{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_74798/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_74798","id":"gutenberg_74798","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/74798","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Toleration"],"text":"TOLERANCE\n\n\n\n\n                                TOLERANCE\n\n                                   _By_\n                         HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON\n\n    _The final end of the State consists not in dominating over\n    men, restraining them by fear, subjecting them to the will of\n    others. Rather it has for its end so to act that its citizens\n    shall in security develop soul and body and make free use of\n    their reason. For the true end of the State is Liberty._\n\n                                                            SPINOZA.\n\n    _Farewell, good Sirs, I am leaving for the future. I will wait\n    for Humanity at the crossroads, three hundred years hence._\n\n                                                    LUIGI LUCATELLI.\n\n                              [Illustration]\n\n                                _NEW YORK_\n                             BONI & LIVERIGHT\n                                   1925\n\n                     COPYRIGHT 1925 [Illustration] BY\n                          BONI & LIVERIGHT, INC.\n                       PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES\n\n                              [Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nTO THE MEMORY OF\n\nJOHN W. T. NICHOLS\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                        PAGE\n\n          PROLOGUE                                        11\n\n  CHAPTER\n\n       I. THE TYRANNY OF IGNORANCE                        17\n\n      II. THE GREEKS                                      28\n\n     III. THE BEGINNING OF RESTRAINT                      68\n\n      IV. THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS                        80\n\n       V. IMPRISONMENT                                   104\n\n      VI. THE PURE OF LIFE                               114\n\n     VII. THE INQUISITION                                126\n\n    VIII. THE CURIOUS ONES                               146\n\n      IX. THE WAR UPON THE PRINTED WORD                  160\n\n       X. CONCERNING THE WRITING OF HISTORY IN GENERAL\n            AND THIS BOOK IN PARTICULAR                  168\n\n      XI. RENAISSANCE                                    172\n\n     XII. THE REFORMATION                                181\n\n    XIII. ERASMUS                                        195\n\n     XIV. RABELAIS                                       212\n\n      XV. NEW SIGNBOARDS FOR OLD                         223\n\n     XVI. THE ANABAPTISTS                                246\n\n    XVII. THE SOZZINI FAMILY                             257\n\n   XVIII. MONTAIGNE                                      269\n\n     XIX. ARMINIUS                                       275\n\n      XX. BRUNO                                          286\n\n     XXI. SPINOZA                                        292\n\n    XXII. THE NEW ZION                                   307\n\n   XXIII. THE SUN KING                                   321\n\n    XXIV. FREDERICK THE GREAT                            326\n\n     XXV. VOLTAIRE                                       330\n\n    XXVI. THE ENCYCLOPEDIA                               352\n\n   XXVII. THE INTOLERANCE OF REVOLUTION                  361\n\n  XXVIII. LESSING                                        372\n\n    XXIX. TOM PAINE                                      387\n\n     XXX. THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS                         393\n\n\n\n\nTOLERANCE\n\n\n\n\nTOLERANCE\n\n\n\n\nPROLOGUE\n\n\nHappily lived Mankind in the peaceful Valley of Ignorance.\n\nTo the north, to the south, to the west and to the east stretched the\nridges of the Hills Everlasting.\n\nA little stream of Knowledge trickled slowly through a deep worn gully.\n\nIt came out of the Mountains of the Past.\n\nIt lost itself in the Marshes of the Future.\n\nIt was not much, as rivers go. But it was enough for the humble needs of\nthe villagers.\n\nIn the evening, when they had watered their cattle and had filled their\ncasks, they were content to sit down to enjoy life.\n\nThe Old Men Who Knew were brought forth from the shady corners where they\nhad spent their day, pondering over the mysterious pages of an old book.\n\nThey mumbled strange words to their grandchildren, who would have\npreferred to play with the pretty pebbles, brought down from distant\nlands.\n\nOften these words were not very clear.\n\nBut they were writ a thousand years ago by a forgotten race. Hence they\nwere holy.\n\nFor in the Valley of Ignorance, whatever was old was venerable. And those\nwho dared to gainsay the wisdom of the fathers were shunned by all decent\npeople.\n\nAnd so they kept their peace.\n\nFear was ever with them. What if they should be refused the common share\nof the products of the garden?\n\nVague stories there were, whispered at night among the narrow streets\nof the little town, vague stories of men and women who had dared to ask\nquestions.\n\nThey had gone forth, and never again had they been seen.\n\nA few had tried to scale the high walls of the rocky range that hid the\nsun.\n\nTheir whitened bones lay at the foot of the cliffs.\n\nThe years came and the years went by.\n\nHappily lived Mankind in the peaceful Valley of Ignorance.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOut of the darkness crept a man.\n\nThe nails of his hands were torn.\n\nHis feet were covered with rags, red with the blood of long marches.\n\nHe stumbled to the door of the nearest hut and knocked.\n\nThen he fainted. By the light of a frightened candle, he was carried to a\ncot.\n\nIn the morning throughout the village it was known: \u201cHe has come back.\u201d\n\nThe neighbors stood around and shook their heads. They had always known\nthat this was to be the end.\n\nDefeat and surrender awaited those who dared to stroll away from the foot\nof the mountains.\n\nAnd in one corner of the village the Old Men shook their heads and\nwhispered burning words.\n\nThey did not mean to be cruel, but the Law was the Law. Bitterly this man\nhad sinned against the wishes of Those Who Knew.\n\nAs soon as his wounds were healed he must be brought to trial.\n\nThey meant to be lenient.\n\nThey remembered the strange, burning eyes of his mother. They recalled\nthe tragedy of his father, lost in the desert these thirty years ago.\n\nThe Law, however, was the Law; and the Law must be obeyed.\n\nThe Men Who Knew would see to that.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThey carried the wanderer to the Market Place, and the people stood\naround in respectful silence.\n\nHe was still weak from hunger and thirst and the Elders bade him sit down.\n\nHe refused.\n\nThey ordered him to be silent.\n\nBut he spoke.\n\nUpon the Old Men he turned his back and his eyes sought those who but a\nshort time before had been his comrades.\n\n\u201cListen to me,\u201d he implored. \u201cListen to me and be rejoiced. I have come\nback from beyond the mountains. My feet have trod a fresh soil. My hands\nhave felt the touch of other races. My eyes have seen wondrous sights.\n\n\u201cWhen I was a child, my world was the garden of my father.\n\n\u201cTo the west and to the east, to the south and to the north lay the\nranges from the Beginning of Time.\n\n\u201cWhen I asked what they were hiding, there was a hush and a hasty shaking\nof heads. When I insisted, I was taken to the rocks and shown the\nbleached bones of those who had dared to defy the Gods.\n\n\u201cWhen I cried out and said, \u2018It is a lie! The Gods love those who are\nbrave!\u2019 the Men Who Knew came and read to me from their sacred books. The\nLaw, they explained, had ordained all things of Heaven and Earth. The\nValley was ours to have and to hold. The animals and the flowers, the\nfruit and the fishes were ours, to do our bidding. But the mountains were\nof the Gods. What lay beyond was to remain unknown until the End of Time.\n\n\u201cSo they spoke, and they lied. They lied to me, even as they have lied to\nyou.\n\n\u201cThere are pastures in those hills. Meadows too, as rich as any. And men\nand women of our own flesh and blood. And cities resplendent with the\nglories of a thousand years of labor.\n\n\u201cI have found the road to a better home. I have seen the promise of a\nhappier life. Follow me and I shall lead you thither. For the smile of\nthe Gods is the same there as here and everywhere.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHe stopped and there went up a great cry of horror.\n\n\u201cBlasphemy!\u201d cried the Old Men. \u201cBlasphemy and sacrilege! A fit\npunishment for his crime! He has lost his reason. He dares to scoff at\nthe Law as it was written down a thousand years ago. He deserves to die!\u201d\n\nAnd they took up heavy stones.\n\nAnd they killed him.\n\nAnd his body they threw at the foot of the cliffs, that it might lie\nthere as a warning to all who questioned the wisdom of the ancestors.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThen it happened a short time later that there was a great drought. The\nlittle Brook of Knowledge ran dry. The cattle died of thirst. The harvest\nperished in the fields, and there was hunger in the Valley of Ignorance.\n\nThe Old Men Who Knew, however, were not disheartened. Everything would\nall come right in the end, they prophesied, for so it was writ in their\nmost Holy Chapters.\n\nBesides, they themselves needed but little food. They were so very old.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWinter came.\n\nThe village was deserted.\n\nMore than half of the populace died from sheer want.\n\nThe only hope for those who survived lay beyond the mountains.\n\nBut the Law said \u201cNo!\u201d\n\nAnd the Law must be obeyed.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOne night there was a rebellion.\n\nDespair gave courage to those whom fear had forced into silence.\n\nFeebly the Old Men protested.\n\nThey were pushed aside. They complained of their lot. They bewailed the\ningratitude of their children, but when the last wagon pulled out of the\nvillage, they stopped the driver and forced him to take them along.\n\nThe flight into the unknown had begun.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt was many years since the Wanderer had returned. It was no easy task to\ndiscover the road he had mapped out.\n\nThousands fell a victim to hunger and thirst before the first cairn was\nfound.\n\nFrom there on the trip was less difficult.\n\nThe careful pioneer had blazed a clear trail through the woods and amidst\nthe endless wilderness of rock.\n\nBy easy stages it led to the green pastures of the new land.\n\nSilently the people looked at each other.\n\n\u201cHe was right after all,\u201d they said. \u201cHe was right, and the Old Men were\nwrong....\n\n\u201cHe spoke the truth, and the Old Men lied....\n\n\u201cHis bones lie rotting at the foot of the cliffs, but the Old Men sit in\nour carts and chant their ancient lays....\n\n\u201cHe saved us, and we slew him....\n\n\u201cWe are sorry that it happened, but of course, if we could have known at\nthe time....\u201d\n\nThen they unharnessed their horses and their oxen and they drove their\ncows and their goats into the pastures and they built themselves houses\nand laid out their fields and they lived happily for a long time\nafterwards.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA few years later an attempt was made to bury the brave pioneer in the\nfine new edifice which had been erected as a home for the Wise Old Men.\n\nA solemn procession went back to the now deserted valley, but when the\nspot was reached where his body ought to have been, it was no longer\nthere.\n\nA hungry jackal had dragged it to his lair.\n\nA small stone was then placed at the foot of the trail (now a magnificent\nhighway). It gave the name of the man who had first defied the dark\nterror of the unknown, that his people might be guided into a new freedom.\n\nAnd it stated that it had been erected by a grateful posterity.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAs it was in the beginning\u2014as it is now\u2014and as some day (so we hope) it\nshall no longer be.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE TYRANNY OF IGNORANCE\n\n\nIn the year 527 Flavius Anicius Justinianus became ruler of the eastern\nhalf of the Roman Empire.\n\nThis Serbian peasant (he came from Uskub, the much disputed railroad\njunction of the late war) had no use for \u201cbook-learnin\u2019.\u201d It was by\nhis orders that the ancient Athenian school of philosophy was finally\nsuppressed. And it was he who closed the doors of the only Egyptian\ntemple that had continued to do business centuries after the valley of\nthe Nile had been invaded by the monks of the new Christian faith.\n\nThis temple stood on a little island called Philae, not far from the\nfirst great waterfall of the Nile. Ever since men could remember, the\nspot had been dedicated to the worship of Isis and for some curious\nreason, the Goddess had survived where all her African and Greek and\nRoman rivals had miserably perished. Until finally, in the sixth\ncentury, the island was the only spot where the old and most holy art of\npicture writing was still understood and where a small number of priests\ncontinued to practice a trade which had been forgotten in every other\npart of the land of Cheops.\n\nAnd now, by order of an illiterate farmhand, known as His Imperial\nMajesty, the temple and the adjoining school were declared state\nproperty, the statues and images were sent to the museum of\nConstantinople and the priests and the writing-masters were thrown into\njail. And when the last of them had died from hunger and neglect, the\nage-old trade of making hieroglyphics had become a lost art.\n\nAll this was a great pity.\n\nIf Justinian (a plague upon his head!) had been a little less thorough\nand had saved just a few of those old picture experts in a sort of\nliterary Noah\u2019s Ark, he would have made the task of the historian a\ngreat deal easier. For while (owing to the genius of Champollion) we can\nonce more spell out the strange Egyptian words, it remains exceedingly\ndifficult for us to understand the inner meaning of their message to\nposterity.\n\nAnd the same holds true for all other nations of the ancient world.\n\nWhat did those strangely bearded Babylonians, who left us whole\nbrickyards full of religious tracts, have in mind when they exclaimed\npiously, \u201cWho shall ever be able to understand the counsel of the Gods\nin Heaven?\u201d How did they feel towards those divine spirits which they\ninvoked so continually, whose laws they endeavored to interpret, whose\ncommands they engraved upon the granite shafts of their most holy city?\nWhy were they at once the most tolerant of men, encouraging their priests\nto study the high heavens, and to explore the land and the sea, and\nat the same time the most cruel of executioners, inflicting hideous\npunishments upon those of their neighbors who had committed some breach\nof divine etiquette which today would pass unnoticed?\n\nUntil recently we did not know.\n\nWe sent expeditions to Nineveh, we dug holes in the sand of Sinai and\ndeciphered miles of cuneiform tablets. And everywhere in Mesopotamia and\nEgypt we did our best to find the key that should unlock the front door\nof this mysterious store-house of wisdom.\n\nAnd then, suddenly and almost by accident, we discovered that the back\ndoor had been wide open all the time and that we could enter the premises\nat will.\n\nBut that convenient little gate was not situated in the neighborhood of\nAkkad or Memphis.\n\nIt stood in the very heart of the jungle.\n\nAnd it was almost hidden by the wooden pillars of a pagan temple.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOur ancestors, in search of easy plunder, had come in contact with what\nthey were pleased to call \u201cwild men\u201d or \u201csavages.\u201d\n\nThe meeting had not been a pleasant one.\n\nThe poor heathen, misunderstanding the intentions of the white men, had\nwelcomed them with a salvo of spears and arrows.\n\nThe visitors had retaliated with their blunderbusses.\n\nAfter that there had been little chance for a quiet and unprejudiced\nexchange of ideas.\n\nThe savage was invariably depicted as a dirty, lazy, good-for-nothing\nloafer who worshiped crocodiles and dead trees and deserved all that was\ncoming to him.\n\nThen came the reaction of the eighteenth century. Jean Jacques Rousseau\nbegan to contemplate the world through a haze of sentimental tears.\nHis contemporaries, much impressed by his ideas, pulled out their\nhandkerchiefs and joined in the weeping.\n\nThe benighted heathen was one of their most favorite subjects. In their\nhands (although they had never seen one) he became the unfortunate victim\nof circumstances and the true representative of all those manifold\nvirtues of which the human race had been deprived by three thousand years\nof a corrupt system of civilization.\n\nToday, at least in this particular field of investigation, we know better.\n\nWe study primitive man as we study the higher domesticated animals, from\nwhich as a rule he is not so very far removed.\n\nIn most instances we are fully repaid for our trouble. The savage,\nbut for the grace of God, is our own self under much less favorable\nconditions. By examining him carefully we begin to understand the early\nsociety of the valley of the Nile and of the peninsula of Mesopotamia\nand by knowing him thoroughly we get a glimpse of many of those strange\nhidden instincts which lie buried deep down beneath the thin crust of\nmanners and customs which our own species of mammal has acquired during\nthe last five thousand years.\n\nThis encounter is not always flattering to our pride. On the other hand a\nrealization of the conditions from which we have escaped, together with\nan appreciation of the many things that have actually been accomplished,\ncan only tend to give us new courage for the work in hand and if anything\nit will make us a little more tolerant towards those among our distant\ncousins who have failed to keep up the pace.\n\nThis is not a handbook of anthropology.\n\nIt is a volume dedicated to the subject of tolerance.\n\nBut tolerance is a very broad theme.\n\nThe temptation to wander will be great. And once we leave the beaten\ntrack, Heaven alone knows where we will land.\n\nI therefore suggest that I be given half a page to state exactly and\nspecifically what I mean by tolerance.\n\nLanguage is one of the most deceptive inventions of the human race and\nall definitions are bound to be arbitrary. It therefore behooves an\nhumble student to go to that authority which is accepted as final by\nthe largest number of those who speak the language in which this book is\nwritten.\n\nI refer to the Encyclopedia Britannica.\n\nThere on page 1052 of volume XXVI stands written: \u201cTolerance (from Latin\n_tolerare_\u2014to endure):\u2014The allowance of freedom of action or judgment\nto other people, the patient and unprejudiced endurance of dissent from\none\u2019s own or the generally received course or view.\u201d\n\nThere may be other definitions but for the purpose of this book I shall\nlet myself be guided by the words of the Britannica.\n\nAnd having committed myself (for better or worse) to a definite policy, I\nshall return to my savages and tell you what I have been able to discover\nabout tolerance in the earliest forms of society of which we have any\nrecord.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is still generally believed that primitive society was very simple,\nthat primitive language consisted of a few simple grunts and that\nprimitive man possessed a degree of liberty which was lost only when the\nworld became \u201ccomplex.\u201d\n\nThe investigations of the last fifty years made by explorers and\nmissionaries and doctors among the aborigines of central Africa and the\nPolar regions and Polynesia show the exact opposite. Primitive society\nwas exceedingly complicated, primitive language had more forms and tenses\nand declensions than Russian or Arabic, and primitive man was a slave not\nonly to the present, but also to the past and to the future; in short, an\nabject and miserable creature who lived in fear and died in terror.\n\nThis may seem far removed from the popular picture of brave red-skins\nmerrily roaming the prairies in search of buffaloes and scalps, but it is\na little nearer to the truth.\n\nAnd how could it have been otherwise?\n\nI have read the stories of many miracles.\n\nBut one of them was lacking; the miracle of the survival of man.\n\nHow and in what manner and why the most defenseless of all mammals should\nhave been able to maintain himself against microbes and mastodons and ice\nand heat and eventually become master of all creation, is something I\nshall not try to solve in the present chapter.\n\nOne thing, however, is certain. He never could have accomplished all this\nalone.\n\nIn order to succeed he was obliged to sink his individuality in the\ncomposite character of the tribe.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPrimitive society therefore was dominated by a single idea, an\nall-overpowering desire to survive.\n\nThis was very difficult.\n\nAnd as a result all other considerations were sacrificed to the one\nsupreme demand\u2014to live.\n\nThe individual counted for nothing, the community at large counted for\neverything, and the tribe became a roaming fortress which lived by itself\nand for itself and of itself and found safety only in exclusiveness.\n\nBut the problem was even more complicated than at first appears. What\nI have just said held good only for the visible world, and the visible\nworld in those early times was a negligible quantity compared to the\nrealm of the invisible.\n\nIn order to understand this fully we must remember that primitive people\nare different from ourselves. They are not familiar with the law of cause\nand effect.\n\nIf I sit me down among the poison ivy, I curse my negligence, send\nfor the doctor and tell my young son to get rid of the stuff as soon\nas he can. My ability to recognize cause and effect tells me that the\npoison ivy has caused the rash, that the doctor will be able to give me\nsomething that will make the itch stop and that the removal of the vine\nwill prevent a repetition of this painful experience.\n\nThe true savage would act quite differently. He would not connect the\nrash with the poison ivy at all. He lives in a world in which past,\npresent and future are inextricably interwoven. All his dead leaders\nsurvive as Gods and his dead neighbors survive as spirits and they all\ncontinue to be invisible members of the clan and they accompany each\nindividual member wherever he goes. They eat with him and sleep with him\nand they stand watch over his door. It is his business to keep them at\narm\u2019s length or gain their friendship. If ever he fail to do this he will\nbe immediately punished and as he cannot possibly know how to please all\nthose spirits all the time, he is in constant fear of that misfortune\nwhich comes as the revenge of the Gods.\n\nHe therefore reduces every event that is at all out of the ordinary\nnot to a primary cause but to interference on the part of an invisible\nspirit and when he notices a rash on his arms he does not say, \u201cDamn that\npoison ivy!\u201d but he mumbles, \u201cI have offended a God. The God has punished\nme,\u201d and he runs to the medicine-man, not however to get a lotion to\ncounteract the poison of the ivy but to get a \u201ccharm\u201d that shall prove\nstronger than the charm which the irate God (and not the ivy) has thrown\nupon him.\n\nAs for the ivy, the primary cause of all his suffering, he lets it grow\nright there where it has always grown. And if perchance the white man\ncomes with a can of kerosene and burns the shrub down, he will curse him\nfor his trouble.\n\nIt follows that a society in which everything happens as the result of\nthe direct personal interference on the part of an invisible being must\ndepend for its continued existence upon a strict obedience of such laws\nas seem to appease the wrath of the Gods.\n\nSuch a law, according to the opinion of a savage, existed. His ancestors\nhad devised it and had bestowed it upon him and it was his most sacred\nduty to keep that law intact and hand it over in its present and perfect\nform to his own children.\n\nThis, of course, seems absurd to us. We firmly believe in progress, in\ngrowth, in constant and uninterrupted improvement.\n\nBut \u201cprogress\u201d is an expression that was coined only year before last,\nand it is typical of all low forms of society that the people see no\npossible reason why they should improve what (to them) is the best of all\npossible worlds because they never knew any other.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nGranted that all this be true, then how does one prevent a change in the\nlaws and in the established forms of society?\n\nThe answer is simple.\n\nBy the immediate punishment of those who refuse to regard common police\nregulations as an expression of the divine will, or in plain language, by\na rigid system of intolerance.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf I hereby state that the savage was the most intolerant of human\nbeings, I do not mean to insult him, for I hasten to add that given the\ncircumstances under which he lived, it was his duty to be intolerant. Had\nhe allowed any one to interfere with the thousand and one rules upon\nwhich his tribe depended for its continued safety and peace of mind, the\nlife of the tribe would have been put in jeopardy and that would have\nbeen the greatest of all possible crimes.\n\nBut (and the question is worth asking) how could a group of people,\nrelatively limited in number, protect a most complex system of verbal\nregulations when we in our own day with millions of soldiers and\nthousands of policemen find it difficult to enforce a few plain laws?\n\nAgain the answer is simple.\n\nThe savage was a great deal cleverer than we are. He accomplished by\nshrewd calculation what he could not do by force.\n\nHe invented the idea of \u201ctaboo.\u201d\n\nPerhaps the word \u201cinvented\u201d is not the right expression. Such things are\nrarely the product of a sudden inspiration. They are the result of long\nyears of growth and experiment. Let that be as it may, the wild men of\nAfrica and Polynesia devised the taboo, and thereby saved themselves a\ngreat deal of trouble.\n\nThe word taboo is of Australian origin. We all know more or less what it\nmeans. Our own world is full of taboos, things we simply must not do or\nsay, like mentioning our latest operation at the dinner table, or leaving\nour spoon in our cup of coffee. But our taboos are never of a very\nserious nature. They are part of the handbook of etiquette and rarely\ninterfere with our own personal happiness.\n\nTo primitive man, on the other hand, the taboo was of the utmost\nimportance.\n\nIt meant that certain persons or inanimate objects had been \u201cset apart\u201d\nfrom the rest of the world, that they (to use the Hebrew equivalent) were\n\u201choly\u201d and must not be discussed or touched on pain of instant death and\neverlasting torture. A fairly large order but woe unto him or her who\ndared to disobey the will of the spirit-ancestors.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhether the taboo was an invention of the priests or the priesthood was\ncreated to maintain the taboo is a problem which had not yet been solved.\nAs tradition is much older than religion, it seems more than likely\nthat taboos existed long before the world had heard of sorcerers and\nwitch-doctors. But as soon as the latter had made their appearance, they\nbecame the staunch supporters of the idea of taboo and used it with such\ngreat virtuosity that the taboo became the \u201cverboten\u201d sign of prehistoric\nages.\n\nWhen first we hear the names of Babylon and Egypt, those countries were\nstill in a state of development in which the taboo counted for a great\ndeal. Not a taboo in the crude and primitive form as it was afterwards\nfound in New Zealand, but solemnly transformed into negative rules of\nconduct, the sort of \u201cthou-shalt-not\u201d decrees with which we are all\nfamiliar through six of our Ten Commandments.\n\nNeedless to add that the idea of tolerance was entirely unknown in those\nlands at that early age.\n\nWhat we sometimes mistake for tolerance was merely indifference caused by\nignorance.\n\nBut we can find no trace of any willingness (however vague) on the part\nof either kings or priests to allow others to exercise that \u201cfreedom of\naction or judgment\u201d or of that \u201cpatient and unprejudiced endurance of\ndissent from the generally received cause or view\u201d which has become the\nideal of our modern age.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTherefore, except in a very negative way, this book is not interested in\nprehistoric history or what is commonly called \u201cancient history.\u201d\n\nThe struggle for tolerance did not begin until after the discovery of the\nindividual.\n\nAnd the credit for this, the greatest of all modern revelations, belongs\nto the Greeks.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE GREEKS\n\n\nHow it happened that a little rocky peninsula in a remote corner of the\nMediterranean was able to provide our world in less than two centuries\nwith the complete framework for all our present day experiments in\npolitics, literature, drama, sculpture, chemistry, physics and Heaven\nknows what else, is a question which has puzzled a great many people for\na great many centuries and to which every philosopher, at one time or\nanother during his career, has tried to give an answer.\n\nRespectable historians, unlike their colleagues of the chemical and\nphysical and astronomical and medical faculties, have always looked with\nill-concealed contempt upon all efforts to discover what one might call\n\u201cthe laws of history.\u201d What holds good of polliwogs and microbes and\nshooting stars seems to have no business within the realm of human beings.\n\nI may be very much mistaken, but it seems to me that there must be such\nlaws. It is true that thus far we have not discovered many of them.\nBut then again we have never looked very hard. We have been so busy\naccumulating facts that we have had no time to boil them and liquefy them\nand evaporate them and extract from them the few scraps of wisdom which\nmight be of some real value to our particular variety of mammal.\n\nIt is with considerable trepidation that I approach this new field\nof research and taking a leaf out of the scientist\u2019s book, offer the\nfollowing historical axiom.\n\nAccording to the best knowledge of modern scientists, life (animate\nexistence as differentiated from inanimate existence) began when for once\nall physical and chemical elements were present in the ideal proportion\nnecessary for the creation of the first living cell.\n\nTranslate this into terms of history and you get this:\n\n\u201cA sudden and apparently spontaneous outbreak of a very high form of\ncivilization is only possible when all the racial, climatic, economic and\npolitical conditions are present in an ideal proportion or in as nearly\nan ideal condition and proportion as they can be in this imperfect world.\u201d\n\nLet me elaborate this statement by a few negative observations.\n\nA race with the brain development of a cave-man would not prosper, even\nin Paradise.\n\nRembrandt would not have painted pictures, Bach would not have composed\nfugues, Praxiteles would not have made statues if they had been born\nin an igloo near Upernivik and had been obliged to spend most of their\nwaking hours watching a seal-hole in an ice-field.\n\nDarwin would not have made his contributions to biology if he had been\nobliged to gain his livelihood in a cotton mill in Lancashire. And\nAlexander Graham Bell would not have invented the telephone if he had\nbeen a conscripted serf and had lived in a remote village of the Romanow\ndomains.\n\nIn Egypt, where the first high form of civilization was found, the\nclimate was excellent, but the original inhabitants were not very robust\nor enterprising, and political and economic conditions were decidedly\nbad. The same held true of Babylonia and Assyria. The Semitic races which\nafterwards moved into the valley between the Tigris and the Euphrates\nwere strong and vigorous people. There was nothing the matter with the\nclimate. But the political and economic environment remained far from\ngood.\n\nIn Palestine the climate was nothing to boast of. Agriculture was\nbackward and there was little commerce outside of the caravan route\nwhich passed through the country from Africa to Asia and vice versa.\nFurthermore, in Palestine politics were entirely dominated by the priests\nof the temple of Jerusalem and this of course did not encourage the\ndevelopment of any sort of individual enterprise.\n\nIn Phoenicia, the climate was of little consequence. The race was strong\nand trade conditions were good. The country, however, suffered from a\nbadly balanced economic system. A small class of ship owners had been\nable to get hold of all the wealth and had established a rigid commercial\nmonopoly. Hence the government in Tyre and Sidon had at an early date\nfallen into the hands of the very rich. The poor, deprived of all excuse\nfor the practice of a reasonable amount of industry, grew callous and\nindifferent and Phoenicia eventually shared the fate of Carthage and went\nto ruin through the short-sighted selfishness of her rulers.\n\nIn short, in every one of the early centers of civilization, certain of\nthe necessary elements for success were always lacking.\n\nWhen the miracle of a perfect balance finally did occur, in Greece in\nthe fifth century before our era, it lasted only a very short time, and\nstrange to say, even then it did not take place in the mother country but\nin the colonies across the Aegean Sea.\n\nIn another book I have given a description of those famous island-bridges\nwhich connected the mainland of Asia with Europe and across which the\ntraders from Egypt and Babylonia and Crete since time immemorial had\ntraveled to Europe. The main point of embarkation, both for merchandise\nand ideas bound from Asia to Europe, was to be found on the western coast\nof Asia Minor in a strip of land known as Ionia.\n\nA few hundred years before the Trojan war, this narrow bit of mountainous\nterritory, ninety miles long and only a few miles wide, had been\nconquered by Greek tribes from the mainland who there had founded a\nnumber of colonial towns of which Ephesus, Phocaea, Erythrae and Miletus\nwere the best known, and it was along those cities that at last the\nconditions of success were present in such perfect proportion that\ncivilization reached a point which has sometimes been equaled but never\nhas been surpassed.\n\nIn the first place, these colonies were inhabited by the most active and\nenterprising elements from among a dozen different nations.\n\nIn the second place, there was a great deal of general wealth derived\nfrom the carrying trade between the old and the new world, between Europe\nand Asia.\n\nIn the third place, the form of government under which the colonists\nlived gave the majority of the freemen a chance to develop their talents\nto the very best of their ability.\n\nIf I do not mention the climate, the reason is this; that in countries\ndevoted exclusively to commerce, the climate does not matter much. Ships\ncan be built and goods can be unloaded, rain or shine. Provided it does\nnot get so cold that the harbors freeze or so wet that the towns are\nflooded, the inhabitants will take very little interest in the daily\nweather reports.\n\nBut aside from this, the weather of Ionia was distinctly favorable to\nthe development of an intellectual class. Before the existence of books\nand libraries, learning was handed down from man to man by word of mouth\nand the town-pump was the earliest of all social centers and the oldest\nof universities.\n\nIn Miletus it was possible to sit around the town-pump for 350 out of\nevery 365 days. And the early Ionian professors made such excellent use\nof their climatic advantages that they became the pioneers of all future\nscientific development.\n\nThe first of whom we have any report, the real founder of modern\nscience, was a person of doubtful origin. Not in the sense that he had\nrobbed a bank or murdered his family and had fled to Miletus from parts\nunknown. But no one knew much about his antecedents. Was he a Boeotian\nor a Phoenician, a Nordic (to speak in the jargon of our learned racial\nexperts) or a Semite?\n\nIt shows what an international center this little old city at the mouth\nof the Meander was in those days. Its population (like that of New York\ntoday) consisted of so many different elements that people accepted their\nneighbors at their face value and did not look too closely into the\nfamily antecedents.\n\nSince this is not a history of mathematics or a handbook of philosophy,\nthe speculations of Thales do not properly belong in these pages, except\nin so far as they tend to show the tolerance towards new ideas which\nprevailed among the Ionians at a time when Rome was a small market-town\non a muddy river somewhere in a distant and unknown region, when the Jews\nwere still captives in the land of Assyria and when northern and western\nEurope were naught but a howling wilderness.\n\nIn order that we may understand how such a development was possible, we\nmust know something about the changes which had taken place since the\ndays when Greek chieftains sailed across the Aegean Sea, intent upon the\nplunder of the rich fortress of Troy. Those far-famed heroes were still\nthe product of an exceedingly primitive form of civilization. They were\nover-grown children who regarded life as one long, glorified rough-house,\nfull of excitement and wrestling matches and running races and all the\nmany things which we ourselves would dearly love to do if we were not\nforced to stick to the routine jobs which provide us with bread and\nbananas.\n\nThe relationship between these boisterous paladins and their Gods was as\ndirect and as simple as their attitude towards the serious problems of\nevery-day existence. For the inhabitants of high Olympus, who ruled the\nworld of the Hellenes in the tenth century before our era, were of this\nearth earthy, and not very far removed from ordinary mortals. Exactly\nwhere and when and how man and his Gods had parted company was a more\nor less hazy point, never clearly established. Even then the friendship\nwhich those who lived beyond the clouds had always felt towards their\nsubjects who crawled across the face of the earth had in no way been\ninterrupted and it had remained flavored with those personal and intimate\ntouches which gave the religion of the Greeks its own peculiar charm.\n\nOf course, all good little Greek boys were duly taught that Zeus was a\nvery powerful and mighty potentate with a long beard who upon occasion\nwould juggle so violently with his flashes of lightning and his\nthunderbolts that it seemed that the world was coming to an end. But\nas soon as they were a little older and were able to read the ancient\nsagas for themselves, they began to appreciate the limitations of those\nterrible personages of whom they had heard so much in their nursery\nand who now appeared in the light of a merry family-party\u2014everlastingly\nplaying practical jokes upon each other and taking such bitter sides in\nthe political disputes of their mortal friends that every quarrel in\nGreece was immediately followed by a corresponding row among the denizens\nof the aether.\n\nOf course in spite of all these very human short-comings, Zeus remained a\nvery great God, the mightiest of all rulers and a personage whom it was\nnot safe to displease. But he was \u201creasonable\u201d in that sense of the word\nwhich is so well understood among the lobbyists of Washington. He was\nreasonable. He could be approached if one knew the proper way. And best\nof all, he had a sense of humor and did not take either himself or his\nworld too seriously.\n\nThis was, perhaps, not the most sublime conception of a divine figure,\nbut it offered certain very distinct advantages. Among the ancient Greeks\nthere never was a hard and fast rule as to what people must hold true\nand what they must disregard as false. And because there was no \u201ccreed\u201d\nin the modern sense of the word, with adamantine dogmas and a class\nof professional priests, ready to enforce them with the help of the\nsecular gallows, the people in different parts of the country were able\nto reshape their religious ideas and ethical conceptions as best suited\ntheir own individual tastes.\n\nThe Thessalians, who lived within hailing distance of Mount Olympus,\nshowed of course much less respect for their august neighbors than did\nthe Asopians who dwelled in a distant village on the Laconian Gulf. The\nAthenians, feeling themselves under the direct protection of their own\npatron saint, Pallas Athene, felt that they could take great liberties\nwith the lady\u2019s father, while the Arcadians, whose valleys were far\nremoved from the main trade routes, clung tenaciously to a simpler faith\nand frowned upon all levity in the serious matter of religion, and as\nfor the inhabitants of Phocis, who made a living from the pilgrims bound\nfor the village of Delphi, they were firmly convinced that Apollo (who\nwas worshiped at that profitable shrine) was the greatest of all divine\nspirits and deserved the special homage of those who came from afar and\nstill had a couple of drachmas in their pocket.\n\nThe belief in only one God which soon afterwards was to set the Jews\napart from all other nations, would never have been possible if the life\nof Judaea had not centered around a single city which was strong enough\nto destroy all rival places of pilgrimage and was able to maintain an\nexclusive religious monopoly for almost ten consecutive centuries.\n\nIn Greece such a condition did not prevail. Neither Athens nor Sparta\never succeeded in establishing itself as the recognized capital of a\nunited Greek fatherland. Their efforts in this direction only led to long\nyears of unprofitable civil war.\n\nNo wonder that a race composed of such sublime individualists offered\ngreat scope for the development of a very independent spirit of thought.\n\nThe Iliad and the Odyssey have sometimes been called the Bible of the\nGreeks. They were nothing of the sort. They were just books. They were\nnever united into \u201cThe Book.\u201d They told the adventures of certain\nwonderful heroes who were fondly believed to be the direct ancestors of\nthe generation then living. Incidentally they contained a certain amount\nof religious information because the Gods, without exception, had taken\nsides in the quarrel and had neglected all other business for the joy of\nwatching the rarest prize-fight that had ever been staged within their\ndomain.\n\nThe idea, however, that the works of Homer might either directly or\nindirectly have been inspired by Zeus or Minerva or Apollo never even\ndawned upon the Greek mind. These were a fine piece of literature and\nmade excellent reading during the long winter evenings. Furthermore they\ncaused children to feel proud of their own race.\n\nAnd that was all.\n\nIn such an atmosphere of intellectual and spiritual freedom, in a city\nfilled with the pungent smell of ships from all the seven seas, rich\nwith fabrics of the Orient, merry with the laughter of a well fed and\ncontented populace, Thales was born. In such a city he worked and taught\nand in such a city he died. If the conclusions which he reached differed\ngreatly from the opinions held by most of his neighbors, remember that\nhis ideas never penetrated beyond a very limited circle. The average\nMiletian may have heard the name of Thales, just as the average New\nYorker has probably heard the name of Einstein. Ask him who Einstein is,\nand he will answer that he is a fellow with long hair who smokes a pipe\nand plays the fiddle and who wrote something about a man walking through\na railroad train, about which there once was an article in a Sunday paper.\n\nThat this strange person who smokes a pipe and plays the fiddle has got\nhold of a little spark of truth which eventually may upset (or at least\ngreatly modify) the scientific conclusions of the last sixty centuries,\nis a matter of profound indifference to the millions of easy-going\ncitizens whose interest in mathematics does not reach beyond the conflict\nwhich arises when their favorite batsman tries to upset the law of\ngravity.\n\nThe text-books of ancient history usually get rid of the difficulty\nby printing \u201cThales of Miletus (640-546 B.C.), the founder of modern\nscience.\u201d And we can almost see the headlines in the \u201cMiletus Gazette\u201d\nsaying, \u201cLocal graduate discovers secret of true science.\u201d\n\nBut just how and where and when Thales left the beaten track and struck\nout for himself, I could not possibly tell you. This much is certain,\nthat he did not live in an intellectual vacuum, nor did he develop his\nwisdom out of his inner consciousness. In the seventh century before\nChrist, a great deal of the pioneer work in the realm of science had\nalready been done and there was quite a large body of mathematical\nand physical and astronomical information at the disposal of those\nintelligent enough to make use of it.\n\nBabylonian star-gazers had searched the heavens.\n\nEgyptian architects had done considerable figuring before they dared\nto dump a couple of million tons of granite on top of a little burial\nchamber in the heart of a pyramid.\n\nThe mathematicians of the Nile Valley had seriously studied the behavior\nof the sun that they might predict the wet and dry seasons and give the\npeasants a calendar by which they could regulate their work on the farms.\n\nAll these problems, however, had been solved by people who still regarded\nthe forces of nature as the direct and personal expression of the will\nof certain invisible Gods who administered the seasons and the course of\nthe planets and the tides of the ocean as the members of the President\u2019s\ncabinet manage the department of agriculture or the post-office or the\ntreasury.\n\nThales rejected this point of view. But like most well educated people of\nhis day, he did not bother to discuss it in public. If the fruit vendors\nalong the water front wanted to fall upon their faces whenever there was\nan eclipse of the sun and invoke the name of Zeus in fear of this unusual\nsight, that was their business and Thales would have been the last man\nto try to convince them that any schoolboy with an elementary knowledge\nof the behavior of heavenly bodies would have foretold that on the 25th\nof May of the year 585 B.C., at such and such an hour, the moon would\nfind herself between the earth and the sun and that therefore the town of\nMiletus would experience a few minutes of comparative darkness.\n\nEven when it appeared (as it did appear) that the Persians and the\nLydians had been engaged in battle on the afternoon of this famous\neclipse and had been obliged to cease killing each other for lack\nof sufficient light, he refused to believe that the Lydian deities\n(following a famous precedent established a few years previously during\na certain battle in the valley of Ajalon) had performed a miracle, and\nhad suddenly turned off the light of Heaven that the victory might go to\nthose whom they favored.\n\nFor Thales had reached the point (and that was his great merit) where\nhe dared to regard all nature as the manifestation of one Eternal Will,\nsubject to one Eternal Law and entirely beyond the personal influence\nof those divine spirits which man was forever creating after his own\nimage. And the eclipse, so he felt, would have taken place just the\nsame if there had been no more important engagement that particular\nafternoon than a dog fight in the streets of Ephesus or a wedding feast\nin Halicarnassus.\n\nDrawing the logical conclusions from his own scientific observations, he\nlaid down one general and inevitable law for all creation and guessed\n(and to a certain extent guessed correctly) that the beginning of all\nthings was to be found in the water which apparently surrounded the world\non all sides and which had probably existed from the very beginning of\ntime.\n\nUnfortunately we do not possess anything that Thales himself wrote. It\nis possible that he may have put his ideas into concrete form (for the\nGreeks had already learned the alphabet from the Phoenicians) but not\na page which can be directly attributed to him survives today. For our\nknowledge of himself and his ideas we depend upon the scanty bits of\ninformation found in the books of some of his contemporaries. From these,\nhowever, we have learned that Thales in private life was a merchant with\nwide connections in all parts of the Mediterranean. That, by the way, was\ntypical of most of the early philosophers. They were \u201clovers of wisdom.\u201d\nBut they never closed their eyes to the fact that the secret of life is\nfound among the living and that \u201cwisdom for the sake of wisdom\u201d is quite\nas dangerous as \u201cart for art\u2019s sake\u201d or a dinner for the sake of the food.\n\nTo them, man with all his human qualities, good and bad and indifferent,\nwas the supreme measure of all things. Wherefore they spent their leisure\ntime patiently studying this strange creature as he was and not as they\nthought that he ought to be.\n\nThis made it possible for them to remain on the most amicable terms with\ntheir fellow citizens and allowed them to wield a much greater power\nthan if they had undertaken to show their neighbors a short cut to the\nMillennium.\n\nThey rarely laid down a hard and fast rule of conduct.\n\nBut by their own example they managed to show how a true understanding of\nthe forces of nature must inevitably lead to that inner peace of the soul\nupon which all true happiness depends and having in this way gained the\ngood-will of their community they were given full liberty to study and\nexplore and investigate and were even permitted to venture within those\ndomains which were popularly believed to be the exclusive property of the\nGods. And as one of the pioneers of this new gospel did Thales spend the\nlong years of his useful career.\n\nAlthough he had pulled the entire world of the Greeks apart, although he\nhad examined each little piece separately, and had openly questioned all\nsorts of things which the majority of the people since the beginning of\ntime had held to be established facts, he was allowed to die peacefully\nin his own bed, and if any one ever called him to account for his\nheresies, we fail to have a record of the fact.\n\nAnd once he had shown the way, there were many others eager to follow.\n\nThere was, for example, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, who left Asia Minor\nfor Athens at the age of thirty-six and spent the following years as a\n\u201csophist\u201d or private tutor in different Greek cities. He specialized\nin astronomy and among other things he taught that the sun was not a\nheavenly chariot, driven by a God, as was generally believed, but a\nred-hot ball of fire, thousands and thousands of times larger than the\nwhole of Greece.\n\nWhen nothing happened to him, when no bolt from Heaven killed him for\nhis audacity, he went a little further in his theories and stated boldly\nthat the moon was covered with mountains and valleys and finally he even\nhinted at a certain \u201coriginal matter\u201d which was the beginning and the end\nof all things and which had existed from the very beginning of time.\n\nBut here, as many other scientists after him were to discover, he trod\nupon dangerous ground, for he discussed something with which people were\nfamiliar. The sun and the moon were distant orbs. The average Greek\ndid not care what names the philosopher wished to call them. But when\nthe professor began to argue that all things had gradually grown and\ndeveloped out of a vague substance called \u201coriginal matter\u201d\u2014then he went\ndecidedly too far. Such an assertion was in flat contradiction with the\nstory of Deucalion and Pyrrha, who after the great flood had re-populated\nthe world by turning bits of stone into men and women. To deny the truth\nof a most solemn tale which all little Greek boys and girls had been\ntaught in their early childhood was most dangerous to the safety of\nestablished society. It would make the children doubt the wisdom of their\nelders and that would never do. Hence Anaxagoras was made the subject of\na formidable attack on the part of the Athenian Parents\u2019 League.\n\nDuring the monarchy and the early days of the republic, the rulers of the\ncity would have been more than able to protect a teacher of unpopular\ndoctrines from the foolish hostility of the illiterate Attic peasants.\nBut Athens by this time had become a full-fledged democracy and the\nfreedom of the individual was no longer what it used to be. Furthermore,\nPericles, just then in disgrace with the majority of the people,\nwas himself a favorite pupil of the great astronomer, and the legal\nprosecution of Anaxagoras was welcomed as an excellent political move\nagainst the city\u2019s old dictator.\n\nA priest by the name of Diopheites, who also was a ward-leader in\none of the most densely populated suburbs, got a law passed which\ndemanded \u201cthe immediate prosecution of all those who disbelieved in the\nestablished religion or held theories of their own about certain divine\nthings.\u201d Under this law, Anaxagoras was actually thrown into prison.