166
ESSAYS ON LIBERTY
the suppression of error to be its political duty. To say, therefore, that the Protestants learnt persecution from the Catholics, is as false as to say that they used it by way of revenge. For they founded it on very different and con- tradictory grounds, and they admitted the right of the Catholics to persecute even the Protestant sects. Melanchthon taught that the sects ought to be put down by the s\vord, and that any individual who started new opinions ought to be punished with death. 1 He carefully laid down that these severities were requisite, not in consideration of the danger to the State, nor of immoral teaching, nor even of such differences as would weaken the authority or arrest the action of the ecclesias- tical organisation, but simply on account of a difference, however slight, in the theologumena of Protestantism. 2 Thamer, who held the possibility of salvation among the
1 .. Quare ita sentias. magi stratum debere uti summa severitate in coercendis hujusmodi spiritibus, . . . Sines igitur novis exemplis timorem incuti multi- tudini . . . ad haec notae tibi sint causae seditionum, quas gladio pror ÌJeri oportet. . . . Propterea sentio de his qui etiamsi non defendunt seditiosos articulos, habent manifeste blasphemos, quod interfici a magistratu debeant II . (ii. 17, 18). .. De Anabaptistis tulimus hic in genere sententiam: quia constat sectam diabolicam esse, non esse tolerandam: dissipari enim ecclesias per eos, cum ipsi nullam habeant certam doctrinam, . . . Ideo in capita factionum in singulis locis ultima supplicia constituenda esse judicavimus II (ii. 549), II It is clear that it is the duty of secular government to punish blasphemy, false doctrine, and heresy, on the bodies of those who are guilty of them, . . . Since it is evident that there are gross errors in the articles of the Anabaptist sect, we conclude that in this case the obstinate ought to be punished with death II (iii, 199). .. Propter hanc causam Deus ordinavit politias ut Evangelium propagari possit . . . nee revocamus politiam Moysi, sed lex moralis perpetua est omnium aetatum . . . quandoeumque constat doctrinam esse impiam, nihil dubium est quin sanior pars Ecclesiae debeat malos pastores removere et abolere impios eultus, Et hane emendationem praecipue adjuvare debent magistratus, tan quam potiora membra Eeclesiae II (iii, 242, 244). .. Thammerus, q"'.li
- Mahometieas seu Ethnieas opiniones spargit, vagatur in dioecesi Mindensi,
quem publicis suppliciis adficere debebant. . . . Evomuit blasphemias, qtL:'le refutandae sunt non tantum disputatione aut scriptis, sed etiam justo officio pii magistratus II (ix, 12 5, 13 1 ), 2 .. V oeo autem blasphemos qui articulos habent, qui proprie non pertinent ad civilem statum, sed continent (hwpla
ut de divinitate Christi et similes, Etsi
enim gradus quidam sunt, tamen hue etiam refero baptismum infantum, . . . Quia magistratui commissa est tutela totius legis, quod attinet ad externam disciplinam et externa facta, Quare delicta extern a contra primam tabulam prohibere ac punire debet, . . . Quare non solum concessum est, sed etiam mandatum est magistratui, impias doctrinas abolere, et tueri pi as in suis ditionibus II (ii. 7 11 ), .. Ecclesiastica potestas tantum judicat et excommunicat haereticos, non occidit. Sed potestas civilis debet constituere poenas et supplicia in haereticos, sieut in blasphemos cOIlslituit supplicia, . . . Non eni111 plectitur fides, sed haeresis II (xii, 697).
