THE PERSECUTED ONE TURNS PERSECUTOR
By J. O. C.
Calvin Flees from Persecution in France—In Geneva He Persecutes His Opponents While Still Bemoaning the French Intolerance—Sure Results of Church and State Union
THE human intellect is so constituted that, whatever it accepts as right and proper, it sets itself the task of constraining, in one way or another, all other minds to adopt the same in practise. It logically follows, therefore, that when a church creed holds the balance of power in civil government, the tenets of religious credit are made prominent in political legislation. It matters little how strenuously members of such groups may have before reasoned against legal enactments which curtailed their own freedom in religious activity, after power has come into their hands to enforce exceptionable decrees upon others whose religious views differ from their own. EACH WANTED HIS RELIGION FOR THE STATE
Reading the history of past government transitions, one is strangely impressed with the seeming inconsistencies exhibited, especially by men whose names stand high on the roll of fame. It is generally agreed that the sixteenth century Reformation developed some strong minds, as Luther, Zwingle, Melanchthon, Farel, and Calvin. But it has been as widely recognized that hardly two of these Reformers were entirely agreed regarding what were then considered cardinal points of faith. It is hardly necessary, in this study, to canvass these technical differences, which do not now seem of weighty significance. One thing, however, that all these men more nearly viewed alike was that their individual sentiments of religious duty were worthy of incorporation in the civil compact of government. NOT THE RELIGION, BUT ITS UNION WITH THE STATE
The prime reason for this was probably their early education in this direction; and inasmuch as they themselves had been victims of that system, they reasoned that by putting civil government on the basis of a purer religion than the one they had so lately repudiated, a more desirable form of government would come forth to bless the world. But the unbiased onlooker can now see that the particular form of religion was not that which wrought the mischief of the Dark Ages, but the union of religion with civil power, which gave authority to enforce the recognition and practise of religious dogmas, which wore out the lives of all whose intellects forbade cooperation. In other words, it was the intolerance of bigoted humanity, without regard to specific points of faith, that chased out dissenters, and made their existence miserable. FLEES FROM PERSECUTION TO PERSECUTE OTHERS
Take the case of that noted Reformer John Calvin, for instance. Having suffered persecution from the Catholics of France, his native country, for his dissenting religious views, he sought refuge in Geneva, Switzerland. There, receiving from William Farel charge of the spiritual concerns of that city, he in time won a place for himself at the head of the consistory, which, though the kirk session of elders, was also the assembly that made the governing rules of the city. With Calvin at the head of that body, it should not seem strange that its constant effort was mercilessly to enforce arbitrary rules for the regulation of the city's religious life and conversation, by scourging and otherwise. It naturally followed that an opposition party, known as "libertines," should irritate the soul of the Reformer, especially as he was a confirmed dyspeptic. Complaining of the treatment he received, in a letter to Bullinger, pastor of Zurich, he says, "The wicked people about me, knowing that I am irritable, my stomach troubling me often and in various ways, have lately been striving to get the better of my patience." CALVIN CONDEMNS THE FRENCH FOR WHAT HE WAS DOING
In this same letter, he mourns over the fact that in France three persons of the reform faith had just been burned for their religion, and eight others were lying in prison cells for the same cause. Yet he did not seem to see that what he condemned in the acts of the Catholic Church, he was doing for the Protestant party. In a letter to Sulzer, pastor of Basel, about the same date, he says: "If the papists approve themselves so zealous and so much in earnest for their superstitions, that they cruelly persecute and shed the blood of innocent persons, is it not disgraceful in Christian magistrates to show so little heart in defending the assured truth?" To show what was meant by this, it is only necessary to state that one Philibert Berthelier had offended Calvin by attending a ball with his wife, and it was demanded of the court that he should be punished. In the quarrel that followed, one Jerome Bolsec became involved, and it has been authoritatively stated that Calvin sought the life of this last-named opponent, but was foiled because of the high standing of the man in the community. WHILE PERSECUTING HE DISCOURSED ON CLEMENCY
One would almost suppose that Calvin must have forgotten that he had formerly edited and published, at his own expense, "Seneca on Clemency," in which occurred this sentiment: "It belongs to the nature of the merciful man that he not only uses opportunities of vengeance with moderation, but does not avail himself of even the most tempting occasions to take revenge." He was also the author of "Calvin's Institutions," in which he emphatically denounced the "right of the sword" in dealing with heresy. Yet when he became spiritual dictator of Geneva, and would brook no opposition to his own will and purpose, he seemed to forget these generous sentiments, and his own earlier aspirations after toleration. Writing to a French lady, Madame de Cany, when in the zenith of his power, he referred to some one who he thought behaved ungratefully toward both him and his correspondent, and said: "I assure you, madam, that had he not taken himself off so speedily, I should have held it my duty, in so far as it lay with me, to have him burned alive." (Quoted from "Epistles of Calvin," by Guenitz and Reuss.) This expression tells that notwithstanding the austere religious sentiments held by the Reformer, he was not above taking the life of any who provoked sufficiently his natural severity of temper. COULD NOT TOLERATE ANY BUT HIS OWN BELIEF
His dealings with Michael Servetus alone show this. Space forbids entering here the details of that case, but a mere reference to it will suffice for the end in view. Servetus was a native of Spain; but at the time under notice, he was an eminent physician of Vienne. He had previously aroused the ire of the Reformer by some letters in which he denounced infant baptism, and advocated peculiar theories about the nature of the Son of God. Though the letters were highly Christian in sentiment, and conformed to Calvin's expressed views regarding the papal system of religion, the Reformer was highly incensed, and wrote to Farel that if Servetus should come to Geneva with his doctrines while Calvin had authority there, he would not suffer him to go away alive. (From the original letter in the Paris library.)235Referring to this letter, the celebrated Hugo Grotius is said to have remarked quite truthfully that "it shows that antichrist has not appeared by Tiber only, but by Lake Leman also." In view of the treacherous course taken by Calvin to compass the death of Servetus, one can hardly deny the affirmation of the eminent lawyer. HELPED HIS OWN PERSECUTORS TO CATCH SERVETUS
Working through a young man named Trie, the now celebrated Reformer furnished the zealots of the church he had himself denounced and abandoned, and the organization which regarded him as a rank heretic, with the evidence by which he believed they would certainly bring Servetus to the stake. The hated one was therefore arrested in Vienne, notwithstanding his rank as a successful physician of twelve years' continuance, and was imprisoned. By reason of his place in society, he was permitted to escape, and found his way to Geneva, where he was ferreted out and brought to his death by Calvin, the passionate chief of the Genevan council. The history of these proceedings reveals that one's profession of religious integrity does not insure Christian treatment to others when he has the power of civil authority back of his decrees. A social polity that recognizes the civil rights of all religions as being equal under the law, and requires none to adhere to any specific dogma, is the only safe system of government among humans.