\nFinally, however, the better elements in the city prevailed. Anaxagoras\nwas allowed to go free after the payment of a small fine and move to\nLampsacus in Asia Minor where he died, full of years and honor, in the\nyear 428 B.C.\n\nHis case shows how little is ever accomplished by the official\nsuppression of scientific theories. For although Anaxagoras was forced\nto leave Athens, his ideas remained behind and two centuries later they\ncame to the notice of one Aristotle, who in turn used them as a basis\nfor many of his own scientific speculations. Reaching merrily across a\nthousand years of darkness, he handed them on to one Abul-Walid Muhammad\nibn-Ahmad (commonly known as Averro\u00ebs), the great Arab physician who in\nturn popularized them among the students of the Moorish universities of\nsouthern Spain. Then, together with his own observations, he wrote them\ndown in a number of books. These were duly carried across the Pyrenees\nuntil they reached the universities of Paris and Boulogne. There they\nwere translated into Latin and French and English and so thoroughly were\nthey accepted by the people of western and northern Europe that today\nthey have become an integral part of every primer of science and are\nconsidered as harmless as the tables of multiplication.\n\nBut to return to Anaxagoras. For almost an entire generation after his\ntrial, Greek scientists were allowed to teach doctrines which were at\nvariance with popular belief. And then, during the last years of the\nfifth century, a second case took place.\n\nThe victim this time was a certain Protagoras, a wandering teacher who\nhailed from the village of Abdera, an Ionian colony in northern Greece.\nThis spot already enjoyed a doubtful reputation as the birthplace of\nDemocritus, the original \u201claughing philosopher,\u201d who had laid down the\nlaw that \u201conly that society is worth while which offers to the largest\nnumber of people the greatest amount of happiness obtainable with the\nsmallest amount of pain,\u201d and who therefore was regarded as a good\ndeal of a radical and a fellow who should be under constant police\nsupervision.\n\nProtagoras, deeply impressed by this doctrine, went to Athens and there,\nafter many years of study, proclaimed that man was the measure of all\nthings, that life was too short to waste valuable time upon an inquiry\ninto the doubtful existence of any Gods, and that all energies ought\nto be used for the purpose of making existence more beautiful and more\nthoroughly enjoyable.\n\nThis statement, of course, went to the very root of the matter and it\nwas bound to shock the faithful more than anything that had ever been\nwritten or said. Furthermore it was made during a very serious crisis in\nthe war between Athens and Sparta and the people, after a long series of\ndefeats and pestilence, were in a state of utter despair. Most evidently\nit was not the right moment to incur the wrath of the Gods by an inquiry\ninto the scope of their supernatural powers. Protagoras was accused of\natheism, of \u201cgodlessness,\u201d and was told to submit his doctrines to the\ncourts.\n\nPericles, who could have protected him, was dead and Protagoras, although\na scientist, felt little taste for martyrdom.\n\nHe fled.\n\nUnfortunately, on the way to Sicily, his ship was wrecked, and it seems\nthat he was drowned, for we never hear of him again.\n\nAs for Diagoras, another victim of Athenian malevolence, he was really\nnot a philosopher at all but a young writer who harbored a personal\ngrudge against the Gods because they had once failed to give him their\nsupport in a law-suit. He brooded so long upon his supposed grievance\nthat finally his mind became affected and he went about saying all sorts\nof blasphemous things about the Holy Mysteries which just then enjoyed\ngreat popularity among the people of northern Hellas. For this unseemly\nconduct he was condemned to death. But ere the sentence was executed,\nthe poor devil was given the opportunity to escape. He went to Corinth,\ncontinued to revile his Olympian enemies, and peacefully died of his own\nbad temper.\n\nAnd this brings us at last to the most notorious and the most famous case\nof Greek intolerance of which we possess any record, the judicial murder\nof Socrates.\n\nWhen it is sometimes stated that the world has not changed at all and\nthat the Athenians were no more broadminded than the people of later\ntimes, the name of Socrates is dragged into the debate as a terrible\nexample of Greek bigotry. But today, after a very exhaustive study of\nthe case, we know better and the long and undisturbed career of this\nbrilliant but exasperating soap-box orator is a direct tribute to the\nspirit of intellectual liberty which prevailed throughout ancient Greece\nin the fifth century before our era.\n\nFor Socrates, at a time when the common people still firmly believed in\na large number of divine beings, made himself the prophet of an only\nGod. And although the Athenians may not always have known what he meant\nwhen he spoke of his \u201cdaemon\u201d (that inner voice of divine inspiration\nwhich told him what to do and say), they were fully aware of his very\nunorthodox attitude towards those ideals which most of his neighbors\ncontinued to hold in holy veneration and his utter lack of respect for\nthe established order of things. In the end, however, politics killed the\nold man and theology (although dragged in for the benefit of the crowd)\nhad really very little to do with the outcome of the trial.\n\nSocrates was the son of a stone-cutter who had many children and little\nmoney. The boy therefore had never been able to pay for a regular\ncollege course, for most of the philosophers were practical fellows and\noften charged as much as two thousand dollars for a single course of\ninstruction. Besides, the pursuit of pure knowledge and the study of\nuseless scientific facts seemed to young Socrates a mere waste of time\nand energy. Provided a person cultivated his conscience, so he reasoned,\nhe could well do without geometry and a knowledge of the true nature of\ncomets and planets was not necessary for the salvation of the soul.\n\nAll the same, the homely little fellow with the broken nose and the\nshabby cloak, who spent his days arguing with the loafers on the corner\nof the street and his nights listening to the harangues of his wife (who\nwas obliged to provide for a large family by taking in washing, as her\nhusband regarded the gaining of a livelihood as an entirely negligible\ndetail of existence), this honorable veteran of many wars and expeditions\nand ex-member of the Athenian senate was chosen among all the many\nteachers of his day to suffer for his opinions.\n\nIn order to understand how this happened, we must know something about\nthe politics of Athens in the days when Socrates rendered his painful but\nhighly useful service to the cause of human intelligence and progress.\n\nAll his life long (and he was past seventy when he was executed) Socrates\ntried to show his neighbors that they were wasting their opportunities;\nthat they were living hollow and shallow lives; that they devoted\nentirely too much time to empty pleasures and vain triumphs and almost\ninvariably squandered the divine gifts with which a great and mysterious\nGod had endowed them for the sake of a few hours of futile glory and\nself-satisfaction. And so thoroughly convinced was he of man\u2019s high\ndestiny that he broke through the bounds of all old philosophies and\nwent even farther than Protagoras. For whereas the latter had taught\nthat \u201cman is the measure of all things,\u201d Socrates preached that \u201cman\u2019s\ninvisible conscience is (or ought to be) the ultimate measure of all\nthings and that it is not the Gods but we ourselves who shape our\ndestiny.\u201d\n\nThe speech which Socrates made before the judges who were to decide\nhis fate (there were five hundred of them to be precise and they had\nbeen so carefully chosen by his political enemies that some of them\ncould actually read and write) was one of the most delightful bits of\ncommonsense ever addressed to any audience, sympathetic or otherwise.\n\n\u201cNo person on earth,\u201d so the philosopher argued, \u201chas the right to tell\nanother man what he should believe or to deprive him of the right to\nthink as he pleases,\u201d and further, \u201cProvided that man remain on good\nterms with his own conscience, he can well do without the approbation\nof his friends, without money, without a family or even a home. But\nas no one can possibly reach the right conclusions without a thorough\nexamination of all the pros and cons of every problem, people must be\ngiven a chance to discuss all questions with complete freedom and without\ninterference on the part of the authorities.\u201d\n\nUnfortunately for the accused, this was exactly the wrong statement\nat the wrong moment. Ever since the Peloponnesian war there had been\na bitter struggle in Athens between the rich and the poor, between\ncapital and labor. Socrates was a \u201cmoderate\u201d\u2014a liberal who saw good and\nevil in both systems of government and who tried to find a compromise\nwhich should satisfy all reasonable people. This, of course, had made\nhim thoroughly unpopular with both sides but thus far they had been too\nevenly balanced to take action against him.\n\nWhen at last in the year 403 B.C. the one-hundred-percent Democrats\ngained complete control of the state and expelled the aristocrats,\nSocrates was a doomed man.\n\nHis friends knew this. They suggested that he leave the city before it\nwas too late and this would have been a very wise thing to do.\n\nFor Socrates had quite as many enemies as friends. During the greater\npart of a century he had been a sort of vocal \u201ccolumnist,\u201d a terribly\nclever busy-body who had made it his hobby to expose the shams and the\nintellectual swindles of those who regarded themselves as the pillars\nof Athenian society. As a result, every one had come to know him. His\nname had become a household word throughout eastern Greece. When he said\nsomething funny in the morning, by night the whole town had heard about\nit. Plays had been written about him and when he was finally arrested and\ntaken to prison there was not a citizen in the whole of Attica who was\nnot thoroughly familiar with all the details of his career.\n\nThose who took the leading part in the actual trial (like that honorable\ngrain merchant who could neither read nor write but who knew all about\nthe will of the Gods and therefore was loudest in his accusations)\nwere undoubtedly convinced that they were rendering a great service to\nthe community by ridding the city of a highly dangerous member of the\nso-called \u201cintelligentsia,\u201d a man whose teaching could only lead to\nlaziness and crime and discontent among the slaves.\n\nIt is rather amusing to remember that even under those circumstances,\nSocrates pleaded his case with such tremendous virtuosity that a majority\nof the jury was all for letting him go free and suggested that he might\nbe pardoned if only he would give up this terrible habit of arguing, of\ndebating, of wrangling and moralizing, in short, if only he would leave\nhis neighbors and their pet prejudices in peace and not bother them with\nhis eternal doubts.\n\nBut Socrates would not hear of it.\n\n\u201cBy no means,\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cAs long as my conscience, as long as the\nstill small voice within me, bids me go forth and show men the true road\nto reason, I shall continue to buttonhole whomsoever I happen to meet and\nI shall say what is on my mind, regardless of consequences.\u201d\n\nAfter that, there was no other course but to condemn the prisoner to\ndeath.\n\nSocrates was given a respite of thirty days. The holy ship which made an\nannual pilgrimage to Delos had not yet returned from its voyage and until\nthen, the Athenian law did not allow any executions. The whole of this\nmonth the old man spent quietly in his cell, trying to improve his system\nof logic. Although he was repeatedly given the opportunity to escape, he\nrefused to go. He had lived his life and had done his duty. He was tired\nand ready to depart. Until the hour of his execution he continued to talk\nwith his friends, trying to educate them in what he held to be right\nand true, asking them to turn their minds upon the things of the spirit\nrather than those of the material world.\n\nThen he drank the beaker of hemlock, laid himself upon his couch and\nsettled all further argument by sleep everlasting.\n\nFor a short time, his disciples, rather terrified by this terrible\noutburst of popular wrath, thought it wise to remove themselves from the\nscene of their former activities.\n\nBut when nothing happened, they returned and resumed their former\noccupation as public teachers, and within a dozen years after the death\nof the old philosopher, his ideas were more popular than ever.\n\nThe city meanwhile had gone through a very difficult period. It was five\nyears since the struggle for the leadership of the Greek peninsula had\nended with the defeat of Athens and the ultimate victory of the Spartans.\nThis had been a complete triumph of brawn over brain. Needless to say\nthat it did not last very long. The Spartans, who never wrote a line\nworth remembering or contributed a single idea to the sum total of human\nknowledge (with the exception of certain military tactics which survive\nin our modern game of football) thought that they had accomplished\ntheir task when the walls of their rival had been pulled down and the\nAthenian fleet had been reduced to a dozen ships. But the Athenian mind\nhad lost none of its shrewd brilliancy. A decade after the end of the\nPeloponnesian war, the old harbor of the Piraeus was once more filled\nwith ships from all parts of the world and Athenian admirals were again\nfighting at the head of the allied Greek navies.\n\nFurthermore, the labor of Pericles, although not appreciated by his\nown contemporaries, had made the city the intellectual capital of the\nworld\u2014the Paris of the fourth century before the birth of Christ.\nWhosoever in Rome or Spain or Africa was rich enough to give his sons a\nfashionable education, felt flattered if the boys were allowed to visit a\nschool situated within the shadow of the Acropolis.\n\nFor this ancient world, which we modern people find so difficult to\nunderstand properly, took the problem of existence seriously.\n\nUnder the influence of the early Christian enemies of pagan civilization,\nthe impression has gained ground that the average Roman or Greek was\na highly immoral person who paid a shallow homage to certain nebulous\nGods and for the rest spent his waking hours eating enormous dinners,\ndrinking vast bumpers of Salernian wine and listening to the pretty\nprattle of Egyptian dancing girls, unless for a change he went to war and\nslaughtered innocent Germans and Franks and Dacians for the pure sport of\nshedding blood.\n\nOf course, both in Greece and even more so in Rome, there were a great\nmany merchants and war contractors who had accumulated their millions\nwithout much regard for those ethical principles which Socrates had so\nwell defined before his judges. Because these people were very wealthy,\nthey had to be put up with. This, however, did not mean that they\nenjoyed the respect of the community or were regarded as commendable\nrepresentatives of the civilization of their day.\n\nWe dig up the villa of Epaphroditus, who amassed millions as one of\nthe gang who helped Nero plunder Rome and her colonies. We look at the\nruins of the forty room palace which the old profiteer built out of his\nill-gotten gains. And we shake our heads and say, \u201cWhat depravity!\u201d\n\nThen we sit down and read the works of Epictetus, who was one of the\nhouse slaves of the old scoundrel, and we find ourselves in the company\nof a spirit as lofty and as exalted as ever lived.\n\nI know that the making of generalizations about our neighbors and\nabout other nations is one of the most popular of indoor sports, but\nlet us not forget that Epictetus, the philosopher, was quite as truly\na representative of the time in which he lived as Epaphroditus, the\nimperial flunkey, and that the desire for holiness was as great twenty\ncenturies ago as it is today.\n\nUndoubtedly it was a very different sort of holiness from that which is\npracticed today. It was the product of an essentially European brain and\nhad nothing to do with the Orient. But the \u201cbarbarians\u201d who established\nit as their ideal of what they held to be most noble and desirable were\nour own ancestors, and they were slowly developing a philosophy of life\nwhich was highly successful if we agree that a clear conscience and a\nsimple, straightforward life, together with good health and a moderate\nbut sufficient income, are the best guarantee for general happiness\nand contentment. The future of the soul did not interest these people\novermuch. They accepted the fact that they were a special sort of mammal\nwhich by reason of its intellectual application had risen high above\nthe other creatures which crawled upon this earth. If they frequently\nreferred to the Gods, they used the word as we use \u201catoms\u201d or \u201celectrons\u201d\nor \u201caether.\u201d The beginning of things has got to have a name, but Zeus\nin the mouth of Epictetus was as problematical a value as x or y in the\nproblems of Euclid and meant just as much or as little.\n\nLife it was which interested those men and next to living, art.\n\nLife, therefore, in all its endless varieties, they studied and following\nthe method of reasoning which Socrates had originated and made popular,\nthey achieved some very remarkable results.\n\nThat sometimes in their zeal for a perfect spiritual world they went to\nabsurd extremes was regrettable, but no more than human. But Plato is the\nonly one among all the teachers of antiquity who from sheer love for a\nperfect world ever came to preach a doctrine of intolerance.\n\nThis young Athenian, as is well known, was the beloved disciple of\nSocrates and became his literary executor.\n\nIn this capacity he immediately gathered all that Socrates had ever said\nor thought into a series of dialogues which might be truthfully called\nthe Socratian Gospels.\n\nWhen this had been done, he began to elaborate certain of the more\nobscure points in his master\u2019s doctrines and explained them in a series\nof brilliant essays. And finally he conducted a number of lecture courses\nwhich spread the Athenian ideas of justice and righteousness far beyond\nthe confines of Attica.\n\nIn all these activities he showed such whole-hearted and unselfish\ndevotion that we might almost compare him to St. Paul. But whereas St.\nPaul had led a most adventurous and dangerous existence, ever traveling\nfrom north to south and from west to east that he might bring the Good\nTidings to all parts of the Mediterranean world, Plato never budged from\nhis comfortable garden chair and allowed the world to come to him.\n\nCertain advantages of birth and the possession of independent wealth\nallowed him to do this.\n\nIn the first place he was an Athenian citizen and through his mother\ncould trace his descent to no one less than Solon. Then as soon as he\ncame of age he inherited a fortune more than sufficient for his simple\nneeds.\n\nAnd finally, his eloquence was such that people willingly traveled to the\nAegean Sea if only they were allowed to follow a few of the lectures in\nthe Platonic University.\n\nFor the rest, Plato was very much like the other young men of his time.\nHe served in the army, but without any particular interest in military\naffairs. He went in for outdoor sports, became a good wrestler, a fairly\ngood runner, but never achieved any particular fame in the stadium.\nAgain, like most young men of his time, he spent a great deal of his\ntime in foreign travel and crossed the Aegean Sea and paid a short visit\nto northern Egypt, as his famous grandfather Solon had done before\nhim. After that, however, he returned home for good and during fifty\nconsecutive years he quietly taught his doctrines in the shadowy corners\nof a pleasure garden which was situated on the banks of the river\nCephissus in the suburbs of Athens and was called the Academy.\n\nHe had begun his career as a mathematician, but gradually he switched\nover to politics and in this field he laid the foundations for our\nmodern school of government. He was at heart a confirmed optimist and\nbelieved in a steady process of human evolution. The life of man, so he\ntaught, rises slowly from a lower plane to a higher one. From beautiful\nbodies, the world proceeds to beautiful institutions and from beautiful\ninstitutions to beautiful ideas.\n\nThis sounded well on parchment, but when Plato tried to lay down certain\ndefinite principles upon which his perfect state was to be founded, his\nzeal for righteousness and his desire for justice were so great that they\nmade him deaf and blind to all other considerations. His Republic, which\nhas ever since been regarded as the last word in human perfection by\nthe manufacturers of paper Utopias, was a very strange commonwealth and\nreflected and continues to reflect with great nicety the prejudices of\nthose retired colonels who have always enjoyed the comforts of a private\nincome, who like to move in polite circles and who have a profound\ndistrust of the lower classes, lest they forget \u201ctheir place\u201d and want to\nhave a share of those special privileges which by right should go to the\nmembers of the \u201cupper class.\u201d\n\nUnfortunately the books of Plato enjoyed great respect among the medieval\nscholars of western Europe and in their hands the famous Republic became\na most formidable weapon in their warfare upon tolerance.\n\nFor these learned doctors were apt to forget that Plato had reached his\nconclusions from very different premises than those which were popular in\nthe twelfth and thirteenth centuries.\n\nFor instance, Plato had been anything but a pious man in the Christian\nsense of the word. The Gods of his ancestors he had always regarded\nwith deep contempt as ill-mannered rustics from distant Macedonia. He\nhad been deeply mortified by their scandalous behavior as related in\nthe chronicles of the Trojan War. But as he grew older and sat and sat\nand sat in his little olive grove and became more and more exasperated\nby the foolish quarrels of the little city-states of his native land,\nand witnessed the utter failure of the old democratic ideal, he grew\nconvinced that some sort of religion was necessary for the average\ncitizen, or his imaginary Republic would at once degenerate into a state\nof rampant anarchy. He therefore insisted that the legislative body of\nhis model community should establish a definite rule of conduct for\nall citizens and should force both freemen and slaves to obey these\nregulations on pain of death or exile or imprisonment. This sounded\nlike an absolute negation of that broad spirit of tolerance and of that\nliberty of conscience for which Socrates had so valiantly fought only a\nshort time before, and that is exactly what it was meant to be.\n\nThe reason for this change in attitude is not hard to find. Whereas\nSocrates had been a man among men, Plato was afraid of life and escaped\nfrom an unpleasant and ugly world into the realm of his own day dreams.\nHe knew of course that there was not the slightest chance of his ideas\never being realized. The day of the little independent city-states,\nwhether imaginary or real, was over. The era of centralization had begun\nand soon the entire Greek peninsula was to be incorporated into that vast\nMacedonian Empire which stretched from the shores of the Maritsa to the\nbanks of the Indus River.\n\nBut ere the heavy hand of the conqueror descended upon the unruly\ndemocracies of the old peninsula, the country had produced the greatest\nof those many benefactors who have put the rest of the world under\neternal obligation to the now defunct race of the Greeks.\n\nI refer of course to Aristotle, the wonder-child from Stagira, the man\nwho in his day and age knew everything that was to be known and added\nso much to the sum total of human knowledge that his books became an\nintellectual quarry from which fifty successive generations of Europeans\nand Asiatics were able to steal to their hearts\u2019 content without\nexhausting that rich vein of pure learning.\n\nAt the age of eighteen, Aristotle had left his native village in\nMacedonia to go to Athens and follow the lectures in Plato\u2019s university.\nAfter his graduation he lectured in a number of places until the year 336\nwhen he returned to Athens and opened a school of his own in a garden\nnear the temple of Apollo Lyceus, which became known as the Lyceum and\nsoon attracted pupils from all over the world.\n\nStrangely enough, the Athenians were not at all in favor of increasing\nthe number of academies within their walls. The town was at last\nbeginning to lose its old commercial importance and all of her more\nenergetic citizens were moving to Alexandria and to Marseilles and other\ncities of the south and the west. Those who remained behind were either\ntoo poor or too indolent to escape. They were the hide-bound remnant of\nthose old, turbulent masses of free citizens, who had been at once the\nglory and the ruin of the long-suffering Republic. They had regarded\nthe \u201cgoings on\u201d in Plato\u2019s orchard with small favor. When a dozen years\nafter his death, his most notorious pupil came back and openly taught\nstill more outrageous doctrines about the beginning of the world and the\nlimited ability of the Gods, the old fogies shook their solemn heads and\nmumbled dark threats against the man who was making their city a by-word\nfor free thinking and unbelief.\n\nIf they had had their own way, they would have forced him to leave their\ncountry. But they wisely kept these opinions to themselves. For this\nshort-sighted, stoutish gentleman, famous for his good taste in books\nand in clothes, was no negligible quantity in the political life of that\nday, no obscure little professor who could be driven out of town by a\ncouple of hired toughs. He was no one less than the son of a Macedonian\ncourt-physician and he had been brought up with the royal princes.\nAnd furthermore, as soon as he had finished his studies, he had been\nappointed tutor to the crown prince and for eight years he had been the\ndaily companion of young Alexander. Hence he enjoyed the friendship and\nthe protection of the most powerful ruler the world had ever seen and the\nregent who administered the Greek provinces during the monarch\u2019s absence\non the Indian front watched carefully lest harm should befall one who had\nbeen the boon companion of his imperial master.\n\nNo sooner, however, had news of Alexander\u2019s death reached Athens than\nAristotle\u2019s life was in peril. He remembered what had happened to\nSocrates and felt no desire to suffer a similar fate. Like Plato, he had\ncarefully avoided mixing philosophy with practical politics. But his\ndistaste for the democratic form of government and his lack of belief\nin the sovereign abilities of the common people were known to all. And\nwhen the Athenians, in a sudden outburst of fury, expelled the Macedonian\ngarrison, Aristotle moved across the Euboean Sound and went to live in\nCalchis, where he died a few months before Athens was reconquered by the\nMacedonians and was duly punished for her disobedience.\n\nAt this far distance it is not easy to discover upon what positive\ngrounds Aristotle was accused of impiety. But as usual in that nation of\namateur orators, his case was inextricably mixed up with politics and\nhis unpopularity was due to his disregard of the prejudices of a few\nlocal ward-bosses, rather than to the expression of any startlingly new\nheresies, which might have exposed Athens to the vengeance of Zeus.\n\nNor does it matter very much.\n\nThe days of the small independent republics were numbered.\n\nSoon afterwards, the Romans fell heir to the European heritage of\nAlexander and Greece became one of their many provinces.\n\nThen there was an end to all further bickering, for the Romans in most\nmatters were even more tolerant than the Greeks of the Golden Age had\nbeen and they permitted their subjects to think as they pleased, provided\nthey did not question certain principles of political expediency upon\nwhich the peace and prosperity of the Roman state had, since time\nimmemorial, been safely builded.\n\nAll the same there existed a subtle difference between the ideals which\nanimated the contemporaries of Cicero and those which had been held\nsacred by the followers of such a man as Pericles. The old leaders of\nGreek thought had based their tolerance upon certain definite conclusions\nwhich they had reached after centuries of careful experiment and\nmeditation. The Romans felt that they could do without the preliminary\nstudy. They were merely indifferent, and were proud of the fact. They\nwere interested in practical things. They were men of action and had a\ndeep-seated contempt for words.\n\nIf other people wished to spend their afternoons underneath an old olive\ntree, discussing the theoretical aspects of government or the influence\nof the moon upon the tides, they were more than welcome to do so.\n\nIf furthermore their knowledge could be turned to some practical use,\nthen it was worthy of further attention. Otherwise, together with\nsinging and dancing and cooking, sculpture and science, this business\nof philosophizing had better be left to the Greeks and to the other\nforeigners whom Jupiter in his mercy had created to provide the world\nwith those things which were unworthy of a true Roman\u2019s attention.\n\nMeanwhile they themselves would devote their attention to the\nadministration of their ever increasing domains; they would drill the\nnecessary companies of foreign infantry and cavalry to protect their\noutlying provinces; they would survey the roads that were to connect\nSpain with Bulgaria; and generally they would devote their energies to\nthe keeping of the peace between half a thousand different tribes and\nnations.\n\nLet us give honor where honor is due.\n\nThe Romans did their job so thoroughly that they erected a structure\nwhich under one form or another has survived until our own time, and that\nin itself is no mean accomplishment. As long as the necessary taxes were\npaid and a certain outward homage was paid to the few rules of conduct\nlaid down by their Roman masters, the subject-tribes enjoyed a very\nlarge degree of liberty. They could believe or disbelieve whatever they\npleased. They could worship one God or a dozen Gods or whole temples\nfull of Gods. It made no difference. But whatever religion they chose to\nprofess, these strangely assorted members of a world-encircling empire\nwere forever reminded that the \u201cpax Romana\u201d depended for its success upon\na liberal application of the principle of \u201clive and let live.\u201d They must\nunder no condition interfere either with their own neighbors or with the\nstrangers within their gates. And if perchance they thought that their\nGods had been insulted, they must not rush to the magistrate for relief.\n\u201cFor,\u201d as the Emperor Tiberius remarked upon one memorable occasion, \u201cif\nthe Gods think that they have just claims for grievance, they can surely\ntake care of themselves.\u201d\n\nAnd with such scant words of consolation, all similar cases were\ninstantly dismissed and people were requested to keep their private\nopinions out of the courts.\n\nIf a number of Cappadocian traders decided to settle down among the\nColossians, they had a right to bring their own Gods with them and erect\na temple of their own in the town of Colossae. But if the Colossians\nshould for similar reasons move into the land of the Cappadocians, they\nmust be granted the same privileges and must be given an equal freedom of\nworship.\n\nIt has often been argued that the Romans could permit themselves the\nluxury of such a superior and tolerant attitude because they felt an\nequal contempt for both the Colossians and the Cappadocians and all the\nother savage tribes who dwelled outside of Latium. That may have been\ntrue. I don\u2019t know. But the fact remains that for half a thousand years,\na form of almost complete religious tolerance was strictly maintained\nwithin the greater part of civilized and semi-civilized Europe, Asia and\nAfrica and that the Romans developed a technique of statecraft which\nproduced a maximum of practical results together with a minimum of\nfriction.\n\nTo many people it seemed that the millennium had been achieved and that\nthis condition of mutual forbearance would last forever.\n\nBut nothing lasts forever. Least of all, an empire built upon force.\n\nRome had conquered the world, but in the effort she had destroyed herself.\n\nThe bones of her young soldiers lay bleaching on a thousand battlefields.\n\nFor almost five centuries the brains of her most intelligent citizens\nhad wasted themselves upon the gigantic task of administering a colonial\nempire that stretched from the Irish Sea to the Caspian.\n\nAt last the reaction set in.\n\nBoth the body and the mind of Rome had been exhausted by the impossible\ntask of a single city ruling an entire world.\n\nAnd then a terrible thing happened. A whole people grew tired of life and\nlost the zest for living.\n\nThey had come to own all the country-houses, all the town-houses, all the\nyachts and all the stage-coaches they could ever hope to use.\n\nThey found themselves possessed of all the slaves in the world.\n\nThey had eaten everything, they had seen everything, they had heard\neverything.\n\nThey had tried the taste of every drink, they had been everywhere,\nthey had made love to all the women from Barcelona to Thebes. All the\nbooks that had ever been written were in their libraries. The best\npictures that had ever been painted hung on their walls. The cleverest\nmusicians of the entire world had entertained them at their meals.\nAnd, as children, they had been instructed by the best professors and\npedagogues who had taught them everything there was to be taught. As a\nresult, all food and drink had lost its taste, all books had grown dull,\nall women had become uninteresting, and existence itself had developed\ninto a burden which a good many people were willing to drop at the first\nrespectable opportunity.\n\nThere remained only one consolation, the contemplation of the Unknown and\nthe Invisible.\n\nThe old Gods, however, had died years before. No intelligent Roman any\nlonger took stock in the silly nursery rhymes about Jupiter and Minerva.\n\nThere were the philosophic systems of the Epicureans and the Stoics and\nthe Cynics, all of whom preached charity and self-denial and the virtues\nof an unselfish and useful life.\n\nBut they were so empty. They sounded well enough in the books of Zeno\nand Epicurus and Epictetus and Plutarch, which were to be found in every\ncornerstore library.\n\nBut in the long run, this diet of pure reason was found to lack the\nnecessary nourishing qualities. The Romans began to clamor for a certain\namount of \u201cemotion\u201d with their spiritual meals.\n\nHence the purely philosophical \u201creligions\u201d (for such they really were, if\nwe associate the idea of religion with a desire to lead useful and noble\nlives) could only appeal to a very small number of people, and almost all\nof those belonged to the upper classes who had enjoyed the advantages of\nprivate instruction at the hands of competent Greek teachers.\n\nTo the mass of the people, these finely-spun philosophies meant less than\nnothing at all. They too had reached a point of development at which a\ngood deal of the ancient mythology seemed the childish invention of rude\nand credulous ancestors. But they could not possibly go as far as their\nso-called intellectual superiors and deny the existence of any and all\npersonal Gods.\n\nWherefore they did what all half-educated people do under such\ncircumstances. They paid a formal and outward tribute of respect to the\nofficial Gods of the Republic and then betook themselves for real comfort\nand happiness to one of the many mystery religions which during the last\ntwo centuries had found a most cordial welcome in the ancient city on the\nbanks of the Tiber.\n\nThe word \u201cmystery\u201d which I have used before was of Greek origin. It\noriginally meant a gathering of \u201cinitiated people\u201d\u2014of men and women whose\n\u201cmouth had been shut\u201d against the betrayal of those most holy secrets\nwhich only the true members of the mystery were supposed to know and\nwhich bound them together like the hocus pocus of a college fraternity or\nthe cabalistic incantations of the Independent Order of Sea-Mice.\n\nDuring the first century of our era, however, a mystery was nothing more\nnor less than a special form of worship, a denomination, a church. If a\nGreek or a Roman (if you will pardon a little juggling with time) had\nleft the Presbyterian church for the Christian Science church, he would\nhave told his neighbors that he had gone to \u201canother mystery.\u201d For the\nword \u201cchurch,\u201d the \u201ckirk,\u201d the \u201chouse of the Lord,\u201d is of comparatively\nrecent origin and was not known in those days.\n\nIf you happen to be especially interested in the subject and wish\nto understand what was happening in Rome, buy a New York paper next\nSaturday. Almost any paper will do. Therein you will find four or five\ncolumns of announcements about new creeds, about new mysteries, imported\nfrom India and Persia and Sweden and China and a dozen other countries\nand all of them offering special promises of health and riches and\nsalvation everlasting.\n\nRome, which so closely resembled our own metropolis, was just as full of\nimported and domestic religions. The international nature of the city had\nmade this unavoidable. From the vine-covered mountain slopes of northern\nAsia Minor had come the cult of Cybele, whom the Phrygians revered as the\nmother of the Gods and whose worship was connected with such unseemly\noutbreaks of emotional hilarity that the Roman police had repeatedly been\nforced to close the Cybelian temples and had at last passed very drastic\nlaws against the further propaganda of a faith which encouraged public\ndrunkenness and many other things that were even worse.\n\nEgypt, the old land of paradox and secrecy, had contributed half a dozen\nstrange divinities and the names of Osiris, Serapis and Isis had become\nas familiar to Roman ears as those of Apollo, Demeter and Hermes.\n\nAs for the Greeks, who centuries before had given unto the world a\nprimary system of abstract truth and a practical code of conduct, based\nupon virtue, they now supplied the people of foreign lands who insisted\nupon images and incense with the far-famed \u201cmysteries\u201d of Attis and\nDionysus and Orpheus and Adonis, none of them entirely above suspicion as\nfar as public morals were concerned, but nevertheless enjoying immense\npopularity.\n\nThe Phoenician traders, who for a thousand years had frequented the\nshores of Italy, had made the Romans familiar with their great God Baal\n(the arch-enemy of Jehovah) and with Astarte his wife, that strange\ncreature to whom Solomon in his old age and to the great horror of all\nhis faithful subjects had built a \u201chigh place\u201d in the very heart of\nJerusalem; the terrible Goddess who had been recognized as the official\nprotector of the city of Carthage during her long struggle for the\nsupremacy of the Mediterranean and who finally after the destruction of\nall her temples in Asia and Africa was to return to Europe in the shape\nof a most respectable and demure Christian saint.\n\nBut the most important of all, because highly popular among the soldiers\nof the army, was a deity whose broken images can still be found\nunderneath every rubbish pile that marks the Roman frontier from the\nmouth of the Rhine to the source of the Tigris.\n\nThis was the great God Mithras.\n\nMithras, as far as we know, was the old Asiatic God of Light and Air and\nTruth, and he had been worshiped in the plains of the Caspian lowlands\nwhen our first ancestors took possession of those wonderful grazing\nfields and made ready to settle those valleys and hills which afterwards\nbecame known as Europe. To them he had been the giver of all good things\nand they believed that the rulers of this earth exercised their power\nonly by the grace of his mighty will. Hence, as a token of his divine\nfavor, he sometimes bestowed upon those called to high offices a bit\nof that celestial fire by which he himself was forever surrounded, and\nalthough he is gone and his name has been forgotten, the kindly saints\nof the Middle Ages, with their halo of light, remind us of an ancient\ntradition which was started thousands of years before the Church was ever\ndreamed of.\n\nBut although he was held in great reverence for an incredibly long time,\nit has been very difficult to reconstruct his life with any degree\nof accuracy. There was a good reason for this. The early Christian\nmissionaries abhorred the Mithras myth with a hatred infinitely more\nbitter than that reserved for the common, every day mysteries. In their\nheart of hearts they knew that the Indian God was their most serious\nrival. Hence they tried as hard as possible to remove everything that\nmight possibly remind people of his existence. In this task they\nsucceeded so well that all Mithras temples have disappeared and that\nnot a scrap of written evidence remains about a religion which for\nmore than half a thousand years was as popular in Rome as Methodism or\nPresbyterianism is in the United States of today.\n\nHowever with the help of a few Asiatic sources and by a careful perusal\nof certain ruins which could not be entirely destroyed in the days before\nthe invention of dynamite, we have been able to overcome this initial\nhandicap and now possess a fairly accurate idea about this interesting\nGod and the things for which he stood.\n\nAges and ages ago, so the story ran, Mithras was mysteriously born of a\nrock. As soon as he lay in his cradle, several nearby shepherds came to\nworship him and make him happy with their gifts.\n\nAs a boy, Mithras had met with all sorts of strange adventures. Many\nof these remind us closely of the deeds which had made Hercules such a\npopular hero with the children of the Greeks. But whereas Hercules was\noften very cruel, Mithras was forever doing good. Once he had engaged in\na wrestling match with the sun and had beaten him. But he was so generous\nin his victory, that the sun and he had become like brothers, and were\noften mistaken for each other.\n\nWhen the God of all evil had sent a drought which threatened to kill\nthe race of man, Mithras had struck a rock with his arrow, and behold!\nplentiful water had gushed forth upon the parched fields. When Ahriman\n(for that was the name of the arch-enemy) had thereupon tried to achieve\nhis wicked purpose by a terrible flood, Mithras had heard of it, had\nwarned one man, had told him to build a big boat and load it with his\nrelatives and his flocks and in this way had saved the human race from\ndestruction. Until finally, having done all he could to save the world\nfrom the consequences of its own follies, he had been taken to Heaven to\nrule the just and righteous for all time.\n\nThose who wished to join the Mithras cult were obliged to go through an\nelaborate form of initiation and were forced to eat a ceremonious meal\nof bread and wine in memory of the famous supper eaten by Mithras and\nhis friend the Sun. Furthermore, they were obliged to accept baptism in\na font of water and do many other things which have no special interest\nto us, as that form of religion was completely exterminated more than\nfifteen hundred years ago.\n\nOnce inside the fold, the faithful were all treated upon a footing of\nabsolute equality. Together they prayed before the same candle-lit\naltars. Together they chanted the same holy hymns and together they took\npart in the festivities which were held each year on the twenty-fifth of\nDecember to celebrate the birth of Mithras. Furthermore they abstained\nfrom all work on the first day of the week, which even today is called\nSun-day in honor of the great God. And finally when they died, they were\nlaid away in patient rows to await the day of resurrection when the good\nshould enter into their just reward and the wicked should be cast into\nthe fire everlasting.\n\nThe success of these different mysteries, the widespread influence of\nMithraism among the Roman soldiers, points to a condition far removed\nfrom religious indifference. Indeed the early centuries of the empire\nwere a period of restless search after something that should satisfy the\nemotional needs of the masses.\n\nBut early in the year 47 of our own era something happened. A small\nvessel left Phoenicia for the city of Perga, the starting point for\nthe overland route to Europe. Among the passengers were two men not\noverburdened with luggage.\n\nTheir names were Paul and Barnabas.\n\nThey were Jews, but one of them carried a Roman passport and was well\nversed in the wisdom of the Gentile world.\n\nIt was the beginning of a memorable voyage.\n\nChristianity had set out to conquer the world.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE BEGINNING OF RESTRAINT\n\n\nThe rapid conquest of the western world by the Church is sometimes used\nas proof definite that the Christian ideas must have been of divine\norigin. It is not my business to debate this point, but I would suggest\nthat the villainous conditions under which the majority of the Romans\nwere forced to live had as much to do with the success of the earliest\nmissionaries as the sound common sense of their message.\n\nThus far I have shown you one side of the Roman picture\u2014the world of the\nsoldiers and statesmen and rich manufacturers and scientists, fortunate\nfolks who lived in delightful and enlightened ease on the slopes of the\nLateran Hill or among the valleys and hills of the Campania or somewhere\nalong the bay of Naples.\n\nBut they were only part of the story.\n\nAmidst the teeming slums of the suburbs there was little enough evidence\nof that plentiful prosperity which made the poets rave about the\nMillennium and inspired orators to compare Octavian to Jupiter.\n\nThere, in the endless and dreary rows of overcrowded and reeking\ntenement houses lived those vast multitudes to whom life was merely an\nuninterrupted sensation of hunger, sweat and pain. To those men and\nwomen, the wonderful tale of a simple carpenter in a little village\nbeyond the sea, who had gained his daily bread by the labor of his own\nhands, who had loved the poor and downtrodden and who therefore had\nbeen killed by his cruel and rapacious enemies, meant something very\nreal and tangible. Yes, they had all of them heard of Mithras and Isis\nand Astarte. But these Gods were dead, and they had died hundreds and\nthousands of years ago and what people knew about them they only knew by\nhearsay from other people who had also died hundreds and thousands of\nyears ago.\n\nJoshua of Nazareth, on the other hand, the Christ, the anointed, as the\nGreek missionaries called him, had been on this earth only a short time\nago. Many a man then alive might have known him, might have listened to\nhim, if by chance he had visited southern Syria during the reign of the\nEmperor Tiberius.\n\nAnd there were others, the baker on the corner, the fruit peddler from\nthe next street, who in a little dark garden on the Appian Way had spoken\nwith a certain Peter, a fisherman from the village of Capernaum, who had\nactually been near the mountain of Golgotha on that terrible afternoon\nwhen the Prophet had been nailed to the cross by the soldiers of the\nRoman governor.\n\nWe should remember this when we try to understand the sudden popular\nappeal of this new faith.\n\nIt was that personal touch, that direct and personal feeling of intimacy\nand near-by-ness which gave Christianity such a tremendous advantage\nover all other creeds. That and the love which Jesus had so incessantly\nexpressed for the submerged and disinherited among all nations and which\nradiated from everything he had said. Whether he had put it into the\nexact terms used by his followers was of very slight importance. The\nslaves had ears to hear and they understood. And trembling before the\nhigh promise of a glorious future, they for the first time in their lives\nbeheld the rays of a new hope.\n\nAt last the words had been spoken that were to set them free.\n\nNo longer were they poor and despised, an evil thing in the sight of the\ngreat of this world.\n\nOn the contrary, they were the predilected children of a loving Father.\n\nThey were to inherit the earth and the fullness thereof.\n\nThey were to partake of joys withheld from many of those proud masters\nwho even then dwelled behind the high walls of their Samnian villas.\n\nFor that constituted the strength of the new faith. Christianity was the\nfirst concrete religious system which gave the average man a chance.\n\nOf course I am now talking of Christianity as an experience of the\nsoul\u2014as a mode of living and thinking\u2014and I have tried to explain how, in\na world full of the dry-rot of slavery, the good tidings must spread with\nthe speed and fury of an emotional prairie fire. But history, except upon\nrare occasions, does not concern itself with the spiritual adventures of\nprivate citizens, be they free or in bondage. When these humble creatures\nhave been neatly organized into nations, guilds, churches, armies,\nbrotherhoods and federations; when they have begun to obey a single\ndirecting head; when they have accumulated sufficient wealth to pay taxes\nand can be forced into armies for the purpose of national conquest,\nthen at last they begin to attract the attention of our chroniclers\nand are given serious attention. Hence we know a great deal about the\nearly Church, but exceedingly little about the people who were the true\nfounders of that institution. That is rather a pity, for the early\ndevelopment of Christianity is one of the most interesting episodes in\nall history.\n\nThe Church which finally was built upon the ruins of the ancient empire\nwas really a combination of two conflicting interests. On the one side\nit stood forth as the champion of those all-embracing ideals of love and\ncharity which the Master himself had taught. But on the other side it\nfound itself ineradicably bound up with that arid spirit of provincialism\nwhich since the beginning of time had set the compatriots of Jesus apart\nfrom the rest of the world.\n\nIn plain language, it combined Roman efficiency with Judaean intolerance\nand as a result it established a reign of terror over the minds of men\nwhich was as efficient as it was illogical.\n\nTo understand how this could have happened, we must go back once more to\nthe days of Paul and to the first fifty years after the death of Christ,\nand we must firmly grasp the fact that Christianity had begun as a reform\nmovement within the bosom of the Jewish church and had been a purely\nnationalistic movement which in the beginning had threatened the rulers\nof the Jewish state and no one else.\n\nThe Pharisees who had happened to be in power when Jesus lived had\nunderstood this only too clearly. Quite naturally they had feared the\nultimate consequences of an agitation which boldly threatened to question\na spiritual monopoly which was based upon nothing more substantial than\nbrute force. To save themselves from being wiped out they had been forced\nto act in a spirit of panic and had sent their enemy to the gallows\nbefore the Roman authorities had had time to intervene and deprive them\nof their victim.\n\nWhat Jesus would have done had he lived it is impossible to say. He was\nkilled long before he was able to organize his disciples into a special\nsect nor did he leave a single word of writing from which his followers\ncould conclude what he wanted them to do.\n\nIn the end, however, this had proved to be a blessing in disguise.\n\nThe absence of a written set of rules, of a definite collection of\nordinances and regulations, had left the disciples free to follow the\nspirit of their master\u2019s words rather than the letter of his law. Had\nthey been bound by a book, they would very likely have devoted all their\nenergies to a theological discussion upon the ever enticing subject of\ncommas and semi-colons.\n\nIn that case, of course, no one outside of a few professional scholars\ncould have possibly shown the slightest interest in the new faith and\nChristianity would have gone the way of so many other sects which begin\nwith elaborate written programs and end when the police are called upon\nto throw the haggling theologians into the street.\n\nAt the distance of almost twenty centuries, when we realize what\ntremendous damage Christianity did to the Roman Empire, it is a matter\nof surprise that the authorities took practically no steps to quell a\nmovement which was fully as dangerous to the safety of the state as an\ninvasion by Huns or Goths. They knew of course that the fate of this\neastern prophet had caused great excitement among their house slaves,\nthat the women were forever telling each other about the imminent\nreappearance of the King of Heaven, and that quite a number of old men\nhad solemnly predicted the impending destruction of this world by a ball\nof fire.\n\nBut it was not the first time that the poorer classes had gone into\nhysterics about some new religious hero. Most likely it would not be the\nlast time, either. Meanwhile the police would see to it that these poor,\nfrenzied fanatics did not disturb the peace of the realm.\n\nAnd that was that.