Chapter VIII: Part 8

[Footnote 94: Cosmo to Camaiani, Oct. 6, 1570 (Cantu, _Gli Eretici d'Italia_, iii. 15); Cosmo to Charles IX., Sept. 4, 1572 (Gachard, _Rapport sur les Archives de Lille_, 199).]

[Footnote 95: Grappin, _Memoire Historique sur le Card. de Granvelle_, 73.]

[Footnote 96: Bardi, _Eta del Mondo_, 1581, iv. 2011; Campana, _Historie del Mondo_, 1599, i. 145; B.D. da Fano, _Aggiunte all' Historie di Mambrino Roseo_, 1583, v. 252; Pellini, _Storia di Perugia_, vol. iii. MS.]

[Footnote 97: Si e degnato di prestare alli suoi divoti il suo taglientissimo coltello in cosi salutifero sacrificio (Letter of Aug. 26; Alberi, _Vita di Caterina de' Medici_, 401).]

[Footnote 98: Labitte, _Democratie chez les Predicateurs de la Ligue_, 10.]

[Footnote 99: Natalis Comes, _Historiae sui temporis_, 512.]

[Footnote 100: Capefigue, iii. 150.]

[Footnote 101: Pourront-ils arguer de trahison le feu roy, qu'ils blasphement luy donnant le nom de tyran, veu qu'il n'a rien entrepris et execute que ce qu'il pouvoit faire par l'expresse parole de Dieu ... Dieu commande qu'on ne pardonne en facon que ce soit aux inventeurs ou sectateurs de nouvelles opinions ou heresies.... Ce que vous estimez cruaute estre plutot vraye magnanimite et doulceur (Sorbin, _Le Vray resveille-matin des Calvinistes_, 1576, pp. 72, 74, 78).]

[Footnote 102: Il commanda a chacun de se retirer au cabinet et a moy de m'asseoir au chevet de son lict, tant pour ouyr sa confession, et luy donner ministerialement absolution de ses pechez, que aussi pour le consoler durant et apres la messe (Sorbin, _Vie de Charles IX.; Archives Curieuses_, viii. 287). Est tres certain que le plus grand regret qu'il avoit a l'heure de sa mort estoit de ce qu'il voyoit l'idole Calvinesque n'estre encores du tout chassee (_Vray resveille-matin_, 88).]

[Footnote 103: The charge against the clergy of Bordeaux is brought by D'Aubigne (_Histoire Universelle_, ii. 27) and by De Thou. De Thou was very hostile to the Jesuits, and his language is not positive. D'Aubigne was a furious bigot. The truth of the charge would not be proved, without the letters of the President L'Agebaston and of the Lieutenant Montpezat: "Quelques prescheurs se sont par leurs sermons (ainsi que dernierement j'ai escript plus amplement a votre majeste) estudie de tout leur pouvoir de troubler ciel et terre, et conciter le peuple a sedition, et en ce faisant a passer par le fil de l'espee tous ceulx de la pretendue religion reformee.... Apres avoir des le premier et deuxieme de ceste mois fait courrir un bruit sourd que vous, Sire, aviez envoye nom par nom un rolle signe de votre propre main au Sieur de Montferaud, pour par voie de fait et sans aultre forme de justice, mettre a mort quarante des principaulx de cette ville...." (L'Agebaston to Charles IX., Oct. 7, 1572; Mackintosh, iii. 352). "J'ai trouve que messieurs de la cour de parlement avoyent arreste que Monsieur Edmond, prescheur, seroit appelle en ladicte court pour luy faire des remonstrances sur quelque langaige qu'il tenoit en ses sermons, tendant a sedition, a ce qu'ils disoyent. Ce que j'ay bien voullu empescher, craignant que s'il y eust este appelle cella eust anime plusieurs des habitants et estre cause de quelque emotion, ce que j'eusse voluntiers souffert quant j'eusse panse qu'il n'y en eust qu'une vingtaine de despeches" (Montpezat to Charles IX., Sept. 30., 1572; _Archives de la Gironde_, viii. 337).]

[Footnote 104: _Annal. Baronii Contin._ ii. 734; Bossuet says: "La dispense vint telle qu'on la pouvoit desirer" (_Histoire de France_, p. 820).]

[Footnote 105: Ormegregny, _Reflexions sur la Politique de France_, p. 121.]

[Footnote 106: De Thou, iv. 537.]

[Footnote 107: Charriere, iii. 154.]

[Footnote 108: _Carmina Ill. Poetarum Italorum_, iii. 212, 216.]

[Footnote 109: Tiepolo, Desp. Aug. 6, 1575; Mutinelli, _Storia Arcana_, i. 111.]

[Footnote 110: Parendomi, che sia cosa, la quale possa apportar piacere, e utile al mondo, si per la qualita del soggetto istesso, come anco per l'eleganza, e bello ordine con che viene cosi leggiadramente descritto questo nobile, e glorioso fatto ... a fine che una cosi egregia attione non resti defraudata dell' honor, che merita (The editor, Gianfrancesco Ferrari, to the reader).]

[Footnote 111: Huc accedit, Oratorem Sermi Regis Galliae, et impulsu inimicorum saepedicti Domini Cardinalis, et quia summopere illi displicuit, quod superioribus mensibus Illma Sua Dominatio operam dedisset, hoc sibi mandari, ut omnia Regis negotia secum communicaret, nullam praetermisisse occasionem ubi ei potuit adversari (Cardinal Delfino to the Emperor, Rome, Nov. 29, 1572; Vienna Archives).]

