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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Chapter VII: Whether Heretical Ecclesiasticks may be blam'd for having a hand in the Trials and Condemnation of the Orthodox. - A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, 'Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full'

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Chapter VII: Whether Heretical Ecclesiasticks may be blam’d for having a hand in the Trials and Condemnation of the Orthodox. - Pierre Bayle, A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, ‘Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full’ [1686]

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A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, ‘Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full’, edited, with an Introduction by John Kilcullen and Chandran Kukathas (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005).

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


Chapter VII

Whether Heretical Ecclesiasticks may be blam’d for having a hand in the Trials and Condemnation of the Orthodox.

We have seen in the foregoing Chapter, that neither the Prince, nor Courts of Justice, are any way to blame on the score of persecuting the Orthodox; On whom then does the Blame fall? Does it fall on the Doctors and other Churchmen, who only pronounce such a Man a Heretick? But so far the Fault they are guilty of is not what we call Persecution, Murder, Crime; ’tis at most but Ignorance or Error, or the wrong qualifying an Opinion. Every Man who thinks his own Religion true, is oblig’d if requir’d, to declare it such: Now it’s the same thing to say, my Religion is true; and to say, the Religion which is opposite to mine is false. Therefore when an Assembly of the Romish Clergy, requir’d to declare what they think of the Tenets of Protestants, affirm they are Hereticks; they do no more in the main, than declare that the Church of Rome, which these directly oppose, is Orthodox. Now I wou’d fain know, whether<568> Persons, sincerely persuaded of this, can dispense with declaring, when duly cited by the Magistrate, that Protestants are Hereticks. And as they don’t precisely, by this Declaration, do any Injustice to Protestants; I mean, don’t disturb ’em in their Persons or Estates: we can’t reasonably fix the Fault on them. If the Magistrates, pursuant to this Declaration, order Fires to be kindled for burning Protestants, or condemn ’em to any other kind of Punishment; it’s only an accidental consequence of what the Doctors were in Conscience oblig’d to declare.

Is it not plain, that a Casuist who’s of Opinion, that a Woman’s forcing Abortion before her Fruit’s quick, is actual Parricide; and who declares this as his Opinion before the criminal Judges; can’t justly be charg’d with Cruelty, or reputed the Cause of their hanging a Mother convicted of a Crime of this kind, which they pronounce a Parricide? I maintain, tho he knew the Judges waited only for his Opinion to condemn this Woman, that he is oblig’d in Conscience to declare it Parricide. And for the same reason, tho the Inquisitors know, that the Judges, upon their pronouncing such a Man a Heretick, will certainly put him to Death; yet they ought not to be reputed the Authors of his Punishment; because it’s only an accidental Consequence of their Decision: inasmuch as the Law of God ordains, according to the Notions of Persecutors, that Hereticks be punish’d.

But I’l suppose further, that the same Ecclesiastical Judges, who declare such a certain Opinion Heresy, declare also, that they who obstinately maintain it are punishable; still I don’t<569> see how they can be branded with Cruelty. For on a supposition, that the Scripture makes Hereticks obnoxious to the Sword of the Magistrate; an Assembly of Ecclesiastical Hereticks errs not in forming this Decision or Canon, Hereticks are punishable by the Secular Arm, because the Position is really a reveal’d Truth. This being the Case, the conditional Proposition, If John Huss be a Heretick, he is punishable by the Secular Arm, is as true, as if it were to be met with in so many Words in Scripture; since it’s certain, that where any universal Proposition is express’d in Scripture, all the particular Propositions contain’d under it are Scripture. Implicitly and virtually, say you; however it be, they are Scripture in such a sense, as satisfys us of their Certainty, no less than if we read ’em explicitly in the sacred Text.

But what will follow, when an Assembly of Hereticks pronounces absolutely; John Huss is a Heretick, therefore he deserves to be deliver’d over to the Secular Arm to be punish’d? I answer once again, That if the Assembly act from a sincere Principle, ’twill at most be answerable only for its Persuasion of the Truth of a false Religion; and if they can get over this in the Sight of God, they’l hear no more of the matter; they may safely punish John Huss.

The reason is, that upon a supposition of St. Austin’s Doctrine, there’s an indissoluble Connexion made by the very Finger of God, between being a Heretick, and being punishable. It’s certain too, there’s an indissoluble Connexion, and which no way depends on us, between believing a thing to be true, and believing that<570> which contradicts it false. So that when you once suppose a Man persuaded firmly of the Divinity of his Religion, he must of necessity be firmly persuaded, 1. That they who impugn it are Hereticks. 2. That they are punishable. And if you remonstrate, that there’s Cruelty in their believing ’em punishable; I answer, That you can’t reasonably blame ’em, because they have found the Connexion of these two things, Heretick and Punishable, ready made to their hand and fated in Scripture; as well as the Connexion of these two, Homicide and Punishable. As therefore there is no Cruelty in declaring, that such and such deserve Death, after they have bin convicted of Murder by due Course of Law; so there is none in declaring, that they who are convicted of Heresy by the ordinary Forms and Practice of the Country, are likewise punishable.

’Twill now appear, That I have perform’d more than I at first propos’d; for I perceive, that my reasons, if good, will serve to acquit even those, who shou’d take on ’em the whole Process of Persecution, from beginning to end; a King, for example, who shou’d himself interrogate the Party accus’d of Heresy, hear his Defence, weigh and examine it, take the Advice of his Council, and in the Issue pronounce him guilty and convict of the Crime he stood accus’d of, and consequently punishable. St. Austin cou’d not reasonably have any thing more to say against a Prince, who dealt thus by the Orthodox, than that he was in an Error; for the Error once suppos’d, it is not the Arian Prince punishes the Orthodox, but the Gospel-Law.<571>

Is it not a horrible thing, that so great a Saint shou’d maintain a Doctrine, which discharges the whole Odium of the Persecutions and Sufferings of infinite numbers of the Faithful, immediately on the Divinity? For ’tis plain from this Doctrine, that nothing were blameable in a Heretick Persecutor, but his being born in a false Religion, and having receiv’d from it almost invincible Impressions by Education; things upon which he was not consulted, and for which he cannot be answerable.