Page 274 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

religious freedom 1575

Branding Heretics

By the reign ofTheodosius I (379–395 CE), Chris-
tianity had become the official religion of the
Roman empire, and practicing other religions be- compulsion was benevolent,“for what is a worse killer of
came illegal. As the excerpt below from the Theo- the soul than freedom to err.” (Pfeffer 1967, 16) Due to
dosian Code notes, non-Christians were considered the weighty influence of the brilliant Augustine, one
“foolish madmen” and were branded as heretics. scholar had articulated what has become an accepted esti-
mation of him. Because of Augustine, he wrote, “the
It is our desire that all the various nations which
Medieval Church was intolerant, was the source and
are subject to our Clemency and Moderation,
author of persecution, justified and defended the most vio-
should continue in the profession of that religion
lent measures which could be taken against those who dif-
which was delivered to the Romans by the divine
fered from it.” (Pfeffer 1967, 16). Some have said that
Apostle Peter, as it hath been preserved by faith-
Augustine’s views became the “charter for the Inquisition.”
ful tradition; and which is now professed by the
Pontiff Damasus and by Peter, Bishop of Alexan-
The Crusades
dia, a man of apostolic holiness.According to the
Equally out of step with the spirit of religious freedom
apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the
were the Crusades of the eleventh, twelfth, and thir-
Gospel, let us believe the one deity of the Father,
teenth centuries. The purpose of the seven crusades, ini-
the Son and the Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and
tiated by Pope Urban II in 1095, was to recapture the
in a holy Trinity. We authorize the followers of
Holy Land that had been lost to the Muslims and to
this law to assume the title of Catholic Christians;
extend the rule of Christianity in the “land of Christ.” The
but as for the others, since, in our judgement,
motto of the Crusades became “Kill the infidels.” In car-
they are foolish madmen, we decree that they
rying out the slaughter of tens of thousands of Muslims,
shall be branded with the ignominious name of
the Crusaders availed themselves of the opportunity to
heretics, and shall not presume to give to their
root out Jewish and Orthodox infidels as well.The pop-
conventicles the name of churches.They will suf-
ular Peter of Cluny asked,“Why wait for the infidels in the
fer in the first place the chastisement of the divine
Holy Land? We have infidels here—the Jews” (Wood
condemnation, and in the second the punish-
1966, 9). It has been estimated that in the First Crusade
ment with our authority, in accordance with the
alone more than ten thousand Jews across Europe were
will of Heaven, shall decide to inflict.
massacred. Pope Innocent III, perhaps the greatest exem-
Source: The Theodosian Code (XVI, i, 2). (1943). In H. Bettenson, Ed., Documents
of the Christian Church (p. 31). London: Oxford University Press. plar of militant Christianity, launched the Fourth Crusade
in 1202. While en route to the Holy Land, his army of
20,000 crusaders sacked and destroyed the great Ortho-
Tertullian, Justin Martyr, Hilary of Poitiers, Chrysostom, dox city of Constantinople, slaughtering thousands of cit-
and Augustine, among others, pleaded the cause of tol- izens, burning much of the city, and destroying more of
eration and condemned punishment of heresy. In the the city’s great religious treasures than were lost when the
early third century, for example, the lawyer-cleric Tertul- Turks later bludgeoned and captured the city in 1453.
lian wrote, “it is a fundamental human right, a privilege
of nature, that every man should worship according to Religious Intolerance
his own convictions. One man’s religion neither helps during the Reformation
nor harms another man” (Pfeffer 1967, 15). In the late The Roman Catholic Inquisition of the fifteenth and six-
fourth century,Augustine similarly defended toleration of teenth centuries unleashed fresh attacks against a rising
unorthodox religious views. Later, however, when mem- number of Protestants. Protestants in turn persecuted
bers of the Donatist sect engaged in acts of civil disobe- Catholics as well as competing Protestants. Contrary to
dience, he apparently changed his view and opined that popular belief, the Protestant Reformation did not usher