[Footnote 112: Fa ogni favor et gratia gli addimanda il Cardinale di Lorena, il consiglio del quale usa in tutte le piu importanti negotiationi l' occorre di haver a trattar (Cusano to the Emperor, Rome, Sept. 27, 1572).--Conscia igitur Sua Dominatio Illma quorundam arcanorum Regni Galliae, creato Pontifice sibi in Concilio Tridentino cognito et amico, statuit huc se recipere, ut privatis suis rebus consuleret, et quia tunc foederati contra Thurcam, propter suspicionem Regi Catholico injectam de Orangio, et Gallis, non admodum videbantur concordes, et non multo post advenit nuncius mortis Domini de Colligni, et illius asseclarum; Pontifex justa de causa existimavit dictum Illmum Cardinalem favore et gratia sua merito esse complectendum. Evenit postmodum, ut ad Serenissimam Reginam Galliarum deferretur, bonum hunc Dominum jactasse se, quod particeps fuerit consiliorum contra dictum Colligni; id quod illa Serenissima Domina iniquo animo tulit, quae neminem gloriae socium vult habere; sibi enim totam vendicat, quod sola talis facinoris auctor, et Dux extiterit. Idcirco commorationem ipsius Lotharingiae in hac aula improbare, ac reprehendere aggressa est. Haec cum ille Illustrissimus Cardinalis perceperit, oblata sibi occasione utens, exoravit a Sua Sanctitate gratuitam expeditionem quatuor millia scutorum reditus pro suo Nepote, et 20 millia pro filio praeter sollicitationem, quam prae se fert, ut dictus Nepos in Cardinalium numerum cooptetur.... Cum itaque his de causis authoritas hujus Domini in Gallia imminuta videatur, ipseque praevideat, quanto in Gallia minoris aestimabitur, tanto minori etiam loco hic se habitum id, statuit optimo judicio, ac pro eo quod suae existimacioni magis conducit, in Galliam reverti (Delfino, _ut supra_, both in the Vienna Archives).]

[Footnote 113: _Intiera Relatione della Morte dell' Ammiraglio._]

[Footnote 114: _Ragguaglio degli ordini et modi tenuti dalla Majesta Christianissima nella distruttione della setta degli Ugonotti Con la morte dell' Ammiraglio_, etc.]

[Footnote 115: Bib. Imp. F. Fr. 16, 139.]

[Footnote 116: Maffei, _Annali di Gregorio XIII._, i. 34.]

[Footnote 117: La nouvelle qui arriva le deuxieme jour du present par ung courrier qui estoit depesche secretememt de Lyon par ung nomme Danes, secretaire de M. de Mandelot ... a ung commandeur de Sainct Anthoine, nomme Mr. de Gou, il luy manda qu'il allast advertir le Pape, pour en avoir quelque presant ou bienfaict, de la mort de tous les chefs de ceulx de la religion pretendue refformee, et de tous les Huguenotz de France, et que V.M. avoit mande et commande a tous les gouverneurs de se saisir de tous iceulx huguenotz en leurs gouvernemens; ceste nouvelle, Sire, apporta si grand contentement a S.S., que sans ce que je luy remonstray lors me trouvant sur le lieu, en presence de Monseigneur le C1 de Lorraine, qu'elle devoit attendre ce que V.M. m'en manderoit et ce que son nonce luy en escriroit, elle en vouloit incontinent faire des feux de joye.... Et pour ce que je ne voulois faire ledict feu de joye la premiere nuict que ledit courrier envoye par ledict Danes feust arrive, ny en recevoir les congratulations que l'on m'en envoyoit faire, que premierement je n'eusse eu nouvelles de V.M. pour scavoir et sa voulante et comme je m'avoys a conduire, aucuns commencoient desja de m'en regarder de maulvais oeills (Ferralz to Charles IX., Rome, Sept. 11, 1572; Bib. Imp. F. Fr. 16,040). Al corriero che porto tal nuova Nostro Signore diede 100 Scudi oltre li 200 che hebbe dall' Illustrissimo Lorena, che con grandissima allegrezza se n'ando subito a dar tal nuova per allegrarsene con Sua Santita (Letter from Rome to the Emperor, Sept. 6, 1572; Vienna Archives).]

[Footnote 118: Charles IX. to Ferralz, Aug. 24, 1572; Mackintosh, iii. 348.]

[Footnote 119: Elle fust merveilheusement ayse d'entendre le discours que mondit neueu de Beauville luy en feist. Lequel, apres luy avoir conte le susdit affayre, supplia sadicte Sainctete, suyvant la charge expresse qu'il avoit de V.M. de vouloir conceder, pour le fruict de ceste allegresse, la dispense du mariage du roy et royne de Navarre, datee de quelques jours avant que les nopces en feussent faictes, ensemble l'absolution pour Messeigneurs les Cardinaux de Bourbon et de Ramboilhet, et pour tous les aultres evesques et prelatz qui y avoient assiste.... Il nous feit pour fin response qu'il y adviseroit (Ferralz, _ut supra_).]

[Footnote 120: Pensasi che per tutte le citta di Francia debba seguire il simile, subitoche arrivi la nuova dell' esecutione di Parigi.... A N.S. mi faccia gratia di basciar i piedi in nome mio, col quale mi rallegro con le viscere del cuore che sia piaciuto alla Dio. Mta. d' incaminar nel principio del suo pontificato si felicemente e honoratamente le cose di questo regno, havendo talmente havuto in protettione il Re e Regina Madre che hanno saputo e potuto sbarrare queste pestifere radici con tanta prudenza, in tempo tanto opportuno, che tutti lor ribelli erano sotto chiave in gabbia (Salviati, Desp. Aug. 24; Theiner, i. 329; Mackintosh, iii. 355).]

[Footnote 121: Sexta Septembris, mane, in Senatu Pontificis et Cardinalium lectae sunt literae a legato Pontificio e Gallia scriptae, admiralium et Huguenotos, destinata Regis voluntate atque consensu, trucidatos esse. Ea re in eodem Senatu decretum esse, ut inde recta Pontifex cum Cardinalibus in aedem D. Marci concederet, Deoque Opt. Max. pro tanto beneficio Sedi Romanae orbique Christiano collato gratias solemni more ageret (_Scriptum Roma missum_ in Capilupi, 1574, p. 84). Quia Die 2a praedicti mensis Septembris Smus D.N. certior factus fuerat Colignium Franciae Ammiralium a populo Parisien occisum fuisse et cum eo multos ex Ducibus et primoribus Ugonotarum haereticorum eius sequacibus Rege ipso Franciae approbante, ex quo spes erat tranquillitatem in dicto Regno redituram expulsis haereticis, idcirco Stas Sua expleto concistorio descendit ad ecclesiam Sancti Marci, praecedente cruce et sequentibus Cardinalibus et genuflexus ante altare maius, ubi positum fuerat sanctissimum Sacramentum, oravit gratias Deo agens, et inchoavit cantando hymnum Te Deum (_Fr. Mucantii Diaria_, B.M. Add. MSS. 26,811).]

