the multitude. Melanchthon himself, tolerant by nature, and knowing enough of the spirit of persecution which disturbed his peace, was yet unfortunately led by timidity to express, in a letter to Beza, his approbation of the death of Servetus, though he admits that some saw it in a different light. Calvin, early in 1554, published a dissertation to vindicate the magistrates of Geneva in their dealings with this heretic. |Castalio.| But Sebastian Castalio, under the name of Martin Bellius, ventured to reply in a little tract, entitled “De Hereticis quomodo cum iis agendum sit variorum sententiæ.” This is a collation of different passages from the fathers and modern authors in favour of toleration, to which he prefixed a letter of his own to the Duke of Wirtemburg, more valuable than the rest of the work, and, though written in the cautious style required by the times, containing the pith of those arguments which have ultimately triumphed in almost every part of Europe. The impossibility of forcing belief, the obscurity and insignificance of many disputed questions, the sympathy which the fortitude of heretics produced, and other leading topics are well touched in this very short tract, for the preface does not exceed twenty-eight pages in 16mo.[1004]
[1004] This little book has been attributed by some to Lælius Socinus; I think Castalio more probable. Castalio entertained very different sentiments from those of Beza on some theological points, as appears by his dialogues on predestination and free-will, which are opposed to the Augustinian system then generally prevalent. He seems also to have approximated to the Sabellian theories of Servetus on the Trinity. See p. 144, edit. 1613.
Answered by Beza. 30. Beza answered Castalio, whom he perfectly knew under the mask of Bellius, in a much longer treatise, “De Hæreticis a Civili Magistratu Puniendis.” It is unnecessary to say, that his tone is that of a man who is sure of having the civil power on his side. As to capital punishments for heresy, he acknowledges that he has to contend, not only with such sceptics as Castalio, but with some pious and learned men.[1005] He justifies their infliction, however, by the magnitude of the crime, and by the Mosaic law, as well as by precedents in Jewish and Christian history. Calvin, he positively asserts, used his influence that the death of Servetus might not be by fire, for the truth of which he appeals to the Senate; but though most lenient in general, they had deemed no less expiation sufficient for such impiety.[1006]
[1005] Non modo cum nostris academicis, sed etiam cum piis alioqui et eruditis hominibus mihi negotium fore prospicio, p. 208. Bayle has an excellent remark (Beza, note F.) on this controversy.
[1006] Sed tanta erat ejus hominis rabies, tam execranda tamque horrenda impietas, ut Senatus alioqui clementissimus solis flammis expiari posse existimarit, p. 91.
Aconcio. 31. A treatise written in a similar spirit to that of Castalio, by Aconcio, one of the numerous exiles from Italy, “De Stratagematibus Satanæ, Basle, 1565,” deserves some notice in the history of opinions, because it is, perhaps, the first wherein the limitation of fundamental articles of Christianity to a small number is laid down at considerable length. He instances, among doctrines which he does not reckon fundamental, those of the real presence and of the Trinity; and, in general, such as are not either expressed in Scripture, or deducible from it by unequivocal reasoning.[1007] Aconcio inveighs against capital punishments for heresy; but his argument, like that of Castalio, is good against every minor penalty. “If the clergy,” he says, “once get the upper hand, and carry this point, that, as soon as one opens his mouth, the executioner shall be called in to cut all knots with his knife, what will become of the study of Scripture? They will think it very little worth while to trouble their heads with it; and, if I may presume to say so, will set up every fancy of their own for truth. O unhappy times! O wretched posterity! if we abandon the arms, by which alone we can subdue our adversary.” Aconcio was not improbably an Arian; this may be surmised, not only because he was an Italian Protestant, and because he seems to intimate it in some passages of his treatise, but on the authority of Strype, who mentions him as reputed to be such, while belonging to a small congregation of refugees in London.[1008] This book attracted a good deal of notice; it was translated both into French and English; and, in one language or another, went through several editions. In the next century it became of much authority with the Arminians of Holland.
[1007] The account given of this book in the Biographie Universelle is not accurate; a better will be found in Bayle.