168
ESSAYS ON LIBERTY
by denying the divinity of Christ, was open to the charge of blasphemy in a stricter sense than that in \vhich the reformers generally applied it. But this was not the case with the Catholics, They did not represent, like the sects, an element of dissolution in Protestantism, and the bulk of their doctrine was admitted by the reformers. They were not in revolt against existing authority; they required no special innovations for their protection; they demanded only that the change of religion should not be compulsory. Yet Melanchthon held that they too were to be proscribed, because their worship was idola- trous. I In doing this he adopted the principle of aggressive intolerance, which was at that time new to the Christian world; and which the Popes and Councils of the Catholic Church had condemned when the zeal of laymen had gone beyond the. lawful measure. In the Middle Ages there had been persecution far more sanguinary than any that has been inflicted by Protestants. Various motives had occasioned it aud various arguments had been used in its defence. But the principle on which the Protestants oppressed the Catholics \\Tas ne\v. The Catholics had never admitted the theory of absolute toleration, as it was defined at first by Luther, and afterwards by some of the sects. In principle, their tolerance differed frorn that of the Protestants as widely as their intolerance. '[hey had exterminated sects \vhich, like the Albigenses, threatened to overturn the fabric of Christian society. They had
blasphemias, ac filio Dei gratias ago, qui fuit ßpaßevTñr; hujus tui agonis, Tibi quoque Ecclesia et nunc et ad posteros gratitudinem debet et debebit. Tuo judicio prorsus adsentior, Affirmo etiam, vestros magistratus juste fecisse, quod hominem blasphemum, re ordine judicata, interfecerunt" (Melanchthon to CalviD. Bretschneider, viii. 362 ). .. J udico etiam Senatum GeneTensem recte fecisse, quod hominem pertinacem et non omissurum blasphemias sustulit. Ac miratus sum, esse, qui severitatem illam improbent It (viii. 523)' ., Dedit vero et Genevensis reip, magistratus ante annos quatuor punitae insanabilis blasphemiae adversus filium Dei, sublato Serveto Arragone pium et memorabile ad omnem posteritatem exemplum ,. (ix, 133)' 1 .. Abusus missae per magistratus debet tolli, Non aliter, atque sustulit aeneum serpentem Ezechias. aut excelsa demolitus est Josias It (i. 480). .. Politicis magistratibus severissime mandatum est, ut suo quisque loco manibus et armis tollant statuas, ad quas fiunt hominum concursus et invocationes. et puniant suppliciis corporum insanabiles, qui idolorum cultum pertinaciter retinent, aut blasphemias serunt It (ix, 77).