[Footnote 122: Apres quelques autres discours qu'il me feist sur le contentement que luy et le college des Cardinaux avoient receu de ladicte execution faicte et des nouvelles qui journellement arrivoient en ceste court de semblables executions que l'on a faicte et font encore en plusieurs villes de vostre royaume, qui, a dire la verite, sont les nouvelles les plus agreables que je pense qu'on eust sceu apporter en ceste ville, sadicte Sainctete pour fin me commanda de vous escrire que cest evenement luy a este cent fois plus agreable que cinquante victoires semblables a celle que ceulx de la ligue obtindrent l'annee passee contre le Turcq, ne voulant oublier vous dire, Sire, les commandemens estroictz qu'il nous feist a tous, mesmement aux francois d'en faire feu de joye, et qui ne l'eust faict eust mal senty de la foy (Ferralz, _ut supra_).]

[Footnote 123: Tutta Roma sta in allegria di tal fatto et fra i piu grandi si dice, che 'l Re di Francia ha insegnato alli Principi christiani ch' hanno de simili vassalli ne stati loro a liberarsene, et dicono che vostra Maesta Cesara dovrebbe castigare il conte Palatino tanto nemico della Serenissima casa d' Austria, et della Religione cattolica, come l'anni passati fece contra il Duca di Sassonia tiene tuttavia prigione, che a un tempo vendicarebbe le tante ingiurie ha fatto detto Palatino alla Chiesa di Dio, et poveri Christiani, et alla Maesta Vostra et sua Casa Serenissima sprezzando li suoi editti et commandamenti, et privarlo dell' elettione dell'Imperio et darlo al Duca di Baviera (Cusano to the Emperor, Rome, Sept. 6, 1572; Vienna Archives).]

[Footnote 124: The Bull, as published in Paris, is printed by Strype (_Life of Parker_, iii. 197). La prima occasione che a cio lo mosse fu per lo stratagemma fatto da Carlo Nono Christianissimo Re di Francia contra Coligno Ammiraglio, capo d' Ugonotti, et suoi seguaci, tagliati a pezzi in Parigi (Ciappi, _Vita di Gregorio XIII._, 1596, p. 63).]

[Footnote 125: Vasari to Borghini, Oct. 5, 1572; March 5, 1573; to Francesco Medici, Nov. 17, 1572; Gaye, _Carteggio d' Artisti_, iii. 328, 366, 341.]

[Footnote 126: Indubitatamente non si osservara interamente, havendomi in questo modo, punto che torno dall' audienza promesso il Re, imponendomi di darne conto in suo nome a Nostro Signore, di volere in breve tempo liberare il Regno dalli Ugonotti.... Mi ha parlato della dispensa, escusandosi non haver fatto il Parentado per ultro, che per liberarsi da suoi inimici (Salviati, Desp. Sept. 3, Sept. 2, Oct. 11, 1572).]

[Footnote 127: Si vede che l' editto non essendo osservato ne da popoli, ne dal principe, non e per pigliar piede (Salviati, Desp. Sept. 4). Qual Regina in progresso di tempo intende pur non solo di revocare tal editto, ma per mezzo della giustitia di restituir la fede cattolica nell' antica osservanza, parendogli che nessuno ne debba dubitare adesso, che hanno fatto morire l' ammiraglio con tanti altri huomini di valore, conforme ai raggionamenti altre volte havuti con esso meco essendo a Bles, et trattando del parentado di Navarra, et dell' altre cose che correvano in quei tempi, il che essendo vero, ne posso rendere testimonianza, e a Nostro Signore e a tutto il mondo (Aug. 27; Theiner, i. 329, 330).]

[Footnote 128: Desp. Sept. 2, 1572.]

[Footnote 129: The reply of Boccapaduli is printed in French, with the translation of the oration of Muretus, Paris, 1573.]

[Footnote 130: Trovera le cose cosi ben disposte, che durara poca fattica in ottener quel tanto si desidera per Sua Beatitudine, anzi havera piu presto da ringratiar quella Maesta Christianissima di cosi buona et sant' opera, ha fatto far, che da durare molta fatica in persuaderli l' unione con la Santa Chiesa Romana (Cusano to the Emperor, Rome, Sept. 6). Sereno (_Comment. della guerra di Cipro_, p. 329) understands the mission in the same light.]

[Footnote 131: Omnes mulas ascendentes cappis et galeris pontificalibus induti associarunt Rmum D. Cardinalem Ursinum Legatum usque ad portam Flaminiam et extra eam ubi factis multis reverentiis eum ibi reliquerunt, juxta ritum antiquum in ceremoniali libro descriptum qui longo tempore intermissus fuerat, ita Pontifice iubente in Concistorio hodierno (_Mucantii Diaria_). Ista associatio fuit determinata in Concistorio vocatis X. Cardinalibus et ex improviso exequuti fuimus (_C. Firmani Diaria_, B.M. Add. MSS. 8448).]

[Footnote 132: Mette in consideratione alla Santita Sua che havendo deputato un Legato apostolico su la morte dell' ammiraglio, et altri capi Ugonotti, ha fatti ammazzare a Parigi, saria per metterla in molto sospetto et diffidenza delli Principi Protestanti, et della Regina d' Inghilterra, ch' ella fosse d' accordo con la sede Apostolica, et Principi Cattolici per farli guerra, i quali cerca d' acquettar con accertarli tutti, che non ha fatto ammazzar l' ammiraglio et suoi seguaci per conto della Religione (Cusano to the Emperor, Sept. 27).]

[Footnote 133: Salviati, Desp. Sept. 22, 1572.]

[Footnote 134: Charles IX. to S. Goard, Oct. 5, 1572; Charriere, iii. 330. Ne poteva esser bastante segno l' haver egli doppo la morte dell' Ammiraglio fatto un editto, che in tutti i luoghi del suo regno fossero posti a fil di spada quanti heretici vi si trovassero, onde in pochi giorni n' erano stati ammazzati settanta milla e d' avantaggio (Cicarelli, _Vita di Gregori XIII._; Platina, _Vite de' Pontefici_, 1715, 592).]

[Footnote 135: Il tengono quasiche in filo et il necessitano a far cose contra la sua natura e la sua volonta perche S. Sta e sempre stato di natura piacevole e dolce (_Relatione di Gregorio XIII._; Ranke, _Paepste_, App. 80). Faict Cardinal par le pape Pie IV., le 12e de Mars 1559, lequel en le creant, dit qu'il n'avoit cree un cardinal ains un pape (Ferralz to Charles IX., May 14, 1572).]

[Footnote 136: Smus Dominus Noster dixit nullam concordiam vel pacem debere nec posse esse inter nos et hereticos, et cum eis nullum foedus ineundum et habendum ... verissimum est deteriores esse haereticos gentilibus, eo quod sunt adeo perversi et obstinati, ut propemodum infideles sint (_Acta Concistoralia_, June 18, 1571; Bib. Imp. F. Lat. 12, 561).]