\n\nThe police did watch out, but found little occasion to act. The\nfollowers of the new mystery went about their business in a most\nexemplary fashion. They did not try to overthrow the government. At\nfirst, several slaves had expected that the common fatherhood of God and\nthe common brotherhood of man would imply a cessation of the old relation\nbetween master and servant. The apostle Paul, however, had hastened\nto explain that the Kingdom of which he spoke was an invisible and\nintangible kingdom of the soul and that people on this earth had better\ntake things as they found them, in expectation of the final reward which\nawaited them in Heaven.\n\nSimilarly, a good many wives, chafing at the bondage of matrimony as\nestablished by the harsh laws of Rome, had rushed to the conclusion that\nChristianity was synonymous with emancipation and full equality of rights\nbetween men and women. But again Paul had stepped forward and in a number\nof tactful letters had implored his beloved sisters to refrain from all\nthose extremes which would make their church suspect in the eyes of the\nmore conservative pagans and had persuaded them to continue in that state\nof semi-slavery which had been woman\u2019s share ever since Adam and Eve had\nbeen driven out of Paradise. All this showed a most commendable respect\nfor the law and as far as the authorities were concerned, the Christian\nmissionaries could therefore come and go at will and preach as best\nsuited their own individual tastes and preferences.\n\nBut as has happened so often in history, the masses had shown themselves\nless tolerant than their rulers. Just because people are poor it does\nnot necessarily follow that they are high-minded citizens who could be\nprosperous and happy if their conscience would only permit them to make\nthose compromises which are held to be necessary for the accumulation of\nwealth.\n\nAnd the Roman proletariat, since centuries debauched by free meals and\nfree prize-fights, was no exception to this rule. At first it derived a\ngreat deal of rough pleasure from those sober-faced groups of men and\nwomen who with rapt attention listened to the weird stories about a God\nwho had ignominiously died on a cross, like any other common criminal,\nand who made it their business to utter loud prayers for the hoodlums who\npelted their gatherings with stones and dirt.\n\nThe Roman priests, however, were not able to take such a detached view of\nthis new development.\n\nThe religion of the empire was a state religion. It consisted of certain\nsolemn sacrifices made upon certain specified occasions and paid for in\ncash. This money went toward the support of the church officers. When\nthousands of people began to desert the old shrines and went to another\nchurch which did not charge them anything at all, the priests were faced\nby a very serious reduction in their salary. This of course did not\nplease them at all, and soon they were loud in their abuse of the godless\nheretics who turned their backs upon the Gods of their fathers and burned\nincense to the memory of a foreign prophet.\n\nBut there was another class of people in the city who had even better\nreason to hate the Christians. Those were the fakirs, who as Indian Yogis\nand Pooughies and hierophants of the great and only mysteries of Isis\nand Ishtar and Baal and Cybele and Attis had for years made a fat and\neasy living at the expense of the credulous Roman middle classes. If the\nChristians had set up a rival establishment and had charged a handsome\nprice for their own particular revelations, the guild of spook-doctors\nand palmists and necromancers would have had no reason for complaint.\nBusiness was business and the soothsaying fraternity did not mind if a\nbit of their trade went elsewhere. But these Christians\u2014a plague upon\ntheir silly notions!\u2014refused to take any reward. Yea, they even gave\naway what they had, fed the hungry and shared their own roof with the\nhomeless. And all that for nothing! Surely that was going too far and\nthey never could have done this unless they were possessed of certain\nhidden sources of revenue, the origin of which no one thus far had been\nable to discover.\n\nRome by this time was no longer a city of free-born burghers. It was\nthe temporary dwelling place of hundreds of thousands of disinherited\npeasants from all parts of the empire. Such a mob, obeying the mysterious\nlaws that rule the behavior of crowds, is always ready to hate those\nwho behave differently from themselves and to suspect those who for no\napparent reason prefer to live a life of decency and restraint. The\nhail-fellow-well-met who will take a drink and (occasionally) will pay\nfor one is a fine neighbor and a good fellow. But the man who holds\nhimself aloof and refuses to go to the wild-animal show in the Coliseum,\nwho does not cheer when batches of prisoners of war are being dragged\nthrough the streets of the Capitoline Hill, is a spoil-sport and an enemy\nof the community at large.\n\nWhen in the year 64 a great conflagration destroyed that part of Rome\ninhabited by the poorer classes, the scene was set for the first\norganized attacks upon the Christians.\n\nAt first it was rumored that the Emperor Nero, in a fit of drunken\nconceit, had ordered his capital to be set on fire that he might get rid\nof the slums and rebuild the city according to his own plans. The crowd,\nhowever, knew better. It was the fault of those Jews and Christians who\nwere forever telling each other about the happy day when large balls of\nfire would descend from Heaven and the homes of the wicked would go up in\nflames.\n\nOnce this story had been successfully started, others followed in rapid\nsuccession. One old woman had heard the Christians talk with the dead.\nAnother knew that they stole little children and cut their throats and\nsmeared their blood upon the altar of their outlandish God. Of course,\nno one had ever been able to detect them at any of these scandalous\npractices, but that was only because they were so terribly clever and had\nbribed the police. But now at last they had been caught red-handed and\nthey would be made to suffer for their vile deeds.\n\nOf the number of faithful who were lynched upon this occasion, we\nknow nothing. Paul and Peter, so it seems, were among the victims for\nthereafter their names are never heard again.\n\nThat this terrible outbreak of popular folly accomplished nothing, it\nis needless to state. The noble dignity with which the martyrs accepted\ntheir fate was the best possible propaganda for the new ideas and for\nevery Christian who perished, there were a dozen pagans, ready and eager\nto take his place. As soon as Nero had committed the only decent act\nof his short and useless life (he killed himself in the year 68), the\nChristians returned to their old haunts and everything was as it had been\nbefore.\n\nBy this time the Roman authorities were making a great discovery. They\nbegan to suspect that a Christian was not exactly the same thing as a Jew.\n\nWe can hardly blame them for having committed this error. The historical\nresearches of the last hundred years have made it increasingly clear that\nthe Synagogue was the clearing-house through which the new faith was\npassed on to the rest of the world.\n\nRemember that Jesus himself was a Jew and that he had always been most\ncareful in observing the ancient laws of his fathers and that he had\naddressed himself almost exclusively to Jewish audiences. Once, and then\nonly for a short time, had he left his native country, but the task\nwhich he had set himself he had accomplished with and by and for his\nfellow-Jews. Nor was there anything in what he had ever said which could\nhave given the average Roman the impression that there was a deliberate\ndifference between Christianity and Judaism.\n\nWhat Jesus had actually tried to do was this. He had clearly seen the\nterrible abuses which had entered the church of his fathers. He had\nloudly and sometimes successfully protested against them. But he had\nfought his battles for reform from within. Never apparently had it dawned\nupon him that he might be the founder of a new religion. If some one had\nmentioned the possibility of such a thing to him, he would have rejected\nthe idea as preposterous. But like many a reformer before his day and\nafter, he had gradually been forced into a position where compromise\nwas no longer possible. His untimely death alone had saved him from a\nfate like that of Luther and so many other advocates of reform, who\nwere deeply perplexed when they suddenly found themselves at the head\nof a brand new party \u201coutside\u201d the organization to which they belonged,\nwhereas they were merely trying to do some good from the \u201cinside.\u201d\n\nFor many years after the death of Jesus, Christianity (to use the name\nlong before it had been coined) was the religion of a small Jewish sect\nwhich had a few adherents in Jerusalem and in the villages of Judaea and\nGalilee and which had never been heard of outside of the province of\nSyria.\n\nIt was Gaius Julius Paulus, a full-fledged Roman citizen of Jewish\ndescent, who had first recognized the possibilities of the new doctrine\nas a religion for all the world. The story of his suffering tells us\nhow bitterly the Jewish Christians had been opposed to the idea of a\nuniversal religion instead of a purely national denomination, membership\nto which should only be open to people of their own race. They had hated\nthe man who dared preach salvation to Jews and Gentiles alike so bitterly\nthat on his last visit to Jerusalem Paul would undoubtedly have suffered\nthe fate of Jesus if his Roman passport had not saved him from the fury\nof his enraged compatriots.\n\nBut it had been necessary for half a battalion of Roman soldiers to\nprotect him and conduct him safely to the coastal town from where he\ncould be shipped to Rome for that famous trial which never took place.\n\nA few years after his death, that which he had so often feared during his\nlifetime and which he had repeatedly foretold actually occurred.\n\nJerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. On the place of the temple of\nJehovah a new temple was erected in honor of Jupiter. The name of the\ncity was changed to Aelia Capitolina and Judaea itself had become part of\nthe Roman province of Syria Palaestina. As for the inhabitants, they were\neither killed or driven into exile and no one was allowed to live within\nseveral miles of the ruins on pain of death.\n\nIt was the final destruction of their holy city which had been so\ndisastrous to the Jewish-Christians. During several centuries afterwards,\nin the little villages of the Judaean hinterland colonies might have\nbeen found of strange people who called themselves \u201cpoor men\u201d and who\nwaited with great patience and amidst everlasting prayers for the end\nof the world which was at hand. They were the remnants of the old\nJewish-Christian community in Jerusalem. From time to time we hear them\nmentioned in books written during the fifth and sixth centuries. Far away\nfrom civilization, they developed certain strange doctrines of their own\nin which hatred for the apostle Paul took a prominent place. After the\nseventh century however we no longer find any trace of these so-called\nNazarenes and Ebionites. The victorious Mohammedans had killed them all.\nAnd, anyway, if they had managed to exist a few hundred years longer,\nthey would not have been able to avert the inevitable.\n\nRome, by bringing east and west and north and south into one large\npolitical union, had made the world ready for the idea of a universal\nreligion. Christianity, because it was both simple and practical and\nfull of a direct appeal, was predestined to succeed where Judaism and\nMithraism and all of the other competing creeds were predestined to fail.\nBut, unfortunately, the new faith never quite rid itself of certain\nrather unpleasant characteristics which only too clearly betrayed its\norigin.\n\nThe little ship which had brought Paul and Barnabas from Asia to Europe\nhad carried a message of hope and mercy.\n\nBut a third passenger had smuggled himself on board.\n\nHe wore a mask of holiness and virtue.\n\nBut the face beneath bore the stamp of cruelty and hatred.\n\nAnd his name was Religious Intolerance.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS\n\n\nThe early church was a very simple organization. As soon as it became\napparent that the end of the world was not at hand, that the death\nof Jesus was not to be followed immediately by the last judgment and\nthat the Christians might expect to dwell in this vale of tears for a\ngood long time, the need was felt for a more or less definite form of\ngovernment.\n\nOriginally the Christians (since all of them were Jews) had come together\nin the synagogue. When the rift had occurred between the Jews and the\nGentiles, the latter had betaken themselves to a room in some one\u2019s house\nand if none could be found big enough to hold all the faithful (and the\ncurious) they had met out in the open or in a deserted stone quarry.\n\nAt first these gatherings had taken place on the Sabbath, but when\nbad feeling between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians\nincreased, the latter began to drop the habit of keeping the Sabbath-day\nand preferred to meet on Sunday, the day on which the resurrection had\ntaken place.\n\nThese solemn celebrations, however, had borne witness to the popular as\nwell as to the emotional character of the entire movement. There were no\nset speeches or sermons. There were no preachers. Both men and women,\nwhenever they felt themselves inspired by the Holy Fire, had risen up in\nmeeting to give evidence of the faith that was in them. Sometimes, if we\nare to trust the letters of Paul, these devout brethren, \u201cspeaking with\ntongues,\u201d had filled the heart of the great apostle with apprehension for\nthe future. For most of them were simple folk without much education. No\none doubted the sincerity of their impromptu exhortations but very often\nthey got so excited that they raved like maniacs and while a church may\nsurvive persecution, it is helpless against ridicule. Hence the efforts\nof Paul and Peter and their successors to bring some semblance of order\ninto this chaos of spiritual divulgation and divine enthusiasm.\n\nAt first these efforts met with little success. A regular program seemed\nin direct contradiction to the democratic nature of the Christian faith.\nIn the end, however, practical considerations supervened and the meetings\nbecame subject to a definite ritual.\n\nThey began with the reading of one of the Psalms (to placate the Jewish\nChristians who might be present). Then the congregation united in a song\nof praise of more recent composition for the benefit of the Roman and the\nGreek worshipers.\n\nThe only prescribed form of oration was the famous prayer in which Jesus\nhad summed up his entire philosophy of life. The preaching, however, for\nseveral centuries remained entirely spontaneous and the sermons were\ndelivered only by those who felt that they had something to say.\n\nBut when the number of those gatherings increased, when the police,\nforever on the guard against secret societies, began to make inquiries,\nit was necessary that certain men be elected to represent the Christians\nin their dealings with the rest of the world. Already Paul had spoken\nhighly of the gift of leadership. He had compared the little communities\nwhich he visited in Asia and Greece to so many tiny vessels which were\ntossed upon a turbulent sea and were very much in need of a clever pilot\nif they were to survive the fury of the angry ocean.\n\nAnd so the faithful came together once more and elected deacons and\ndeaconesses, pious men and women who were the \u201cservants\u201d of the\ncommunity, who took care of the sick and the poor (an object of great\nconcern to the early Christians) and who looked after the property of the\ncommunity and took care of all the small daily chores.\n\nStill later when the church continued to grow in membership and the\nbusiness of administration had become too intricate for mere amateurs,\nit was entrusted to a small group of \u201celders.\u201d These were known by their\nGreek name of Presbyters and hence our word \u201cpriest.\u201d\n\nAfter a number of years, when every village or city possessed a Christian\nchurch of its own, the need was felt for a common policy. Then an\n\u201coverseer\u201d (an Episkopos or Bishop) was elected to superintend an entire\ndistrict and direct its dealings with the Roman government.\n\nSoon there were bishops in all the principal towns of the empire, and\nthose in Antioch and Constantinople and Jerusalem and Carthage and Rome\nand Alexandria and Athens were reputed to be very powerful gentlemen who\nwere almost as important as the civil and military governors of their\nprovinces.\n\nIn the beginning of course the bishop who presided over that part of the\nworld where Jesus had lived and suffered and died enjoyed the greatest\nrespect. But after Jerusalem had been destroyed and the generation which\nhad expected the end of the world and the triumph of Zion had disappeared\nfrom the face of the earth, the poor old bishop in his ruined palace saw\nhimself deprived of his former prestige.\n\nAnd quite naturally his place as leader of the faithful was taken by\nthe \u201coverseer\u201d who lived in the capital of the civilized world and who\nguarded the sites where Peter and Paul, the great apostles of the west,\nhad suffered their martyrdom\u2014the Bishop of Rome.\n\nThis bishop, like all others, was known as Father or Papa, the common\nexpression of love and respect bestowed upon members of the clergy.\nIn the course of centuries, the title of Papa however became almost\nexclusively associated in people\u2019s minds with the particular \u201cFather\u201d\nwho was the head of the metropolitan diocese. When they spoke of the\nPapa or Pope they meant just one Father, the Bishop of Rome, and not by\nany chance the Bishop of Constantinople or the Bishop of Carthage. This\nwas an entirely normal development. When we read in our newspaper about\n\u201cthe President\u201d it is not necessary to add \u201cof the United States.\u201d We\nknow that the head of our government is meant and not the President of\nthe Pennsylvania Railroad or the President of Harvard University or the\nPresident of the League of Nations.\n\nThe first time the name occurred officially in a document was in the\nyear 258. At that time Rome was still the capital of a highly successful\nempire and the power of the bishops was entirely overshadowed by that of\nthe emperors. But during the next three hundred years, under the constant\nmenace of both foreign and domestic invasions, the successors of Caesar\nbegan to look for a new home that would offer them greater safety. This\nthey found in a city in a different part of their domains. It was called\nByzantium, after a mythical hero by the name of Byzas who was said to\nhave landed there shortly after the Trojan war. Situated on the straits\nwhich separated Europe from Asia and dominating the trade route between\nthe Black Sea and the Mediterranean, it controlled several important\nmonopolies and was of such great commercial importance that already\nSparta and Athens had fought for the possession of this rich fortress.\n\nByzantium, however, had held its own until the days of Alexander and\nafter having been for a short while part of Macedonia it had finally been\nincorporated into the Roman Empire.\n\nAnd now, after ten centuries of increasing prosperity, its Golden Horn\nfilled with the ships from a hundred nations, it was chosen to become the\ncenter of the empire.\n\nThe people of Rome, left to the mercy of Visigoths and Vandals and Heaven\nknows what other sort of barbarians, felt that the end of the world had\ncome when the imperial palaces stood empty for years at a time; when\none department of state after another was removed to the shores of the\nBosphorus and when the inhabitants of the capital were asked to obey laws\nmade a thousand miles away.\n\nBut in the realm of history, it is an ill wind that does not blow some\none good. With the emperors gone, the bishops remained behind as the\nmost important dignitaries of the town, the only visible and tangible\nsuccessors to the glory of the imperial throne.\n\nAnd what excellent use they made of their new independence! They were\nshrewd politicians, for the prestige and the influence of their office\nhad attracted the best brains of all Italy. They felt themselves to be\nthe representatives of certain eternal ideas. Hence they were never in a\nhurry, but proceeded with the deliberate slowness of a glacier and dared\nto take chances where others, acting under the pressure of immediate\nnecessity, made rapid decisions, blundered and failed.\n\nBut most important of all, they were men of a single purpose, who moved\nconsistently and persistently towards one goal. In all they did and said\nand thought they were guided by the desire to increase the glory of God\nand the strength and power of the organization which represented the\ndivine will on earth.\n\nHow well they wrought, the history of the next ten centuries was to show.\n\nWhile everything else perished in the deluge of savage tribes which\nhurled itself across the European continent, while the walls of the\nempire, one after the other, came crumbling down, while a thousand\ninstitutions as old as the plains of Babylon were swept away like so much\nuseless rubbish, the Church stood strong and erect, the rock of ages, but\nmore particularly the rock of the Middle Ages.\n\nThe victory, however, which was finally won, was bought at a terrible\ncost.\n\nFor Christianity which had begun in a stable was allowed to end in a\npalace. It had been started as a protest against a form of government in\nwhich the priest as the self-appointed intermediary between the deity and\nmankind had insisted upon the unquestioning obedience of all ordinary\nhuman beings. This revolutionary body grew and in less than a hundred\nyears it developed into a new supertheocracy, compared to which the\nold Jewish state had been a mild and liberal commonwealth of happy and\ncarefree citizens.\n\nAnd yet all this was perfectly logical and quite unavoidable, as I shall\nnow try to show you.\n\nMost of the people who visit Rome make a pilgrimage to the Coliseum and\nwithin those wind-swept walls they are shown the hallowed ground where\nthousands of Christian martyrs fell as victims of Roman intolerance.\n\nBut while it is true that upon several occasions there were persecutions\nof the adherents of the new faith, these had very little to do with\nreligious intolerance.\n\nThey were purely political.\n\nThe Christian, as a member of a religious sect, enjoyed the greatest\npossible freedom.\n\nBut the Christian who openly proclaimed himself a conscientious objector,\nwho bragged of his pacifism even when the country was threatened with\nforeign invasion and openly defied the laws of the land upon every\nsuitable and unsuitable occasion, such a Christian was considered an\nenemy of the state and was treated as such.\n\nThat he acted according to his most sacred convictions did not make the\nslightest impression upon the mind of the average police judge. And when\nhe tried to explain the exact nature of his scruples, that dignitary\nlooked puzzled and was entirely unable to follow him.\n\nA Roman police judge after all was only human. When he suddenly found\nhimself called upon to try people who made an issue of what seemed to him\na very trivial matter, he simply did not know what to do. Long experience\nhad taught him to keep clear of all theological controversies. Besides\nhe remembered many imperial edicts, admonishing public servants to use\n\u201ctact\u201d in their dealings with the new sect. Hence he used tact and\nargued. But as the whole dispute boiled down to a question of principles,\nvery little was ever accomplished by an appeal to logic.\n\nIn the end, the magistrate was placed before the choice of surrendering\nthe dignity of the law or insisting upon a complete and unqualified\nvindication of the supreme power of the state. But prison and torture\nmeant nothing to people who firmly believed that life did not begin until\nafter death and who shouted with joy at the idea of being allowed to\nleave this wicked world for the joys of Heaven.\n\nThe guerilla warfare therefore which finally broke out between the\nauthorities and their Christian subjects was long and painful. We\npossess very few authentic figures upon the total number of victims.\nAccording to Origen, the famous church father of the third century,\nseveral of whose own relatives had been killed in Alexandria during one\nof the persecutions, \u201cthe number of true Christians who died for their\nconvictions could easily be enumerated.\u201d\n\nOn the other hand, when we peruse the lives of the early saints we\nfind ourselves faced by such incessant tales of bloodshed that we\nbegin to wonder how a religion exposed to these constant and murderous\npersecutions could ever have survived at all.\n\nNo matter what figures I shall give, some one is sure to call me a\nprejudiced liar. I will therefore keep my opinion to myself and let my\nreaders draw their own conclusions. By studying the lives of the Emperors\nDecius (249-251) and Valerian (253-260) they will be able to form a\nfairly accurate opinion as to the true character of Roman intolerance\nduring the worst era of persecution.\n\nFurthermore if they will remember that as wise and liberal minded a ruler\nas Marcus Aurelius confessed himself unable to handle the problem of his\nChristian subjects successfully, they will derive some idea about the\ndifficulties which beset obscure little officials in remote corners of\nthe empire, who tried to do their duty and must either be unfaithful to\ntheir oath of office or execute those of their relatives and neighbors\nwho could not or would not obey those few and very simple ordinances upon\nwhich the imperial government insisted as a matter of self-preservation.\n\nMeanwhile the Christians, not hindered by false sentimentality towards\ntheir pagan fellow-citizens, were steadily extending the sphere of their\ninfluence.\n\nLate in the fourth century, the Emperor Gratian at the request of the\nChristian members of the Roman senate who complained that it hurt their\nfeelings to gather in the shadow of a heathenish idol, ordered the\nremoval of the statue of Victory which for more than four hundred years\nhad stood in the hall built by Julius Caesar. Several senators protested.\nThis did very little good and only caused a number of them to be sent\ninto exile.\n\nIt was then that Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, a devoted patriot of great\npersonal distinction, wrote his famous letter in which he tried to\nsuggest a compromise.\n\n\u201cWhy,\u201d so he asked, \u201cshould we Pagans and our Christian neighbors\nnot live in peace and harmony? We look up to the same stars, we are\nfellow-passengers on the same planet and dwell beneath the same sky.\nWhat matters it along which road each individual endeavors to find the\nultimate truth? The riddle of existence is too great that there should be\nonly one path leading to an answer.\u201d\n\nHe was not the only man who felt that way and saw the danger which\nthreatened the old Roman tradition of a broadminded religious policy.\nSimultaneously with the removal of the statue of Victory in Rome a\nviolent quarrel had broken out between two contending factions of the\nChristians who had found a refuge in Byzantium. This dispute gave rise\nto one of the most intelligent discussions of tolerance to which the\nworld had ever listened. Themistius the philosopher, who was the author,\nhad remained faithful to the Gods of his fathers. But when the Emperor\nValens took sides in the fight between his orthodox and his non-orthodox\nChristian subjects, Themistius felt obliged to remind him of his true\nduty.\n\n\u201cThere is,\u201d so he said, \u201ca domain over which no ruler can hope to\nexercise any authority. That is the domain of the virtues and especially\nthat of the religious beliefs of individuals. Compulsion within that\nfield causes hypocrisy and conversions that are based upon fraud. Hence\nit is much better for a ruler to tolerate all beliefs, since it is only\nby toleration that civic strife can be averted. Moreover, tolerance is\na divine law. God himself has most clearly demonstrated his desire for\na number of different religions. And God alone can judge the methods by\nwhich humanity aspires to come to an understanding of the Divine Mystery.\nGod delights in the variety of homage which is rendered to him. He likes\nthe Christians to use certain rites, the Greeks others, the Egyptians\nagain others.\u201d\n\nFine words, indeed, but spoken in vain.\n\nThe ancient world together with its ideas and ideals was dead and all\nefforts to set back the clock of history were doomed beforehand. Life\nmeans progress, and progress means suffering. The old order of society\nwas rapidly disintegrating. The army was a mutinous mob of foreign\nmercenaries. The frontier was in open revolt. England and the other\noutlying districts had long since been surrendered to the barbarians.\n\nWhen the final catastrophe took place, those brilliant young men who in\ncenturies past had entered the service of the state found themselves\ndeprived of all but one chance for advancement. That was a career in the\nChurch. As Christian archbishop of Spain, they could hope to exercise\nthe power formerly held by the proconsul. As Christian authors, they\ncould be certain of a fairly large public if they were willing to devote\nthemselves exclusively to theological subjects. As Christian diplomats,\nthey could be sure of rapid promotion if they were willing to represent\nthe bishop of Rome at the imperial court of Constantinople or undertake\nthe hazardous job of gaining the good will of some barbarous chieftain in\nthe heart of Gaul or Scandinavia. And finally, as Christian financiers,\nthey could hope to make fortunes administering those rapidly increasing\nestates which had made the occupants of the Lateran Palace the largest\nlandowners of Italy and the richest men of their time.\n\nWe have seen something of the same nature during the last five years.\nUp to the year 1914 the young men of Europe who were ambitious and did\nnot depend upon manual labor for their support almost invariably entered\nthe service of the state. They became officers of the different imperial\nand royal armies and navies. They filled the higher judicial positions,\nadministered the finances or spent years in the colonies as governors\nor military commanders. They did not expect to grow very rich, but the\nsocial prestige of the offices which they held was very great and by the\napplication of a certain amount of intelligence, industry and honesty,\nthey could look forward to a pleasant life and an honorable old age.\n\nThen came the war and swept aside these last remnants of the old feudal\nfabric of society. The lower classes took hold of the government. Some\nfew among the former officials were too old to change the habits of a\nlifetime. They pawned their orders and died. The vast majority, however,\nsurrendered to the inevitable. From childhood on they had been educated\nto regard business as a low profession, not worthy of their attention.\nPerhaps business was a low profession, but they had to choose between\nan office and the poor house. The number of people who will go hungry\nfor the sake of their convictions is always relatively small. And so\nwithin a few years after the great upheaval, we find most of the former\nofficers and state officials doing the sort of work which they would not\nhave touched ten years ago and doing it not unwillingly. Besides, as most\nof them belonged to families which for generations had been trained in\nexecutive work and were thoroughly accustomed to handle men, they have\nfound it comparatively easy to push ahead in their new careers and are\ntoday a great deal happier and decidedly more prosperous than they had\never expected to be.\n\nWhat business is today, the Church was sixteen centuries ago.\n\nIt may not always have been easy for young men who traced their ancestry\nback to Hercules or to Romulus or to the heroes of the Trojan war to take\norders from a simple cleric who was the son of a slave, but the simple\ncleric who was the son of a slave had something to give which the young\nmen who traced their ancestry back to Hercules and Romulus and the heroes\nof the Trojan war wanted and wanted badly. And therefore if they were\nboth bright fellows (as they well may have been) they soon learned to\nappreciate the other fellow\u2019s good qualities and got along beautifully.\nFor it is one of the other strange laws of history that the more things\nappear to be changing, the more they remain the same.\n\nSince the beginning of time it has seemed inevitable that there shall\nbe one small group of clever men and women who do the ruling and a much\nlarger group of not-quite-so-bright men and women who shall do the\nobeying. The stakes for which these two groups play are at different\nperiods known by different names. Invariably they represent Strength and\nLeadership on the one hand and Weakness and Compliance on the other.\nThey have been called Empire and Church and Knighthood and Monarchy and\nDemocracy and Slavery and Serfdom and Proletariat. But the mysterious\nlaw which governs human development works the same in Moscow as it does\nin London or Madrid or Washington, for it is bound to neither time nor\nplace. It has often manifested itself under strange forms and disguises.\nMore than once it has worn a lowly garb and has loudly proclaimed its\nlove for humanity, its devotion to God, its humble desire to bring\nabout the greatest good for the greatest number. But underneath such\npleasant exteriors it has always hidden and continues to hide the grim\ntruth of that primeval law which insists that the first duty of man\nis to keep alive. People who resent the fact that they were born in a\nworld of mammals are apt to get angry at such statements. They call us\n\u201cmaterialistics\u201d and \u201cCynics\u201d and what not. Because they have always\nregarded history as a pleasant fairy tale, they are shocked to discover\nthat it is a science which obeys the same iron rules which govern the\nrest of the universe. They might as well fight against the habits of\nparallel lines or the results of the tables of multiplication.\n\nPersonally I would advise them to accept the inevitable.\n\nFor then and only then can history some day be turned into something\nthat shall have a practical value to the human race and cease to be the\nally and confederate of those who profit by racial prejudice, tribal\nintolerance and the ignorance of the vast majority of their fellow\ncitizens.\n\nAnd if any one doubts the truth of this statement, let him look for the\nproof in the chronicles of those centuries of which I was writing a few\npages back.\n\nLet him study the lives of the great leaders of the Church during the\nfirst four centuries.\n\nAlmost without exception he will find that they came from the ranks of\nthe old Pagan society, that they had been trained in the schools of the\nGreek philosophers and had only drifted into the Church afterwards, when\nthey had been obliged to choose a career. Several of them of course were\nattracted by the new ideas and accepted the words of Christ with heart\nand soul. But the great majority changed its allegiance from a worldly\nmaster to a Heavenly ruler because the chances for advancement with the\nlatter were infinitely greater.\n\nThe Church from her side, always very wise and very understanding, did\nnot look too closely into the motives which had impelled many of her new\ndisciples to take this sudden step. And most carefully she endeavored to\nbe all things to all men. Those who felt inclined towards a practical\nand worldly existence were given a chance to make good in the field of\npolitics and economics. While those of a different temperament, who took\ntheir faith more emotionally, were offered every possible opportunity\nto escape from the crowded cities that they might cogitate in silence\nupon the evils of existence and so might acquire that degree of personal\nholiness which they deemed necessary for the eternal happiness of their\nsouls.\n\nIn the beginning it had been quite easy to lead such a life of devotion\nand contemplation.\n\nThe Church during the first centuries of her existence had been merely\na loose spiritual bond between humble folks who dwelled far away from\nthe mansions of the mighty. But when the Church succeeded the empire as\nruler of the world, and became a strong political organization with vast\nreal-estate holdings in Italy and France and Africa, there were less\nopportunities for a life of solitude. Many pious men and women began to\nharken back to the \u201cgood old days\u201d when all true Christians had spent\ntheir waking hours in works of charity and in prayer. That they might\nagain be happy, they now artificially re-created what once had been a\nnatural development of the times.\n\nThis movement for a monastic form of life which was to exercise such an\nenormous influence upon the political and economic development of the\nnext thousand years and which was to give the Church a devoted group of\nvery useful shock-troops in her warfare upon heathen and heretics was of\nOriental origin.\n\nThis need not surprise us.\n\nIn the countries bordering upon the eastern shores of the Mediterranean,\ncivilization was very, very old and the human race was tired to the point\nof exhaustion. In Egypt alone, ten different and separate cycles of\nculture had succeeded each other since the first settlers had occupied\nthe valley of the Nile. The same was true of the fertile plain between\nthe Tigris and the Euphrates. The vanity of life, the utter futility of\nall human effort, lay visible in the ruins of thousands of bygone temples\nand palaces. The younger races of Europe might accept Christianity as\nan eager promise of life, a constant appeal to their newly regained\nenergy and enthusiasm. But Egyptians and Syrians took their religious\nexperiences in a different mood.\n\nTo them it meant the welcome prospect of relief from the curse of being\nalive. And in anticipation of the joyful hour of death, they escaped from\nthe charnel-house of their own memories and they fled into the desert\nthat they might be alone with their grief and their God and nevermore\nlook upon the reality of existence.\n\nFor some curious reason the business of reform always seems to have\nhad a particular appeal to soldiers. They, more than all other people,\nhave come into direct contact with the cruelty and the horrors of\ncivilization. Furthermore they have learned that nothing can be\naccomplished without discipline. The greatest of all modern warriors\nto fight the battles of the Church was a former captain in the army of\nthe Emperor Charles V. And the man who first gathered the spiritual\nstragglers into a single organization had been a private in the army of\nthe Emperor Constantine. His name was Pachomius and he was an Egyptian.\nWhen he got through with his military service, he joined a small group\nof hermits who under the leadership of a certain Anthony, who hailed\nfrom his own country, had left the cities and were living peacefully\namong the jackals of the desert. But as the solitary life seemed to lead\nto all sorts of strange afflictions of the mind and caused certain very\nregrettable excesses of devotion which made people spend their days on\nthe top of an old pillar or at the bottom of a deserted grave (thereby\ngiving cause for great mirth to the pagans and serious reason for grief\nto the true believers) Pachomius decided to put the whole movement upon a\nmore practical basis and in this way he became the founder of the first\nreligious order. From that day on (the middle of the fourth century)\nhermits living together in small groups obeyed one single commander who\nwas known as the \u201csuperior general\u201d and who in turn appointed the abbots\nwho were responsible for the different monasteries which they held as so\nmany fortresses of the Lord.\n\nBefore Pachomius died in 346 his monastic idea had been carried from\nEgypt to Rome by the Alexandrian bishop Athanasius and thousands of\npeople had availed themselves of this opportunity to flee the world, its\nwickedness and its too insistent creditors.\n\nThe climate of Europe, however, and the nature of the people made it\nnecessary that the original plans of the founder be slightly changed.\nHunger and cold were not quite so easy to bear under a wintry sky as in\nthe valley of the Nile. Besides, the more practical western mind was\ndisgusted rather than edified by that display of dirt and squalor which\nseemed to be an integral part of the Oriental ideal of holiness.\n\n\u201cWhat,\u201d so the Italians and the Frenchmen asked themselves, \u201cis to become\nof those good works upon which the early Church has laid so much stress?\nAre the widows and the orphans and the sick really very much benefited by\nthe self-mortification of small groups of emaciated zealots who live in\nthe damp caverns of a mountain a million miles away from everywhere?\u201d\n\nThe western mind therefore insisted upon a modification of the monastic\ninstitution along more reasonable lines, and credit for this innovation\ngoes to a native of the town of Nursia in the Apennine mountains. His\nname was Benedict and he is invariably spoken of as Saint Benedict. His\nparents had sent him to Rome to be educated, but the city had filled his\nChristian soul with horror and he had fled to the village of Subiaco in\nthe Abruzzi mountains to the deserted ruins of an old country palace that\nonce upon a time had belonged to the Emperor Nero.\n\nThere he had lived for three years in complete solitude. Then the fame\nof his great virtue began to spread throughout the countryside and the\nnumber of those who wished to be near him was soon so great that he had\nenough recruits for a dozen full-fledged monasteries.\n\nHe therefore retired from his dungeon and became the lawgiver of European\nmonasticism. First of all he drew up a constitution. In every detail it\nshowed the influence of Benedict\u2019s Roman origin. The monks who swore to\nobey his rules could not look forward to a life of idleness. Those hours\nwhich they did not devote to prayer and meditation were to be filled\nwith work in the fields. If they were too old for farm work, they were\nexpected to teach the young how to become good Christians and useful\ncitizens and so well did they acquit themselves of this task that the\nBenedictine monasteries for almost a thousand years had a monopoly of\neducation and were allowed to train most of the young men of exceptional\nability during the greater part of the Middle Ages.\n\nIn return for their labors, the monks were decently clothed, received a\nsufficient amount of eatable food and were given a bed upon which they\ncould sleep the two or three hours of each day that were not devoted to\nwork or to prayer.\n\nBut most important, from an historical point of view, was the fact that\nthe monks ceased to be laymen who had merely run away from this world and\ntheir obligations to prepare their souls for the hereafter. They became\nthe servants of God. They were obliged to qualify for their new dignity\nby a long and most painful period of probation and furthermore they were\nexpected to take a direct and active part in spreading the power and the\nglory of the kingdom of God.\n\nThe first elementary missionary work among the heathen of Europe had\nalready been done. But lest the good accomplished by the apostles come\nto naught, the labors of the individual preachers must be followed up\nby the organized effort of permanent settlers and administrators. The\nmonks now carried their spade and their ax and their prayer-book into the\nwilderness of Germany and Scandinavia and Russia and far-away Iceland.\nThey plowed and they harvested and they preached and they taught school\nand brought unto those distant lands the first rudimentary elements of a\ncivilization which most people only knew by hearsay.\n\nIn this way did the Papacy, the executive head of the entire Church, make\nuse of all the manifold forces of the human spirit.\n\nThe practical man of affairs was given quite as much of an opportunity to\ndistinguish himself as the dreamer who found happiness in the silence of\nthe woods. There was no lost motion. Nothing was allowed to go to waste.\nAnd the result was such an increase of power that soon neither emperor\nnor king could afford to rule his realm without paying humble attention\nto the wishes of those of his subjects who confessed themselves the\nfollowers of the Christ.\n\nThe way in which the final victory was gained is not without interest.\nFor it shows that the triumph of Christianity was due to practical\ncauses and was not (as is sometimes believed) the result of a sudden and\noverwhelming outburst of religious ardor.\n\nThe last great persecution of the Christians took place under the Emperor\nDiocletian.\n\nCuriously enough, Diocletian was by no means one of the worst among those\nmany potentates who ruled Europe by the grace of their body-guards. But\nhe suffered from a complaint which alas! is quite common among those who\nare called upon to govern the human race. He was densely ignorant upon\nthe subject of elementary economics.\n\nHe found himself possessed of an empire that was rapidly going to pieces.\nHaving spent all his life in the army, he believed the weak point lay\nin the organization of the Roman military system, which entrusted the\ndefenses of the outlying districts to colonies of soldiers who had\ngradually lost the habit of fighting and had become peaceful rustics,\nselling cabbages and carrots to the very barbarians whom they were\nsupposed to keep at a safe distance from the frontiers.\n\nIt was impossible for Diocletian to change this venerable system. He\ntherefore tried to solve the difficulty by creating a new field army,\ncomposed of young and agile men who at a few weeks\u2019 notice could be\nmarched to any particular part of the empire that was threatened with an\ninvasion.\n\nThis was a brilliant idea, but like all brilliant ideas of a military\nnature, it cost an awful lot of money. This money had to be produced in\nthe form of taxes by the people in the interior of the country. As was\nto be expected, they raised a great hue and cry and claimed that they\ncould not pay another denarius without going stone broke. The emperor\nanswered that they were mistaken and bestowed upon his tax-gatherers\ncertain powers thus far only possessed by the hangman. But all to no\navail. For the subjects, rather than work at a regular trade which\nassured them a deficit at the end of a year\u2019s hard work, deserted house\nand home and family and herds and flocked to the cities or became hobos.\nHis Majesty, however, did not believe in half-way measures and he solved\nthe difficulty by a decree which shows how completely the old Roman\nRepublic had degenerated into an Oriental despotism. By a stroke of\nhis pen he made all government offices and all forms of handicraft and\ncommerce hereditary professions. That is to say, the sons of officers\nwere supposed to become officers, whether they liked it or not. The sons\nof bakers must themselves become bakers, although they might have greater\naptitude for music or pawn-broking. The sons of sailors were foredoomed\nto a life on shipboard, even if they were sea-sick when they rowed across\nthe Tiber. And finally, the day laborers, although technically they\ncontinued to be freemen, were constrained to live and die on the same\npiece of soil on which they had been born and were henceforth nothing but\na very ordinary variety of slaves.\n\nTo expect that a ruler who had such supreme confidence in his own ability\neither could or would tolerate the continued existence of a relatively\nsmall number of people who only obeyed such parts of his regulations and\nedicts as pleased them would be absurd. But in judging Diocletian for\nhis harshness in dealing with the Christians, we must remember that he\nwas fighting with his back against the wall and that he had good cause\nto suspect the loyalty of several million of his subjects who profited\nby the measures he had taken for their protection but refused to carry\ntheir share of the common burden.\n\nYou will remember that the earliest Christians had not taken the trouble\nto write anything down. They expected the world to come to an end at\nalmost any moment. Therefore why waste time and money upon literary\nefforts which in less than ten years would be consumed by the fire from\nHeaven? But when the New Zion failed to materialize and when the story\nof Christ (after a hundred years of patient waiting) was beginning to\nbe repeated with such strange additions and variations that a true\ndisciple hardly knew what to believe and what not, the need was felt for\nsome authentic book upon the subject and a number of short biographies\nof Jesus and such of the original letters of the apostles as had been\npreserved were combined into one large volume which was called the New\nTestament.\n\nThis book contained among others a chapter called the Book of Revelations\nand therein were to be found certain references and certain prophecies\nabout and anent a city built on \u201cseven mountains.\u201d That Rome was built\non seven hills had been a commonly known fact ever since the days of\nRomulus. It is true that the anonymous author of this curious chapter\ncarefully called the city of his abomination Babylon. But it took no\ngreat degree of perspicacity on the part of the imperial magistrate to\nunderstand what was meant when he read these pleasant references to the\n\u201cMother of Harlots\u201d and the \u201cAbomination of the Earth,\u201d the town that was\ndrunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs, foredoomed to become\nthe habitation of all devils, the home of every foul spirit, the cage of\nevery unclean and hateful bird, and more expressions of a similar and\nslightly uncomplimentary nature.\n\nSuch sentences might have been explained away as the ravings of a poor\nfanatic, blinded by pity and rage as he thought of his many friends\nwho had been killed during the last fifty years. But they were part of\nthe solemn services of the Church. Week after week they were repeated\nin those places where the Christians came together and it was no more\nthan natural that outsiders should think that they represented the true\nsentiments of all Christians towards the mighty city on the Tiber. I do\nnot mean to imply that the Christians may not have had excellent reason\nto feel the way they did, but we can hardly blame Diocletian because he\nfailed to share their enthusiasm.\n\nBut that was not all.\n\nThe Romans were becoming increasingly familiar with an expression which\nthe world thus far had never heard. That was the word \u201cheretics.\u201d\nOriginally the name \u201cheretic\u201d was given only to those people who had\n\u201cchosen\u201d to believe certain doctrines, or, as we would say, a \u201csect.\u201d\nBut gradually the meaning had narrowed down to those who had chosen\nto believe certain doctrines which were not held \u201ccorrect\u201d or \u201csound\u201d\nor \u201ctrue\u201d or \u201corthodox\u201d by the duly established authorities of the\nChurch and which therefore, to use the language of the Apostles, were\n\u201cheretical, unsound, false and eternally wrong.\u201d\n\nThe few Romans who still clung to the ancient faith were technically\nfree from the charge of heresy because they had remained outside of the\nfold of the Church and therefore could not, strictly speaking, be held\nto account for their private opinions. All the same, it did not flatter\nthe imperial pride to read in certain parts of the New Testament that\n\u201cheresy was as terrible an evil as adultery, uncleanness, lasciviousness,\nidolatry, witchcraft, wrath, strife, murder, sedition and drunkenness\u201d\nand a few other things which common decency prevents me from repeating on\nthis page.\n\nAll this led to friction and misunderstanding and friction and\nmisunderstanding led to persecution and once more Roman jails were filled\nwith Christian prisoners and Roman executioners added to the number of\nChristian martyrs and a great deal of blood was shed and nothing was\naccomplished and finally Diocletian, in utter despair, went back to his\nhome town of Salonae on the Dalmatian coast, retired from the business of\nruling and devoted himself exclusively to the even more exciting pastime\nof raising great big cabbages in his back yard.\n\nHis successor did not continue the policy of repression. On the contrary,\nsince he could not hope to eradicate the Christian evil by force, he\ndecided to make the best of a bad bargain and gain the good will of his\nenemies by offering them some special favors.\n\nThis happened in the year 313 and the honor of having been the first to\n\u201crecognize\u201d the Christian church officially belongs to a man by the name\nof Constantine.\n\nSome day we shall possess an International Board of Revisioning\nHistorians before whom all emperors, kings, pontiffs, presidents and\nmayors who now enjoy the title of the \u201cgreat\u201d shall have to submit their\nclaims for this specific qualification. One of the candidates who will\nhave to be watched very carefully when he appears before this tribunal is\nthe aforementioned Emperor Constantine.\n\nThis wild Serbian who had wielded a spear on every battle field of\nEurope, from York in England to Byzantium on the shores of the Bosphorus,\nwas among other things the murderer of his wife, the murderer of his\nbrother-in-law, the murderer of his nephew (a boy of seven) and the\nexecutioner of several other relatives of minor degree and importance.