Theodore Beza, the faithful aid of Calvin, took up his pen against the anonymous sceptics of Basel, and defended the right and duty of the Christian magistrate to punish heresy. His work appeared in September, ; that is, five months after the book of Martinus Bellius. Reprinted in his Tractationes Theologicae , 2d ed.
Buisson, II. The book has a polemic and an apologetic part. In the former, Beza tries to refute the principle of toleration; in the latter, to defend the conduct of Geneva. He contends that the toleration of error is indifference to truth, and that it destroys all order and discipline in the Church.
Even the enforced unity of the papacy is much better than anarchy. Heresy is much worse than murder, because it destroys the soul.
Beza appeals to the laws of Moses and the acts of kings Asa and Josiah against blasphemers and false prophets. All Christian rulers have punished obstinate heretics. The oecumenical synods from to were called and confirmed by emperors who punished the offenders. Whoever denies to the civil authority the right to restrain and punish pernicious errors against public worship undermines the authority of the Bible.
He closes the argument as follows: "The duty of the civil authority in this matter is hedged about by these three regulations: 1 It must strictly confine itself to its own sphere, and not presume to define heresy; that belongs to the Church alone. This theory, which differs little from the papal theory of intolerance, except in regard to the definition of heresy and the mode and degree of punishment, was accepted for a long time in the Reformed Churches with few dissenting voices; but, fortunately, there was no occasion for another capital punishment of heresy in the Church of Geneva after the burning of Servetus.
The evil which Calvin and Beza did was buried with their bones; the greater good which they did will live on forever. Willis, though a decided apologist of Servetus, makes the admission: "Calvin must nevertheless be thought of as the real herald of modern freedom.
Holding ignorance to be incompatible with the existence of a people at once religious and free, Calvin had the schoolhouse built beside the Church, and brought education within the reach of all. Nor did he overlook the higher culture. History of the Christian Church,. Discovery Services.
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