[Footnote 137: Ogni giorno faceva impiccare e squartare ora uno, ora un altro (Cantu, ii. 410).]

[Footnote 138: _Legazioni di Serristori_, 436, 443.]

[Footnote 139: Elle desire infiniment que vostre Majeste face quelque ressentement plus qu'elle n'a faict jusques a ceste heure contre ceux qui lui font la guerre, comme de raser quelques-unes de leurs principales maisons pour une perpetuelle memoyre (Rambouillet to Charles IX., Rome, Jan. 17, 1569; Bib. Imp. F. Fr. 17,989).]

[Footnote 140: Pius V. to Catherine, April 13, 1569.]

[Footnote 141: Pius V. to Charles IX., March 28, 1569.]

[Footnote 142: Sa Sainctete m'a dict que j'escrive a vostre majeste que icelle se souvienne qu'elle combat pour la querelle de Dieu, et que ceste a elle de faire ses vengeances (Rambouillet to Charles IX., Rome, March 14, 1569; Bib. Imp. F. Fr. 16,039). Nihil est enim ea pietate misericordiaque crudelius, quae in impios et ultima supplicia meritos confertur (Pius V. to Charles IX., Oct. 20, 1569).]

[Footnote 143: _Correspondance de Philippe II._, ii. 185.]

[Footnote 144: Inspirato piu d' un anno fa di esporre la vita al martirio col procurare la liberatione della religione, et delle patria per mezzo della morte del tiranno, et assicurato da Theologi che il fatto saria stato meritorio, non ne haveva con tutto cio mai potuto ottenere da superiori suoi la licenza o dispensa.... Io quantunque mi sia parso di trovarlo pieno di tale humilta, prudenza, spirito et core che arguiscono che questa sia inspiratione veramente piuttosto che temerita o legerezza, non cognoscendo tuttavia di potergliela concedere l' ho persuaso a tornarsene nel suo covento raccommandarsi a Dio et attendere all' obbedienza delli suoi superiori finche io attendessi dallo assenso o ripulsa del Papa che haverei interpellato per la sua santa beneditione, se questo spirito sia veramente da Dio donde si potra conjetturare che sia venendo approvato da Sua Sta, e percio sara piu sicuro da essere eseguito.... Resta hora che V.S. Illma mi favorisca di communicare a S.B. il caso, et scrivermene come la supplico quanto prima per duplicate et triplicate lettere la sua santa determinatione assicurandosi che per quanto sara in me il negotio sara trattato con la debita circumspetione (Sega, Desp. Paris, Jan. 23, 1591; deciphered in Rome, March 26).]

[Footnote 145: Ferralz to Charles IX., Nov. 18, Dec. 23, 1572.]

[Footnote 146: De Castro, _De Justa Haeret. Punitione_, 1547, p. 119. Iure Divino obligantur eos extirpare, si absque maiori incommodo possint (Lancelottus, _Haereticum quare per Catholicum quia_, 1615, p. 579). Ubi quid indulgendum sit, ratio semper exacta habeatur, an Religioni Ecclesiae, et Reipublicae quid vice mutua accedat quod majoris sit momenti, et plus prodesse possit (Pamelius, _De Relig. diversis non admittendis_, 1589, p. 159). Contagium istud sic grassatum est, ut corrupta massa non ferat antiquissimas leges, severitasque tantisper remittenda sit (Possevinus, _Animadv. in Thuanum_; Zachariae, _Iter Litterarium_, p. 321).]

[Footnote 147: Principi saeculari nulla ratione permissum est, haereticis licentiam tribuere haereses suas docendi, atque adeo contractus ille iniustus.... Si quid Princeps saecularis attentet in praeiudicium Ecclesiasticae potestatis, aut contra eam aliquid statuat et paciscatur, pactum illud nullum futurum (R. Sweertii, _De Fide Haereticis servanda_, 1611, p. 36).]

[Footnote 148: Ad poenam quoque pertinet et odium haereticorum quod fides illis data servanda non sit (Simancha, _Inst. Cath._ pp. 46, 52).]

[Footnote 149: Si nolint converti, expedit eos citius tollere e medio, ne gravius postea damnentur, unde non militat contra mansuetudinem christianam, occidere Haereticos, quin potius est opus maximae misericordiae (Lancelottus, p. 579).]

[Footnote 150: De Rozoy, _Annales de Toulouse_, iii. 65.]

[Footnote 151: Alva to Philip, June 5, 1565; _Pap. de Granvelle_, ix. 288; _Comment. de Monluc_, iii. 425.]

[Footnote 152: Charles IX. to Mondoucet, Aug. 31, 1572; _Compte Rendu_, iv, 349.]

[Footnote 153: _Bulletins de Bruxelles_, xvi. 256.]

[Footnote 154: Granvelle to Morillon, Sept. 11, 1572; Michelet, p. 475.]

[Footnote 155: Floquet, iii. 137.]

[Footnote 156: Walsingham to Smith, Nov. 1, 1572; Digges, p. 279. Ita enim statutum ab illis fuit die 27 Octobris (Beza, Dec. 3, 1572; _Ill. vir. Epp. Sel._ 621). La Mothe, v. 164; Faustino Tasso, _Historie de nostri tempi_, 1583, p. 343.]

[Footnote 157: _Discorso di Monsignor Terracina a Gregorio XIII.; Thesauri Politici Contin._ 1618, pp. 73-76.]

[Footnote 158: Infin che ne vivera grande, o picciolo di loro, mai non le mancheranno insidie (_Lettere del Muzio_, 1590, p. 232).]

[Footnote 159: Coupez, tronquez, cisaillez, ne pardonnez a parens ny amis, princes et subiets, ny a quelque personne de quelque condition qu'ils soient (D'Orleans, _Premier advertissement des Catholiques Anglois aux Francois Catholiques_, 1590, p. 13). The notion that Charles had displayed an extreme benignity recurs in many books: "Nostre Prince a surpasse tout mesure de clemence" (Le Frere de Laval _Histoire des Troubles_, 1576, p. 527).]

[Footnote 160: Serranus, _Comment._ iv. 51.]

[Footnote 161: Bouges, _Histoire de Carcassonne_, p. 343.]

[Footnote 162: _Sommaire de la Felonie commise a Lyon._ A contemporary tract reprinted by Gonon, 1848, p. 221.]