\nNevertheless and notwithstanding, because in a moment of panic just\nbefore he marched against his most dangerous rival, Maxentius, he had\nmade a bold bid for Christian support, he gained great fame as the\n\u201csecond Moses\u201d and was ultimately elevated to sainthood both by the\nArmenian and by the Russian churches. That he lived and died a barbarian\nwho had outwardly accepted Christianity, yet until the end of his days\ntried to read the riddle of the future from the steaming entrails of\nsacrificial sheep, all this was most considerately overlooked in view\nof the famous Edict of Tolerance by which the Emperor guaranteed unto\nhis beloved Christian subjects the right to \u201cfreely profess their\nprivate opinions and to assemble in their meeting place without fear of\nmolestation.\u201d\n\nFor the leaders of the Church in the first half of the fourth century,\nas I have repeatedly stated before, were practical politicians and when\nthey had finally forced the Emperor to sign this ever memorable decree,\nthey elevated Christianity from the rank of a minor sect to the dignity\nof the official church of the state. But they knew how and in what manner\nthis had been accomplished and the successors of Constantine knew it, and\nalthough they tried to cover it up by a display of oratorical fireworks\nthe arrangement never quite lost its original character.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\u201cDeliver me, oh mighty ruler,\u201d exclaimed Nestor the Patriarch unto\nTheodosius the Emperor, \u201cdeliver me of all the enemies of my church and\nin return I will give thee Heaven. Stand by me in putting down those who\ndisagree with our doctrines and we in turn will stand by thee in putting\ndown thine enemies.\u201d\n\nThere have been other bargains during the history of the last twenty\ncenturies.\n\nBut few have been so brazen as the compromise by which Christianity came\nto power.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nIMPRISONMENT\n\n\nJust before the curtain rings down for the last time upon the ancient\nworld, a figure crosses the stage which had deserved a better fate than\nan untimely death and the unflattering appellation of \u201cthe Apostate.\u201d\n\nThe Emperor Julian, to whom I refer, was a nephew of Constantine the\nGreat and was born in the new capital of the empire in the year 331. In\n337 his famous uncle died. At once his three sons fell upon their common\nheritage and upon each other with the fury of famished wolves.\n\nTo rid themselves of all those who might possibly lay claim to part of\nthe spoils, they ordered that those of their relatives who lived in or\nnear the city be murdered. Julian\u2019s father was one of the victims. His\nmother had died a few years after his birth. In this way, at the age\nof six, the boy was left an orphan. An older half-brother, an invalid,\nshared his loneliness and his lessons. These consisted mostly of lectures\nupon the advantages of the Christian faith, given by a kindly but\nuninspired old bishop by the name of Eusebius.\n\nBut when the children grew older, it was thought wiser to send them\na little further away where they would be less conspicuous and might\npossibly escape the usual fate of junior Byzantine princes. They were\nremoved to a little village in the heart of Asia Minor. It was a dull\nlife, but it gave Julian a chance to learn many useful things. For his\nneighbors, the Cappadocian mountaineers, were a simple people and still\nbelieved in the gods of their ancestors.\n\nThere was not the slightest chance that the boy would ever hold a\nresponsible position and when he asked permission to devote himself to a\nlife of study, he was told to go ahead.\n\nFirst of all he went to Nicomedia, one of the few places where the old\nGreek philosophy continued to be taught. There he crammed his head so\nfull of literature and science that there was no space left for the\nthings he had learned from Eusebius.\n\nNext he obtained leave to go to Athens, that he might study on the very\nspot hallowed by the recollections of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle.\n\nMeanwhile, his half-brother too had been assassinated and Constantius,\nhis cousin and the one and only remaining son of Constantine, remembering\nthat he and his cousin, the boy philosopher, were by this time the only\ntwo surviving male members of the imperial family, sent for Julian,\nreceived him kindly, married him, still in the kindest of spirits, to his\nown sister, Helena, and ordered him to proceed to Gaul and defend that\nprovince against the barbarians.\n\nIt seems that Julian had learned something more practical from his Greek\nteachers than an ability to argue. When in the year 357 the Alamanni\nthreatened France, he destroyed their army near Strassburg, and for good\nmeasure added all the country between the Meuse and the Rhine to his\nown province and went to live in Paris, filled his library with a fresh\nsupply of books by his favorite authors and was as happy as his serious\nnature allowed him to be.\n\nWhen news of these victories reached the ears of the Emperor, little\nGreek fire was wasted in celebration of the event. On the contrary,\nelaborate plans were laid to get rid of a competitor who might be just a\ntrifle too successful.\n\nBut Julian was very popular with his soldiers. When they heard that\ntheir commander-in-chief had been ordered to return home (a polite\ninvitation to come and have one\u2019s head cut off), they invaded his palace\nand then and there proclaimed him emperor. At the same time they let it\nbe known that they would kill him if he should refuse to accept.\n\nJulian, like a sensible fellow, accepted.\n\nEven at that late date, the Roman roads must have been in a remarkably\ngood state of preservation. Julian was able to break all records by the\nspeed with which he marched his troops from the heart of France to the\nshores of the Bosphorus. But ere he reached the capital, he heard that\nhis cousin Constantius had died.\n\nAnd in this way, a pagan once more became ruler of the western world.\n\nOf course the thing which Julian had undertaken to do was impossible.\nIt is a strange thing indeed that so intelligent a man should have been\nunder the impression that the dead past could ever be brought back to\nlife by the use of force; that the age of Pericles could be revived by\nreconstructing an exact replica of the Acropolis and populating the\ndeserted groves of the Academy with professors dressed up in togas of a\nbygone age and talking to each other in a tongue that had disappeared\nfrom the face of the earth more than five centuries before.\n\nAnd yet that is exactly what Julian tried to do.\n\nAll his efforts during the two short years of his reign were directed\ntowards the re\u00ebstablishment of that ancient science which was now held in\nprofound contempt by the majority of his people; towards the rekindling\nof a spirit of research in a world ruled by illiterate monks who felt\ncertain that everything worth knowing was contained in a single book and\nthat independent study and investigation could only lead to unbelief and\nhell fire; towards the requickening of the joy-of-living among those who\nhad the vitality and the enthusiasm of ghosts.\n\nMany a man of greater tenacity than Julian would have been driven to\nmadness and despair by the spirit of opposition which met him on all\nsides. As for Julian, he simply went to pieces under it. Temporarily at\nleast he clung to the enlightened principles of his great ancestors. The\nChristian rabble of Antioch might pelt him with stones and mud, yet he\nrefused to punish the city. Dull-witted monks might try to provoke him\ninto another era of persecution, yet the Emperor persistently continued\nto instruct his officials \u201cnot to make any martyrs.\u201d\n\nIn the year 363 a merciful Persian arrow made an end to this strange\ncareer.\n\nIt was the best thing that could have happened to this, the last and\ngreatest of the Pagan rulers.\n\nHad he lived any longer, his sense of tolerance and his hatred of\nstupidity would have turned him into the most intolerant man of his age.\nNow, from his cot in the hospital, he could reflect that during his\nrule, not a single person had suffered death for his private opinions.\nFor this mercy, his Christian subjects rewarded him with their undying\nhatred. They boasted that an arrow from one of his own soldiers (a\nChristian legionary) had killed the Emperor and with rare delicacy\nthey composed eulogies in praise of the murderer. They told how, just\nbefore he collapsed, Julian had confessed the errors of his ways and had\nacknowledged the power of Christ. And they emptied the arsenal of foul\nepithets with which the vocabulary of the fourth century was so richly\nstocked to disgrace the fame of an honest man who had lived a life of\nascetic simplicity and had devoted all his energies to the happiness of\nthe people who had been entrusted to his care.\n\nWhen he had been carried to his grave the Christian bishops could at last\nconsider themselves the veritable rulers of the Empire and immediately\nbegan the task of destroying whatever opposition to their domination\nmight remain in isolated corners of Europe, Asia and Africa.\n\nUnder Valentinian and Valens, two brothers who ruled from 364 to 378, an\nedict was passed forbidding all Romans to sacrifice animals to the old\nGods. The pagan priests were thereby deprived of their revenue and forced\nto look for other employment.\n\nBut the regulations were mild compared to the law by which Theodosius\nordered all his subjects not only to accept the Christian doctrines,\nbut to accept them only in the form laid down by the \u201cuniversal\u201d or\n\u201cCatholic\u201d church of which he had made himself the protector and which\nwas to have a monopoly in all matters spiritual.\n\nAll those who after the promulgation of this ordinance stuck to their\n\u201cerroneous opinions\u201d\u2014who persisted in their \u201cinsane heresies\u201d\u2014who\nremained faithful to their \u201cscandalous doctrines\u201d\u2014were to suffer the\nconsequences of their willful disobedience and were to be exiled or put\nto death.\n\nFrom then on the old world marched rapidly to its final doom. In Italy\nand Gaul and Spain and England hardly a pagan temple remained. They were\neither wrecked by the contractors who needed stones for new bridges and\nstreets and city-walls and water-works, or they were remodeled to serve\nas meeting places for the Christians. The thousands of golden and silver\nimages which had been accumulated since the beginning of the Republic\nwere publicly confiscated and privately stolen and such statues as\nremained were made into mortar.\n\nThe Serapeum of Alexandria, a temple which Greeks and Romans and\nEgyptians alike had held in the greatest veneration for more than six\ncenturies, was razed to the ground. There remained the university,\nfamous all over the world ever since it had been founded by Alexander\nthe Great. It had continued to teach and explain the old philosophies\nand as a result attracted a large number of students from all parts of\nthe Mediterranean. When it was not closed at the behest of the Bishop\nof Alexandria, the monks of his diocese took the matter into their own\nhands. They broke into the lecture rooms, lynched Hypatia, the last\nof the great Platonic teachers, and threw her mutilated body into the\nstreets where it was left to the mercy of the dogs.\n\nIn Rome things went no better.\n\nThe temple of Jupiter was closed, the Sibylline books, the very basis of\nthe old Roman faith, were burned. The capital was left a ruin.\n\nIn Gaul, under the leadership of the famous bishop of Tours, the old Gods\nwere declared to be the predecessors of the Christian devils and their\ntemples were therefore ordered to be wiped off the face of the earth.\n\nIf, as sometimes happened in remote country districts, the peasants\nrushed forth to the defense of their beloved shrines, the soldiers were\ncalled out and by means of the ax and the gallows made an end to such\n\u201cinsurrections of Satan.\u201d\n\nIn Greece, the work of destruction proceeded more slowly. But finally in\nthe year 394, the Olympic games were abolished. As soon as this center of\nGreek national life (after an uninterrupted existence of eleven hundred\nand seventy years) had come to an end, the rest was comparatively easy.\nOne after the other, the philosophers were expelled from the country.\nFinally, by order of the Emperor Justinian, the University of Athens was\nclosed. The funds established for its maintenance were confiscated. The\nlast seven professors, deprived of their livelihood, fled to Persia\nwhere King Chosroes received them hospitably and allowed them to spend\nthe rest of their days peacefully playing the new and mysterious Indian\ngame called \u201cchess.\u201d\n\nIn the first half of the fifth century, archbishop Chrysostomus could\ntruthfully state that the works of the old authors and philosophers had\ndisappeared from the face of the earth. Cicero and Socrates and Virgil\nand Homer (not to mention the mathematicians and the astronomers and\nthe physicians who were an object of special abomination to all good\nChristians) lay forgotten in a thousand attics and cellars. Six hundred\nyears were to go by before they were called back to life, and in the\nmeantime the world would be obliged to subsist on such literary fare as\nit pleased the theologians to place before it.\n\nA strange diet, and not exactly (in the jargon of the medical faculty) a\nbalanced one.\n\nFor the Church, although triumphant over its pagan enemies, was beset by\nmany and serious tribulations. The poor peasant in Gaul and Lusitania,\nclamoring to burn incense in honor of his ancient Gods, could be silenced\neasily enough. He was a heathen and the law was on the side of the\nChristian. But the Ostrogoth or the Alaman or the Longobard who declared\nthat Arius, the priest of Alexandria, was right in his opinion upon the\ntrue nature of Christ and that Athanasius, the bishop of that same city\nand Arius\u2019 bitter enemy, was wrong (or vice versa)\u2014the Longobard or Frank\nwho stoutly maintained that Christ was not \u201cof the same nature\u201d but of\na \u201clike nature only\u201d with God (or vice versa)\u2014the Vandal or the Saxon\nwho insisted that Nestor spoke the truth when he called the Virgin Mary\nthe \u201cmother of Christ\u201d and not the \u201cmother of God\u201d (or vice versa)\u2014the\nBurgundian or Frisian who denied that Jesus was possessed of two natures,\none human and one divine (or vice versa)\u2014all these simple-minded but\nstrong-armed barbarians who had accepted Christianity and were, outside\nof their unfortunate errors of opinion, staunch friends and supporters\nof the Church\u2014these indeed could not be punished with a general anathema\nand a threat of perpetual hell fire. They must be persuaded gently that\nthey were wrong and must be brought within the fold with charitable\nexpressions of love and devotion. But before all else they must be given\na definite creed that they might know for once and for all what they must\nhold to be true and what they must reject as false.\n\nIt was that desire for unity of some sort in all matters pertaining to\nthe faith which finally caused those famous gatherings which have become\nknown as Oecumenical or Universal Councils, and which since the middle\nof the fourth century have been called together at irregular intervals\nto decide what doctrine is right and what doctrine contains the germ of\nheresy and should therefore be adjudged erroneous, unsound, fallacious\nand heretical.\n\nThe first of those Oecumenical councils was held in the town of Nicaea,\nnot far from the ruins of Troy, in the year 325. The second one,\nfifty-six years later, was held in Constantinople. The third one in\nthe year 431 in Ephesus. Thereafter they followed each other in rapid\nsuccession in Chalcedon, twice again in Constantinople, once more in\nNicaea and finally once again in Constantinople in the year 869.\n\nAfter that, however, they were held in Rome or in some particular town of\nwestern Europe designated by the Pope. For it was generally accepted from\nthe fourth century on that although the emperor had the technical right\nto call together such meetings (a privilege which incidentally obliged\nhim to pay the traveling expenses of his faithful bishops) that very\nserious attention should be paid to the suggestions made by the powerful\nBishop of Rome. And although we do not know with any degree of certainty\nwho occupied the chair in Nicaea, all later councils were dominated by\nthe Popes and the decisions of these holy gatherings were not regarded\nas binding unless they had obtained the official approval of the supreme\npontiff himself or one of his delegates.\n\nHence we can now say farewell to Constantinople and travel to the more\ncongenial regions of the west.\n\nThe field of Tolerance and Intolerance has been fought over so repeatedly\nby those who hold tolerance the greatest of all human virtues and those\nwho denounce it as an evidence of moral weakness, that I shall pay\nvery little attention to the purely theoretical aspects of the case.\nNevertheless it must be confessed that the champions of the Church follow\na plausible line of reasoning when they try to explain away the terrible\npunishments which were inflicted upon all heretics.\n\n\u201cA church,\u201d so they argue, \u201cis like any other organization. It is\nalmost like a village or a tribe or a fortress. There must be a\ncommander-in-chief and there must be a definite set of laws and\nby-laws, which all members are forced to obey. It follows that those\nwho swear allegiance to the Church make a tacit vow both to respect the\ncommander-in-chief and to obey the law. And if they find it impossible to\ndo this, they must suffer the consequences of their own decisions and get\nout.\u201d\n\nAll of which, so far, is perfectly true and reasonable.\n\nIf today a minister feels that he can no longer believe in the articles\nof faith of the Baptist Church, he can turn Methodist, and if for some\nreason he ceases to believe in the creed as laid down by the Methodist\nChurch, he can become a Unitarian or a Catholic or a Jew, or for that\nmatter, a Hindoo or a Turk. The world is wide. The door is open. There\nis no one outside his own hungry family to say him nay.\n\nBut this is an age of steamships and railroad trains and unlimited\neconomic opportunities.\n\nThe world of the fifth century was not quite so simple. It was far from\neasy to discover a region where the influence of the Bishop of Rome did\nnot make itself felt. One could of course go to Persia or to India, as\na good many heretics did, but the voyage was long and the chances of\nsurvival were small. And this meant perpetual banishment for one\u2019s self\nand one\u2019s children.\n\nAnd finally, why should a man surrender his good right to believe what he\npleased if he felt sincerely that his conception of the idea of Christ\nwas the right one and that it was only a question of time for him to\nconvince the Church that its doctrines needed a slight modification?\n\nFor that was the crux of the whole matter.\n\nThe early Christians, both the faithful and the heretics, dealt with\nideas which had a relative and not a positive value.\n\nA group of mathematicians, sending each other to the gallows because they\ncannot agree upon the absolute value of x would be no more absurd than\na council of learned theologians trying to define the undefinable and\nendeavoring to reduce the substance of God to a formula.\n\nBut so thoroughly had the spirit of self-righteousness and intolerance\ngot hold of the world that until very recently all those who advocated\ntolerance upon the basis that \u201cwe cannot ever possibly know who is right\nand who is wrong\u201d did so at the risk of their lives and usually couched\ntheir warnings in such careful Latin sentences that not more than one or\ntwo of their most intelligent readers ever knew what they meant.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE PURE OF LIFE\n\n\nHere is a little problem in mathematics which is not out of place in a\nbook of history. Take a piece of string and make it into a circle, like\nthis:\n\n[Illustration: I]\n\nIn this circle all diameters will of course be equal.\n\nAB = CD = EF = GH and so on, ad infinitum.\n\nBut turn the circle into an ellipse by slightly pulling two sides. Then\nthe perfect balance is at once disturbed. The diameters are thrown out\nof gear. A few like AB and EF have been greatly shortened. Others, and\nespecially CD, have been lengthened.\n\n[Illustration: II]\n\nNow transfer the problem from mathematics to history. Let us for the sake\nof argument suppose that\n\n    AB represents politics\n    CD     \u201d      trade\n    EF     \u201d      art\n    GH     \u201d      militarism\n\nIn the figure I the perfectly balanced state, all lines are equally long\nand quite as much attention is paid to politics as to trade and art and\nmilitarism.\n\nBut in figure II (which is no longer a perfect circle) trade has got an\nundue advantage at the expense of politics and art has almost entirely\ndisappeared, while militarism shows a gain.\n\nOr make GH (militarism) the longest diameter, and the others will tend to\ndisappear altogether.\n\n[Illustration: III]\n\nYou will find this a handy key to a great many historical problems.\n\nTry it on the Greeks.\n\nFor a short time the Greeks had been able to maintain a perfect circle\nof all-around accomplishments. But the foolish quarrels between the\ndifferent political parties soon grew to such proportions that all the\nsurplus energy of the nation was being absorbed by the incessant civil\nwars. The soldiers were no longer used for the purpose of defending the\ncountry against foreign aggression. They were turned loose upon their own\nneighbors, who had voted for a different candidate, or who believed in a\nslightly modified form of taxation.\n\nTrade, that most important diameter of all such circles, at first became\ndifficult, then became entirely impossible and fled to other parts of the\nworld, where business enjoyed a greater degree of stability.\n\nThe moment poverty entered through the front gate of the city, the arts\nescaped by way of the back door, never to be seen again. Capital sailed\naway on the fastest ship it could find within a hundred miles, and since\nintellectualism is a very expensive luxury, it was henceforth impossible\nto maintain good schools. The best teachers hastened to Rome and to\nAlexandria.\n\nWhat remained was a group of second-rate citizens who subsisted upon\ntradition and routine.\n\nAnd all this happened because the line of politics had grown out of all\nproportion, because the perfect circle had been destroyed, and the other\nlines, art, science, philosophy, etc., etc., had been reduced to nothing.\n\nIf you apply the circular problem to Rome, you will find that there the\nparticular line called \u201cpolitical power\u201d grew and grew and grew until\nthere was nothing left of any of the others. The circle which had spelled\nthe glory of the Republic disappeared. All that remained was a straight,\nnarrow line, the shortest distance between success and failure.\n\nAnd if, to give you still another example, you reduce the history of the\nmedieval Church to this sort of mathematics, this is what you will find.\n\nThe earliest Christians had tried very hard to maintain a circle of\nconduct that should be perfect. Perhaps they had rather neglected the\ndiameter of science, but since they were not interested in the life of\nthe world, they could not very well be expected to pay much attention to\nmedicine or physics or astronomy, useful subjects, no doubt, but of small\nappeal to men and women who were making ready for the last judgment and\nwho regarded this world merely as the ante-room to Heaven.\n\nBut for the rest, these sincere followers of Christ endeavored (however\nimperfectly) to lead the good life and to be as industrious as they were\ncharitable and as kindly as they were honest.\n\nAs soon, however, as their little communities had been united into a\nsingle powerful organization, the perfect balance of the old spiritual\ncircle was rudely upset by the obligations and duties of the new\ninternational responsibilities. It was easy enough for small groups of\nhalf-starved carpenters and quarry workers to follow those principles of\npoverty and unselfishness upon which their faith was founded. But the\nheir to the imperial throne of Rome, the Pontifex Maximus of the western\nworld, the richest landowner of the entire continent, could not live\nas simply as if he were a sub-deacon in a provincial town somewhere in\nPomerania or Spain.\n\nOr, to use the circular language of this chapter, the diameter\nrepresenting \u201cworldliness\u201d and the diameter representing \u201cforeign policy\u201d\nwere lengthened to such an extent that the diameters representing\n\u201chumility\u201d and \u201cpoverty\u201d and \u201cself-negation\u201d and the other elementary\nChristian virtues were being reduced to the point of extinction.\n\nIt is a pleasant habit of our time to speak patronizingly of the\nbenighted people of the Middle Ages, who, as we all know, lived in utter\ndarkness. It is true they burned wax tapers in their churches and went\nto bed by the uncertain light of a sconce, they possessed few books,\nthey were ignorant of many things which are now being taught in our\ngrammar schools and in our better grade lunatic asylums. But knowledge\nand intelligence are two very different things and of the latter, these\nexcellent burghers, who constructed the political and social structure in\nwhich we ourselves continue to live, had their full share.\n\nIf a good deal of the time they seemed to stand apparently helpless\nbefore the many and terrible abuses in their Church, let us judge them\nmercifully. They had at least the courage of their convictions and they\nfought whatever they considered wrong with such sublime disregard for\npersonal happiness and comfort that they frequently ended their lives on\nthe scaffold.\n\nMore than that we can ask of no one.\n\nIt is true that during the first thousand years of our era, comparatively\nfew people fell as victims to their ideas. Not, however, because the\nChurch felt less strongly about heresy than she did at a later date, but\nbecause she was too much occupied with more important questions to have\nany time to waste upon comparatively harmless dissenters.\n\nIn the first place, there remained many parts of Europe where Odin and\nthe other heathen gods still ruled supreme.\n\nAnd in the second place, something very unpleasant had happened, which\nhad wellnigh threatened the whole of Europe with destruction.\n\nThis \u201csomething unpleasant\u201d was the sudden appearance of a brand-new\nprophet by the name of Mahomet, and the conquest of western Asia and\nnorthern Africa by the followers of a new God who was called Allah.\n\nThe literature which we absorb in our childhood full of \u201cinfidel dogs\u201d\nand Turkish atrocities is apt to leave us under the impression that Jesus\nand Mahomet represented ideals which were as mutually antagonistic as\nfire and water.\n\nBut as a matter of fact, the two men belonged to the same race, they\nspoke dialects which belonged to the same linguistic group, they both\nclaimed Abraham as their great-great-grandfather and they both looked\nback upon a common ancestral home, which a thousand years before had\nstood on the shores of the Persian Gulf.\n\nAnd yet, the followers of those two great teachers who were such close\nrelatives have always regarded each other with bitter scorn and have\nfought a war which has lasted more than twelve centuries and which has\nnot yet come to an end.\n\nAt this late day and age it is useless to speculate upon what might have\nhappened, but there was a time when Mecca, the arch-enemy of Rome, might\nhave easily been gained for the Christian faith.\n\nThe Arabs, like all desert people, spent a great deal of their time\ntending their flocks and therefore were much given to meditation.\nPeople in cities can drug their souls with the pleasures of a perennial\ncounty-fair. But shepherds and fisher folk and farmers lead solitary\nlives and want something a little more substantial than noise and\nexcitement.\n\nIn his quest for salvation, the Arab had tried several religions, but had\nshown a distinct preference for Judaism. This is easily explained, as\nArabia was full of Jews. In the tenth century B.C., a great many of King\nSolomon\u2019s subjects, exasperated by the high taxes and the despotism of\ntheir ruler, had fled into Arabia and again, five hundred years later in\n586 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah, there had been a second\nwholesale exodus of Jews towards the desert lands of the south.\n\nJudaism, therefore, was well known and furthermore the quest of the Jews\nafter the one and only true God was entirely in line with the aspirations\nand ideals of the Arabian tribes.\n\nAny one in the least familiar with the work of Mahomet will know how much\nthe Medinite had borrowed from the wisdom contained in some of the books\nof the Old Testament.\n\nNor were the descendants of Ishmael (who together with his mother Hagar\nlay buried in the Holy of Holies in the heart of Arabia) hostile to the\nideas expressed by the young reformer from Nazareth. On the contrary,\nthey followed Jesus eagerly when he spoke of that one God who was a\nloving father to all men. They were not inclined to accept those miracles\nof which the followers of the Nazarene carpenter made so much. And as for\nthe resurrection, they flatly refused to believe in it. But generally\nspeaking, they felt very kindly disposed towards the new faith and were\nwilling to give it a chance.\n\nBut Mahomet suffered considerable annoyance at the hands of certain\nChristian zealots who with their usual lack of discretion had denounced\nhim as a liar and a false prophet before he had fairly opened his\nmouth. That and the impression which was rapidly gaining ground that\nthe Christians were idol worshipers who believed in three Gods instead\nof one, made the people of the desert finally turn their backs upon\nChristianity and declare themselves in favor of the Medinese camel driver\nwho spoke to them of one and only one God and did not confuse them with\nreferences to three deities that were \u201cone\u201d and yet were not one, but\nwere one or three as it might please the convenience of the moment and\nthe interests of the officiating priest.\n\nThus the western world found itself possessed of two religions, each of\nwhich proclaimed its own God to be the One True God and each of which\ninsisted that all other Gods were impostors.\n\nSuch conflicts of opinion are apt to lead to warfare.\n\nMahomet died in 632.\n\nWithin less than a dozen years, Palestine, Syria, Persia and Egypt had\nbeen conquered and Damascus had become the capital of a great Arab empire.\n\nBefore the end of 656 the entire coast of northern Africa had accepted\nAllah as its divine ruler and in less than a century after the flight of\nMahomet from Mecca to Medina, the Mediterranean had been turned into a\nMoslem lake, all communications between Europe and Asia had been cut off\nand the European continent was placed in a state of siege which lasted\nuntil the end of the seventeenth century.\n\nUnder those circumstances it had been impossible for the Church to carry\nher doctrines eastward. All she could hope to do was to hold on to what\nshe already possessed. Germany and the Balkans and Russia and Denmark and\nSweden and Norway and Bohemia and Hungary had been chosen as a profitable\nfield for intensive spiritual cultivation and on the whole, the work was\ndone with great success. Occasionally a hardy Christian of the variety\nof Charlemagne, well-intentioned but not yet entirely civilized, might\nrevert to strong-arm methods and might butcher those of his subjects\nwho preferred their own Gods to those of the foreigner. By and large,\nhowever, the Christian missionaries were well received, for they were\nhonest men who told a simple and straightforward story which all the\npeople could understand and because they introduced certain elements of\norder and neatness and mercy into a world full of bloodshed and strife\nand highway robbery.\n\nBut while this was happening along the frontier, things had not gone so\nwell in the heart of the pontifical empire. Incessantly (to revert to\nthe mathematics explained in the first pages of this chapter) the line\nof worldliness had been lengthened until at last the spiritual element\nin the Church had been made entirely subservient to considerations of a\npurely political and economic nature and although Rome was to grow in\npower and exercise a tremendous influence upon the development of the\nnext twelve centuries, certain elements of disintegration had already\nmade their appearance and were being recognized as such by the more\nintelligent among the laity and the clergy.\n\nWe modern people of the Protestant north think of a \u201cchurch\u201d as a\nbuilding which stands empty six days out of every seven and a place\nwhere people go on a Sunday to hear a sermon and sing a few hymns. We\nknow that some of our churches have bishops and occasionally these\nbishops hold a convention in our town and then we find ourselves\nsurrounded by a number of kindly old gentlemen with their collars turned\nbackwards and we read in the papers that they have declared themselves\nin favor of dancing or against divorce, and then they go home again and\nnothing has happened to disturb the peace and happiness of our community.\n\nWe rarely associate this church (even if it happens to be our own) with\nthe sum total of all our experiences, both in life and in death.\n\nThe State, of course, is something very different. The State may take\nour money and may kill us if it feels that such a course is desirable\nfor the public good. The State is our owner, our master, but what is now\ngenerally called \u201cthe Church\u201d is either our good and trusted friend or,\nif we happen to quarrel with her, a fairly indifferent enemy.\n\nBut in the Middle Ages this was altogether different. Then, the Church\nwas something visible and tangible, a highly active organization which\nbreathed and existed, which shaped man\u2019s destiny in many more ways than\nthe State would ever dream of doing. Very likely those first Popes who\naccepted pieces of land from grateful princes and renounced the ancient\nideal of poverty did not foresee the consequences to which such a policy\nwas bound to lead. In the beginning it had seemed harmless enough and\nquite appropriate that faithful followers of Christ should bestow upon\nthe successor of the apostle Peter a share of their own worldly goods.\nBesides, there was the overhead of a complicated administration which\nreached all the way from John o\u2019Groat\u2019s to Trebizond and from Carthage\nto Upsala. Think of all the thousands of secretaries and clerks\nand scribes, not to mention the hundreds of heads of the different\ndepartments, that had to be housed and clothed and fed. Think of the\namount spent upon a courier service across an entire continent; the\ntraveling expenses of diplomatic agents now going to London, then\nreturning from Novgorod; the sums necessary to keep the papal courtiers\nin the style that was expected of people who foregathered with worldly\nprinces on a footing of complete equality.\n\nAll the same, looking back upon what the Church came to stand for and\ncontemplating what it might have been under slightly more favorable\ncircumstances, this development seems a great pity. For Rome rapidly grew\ninto a gigantic super-state with a slight religious tinge and the pope\nbecame an international autocrat who held all the nations of western\nEurope in a bondage compared to which the rule of the old emperors had\nbeen mild and generous.\n\nAnd then, when complete success seemed within certain reach, something\nhappened which proved fatal to the ambition for world dominion.\n\nThe true spirit of the Master once more began to stir among the masses\nand that is one of the most uncomfortable things that can happen to any\nreligious organization.\n\nHeretics were nothing new.\n\nThere had been dissenters as soon as there had been a single rule of\nfaith from which people could possibly dissent and disputes, which\nhad divided Europe and Africa and western Asia into hostile camps for\ncenturies at a time, were almost as old as the Church herself.\n\nBut these sanguinary quarrels between Donatists and Sabellianists and\nMonophysites and Manichaeans and Nestorians hardly come within the\nscope of this book. As a rule, one party was quite as narrow-minded as\nthe other and there was little to choose between the intolerance of a\nfollower of Arius and the intolerance of a follower of Athanasius.\n\nBesides, these quarrels were invariably based upon certain obscure points\nof theology which are gradually beginning to be forgotten. Heaven forbid\nthat I should drag them out of their parchment graves. I am not wasting\nmy time upon the fabrication of this volume to cause a fresh outbreak of\ntheological fury. Rather, I am writing these pages to tell our children\nof certain ideals of intellectual liberty for which some of their\nancestors fought at the risk of their lives and to warn them against that\nattitude of doctrinary arrogance and cock-sureness which has caused such\na terrible lot of suffering during the last two thousand years.\n\nBut when I reach the thirteenth century, it is a very different story.\n\nThen a heretic ceases to be a mere dissenter, a disputatious fellow with\na pet hobby of his own based upon the wrong translation of an obscure\nsentence in the Apocalypse or the mis-spelling of a holy word in the\ngospel of St. John.\n\nInstead he becomes the champion of those ideas for which during the reign\nof Tiberius a certain carpenter from the village of Nazareth went to his\ndeath, and behold! he stands revealed as the only true Christian!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTHE INQUISITION\n\n\nIn the year 1198 a certain Lotario, Count of Segni, succeeded to the high\nhonors which his uncle Paolo had held only a few years before and as\nInnocent III took possession of the papal chair.\n\nHe was one of the most remarkable men who ever resided in the Lateran\nPalace. Thirty-seven years old at the time of his ascension. An\nhonor-student in the universities of Paris and Boulogne. Rich, clever,\nfull of energy and high ambition, he used his office so well that he\ncould rightly claim to exercise the \u201cgovernment not of the Church alone\nbut of the entire world.\u201d\n\nHe set Italy free from German interference by driving the imperial\ngovernor of Rome from that city; by reconquering those parts of\nthe peninsula which were held by imperial troops; and finally by\nexcommunicating the candidate to the imperial throne until that poor\nprince found himself beset by so many difficulties that he withdrew\nentirely from his domains on the other side of the Alps.\n\nHe organized the famous fourth Crusade which never even came within sight\nof the Holy Land but sailed for Constantinople, murdered a goodly number\nof the inhabitants of that town, stole whatever could be carried away and\ngenerally behaved in such a way that thereafter no crusader could show\nhimself in a Greek port without running the chance of being hanged as\nan outlaw. It is true that Innocent expressed his disapproval of these\nproceedings which shrieked to high Heaven and filled the respectable\nminority of Christendom with disgust and despair. But Innocent was a\npractical man of affairs. He soon accepted the inevitable and appointed\na Venetian to the vacant post of Patriarch of Constantinople. By this\nclever stroke he brought the eastern Church once more under Roman\njurisdiction and at the same time gained the good will of the Venetian\nRepublic which henceforth regarded the Byzantine domains as part of her\neastern colonies and treated them accordingly.\n\nIn spiritual matters too His Holiness showed himself a most accomplished\nand tactful person.\n\nThe Church, after almost a thousand years of hesitation, had at last\nbegun to insist that marriage was not merely a civil contract between\na man and a woman but a most holy sacrament which needed the public\nblessing of a priest to be truly valid. When Philip August of France\nand Alphonso IX of Leon undertook to regulate their domestic affairs\naccording to their own particular preferences, they were speedily\nreminded of their duties and being men of great prudence they hastened to\ncomply with the papal wishes.\n\nEven in the high north, gained only recently for Christianity, people\nwere shown in unmistakable manner who was their master. King Haakon IV\n(known familiarly among his fellow pirates as Old Haakon) who had just\nconquered a neat little empire including besides his own Norway, part of\nScotland and all of Iceland, Greenland, the Orkneys and the Hebrides, was\nobliged to submit the somewhat tangled problem of his birth to a Roman\ntribunal before he could get himself crowned in his old cathedral of\nTrondhjem.\n\nAnd so it went.\n\nThe king of Bulgaria, who invariably murdered his Greek prisoners of\nwar, and was not above torturing an occasional Byzantine emperor, who\ntherefore was not the sort of person one might expect to take a deep\ninterest in religious matters, traveled all the way to Rome and humbly\nasked that he be recognized as vassal of His Holiness. While in England,\ncertain barons who had undertaken to discipline their sovereign master\nwere rudely informed that their charter was null and void because \u201cit\nhad been obtained by force\u201d and next found themselves excommunicated for\nhaving given unto this world the famous document known as Magna Charta.\n\nFrom all this it will appear that Innocent III was not the sort of person\nwho would deal lightly with the pretensions of a few simple linen-weavers\nand illiterate shepherds who undertook to question the laws of his Church.\n\nAnd yet, some there were found who had the courage to do this very thing\nas we shall now see.\n\nThe subject of all heresies is extremely difficult.\n\nHeretics, almost invariably, are poor people who have small gift for\npublicity. The occasional clumsy little pamphlets they write to explain\ntheir ideas and to defend themselves against their enemies fall an easy\nprey to the ever watchful detectives of whatever inquisition happens to\nbe in force at that particular moment and are promptly destroyed. Hence\nwe depend for our knowledge of most heresies upon such information as we\nare able to glean from the records of their trials and upon such articles\nas have been written by the enemies of the false doctrines for the\nexpress purpose of exposing the new \u201cconspiracy of Satan\u201d to the truly\nfaithful that all the world may be duly scandalized and warned against\ndoing likewise.\n\nAs a result we usually get a composite picture of a long-haired\nindividual in a dirty shirt, who lives in an empty cellar somewhere in\nthe lowest part of the slums, who refuses to touch decent Christian food\nbut subsists entirely upon vegetables, who drinks naught but water, who\nkeeps away from the company of women and mumbles strange prophecies about\nthe second coming of the Messiah, who reproves the clergy for their\nworldliness and wickedness and generally disgusts his more respectable\nneighbors by his ill-guided attacks upon the established order of things.\n\nUndoubtedly a great many heretics have succeeded in making a nuisance of\nthemselves, for that seems to be the fate of people who take themselves\ntoo seriously.\n\nUndoubtedly a great many of them, driven by their almost unholy zeal\nfor a holy life, were dirty, looked like the devil and did not smell\npleasantly and generally upset the quiet routine of their home town by\ntheir strange ideas anent a truly Christian existence.\n\nBut let us give them credit for their courage and their honesty.\n\nThey had mighty little to gain and everything to lose.\n\nAs a rule, they lost it.\n\nOf course, everything in this world tends to become organized. Eventually\neven those who believe in no organization at all must form a Society\nfor the Promotion of Disorganization, if they wish to accomplish\nanything. And the medieval heretics, who loved the mysterious and\nwallowed in emotions, were no exception to this rule. Their instinct\nof self-preservation made them flock together and their feeling of\ninsecurity forced them to surround their sacred doctrines by a double\nbarrier of mystic rites and esoteric ceremonials.\n\nBut of course the masses of the people, who remained faithful to the\nChurch, were unable to make any distinction between these different\ngroups and sects. And they bunched them all together and called them\ndirty Manichaeans or some other unflattering name and felt that that\nsolved the problem.\n\nIn this way did the Manichaeans become the Bolshevists of the Middle\nAges. Of course I do not use the latter name as indicating membership in\na certain well-defined political party which a few years ago established\nitself as the dominant factor in the old Russian Empire. I refer to a\nvague and ill-defined term of abuse which people nowadays bestow upon all\ntheir personal enemies from the landlord who comes to collect the rent\ndown to the elevator boy who neglects to stop at the right floor.\n\nA Manichaean, to a medieval super-Christian, was a most objectionable\nperson. But as he could not very well try him upon any positive charges,\nhe condemned him upon hearsay, a method which has certain unmistakable\nadvantages over the less spectacular and infinitely slower procedure\nfollowed by the regular courts of law but which sometimes suffers from a\nlack of accuracy and is responsible for a great many judicial murders.\n\nWhat made this all the more reprehensible in the case of the poor\nManichaeans was the fact that the founder of the original sect, a Persian\nby the name of Mani, had been the very incarnation of benevolence and\ncharity. He was an historical figure and was born during the first\nquarter of the third century in the town of Ecbatana where his father,\nPatak, was a man of considerable wealth and influence.\n\nHe was educated in Ctesiphon, on the river Tigris, and spent the years\nof his youth in a community as international, as polyglot, as pious, as\ngodless, as material and as idealistically-spiritual as the New York of\nour own day. Every heresy, every religion, every schism, every sect of\neast and west and south and north had its followers among the crowds that\nvisited the great commercial centers of Mesopotamia. Mani listened to\nall the different preachers and prophets and then distilled a philosophy\nof his own which was a _mixtum-compositum_ of Buddhism, Christianity,\nMithraism and Judaism, with a slight sprinkling of half a dozen old\nBabylonian superstitions.\n\nMaking due allowance for certain extremes to which his followers\nsometimes carried his doctrines, it can be stated that Mani merely\nrevived the old Persian myth of the Good God and the Evil God who are\neternally fighting for the soul of man and that he associated the ancient\nGod of Evil with the Jehovah of the Old Testament (who thus became his\nDevil) and the God of All Good Things with that Heavenly Father whom we\nfind revealed within the pages of the Four Gospels. Furthermore (and that\nis where Buddhistic influence made itself felt) Mani believed that the\nbody of man was by nature a vile and despicable thing; that all people\nshould try to rid themselves of their worldly ambitions by the constant\nmortification of the flesh and should obey the strictest rules of diet\nand behavior lest they fall into the clutches of the Evil God (the Devil)\nand burn in Hell. As a result he revived a large number of taboos about\nthings that must not be eaten or drunk and prescribed for his followers a\nmenu composed exclusively of cold water, dried vegetables and dead fish.\nThis latter ordinance may surprise us, but the inhabitants of the sea,\nbeing cold-blooded animals, have always been regarded as less harmful to\nman\u2019s immortal soul than their warm-blooded brethren of the dry land,\nand the self-same people who would rather suffer death than eat a veal\nchop cheerfully consume quantities of fish and never feel a qualm of\nconscience.\n\nMani showed himself a true Oriental in his contempt for women. He forbade\nhis disciples to marry and advocated the slow extinction of the human\nrace.\n\nAs for baptism and the other ceremonies instituted originally by the\nJewish sect of which John the Baptist had been the exponent, Mani\nregarded them all with horror and instead of being submerged in water,\nhis candidates for holy orders were initiated by the laying on of hands.\n\nAt the age of twenty-five, this strange man undertook to explain his\nideas unto all mankind. First he visited India and China where he was\nfairly successful. Then he turned homeward to bring the blessings of his\ncreed to his own neighbors.\n\nBut the Persian priests who began to find themselves deprived of much\nsecret revenue by the success of these unworldly doctrines turned against\nhim and asked that he be killed. In the beginning, Mani enjoyed the\nprotection of the king, but when this sovereign died and was succeeded\nby some one else who had no interest whatsoever in religious questions,\nMani was surrendered to the priestly class. They took him to the walls\nof the town and crucified him and flayed his corpse and publicly exposed\nhis skin before the city gate as an example to all those who might feel\ninclined to take an interest in the heresies of the Ecbatanian prophet.\n\nBy this violent conflict with the authorities, the Manichaean church\nitself was broken up. But little bits of the prophet\u2019s ideas, like so\nmany spiritual meteors, were showered far and wide upon the landscape of\nEurope and Asia and for centuries afterwards continued to cause havoc\namong the simple and the poor who inadvertently had picked them up, had\nexamined them and had found them singularly to their taste.\n\nExactly how and when Manichaeism entered Europe, I do not know.\n\nMost likely it came by way of Asia Minor, the Black Sea and the Danube.\nThen it crossed the Alps and soon enjoyed immense popularity in Germany\nand France. There the followers of the new creed called themselves by the\nOriental name of the Cathari, or \u201cthe people who lead a pure life,\u201d and\nso widespread was the affliction that all over western Europe the word\n\u201cKetzer\u201d or \u201cKetter\u201d came to mean the same as \u201cheretic.\u201d\n\nBut please don\u2019t think of the Cathari as members of a definite religious\ndenomination. No effort was made to establish a new sect. The Manichaean\nideas exercised great influence upon a large number of people who would\nhave stoutly denied that they were anything but most devout sons of the\nChurch. And that made this particular form of heresy so dangerous and so\ndifficult of detection.\n\nIt is comparatively easy for the average doctor to diagnose a disease\ncaused by microbes of such gigantic structure that their presence can be\ndetected by the microscope of a provincial board-of-health.\n\nBut Heaven protect us against the little creatures who can maintain their\nincognito in the midst of an ultra-violet illumination, for they shall\ninherit the earth.\n\nManichaeism, from the point of view of the Church, was therefore the most\ndangerous expression of all social epidemics and it filled the higher\nauthorities of that organization with a terror not felt before the more\ncommon varieties of spiritual afflictions.\n\nIt was rarely mentioned above a whisper, but some of the staunchest\nsupporters of the early Christian faith had shown unmistakable symptoms\nof the disease. Yea, great Saint Augustine, that most brilliant and\nindefatigable warrior of the Cross, who had done more than any one else\nto destroy the last stronghold of heathenism, was said to have been at\nheart considerable of a Manichaean.\n\nPriscillian, the Spanish bishop who was burned at the stake in the year\n385 and who gained the distinction of being the first victim of the law\nagainst heretics, was accused of Manichaean tendencies.\n\nEven the heads of the Church seemed gradually to have fallen under the\nspell of the abominable Persian doctrines.\n\nThey were beginning to discourage laymen from reading the Old Testament\nand finally, during the twelfth century, promulgated that famous order by\nwhich all clergymen were henceforth condemned to a state of celibacy. Not\nto forget the deep impression which these Persian ideals of abstinence\nwere soon to make upon one of the greatest leaders of spiritual reform,\ncausing that most lovable of men, good Francis of Assisi, to establish\na new monastic order of such strict Manichaean purity that it rightly\nearned him the title of the Buddha of the West.\n\nBut when these high and noble ideals of voluntary poverty and humility\nof soul began to filter down to the common people, at the very moment\nwhen the world was filled with the din of yet another war between emperor\nand pope, when foreign mercenaries, bearing the banners of the cross\nand the eagle, were fighting each other for the most valuable bits of\nterritory along the Mediterranean shores, when hordes of Crusaders were\nrushing home with the ill-gotten plunder they had taken from friend and\nenemy alike, when abbots lived in luxurious palaces and maintained a\nstaff of courtiers, when priests galloped through the morning\u2019s mass that\nthey might hurry to the hunting breakfast, then indeed something very\nunpleasant was bound to happen, and it did.\n\nLittle wonder that the first symptoms of open discontent with the state\nof the Church made themselves felt in that part of France where the old\nRoman tradition of culture had survived longest and where civilization\nhad never been quite absorbed by barbarism.\n\nYou will find it on the map. It is called the Provence and consists of\na small triangle situated between the Mediterranean, the Rhone and the\nAlps. Marseilles, a former colony of the Phoenicians, was and still is\nits most important harbor and it possessed no mean number of rich towns\nand villages. It had always been a very fertile land and it enjoyed an\nabundance of sunshine and rain.