[Footnote 163: On this point Smith may be trusted rather than Parker (_Correspondence_, p. 399).]

[Footnote 164: _Bulletins de Bruxelles_, xvi. 249.]

[Footnote 165: Qui e venuto quello che dette l' archibusata all' ammiraglio di Francia, et e stato condotto dal Cardinal di Lorena et dall' Ambasciator di Francia, al papa. A molti non e piaciuto che costui sia venuto in Roma (Prospero Count Arco to the Emperor, Rome, Nov. 15, 1572; Vienna Archives).]

[Footnote 166: Zuniga to Philip, March 4, 1573; _Arch. de l'Empire_, K. 1531, B. 35, 70. Zuniga heard it from Lorraine.]

[Footnote 167: Et est toute la dispute encores sur les derniers evenemens de la France, contre lesquels l'Electeur est beaucoup plus aigre qu'il n'estoyt a mon aultre voyage, depuys qu'il a este en l'escole a Vienne (Schomberg to Brulart, May 12, 1573; Groen, iv. App. 76).]

[Footnote 168: Sattler, _Geschichte von Wuertemberg_, v. 23.]

[Footnote 169: Audio quosdam etiam nostralium theologorum cruentam istam nuptiarum feralium celebrationem pertinaciae Gallorum in semel recepta de sacramentalibus mysteriis sententia acceptam referre et praeter illos pati neminem somniare (Steinberger to Crato, Nov. 23, 1572; Gillet, _Craio von Crafftheim_, ii. 519).]

[Footnote 170: Heppe, _Geschichte des deutschen Protestantismus_, iv. 37, 47, 49.]

[Footnote 171: Hachfeld, _Martin Chemnitz_, p. 137.]

[Footnote 172: Sunt tamen qui hoc factum et excusare et defendere tentant (Bullinger to Hotoman, Oct. 11, 1572; Hotoman, _Epis._ 35).]

[Footnote 173: Nec dubium est melius cum ipsis actum fuisse, si quemadmodum a principio instituerant, cum disciplinam ecclesiasticam inroduxere, viros modestos et piae veraeque reformationis cupidos tantum in suos coetus admisissent, reiectis petulantibus et fervidis ingeniis, quae eos in diros tumultus, et inextricabilia mala coniecerunt (Dinothus, _De Bello Civili_, 1582, p. 243).]

[Footnote 174: Beza to Tilius, July 5, 1572; _Ill. vir. Epp. Sel._ 607.]

[Footnote 175: Quoties autem ego haec ipse praedixi! quoties praemonui! Sed sic Deo visum est, iustissimis de causis irato, et tamen servatori (Beza to Tilius, Sept. 10, 1572, 614). Nihil istorum non iustissimo iudicio accidere necesse est fateri, qui Galliarum statum norunt (Beza to Crato, Aug. 26. 1573; Gillet, ii. 521).]

[Footnote 176: Ut mihi quidem magis absurde facere videantur quam si sacrilegas parricidas puniendos negarent, quum sint istis omnibus haeretici infinitis partibus deteriores.... In nullos unquam homines severius quam in haereticos, blasphemos et impios debet animadvertere (_De Haereticis puniendis_, Tract. Theol. i. 143, 152).]

[Footnote 177: _Epist. Theolog._ 1575, p. 338.]

[Footnote 178: Beza to Wittgenstein, Pentecost, 1583; Friedlaender, 143.]

[Footnote 179: Lobo de Silveis to De Thou, July 7, 1616; _Histoire_, xv. 371; J.B. Gallus, _Ibid._ p. 435.]

[Footnote 180: Le Cardinal Barberini, que je tiens pour Serviteur du Roy, a parle franchement sur ceste affaire, et m'a dit qu'il croyoit presqu'impossible qu'il se trouve jamais remede, si vous ne la voulez recommencer; disant que depuis le commencement jusqu'a la fin vous vous estes monstre du tout passionne contre ce qui est de l'honneur et de la grandeur de l'Eglise, qu'il se trouvera dans vostre histoire que vous ne parlez jamais des Catholiques qu'avec du mepris et de la louange de ceux de la religion; que mesme vous avez blasme ce que feu Monsieur le president de Thou vostre pere avoit approuve, qui est la S. Barthelemy (De Breves to De Thou, Rome, Feb. 18, 1610; Bib. Imp. F. Dupuy, 812).]

[Footnote 181: Crudelitatisne tu esse ac non clementiae potius, pietatisque putas? (_Resp. ad Ep. Casauboni_, 1612, p. 118).]

[Footnote 182: Quae res uti Catholicae Religioni sublevandae opportuna, ita maxime jucunda Gregorio accidit (_Hist. Pontif. Gregori XIII._, p. 30).]

[Footnote 183: _Histoire d'Orleans_, pp. 421, 424.]

[Footnote 184: Germain to Bretagne, Rome, Dec. 24, 1685; Valery, _Corresp. de Mabillon_, i. 192.]

[Footnote 185: Du Molinet, _Hist. S. Pont. per Numismata_, 1679, 93; Buorranni, _Numismata Pontificum_, i. 336.]

[Footnote 186: _Annali d'Italia_ ad ann. 1572.]

[Footnote 187: Si huviera respirado mas tiempo, huviera dado a entender al mundo, que avia Rey en la Francia, y Dios en Israel (_Vida de S. Francisco De Borja_, 446).]

[Footnote 188: _Vita di Sisto V._, i. 119.]

[Footnote 189: Quo demum res evaderent, si Regibus non esset integrum, in rebelles, subditos, quietisque publicae turbatores animadvertere? (_Apparatus Eruditionis_, vii. 503; Piatti, _Storia de' Pontefici XI._, p. 271).]

[Footnote 190: Per le notizie che ricevette della cessata strage (Moroni, _Dizionario di Erudizione Ecclesiastica_, xxxii. 298).]

[Footnote 191: [1868.]]

[Footnote 192: _Kirchengeschichte_, iii. 211.]