\n\nWhile the rest of medieval Europe still listened to the barbaric deeds\nof hairy Teuton heroes, the troubadours, the poets of the Provence, had\nalready invented that new form of literature which in time was to give\nbirth to our modern novel. Furthermore, the close commercial relations\nof these Proven\u00e7als with their neighbors, the Mohammedans of Spain and\nSicily, were making the people familiar with the latest publications\nin the field of science at a time when the number of such books in the\nnorthern part of Europe could be counted on the fingers of two hands.\n\nIn this country, the back-to-early-Christianity movement had begun to\nmake itself manifest as early as the first decade of the eleventh century.\n\nBut there had not been anything which, however remotely, could be\nconstrued into open rebellion. Here and there in certain small villages\ncertain people were beginning to hint that their priests might live as\nsimply and as unostentatiously as their parishioners; who refused (oh,\nmemory of the ancient martyrs!) to fight when their lords went forth to\nwar; who tried to learn a little Latin that they might read and study the\nGospels for themselves; who let it be known that they did not approve\nof capital punishment; who denied the existence of that Purgatory which\nsix centuries after the death of Christ had been officially proclaimed as\npart of the Christian Heaven; and who (a most important detail) refused\nto surrender a tenth of their income to the Church.\n\nWhenever possible the ring leaders of such rebellions against clerical\nauthority were sought out and sometimes, if they were deaf to persuasion,\nthey were discreetly put out of the way.\n\nBut the evil continued to spread and finally it was deemed necessary to\ncall together a meeting of all the bishops of the Provence to discuss\nwhat measures should be taken to put a stop to this very dangerous and\nhighly seditious agitation. They duly convened and continued their\ndebates until the year 1056.\n\nBy that time it had been plainly shown that the ordinary forms of\npunishment and excommunication did not produce any noticeable results.\nThe simple country folk who desired to lead a \u201cpure life\u201d were delighted\nwhenever they were given a chance to demonstrate their principles of\nChristian charity and forgiveness behind the locked doors of a jail and\nif perchance they were condemned to death, they marched to the stake with\nthe meekness of a lamb. Furthermore, as always happens in such cases, the\nplace left vacant by a single martyr was immediately occupied by a dozen\nfresh candidates for holiness.\n\nAlmost an entire century was spent in the quarrels between the papal\ndelegates who insisted upon more severe persecutions and the local\nnobility and clergy who (knowing the true nature of their subjects)\nrefused to comply with the orders from Rome and protested that violence\nonly encouraged the heretics to harden their souls against the voice of\nreason and therefore was a waste both of time and energy.\n\nAnd then, late in the twelfth century, the movement received a fresh\nimpetus from the north.\n\nIn the town of Lyons, connected with the Provence by way of the Rhone,\nthere lived a merchant by the name of Peter Waldo. A very serious man,\na good man, a most generous man, almost fanatically obsessed by his\neagerness to follow the example of his Saviour. Jesus had taught that\nit was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for\na rich young man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Thirty generations of\nChristians had tried to explain just what Jesus had actually meant when\nhe uttered these words. Not so Peter Waldo. He read and he believed. He\ndivided whatever he had among the poor, retired from business and refused\nto accumulate fresh wealth.\n\nJohn had written, \u201cSearch ye the scriptures.\u201d\n\nTwenty popes had commented upon this sentence and had carefully\nstipulated under what conditions it might perhaps be desirable for the\nlaity to study the holy books directly and without the assistance of a\npriest.\n\nPeter Waldo did not see it that way.\n\nJohn had said, \u201cSearch ye the scriptures.\u201d\n\nVery well. Then Peter Waldo would search.\n\nAnd when he discovered that the things he found did not tally with the\nconclusions of Saint Jerome, he translated the New Testament into his own\nlanguage and spread copies of his manuscript throughout the good land of\nProvence.\n\nAt first his activities did not attract much attention. His enthusiasm\nfor poverty did not seem dangerous. Most likely he could be persuaded to\nfound some new and very ascetic monastic order for the benefit of those\nwho wished to lead a life of real hardships and who complained that the\nexisting monasteries were a bit too luxurious and too comfortable.\n\nRome had always been very clever at finding fitting outlets for those\npeople whose excess of faith might make them troublesome.\n\nBut all things must be done according to rule and precedent. And in that\nrespect the \u201cpure men\u201d of the Provence and the \u201cpoor men\u201d of Lyons were\nterrible failures. Not only did they neglect to inform their bishops\nof what they were doing, they even went further and boldly proclaimed\nthe startling doctrine that one could be a perfectly good Christian\nwithout the assistance of a professional member of the priesthood and\nthat the Bishop of Rome had no more right to tell people outside of\nhis jurisdiction what to do and what to believe than the Grand Duke of\nTartary or the Caliph of Bagdad.\n\nThe Church was placed before a terrible dilemma and truth compels me\nto state that she waited a long time before she finally decided to\nexterminate this heresy by force.\n\nBut an organization based upon the principle that there is only one\nright way of thinking and living and that all other ways are infamous\nand damnable is bound to take drastic measures whenever its authority is\nbeing openly questioned.\n\nIf it failed to do so it could not possibly hope to survive and this\nconsideration at last compelled Rome to take definite action and devise\na series of punishments that should put terror into the hearts of all\nfuture dissenters.\n\nThe Albigenses (the heretics were called after the city of Albi which was\na hotbed of the new doctrine) and the Waldenses (who bore the name of\ntheir founder, Peter Waldo) living in countries without great political\nvalue and therefore not well able to defend themselves, were selected as\nthe first of her victims.\n\nThe murder of a papal delegate who for several years had ruled the\nProvence as if it were so much conquered territory, gave Innocent III an\nexcuse to interfere.\n\nHe preached a formal crusade against both the Albigenses and the\nWaldenses.\n\nThose who for forty consecutive days would join the expedition against\nthe heretics would be excused from paying interest on their debts; they\nwould be absolved from all past and future sins and for the time being\nthey would be exempted from the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts of\nlaw. This was a fair offer and it greatly appealed to the people of\nnorthern Europe.\n\nWhy should they bother about going all the way to Palestine when a\ncampaign against the rich cities of the Provence offered the same\nspiritual and economic rewards as a trip to the Orient and when a man\ncould gain an equal amount of glory in exchange for a much shorter term\nof service?\n\nFor the time being the Holy Land was forgotten and the worst elements\namong the nobility and gentry of northern France and southern England,\nof Austria, Saxony and Poland came rushing southward to escape the local\nsheriff and incidentally replenish its depleted coffers at the expense of\nthe prosperous Proven\u00e7als.\n\nThe number of men, women and children hanged, burned, drowned,\ndecapitated and quartered by these gallant crusaders is variously given.\nI have not any idea how many thousands perished. Here and there, whenever\na formal execution took place, we are provided with a few concrete\nfigures, and these vary between two thousand and twenty thousand,\naccording to the size of each town.\n\nAfter the city of B\u00e9ziers had been captured, the soldiers were in a\nquandary how to know who were heretics and who were not. They placed\ntheir problem before the papal delegate, who followed the army as a sort\nof spiritual adviser.\n\n\u201cMy children,\u201d the good man answered, \u201cgo ahead and kill them all. The\nLord will know his own people.\u201d\n\nBut it was an Englishman by the name of Simon de Montfort, a veteran of\nthe real crusades, who distinguished himself most of all by the novelty\nand the ingenuity of his cruelties. In return for his valuable services,\nhe afterwards received large tracts of land in the country which he had\njust pillaged and his subordinates were rewarded in proportion.\n\nAs for the few Waldenses who survived the massacre, they fled to the more\ninaccessible valleys of Piedmont and there maintained a church of their\nown until the days of the Reformation.\n\nThe Albigenses were less fortunate. After a century of flogging and\nhanging, their name disappears from the court reports of the Inquisition.\nBut three centuries later, in a slightly modified form, their doctrines\nwere to crop up again and propagated by a Saxon priest called Martin\nLuther, they were to cause that reform which was to break the monopoly\nwhich the papal super-state had enjoyed for almost fifteen hundred years.\n\nAll that, of course, was hidden to the shrewd eyes of Innocent III. As\nfar as he was concerned, the difficulty was at an end and the principle\nof absolute obedience had been triumphantly re-asserted. The famous\ncommand in Luke xiv: 23 where Christ tells how a certain man who wished\nto give a party, finding that there still was room in his banqueting hall\nand that several of the guests had remained away, had said unto his\nservant, \u201cGo out into the highways and compel them to come in,\u201d had once\nmore been fulfilled.\n\n\u201cThey,\u201d the heretics, had been compelled to come in.\n\nThe problem how to make them stay in still faced the Church and this was\nnot solved until many years later.\n\nThen, after many unsuccessful experiments with local tribunals, special\ncourts of inquiry, such as had been used for the first time during the\nAlbigensian uprising, were instituted in the different capitals of\nEurope. They were given jurisdiction over all cases of heresy and they\ncame to be known simply as the Inquisition.\n\nEven today when the Inquisition has long since ceased to function, the\nmere name fills our hearts with a vague feeling of unrest. We have\nvisions of dark dungeons in Havanna, of torture chambers in Lisbon, of\nrusty cauldrons and branding irons in the museum of Cracow, of yellow\nhoods and black masks, of a king with a heavy lower jaw leering at an\nendless row of old men and women, slowly shuffling to the gibbet.\n\nSeveral popular novels written during the latter half of the nineteenth\ncentury have undoubtedly had something to do with this impression of\nsinister brutality. Let us therefore deduct twenty-five per cent for the\nphantasy of our romantic scribes and another twenty-five for Protestant\nprejudice and we shall find that enough horror remains to justify those\nwho claim that all secret tribunals are an insufferable evil and should\nnever again be tolerated in a community of civilized people.\n\nHenry Charles Lea has treated the subject of the Inquisition in eight\nponderous volumes. I shall have to reduce these to two or three pages,\nand it will be quite impossible to give a concise account of one of the\nmost complicated problems of medieval history within so short a space.\nFor there never was an Inquisition as there is a Supreme Court or an\nInternational Court of Arbitration.\n\nThere were all sorts of Inquisitions in all sorts of countries and\ncreated for all sorts of purposes.\n\nThe best known of these was the Royal Inquisition of Spain and the Holy\nInquisition of Rome. The former was a local affair which watched over the\nheretics in the Iberian peninsula and in the American colonies.\n\nThe latter had its ramifications all over Europe and burned Joan of Arc\nin the northern part of the continent as it burned Giordano Bruno in the\nsouthern.\n\nIt is true that the Inquisition, strictly speaking, never killed any one.\n\nAfter sentence had been pronounced by the clerical judges, the convicted\nheretic was surrendered to the secular authorities. These could then do\nwith him what they thought fit. But if they failed to pronounce the death\npenalty, they exposed themselves to a great deal of inconvenience and\nmight even find themselves excommunicated or deprived of their support\nat the papal court. If, as sometimes happened, the prisoner escaped\nthis fate and was not given over to the magistrates his sufferings only\nincreased. For he then ran the risk of solitary confinement for the rest\nof his natural life in one of the inquisitorial prisons.\n\nAs death at the stake was preferable to the slow terror of going insane\nin a dark hole in a rocky castle, many prisoners confessed all sorts\nof crimes of which they were totally innocent that they might be found\nguilty of heresy and thus be put out of their misery.\n\nIt is not easy to write upon this subject without appearing to be\nhopelessly biased.\n\nIt seems incredible that for more than five centuries hundreds of\nthousands of harmless people in all parts of the world were overnight\nlifted from their beds at the mere whispered hearsay of some loquacious\nneighbors; that they were held for months or for years in filthy\ncells awaiting an opportunity to appear before a judge whose name and\nqualifications were unknown to them; that they were never informed of the\nnature of the accusation that was brought against them; that they were\nnot allowed to know the names of those who had acted as witnesses against\nthem; that they were not permitted to communicate with their relatives\nor consult a lawyer; that if they continued to protest their innocence,\nthey could be tortured until all the limbs of their body were broken;\nthat other heretics could testify against them but were not listened to\nif they offered to tell something favorable of the accused; and finally\nthat they could be sent to their death without the haziest notion as to\nthe cause of their terrible fate.\n\nIt seems even more incredible that men and women who had been buried for\nfifty or sixty years could be dug out of their graves, could be found\nguilty \u201cin absentia\u201d and that the heirs of people who were condemned\nin this fashion could be deprived of their worldly possessions half a\ncentury after the death of the offending parties.\n\nBut such was the case and as the inquisitors depended for their\nmaintenance upon a liberal share of all the goods that were confiscated,\nabsurdities of this sort were by no means an uncommon occurrence\nand frequently the grandchildren were driven to beggary on account\nof something which their grandfather was supposed to have done two\ngenerations before.\n\nThose of us who followed the newspapers twenty years ago when Czarist\nRussia was in the heyday of its power, remember the agent provocateur. As\na rule the agent provocateur was a former burglar or a retired gambler\nwith a winning personality and a \u201cgrievance.\u201d He let it be secretly known\nthat his sorrow had made him join the revolution and in this way he often\ngained the confidence of those who were genuinely opposed to the imperial\ngovernment. But as soon as he had learned the secrets of his new friends,\nhe betrayed them to the police, pocketed the reward and went to the next\ncity, there to repeat his vile practices.\n\nDuring the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, southern and\nwestern Europe was overrun by this nefarious tribe of private spies.\n\nThey made a living denouncing those who were supposed to have criticized\nthe Church or who had expressed doubts upon certain points of doctrine.\n\nIf there were no heretics in the neighborhood, it was the business of\nsuch an agent provocateur to manufacture them.\n\nAs he could rest assured that torture would make his victims confess, no\nmatter how innocent they might be, he ran no risks and could continue his\ntrade ad infinitum.\n\nIn many countries a veritable reign of terror was introduced by this\nsystem of allowing anonymous people to denounce those whom they suspected\nof spiritual deficiencies. At last, no one dared trust his nearest and\ndearest friends. Members of the same family were forced to be on their\nguard against each other.\n\nThe mendicant friars who handled a great deal of the inquisitorial work\nmade excellent use of the panic which their methods created and for\nalmost two centuries they lived on the fat of the land.\n\nYes, it is safe to say that one of the main underlying causes of the\nReformation was the disgust which a large number of people felt for those\narrogant beggars who under a cloak of piety forced themselves into the\nhomes of respectable citizens, who slept in the most comfortable beds,\nwho partook of the best dishes, who insisted that they be treated as\nhonored guests and who were able to maintain themselves in comfort by the\nmere threat that they would denounce their benefactors to the Inquisition\nif ever they were deprived of any of those luxuries which they had come\nto regard as their just due.\n\nThe Church of course could answer to all this that the Inquisition merely\nacted as a spiritual health officer whose sworn duty it was to prevent\ncontagious errors from spreading among the masses. It could point to the\nleniency shown to all heathen who acted in ignorance and therefore could\nnot be held responsible for their opinions. It could even claim that few\npeople ever suffered the penalty of death unless they were apostates and\nwere caught in a new offense after having forsworn their former errors.\n\nBut what of it?\n\nThe same trick by which an innocent man was changed into a desperate\ncriminal could afterwards be used to place him in an apparent position of\nrecantation.\n\nThe agent provocateur and the forger have ever been close friends.\n\nAnd what are a few faked documents between spies?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE CURIOUS ONES\n\n\nModern intolerance, like ancient Gaul, is divided into three parts; the\nintolerance of laziness, the intolerance of ignorance and the intolerance\nof self-interest.\n\nThe first of these is perhaps the most general. It is to be met with in\nevery country and among all classes of society. It is most common in\nsmall villages and old-established towns, and it is not restricted to\nhuman beings.\n\nOur old family horse, having spent the first twenty-five years of his\nplacid life in a warm stable in Coley Town, resents the equally warm barn\nof Westport for no other reason than that he has always lived in Coley\nTown, is familiar with every stick and stone in Coley Town and knows\nthat no new and unfamiliar sights will frighten him on his daily ambles\nthrough that pleasant part of the Connecticut landscape.\n\nOur scientific world has thus far spent so much time learning the defunct\ndialects of Polynesian islands that the language of dogs and cats and\nhorses and donkeys has been sadly neglected. But could we know what Dude\nsays to his former neighbors of Coley Town, we would hear an outburst\nof the most ferocious equine intolerance. For Dude is no longer young\nand therefore is \u201cset\u201d in his ways. His horsey habits were all formed\nyears and years ago and therefore all the Coley Town manners, customs and\nhabits seem right to him and all the Westport customs and manners and\nhabits will be declared wrong until the end of his days.\n\nIt is this particular variety of intolerance which makes parents shake\ntheir heads over the foolish behavior of their children, which has caused\nthe absurd myth of \u201cthe good old days\u201d; which makes savages and civilized\ncreatures wear uncomfortable clothes; which fills the world with a great\ndeal of superfluous nonsense and generally turns all people with a new\nidea into the supposed enemies of mankind.\n\nOtherwise, however, this sort of intolerance is comparatively harmless.\n\nWe are all of us bound to suffer from it sooner or later. In ages past it\nhas caused millions of people to leave home, and in this way it has been\nresponsible for the permanent settlement of vast tracts of uninhabited\nland which otherwise would still be a wilderness.\n\nThe second variety is much more serious.\n\nAn ignorant man is, by the very fact of his ignorance, a very dangerous\nperson.\n\nBut when he tries to invent an excuse for his own lack of mental\nfaculties, he becomes a holy terror. For then he erects within his soul a\ngranite bulwark of self-righteousness and from the high pinnacle of this\nformidable fortress, he defies all his enemies (to wit, those who do not\nshare his own prejudices) to show cause why they should be allowed to\nlive.\n\nPeople suffering from this particular affliction are both uncharitable\nand mean. Because they live constantly in a state of fear, they easily\nturn to cruelty and love to torture those against whom they have a\ngrievance. It was among people of this ilk that the strange notion\nof a predilected group of a \u201cchosen people\u201d first took its origin.\nFurthermore, the victims of this delusion are forever trying to bolster\nup their own courage by an imaginary relationship which exists between\nthemselves and the invisible Gods. This, of course, in order to give a\nflavor of spiritual approbation to their intolerance.\n\nFor instance, such citizens never say, \u201cWe are hanging Danny Deever\nbecause we consider him a menace to our own happiness, because we hate\nhim with a thousand hates and because we just love to hang him.\u201d Oh,\nno! They get together in solemn conclave and deliberate for hours and\nfor days and for weeks upon the fate of said Danny Deever. When finally\nsentence is read, poor Danny, who has perhaps committed some petty sort\nof larceny, stands solemnly convicted as a most terrible person who has\ndared to offend the Divine Will (as privately communicated to the elect\nwho alone can interpret such messages) and whose execution therefore\nbecomes a sacred duty, bringing great credit upon the judges who have the\ncourage to convict such an ally of Satan.\n\nThat good-natured and otherwise kind-hearted people are quite as apt to\nfall under the spell of this most fatal delusion as their more brutal and\nblood-thirsty neighbors is a commonplace both of history and psychology.\n\nThe crowds that gaped delightedly at the sad plight of a thousand poor\nmartyrs were most assuredly not composed of criminals. They were decent,\npious folk and they felt sure that they were doing something very\ncreditable and pleasing in the sight of their own particular Divinity.\n\nHad one spoken to them of tolerance, they would have rejected the idea as\nan ignoble confession of Moral weakness. Perhaps they were intolerant,\nbut in that case they were proud of the fact and with good right. For\nthere, out in the cold dampness of early morning, stood Danny Deever,\nclad in a saffron colored shirt and in a pair of pantaloons adorned with\nlittle devils, and he was going, going slowly but surely, to be hanged in\nthe Market Place. While they themselves, as soon as the show was over,\nwould return to a comfortable home and a plentiful meal of bacon and\nbeans.\n\nWas not that in itself proof enough that they were acting and thinking\ncorrectly?\n\nOtherwise would they be among the spectators? Would not the r\u00f4les be\nreversed?\n\nA feeble argument, I confess, but a very common one and hard to answer\nwhen people feel sincerely convinced that their own ideas are the ideas\nof God and are unable to understand how they could possibly be mistaken.\n\nThere remains as a third category the intolerance caused by\nself-interest. This, of course, is really a variety of jealousy and as\ncommon as the measles.\n\nWhen Jesus came to Jerusalem, there to teach that the favor of Almighty\nGod could not be bought by the killing of a dozen oxen or goats, all\nthose who made a living from the ceremonial sacrifices in the temple\ndecried him as a dangerous revolutionist and caused him to be executed\nbefore he could do any lasting damage to their main source of income.\n\nWhen Saint Paul, a few years later, came to Ephesus and there preached\na new creed which threatened to interfere with the prosperity of the\njewelers who derived great profit from the sale of little images of the\nlocal Goddess Diana, the Guild of the Goldsmiths almost lynched the\nunwelcome intruder.\n\nAnd ever since there has been open warfare between those who depend for\ntheir livelihood upon some established form of worship and those whose\nideas threaten to take the crowd away from one temple in favor of another.\n\nWhen we attempt to discuss the intolerance of the Middle Ages, we must\nconstantly remember that we have to deal with a very complicated problem.\nOnly upon very rare occasions do we find ourselves confronted with only\none manifestation of these three separate forms of intolerance. Most\nfrequently we can discover traces of all three varieties in the cases of\npersecution which are brought to our attention.\n\nThat an organization, enjoying great wealth, administering thousands\nof square miles of land and owning hundreds of thousands of serfs,\nshould have turned the full vigor of its anger against a group of\npeasants who had undertaken to re\u00ebstablish a simple and unpretentious\nKingdom-of-Heaven-on-Earth was entirely natural.\n\nAnd in that case, the extermination of heretics became a matter\nof economic necessity and belonged to class C, the intolerance of\nself-interest.\n\nBut when we begin to consider another group of men who were to feel\nthe heavy hand of official disapprobation, the scientists, the problem\nbecomes infinitely more complicated.\n\nAnd in order to understand the perverse attitude of the Church\nauthorities towards those who tried to reveal the secrets of nature, we\nmust go back a good many centuries and study what had actually happened\nin Europe during the first six centuries of our era.\n\nThe invasion of the Barbarians had swept across the continent with the\nruthless thoroughness of a flood. Here and there a few pieces of the old\nRoman fabric of state had remained standing erect amidst the wastes of\nthe turbulent waters. But the society that had once dwelled within these\nwalls had perished. Their books had been carried away by the waves. Their\nart lay forgotten in the deep mud of a new ignorance. Their collections,\ntheir museums, their laboratories, their slowly accumulated mass of\nscientific facts, all these had been used to stoke the camp-fires of\nuncouth savages from the heart of Asia.\n\nWe possess several catalogues of libraries of the tenth century. Of\nGreek books (outside of the city of Constantinople, then almost as far\nremoved from central Europe as the Melbourne of today) the people of the\nwest possessed hardly any. It seems incredible, but they had completely\ndisappeared. A few translations (badly done) of a few chapters from the\nworks of Aristotle and Plato were all the scholar of that time could find\nwhen he wanted to familiarize himself with the thoughts of the ancients.\nIf he desired to learn their language, there was no one to teach it to\nhim, unless a theological dispute in Byzantium had driven a handful of\nGreek monks from their customary habitats and had forced them to find a\ntemporary asylum in France or Italy.\n\nLatin books there were in great quantity, but most of those dated from\nthe fourth and fifth centuries. The few manuscripts of the classics\nthat survived had been copied so often and so indifferently that their\ncontents were no longer understandable to any one who had not made a life\nstudy of paleography.\n\nAs for books of science, with the possible exception of some of the\nsimplest problems of Euclid, they were no longer to be found in any of\nthe available libraries and what was much more regrettable, they were no\nlonger wanted.\n\nFor the people who now ruled the world regarded science with a hostile\neye and discouraged all independent labor in the field of mathematics,\nbiology and zoology, not to mention medicine and astronomy, which had\ndescended to such a low state of neglect that they were no longer of the\nslightest practical value.\n\nIt is exceedingly difficult for a modern mind to understand such a state\nof affairs.\n\nWe men and women of the twentieth century, whether rightly or wrongly,\nprofoundly believe in the idea of progress. Whether we ever shall be able\nto make this world perfect, we do not know. In the meantime we feel it to\nbe our most sacred duty to try.\n\nYea, sometimes this faith in the unavoidable destiny of progress seems to\nhave become the national religion of our entire country.\n\nBut the people of the Middle Ages did not and could not share such a view.\n\nThe Greek dream of a world filled with beautiful and interesting things\nhad lasted such a lamentably short time! It had been so rudely disturbed\nby the political cataclysm that had overtaken the unfortunate country\nthat most Greek writers of the later centuries had been confirmed\npessimists who, contemplating the ruins of their once happy fatherland,\nhad become abject believers in the doctrine of the ultimate futility of\nall worldly endeavor.\n\nThe Roman authors, on the other hand, who could draw their conclusions\nfrom almost a thousand years of consecutive history, had discovered a\ncertain upward trend in the development of the human race and their\nphilosophers, notably the Epicureans, had cheerfully undertaken the task\nof educating the younger generation for a happier and better future.\n\nThen came Christianity.\n\nThe center of interest was moved from this world to the other. Almost\nimmediately people fell back into a deep and dark abyss of hopeless\nresignation.\n\nMan was evil. He was evil by instinct and by preference. He was conceived\nin sin, born in sin, he lived in sin and he died repenting of his sins.\n\nBut there was a difference between the old despair and the new.\n\nThe Greeks were convinced (and perhaps rightly so) that they were more\nintelligent and better educated than their neighbors and they felt rather\nsorry for those unfortunate barbarians. But they never quite reached the\npoint at which they began to consider themselves as a race that had been\nset apart from all others because it was the chosen people of Zeus.\n\nChristianity on the other hand was never able to escape from its own\nantecedents. When the Christians adopted the Old Testament as one of the\nHoly Books of their own faith, they fell heir to the incredible Jewish\ndoctrine that their race was \u201cdifferent\u201d from all others and that only\nthose who professed a belief in certain officially established doctrines\ncould hope to be saved while the rest were doomed to perdition.\n\nThis idea was, of course, of enormous direct benefit to those who\nwere lacking sufficiently in humility of spirit to believe themselves\npredilected favorites among millions and millions of their fellow\ncreatures. During many highly critical years it had turned the Christians\ninto a closely-knit, self-contained little community which floated\nunconcernedly upon a vast ocean of paganism.\n\nWhat happened elsewhere on those waters that stretched far and wide\ntowards the north and the south and the east and the west was a subject\nof the most profound indifference to Tertullian or St. Augustine, or any\nof those other early writers who were busily engaged in putting the ideas\nof their Church into the concrete form of written books. Eventually\nthey hoped to reach a safe shore and there to build their city of God.\nMeanwhile, what those in other climes hoped to accomplish and to achieve\nwas none of their concern.\n\nHence they created for themselves entirely new conceptions about the\norigin of man and about the limits of time and space. What the Egyptians\nand Babylonians and the Greeks and the Romans had discovered about\nthese mysteries did not interest them in the least. They were sincerely\nconvinced that all the old values had been destroyed with the birth of\nChrist.\n\nThere was for example the problem of our earth.\n\nThe ancient scientists held it to be one among a couple of billion of\nother stars.\n\nThe Christians flatly rejected this idea. To them, the little round disk\non which they lived was the heart and center of the universe.\n\nIt had been created for the special purpose of providing one particular\ngroup of people with a temporary home. The way in which this had been\nbrought about was very simple and was fully described in the first\nchapter of Genesis.\n\nWhen it became necessary to decide just how long this group of\npredilected people had been on this earth, the problem became a little\nmore complicated. On all sides there were evidences of great antiquity,\nof buried cities, of extinct monsters and of fossilized plants. But\nthese could be reasoned away or overlooked or denied or shouted out of\nexistence. And after this had been done, it was a very simple matter to\nestablish a fixed date for the beginning of time.\n\nIn a universe like that, a universe which was static, which had begun\nat a certain hour of a certain day in a certain year, and would end at\nanother certain hour of a certain day in a certain year, which existed\nfor the exclusive benefit of one and only one denomination, in such a\nuniverse there was no room for the prying curiosity of mathematicians\nand biologists and chemists and all sorts of other people who only\ncared for general principles and juggled with the idea of eternity and\nunlimitedness both in the field of time and in the realm of space.\n\nTrue enough, many of those scientific people protested that at heart they\nwere devout sons of the Church. But the true Christians knew better. No\nman, who was sincere in his protestations of love and devotion for the\nfaith, had any business to know so much or to possess so many books.\n\nOne book was enough.\n\nThat book was the Bible, and every letter in it, every comma, every\nsemicolon and exclamation point had been written down by people who were\ndivinely inspired.\n\nA Greek of the days of Pericles would have been slightly amused if he\nhad been told of a supposedly holy volume which contained scraps of\nill-digested national history, doubtful love poems, the inarticulate\nvisions of half-demented prophets and whole chapters devoted to the\nfoulest denunciation of those who for some reason or another were\nsupposed to have incurred the displeasure of one of Asia\u2019s many tribal\ndeities.\n\nBut the barbarian of the third century had a most humble respect for\nthe \u201cwritten word\u201d which to him was one of the great mysteries of\ncivilization, and when this particular book, by successive councils of\nhis Church, was recommended to him as being without error, flaw or slip,\nhe willingly enough accepted this extraordinary document as the sum total\nof everything that man had ever known, or ever could hope to know, and\njoined in the denunciation and persecution of those who defied Heaven\nby extending their researches beyond the limits indicated by Moses and\nIsaiah.\n\nThe number of people willing to die for their principles has always been\nnecessarily limited.\n\nAt the same time the thirst for knowledge on the part of certain people\nis so irrepressible that some outlet must be found for their pent up\nenergy. As a result of this conflict between curiosity and repression\nthere grew up that stunted and sterile intellectual sapling which came to\nbe known as Scholasticism.\n\nIt dated back to the middle of the eighth century. It was then that\nBertha, wife to P\u00e9pin the Short, king of the Franks, gave birth to a son\nwho has better claims to be considered the patron saint of the French\nnation than that good King Louis who cost his countrymen a ransom of\neight hundred thousand Turkish gold pieces and who rewarded his subjects\u2019\nloyalty by giving them an inquisition of their own.\n\nWhen the child was baptized it was given the name of Carolus, as you may\nsee this very day at the bottom of many an ancient charter. The signature\nis a little clumsy. But Charles was never much of a hand at spelling. As\na boy he learned to read Frankish and Latin, but when he took up writing,\nhis fingers were so rheumatic from a life spent fighting the Russians and\nthe Moors that he had to give up the attempt and hired the best scribes\nof his day to act as his secretaries and do his writing for him.\n\nFor this old frontiersman, who prided himself upon the fact that only\ntwice within fifty years had he worn \u201ccity clothes\u201d (the toga of a Roman\nnobleman), had a most genuine appreciation of the value of learning, and\nturned his court into a private university for the benefit of his own\nchildren and for the sons and daughters of his officials.\n\nThere, surrounded by the most famous men of his time, the new imperator\nof the west loved to spend his hours of leisure. And so great was his\nrespect for academic democracy that he dropped all etiquette and as\nsimple Brother David took an active share in the conversation and allowed\nhimself to be contradicted by the humblest of his professors.\n\nBut when we come to examine the problems that interested this goodly\ncompany and the questions they discussed, we are reminded of the list of\nsubjects chosen by the debating teams of a rural high school in Tennessee.\n\nThey were very na\u00efve, to say the least. And what was true in the\nyear 800 held equally good for 1400. This was not the fault of the\nmedieval scholar, whose brain was undoubtedly quite as good as that of\nhis successors of the twentieth century. But he found himself in the\nposition of a modern chemist or doctor who is given complete liberty\nof investigation, provided he does not say or do anything at variance\nwith the chemical and medical information contained in the volumes of\nthe first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica of the year 1768 when\nchemistry was practically an unknown subject and surgery was closely akin\nto butchery.\n\nAs a result (I am mixing my metaphors anyway) the medieval scientist\nwith his tremendous brain capacity and his very limited field of\nexperimentation reminds one somewhat of a Rolls-Royce motor placed upon\nthe chassis of a flivver. Whenever he stepped on the gas, he met with\na thousand accidents. But when he played safe and drove his strange\ncontraption according to the rules and regulations of the road he became\nslightly ridiculous and wasted a terrible lot of energy without getting\nanywhere in particular.\n\nOf course the best among these men were desperate at the rate of speed\nwhich they were forced to observe.\n\nThey tried in every possible way to escape from the everlasting\nobservation of the clerical policemen. They wrote ponderous volumes,\ntrying to prove the exact opposite of what they held to be true, in order\nthat they might give a hint of the things that were uppermost in their\nminds.\n\nThey surrounded themselves with all sorts of hocus pocus; they wore\nstrange garments; they had stuffed crocodiles hanging from their\nceilings; they displayed shelves full of bottled monsters and threw evil\nsmelling herbs in the furnace that they might frighten their neighbors\naway from their front door and at the same time establish a reputation\nof being the sort of harmless lunatics who could be allowed to say\nwhatever they liked without being held too closely responsible for their\nideas. And gradually they developed such a thorough system of scientific\ncamouflage that even today it is difficult for us to decide what they\nactually meant.\n\nThat the Protestants a few centuries later showed themselves quite as\nintolerant towards science and literature as the Church of the Middle\nAges had done is quite true, but it is beside the point.\n\nThe great reformers could fulminate and anathematize to their hearts\u2019\ncontent, but they were rarely able to turn their threats into positive\nacts of repression.\n\nThe Roman Church on the other hand not only possessed the power to crush\nits enemies but it made use of it, whenever the occasion presented itself.\n\nThe difference may seem trivial to those of us who like to indulge\nin abstract cogitations upon the theoretical values of tolerance and\nintolerance.\n\nBut it was a very real issue to those poor devils, who were placed\nbefore the choice of a public recantation or an equally public flogging.\n\nAnd if they sometimes lacked the courage to say what they held to be\ntrue, and preferred to waste their time on cross-word puzzles made up\nexclusively from the names of the animals mentioned in the Book of\nRevelations, let us not be too hard on them.\n\nI am quite certain that I never would have written the present volume,\nsix hundred years ago.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nTHE WAR UPON THE PRINTED WORD\n\n\nI find it increasingly difficult to write history. I am rather like a man\nwho has been trained to be a fiddler and then at the age of thirty-five\nis suddenly given a piano and ordered to make his living as a virtuoso of\nthe Klavier, because that too \u201cis music.\u201d I learned my trade in one sort\nof a world and I must practice it in an entirely different one. I was\ntaught to look upon all events of the past in the light of a definitely\nestablished order of things; a universe more or less competently managed\nby emperors and kings and arch-dukes and presidents, aided and abetted by\ncongressmen and senators and secretaries of the treasury. Furthermore, in\nthe days of my youth, the good Lord was still tacitly recognized as the\nex-officio head of everything, and a personage who had to be treated with\ngreat respect and decorum.\n\nThen came the war.\n\nThe old order of things was completely upset, emperors and kings were\nabolished, responsible ministers were superseded by irresponsible secret\ncommittees, and in many parts of the world, Heaven was formally closed\nby an order in council and a defunct economic hack-writer was officially\nproclaimed successor and heir to all the prophets of ancient times.\n\nOf course all this will not last. But it will take civilization several\ncenturies to catch up and by then I shall be dead.\n\nMeanwhile I have to make the best of things, but it will not be easy.\n\nTake the question of Russia. When I spent some time in that Holy Land,\nsome twenty years ago, fully one quarter of the pages of the foreign\npapers that reached us were covered with a smeary black substance, known\ntechnically as \u201ccaviar.\u201d This stuff was rubbed upon those items which a\ncareful government wished to hide from its loving subjects.\n\nThe world at large regarded this sort of supervision as an insufferable\nsurvival of the Dark Ages and we of the great republic of the west saved\ncopies of the American comic papers, duly \u201ccaviared,\u201d to show the folks\nat home what backward barbarians those far famed Russians actually were.\n\nThen came the great Russian revolution.\n\nFor the last seventy-five years the Russian revolutionist had howled that\nhe was a poor, persecuted creature who enjoyed no \u201cliberty\u201d at all and as\nevidence thereof he had pointed to the strict supervision of all journals\ndevoted to the cause of socialism. But in the year 1918, the under-dog\nturned upper-dog. And what happened? Did the victorious friends of\nfreedom abolish censorship of the press? By no means. They padlocked all\npapers and magazines which did not comment favorably upon the acts of the\nnew masters, they sent many unfortunate editors to Siberia or Archangel\n(not much to choose) and in general showed themselves a hundred times\nmore intolerant than the much maligned ministers and police sergeants of\nthe Little White Father.\n\nIt happens that I was brought up in a fairly liberal community, which\nheartily believed in the motto of Milton that the \u201cliberty to know, to\nutter and to argue freely according to our own conscience, is the highest\nform of liberty.\u201d\n\n\u201cCame the war,\u201d as the movies have it, and I was to see the day when the\nSermon on the Mount was declared to be a dangerous pro-German document\nwhich must not be allowed to circulate freely among a hundred million\nsovereign citizens and the publication of which would expose the editors\nand the printers to fines and imprisonment.\n\nIn view of all this it would really seem much wiser to drop the further\nstudy of history and to take up short story writing or real estate.\n\nBut this would be a confession of defeat. And so I shall stick to my job,\ntrying to remember that in a well regulated state, every decent citizen\nis supposed to have the right to say and think and utter whatever he\nfeels to be true, provided he does not interfere with the happiness and\ncomfort of his neighbors, does not act against the good manners of polite\nsociety or break one of the rules of the local police.\n\nThis places me, of course, on record as an enemy of all official\ncensorship. As far as I can see, the police ought to watch out for\ncertain magazines and papers which are being printed for the purpose of\nturning pornography into private gain. But for the rest, I would let\nevery one print whatever he liked.\n\nI say this not as an idealist or a reformer, but as a practical person\nwho hates wasted efforts, and is familiar with the history of the last\nfive hundred years. That period shows clearly that violent methods\nof suppression of the printed or spoken word have never yet done the\nslightest good.\n\nNonsense, like dynamite, is only dangerous when it is contained in a\nsmall and hermetically closed space and subjected to a violent impact\nfrom without. A poor devil, full of half-baked economic notions, when\nleft to himself will attract no more than a dozen curious listeners and\nas a rule will be laughed at for his pains.\n\nThe same creature handcuffed to a crude and illiterate sheriff, dragged\nto jail and condemned to thirty-five years of solitary confinement,\nwill become an object of great pity and in the end will be regarded and\nhonored as a martyr.\n\nBut it will be well to remember one thing.\n\nThere have been quite as many martyrs for bad causes as martyrs for good\ncauses. They are tricky people and one never can tell what they will do\nnext.\n\nHence I would say, let them talk and let them write. If they have\nanything to say that is good, we ought to know it, and if not, they will\nsoon be forgotten. The Greeks seem to have felt that way, and the Romans\ndid until the days of the Empire. But as soon as the commander-in-chief\nof the Roman armies had become an imperial and semi-divine personage, a\nsecond-cousin to Jupiter and a thousand miles removed from all ordinary\nmortals, this was changed.\n\nThe crime of \u201claesa majestas,\u201d the heinous offense of \u201coffering insult\nto his Majesty,\u201d was invented. It was a purely political misdemeanor and\nfrom the time of Augustus until the days of Justinian, many people were\nsent to prison because they had been a little too outspoken in their\nopinions about their rulers. But if one let the person of the emperor\nalone, there was practically no other subject of conversation which the\nRoman must avoid.\n\nThis happy condition came to an end when the world was brought under\nthe domination of the Church. The line between good and bad, between\northodox and heretical, was definitely drawn before Jesus had been dead\nmore than a few years. During the second half of the first century, the\napostle Paul spent quite a long time in the neighborhood of Ephesus in\nAsia Minor, a place famous for its amulets and charms. He went about\npreaching and casting out devils, and with such great success that he\nconvinced many people of the error of their heathenish ways. As a token\nof repentance they came together one fine day with all their books of\nmagic and burned more than ten thousand dollars worth of secret formulae,\nas you may read in the nineteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.\n\nThis, however, was an entirely voluntary act on the part of a group of\nrepentant sinners and it is not stated that Paul made an attempt to\nforbid the other Ephesians from reading or owning similar books.\n\nSuch a step was not taken until a century later.\n\nThen, by order of a number of bishops convened in this same city of\nEphesus, a book containing the life of St. Paul was condemned and the\nfaithful were admonished not to read it.\n\nDuring the next two hundred years, there was very little censorship.\nThere also were very few books.\n\nBut after the Council of Nicaea (325) when the Christian Church had\nbecome the official church of the Empire, the supervision of the written\nword became part of the routine duty of the clergy. Some books were\nabsolutely forbidden. Others were described as \u201cdangerous\u201d and the people\nwere warned that they must read them at their own risk. Until authors\nfound it more convenient to assure themselves of the approval of the\nauthorities before they published their works and made it a rule to send\ntheir manuscripts to the local bishops for their approbation.\n\nEven then, a writer could not always be sure that his works would be\nallowed to exist. A book which one Pope had pronounced harmless might be\ndenounced as blasphemous and indecent by his successor.\n\nOn the whole, however, this method protected the scribes quite\neffectively against the risk of being burned together with their\nparchment offspring and the system worked well enough as long as books\nwere copied by hand and it took five whole years to get out an edition of\nthree volumes.\n\nAll this of course was changed by the famous invention of Johann\nGutenberg, alias John Gooseflesh.\n\nAfter the middle of the fifteenth century, an enterprising publisher was\nable to produce as many as four or five hundred copies in less than two\nweeks\u2019 time and in the short period between 1453 and 1500 the people\nof western and southern Europe were presented with not less than forty\nthousand different editions of books that had thus far been obtainable\nonly in some of the better stocked libraries.\n\nThe Church regarded this unexpected increase in the number of available\nbooks with very serious misgivings. It was difficult enough to catch a\nsingle heretic with a single home made copy of the Gospels. What then of\ntwenty million heretics with twenty million copies of cleverly edited\nvolumes? They became a direct menace to all idea of authority and it was\ndeemed necessary to appoint a special tribunal to inspect all forthcoming\npublications at their source and say which could be published and which\nmust never see the light of day.\n\nOut of the different lists of books which from time to time were\npublished by this committee as containing \u201cforbidden knowledge\u201d grew that\nfamous Index which came to enjoy almost as nefarious a reputation as the\nInquisition.\n\nBut it would be unfair to create the impression that such a supervision\nof the printing-press was something peculiar to the Catholic Church.\nMany states, frightened by the sudden avalanche of printed material that\nthreatened to upset the peace of the realm, had already forced their\nlocal publishers to submit their wares to the public censor and had\nforbidden them to print anything that did not bear the official mark of\napprobation.\n\nBut nowhere, except in Rome, has the practice been continued until today.\nAnd even there it has been greatly modified since the middle of the\nsixteenth century. It had to be. The presses worked so fast and furiously\nthat even that most industrious Commission of Cardinals, the so-called\nCongregation of the Index, which was supposed to inspect all printed\nworks, was soon years behind in its task. Not to mention the flood of\nrag-pulp and printers-ink which was poured upon the landscape in the form\nof newspapers and magazines and tracts and which no group of men, however\ndiligent, could hope to read, let alone inspect and classify, in less\nthan a couple of thousand years.\n\nBut rarely has it been shown in a more convincing fashion how terribly\nthis sort of intolerance avenges itself upon the rulers who force it upon\ntheir unfortunate subjects.\n\nAlready Tacitus, during the first century of the Roman Empire, had\ndeclared himself against the persecution of authors as \u201ca foolish thing\nwhich tended to advertise books which otherwise would never attract any\npublic attention.\u201d\n\nThe Index proved the truth of this statement. No sooner had the\nReformation been successful than the list of forbidden books was promoted\nto a sort of handy guide for those who wished to keep themselves\nthoroughly informed upon the subject of current literature. More than\nthat. During the seventeenth century, enterprising publishers in Germany\nand in the Low Countries maintained special agents in Rome whose business\nit was to get hold of advance copies of the Index Expurgatorius. As soon\nas they had obtained these, they entrusted them to special couriers who\nraced across the Alps and down the valley of the Rhine that the valuable\ninformation might be delivered to their patrons with the least possible\nloss of time. Then the German and the Dutch printing shops would set to\nwork and would get out hastily printed special editions which were sold\nat an exorbitant profit and were smuggled into the forbidden territory by\nan army of professional book-leggers.\n\nBut the number of copies that could be carried across the frontier\nremained necessarily very small and in such countries as Italy and Spain\nand Portugal, where the Index was actually enforced until a short time\nago, the results of this policy of repression became very noticeable.