V

THE PROTESTANT THEORY OF PERSECUTION[193]

The manner in which Religion influences State policy is more easily ascertained in the case of Protestantism than in that of the Catholic Church: for whilst the expression of Catholic doctrines is authoritative and unvarying, the great social problems did not all arise at once, and have at various times received different solutions. The reformers failed to construct a complete and harmonious code of doctrine; but they were compelled to supplement the new theology by a body of new rules for the guidance of their followers in those innumerable questions with regard to which the practice of the Church had grown out of the experience of ages. And although the dogmatic system of Protestantism was not completed in their time, yet the Protestant spirit animated them in greater purity and force than it did any later generation. Now, when a religion is applied to the social and political sphere, its general spirit must be considered, rather than its particular precepts. So that in studying the points of this application in the case of Protestantism, we may consult the writings of the reformers with greater confidence than we could do for an exposition of Protestant theology; and accept them as a greater authority, because they agree more entirely among themselves. We can be more sure that we have the true Protestant opinion in a political or social question on which all the reformers are agreed, than in a theological question on which they differ; for the concurrent opinion must be founded on an element common to all, and therefore essential. If it should further appear that this opinion was injurious to their actual interests, and maintained at a sacrifice to themselves, we should then have an additional security for its necessary connection with their fundamental views.

The most important example of this law is the Protestant theory of toleration. The views of the reformers on religious liberty are not fragmentary, accidental opinions, unconnected with their doctrines, or suggested by the circumstances amidst which they lived; but the product of their theological system, and of their ideas of political and ecclesiastical government. Civil and religious liberty are so commonly associated in people's mouths, and are so rare in fact, that their definition is evidently as little understood as the principle of their connection. The point at which they unite, the common root from which they derive their sustenance, is the right of self-government. The modern theory, which has swept away every authority except that of the State, and has made the sovereign power irresistible by multiplying those who share it, is the enemy of that common freedom in which religious freedom is included. It condemns, as a State within the State, every inner group and community, class or corporation, administering its own affairs; and, by proclaiming the abolition of privileges, it emancipates the subjects of every such authority in order to transfer them exclusively to its own. It recognises liberty only in the individual, because it is only in the individual that liberty can be separated from authority, and the right of conditional obedience deprived of the security of a limited command. Under its sway, therefore, every man may profess his own religion more or less freely; but his religion is not free to administer its own laws. In other words, religious profession is free, but Church government is controlled. And where ecclesiastical authority is restricted, religious liberty is virtually denied.

For religious liberty is not the negative right of being without any particular religion, just as self-government is not anarchy. It is the right of religious communities to the practice of their own duties, the enjoyment of their own constitution, and the protection of the law, which equally secures to all the possession of their own independence. Far from implying a general toleration, it is best secured by a limited one. In an indifferent State, that is, in a State without any definite religious character (if such a thing is conceivable), no ecclesiastical authority could exist. A hierarchical organisation would not be tolerated by the sects that have none, or by the enemies of all definite religion; for it would be in contradiction to the prevailing theory of atomic freedom. Nor can a religion be free when it is alone, unless it makes the State subject to it. For governments restrict the liberty of the favoured Church, by way of remunerating themselves for their service in preserving her unity. The most violent and prolonged conflicts for religious freedom occurred in the Middle Ages between a Church which was not threatened by rivals and States which were most attentive to preserve her exclusive predominance. Frederic II., the most tyrannical oppressor of the Church among the German emperors, was the author of those sanguinary laws against heresy which prevailed so long in many parts of Europe. The Inquisition, which upheld the religious unity of the Spanish nation, imposed the severest restrictions on the Spanish Church; and in England conformity has been most rigorously exacted by those sovereigns who have most completely tyrannised over the Established Church. Religious liberty, therefore, is possible only where the co-existence of different religions is admitted, with an equal right to govern themselves according to their own several principles. Tolerance of error is requisite for freedom; but freedom will be most complete where there is no actual diversity to be resisted, and no theoretical unity to be maintained, but where unity exists as the triumph of truth, not of force, through the victory of the Church, not through the enactment of the State.

This freedom is attainable only in communities where rights are sacred, and where law is supreme. If the first duty is held to be obedience to authority and the preservation of order, as in the case of aristocracies and monarchies of the patriarchal type, there is no safety for the liberties either of individuals or of religion. Where the highest consideration is the public good and the popular will, as in democracies, and in constitutional monarchies after the French pattern, majority takes the place of authority; an irresistible power is substituted for an idolatrous principle, and all private rights are equally insecure. The true theory of freedom excludes all absolute power and arbitrary action, and requires that a tyrannical or revolutionary government shall be coerced by the people; but it teaches that insurrection is criminal, except as a corrective of revolution and tyranny. In order to understand the views of the Protestant reformers on toleration, they must be considered with reference to these points.

While the Reformation was an act of individual resistance and not a system, and when the secular Powers were engaged in supporting the authority of the Church, the authors of the movement were compelled to claim impunity for their opinions, and they held language regarding the right of governments to interfere with religious belief which resembles that of friends of toleration. Every religious party, however exclusive or servile its theory may be, if it is in contradiction with a system generally accepted and protected by law, must necessarily, at its first appearance, assume the protection of the idea that the conscience is free.[194] Before a new authority can be set up in the place of one that exists, there is an interval when the right of dissent must be proclaimed. At the beginning of Luther's contest with the Holy See there was no rival authority for him to appeal to. No ecclesiastical organism existed, the civil power was not on his side, and not even a definite system had yet been evolved by controversy out of his original doctrine of justification. His first efforts were acts of hostility, his exhortations were entirely aggressive, and his appeal was to the masses. When the prohibition of his New Testament confirmed him in the belief that no favour was to be expected from the princes, he published his book on the Civil Power, which he judged superior to everything that had been written on government since the days of the Apostles, and in which he asserts that authority is given to the State only against the wicked, and that it cannot coerce the godly. "Princes," he says, "are not to be obeyed when they command submission to superstitious errors, but their aid is not to be invoked in support of the Word of God."[195] Heretics must be converted by the Scriptures, and not by fire, otherwise the hangman would be the greatest doctor.[196] At the time when this was written Luther was expecting the bull of excommunication and the ban of the empire, and for several years it appeared doubtful whether he would escape the treatment he condemned. He lived in constant fear of assassination, and his friends amused themselves with his terrors. At one time he believed that a Jew had been hired by the Polish bishops to despatch him; that an invisible physician was on his way to Wittenberg to murder him; that the pulpit from which he preached was impregnated with a subtle poison.[197] These alarms dictated his language during those early years. It was not the true expression of his views, which he was not yet strong enough openly to put forth.[198]