\n\nIf such nations gradually dropped behind in the race for progress, the\nreason was not difficult to find. Not only were the students in their\nuniversities deprived of all foreign text-books, but they were forced to\nuse a domestic product of very inferior quality.\n\nAnd worst of all, the Index discouraged people from occupying themselves\nseriously with literature or science. For no man in his senses would\nundertake to write a book when he ran the risk of seeing his work\n\u201ccorrected\u201d to pieces by an incompetent censor or emendated beyond\nrecognition by the inconsequential secretary of an Inquisitorial Board of\nInvestigators.\n\nInstead, he went fishing or wasted his time playing dominoes in a\nwine-shop.\n\nOr he sat down and in sheer despair of himself and his people, he wrote\nthe story of Don Quixote.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nCONCERNING THE WRITING OF HISTORY IN GENERAL AND THIS BOOK IN PARTICULAR\n\n\nIn the correspondence of Erasmus, which I recommend most eagerly to\nthose who are tired of modern fiction, there occurs a stereotype sort of\nwarning in many of the letters sent unto the learned Desiderius by his\nmore timid friends.\n\n\u201cI hear that you are thinking of a pamphlet upon the Lutheran\ncontroversy,\u201d writes Magister X. \u201cPlease be very careful how you handle\nit, because you might easily offend the Pope, who wishes you well.\u201d\n\nOr again: \u201cSome one who has just returned from Cambridge tells me that\nyou are about to publish a book of short essays. For Heaven\u2019s sake, do\nnot incur the displeasure of the Emperor, who might be in a position to\ndo you great harm.\u201d\n\nNow it is the Bishop of Louvain, then the King of England or the faculty\nof the Sorbonne or that terrible professor of theology in Cambridge who\nmust be treated with special consideration, lest the author be deprived\nof his income or lose the necessary official protection or fall into the\nclutches of the Inquisition or be broken on the wheel.\n\nNowadays the wheel (except for purposes of locomotion) is relegated to\nthe museum of antiquities. The Inquisition has closed its doors these\nhundred years, protection is of little practical use in a career devoted\nto literature and the word \u201cincome\u201d is hardly ever mentioned where\nhistorians come together.\n\nBut all the same, as soon as it was whispered that I intended to write\na \u201cHistory of Tolerance,\u201d a different sort of letters of admonition and\nadvice began to find their way to my cloistered cell.\n\n\u201cHarvard has refused to admit a negro to her dormitories,\u201d writes\nthe secretary of the S.P.C.C.P. \u201cBe sure that you mention this most\nregrettable fact in your forthcoming book.\u201d\n\nOr again: \u201cThe local K.K.K. in Framingham, Mass., has started to boycott\na grocer who is a professed Roman Catholic. You will want to say\nsomething about this in your story of tolerance.\u201d\n\nAnd so on.\n\nNo doubt all these occurrences are very stupid, very silly and altogether\nreprehensible. But they hardly seem to come within the jurisdiction of a\nvolume on tolerance. They are merely manifestations of bad manners and a\nlack of decent public spirit. They are very different from that official\nform of intolerance which used to be incorporated into the laws of the\nChurch and the State and which made persecution a holy duty on the part\nof all good citizens.\n\nHistory, as Bagehot has said, ought to be like an etching by Rembrandt.\nIt must cast a vivid light upon certain selected causes, on those which\nare best and most important, and leave all the rest in the shadow and\nunseen.\n\nEven in the midst of the most idiotic outbreaks of the modern spirit of\nintolerance which are so faithfully chronicled in our news sheets, it is\npossible to discern signs of a more hopeful future.\n\nFor nowadays many things which previous generations would have accepted\nas self-evident and which would have been passed by with the remark that\n\u201cit has always been that way,\u201d are cause for serious debate. Quite often\nour neighbors rush to the defense of ideas which would have been regarded\nas preposterously visionary and unpractical by our fathers and our\ngrandfathers and not infrequently they are successful in their warfare\nupon some particularly obnoxious demonstration of the mob spirit.\n\nThis book must be kept very short.\n\nI can\u2019t bother about the private snobbishness of successful pawn-brokers,\nthe somewhat frayed glory of Nordic supremacy, the dark ignorance of\nbackwoods evangelists, the bigotry of peasant priests or Balkan rabbis.\nThese good people and their bad ideas have always been with us.\n\nBut as long as they do not enjoy the official support of the State,\nthey are comparatively harmless and in most civilized countries, such a\npossibility is entirely precluded.\n\nPrivate intolerance is a nuisance which can cause more discomfort in any\ngiven community than the combined efforts of measles, small-pox and a\ngossiping woman. But private intolerance does not possess executioners of\nits own. If, as sometimes happens in this and other countries, it assumes\nthe r\u00f4le of the hangman, it places itself outside the law and becomes a\nproper subject for police supervision.\n\nPrivate intolerance does not dispose of jails and cannot prescribe to an\nentire nation what it shall think and say and eat and drink. If it tries\nto do this, it creates such a terrific resentment among all decent folk,\nthat the new ordinance becomes a dead letter and cannot be carried out\neven in the District of Columbia.\n\nIn short, private intolerance can go only as far as the indifference of\nthe majority of the citizens of a free country will allow it to go, and\nno further. Whereas official intolerance is practically almighty.\n\nIt recognizes no authority beyond its own power.\n\nIt provides no mode of redress for the innocent victims of its meddlesome\nfury. It will listen to no argument. And ever again it backs up its\ndecisions by an appeal to the Divine Being and then undertakes to explain\nthe will of Heaven as if the key to the mysteries of existence were an\nexclusive possession of those who had been successful at the most recent\nelections.\n\nIf in this book the word intolerance is invariably used in the sense\nof official intolerance, and if I pay little attention to the private\nvariety, have patience with me.\n\nI can only do one thing at a time.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nRENAISSANCE\n\n\nThere is a learned cartoonist in our land who takes pleasure in asking\nhimself, what do billiard-balls and cross-word puzzles and bull-fiddles\nand boiled shirts and door-mats think of this world?\n\nBut what I would like to know is the exact psychological reaction of the\nmen who are ordered to handle the big modern siege guns. During the war\na great many people performed a great many strange tasks, but was there\never a more absurd job than firing dicke Berthas?\n\nAll other soldiers knew more or less what they were doing.\n\nA flying man could judge by the rapidly spreading red glow whether he had\nhit the gas factory or not.\n\nThe submarine commander could return after a couple of hours to judge by\nthe abundance of flotsam in how far he had been successful.\n\nThe poor devil in his dug-out had the satisfaction of realizing that\nby his mere continued presence in a particular trench he was at least\nholding his own.\n\nEven the artillerist, working his field-piece upon an invisible object,\ncould take down the telephone and could ask his colleague, hidden in a\ndead tree seven miles away, whether the doomed church tower was showing\nsigns of deterioration or whether he should try again at a different\nangle.\n\nBut the brotherhood of the big guns lived in a strange and unreal world\nof their own. Even with the assistance of a couple of full-fledged\nprofessors of ballistics, they were unable to foretell what fate awaited\nthose projectiles which they shot so blithely into space. Their shells\nmight actually hit the object for which they were destined. They might\nland in the midst of a powder factory or in the heart of a fortress. But\nthen again they might strike a church or an orphan asylum or they might\nbury themselves peacefully in a river or in a gravel pit without doing\nany harm whatsoever.\n\nAuthors, it seems to me, have much in common with the siege-gunners. They\ntoo handle a sort of heavy artillery. Their literary missiles may start a\nrevolution or a conflagration in the most unlikely spots. But more often\nthey are just poor duds and lie harmless in a nearby field until they are\nused for scrap iron or converted into an umbrella-stand or a flower pot.\n\nSurely there never was a period in history when so much rag-pulp was\nconsumed within so short a space as the era commonly known as the\nRenaissance.\n\nEvery Tomasso, Ricardo and Enrico of the Italian peninsula, every Doctor\nThomasius, Professor Ricardus and Dominus Heinrich of the great Teuton\nplain rushed into print with at least a dozen duodecimos. Not to mention\nthe Tomassinos who wrote pretty little sonnets in imitation of the\nGreeks, the Ricardinos who reeled off odes after the best pattern of\ntheir Roman grandfathers, and the countless lovers of coins, statuary,\nimages, pictures, manuscripts and ancient armor who for almost three\ncenturies kept themselves busy classifying, ordering, tabulating,\nlisting, filing and codifying what they had just dug out of the ancestral\nruins and who then published their collections in countless folios\nilluminated with the most beautiful of copper engravings and the most\nponderous of wood-cuts.\n\nThis great intellectual curiosity was very lucrative for the Frobens and\nthe Alduses and the Etiennes and the other new firms of printers who were\nmaking a fortune out of the invention which had ruined Gutenberg, but\notherwise the literary output of the Renaissance did not very greatly\naffect the state of that world in which the authors of the fifteenth\nand sixteenth centuries happened to find themselves. The distinction of\nhaving contributed something new was restricted to only a very few heroes\nof the quill and they were like our friends of the big guns. They rarely\ndiscovered during their own lifetime in how far they had been successful\nand how much damage their writings had actually done. But first and last\nthey managed to demolish a great many of the obstacles which stood in\nthe way of progress. And they deserve our everlasting gratitude for the\nthoroughness with which they cleaned up a lot of rubbish which otherwise\nwould continue to clutter our intellectual front yard.\n\nStrictly speaking, however, the Renaissance was not primarily a\nforward-looking movement. It turned its back in disgust upon the recent\npast, called the works of its immediate predecessors \u201cbarbaric\u201d (or\n\u201cGothic\u201d in the language of the country where the Goths had enjoyed the\nsame reputation as the Huns), and concentrated its main interest upon\nthose arts which seem to be pervaded with that curious substance known as\nthe \u201cclassical spirit.\u201d\n\nIf nevertheless the Renaissance struck a mighty blow for the liberty\nof conscience and for tolerance and for a better world in general, it\nwas done in spite of the men who were considered the leaders of the new\nmovement.\n\nLong before the days of which we are now speaking, there had been people\nwho had questioned the rights of a Roman bishop to dictate to Bohemian\npeasants and to English yeomen in what language they should say their\nprayers, in what spirit they should study the words of Jesus, how much\nthey should pay for an indulgence, what books they should read and how\nthey should bring up their children. And all of them had been crushed by\nthe strength of that super-state, the power of which they had undertaken\nto defy. Even when they had acted as champions and representatives of a\nnational cause, they had failed.\n\nThe smoldering ashes of great John Huss, thrown ignominiously into the\nriver Rhine, were a warning to all the world that the Papal Monarchy\nstill ruled supreme.\n\nThe corpse of Wycliffe, burned by the public executioner, told the humble\npeasants of Leicestershire that councils and Popes could reach beyond the\ngrave.\n\nFrontal attacks, evidently, were impossible.\n\nThe mighty fortress of tradition, builded slowly and carefully during\nfifteen centuries of unlimited power, could not be taken by assault.\nThe scandals which had taken place within these hallowed enclosures;\nthe wars between three rival Popes, each claiming to be the legitimate\nand exclusive heir to the chair of Holy Peter; the utter corruption of\nthe courts of Rome and Avignon, where laws were made for the purpose\nof being broken by those who were willing to pay for such favors; the\nutter demoralization of monastic life; the venality of those who used\nthe recently increased horrors of purgatory as an excuse to blackmail\npoor parents into paying large sums of money for the benefit of their\ndead children; all these things, although widely known, never really\nthreatened the safety of the Church.\n\nBut the chance shots fired at random by certain men and women who were\nnot at all interested in ecclesiastical matters, who had no particular\ngrievance against either pope or bishop, these caused the damage which\nfinally made the old edifice collapse.\n\nWhat the \u201cthin, pale man\u201d from Prague had failed to accomplish with his\nhigh ideals of Christian virtue was brought about by a motley crowd\nof private citizens who had no other ambition than to live and die\n(preferably at a ripe old age) as loyal patrons of all the good things of\nthis world and faithful sons of the Mother Church.\n\nThey came from all the seven corners of Europe. They represented every\nsort of profession and they would have been very angry, had an historian\ntold them what they were doing.\n\nFor instance, take the case of Marco Polo.\n\nWe know him as a mighty traveler, a man who had seen such wondrous sights\nthat his neighbors, accustomed to the smaller scale of their western\ncities, called him \u201cMillion Dollar Marc\u201d and laughed uproariously when he\ntold them of golden thrones as high as a tower and of granite walls that\nwould stretch all the way from the Baltic to the Black Sea.\n\nAll the same, the shriveled little fellow played a most important r\u00f4le\nin the history of progress. He was not much of a writer. He shared the\nprejudice of his class and his age against the literary profession. A\ngentleman (even a Venetian gentleman who was supposed to be familiar\nwith double-entry bookkeeping) handled a sword and not a goose-quill.\nHence the unwillingness of Messire Marco to turn author. But the fortunes\nof war carried him into a Genoese prison. And there, to while away the\ntedious hours of his confinement, he told a poor scribbler, who happened\nto share his cell, the strange story of his life. In this roundabout way\nthe people of Europe learned many things about this world which they had\nnever known before. For although Polo was a simple-minded fellow who\nfirmly believed that one of the mountains he had seen in Asia Minor had\nbeen moved a couple of miles by a pious saint who wanted to show the\nheathen \u201cwhat true faith could do,\u201d and who swallowed all the stories\nabout people without heads and chickens with three legs which were\nso popular in his day, his report did more to upset the geographical\ntheories of the Church than anything that had appeared during the\nprevious twelve hundred years.\n\nPolo, of course, lived and died a faithful son of the Church. He\nwould have been terribly upset if any one had compared him with his\nnear-contemporary, the famous Roger Bacon, who was an out and out\nscientist and paid for his intellectual curiosity with ten years of\nenforced literary idleness and fourteen years of prison.\n\nAnd yet of the two he was by far the more dangerous.\n\nFor whereas only one person in a hundred thousand could follow Bacon when\nhe went chasing rainbows, and spun those fine evolutionary theories which\nthreatened to upset all the ideas held sacred in his own time, every\ncitizen who had been taught his ABCs could learn from Polo that the world\nwas full of a number of things the existence of which the authors of the\nOld Testament had never even suspected.\n\nI do not mean to imply that the publication of a single book caused that\nrebellion against scriptural authority which was to occur before the\nworld could gain a modicum of freedom. Popular enlightenment is ever\nthe result of centuries of painstaking preparation. But the plain and\nstraightforward accounts of the explorers and the navigators and the\ntravelers, understandable to all the people, did a great deal to bring\nabout that spirit of scepticism which characterizes the latter half of\nthe Renaissance and which allowed people to say and write things which\nonly a few years before would have brought them into contact with the\nagents of the Inquisition.\n\nTake that strange story to which the friends of Boccaccio listened on\nthe first day of their agreeable exile from Florence. All religious\nsystems, so it told, were probably equally true and equally false. But\nif this were true, and they were all equally true and false, then how\ncould people be condemned to the gallows for ideas which could neither be\nproven nor contradicted?\n\nRead the even stranger adventures of a famous scholar like Lorenzo Valla.\nHe died as a highly respectable member of the government of the Roman\nChurch. Yet in the pursuit of his Latin studies he had incontrovertibly\nproven that the famous donation of \u201cRome and Italy and all the provinces\nof the West,\u201d which Constantine the Great was supposed to have made to\nPope Sylvester (and upon which the Popes had ever since based their\nclaims to be regarded as super-lords of all Europe), was nothing but\na clumsy fraud, perpetrated hundreds of years after the death of the\nEmperor by an obscure official of the papal chancery.\n\nOr to return to more practical questions, what were faithful Christians,\ncarefully reared in the ideas of Saint Augustine who had taught that\na belief in the presence of people on the other side of the earth was\nboth blasphemous and heretical, since such poor creatures would not be\nable to see the second coming of Christ and therefore had no reason to\nexist, what indeed were the good people of the year 1499 to think of this\ndoctrine when Vasco da Gama returned from his first voyage to the Indies\nand described the populous kingdoms which he had found on the other side\nof this planet?\n\nWhat were these same simple folk, who had always been told that our world\nwas a flat dial and that Jerusalem was the center of the universe, what\nwere they to believe when the little \u201cVittoria\u201d returned from her voyage\naround the globe and when the geography of the Old Testament was shown to\ncontain some rather serious errors?\n\nI repeat what I have said before. The Renaissance was not an era of\nconscious scientific endeavor. In spiritual matters it often showed a\nmost regrettable lack of real interest. Everything during these three\nhundred years was dominated by a desire for beauty and entertainment.\nEven the Popes, who fulminated loudest against the iniquitous doctrines\nof some of their subjects, were only too happy to invite those self-same\nrebels for dinner if they happened to be good conversationalists and knew\nsomething about printing or architecture. And eager zealots for virtue,\nlike Savonarola, ran quite as great a risk of losing their lives as the\nbright young agnostics who in poetry and prose attacked the fundaments of\nthe Christian faith with a great deal more violence than good taste.\n\nBut throughout all these manifestations of a new interest in the business\nof living, there undoubtedly ran a severe undercurrent of discontent\nwith the existing order of society and the restrictions put upon the\ndevelopment of human reason by the claims of an all-powerful Church.\n\nBetween the days of Boccaccio and those of Erasmus, there is an interval\nof almost two centuries. During these two centuries, the copyist and the\nprinter never enjoyed an idle moment. And outside of the books published\nby the Church herself, it would be difficult to find an important piece\nof work which did not contain some indirect reference to the sad plight\ninto which the world had fallen when the ancient civilizations of Greece\nand Rome had been superseded by the anarchy of the barbarian invaders\nand western society was placed under the tutelage of ignorant monks.\n\nThe contemporaries of Machiavelli and Lorenzo de\u2019 Medici were not\nparticularly interested in ethics. They were practical men who made the\nbest of a practical world. Outwardly they remained at peace with the\nChurch because it was a powerful and far-reaching organization which was\ncapable of doing them great harm and they never consciously took part\nin any of the several attempts at reform or questioned the institutions\nunder which they lived.\n\nBut their insatiable curiosity concerning old facts, their continual\nsearch after new emotions, the very instability of their restless minds,\ncaused a world which had been brought up in the conviction \u201cWe know\u201d to\nask the question \u201cDo we really know?\u201d\n\nAnd that is a greater claim to the gratitude of all future generations\nthan the collected sonnets of Petrarch or the assembled works of Raffael.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE REFORMATION\n\n\nModern psychology has taught us several useful things about ourselves.\nOne of them is the fact that we rarely do anything actuated by one single\nmotive. Whether we give a million dollars for a new university or refuse\na nickel to a hungry tramp; whether we proclaim that the true life of\nintellectual freedom can only be lived abroad or vow that we will never\nagain leave the shores of America; whether we insist upon calling black\nwhite or white black, there are always a number of divergent reasons\nwhich have caused us to make our decision, and way down deep in our\nhearts we know this to be true. But as we would cut a sorry figure with\nthe world in general if we should ever dare to be quite honest with\nourselves or our neighbors, we instinctively choose the most respectable\nand deserving among our many motives, brush it up a bit for public\nconsumption and then expose it for all the world to behold as \u201cthe reason\nwhy we did so and so.\u201d\n\nBut whereas it has been repeatedly demonstrated that it is quite possible\nto fool most of the people most of the time, no one has as yet discovered\na method by which the average individual can fool himself for more than a\nfew minutes.\n\nWe are all of us familiar with this most embarrassing truth and therefore\never since the beginning of civilization people have tacitly agreed with\neach other that this should never under any circumstances be referred to\nin public.\n\nWhat we think in private, that is our own business. As long as we\nmaintain an outward air of respectability, we are perfectly satisfied\nwith ourselves and merrily act upon the principle \u201cYou believe my fibs\nand I will believe yours.\u201d\n\nNature, which has no manners, is the one great exception to this generous\nrule of conduct. As a result, nature is rarely allowed to enter the\nsacred portals of civilized society. And as history thus far has been\na pastime of the few, the poor muse known as Clio has led a very dull\nlife, especially when we compare it to the career of many of her less\nrespectable sisters who have been allowed to dance and sing and have been\ninvited to every party ever since the beginning of time. This of course\nhas been a source of great annoyance to poor Clio and repeatedly in her\nown subtle way she has managed to get her revenge.\n\nA perfectly human trait, this, but a very dangerous one and ofttimes very\nexpensive in the matter of human lives and property.\n\nFor whenever the old lady undertakes to show us that systematic lying,\ncontinued during the course of centuries, will eventually play hob with\nthe peace and happiness of the entire world, our planet is at once\nenveloped in the smoke of a thousand batteries. Regiments of cavalry\nbegin to dash hither and yon and interminable rows of foot soldiers\ncommence to crawl slowly across the landscape. And ere all these people\nhave been safely returned to their respective homes or cemeteries, whole\ncountries have been laid bare and innumerable exchequers have been\ndrained down to the last kopek.\n\nVery slowly, as I have said before, it is beginning to dawn upon the\nmembers of our guild that history is a science as well as an art and is\ntherefore subject to certain of the immutable laws of nature which thus\nfar have only been respected in chemical laboratories and astronomical\nobservatories. And as a result we are now doing some very useful\nscientific house-cleaning which will be of inestimable benefit to all\ncoming generations.\n\nWhich brings me at last to the subject mentioned at the head of this\nchapter, to wit: the Reformation.\n\nUntil not so very long ago there were only two opinions regarding this\ngreat social and spiritual upheaval. It was either wholly good or wholly\nbad.\n\nAccording to the adherents of the former opinion it had been the result\nof a sudden outbreak of religious zeal on the part of a number of noble\ntheologians who, profoundly shocked by the wickedness and the venality\nof the papal super-state, had established a separate church of their own\nwhere the true faith was to be henceforward taught to those who were\nseriously trying to be true Christians.\n\nThose who had remained faithful to Rome were less enthusiastic.\n\nThe Reformation, according to the scholars from beyond the Alps, was the\nresult of a damnable and most reprehensible conspiracy on the part of a\nnumber of despicable princes who wanted to get unmarried and who besides\nhoped to acquire the possessions which had formerly belonged to their\nHoly Mother the Church.\n\nAs usual, both sides were right and both sides were wrong.\n\nThe Reformation was the work of all sorts of people with all sorts of\nmotives. And it is only within very recent times that we have begun to\nrealize how religious discontent played only a minor r\u00f4le in this great\nupheaval and that it was really an unavoidable social and economic\nrevolution with a slightly theological background.\n\nOf course it is much easier to teach our children that good Prince\nPhilip was a very enlightened ruler who took a profound personal interest\nin the reformed doctrines, than to explain to them the complicated\nmachinations of an unscrupulous politician who willingly accepted the\nhelp of the infidel Turks in his warfare upon other Christians. In\nconsequence whereof we Protestants have for hundreds of years made a\nmagnanimous hero out of an ambitious young landgrave who hoped to see\nthe house of Hesse play the r\u00f4le thus far played by the rival house of\nHapsburg.\n\nOn the other hand it is so much simpler to turn Pope Clement into a\nloving shepherd who wasted the last remnants of his declining strength\ntrying to prevent his flocks from following false leaders, than to\ndepict him as a typical prince of the house of Medici who regarded\nthe Reformation as an unseemly brawl of drunken German monks and used\nthe power of the Church to further the interests of his own Italian\nfatherland, that we need feel no surprise if such a fabulous figure\nsmiles at us from the pages of most Catholic text-books.\n\nBut while that sort of history may be necessary in Europe, we fortunate\nsettlers in a new world are under no obligation to persist in the errors\nof our continental ancestors and are at liberty to draw a few conclusions\nof our own.\n\nJust because Philip of Hesse, the great friend and supporter of Luther,\nwas a man dominated by an enormous political ambition, it does not\nnecessarily follow that he was insincere in his religious convictions.\n\nBy no means.\n\nWhen he put his name to the famous \u201cProtest\u201d of the year 1529, he knew\nas well as his fellow signers that they were about to \u201cexpose themselves\nto the violence of a terrible storm,\u201d and might end their lives on the\nscaffold. If he had not been a man of extraordinary courage, he would\nnever have undertaken to play the r\u00f4le he actually played.\n\nBut the point I am trying to make is this: that it is exceedingly\ndifficult, yes, almost impossible, to judge an historical character (or\nfor that matter, any of our immediate neighbors) without a profound\nknowledge of all the many motives which have inspired him to do what he\nhas done or forced him to omit doing what he has omitted to do.\n\nThe French have a proverb that \u201cto know everything is to forgive\neverything.\u201d That seems too easy a solution. I would like to offer an\namendment and change it as follows: \u201cTo know everything is to understand\neverything.\u201d We can leave the business of pardoning to the good Lord who\nages ago reserved that right to himself.\n\nMeanwhile we ourselves can humbly try to \u201cunderstand\u201d and that is more\nthan enough for our limited human ability.\n\nAnd now let me return to the Reformation, which started me upon this\nslight detour.\n\nAs far as I \u201cunderstand\u201d that movement, it was primarily a manifestation\nof a new spirit which had been born as a result of the economic and\npolitical development of the last three centuries and which came to be\nknown as \u201cnationalism\u201d and which therefore was the sworn enemy of that\nforeign super-state into which all European countries had been forced\nduring the course of the last five centuries.\n\nWithout the common denominator of some such grievance, it would never\nhave been possible to unite Germans and Finns and Danes and Swedes and\nFrenchmen and Englishmen and Norsemen into a single cohesive party,\nstrong enough to batter down the walls of the prison in which they had\nbeen held for such a long time.\n\nIf all these heterogeneous and mutually envious elements had not been\ntemporarily bound together by one great ideal, far surpassing their\nown private grudges and aspirations, the Reformation could never have\nsucceeded.\n\nIt would have degenerated into a series of small local uprisings, easily\nsuppressed by a regiment of mercenaries and half a dozen energetic\ninquisitors.\n\nThe leaders would have suffered the fate of Huss. Their followers would\nhave been killed as the little groups of Waldenses and Albigenses had\nbeen slaughtered before them. And the Papal Monarchy would have scored\nanother easy triumph, followed by an era of Schrecklichkeit among those\nguilty of a \u201cbreach of discipline.\u201d\n\nEven so, the great movement for reform only succeeded by the smallest of\nall possible margins. And as soon as the victory had been won and the\nmenace which had threatened the existence of all the rebels had been\nremoved, the Protestant camp was dissolved into an infinitesimal number\nof small hostile groups who tried on a greatly diminished scale to repeat\nall the errors of which their enemies had been guilty in the heyday of\ntheir power.\n\nA French abb\u00e9 (whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, but a very wise\nfellow) once said that we must learn to love humanity in spite of itself.\n\nTo look back from the safe distance of almost four centuries upon this\nera of great hope and even greater disappointment, to think of the\nsublime courage of so many men and women who wasted their lives on the\nscaffold and on the field of battle for an ideal that was never to be\nrealized, to contemplate the sacrifice made by millions of obscure\ncitizens for the things they held to be holy and then to remember the\nutter failure of the Protestant rebellion as a movement towards a more\nliberal and more intelligent world, is to put one\u2019s charity to a most\nsevere test.\n\nFor Protestantism, if the truth must be told, took away from this world\nmany things that were good and noble and beautiful and it added a great\nmany others that were narrow and hateful and graceless. And instead of\nmaking the history of the human race simpler and more harmonious, it made\nit more complicated and less orderly. All that, however, was not so much\nthe fault of the Reformation as of certain inherent weaknesses in the\nmental habits of most people.\n\nThey refuse to be hurried.\n\nThey cannot possibly keep up with the pace set by their leaders.\n\nThey are not lacking in good will. Eventually they will all cross the\nbridge that leads into the newly discovered territory. But they will do\nso in their own good time and bringing with them as much of the ancestral\nfurniture as they can possibly carry.\n\nAs a result the Great Reform, which was to establish an entirely new\nrelationship between the individual Christian and his God, which was\nto do away with all the prejudices and all the corruptions of a bygone\nera, became so thoroughly cluttered up with the medieval baggage of its\ntrusted followers that it could move neither forward nor backward and\nsoon looked for all the world like a replica of that papal establishment\nwhich it held in such great abhorrence.\n\nFor that is the great tragedy of the Protestant rebellion. It could\nnot rise above the mean average of intelligence of the majority of its\nadherents.\n\nAnd as a result the people of western and northern Europe did not\nprogress as much as might have been expected.\n\nInstead of a man who was supposed to be infallible, the Reformation gave\nthe world a book which was held to be infallible.\n\nInstead of one potentate who ruled supreme, there arose a thousand and\none little potentates, each one of whom in his own way tried to rule\nsupreme.\n\nInstead of dividing all Christendom into two well defined halves, the\nins and the outs, the faithful and the heretics, it created endless\nlittle groups of dissenters who had nothing in common but a most intense\nhatred for all those who failed to share their own opinions. Instead of\nestablishing a reign of tolerance, it followed the example of the early\nChurch and as soon as it had attained power and was firmly entrenched\nbehind numberless catechisms, creeds and confessions, it declared bitter\nwarfare upon those who dared to disagree with the officially established\ndoctrines of the community in which they happened to live.\n\nAll this was, no doubt, most regrettable.\n\nBut it was unavoidable in view of the mental development of the sixteenth\nand seventeenth centuries.\n\nTo describe the courage of leaders like Luther and Calvin, there exists\nonly one word, and rather a terrible word, \u201ccolossal.\u201d\n\nA simple Dominican monk, a professor in a little tidewater college\nsomewhere in the backwoods of the German hinterland, who boldly burns\na Papal Bull and hammers his own rebellious opinions to the door of a\nchurch; a sickly French scholar who turns a small Swiss town into a\nfortress which successfully defies the whole power of the papacy; such\nmen present us with examples of fortitude so unique that the modern world\ncan offer no adequate comparison.\n\nThat these bold rebels soon found friends and supporters, friends with a\npurpose of their own and supporters who hoped to fish successfully in\ntroubled waters, all this is neither here nor there.\n\nWhen these men began to gamble with their lives for the sake of their\nconscience, they could not foresee that this would happen and that most\nof the nations of the north would eventually enlist under their banners.\n\nBut once they had been thrown into this maelstrom of their own making,\nthey were obliged to go whither the current carried them.\n\nSoon the mere question of keeping themselves above water took all of\ntheir strength. In far away Rome the Pope had at last learned that this\ncontemptible disturbance was something more serious than a personal\nquarrel between a few Dominican and Augustinian friars, and an intrigue\non the part of a former French chaplain. To the great joy of his many\ncreditors, he temporarily ceased building his pet cathedral and called\ntogether a council of war. The papal bulls and excommunications flew fast\nand furiously. Imperial armies began to move. And the leaders of the\nrebellion, with their backs against the wall, were forced to stand and\nfight.\n\nIt was not the first time in history that great men in the midst of a\ndesperate conflict lost their sense of proportion. The same Luther who at\none time proclaims that it is \u201cagainst the Holy Spirit to burn heretics,\u201d\na few years later goes into such a tantrum of hate when he thinks of the\nwickedness of those Germans and Dutchmen who have a leaning towards the\nideas of the Anabaptists, that he seems to have lost his reason.\n\nThe intrepid reformer who begins his career by insisting that we must\nnot force our own system of logic upon God, ends his days by burning an\nopponent whose power of reasoning was undoubtedly superior to his own.\n\nThe heretic of today becomes the arch-enemy of all dissenters of tomorrow.\n\nAnd with all their talk of a new era in which the dawn has at last\nfollowed upon the dark, both Calvin and Luther remained faithful sons of\nthe Middle Ages as long as they lived.\n\nTolerance did not and could not possibly show itself to them in the light\nof a virtue. As long as they themselves were outcasts, they were willing\nto invoke the divine right of freedom of conscience that they might use\nit as an argument against their enemies. Once the battle was won, this\ntrusted weapon was carefully deposited in a corner of the Protestant\njunk-room, already cluttered with so many other good intentions that had\nbeen discarded as unpractical. There it lay, forgotten and neglected,\nuntil a great many years later, when it was discovered behind a trunk\nfull of old sermons. But the people who picked it up, scraped off the\nrust and once more carried it into battle were of a different nature from\nthose who had fought the good fight in the early days of the sixteenth\ncentury.\n\nAnd yet, the Protestant revolution contributed greatly to the cause of\ntolerance. Not through what it accomplished directly. In that field the\ngain was small indeed. But indirectly the results of the Reformation were\nall on the side of progress.\n\nIn the first place, it made people familiar with the Bible. The Church\nhad never positively forbidden people to read the Bible, but neither had\nit encouraged the study of the sacred book by ordinary laymen. Now at\nlast every honest baker and candlestick maker could own a copy of the\nholy work; could peruse it in the privacy of his workshop and could draw\nhis own conclusions without running the risk of being burned at the stake.\n\nFamiliarity is apt to kill those sentiments of awe and fear which we\nfeel before the mysteries of the unknown. During the first two hundred\nyears which followed immediately upon the Reformation, pious Protestants\nbelieved everything they read in the Old Testament from Balaam\u2019s ass\nto Jonah\u2019s whale. And those who dared to question a single comma (the\n\u201cinspired\u201d vowel-points of learned Abraham Colovius!) knew better than\nto let their sceptical tittering be heard by the community at large. Not\nbecause they were afraid any longer of the Inquisition, but Protestant\npastors could upon occasion make a man\u2019s life exceedingly unpleasant and\nthe economic consequences of a public ministerial censure were often very\nserious, not to say disastrous.\n\nGradually however this eternally repeated study of a book which was\nreally the national history of a small nation of shepherds and traders\nwas to bear results which Luther and Calvin and the other reformers had\nnever foreseen.\n\nIf they had, I am certain they would have shared the Church\u2019s dislike\nof Hebrew and Greek and would have kept the scriptures carefully out of\nthe hands of the uninitiated. For in the end, an increasing number of\nserious students began to appreciate the Old Testament as a singularly\ninteresting book, but containing such dreadful and blood-curdling tales\nof cruelty, greed and murder that it could not possibly have been\ninspired and must, by the very nature of its contents, be the product of\na people who had still lived in a state of semi-barbarism.\n\nAfter that, of course, it was impossible for many people to regard the\nBible as the only font of all true wisdom. And once this obstacle to free\nspeculation had been removed, the current of scientific investigation,\ndammed up for almost a thousand years, began to flow in its natural\nchannel and the interrupted labors of the old Greek and Roman\nphilosophers were picked up where they had been left off twenty centuries\nbefore.\n\nAnd in the second place, and this is even more important from the point\nof view of tolerance, the Reformation delivered northern and western\nEurope from the dictatorship of a power which under the guise of a\nreligious organization had been in reality nothing but a spiritual and\nhighly despotic continuation of the Roman Empire.\n\nWith these statements, our Catholic readers will hardly agree. But\nthey too have reason to be grateful to a movement which was not only\nunavoidable, but which was to render a most salutary service to their\nown faith. For, thrown upon her own resources, the Church made an heroic\neffort to rid herself of those abuses which had made her once sacred name\na byword for rapacity and tyranny.\n\nAnd she succeeded most brilliantly.\n\nAfter the middle of the sixteenth century, no more Borgias were tolerated\nin the Vatican. The Popes as ever before continued to be Italians. A\ndeflection from this rule was practically impossible, as the Roman\nproletariat would have turned the city upside down if the cardinals\nentrusted with the election of a new pontiff had chosen a German or a\nFrenchman or any other foreigner.\n\nThe new pontiffs, however, were selected with great care and only\ncandidates of the highest character could hope to be considered. And\nthese new masters, faithfully aided by their devoted Jesuit auxiliaries,\nbegan a thorough house-cleaning.\n\nThe sale of indulgences came to an end.\n\nMonastic orders were enjoined to study (and henceforth to obey) the rules\nlaid down by their founders.\n\nMendicant friars disappeared from the streets of civilized cities.\n\nAnd the general spiritual indifference of the Renaissance was replaced by\nan eager zeal for holy and useful lives spent in good deeds and in humble\nservice towards those unfortunate people who were not strong enough to\ncarry the burden of existence by themselves.\n\nEven so, the greater part of the territory which had been lost was never\nregained. Speaking with a certain geographical freedom, the northern half\nof Europe remained Protestant, while the southern half stayed Catholic.\n\nBut when we translate the result of the Reformation into the language\nof pictures, the actual changes which took place in Europe become more\nclearly revealed.\n\nDuring the Middle Ages there had been one universal spiritual and\nintellectual prison-house.\n\nThe Protestant rebellion had ruined the old building and out of part of\nthe available material it had constructed a jail of its own.\n\nAfter the year 1517 there are therefore two dungeons, one reserved\nexclusively for the Catholics, the other for the Protestants.\n\nAt least that had been the original plan.\n\nBut the Protestants, who did not have the advantage of centuries of\ntraining along the lines of persecution and repression, failed to make\ntheir lockup dissenter-proof.\n\nThrough windows and chimneys and cellar-doors a large number of the\nunruly inmates escaped.\n\nEre long the entire building was a wreck.\n\nAt night the miscreants came and took away whole cartloads of stones and\nbeams and iron bars which they used the next morning to build a little\nfortress of their own. But although this had the outward appearance of\nthat original jail, constructed a thousand years before by Gregory the\nGreat and Innocent III, it lacked the necessary inner strength.\n\nNo sooner was it ready for occupancy, no sooner had a new set of\nrules and regulations been posted upon the gates, than a wholesale\nwalk-out occurred among the disgruntled trustees. As their keepers, now\ncalled ministers, had been deprived of the old methods of discipline\n(excommunication, torture, execution, confiscation and exile) they were\nabsolutely helpless before this determined mob and were forced to stand\nby and look on while the rebels put up such a stockade as pleased their\nown theological preferences and proclaimed such new doctrines as happened\nto suit their temporary convictions.\n\nThis process was repeated so often that finally there developed a sort of\nspiritual no-man\u2019s-land between the different lockups where curious souls\ncould roam at random and where honest people could think whatever they\npleased without hindrance or molestation.\n\nAnd this is the great service which Protestantism rendered to the cause\nof tolerance.\n\nIt re\u00ebstablished the dignity of the individual man.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nERASMUS\n\n\nIn the writing of every book there occurs a crisis. Sometimes it comes\nduring the first fifty pages. Upon other occasions it does not make\nitself manifest until the manuscript is almost finished. Indeed, a book\nwithout a crisis is like a child that has never had the measles. There\nprobably is something the matter with it.\n\nThe crisis in the present volume happened a few minutes ago, for I have\nnow reached the point where the idea of a work upon the subject of\ntolerance in the year of grace 1925 seems quite preposterous; where all\nthe labor spent thus far upon a preliminary study appears in the light\nof so much valuable time wasted; where I would like best of all to make\na bonfire of Bury and Lecky and Voltaire and Montaigne and White and use\nthe carbon copies of my own work to light the stove.\n\nHow to explain this?\n\nThere are many reasons. In the first place, there is the inevitable\nfeeling of boredom which overtakes an author when he has been living with\nhis topic on a very intimate footing for too long a time. In the second\nplace, the suspicion that books of this sort will not be of the slightest\npractical value. And in the third place the fear that the present\nvolume will be merely used as a quarry from which our less tolerant\nfellow-citizens will dig a few easy facts with which to bolster up their\nown bad causes.\n\nBut apart from these arguments (which hold good for most serious books)\nthere is in the present case the almost insurmountable difficulty of\n\u201csystem.\u201d\n\nA story in order to be a success must have a beginning and an end. This\nbook has a beginning, but can it ever have an end?\n\nWhat I mean is this.\n\nI can show the terrible crimes apparently committed in the name of\nrighteousness and justice, but really caused by intolerance.\n\nI can depict the unhappy days upon which mankind fell when intolerance\nwas elevated to the rank of one of the major virtues.\n\nI can denounce and deride intolerance until my readers shout with one\naccord, \u201cDown with this curse, and let us all be tolerant!\u201d\n\nBut there is one thing I cannot do. I cannot tell how this highly\ndesirable goal is to be reached. There are handbooks which undertake\nto give us instruction in everything from after-dinner speaking to\nventriloquism. In an advertisement of a correspondence course last Sunday\nI read of no less than two hundred and forty-nine subjects which the\ninstitute guaranteed to teach to perfection in exchange for a very small\ngratuity. But no one thus far has offered to explain in forty (or in\nforty thousand) lessons \u201chow to become tolerant.\u201d\n\nAnd even history, which is supposed to hold the key to so many secrets,\nrefuses to be of any use in this emergency.\n\nYes, it is possible to compose learned tomes devoted to slavery or free\ntrade or capital punishment or the growth and development of Gothic\narchitecture, for slavery and free trade and capital punishment and\nGothic architecture are very definite and concrete things. For lack of\nall other material we could at least study the lives of the men and\nwomen who had been the champions of free trade and slavery and capital\npunishment and Gothic architecture or those who had opposed them.\nAnd from the manner in which those excellent people had approached\ntheir subjects, from their personal habits, their associations, their\npreferences in food and drink and tobacco, yea, from the very breeches\nthey had worn, we could draw certain conclusions about the ideals which\nthey had so energetically espoused or so bitterly denounced.\n\nBut there never were any professional protagonists of tolerance. Those\nwho worked most zealously for the great cause did so incidentally. Their\ntolerance was a by-product. They were engaged in other pursuits. They\nwere statesmen or writers or kings or physicians or modest artisans.\nIn the midst of the king business or their medical practice or making\nsteel engravings they found time to say a few good words for tolerance,\nbut the struggle for tolerance was not the whole of their careers.\nThey were interested in it as they may have been interested in playing\nchess or fiddling. And because they were part of a strangely assorted\ngroup (imagine Spinoza and Frederick the Great and Thomas Jefferson and\nMontaigne as boon companions!) it is almost impossible to discover that\ncommon trait of character which as a rule is to be found in all those\nwho are engaged upon a common task, be it soldiering or plumbing or\ndelivering the world from sin.\n\nIn such a case the writer is apt to have recourse to epigrams. Somewhere\nin this world there is an epigram for every dilemma. But upon this\nparticular subject, the Bible and Shakespeare and Izaak Walton and even\nold Benham leave us in the lurch. Perhaps Jonathan Swift (I quote from\nmemory) came nearest to the problem when he said that most men had just\nenough religion to hate their neighbors but not quite enough to love\nthem. Unfortunately that bright remark does not quite cover our present\ndifficulty. There have been people possessed of as much religion as\nany one individual could safely hold who have hated their neighbors as\ncordially as the best of them. There have been others who were totally\ndevoid of the religious instinct who squandered their affection upon all\nthe stray cats and dogs and human beings of Christendom.\n\nNo, I shall have to find an answer of my own. And upon due cogitation\n(but with a feeling of great uncertainty) I shall now state what I\nsuspect to be the truth.\n\nThe men who have fought for tolerance, whatever their differences, had\nall of them one thing in common; their faith was tempered by doubt;\nthey might honestly believe that they themselves were right, but they\nnever reached the point where that suspicion hardened into an absolute\nconviction.\n\nIn this day and age of super-patriotism, with our enthusiastic clamoring\nfor a hundred-percent this and a hundred-percent that, it may be well to\npoint to the lesson taught by nature which seems to have a constitutional\naversion to any such ideal of standardization.\n\nPurely bred cats and dogs are proverbial idiots who are apt to die\nbecause no one is present to take them out of the rain. Hundred-percent\npure iron has long since been discarded for the composite metal called\nsteel. No jeweler ever undertook to do anything with hundred-percent pure\ngold or silver. Fiddles, to be any good, must be made of six or seven\ndifferent varieties of wood. And as for a meal composed entirely of a\nhundred-percent mush, I thank you, no!\n\nIn short, all the most useful things in this world are compounds and I\nsee no reason why faith should be an exception. Unless the base of our\n\u201ccertainty\u201d contains a certain amount of the alloy of \u201cdoubt,\u201d our faith\nwill sound as tinkly as a bell made of pure silver or as harsh as a\ntrombone made of brass.\n\nIt was a profound appreciation of this fact which set the heroes of\ntolerance apart from the rest of the world.\n\nAs far as personal integrity went, honesty of conviction, unselfish\ndevotion to duty and all the other household virtues, most of these men\ncould have passed muster before a board of Puritan Inquisitors. I would\ngo further than that and state that at least half of them lived and died\nin such a way that they would now be among the saints, if their peculiar\ntrend of conscience had not forced them to be the open and avowed enemies\nof that institution which has taken upon itself the exclusive right of\nelevating ordinary human beings to certain celestial dignities.\n\nBut fortunately they were possessed of the divine doubt.\n\nThey knew (as the Romans and the Greeks had known before them) that the\nproblem which faced them was so vast that no one in his right senses\nwould ever expect it to be solved. And while they might hope and pray\nthat the road which they had taken would eventually lead them to a\nsafe goal, they could never convince themselves that it was the only\nright one, that all other roads were wrong and that the enchanting\nby-paths which delighted the hearts of so many simple people were evil\nthoroughfares leading to damnation.\n\nAll this sounds contrary to the opinions expressed in most of our\ncatechisms and our text-books on ethics. These preach the superior virtue\nof a world illuminated by the pure white flame of absolute faith. Perhaps\nso. But during those centuries when that flame was supposed to be burning\nat its brightest, the average rank and file of humanity cannot be said\nto have been either particularly happy or extraordinarily comfortable. I\ndon\u2019t want to suggest any radical reforms, but just for a change we might\ntry that other light, by the rays of which the brethren of the tolerant\nguild have been in the habit of examining the affairs of the world. If\nthat does not prove successful, we can always go back to the system of\nour fathers. But if it should prove to throw an agreeable luster upon a\nsociety containing a little more kindness and forbearance, a community\nless beset by ugliness and greed and hatred, a good deal would have been\ngained and the expense, I am sure, would be quite small.\n\nAnd after this bit of advice, offered for what it is worth, I must go\nback to my history.\n\nWhen the last Roman was buried, the last citizen of the world (in the\nbest and broadest sense of the word) perished. And it was a long time\nbefore society was once more placed upon such a footing of security\nthat the old spirit of an all-encompassing humanity, which had been\ncharacteristic of the best minds of the ancient world, could safely\nreturn to this earth.\n\nThat, as we saw, happened during the Renaissance.\n\nThe revival of international commerce brought fresh capital to the\npoverty stricken countries of the west. New cities arose. A new class\nof men began to patronize the arts, to spend money upon books, to endow\nthose universities which followed so closely in the wake of prosperity.\nAnd it was then that a few devoted adherents of the \u201chumanities,\u201d of\nthose sciences which boldly had taken all mankind as their field of\nexperiment, arose in rebellion against the narrow limitations of the\nold scholasticism and strayed away from the flock of the faithful who\nregarded their interest in the wisdom and the grammar of the ancients as\na manifestation of a wicked and impure curiosity.\n\nAmong the men who were in the front ranks of this small group of\npioneers, the stories of whose lives will make up the rest of this book,\nfew deserve greater credit than that very timid soul who came to be known\nas Erasmus.\n\nFor timid he was, although he took part in all the great verbal\nencounters of his day and successfully managed to make himself the terror\nof his enemies, by the precision with which he handled that most deadly\nof all weapons, the long-range gun of humor.\n\nFar and wide the missiles containing the mustard-gas of his wit were\nshot into the enemy\u2019s country. And those Erasmian bombs were of a very\ndangerous variety. At a first glance they looked harmless enough. There\nwas no sputtering of a tell-tale fuse. They had the appearance of an\namusing new variety of fire-cracker, but God help those who took them\nhome and allowed the children to play with them. The poison was sure to\nget into their little minds and it was of such a persistent nature that\nfour centuries have not sufficed to make the race immune against the\neffects of the drug.\n\nIt is strange that such a man should have been born in one of the dullest\ntowns of the mudbanks which are situated along the eastern coast of the\nNorth Sea. In the fifteenth century those water soaked lands had not yet\nattained the glories of an independent and fabulously rich commonwealth.\nThey formed a group of little insignificant principalities, somewhere\non the outskirts of civilized society. They smelled forever of herring,\ntheir chief article of export. And if ever they attracted a visitor, it\nwas some helpless mariner whose ship had been wrecked upon their dismal\nshores.\n\nBut the very horror of a childhood spent among such unpleasant\nsurroundings may have spurred this curious infant into that fury of\nactivity which eventually was to set him free and make him one of the\nbest known men of his time.\n\nFrom the beginning of life, everything was against him. He was an\nillegitimate child. The people of the Middle Ages, being on an intimate\nand friendly footing both with God and with nature, were a great deal\nmore sensible about such children than we are. They were sorry. Such\nthings ought not to occur and of course they greatly disapproved. For the\nrest, however, they were too simple-minded to punish a helpless creature\nin a cradle for a sin which most certainly was not of its own making.\nThe irregularity of his birth certificate inconvenienced Erasmus only in\nso far as both his father and his mother seem to have been exceedingly\nmuddle-headed citizens, totally incapable of handling the situation and\nleaving their children to the care of relatives who were either boobs or\nscoundrels.\n\nThese uncles and guardians had no idea of what to do with their two\nlittle wards and after the mother had died, the children never had a\nhome of their own. First of all they were sent to a famous school in\nDeventer, where several of the teachers belonged to the Society of the\nBrothers of the Common Life, but if we are to judge by the letters which\nErasmus wrote later in life, these young men were only \u201ccommon\u201d in a\nvery different sense of the word. Next the two boys were separated and\nthe younger was taken to Gouda, where he was placed under the immediate\nsupervision of the head-master of the Latin school, who was also one of\nthe three guardians appointed to administer his slender inheritance. If\nthat school in the days of Erasmus was as bad as when I visited it four\ncenturies later, I can only feel sorry for the poor kid. And to make\nmatters worse, the guardians by this time had wasted every penny of his\nmoney and in order to escape prosecution (for the old Dutch courts were\nstrict upon such matters) they hurried the infant into a cloister, rushed\nhim into holy orders and bade him be happy because \u201cnow his future was\nsecure.\u201d\n\nThe mysterious mills of history eventually ground this terrible\nexperience into something of great literary value. But I hate to think of\nthe many terrible years this sensitive youngster was forced to spend in\nthe exclusive company of the illiterate boors and thick-fingered rustics\nwho during the end of the Middle Ages made up the population of fully\nhalf of all monasteries.\n\nFortunately the laxity of discipline at Steyn permitted Erasmus to spend\nmost of his time among the Latin manuscripts which a former abbot had\ncollected and which lay forgotten in the library. He absorbed those\nvolumes until he finally became a walking encyclopedia of classical\nlearning. In later years this stood him in good stead. Forever on the\nmove, he rarely was within reach of a reference library. But that was not\nnecessary. He could quote from memory. Those who have ever seen the ten\ngigantic folios which contain his collected works, or who have managed\nto read through part of them (life is so short nowadays) will appreciate\nwhat a \u201cknowledge of the classics\u201d meant in the fifteenth century.\n\nOf course, eventually Erasmus was able to leave his old monastery. People\nlike him are never influenced by circumstances. They make their own\ncircumstances and they make them out of the most unlikely material.\n\nAnd the rest of his life Erasmus was a free man, searching restlessly\nafter a spot where he might work without being disturbed by a host of\nadmiring friends.\n\nBut not until the fateful hour when with an appeal to the \u201clieve God\u201d of\nhis childhood he allowed his soul to slip into the slumber of death, did\nhe enjoy a moment of that \u201ctrue leisure\u201d which has always appeared as the\nhighest good to those who have followed the footsteps of Socrates and\nZeno and which so few of them have ever found.\n\nThese peregrinations have often been described and I need not repeat\nthem here in detail. Wherever two or more men lived together in the name\nof true wisdom, there Erasmus was sooner or later bound to make his\nappearance.\n\nHe studied in Paris, where as a poor scholar he almost died of hunger\nand cold. He taught in Cambridge. He printed books in Basel. He tried\n(quite in vain) to carry a spark of enlightenment into that stronghold\nof orthodox bigotry, the far-famed University of Louvain. He spent much\nof his time in London and took the degree of Doctor of Divinity in the\nUniversity of Turin. He was familiar with the Grand Canal of Venice\nand cursed as familiarly about the terrible roads of Zeeland as those\nof Lombardy. The sky, the parks, the walks and the libraries of Rome\nmade such a profound impression upon him that even the waters of Lethe\ncould not wash the Holy City out of his memory. He was offered a liberal\npension if he would only move to Venice and whenever a new university was\nopened, he was sure to be honored with a call to whatever chair he wished\nto take or to no chair at all, provided he would grace the Campus with\nhis occasional presence.\n\nBut he steadily refused all such invitations because they seemed to\ncontain a threat of permanence and dependency. Before all things he\nwanted to be free. He preferred a comfortable room to a bad one, he\npreferred amusing companions to dull ones, he knew the difference\nbetween the good rich wine of the land called Burgundy and the thin red\nink of the Apennines, but he wanted to live life on his own terms and\nthis he could not do if he had to call any man \u201cmaster.\u201d\n\nThe r\u00f4le which he had chosen for himself was really that of an\nintellectual search-light. No matter what object appeared above the\nhorizon of contemporary events, Erasmus immediately let the brilliant\nrays of his intellect play upon it, did his best to make his neighbors\nsee the thing as it really was, denuded of all frills and divested of\nthat \u201cfolly,\u201d that ignorance which he hated so thoroughly.\n\nThat he was able to do this during the most turbulent period of our\nhistory, that he managed to escape the fury of the Protestant fanatics\nwhile keeping himself aloof from the fagots of his friends of the\nInquisition, this is the one point in his career upon which he has been\nmost often condemned.\n\nPosterity seems to have a veritable passion for martyrdom as long as it\napplies to the ancestors.\n\n\u201cWhy didn\u2019t this Dutchman stand up boldly for Luther and take his chance\ntogether with the other reformers?\u201d has been a question which seems\nto have puzzled at least twelve generations of otherwise intelligent\ncitizens.\n\nThe answer is, \u201cWhy should he?\u201d\n\nIt was not in his nature to do violent things and he never regarded\nhimself as the leader of any movement. He utterly lacked that sense\nof self-righteous assurance which is so characteristic of those who\nundertake to tell the world how the millennium ought to be brought\nabout. Besides he did not believe that it is necessary to demolish the\nold home every time we feel the necessity of rearranging our quarters.\nQuite true, the premises were sadly in need of repairs. The drainage\nwas old-fashioned. The garden was all cluttered up with dirt and odds\nand ends left behind by people who had moved out long before. But all\nthis could be changed if the landlord was made to live up to his promises\nand would only spend some money upon immediate improvements. Beyond\nthat, Erasmus did not wish to go. And although he was what his enemies\nsneeringly called a \u201cmoderate,\u201d he accomplished quite as much (or more)\nthan those out and out \u201cradicals\u201d who gave the world two tyrannies where\nonly one had been before.\n\nLike all truly great men, he was no friend of systems. He believed that\nthe salvation of this world lies in our individual endeavors. Make over\nthe individual man and you have made over the entire world!\n\nHence he made his attack upon existing abuses by way of a direct appeal\nto the average citizen. And he did this in a very clever way.\n\nIn the first place he wrote an enormous amount of letters. He wrote them\nto kings and to emperors and to popes and to abbots and to knights and\nto knaves. He wrote them (and this in the days before the stamped and\nself-addressed envelope) to any one who took the trouble to approach him\nand whenever he took his pen in hand he was good for at least eight pages.\n\nIn the second place, he edited a large number of classical texts which\nhad been so often and so badly copied that they no longer made any sense.\nFor this purpose he had been obliged to learn Greek. His many attempts\nto get hold of a grammar of that forbidden tongue was one of the reasons\nwhy so many pious Catholics insisted that at heart he must be as bad as a\nreal heretic. This of course sounds absurd but it was the truth. In the\nfifteenth century, respectable Christians would never have dreamed of\ntrying to learn this forbidden language. It was a tongue of evil repute\nlike modern Russian. A knowledge of Greek might lead a man into all sorts\nof difficulties. It might tempt him to compare the original gospels with\nthose translations that had been given to him with the assurance that\nthey were a true reproduction of the original. And that would only be the\nbeginning. Soon he would make a descent into the Ghetto to get hold of a\nHebrew grammar. From that point to open rebellion against the authority\nof the Church was only a step and for a long time the possession of a\nbook with strange and outlandish pothooks was regarded as ipso facto\nevidence of secret revolutionary tendencies.\n\nQuite often rooms were raided by ecclesiastical authorities in search of\nthis contraband, and Byzantine refugees who were trying to eke out an\nexistence by teaching their native tongue were not infrequently forced to\nleave the city in which they had found an asylum.\n\nIn spite of all these many obstacles, Erasmus had learned Greek and in\nthe asides which he added to his editions of Cyprian and Chrysostom and\nthe other Church fathers, he hid many sly observations upon current\nevents which could never have been printed had they been the subject of a\nseparate pamphlet.\n\nBut this impish spirit of annotation manifested itself in an entirely\ndifferent sort of literature of which he was the inventor. I mean his\nfamous collections of Greek and Latin proverbs which he had brought\ntogether in order that the children of his time might learn to write the\nclassics with becoming elegance. These so-called \u201cAdagia\u201d are filled with\nclever comments which in the eyes of his conservative neighbors were\nby no means what one had the right to expect of a man who enjoyed the\nfriendship of the Pope.\n\nAnd finally he was the author of one of those strange little books which\nare born of the spirit of the moment, which are really a joke conceived\nfor the benefit of a few friends and then assume the dignity of a great\nliterary classic before the poor author quite realizes what he has done.\nIt was called \u201cThe Praise of Folly\u201d and we happen to know how it came to\nbe written.\n\nIt was in the year 1515 that the world had been startled by a pamphlet\nwritten so cleverly that no one could tell whether it was meant as an\nattack upon the friars or as a defense of the monastic life. No name\nappeared upon the title page, but those who knew what was what in the\nworld of letters recognized the somewhat unsteady hand of one Ulrich\nvon Hutten. And they guessed right; for that talented young man, poet\nlaureate and town bum extraordinary, had taken no mean share in the\nproduction of this gross but useful piece of buffoonery and he was proud\nof it. When he heard that no one less than Thomas More, the famous\nchampion of the New Learning in England, had spoken well of his work, he\nwrote to Erasmus and asked him for particulars.\n\nErasmus was no friend of von Hutten. His orderly mind (reflected in his\norderly way of living) did not take kindly to those blowsy Teuton Ritters\nwho spent their mornings and afternoons valiantly wielding pen and rapier\nfor the cause of enlightenment and then retired to the nearest pot-house\nthat they might forget the corruption of the times by drinking endless\nbumpers of sour beer.\n\nBut von Hutten, in his own way, was really a man of genius and Erasmus\nanswered him civilly enough. Yea, as he wrote, he grew eloquent upon\nthe virtues of his London friend and depicted so charming a scene of\ndomestic contentment that the household of Sir Thomas might well serve\nas a model for all other families until the end of time. It was in this\nletter that he mentions how More, himself a humorist of no small parts,\nhad given him the original idea for his \u201cPraise of Folly\u201d and very likely\nit was the good-natured horse-play of the More establishment (a veritable\nNoah\u2019s ark of sons and daughters-in-law and daughters and sons-in-law and\nbirds and dogs and a private zoo and private theatricals and bands of\namateur fiddlers) which had inspired him to write that delightful piece\nof nonsense with which his name is forever associated.\n\nIn some vague way the book reminds me of the Punch and Judy shows which\nfor so many centuries were the only amusement of little Dutch children.\nThose Punch and Judy shows, with all the gross vulgarity of their\ndialogue, invariably maintained a tone of lofty moral seriousness. The\nhollow voiced figure of Death dominated the scene. One by one the other\nactors were forced to appear before this ragged hero and give an account\nof themselves. And one by one, to the everlasting delight of the youthful\naudience, they were knocked on the head with an enormous cudgel and were\nthrown on an imaginary scrap-heap.\n\nIn the \u201cPraise of Folly,\u201d the whole social fabric of the age is carefully\ntaken apart while Folly, as a sort of inspired Coroner, stands by and\nfavors the public at large with her comments. No one is spared. The whole\nof Medieval Main Street is ransacked for suitable characters. And of\ncourse, the go-getters of that day, the peddling friars of salvation with\nall their sanctimonius sales-talk, their gross ignorance and the futile\npomposity of their arguments, came in for a drubbing which was never\nforgotten and never forgiven.\n\nBut the Pope and his cardinals and his bishops, incongruous successors to\nthe poverty stricken fishermen and carpenters from the land of Galilee,\nwere also on the bill and held the stage for several chapters.\n\nThe \u201cFolly\u201d of Erasmus however was a much more substantial personage than\nthe usual Jack-in-the-Box of humorous literature. Throughout this little\nbook (as indeed throughout everything he wrote) Erasmus preached a gospel\nof his own which one might call the philosophy of tolerance.\n\nIt was this willingness to live and let live; this insistence upon the\nspirit of the divine law rather than upon the commas and the semi-colons\nin the original version of that divine law; this truly human acceptance\nof religion as a system of ethics rather than as a form of government\nwhich made serious-minded Catholics and Protestants inveigh against\nErasmus as a \u201cgodless knave\u201d and an enemy of all true religion who\n\u201cslandered Christ\u201d but hid his real opinions behind the funny phrases of\na clever little book.\n\nThis abuse (and it lasted until the day of his death) did not have any\neffect. The little man with the long pointed nose, who lived until the\nage of seventy at a time when the addition or omission of a single word\nfrom an established text might cause a man to be hanged, had no liking\nat all for the popular-hero business and he said so openly. He expected\nnothing from an appeal to swords and arquebusses and knew only too well\nthe risk the world was running when a minor theological dispute was\nallowed to degenerate into an international religious war.\n\nAnd so, like a gigantic beaver, he worked day and night to finish that\nfamous dam of reason and common sense which he vaguely hoped might stem\nthe waxing tide of ignorance and intolerance.\n\nOf course he failed. It was impossible to stop those floods of ill-will\nand hatred which were sweeping down from the mountains of Germany and the\nAlps, and a few years after his death his work had been completely washed\naway.\n\nBut so well had he wrought that many bits of wreckage, thrown upon\nthe shores of posterity, proved exceedingly good material for those\nirrepressible optimists who believe that some day we shall have a set of\ndykes that will actually hold.\n\nErasmus departed this life in July of the year 1586.\n\nHis sense of humor never deserted him. He died in the house of his\npublisher.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nRABELAIS\n\n\nSocial upheavals make strange bed-fellows.\n\nThe name of Erasmus can be printed in a respectable book intended for the\nentire family. But to mention Rabelais in public is considered little\nshort of a breach of good manners. Indeed, so dangerous is this fellow\nthat laws have been passed in our country to keep his wicked works out of\nthe hands of our innocent children and that in many states copies of his\nbooks can only be obtained from the more intrepid among our book-leggers.\n\nThis of course is merely one of the absurdities which have been forced\nupon us by the reign of terror of a flivver aristocracy.\n\nIn the first place, the works of Rabelais to the average citizen of the\ntwentieth century are about as dull reading as \u201cTom Jones\u201d or \u201cThe House\nof the Seven Gables.\u201d Few people ever get beyond the first interminable\nchapter.\n\nAnd in the second place, there is nothing intentionally suggestive in\nwhat he says. Rabelais used the common vocabulary of his time. That does\nnot happen to be the common vernacular of our own day. But in the era of\nthe bucolic blues, when ninety percent of the human race lived close to\nthe soil, a spade was actually a spade and lady-dogs were not \u201clady-dogs.\u201d\n\nNo, the current objections to the works of this distinguished surgeon go\nmuch deeper than a mere disapproval of his rich but somewhat outspoken\ncollection of idioms. They are caused by the horror which many excellent\npeople experience when they come face to face with the point of view of a\nman who point blank refuses to be defeated by life.\n\nThe human race, as far as I can make out, is divided into two sorts of\npeople; those who say \u201cyes\u201d unto life and those who say \u201cno.\u201d The former\naccept it and courageously they endeavor to make the best of whatever\nbargain fate has handed out to them.\n\nThe latter accept it too (how could they help themselves?) but they hold\nthe gift in great contempt and fret about it like children who have been\ngiven a new little brother when they really wanted a puppy or a railroad\ntrain.\n\nBut whereas the cheerful brethren of \u201cyes\u201d are willing to accept their\nmorose neighbors at their own valuation and tolerate them, and do not\nhinder them when they fill the landscape with their lamentations and the\nhideous monuments to their own despair, the fraternity of \u201cno\u201d rarely\nextends this same courtesy to the parties of the first part.\n\nIndeed if they had their own way, the \u201cnays\u201d would immediately purge this\nplanet of the \u201cyeas.\u201d\n\nAs this cannot very well be done, they satisfy the demands of their\njealous souls by the incessant persecution of those who claim that the\nworld belongs to the living and not to the dead.\n\nDr. Rabelais belonged to the former class. Few of his patients or\nhis thoughts ever went out to the cemetery. This, no doubt, was very\nregrettable, but we cannot all be grave-diggers. There have to be a\nfew Poloniuses and a world composed exclusively of Hamlets would be a\nterrible place of abode.\n\nAs for the story of Rabelais\u2019 life, there was nothing very mysterious\nabout it. The few details which are omitted in the books written by his\nfriends are found in the works of his enemies and as a result we can\nfollow his career with a fair degree of accuracy.\n\nRabelais belonged to the generation which followed immediately upon\nErasmus but he was born into a world still largely dominated by monks,\nnuns, deacons, and a thousand and one varieties of mendicant friars.\nHe was born in Chinon. His father was either an apothecary or a dealer\nin spirits (which were different professions in the fifteenth century)\nand the old man was sufficiently well-to-do to send his son to a good\nschool. There young Fran\u00e7ois was thrown into the company of the scions\nof a famous local family called du Bellay-Langey. These boys, like their\nfather, had a streak of genius. They wrote well. Upon occasion they could\nfight well. They were men of the world in the good sense of that oft\nmisunderstood expression. They were faithful servitors of their master\nthe king, held endless public offices, became bishops and cardinals and\nambassadors, translated the classics, edited manuals of infantry drill\nand ballistics and brilliantly performed all the many useful services\nthat were expected of the aristocracy in a day when a title condemned a\nman to a life of few pleasures and many duties and responsibilities.\n\nThe friendship which the du Bellays afterwards bestowed upon Rabelais\nshows that he must have been something more than an amusing table\ncompanion. During the many ups and downs of his life he could always\ncount upon the assistance and the support of his former classmates.\nWhenever he was in trouble with his clerical superiors he found the door\nof their castle wide open and if perchance the soil of France became\na little too hot for this blunt young moralist, there was always a du\nBellay, conveniently going upon a foreign mission and greatly in need\nof a secretary who should be somewhat of a physician besides being a\npolished Latin scholar.\n\nThis was no small detail. More than once when it seemed that the career\nof our learned doctor was about to come to an abrupt and painful end,\nthe influence of his old friends saved him from the fury of the Sorbonne\nor from the anger of those much disappointed Calvinists who had counted\nupon him as one of their own and who were greatly incensed when he\npilloried the jaundiced zeal of their Genevan master as mercilessly as\nhe had derided the three-bottled sanctity of his erstwhile colleagues in\nFontenay and Maillezais.\n\nOf these two enemies, the former was of course by far the more dangerous.\nCalvin could fulminate to his heart\u2019s content, but outside of the narrow\nboundaries of a small Swiss canton, his lightning was as harmless as a\nfire-cracker.\n\nThe Sorbonne, on the other hand, which together with the University of\nOxford stood firmly for orthodoxy and the Old Learning, knew of no mercy\nwhen her authority was questioned and could always count upon the hearty\nco\u00f6peration of the king of France and his hangman.\n\nAnd alas! Rabelais, as soon as he left school, was a marked man. Not\nbecause he liked to drink good wine and told funny stories about his\nfellow-monks. He had done much worse, he had succumbed to the lure of the\nwicked Greek tongue.\n\nWhen rumor thereof had first reached the abbot of his cloister, it\nwas decided to search his cell. It was found to be full of literary\ncontraband, a copy of Homer, one of the New Testament, one of Herodotus.\n\nThis was a terrible discovery and it had taken a great deal of\nwire-pulling on the part of his influential friends to get him out of\nthis scrape.\n\nIt was a curious period in the development of the Church.\n\nOriginally, as I told you before, the monasteries had been advance posts\nof civilization and both friars and nuns had rendered inestimable service\nin promoting the interest of the Church. More than one Pope, however, had\nforeseen the danger that might come from a too powerful development of\nthe monastic institutions. But as so often happens, just because every\none knew that something ought to be done about these cloisters, nothing\nwas ever done.\n\nAmong the Protestants there seems to be a notion that the Catholic Church\nis a placid institution which is run silently and almost automatically\nby a small body of haughty autocrats and which never suffers from those\ninner upheavals which are an integral part of every other organization\ncomposed of ordinary mortals.\n\nNothing is further from the truth.\n\nPerhaps, as is so often the case, this opinion has been caused by the\nmisinterpretation of a single word.\n\nA world addicted to democratic ideals is easily horrified at the idea of\nan \u201cinfallible\u201d human being.\n\n\u201cIt must be easy,\u201d so the popular argument runs, \u201cto administer this big\ninstitution when it is enough for one man to say that a thing is so to\nhave all the others fall upon their knees and shout amen and obey him.\u201d\n\nIt is extremely difficult for one brought up in Protestant countries to\nget a correct and fair view of this rather intricate subject. But if I am\nnot mistaken, the \u201cinfallible\u201d utterances of the supreme pontiff are as\nrare as constitutional amendments in the United States.\n\nFurthermore, such important decisions are never reached until the subject\nhas been thoroughly discussed and the debates which precede the final\nverdict often rock the very body of the Church. Such pronunciamentos\nare therefore \u201cinfallible\u201d in the sense that our own constitutional\namendments are infallible, because they are \u201cfinal\u201d and because all\nfurther argument is supposed to come to an end as soon as they have been\ndefinitely incorporated into the highest law of the land.\n\nIf any one were to proclaim that it is an easy job to govern these United\nStates because in case of an emergency all the people are found to stand\nfirmly behind the Constitution, he would be just as much in error as\nif he were to state that all Catholics who in supreme matters of faith\nrecognize the absolute authority of their pope are docile sheep and have\nsurrendered every right to an opinion of their own.\n\nIf this were true, the occupants of the Lateran and the Vatican palaces\nwould have had an easy life. But even the most superficial study of\nthe last fifteen hundred years will show the exact opposite. And those\nchampions of the reformed faith who sometimes write as if the Roman\nauthorities had been ignorant of the many evils which Luther and Calvin\nand Zwingli denounced with such great vehemence are either ignorant of\nthe facts or are not quite fair in their zeal for the good cause.\n\nSuch men as Adrian VI and Clement VII knew perfectly well that something\nvery serious was wrong with their Church. But it is one thing to express\nthe opinion that there is something rotten in the state of Denmark. It is\nquite a different matter to correct the evil, as even poor Hamlet was to\nlearn.\n\nNor was that unfortunate prince the last victim of the pleasant delusion\nthat hundreds of years of misgovernment can be undone overnight by the\nunselfish efforts of an honest man.\n\nMany intelligent Russians knew that the old official structure which\ndominated their empire was corrupt, inefficient and a menace to the\nsafety of the nation.\n\nThey made Herculean efforts to bring about reforms and they failed.\n\nHow many of our citizens who have ever given the matter an hour\u2019s thought\nfail to see that a democratic instead of a representative form of\ngovernment (as intended by the founders of the Republic) must eventually\nlead to systematized anarchy?\n\nAnd yet, what can they do about it?\n\nSuch problems, by the time they have begun to attract public attention,\nhave become so hopelessly complicated that they are rarely solved except\nby a social cataclysm. And social cataclysms are terrible things from\nwhich most men shy away. Rather than run to such extremes, they try to\npatch up the old, decrepit machinery and meanwhile they pray that some\nmiracle will occur which will make it work.\n\nAn insolent religious and social dictatorship, set up and maintained by\na number of religious orders, was one of the most flagrant evils of the\nout-going Middle Ages.\n\nFor the so-many-eth time in history, the army was about to run away with\nthe commander-in-chief. In plain words, the situation had grown entirely\nbeyond the control of the popes. All they could do was to sit still,\nimprove their own party organization, and meanwhile try to mitigate the\nfate of those who had incurred the displeasure of their common enemies,\nthe friars.\n\nErasmus was one of the many scholars who had frequently enjoyed the\nprotection of the Pope. Let Louvain storm and the Dominicans rave, Rome\nwould stand firm and woe unto him who disregarded her command, \u201cLeave the\nold man alone!\u201d\n\nAnd after these few introductory remarks, it will be no matter of\nsurprise that Rabelais, a mutinous soul but a brilliant mind withal,\ncould often count upon the support of the Holy See when the superiors\nof his own order wished to punish him and that he readily obtained\npermission to leave his cloister when constant interference with his\nstudies began to make his life unbearable.\n\nAnd so with a sigh of relief, he shook the dust of Maillezais off his\nfeet and went to Montpellier and to Lyons to follow a course in medicine.\n\nSurely here was a man of extraordinary talents! Within less than two\nyears the former Benedictine monk had become chief physician of the city\nhospital of Lyons. But as soon as he had achieved these new honors, his\nrestless soul began to look for pastures new. He did not give up his\npowders and pills but in addition to his anatomical studies (a novelty\nalmost as dangerous as the study of Greek) he took up literature.\n\nLyons, situated in the center of the valley of the Rhone, was an ideal\ncity for a man who cared for belles lettres. Italy was nearby. A few days\neasy travel carried the traveler to the Provence and although the ancient\nparadise of the Troubadours had suffered dreadfully at the hands of the\nInquisition, the grand old literary tradition had not yet been entirely\nlost. Furthermore, the printing-presses of Lyons were famous for the\nexcellence of their product and her book stores were well stocked with\nall the latest publications.\n\nWhen one of the master printers, Sebastian Gryphius by name, looked for\nsome one to edit his collection of medieval classics, it was natural\nthat he should bethink himself of the new doctor who was also known as\na scholar. He hired Rabelais and set him to work. In rapid succession\nalmanachs and chap-books followed upon the learned treatises of Galen\nand Hippocrates. And out of these inconspicuous beginnings grew that\nstrange tome which was to make its author one of the most popular writers\nof his time.\n\nThe same talent for novelty which had turned Rabelais into a successful\nmedical practitioner brought him his success as a novelist. He did what\nfew people had dared to do before him. He began to write in the language\nof his own people. He broke with a thousand-year-old tradition which\ninsisted that the books of a learned man must be in a tongue unknown\nto the vulgar multitude. He used French and, furthermore, he used the\nunadorned vernacular of the year 1532.\n\nI gladly leave it to the professors of literature to decide where and\nhow and when Rabelais discovered his two pet heroes, Gargantua and\nPantagruel. Maybe they were old heathenish Gods who, after the nature\nof their species, had managed to live through fifteen hundred years of\nChristian persecution and neglect.\n\nThen again, he may have invented them in an outburst of gigantic hilarity.\n\nHowever that be, Rabelais contributed enormously to the gayety of nations\nand greater praise no author can gain than that he has added something\nto the sum total of human laughter. But at the same time, his works were\nnot funny books in the terrible modern sense of the word. They had their\nserious side and struck a bold blow for the cause of tolerance by their\ncaricature of the people who were responsible for that clerical reign of\nterror which caused such untold misery during the first fifty years of\nthe sixteenth century.\n\nRabelais, a skillfully trained theologian, was able to avoid all such\ndirect statements as might have got him into trouble, and acting upon the\nprinciple that one cheerful humorist out of jail is better than a dozen\ngloomy reformers behind the bars, refrained from a too brazen exposition\nof his highly unorthodox opinions.\n\nBut his enemies knew perfectly well what he was trying to do. The\nSorbonne condemned his books in unmistakable terms and the Parliament\nof Paris put him on their index and confiscated and burned all such\ncopies of his works as could be found within their jurisdiction. But\nnotwithstanding the activities of the hangman (who in those days was also\nthe official book destroyer) the \u201cLives and Heroic Deeds and Sayings\nof Gargantua and his Sonne Pantagruel\u201d remained a popular classic. For\nalmost four centuries it has continued to edify those who can derive\npleasure from a clever mixture of good-natured laughter and bantering\nwisdom and it will never cease to irritate those others who firmly\nbelieve that the Goddess of Truth, caught with a smile on her lips,\ncannot possibly be a good woman.\n\nAs for the author himself, he was and is a \u201cman of one book.\u201d His\nfriends, the du Bellays, remained faithful to him until the end, but most\nof his life Rabelais practiced the virtue of discretion and kept himself\nat a polite distance from the residence of that Majesty by whose supposed\n\u201cprivilege\u201d he published his nefarious works.\n\nHe ventured however upon a visit to Rome and met with no difficulties,\nbut on the contrary was received with every manifestation of a cordial\nwelcome. In the year 1550 he returned to France and went to live in\nMeudon. Three years later he died.\n\nIt is of course quite impossible to measure the exact and positive\ninfluence exercised by such a man. After all, he was a human being and\nnot an electric current or a barrel of gasoline.\n\nIt has been said that he was merely destructive.\n\nPerhaps so.\n\nBut he was destructive in an age when there was a great and crying need\nfor a social wrecking crew, headed by just such people as Erasmus and\nRabelais.\n\nThat many of the new buildings were going to be just as uncomfortable and\nugly as the old ones which they were supposed to replace was something\nwhich no one was able to foresee.\n\nAnd, anyway, that was the fault of the next generation.\n\nThey are the people we ought to blame.\n\nThey were given a chance such as few people ever enjoyed to make a fresh\nstart.\n\nMay the Lord have mercy upon their souls for the way in which they\nneglected their opportunities.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nNEW SIGNBOARDS FOR OLD\n\n\nThe greatest of modern poets saw the world as a large ocean upon which\nsailed many ships. Whenever these little vessels bumped against each\nother, they made a \u201cwonderful music\u201d which people call history.\n\nI would like to borrow Heine\u2019s ocean, but for a purpose and a simile\nof my own. When we were children it was fun to drop pebbles into a\npond. They made a nice splash and then the pretty little ripples caused\na series of ever widening circles and that was very nice. If bricks\nwere handy (which sometimes was the case) one could make an Armada of\nnutshells and matches and submit this flimsy fleet to a nice artificial\nstorm, provided the heavy projectile did not create that fatal loss of\nequilibrium which sometimes overtakes small children who play too near\nthe water\u2019s edge and sends them to bed without their supper.\n\nIn that special universe reserved for grown-ups, the same pastime is not\nentirely unknown, but the results are apt to be far more disastrous.\n\nEverything is placid and the sun is shining and the water-wigglers are\nskating merrily, and then suddenly a bold, bad boy comes along with a\npiece of mill-stone (Heaven only knows where he found it!) and before any\none can stop him he has heaved it right into the middle of the old duck\npond and then there is a great ado about who did it and how he ought to\nbe spanked and some say, \u201cOh, let him go,\u201d and others, out of sheer envy\nof the kid who is attracting all the attention, pick up any old thing\nthat happens to lie around and they dump it into the water and everybody\ngets splashed and one thing leading to another, the usual result is a\nfree-for-all fight and a few million broken heads.\n\nAlexander was such a bold, bad boy.\n\nAnd Helen of Troy, in her own charming way, was such a bad, bold girl,\nand history is just full of them.\n\nBut by far the worst offenders are those wicked citizens who play this\ngame with ideas and use the stagnant pool of man\u2019s spiritual indifference\nas their playground. And I for one don\u2019t wonder that they are hated by\nall right-thinking citizens and are punished with great severity if ever\nthey are unfortunate enough to let themselves be caught.\n\nThink of the damage they have done these last four hundred years.\n\nThere were the leaders of the rebirth of the ancient world. The stately\nmoats of the Middle Ages reflected the image of a society that was\nharmonious in both color and texture. It was not perfect. But people\nliked it. They loved to see the blending of the brick-red walls of their\nlittle homes with the somber gray of those high cathedral towers that\nwatched over their souls.\n\nCame the terrible splash of the Renaissance and overnight everything was\nchanged. But it was only a beginning. For just when the poor burghers had\nalmost recovered from the shock, that dreadful German monk appeared with\na whole cartload of specially prepared bricks and dumped them right into\nthe heart of the pontifical lagoon. Really, that was too much. And no\nwonder that it took the world three centuries to recover from the shock.\n\nThe older historians who studied this period often fell into a slight\nerror. They saw the commotion and decided that the ripples had been\nstarted by a common cause, which they alternately called the Renaissance\nand the Reformation.\n\nToday we know better.\n\nThe Renaissance and the Reformation were movements which professed to be\nstriving after a common purpose. But the means by which they hoped to\naccomplish their ultimate object were so utterly different that Humanist\nand Protestant not infrequently came to regard each other with bitter\nhostility.\n\nThey both believed in the supreme rights of man. During the Middle Ages\nthe individual had been completely merged in the community. He did not\nexist as John Doe, a bright citizen who came and went at will, who sold\nand bought as he liked, who went to any one of a dozen churches (or to\nnone at all, as suited his tastes and his prejudices). His life from the\ntime of his birth to the hour of his death was lived according to a rigid\nhandbook of economic and spiritual etiquette. This taught him that his\nbody was a shoddy garment, casually borrowed from Mother Nature and of no\nvalue except as a temporary receptacle for his immortal soul.\n\nIt trained him to believe that this world was a halfway house to future\nglory and should be regarded with that profound contempt which travelers\ndestined for New York bestow upon Queenstown and Halifax.\n\nAnd now unto the excellent John, living happily in the best of all\npossible worlds (since it was the only world he knew), came the two\nfairy god-mothers, Renaissance and Reformation, and said: \u201cArise, noble\ncitizen, from now on thou art to be free.\u201d\n\nBut when John asked, \u201cFree to do what?\u201d the answers greatly differed.\n\n\u201cFree to go forth in quest of Beauty,\u201d the Renaissance replied.\n\n\u201cFree to go in quest of Truth,\u201d the Reformation admonished him.\n\n\u201cFree to search the records of the past when the world was truly the\nrealm of men. Free to realize those ideals which once filled the hearts\nof poets and painters and sculptors and architects. Free to turn the\nuniverse into thine eternal laboratory, that thou mayest know all her\nsecrets,\u201d was the promise of the Renaissance.\n\n\u201cFree to study the word of God, that thou mayest find salvation for thy\nsoul and forgiveness for thy sins,\u201d was the warning of the Reformation.\n\nAnd they turned on their heels and left poor John Doe in the possession\nof a new freedom which was infinitely more embarrassing than the\nthralldom of his former days.\n\nFortunately or unfortunately, the Renaissance soon made her peace with\nthe established order of things. The successors of Phidias and Horace\ndiscovered that a belief in the established Deity and outward conformity\nto the rules of the Church were two very different things and that one\ncould paint pagan pictures and compose heathenish sonnets with complete\nimpunity if one took the precaution to call Hercules, John the Baptist,\nand Hera, the Virgin Mary.\n\nThey were like tourists who go to India and who obey certain laws which\nmean nothing to them at all in order that they may gain entrance to the\ntemples and travel freely without disturbing the peace of the land.\n\nBut in the eyes of an honest follower of Luther, the most trifling\nof details at once assumed enormous importance. An erroneous comma\nin Deuteronomy might mean exile. As for a misplaced full stop in the\nApocalypse, it called for instant death.\n\nTo people like these who took what they considered their religious\nconvictions with bitter seriousness, the merry compromise of the\nRenaissance seemed a dastardly act of cowardice.\n\nAs a result, Renaissance and Reformation parted company, never to meet\nagain.\n\nWhereupon the Reformation, alone against all the world, buckled on the\narmor of righteousness and made ready to defend her holiest possessions.\n\nIn the beginning, the army of revolt was composed almost exclusively of\nGermans. They fought and suffered with extreme bravery, but that mutual\njealousy which is the bane and the curse of all northern nations soon\nlamed their efforts and forced them to accept a truce. The strategy which\nled to the ultimate victory was provided by a very different sort of\ngenius. Luther stepped aside to make room for Calvin.\n\nIt was high time.\n\nIn that same French college where Erasmus had spent so many of his\nunhappy Parisian days, a black-bearded young Spaniard with a limp (the\nresult of a Gallic gunshot) was dreaming of the day when he should march\nat the head of a new army of the Lord to rid the world of the last of the\nheretics.\n\nIt takes a fanatic to fight a fanatic.\n\nAnd only a man of granite, like Calvin, would have been able to defeat\nthe plans of Loyola.\n\nPersonally, I am glad that I was not obliged to live in Geneva in the\nsixteenth century. At the same time I am profoundly grateful that the\nGeneva of the sixteenth century existed.\n\nWithout it, the world of the twentieth century would have been a great\ndeal more uncomfortable and I for one would probably be in jail.\n\nThe hero of this glorious fight, the famous Magister Joannes Calvinus (or\nJean Calvini or John Calvin) was a few years younger than Luther. Date\nof birth: July 10, 1509. Place of birth: the city of Noyon in northern\nFrance. Background: French middle class. Father: a small clerical\nofficial. Mother: the daughter of an inn-keeper. Family: five sons and\ntwo daughters. Characteristic qualities of early education: thrift,\nsimplicity, and a tendency to do all things in an orderly manner, not\nstingily, but with minute and efficient care.\n\nJohn, the second son, was meant for the priesthood. The father had\ninfluential friends, and could eventually get him into a good parish.\nBefore he was thirteen years old, he already held a small office in the\ncathedral of his home city. This gave him a small but steady income. It\nwas used to send him to a good school in Paris. A remarkable boy. Every\none who came in contact with him said, \u201cWatch out for that youngster!\u201d\n\nThe French educational system of the sixteenth century was well able to\ntake care of such a child and make the best of his many gifts. At the age\nof nineteen, John was allowed to preach. His future as a duly established\ndeacon seemed assured.\n\nBut there were five sons and two daughters. Advancement in the Church\nwas slow. The law offered better opportunities. Besides, it was a time\nof great religious excitement and the future was uncertain. A distant\nrelative, a certain Pierre Oliv\u00e9tan, had just translated the Bible into\nFrench. John, while in Paris, had spent much time with his cousin. It\nwould never do to have two heretics in one family. John was packed off\nto Orleans and was apprenticed to an old lawyer that he might learn the\nbusiness of pleading and arguing and drawing up briefs.\n\nHere the same thing happened as in Paris. Before the end of the year,\nthe pupil had turned teacher and was coaching his less industrious\nfellow-students in the principles of jurisprudence. And soon he knew all\nthere was to know and was ready to start upon that course which, so his\nfather fondly hoped, would some day make him the rival of those famous\navocats who got a hundred gold pieces for a single opinion and who drove\nin a coach and four when they were called upon to see the king in distant\nCompi\u00e8gne.\n\nBut nothing came of these dreams. John Calvin never practiced law.\n\nInstead, he returned to his first love, sold his digests and his\npandects, devoted the proceeds to a collection of theological works and\nstarted in all seriousness upon that task which was to make him one of\nthe most important historical figures of the last twenty centuries.\n\nThe years, however, which he had spent studying the principles of Roman\nlaw put their stamp upon all his further activities. It was impossible\nfor him to approach a problem by way of his emotions. He felt things\nand he felt them deeply. Read his letters to those of his followers who\nhad fallen into the hands of Catholics and who had been condemned to be\nroasted to death over slow burning coal fires. In their helpless agony\nthey are as fine a bit of writing as anything of which we have a record.\nAnd they show such a delicate understanding of human psychology that\nthe poor victims went to their death blessing the name of the man whose\nteaching had brought them into their predicament.\n\nNo, Calvin was not, as so many of his enemies have said, a man without a\nheart. But life to him was a sacred duty.\n\nAnd he tried so desperately hard to be honest with himself and with his\nGod that he must first reduce every question to certain fundamental\nprinciples of faith and doctrine before he dared to expose it to the\ntouchstone of human sentiment.\n\nWhen Pope Pius IV heard of his death, he remarked, \u201cThe power of that\nheretic lay in the fact that he was indifferent to money.\u201d If His\nHoliness meant to pay his enemy the compliment of absolute personal\ndisinterestedness, he was right. Calvin lived and died a poor man and\nrefused to accept his last quarterly salary because \u201cillness had made it\nimpossible for him to earn that money as he should have done.\u201d\n\nBut his strength lay elsewhere.\n\nHe was a man of one idea, his life centered around one all-overpowering\nimpulse; the desire to find the truth of God as revealed in the\nScriptures. When he finally had reached a conclusion that seemed proof\nagainst every possible form of argument and objection, then at last he\nincorporated it into his own code of life. And thereafter he went his way\nwith such utter disregard for the consequences of his decision that he\nbecame both invincible and irresistible.\n\nThis quality, however, was not to make itself manifest until many years\nlater. During the first decade after his conversion he was obliged to\ndirect all his energies toward the very commonplace problem of keeping\nalive.\n\nA short triumph of the \u201cnew learning\u201d in the University of Paris, an\norgy of Greek declensions, Hebrew irregular verbs and other forbidden\nintellectual fruit had been followed by the usual reaction. When it\nappeared that even the rector of that famous seat of learning had been\ncontaminated with the pernicious new German doctrines, steps were taken\nto purge the institution of all those who in terms of our modern medical\nscience might be considered \u201cidea carriers.\u201d Calvin, who, \u2019twas said,\nhad given the rector the material for several of his most objectionable\nspeeches, was among those whose names appeared at the top of the list of\nsuspects. His rooms were searched. His papers were confiscated and an\norder was issued for his arrest.\n\nHe heard of it and hid himself in the house of a friend.\n\nBut storms in an academic tea-pot never last very long. All the same, a\ncareer in the Church of Rome had become an impossibility. The moment had\narrived for a definite choice.\n\nIn the year 1534 Calvin broke away from the old faith. Almost at the same\nmoment, on the hills of Montmartre, high above the French capital, Loyola\nand a handful of his fellow students were taking that solemn vow which\nshortly afterwards was to be incorporated into the constitution of the\nSociety of Jesus.\n\nThereupon they both left Paris.\n\nIgnatius set his face towards the east, but remembering the unfortunate\noutcome of his first assault upon the Holy Land, he retraced his steps,\nwent to Rome and there began those activities which were to carry his\nfame (or otherwise) to every nook and corner of our planet.\n\nJohn was of a different caliber. His Kingdom of God was bound to neither\ntime nor place and he wandered forth that he might find a quiet spot\nand devote the rest of his days to reading, to contemplation and to the\npeaceful expounding of his ideas.\n\nHe happened to be on his way to Strassburg when the outbreak of a war\nbetween Charles V and Francis I forced him to make a detour through\nwestern Switzerland. In Geneva he was welcomed by Guillaume Farel, one\nof the stormy petrels of the French Reformation, fugitive extraordinary\nfrom all ecclesiastical and inquisitorial dungeons. Farel welcomed\nhim with open arms, spoke to him of the wondrous things that might be\naccomplished in this little Swiss principality and bade him stay. Calvin\nasked time to consider. Then he stayed.\n\nIn this way did the chances of war decree that the New Zion should be\nbuilt at the foot of the Alps.\n\nIt is a strange world.\n\nColumbus sets forth to discover the Indies and stumbles upon a new\ncontinent.