The Zwinglian schism, the rise of the Anabaptists, and the Peasants' War altered the aspect of affairs. Luther recognised in them the fruits of his theory of the right of private judgment and of dissent,[199] and the moment had arrived to secure his Church against the application of the same dissolving principles which had served him to break off from his allegiance to Rome.[200] The excesses of the social war threatened to deprive the movement of the sympathy of the higher classes, especially of the governments; and with the defeat of the peasants the popular phase of the Reformation came to an end on the Continent. "The devil," Luther said, "having failed to put him down by the help of the Pope, was seeking his destruction through the preachers of treason and blood."[201] He instantly turned from the people to the princes;[202] impressed on his party that character of political dependence, and that habit of passive obedience to the State, which it has ever since retained, and gave it a stability it could never otherwise have acquired. In thus taking refuge in the arms of the civil power, purchasing the safety of his doctrine by the sacrifice of its freedom, and conferring on the State, together with the right of control, the duty of imposing it at the point of the sword, Luther in reality reverted to his original teaching.[203] The notion of liberty, whether civil or religious, was hateful to his despotic nature, and contrary to his interpretation of Scripture. As early as 1519 he had said that even the Turk was to be reverenced as an authority.[204] The demoralising servitude and lawless oppression which the peasants endured, gave them, in his eyes, no right to relief; and when they rushed to arms, invoking his name as their deliverer, he exhorted the nobles to take a merciless revenge.[205] Their crime was, that they were animated by the sectarian spirit, which it was the most important interest of Luther to suppress.

The Protestant authorities throughout Southern Germany were perplexed by their victory over the Anabaptists. It was not easy to show that their political tenets were revolutionary, and the only subversive portion of their doctrine was that they held, with the Catholics, that the State is not responsible for religion.[206] They were punished, therefore, because they taught that no man ought to suffer for his faith. At Nuremberg the magistrates did not know how to proceed against them. They seemed no worse than the Catholics, whom there was no question at that time of exterminating. The celebrated Osiander deemed these scruples inconsistent. The Papists, he said, ought also to be suppressed; and so long as this was not done, it was impossible to proceed to extremities against the Anabaptists, who were no worse than they. Luther also was consulted, and he decided that they ought not to be punished unless they refused to conform at the command of the Government.[207] The Margrave of Brandenburg was also advised by the divines that a heretic who could not be converted out of Scripture might be condemned; but that in his sentence nothing should be said about heresy, but only about sedition and murderous intent, though he should be guiltless of these.[208] With the aid of this artifice great numbers were put to death.

Luther's proud and ardent spirit despised such pretences. He had cast off all reserve, and spoke his mind openly on the rights and duties of the State towards the Church and the people. His first step was to proclaim it the office of the civil power to prevent abominations.[209] He provided no security that, in discharging this duty, the sovereign should be guided by the advice of orthodox divines;[210] but he held the duty itself to be imperative. In obedience to the fundamental principle, that the Bible is the sole guide in all things, he defined the office and justified it by scriptural precedents. The Mosaic code, he argued, awarded to false prophets the punishment of death, and the majesty of God is not to be less deeply reverenced or less rigorously vindicated under the New Testament than under the Old; in a more perfect revelation the obligation is stronger. Those who will not hear the Church must be excluded from the communion; but the civil power is to intervene when the ecclesiastical excommunication has been pronounced, and men must be compelled to come in. For, according to the more accurate definition of the Church which is given in the Confession of Schmalkald, and in the Apology of the Confession of Augsburg, excommunication involves damnation. There is no salvation to be hoped for out of the Church, and the test of orthodoxy against the Pope, the devil, and all the world, is the dogma of justification by faith.[211]

The defence of religion became, on this theory, not only the duty of the civil power, but the object of its institution. Its business was solely the coercion of those who were out of the Church. The faithful could not be the objects of its action; they did of their own accord more than any laws required. "A good tree," says Luther, "brings forth good fruit by nature, without compulsion; is it not madness to prescribe laws to an apple-tree that it shall bear apples and not thorns?"[212] This view naturally proceeded from the axiom of the certainty of the salvation of all who believe in the Confession of Augsburg.[213] It is the most important element in Luther's political system, because, while it made all Protestant governments despotic, it led to the rejection of the authority of Catholic governments. This is the point where Protestant and Catholic intolerance meet. If the State were instituted to promote the faith, no obedience could be due to a State of a different faith. Protestants could not conscientiously be faithful subjects of Catholic Powers, and they could not therefore be tolerated. Misbelievers would have no rights under an orthodox State, and a misbelieving prince would have no authority over orthodox subjects. The more, therefore, Luther expounded the guilt of resistance and the Divine sanction of authority, the more subversive his influence became in Catholic countries. His system was alike revolutionary, whether he defied the Catholic powers or promoted a Protestant tyranny. He had no notion of political right. He found no authority for such a claim in the New Testament, and he held that righteousness does not need to exhibit itself in works.

It was the same helpless dependence on the letter of Scripture which led the reformers to consequences more subversive of Christian morality than their views on questions of polity. When Carlstadt cited the Mosaic law in defence of polygamy, Luther was indignant. If the Mosaic law is to govern everything, he said, we should be compelled to adopt circumcision.[214] Nevertheless, as there is no prohibition of polygamy in the New Testament, the reformers were unable to condemn it. They did not forbid it as a matter of Divine law, and referred it entirely to the decision of the civil legislator.[215] This, accordingly was the view which guided Luther and Melanchthon in treating the problem, the ultimate solution of which was the separation of England from the Church.[216] When the Landgrave Philip afterwards appealed to this opinion, and to the earlier commentaries of Luther, the reformers were compelled to approve his having two wives. Melanchthon was a witness at the wedding of the second, and the only reservation was a request that the matter should not be allowed to get abroad.[217] It was the same portion of Luther's theology, and the same opposition to the spirit of the Church in the treatment of Scripture, that induced him to believe in astrology and to ridicule the Copernican system.[218]

His view of the authority of Scripture and his theory of justification both precluded him from appreciating freedom. "Christian freedom," he said, "consists in the belief that we require no works to attain piety and salvation."[219] Thus he became the inventor of the theory of passive obedience, according to which no motives or provocation can justify a revolt; and the party against whom the revolt is directed, whatever its guilt may be, is to be preferred to the party revolting, however just its cause.[220] In 1530 he therefore declared that the German princes had no right to resist the Emperor in defence of their religion. "It was the duty of a Christian," he said, "to suffer wrong, and no breach of oath or of duty could deprive the Emperor of his right to the unconditional obedience of his subjects."[221] Even the empire seemed to him a despotism, from his scriptural belief that it was a continuation of the last of the four monarchies.[222] He preferred submission, in the hope of seeing a future Protestant Emperor, to a resistance which might have dismembered the empire if it had succeeded, and in which failure would have been fatal to the Protestants; and he was always afraid to draw the logical consequences of his theory of the duty of Protestants towards Catholic sovereigns. In consequence of this fact, Ranke affirms that the great reformer was also one of the greatest conservatives that ever lived; and his biographer, Juergens, makes the more discriminating remark that history knows of no man who was at once so great an insurgent and so great an upholder of order as he.[223] Neither of these writers understood that the same principle lies at the root both of revolution and of passive obedience, and that the difference is only in the temper of the person who applies it, and in the outward circumstances.

Luther's theory is apparently in opposition to Protestant interests, for it entitles Catholicism to the protection of Catholic Powers. He disguised from himself this inconsistency, and reconciled theory with expediency by the calculation that the immense advantages which his system offered to the princes would induce them all to adopt it. For, besides the consolatory doctrine of justification,--"a doctrine original, specious, persuasive, powerful against Rome, and wonderfully adapted, as if prophetically, to the genius of the times which were to follow,"[224]--he bribed the princes with the wealth of the Church, independence of ecclesiastical authority, facilities for polygamy, and absolute power. He told the peasants not to take arms against the Church unless they could persuade the Government to give the order; but thinking it probable, in 1522, that the Catholic clergy would, in spite of his advice, be exterminated by the fury of the people, he urged the Government to suppress them, because what was done by the constituted authority could not be wrong.[225] Persuaded that the sovereign power would be on his side, he allowed no limits to its extent. It is absurd, he says, to imagine that, even with the best intentions, kings can avoid committing occasional injustice; they stand, therefore, particularly in need--not of safeguards against the abuse of power, but--of the forgiveness of sins.[226] The power thus concentrated in the hands of the rulers for the guardianship of the faith, he wished to be used with the utmost severity against unregenerate men, in whom there was neither moral virtue nor civil rights, and from whom no good could come until they were converted. He therefore required that all crimes should be most cruelly punished and that the secular arm should be employed to convert where it did not destroy. The idea of mercy tempering justice he denounced as a Popish superstition.[227]

The chief object of the severity thus recommended was, of course, efficaciously to promote the end for which Government itself was held to be instituted. The clergy had authority over the conscience, but it was thought necessary that they should be supported by the State with the absolute penalties of outlawry, in order that error might be exterminated, although it was impossible to banish sin.[228] No Government, it was maintained, could tolerate heresy without being responsible for the souls that were seduced by it;[229] and as Ezechiel destroyed the brazen serpent to prevent idolatry, the mass must be suppressed, for the mass was the worst kind of idolatry.[230] In 1530, when it was proposed to leave the matters in dispute to the decision of the future Council, Luther declared that the mass and monastic life could not be tolerated in the meantime, because it was unlawful to connive at error.[231] "It will lie heavy on your conscience," he writes to the Duke of Saxony, "if you tolerate the Catholic worship; for no secular prince can permit his subjects to be divided by the preaching of opposite doctrines. The Catholics have no right to complain, for they do not prove the truth of their doctrine from Scripture, and therefore do not conscientiously believe it."[232] He would tolerate them only if they acknowledged themselves, like the Jews, enemies of Christ and of the Emperor, and consented to exist as outcasts of society.[233] "Heretics," he said, "are not to be disputed with, but to be condemned unheard, and whilst they perish by fire, the faithful ought to pursue the evil to its source, and bathe their hands in the blood of the Catholic bishops, and of the Pope, who is a devil in disguise."[234]

The persecuting principles which were involved in Luther's system, but which he cared neither to develop, to apply, nor to defend, were formed into a definite theory by the colder genius of Melanchthon. Destitute of Luther's confidence in his own strength, and in the infallible success of his doctrine, he clung more eagerly to the hope of achieving victory by the use of physical force. Like his master he too hesitated at first, and opposed the use of severe measures against the Zwickau prophets; but when he saw the development of that early germ of dissent, and the gradual dissolution of Lutheran unity, he repented of his ill-timed clemency.[235] He was not deterred from asserting the duty of persecution by the risk of putting arms into the hands of the enemies of the Reformation. He acknowledged the danger, but he denied the right. Catholic powers, he deemed, might justly persecute, but they could only persecute error. They must apply the same criterion which the Lutherans applied, and then they were justified in persecuting those whom the Lutherans also proscribed. For the civil power had no right to proscribe a religion in order to save itself from the dangers of a distracted and divided population. The judge of the fact and of the danger must be, not the magistrate, but the clergy.[236] The crime lay, not in dissent, but in error. Here, therefore, Melanchthon repudiated the theory and practice of the Catholics, whose aid he invoked; for all the intolerance in the Catholic times was founded on the combination of two ideas--the criminality of apostasy, and the inability of the State to maintain its authority where the moral sense of a part of the community was in opposition to it. The reformers, therefore, approved the Catholic practice of intolerance, and even encouraged it, although their own principles of persecution were destitute not only of connection, but even of analogy, with it. By simply accepting the inheritance of the mediaeval theory of the religious unity of the empire, they would have been its victims. By asserting that persecution was justifiable only against error, that is, only when purely religious, they set up a shield for themselves, and a sword against those sects for whose destruction they were more eager than the Catholics. Whether we refer the origin of Protestant intolerance to the doctrines or to the interests of the Reformation, it appears totally unconnected with the tradition of Catholic ages, or the atmosphere of Catholicism. All severities exercised by Catholics before that time had a practical motive; but Protestant persecution was based on a purely speculative foundation, and was due partly to the influence of Scripture examples, partly to the supposed interests of the Protestant party. It never admitted the exclusion of dissent to be a political right of the State, but maintained 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 contradictory 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 sword, and that any individual who started new opinions ought to be punished with death.[237] 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 ecclesiastical organisation, but simply on account of a difference, however slight, in the theologumena of Protestantism.[238] Thamer, who held the possibility of salvation among the heathen; Schwenkfeld, who taught that not the written Word, but the internal illumination of grace in the soul was the channel of God's influence on man; the Zwinglians, with their error on the Eucharist, all these met with no more favour than the fanatical Anabaptists.[239] The State was held bound to vindicate the first table of the law with the same severity as those commandments on which civil society depends for its existence. The government of the Church being administered by the civil magistrates, it was their office also to enforce the ordinances of religion; and the same power whose voice proclaimed religious orthodoxy and law held in its hand the sword by which they were enforced. No religious authority existed except through the civil power.[240] The Church was merged in the State; but the laws of the State, in return, were identified with the commandments of religion.[241]