\n\nCalvin, in search of a quiet spot where he may spend the rest of his\ndays in study and holy meditation, wanders into a third-rate Swiss town\nand makes it the spiritual capital of those who soon afterwards turn\nthe domains of their most Catholic Majesties into a gigantic Protestant\nempire.\n\nWhy should any one ever read fiction when history serves all purposes?\n\nI do not know whether the family Bible of Calvin has been preserved.\nBut if it still exists, the volume will show considerable wear on that\nparticular page which contains the sixth chapter of the book of Daniel.\nThe French reformer was a modest man, but often he must have found\nconsolation in the story of that other steadfast servant of the living\nGod who also had been cast into a den of lions and whose innocence had\nsaved him from a gruesome and untimely death.\n\nGeneva was no Babylon. It was a respectable little city inhabited by\nrespectable Swiss cloth makers. They took life seriously, but not quite\nso seriously as that new master who was now holding forth in the pulpit\nof their Saint Peter.\n\nAnd furthermore, there was a Nebuchadnezzar in the form of a Duke of\nSavoy. It was during one of their interminable quarrels with the house\nof Savoy that the descendants of Caesar\u2019s Allobroges had decided to make\ncommon cause with the other Swiss cantons and join the Reformation.\nThe alliance therefore between Geneva and Wittenberg was a marriage of\nconvenience, an engagement based upon common interests rather than common\naffection.\n\nBut no sooner had the news spread abroad that \u201cGeneva had gone\nProtestant,\u201d than all the eager apostles of half a hundred new and crazy\ncreeds flocked to the shores of Lake Leman. With tremendous energy they\nbegan to preach some of the queerest doctrines ever conceived by mortal\nman.\n\nCalvin detested these amateur prophets with all his heart. He fully\nappreciated what a menace they would prove to the cause of which they\nwere such ardent but ill-guided champions. And the first thing he did\nas soon as he had enjoyed a few months leisure was to write down as\nprecisely and briefly as he could what he expected his new parishioners\nto hold true and what he expected them to hold false. And that no man\nmight claim the ancient and time-worn excuse, \u201cI did not know the law,\u201d\nhe, together with his friend Farel, personally examined all Genevans in\nbatches of ten and allowed only those to the full rights of citizenship\nwho swore the oath of allegiance to this strange religious constitution.\n\nNext he composed a formidable catechism for the benefit of the younger\ngeneration.\n\nNext he prevailed upon the Town Council to expel all those who still\nclung to their old erroneous opinions.\n\nThen, having cleared the ground for further action, he set about to found\nhim a state along the lines laid down by the political economists of the\nbooks of Exodus and Deuteronomy. For Calvin, like so many other of the\ngreat reformers, was really much more of an ancient Jew than a modern\nChristian. His lips did homage to the God of Jesus, but his heart went\nout to the Jehovah of Moses.\n\nThis, of course, is a phenomenon often observed during periods of great\nemotional stress. The opinions of the humble Nazarene carpenter upon the\nsubject of hatred and strife are so definite and so clear cut that no\ncompromise has ever been found possible between them and those violent\nmethods by which nations and individuals have, during the last two\nthousand years, tried to accomplish their ends.\n\nHence, as soon as a war breaks out, by silent consent of all concerned,\nwe temporarily close the pages of the Gospels and cheerfully wallow\nin the blood and thunder and the eye-for-an-eye philosophy of the Old\nTestament.\n\nAnd as the Reformation was really a war and a very atrocious one, in\nwhich no quarter was asked and very little quarter was given, it need\nnot surprise us that the state of Calvin was in reality an armed camp in\nwhich all semblance of personal liberty was gradually suppressed.\n\nOf course, all this was not accomplished without tremendous opposition,\nand in the year 1538 the attitude of the more liberal elements in the\ncommunity became so threatening that Calvin was forced to leave the city.\nBut in 1541 his adherents returned to power. Amidst the ringing of many\nbells and the loud hosannas of the deacons, Magister Joannes returned to\nhis citadel on the river Rhone. Thereafter he was the uncrowned King of\nGeneva and the next twenty-three years he devoted to the establishment\nand the perfection of a theocratic form of government, the like of which\nthe world had not seen since the days of Ezekiel and Ezra.\n\nThe word \u201cdiscipline\u201d according to the Oxford Concise Dictionary, means\n\u201cto bring under control, to train to obedience and order, to drill.\u201d It\nexpresses best the spirit which permeated the entire political-clerical\nstructure of Calvin\u2019s dreams.\n\nLuther, after the nature of most Germans, had been a good deal of a\nsentimentalist. The Word of God alone, so it seemed to him, would show a\nman the way to the life everlasting.\n\nThis was much too indefinite to suit the taste of the great French\nreformer. The Word of God might be a beacon light of hope, but the road\nwas long and dark and many were the temptations that made people forget\ntheir true destination.\n\nThe minister, however, could not go astray. He was a man set apart.\nHe knew all pitfalls. He was incorruptible. And if perchance he felt\ninclined to wander from the straight path, the weekly meetings of the\nclergy, at which these worthy gentlemen were invited to criticize each\nother freely, would speedily bring him back to a realization of his\nduties. Hence he was the ideal held before all those who truly aspired\nafter salvation.\n\nThose of us who have ever climbed mountains know that professional guides\ncan upon occasion be veritable tyrants. They know the perils of a pile\nof rocks, the hidden dangers of an innocent-looking snowfield. Wherefore\nthey assume complete command of the party that has entrusted itself to\ntheir care and profanity raineth richly upon the head of the foolish\ntourist who dares to disobey their orders.\n\nThe ministers of Calvin\u2019s ideal state had a similar conception of their\nduties. They were ever delighted to extend a helping hand to those\nwho stumbled and asked that they be supported. But when willful people\npurposely left the beaten track and wandered away from the flock, then\nthat hand was withdrawn and became a fist which meted out punishment that\nwas both quick and terrible.\n\nIn many other communities the dominies would have been delighted to\nexercise a similar power. But the civil authorities, jealous of their\nown prerogatives, rarely allowed the clergy to compete with the courts\nand the executioners. Calvin knew this and within his own bailiwick he\nestablished a form of church discipline which practically superseded the\nlaws of the land.\n\nAmong the curious historical misconceptions which have gained such\npopularity since the days of the great war, none is more surprising than\nthe belief that the French people (in contrast to their Teuton neighbors)\nare a liberty-loving race and detest all regimentation. The French have\nfor centuries submitted to the rule of a bureaucracy quite as complicated\nand infinitely less efficient than the one which existed in Prussia in\nthe pre-war days. The officials are a little less punctual about their\noffice hours and the spotlessness of their collars and they are given to\nsucking a particularly vile sort of cigarette. Otherwise they are quite\nas meddlesome and as obnoxious as those in the eastern republic, and the\npublic accepts their rudeness with a meekness that is astonishing in a\nrace so addicted to rebellion.\n\nCalvin was the ideal Frenchman in his love for centralization. In some\ndetails he almost approached the perfection for detail which was the\nsecret of Napoleon\u2019s success. But unlike the great emperor, he was\nutterly devoid of all personal ambition. He was just a dreadfully serious\nman with a weak stomach and no sense of humor.\n\nHe ransacked the Old Testament to discover what would be agreeable\nto his particular Jehovah. And then the people of Geneva were asked\nto accept this interpretation of the Jewish chronicles as a direct\nrevelation of the divine will.\n\nAlmost over night the merry city on the Rhone became a community of\nrueful sinners. A civic inquisition composed of six ministers and twelve\nelders watched night and day over the private opinions of all citizens.\nWhosoever was suspected of an inclination towards \u201cforbidden heresies\u201d\nwas cited to appear before an ecclesiastic tribunal that he might be\nexamined upon all points of doctrine and explain where, how and in what\nway he had obtained the books which had given him the pernicious ideas\nwhich had led him astray. If the culprit showed a repentant spirit, he\nmight escape with a sentence of enforced attendance at Sunday School.\nBut in case he showed himself obstinate, he must leave the city within\ntwenty-four hours and never again show himself within the jurisdiction of\nthe Genevan commonwealth.\n\nBut a proper lack of orthodox sentiment was not the only thing that could\nget a man into trouble with the so-called Consistorium. An afternoon\nspent at a bowling-alley in a nearby village, if properly reported\n(as such things invariably are), could be reason enough for a severe\nadmonition. Jokes, both practical and otherwise, were considered the\nheight of bad form. An attempt at wit during a wedding ceremony was\nsufficient cause for a jail sentence.\n\nGradually the New Zion was so encumbered with laws, edicts, regulations,\nrescripts and decrees that life became a highly complicated affair and\nlost a great deal of its old flavor.\n\nDancing was not allowed. Singing was not allowed. Card playing was not\nallowed. Gambling, of course, was not allowed. Birthday parties were\nnot allowed. County fairs were not allowed. Silks and satins and all\nmanifestations of external splendor were not allowed. What was allowed\nwas going to church and going to school. For Calvin was a man of positive\nideas.\n\nThe verboten sign could keep out sin, but it could not force a man to\nlove virtue. That had to come through an inner persuasion. Hence the\nestablishment of excellent schools and a first-rate university and\nthe encouragement of all learning. And the establishment of a rather\ninteresting form of communal life which absorbed a good deal of the\nsurplus energy of the community and which made the average man forget the\nmany hardships and restrictions to which he was submitted. If it had been\nentirely lacking in human qualities, the system of Calvin could never\nhave survived and it certainly would not have played such a very decisive\nr\u00f4le in the history of the last three hundred years. All of which however\nbelongs in a book devoted to the development of political ideas. This\ntime we are interested in the question of what Geneva did for tolerance\nand we come to the conclusion that the Protestant Rome was not a whit\nbetter than its Catholic namesake.\n\nThe extenuating circumstances I have enumerated a few pages back. In a\nworld which was forced to stand by and witness such bestial occurrences\nas the massacre of St. Bartholomew and the wholesale extermination of\nscores of Dutch cities, it was unreasonable to expect that one side (the\nweaker one at that) should practice a virtue which was equivalent to a\nself-imposed sentence of death.\n\nThis, however, does not absolve Calvin from the crime of having aided and\nabetted in the legal murder of Gruet and Servetus.\n\nIn the case of the former, Calvin might have put up the excuse that\nJacques Gruet was seriously suspected of having incited his fellow\ncitizens to riot and that he belonged to a political party which was\ntrying to bring about the downfall of the Calvinists. But Servetus could\nhardly be called a menace to the safety of the community, as far as\nGeneva was concerned.\n\nHe was what the modern passport regulations call a \u201ctransient.\u201d Another\ntwenty-four hours and he would have been gone. But he missed his boat.\nAnd so he came to lose his life, and it is a pretty terrible story.\n\nMiguel Serveto, better known as Michael Servetus, was a Spaniard. His\nfather was a respectable notary-public (a semi-legal position in Europe\nand not just a young man with a stamping machine who charges you a\nquarter for witnessing your signature) and Miguel was also destined for\nthe law. He was sent to the University of Toulouse, for in those happy\ndays when all lecturing was done in Latin learning was international and\nthe wisdom of the entire world was open to those who had mastered five\ndeclensions and a few dozen irregular verbs.\n\nAt the French university Servetus made the acquaintance of one Juan de\nQuintana who shortly afterwards became the confessor of the Emperor\nCharles V.\n\nDuring the Middle Ages, an imperial coronation was a good deal like a\nmodern international exhibition. When Charles was crowned in Bologna in\nthe year 1530, Quintana took his friend Michael with him as his secretary\nand the bright young Spaniard saw all there was to be seen. Like so many\nmen of his time, he was of an insatiable curiosity and he spent the\nnext ten years dabbling in an infinite variety of subjects, medicine,\nastronomy, astrology, Hebrew, Greek, and, most fatal of all, theology.\nHe was a very competent doctor and in the pursuit of his theological\nstudies he hit upon the idea of the circulation of the blood. It is to be\nfound in the fifteenth chapter of the first one of his books against the\ndoctrine of the Trinity. It shows the one-sidedness of the theological\nmind of the sixteenth century that none of those who examined the works\nof Servetus ever discovered that this man had made one of the greatest\ndiscoveries of all ages.\n\nIf only Servetus had stuck to his medical practice! He might have died\npeacefully in his bed at a ripe old age.\n\nBut he simply could not keep away from the burning questions of his day,\nand having access to the printing shops of Lyons, he began to give vent\nto his opinions upon sundry subjects.\n\nNowadays a generous millionaire can persuade a college to change its name\nfrom Trinity College to that of a popular brand of tobacco and nothing\nhappens. The press says, \u201cIsn\u2019t it good of Mr. Dingus to be so generous\nwith his money!\u201d and the public at large shouts \u201cAmen!\u201d\n\nIn a world which seems to have lost all capacity for being shocked by\nsuch a thing as blasphemy, it is not easy to write of a time when the\nmere suspicion that one of its fellow citizens had spoken disrespectfully\nof the Trinity would throw an entire community into a state of panic.\nBut unless we fully appreciate this fact, we shall never be able to\nunderstand the horror in which Servetus was held by all good Christians\nof the first half of the sixteenth century.\n\nAnd yet he was by no means a radical.\n\nHe was what today we would call a liberal.\n\nHe rejected the old belief in the Trinity as held both by the Protestants\nand the Catholics, but he believed so sincerely (one feels inclined\nto say, so na\u00efvely) in the correctness of his own views, that he\ncommitted the grave error of writing letters to Calvin suggesting that\nhe be allowed to visit Geneva for a personal interview and a thorough\ndiscussion of the entire problem.\n\nHe was not invited.\n\nAnd, anyway, it would have been impossible for him to accept. The\nInquisitor General of Lyons had already taken a hand in the affair and\nServetus was in jail. This inquisitor (curious readers will find a\ndescription of him in the works of Rabelais who refers to him as Doribus,\na pun upon his name, which was Ory) had got wind of the Spaniard\u2019s\nblasphemies through a letter which a private citizen of Geneva, with the\nconnivance of Calvin, had sent to his cousin in Lyons.\n\nSoon the case against him was further strengthened by several samples of\nServetus\u2019 handwriting, also surreptitiously supplied by Calvin. It really\nlooked as if Calvin did not care who hanged the poor fellow as long as he\ngot hung, but the inquisitors were negligent in their sacred duties and\nServetus was able to escape.\n\nFirst he seems to have tried to reach the Spanish frontier. But the long\njourney through southern France would have been very dangerous to a man\nwho was so well known and so he decided to follow the rather round-about\nroute via Geneva, Milan, Naples and the Mediterranean Sea.\n\nLate one Saturday afternoon in August of the year 1553 he reached Geneva.\nHe tried to find a boat to cross to the other side of the lake, but boats\nwere not supposed to sail so shortly before the Sabbath day and he was\ntold to wait until Monday.\n\nThe next day was Sunday. As it was a misdemeanor for both natives and\nstrangers to stay away from divine service, Servetus went to church. He\nwas recognized and arrested. By what right he was put into jail was never\nexplained. Servetus was a Spanish subject and was not accused of any\ncrime against the laws of Geneva. But he was a liberal in the matter of\ndoctrine, a blasphemous and profane person who dared to have opinions of\nhis own upon the subject of the Trinity. It was absurd that such a person\nshould invoke the protection of the law. A common criminal might do so. A\nheretic, never! And without further ado he was locked up in a filthy and\ndamp hole, his money and his personal belongings were confiscated and two\ndays later he was taken to court and was asked to answer a questionnaire\ncontaining thirty-eight different points.\n\nThe trial lasted two months and twelve days.\n\nIn the end he was found guilty of \u201cheresies against the foundations\nof the Christian religion.\u201d The answers which he had given during the\ndiscussions of his opinions had exasperated his judges. The usual\npunishment for cases of his sort, especially if the accused were a\nforeigner, was perpetual banishment from the territory of the city of\nGeneva. In the case of Servetus an exception was made. He was condemned\nto be burned alive.\n\nIn the meantime the French tribunal had re-opened the case of the\nfugitive and the officials of the Inquisition had come to the same\nconclusion as their Protestant colleagues. They too had condemned\nServetus to death and had dispatched their sheriff to Geneva with the\nrequest that the culprit be surrendered to him and be brought back to\nFrance.\n\nThis request was refused.\n\nCalvin was able to do his own burning.\n\nAs for that terrible walk to the place of execution, with a delegation\nof arguing ministers surrounding the heretic upon his last journey, the\nagony which lasted for more than half an hour and did not really come to\nan end until the crowd, in their pity for the poor martyr, had thrown\na fresh supply of fagots upon the flames, all this makes interesting\nreading for those who care for that sort of thing, but it had better be\nomitted. One execution more or less, what difference did it make during a\nperiod of unbridled religious fanaticism?\n\nBut the case of Servetus really stands by itself. Its consequences were\nterrible. For now it was shown, and shown with brutal clearness, that\nthose Protestants who had clamored so loudly and persistently for \u201cthe\nright to their own opinions\u201d were merely Catholics in disguise, that\nthey were just as narrow-minded and cruel to those who did not share\ntheir own views as their enemies and that they were only waiting for the\nopportunity to establish a reign of terror of their own.\n\nThis accusation is a very serious one. It cannot be dismissed by a mere\nshrug of the shoulders and a \u201cWell, what would you expect?\u201d\n\nWe possess a great deal of information upon the trial and know in detail\nwhat the rest of the world thought of this execution. It makes ghastly\nreading. It is true that Calvin, in an outburst of generosity, suggested\nthat Servetus be decapitated instead of burned. Servetus thanked him for\nhis kindness, but offered still another solution. He wanted to be set\nfree. Yea, he insisted (and the logic was all on his side) that the court\nhad no jurisdiction over him, that he was merely an honest man in search\nfor the truth and that therefore he had the right to be heard in open\ndebate with his opponent, Dr. Calvin.\n\nBut of this Calvin would not hear.\n\nHe had sworn that this heretic, once he fell into his hands, should never\nbe allowed to escape with his life, and he was going to be as good as\nhis word. That he could not get a conviction without the co\u00f6peration\nof his arch-enemy, the Inquisition, made no difference to him. He\nwould have made common cause with the pope if His Holiness had been\nin the possession of some documents that would further incriminate the\nunfortunate Spaniard.\n\nBut worse was to follow.\n\nOn the morning of his death, Servetus asked to see Calvin and the latter\ncame to the dark and filthy dungeon that had served his enemy as a prison.\n\nUpon this occasion at least he might have been generous; more, he might\nhave been human.\n\nHe was neither.\n\nHe stood in the presence of a man who within another hour would be able\nto plead his case before the throne of God and he argued. He debated\nand sputtered, grew green and lost his temper. But not a word of pity,\nof charity, or kindliness. Not a word. Only bitterness and hatred, the\nfeeling of \u201cServe you right, you obstinate scoundrel. Burn and be damned!\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAll this happened many, many years ago.\n\nServetus is dead.\n\nAll our statues and memorial tablets will not bring him back to life\nagain.\n\nCalvin is dead.\n\nA thousand volumes of abuse will not disturb the ashes of his unknown\ngrave.\n\nThey are all of them dead, those ardent reformers who during the trial\nhad shuddered with fear lest the blasphemous scoundrel be allowed to\nescape, those staunch pillars of the Church who after the execution broke\nforth into paeans of praise and wrote each other, \u201cAll hail to Geneva!\nThe deed is done.\u201d\n\nThey are all of them dead, and perhaps it were best they were forgotten\ntoo.\n\nOnly let us have a care.\n\nTolerance is like liberty.\n\nNo one ever gets it merely by asking for it. No one keeps it except by\nthe exercise of eternal care and vigilance.\n\nFor the sake of some future Servetus among our own children, we shall do\nwell to remember this.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nTHE ANABAPTISTS\n\n\nEvery generation has a bogey-man all its own.\n\nWe have our \u201cReds.\u201d\n\nOur fathers had their Socialists.\n\nOur grandfathers had their Molly Maguires.\n\nOur great-great-grandfathers had their Jacobins.\n\nAnd our ancestors of three hundred years ago were not a bit better off.\n\nThey had their Anabaptists.\n\nThe most popular \u201cOutline of History\u201d of the sixteenth century was a\ncertain \u201cWorld Book\u201d or chronicle, which Sebastian Frank, soap-boiler,\nprohibitionist and author, living in the good city of Ulm, published in\nthe year 1534.\n\nSebastian knew the Anabaptists. He had married into an Anabaptist family.\nHe did not share their views, for he was a confirmed free-thinker. But\nthis is what he wrote about them: \u201cthat they taught nothing but love and\nfaith and the crucifixion of the flesh, that they manifested patience and\nhumility under all suffering, assisted one another with true helpfulness,\ncalled each other brother and believed in having all things in common.\u201d\n\nIt is surely a curious thing that people of whom all those nice things\ncould be truthfully said should for almost a hundred years have been\nhunted down like wild animals, and should have been exposed to all the\nmost cruel punishments of the most bloodthirsty of centuries.\n\nBut there was a reason and in order to appreciate it you must remember\ncertain facts about the Reformation.\n\nThe Reformation really settled nothing.\n\nIt gave the world two prisons instead of one, made a book infallible in\nthe place of a man and established (or rather, tried to establish) a rule\nby black garbed ministers instead of white garbed priests.\n\nSuch meager results after half a century of struggle and sacrifice had\nfilled the hearts of millions of people with desperate disappointment.\nThey had expected a millennium of social and religious righteousness\nand they were not at all prepared for a new Gehenna of persecution and\neconomic slavery.\n\nThey had been ready for a great adventure. Then something had happened.\nThey had slipped between the wall and the ship. And they had been obliged\nto strike out for themselves and keep above water as best they could.\n\nThey were in a terrible position. They had left the old church. Their\nconscience did not allow them to join the new faith. Officially they had,\ntherefore, ceased to exist. And yet they lived. They breathed. They were\nsure that they were God\u2019s beloved children. As such it was their duty to\nkeep on living and breathing, that they might save a wicked world from\nits own folly.\n\nEventually they survived, but do not ask how!\n\nDeprived of their old associations, they were forced to form groups of\ntheir own, to look for a new leadership.\n\nBut what man in his senses would take up with these poor fanatics?\n\nAs a result, shoemakers with second sight and hysterical midwives with\nvisions and hallucinations assumed the r\u00f4le of prophets and prophetesses\nand they prayed and preached and raved until the rafters of their\ndingy meeting places shook with the hosannas of the faithful and the\ntip-staffs of the village were forced to take notice of the unseemly\ndisturbance.\n\nThen half a dozen men and women were sent to jail and their High and\nMightinesses, the town councilors, began what was good-naturedly called\n\u201can investigation.\u201d\n\nThese people did not go to the Catholic Church. They did not worship in\nthe Protestant kirk. Then would they please explain who they were and\nwhat they believed?\n\nTo give the poor councilors their due, they were in a difficult\npredicament. For their prisoners were the most uncomfortable of all\nheretics, people who took their religious convictions absolutely\nseriously. Many of the most respectable reformers were of this earth\nearthy and willingly made such small compromises as were absolutely\nnecessary, if one hoped to lead an agreeable and respectable existence.\n\nYour true Anabaptist was of a different caliber. He frowned upon all\nhalf-way measures. Jesus had told his followers to turn the other cheek\nwhen smitten by an enemy, and had taught that all those who take the\nsword shall perish by the sword. To the Anabaptists this meant a positive\nordinance to use no violence. They did not care to dilly-dally with\nwords and murmur that circumstances alter cases, that, of course, they\nwere against war, but that this was a different kind of a war and that\ntherefore they felt that for this once God would not mind if they threw a\nfew bombs or fired an occasional torpedo.\n\nA divine ordinance was a divine ordinance, and that was all there was to\nit.\n\nAnd so they refused to enlist and refused to carry arms and in case they\nwere arrested for their pacifism (for that is what their enemies called\nthis sort of applied Christianity) they went willingly forth to meet\ntheir fate and recited Matthew xxvi: 52 until death made an end to their\nsuffering.\n\nBut anti-militarism was only a small detail in their program of\nqueerness. Jesus had preached that the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom\nof Caesar were two entirely different entities and could not and should\nnot be reconciled. Very well. These words were clear. Henceforth all\ngood Anabaptists carefully abstained from taking part in their country\u2019s\ngovernment, refused to hold public office and spent the time which other\npeople wasted upon politics, reading and studying the holy scriptures.\n\nJesus had cautioned his disciples against unseemly quarrels and the\nAnabaptists would rather lose their rightful possessions than submit a\ndifference of opinion to a law court.\n\nThere were several other points which set these peculiar people apart\nfrom the rest of the world, but these few examples of their odd behavior\nwill explain the suspicion and detestation in which they were held by\ntheir fat and happy neighbors who invariably mixed their piety with a\ndose of that comfortable doctrine which bids us live and let live.\n\nEven so, the Anabaptists, like the Baptists and many other dissenters,\nmight in the end have discovered a way to placate the authorities, if\nonly they had been able to protect themselves from their own friends.\n\nUndoubtedly there are many honest Bolshevists who dearly love their\nfellow proletarians and who spend their waking hours trying to make this\nworld a better and happier place. But when the average person hears\nthe word \u201cBolshevik,\u201d he thinks of Moscow and of a reign of terror\nestablished by a handful of scholarly cut-throats, of jails full of\ninnocent people and firing squads jeering at the victims they are about\nto shoot. This picture may be slightly unfair, but it is no more than\nnatural that it should be part of the popular myth after the unspeakable\nthings which have happened in Russia during the last seven years.\n\nThe really good and peaceful Anabaptists of the sixteenth century\nsuffered from a similar disadvantage. As a sect they were suspected of\nmany strange crimes, and with good reason. In the first place, they were\ninveterate Bible readers. This, of course, is not a crime at all, but let\nme finish my sentence. The Anabaptists studied the scriptures without any\ndiscrimination and that is a very dangerous thing when one has a strong\npredilection for the Book of Revelation.\n\nThis strange work which even as late as the fifth century was rejected\nas a bit of \u201cspurious writing\u201d was just the sort of thing to appeal to\npeople who lived during a period of intense emotional passions. The exile\nof Patmos spoke a language which these poor, hunted creatures understood.\nWhen his impotent rage drove him into hysterical prophecies anent the\nmodern Babylon, all the Anabaptists shouted amen and prayed for the\nspeedy coming of the New Heaven and the New Earth.\n\nIt was not the first time that weak minds gave way under the stress of\na great excitement. And almost every persecution of the Anabaptists was\nfollowed by violent outbursts of religious insanity. Men and women would\nrush naked through the streets, announcing the end of the world, trying\nto indulge in weird sacrifices that the fury of God might be appeased.\nOld hags would enter the divine services of some other sect and break up\nthe meeting, stridently shrieking nonsense about the coming of the Dragon.\n\nOf course, this sort of affliction (in a mild degree) is always with us.\nRead the daily papers and you will see how in some remote hamlet of Ohio\nor Iowa or Florida a woman has butchered her husband with a meat cleaver\nbecause \u201cshe was told to do so\u201d by the voice of an angel; or how an\notherwise reasonable father has just killed his wife and eight children\nin anticipation of the sounding of the Seven Trumpets. Such cases,\nhowever, are rare exceptions. They can be easily handled by the local\npolice and they really do not have great influence upon the life or the\nsafety of the Republic.\n\nBut what had happened in the year 1534 in the good town of M\u00fcnster was\nsomething very different. There the New Zion, upon strictly Anabaptist\nprinciples, had actually been proclaimed.\n\nAnd people all over northern Europe shuddered when they thought of that\nterrible winter and spring.\n\nThe villain in the case was a good-looking young tailor by the name of\nJan Beukelszoon. History knows him as John of Leiden, for Jan was a\nnative of that industrious little city and had spent his childhood along\nthe banks of the sluggish old Rhine. Like all other apprentices of that\nday, he had traveled extensively and had wandered far and wide to learn\nthe secrets of his trade.\n\nHe could read and write just enough to produce an occasional play, but\nhe had no real education. Neither was he possessed of that humility of\nspirit which we so often find in people who are conscious of their social\ndisadvantages and their lack of knowledge. But he was a very good-looking\nyoung man, endowed with unlimited cheek and as vain as a peacock.\n\nAfter a long absence in England and Germany, he went back to his native\nland and set up in the cloak and suit business. At the same time he went\nin for religion and that was the beginning of his extraordinary career.\nFor he became a disciple of Thomas M\u00fcnzer.\n\nThis man M\u00fcnzer, a baker by profession, was a famous character. He was\none of the three Anabaptist prophets who, in the year 1521, had suddenly\nmade their appearance in Wittenberg that they might show Luther how to\nfind the true road to salvation. Although they had acted with the best\nof intentions, their efforts had not been appreciated and they had been\nchased out of the Protestant stronghold with the request that never again\nthey show their unwelcome selves within the jurisdiction of the Dukes of\nSaxony.\n\nCame the year 1534 and the Anabaptists had suffered so many defeats that\nthey decided to risk everything on one big, bold stroke.\n\nThat they selected the town of M\u00fcnster in Westphalia as the spot\nfor their final experiment surprised no one. Franz von Waldeck, the\nprince-bishop of that city, was a drunken bounder who for years had lived\nopenly with a score of women and who ever since his sixteenth year had\noffended all decent people by the outrageous bad taste of his private\nconduct. When the town went Protestant, he compromised. But being known\nfar and wide for a liar and a cheat, his treaty of peace did not give\nhis Protestant subjects that feeling of personal security without which\nlife is indeed a very uncomfortable experience. In consequence whereof\nthe inhabitants of M\u00fcnster remained in a state of high agitation until\nthe next elections. These brought a surprise. The city government fell\ninto the hands of the Anabaptists. The chairman became one Bernard\nKnipperdollinck, a cloth merchant by day and a prophet after dark.\n\nThe bishop took one look at his new councilors and fled.\n\nIt was then that John of Leiden appeared upon the scene. He had come to\nM\u00fcnster as the apostle of a certain Jan Matthysz, a Haarlem baker who had\nstarted a new sect of his own and was regarded as a very holy man. And\nwhen he heard of the great blow that had been struck for the good cause,\nhe remained to help celebrate the victory and purge the bishopric of all\npopish contamination. The Anabaptists were nothing if not thorough. They\nturned the churches into stone quarries. They confiscated the convents\nfor the benefit of the homeless. All books except the Bible were publicly\nburned. And as a fitting climax, those who refused to be re-baptized\nafter the Anabaptist fashion were driven into the camp of the Bishop, who\ndecapitated them or drowned them on the general principle that they were\nheretics and small loss to the community.\n\nThat was the prologue.\n\nThe play itself was no less terrible.\n\nFrom far and wide the high priests of half a hundred new creeds hastened\nto the New Jerusalem. There they were joined by all those who believed\nthemselves possessed of a call for the great uplift, honest and sincere\ncitizens, but as innocent as babes when it came to politics or statecraft.\n\nThe siege of M\u00fcnster lasted five months and during that time, every\nscheme, system and program of social and spiritual regeneration was tried\nout; every new-fangled prophet had his day in court.\n\nBut, of course, a little town chuck full of fugitives, pestilence and\nhunger, was not a fit place for a sociological laboratory and the\ndissensions and quarrels between the different factions lamed all the\nefforts of the military leaders. During that crisis John the tailor\nstepped forward.\n\nThe short hour of his glory had come.\n\nIn that community of starving men and suffering children, all things\nwere possible. John began his r\u00e9gime by introducing an exact replica of\nthat old theocratic form of government of which he had read in his Old\nTestament. The burghers of M\u00fcnster were divided into the twelve tribes\nof Israel and John himself was chosen to be their king. He had already\nmarried the daughter of one prophet, Knipperdollinck. Now he married the\nwidow of another, the wife of his former master, John Matthysz. Next he\nremembered Solomon and added a couple of concubines. And then the ghastly\nfarce began.\n\nAll day long John sat on the throne of David in the market place and all\nday long the people stood by while the royal court chaplain read the\nlatest batch of ordinances. These came fast and furiously, for the fate\nof the city was daily growing more desperate and the people were in dire\nneed.\n\nJohn, however, was an optimist and thoroughly believed in the omnipotence\nof paper decrees.\n\nThe people complained that they were hungry. John promised that he would\ntend to it. And forthwith a royal ukase, duly signed by His Majesty,\nordained that all wealth in the city be divided equally among the rich\nand the poor, that the streets be broken up and used as vegetable\ngardens, that all meals be eaten in common.\n\nSo far so good. But there were those who said that some of the rich\npeople had hidden part of their treasures. John bade his subjects not to\nworry. A second decree proclaimed that all those who broke a single law\nof the community would be immediately decapitated. And, mind you, such\na warning was no idle threat. For this royal tailor was as handy with\nhis sword as with his scissors and frequently undertook to be his own\nexecutioner.\n\nThen came the period of hallucinations when the populace suffered from a\ndiversity of religious manias; when the market place was crowded day and\nnight with thousands of men and women, awaiting the trumpet blasts of\nthe angel Gabriel.\n\nThen came the period of terror, when the prophet kept up the courage of\nhis flock by a constant orgy of blood and cut the throat of one of his\nown queens.\n\nAnd then came the terrible day of retribution when two citizens in their\ndespair opened the gates to the soldiers of the bishop and when the\nprophet, locked in an iron cage, was shown at all the Westphalian country\nfairs and was finally tortured to death.\n\nA weird episode, but of terrible consequence to many a God-fearing and\nsimple soul.\n\nFrom that moment on, all Anabaptists were outlawed. Such leaders as\nhad escaped the carnage of M\u00fcnster were hunted down like rabbits and\nwere killed wherever found. From every pulpit, ministers and priests\nfulminated against the Anabaptists and with many curses and anathemas\nthey denounced them as communists and traitors and rebels, who wanted to\nupset the existing order of things and deserved less mercy than wolves or\nmad dogs.\n\nRarely has a heresy hunt been so successful. As a sect, the Anabaptists\nceased to exist. But a strange thing happened. Many of their ideas\ncontinued to live, were picked up by other denominations, were\nincorporated into all sorts of religious and philosophic systems, became\nrespectable, and are today part and parcel of everybody\u2019s spiritual and\nintellectual inheritance.\n\nIt is a simple thing to state such a fact. To explain how it actually\ncame about, that is quite a different story.\n\nAlmost without exception the Anabaptists belonged to that class of\nsociety which regards an inkstand as an unnecessary luxury.\n\nAnabaptist history, therefore, was writ by those who regarded the sect\nas a particularly venomous land of denominational radicalism. Only now,\nafter a century of study, are we beginning to understand the great\nr\u00f4le the ideas of these humble peasants and artisans have played in\nthe further development of a more rational and more tolerant form of\nChristianity.\n\nBut ideas are like lightning. One never knows where they will strike\nnext. And what is the use of lightning rods in M\u00fcnster, when the storm\nbreaks loose over Sienna?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nTHE SOZZINI FAMILY\n\n\nIn Italy the Reformation had never been successful. It could not be. In\nthe first place, the people of the south did not take their religion\nseriously enough to fight about it and in the second place, the close\nproximity of Rome, the center of a particularly well equipped office of\nthe Inquisition, made indulgence in private opinions a dangerous and\ncostly pastime.\n\nBut, of course, among all the thousands of humanists who populated the\npeninsula, there were bound to be a few black sheep who cared a great\ndeal more for the good opinion of Aristotle than for that of Saint\nChrysostom. Those good people, however, were given many opportunities\nto get rid of their surplus spiritual energy. There were clubs and\ncoffee-houses and discreet salons where men and women could give vent to\ntheir intellectual enthusiasm without upsetting empires. All of which was\nvery pleasant and restful. And besides, wasn\u2019t all life a compromise?\nHadn\u2019t it always been a compromise? Would it not in all likelihood be a\ncompromise until the end of time?\n\nWhy get excited about such a small detail as one\u2019s faith?\n\nAfter these few introductory remarks, the reader will surely not expect\nto hear a loud fanfaronade or the firing of guns when our next two heroes\nmake their appearance. For they are soft-spoken gentlemen, and go about\ntheir business in a dignified and pleasant way.\n\nIn the end, they are to do more to upset the dogmatic tyranny under\nwhich the world had suffered for such a long time than a whole army of\nnoisy reformers. But that is one of those curious things which no one\ncan foresee. They happen. We are grateful. But how it comes about, that,\nalas, is something which we do not fully understand.\n\nThe name of these two quiet workmen in the vineyard of reason was Sozzini.\n\nThey were uncle and nephew.\n\nFor some unknown reason, the older man, Lelio Francesco, spelled his name\nwith one \u201cz\u201d and the younger, Fausto Paolo, spelled his with two \u201czs.\u201d\nBut as they are both of them much better known by the Latinized form of\ntheir name, Socinius, than by the Italian Sozzini, we can leave that\ndetail to the grammarians and etymologists.\n\nAs far as their influence was concerned, the uncle was much less\nimportant than the nephew. We shall, therefore, deal with him first and\nspeak of the nephew afterwards.\n\nLelio Sozini was a Siennese, the descendant of a race of bankers and\njudges and himself destined for a career at the bar, via the University\nof Bologna. But like so many of his contemporaries, he allowed himself\nto slip into theology, stopped reading law, played with Greek and Hebrew\nand Arabic and ended (as so often happens with people of his type) as a\nrationalistic mystic\u2014a man who was at once very much of this world and\nyet never quite of it. This sounds complicated. But those who understand\nwhat I mean will understand without any further explanation, and the\nothers would not understand, no matter what I said.\n\nHis father, however, seems to have had a suspicion that the son might\namount to something in the world of letters. He gave his boy a check and\nbade him go forth and see whatever there was to be seen. And so Lelio\nleft Sienna and during the next ten years, he traveled from Venice to\nGeneva and from Geneva to Z\u00fcrich and from Z\u00fcrich to Wittenberg and then\nto London and then to Prague and then to Vienna and then to Cracow,\nspending a few months or years in every town and hamlet where he hoped\nto find interesting company and might be able to learn something new\nand interesting. It was an age when people talked religion just as\nincessantly as today they talk business. Lelio must have collected a\nstrange assortment of ideas and by keeping his ears open he was soon\nfamiliar with every heresy between the Mediterranean and the Baltic.\n\nWhen, however, he carried himself and his intellectual luggage to\nGeneva, he was received politely but none too cordially. The pale eyes\nof Calvin looked upon this Italian visitor with grave suspicion. He was\na distinguished young man of excellent family and not a poor, friendless\nwanderer like Servetus. It was said, however, that he had Servetian\ninclinations. And that was most disturbing. The case for or against the\nTrinity, so Calvin thought, had been definitely settled when the Spanish\nheretic was burned. On the contrary! The fate of Servetus had become a\nsubject of conversation from Madrid to Stockholm, and serious-minded\npeople all over the world were beginning to take the side of the\nanti-trinitarian. But that was not all. They were using Gutenberg\u2019s\ndevilish invention to spread their views broadcast and being at a safe\ndistance from Geneva they were often far from complimentary in their\nremarks.\n\nOnly a short while before a very learned tract had appeared which\ncontained everything the fathers of the Church had ever said or written\nupon the subject of persecuting and punishing heretics. It had an\ninstantaneous and enormous sale among those who \u201chated God,\u201d as Calvin\nsaid, or who \u201chated Calvin,\u201d as they themselves protested. Calvin had\nlet it be known that he would like to have a personal interview with the\nauthor of this precious booklet. But the author, anticipating such a\nrequest, had wisely omitted his name from the title-page.\n\nIt was said that he was called Sebastian Castellio, that he had been a\nteacher in one of the Geneva high schools and that his moderate views\nupon diverse theological enormities had gained him the hatred of Calvin\nand the approbation of Montaigne. No one, however, could prove this. It\nwas mere hearsay. But where one had gone before, others might follow.\n\nCalvin, therefore, was distantly polite to Sozzini, but suggested that\nthe mild air of Basel would suit his Siennese friend much better than the\ndamp climate of Savoy and heartily bade him Godspeed when he started on\nhis way to the famous old Erasmian stronghold.\n\nFortunately for Calvin, the Sozzini family soon afterwards fell under the\nsuspicion of the Inquisition, Lelio was deprived of his funds and falling\nill of a fever, he died in Z\u00fcrich at the age of only thirty-seven.\n\nWhatever joy his untimely demise may have caused in Geneva, it was\nshort-lived.\n\nFor Lelio, besides a widow and several trunks of notes, left a nephew,\nwho not only fell heir to his uncle\u2019s unpublished manuscripts but soon\ngained for himself the reputation of being even more of a Servetus\nenthusiast than his uncle had been.\n\nDuring his younger years, Faustus Socinius had traveled almost as\nextensively as the older Lelio. His grandfather had left him a small\nestate and as he did not marry until he was nearly fifty, he was able to\ndevote all his time to his favorite subject, theology.\n\nFor a short while he seems to have been in business in Lyons.\n\nWhat sort of a salesman he made, I do not know, but his experience in\nbuying and selling and dealing in concrete commodities rather than\nspiritual values seems to have strengthened him in his conviction that\nvery little is ever gained by killing a competitor or losing one\u2019s temper\nif the other man has the better of a deal. And as long as he lived,\nhe showed himself possessed of that sober common sense which is often\nfound in a counting-house but is very rarely part of the curriculum of a\nreligious seminary.\n\nIn the year 1563 Faustus returned to Italy. On his way home he visited\nGeneva. It does not appear that he ever paid his respects to the local\npatriarch. Besides, Calvin was a very sick man at that time. The visit\nfrom a member of the Sozzini family would only have disturbed him.\n\nThe next dozen years, young Socinius spent in the service of Isabella de\u2019\nMedici. But in the year 1576 this lady, after a few days of matrimonial\nbliss, was murdered by her husband, Paolo Orsini. Thereupon Socinius\nresigned, left Italy for good and went to Basel to translate the Psalms\ninto colloquial Italian and write a book on Jesus.\n\nFaustus, so it appeared from his writings, was a careful man. In the\nfirst place, he was very deaf and such people are by nature cautious.\n\nIn the second place, he derived his income from certain estates situated\non the other side of the Alps and the Tuscan authorities had given him\na hint that it might be just as well for one suspected of \u201cLutheran\nleanings\u201d not to be too bold while dealing with subjects which were held\nin disfavor by the Inquisition. Hence he used a number of pseudonyms\nand never printed a book unless it had been passed upon by a number of\nfriends and had been declared to be fairly safe.\n\nThus it happened that his books were not placed on the Index. It also\nhappened that a copy of his life of Jesus was carried all the way to\nTransylvania and there fell into the hands of another liberal-minded\nItalian, the private physician of a number of Milanese and Florentine\nladies who had married into the Polish and Transylvanian nobility.\n\nTransylvania in those days was the \u201cfar east\u201d of Europe. A wilderness\nuntil the early part of the twelfth century, it had been used as a\nconvenient home for the surplus population of Germany. The hard working\nSaxon peasants had turned this fertile land into a prosperous and well\nregulated little country with cities and schools and an occasional\nuniversity. But it remained a country far removed from the main roads of\ntravel and trade. Hence it had always been a favorite place of residence\nfor those who for one reason or another preferred to keep a few miles of\nmarsh and mountain between themselves and the henchmen of the Inquisition.\n\nAs for Poland, this unfortunate country has for so many centuries been\nassociated with the general idea of reaction and jingoism that it will\ncome as an agreeable surprise to many of my readers when I tell them that\nduring the first half of the sixteenth century, it was a veritable asylum\nfor all those who in other parts of Europe suffered on account of their\nreligious convictions.\n\nThis unexpected state of affairs had been brought about in a typically\nPolish fashion.\n\nThat the Republic for quite a long time had been the most scandalously\nmismanaged country of the entire continent was even then a generally\nknown fact. The extent, however, to which the higher clergy had neglected\ntheir duties was not appreciated quite so clearly in those days when\ndissolute bishops and drunken village priests were the common affliction\nof all western nations.\n\nBut during the latter half of the fifteenth century it was noticed that\nthe number of Polish students in the different German universities was\nbeginning to increase at a rate of speed which caused great concern\namong the authorities of Wittenberg and Leipzig. They began to ask\nquestions. And then it developed that the ancient Polish academy of\nCracow, administered by the Polish church, had been allowed to fall into\nsuch a state of utter decay that the poor Polanders were forced to go\nabroad for their education or do without. A little later, when the Teuton\nuniversities fell under the spell of the new doctrines, the bright young\nmen from Warsaw and Radom and Czenstochowa quite naturally followed suit.\n\nAnd when they returned to their home towns, they did so as full-fledged\nLutherans.\n\nAt that early stage of the Reformation it would have been quite easy for\nthe king and the nobility and the clergy to stamp out this epidemic of\nerroneous opinions. But such a step would have obliged the rulers of the\nrepublic to unite upon a definite and common policy and that of course\nwas directly in contradiction to the most hallowed traditions of this\nstrange country where a single dissenting vote could upset a law which\nhad the support of all the other members of the diet.\n\nAnd when (as happened shortly afterwards) it appeared that the religion\nof the famous Wittenberg professor carried with it a by-product of an\neconomic nature, consisting of the confiscation of all Church property,\nthe Boleslauses and the Wladislauses and the other knights, counts,\nbarons, princes and dukes who populated the fertile plains between the\nBaltic and the Black Sea began to show a decided leaning towards a faith\nwhich meant money in their pockets.\n\nThe unholy scramble for monastic real estate which followed upon the\ndiscovery caused one of those famous \u201cinterims\u201d with which the Poles,\nsince time immemorial, have tried to stave off the day of reckoning.\nDuring such periods all authority came to a standstill and the\nProtestants made such a good use of their opportunity that in less than\na year they had established churches of their own in every part of the\nkingdom.\n\nEventually of course the incessant theological haggling of the new\nministers drove the peasants back into the arms of the Church and Poland\nonce more became one of the strongholds of a most uncompromising form\nof Catholicism. But during the latter half of the sixteenth century,\nthe country enjoyed complete religious license. When the Catholics and\nProtestants of western Europe began their war of extermination upon the\nAnabaptists, it was a foregone conclusion that the survivors should flee\neastward and should eventually settle down along the banks of the Vistula\nand it was then that Doctor Blandrata got hold of Socinius\u2019 book on Jesus\nand expressed a wish to make the author\u2019s acquaintance.\n\nGiorgio Blandrata was an Italian, a physician and a man of parts. He\nhad graduated at the University of Montpellier and had been remarkably\nsuccessful as a woman\u2019s specialist. First and last he was a good deal of\na scoundrel, but a clever one. Like so many doctors of his time (think of\nRabelais and Servetus) he was as much of a theologian as a neurologist\nand frequently played one r\u00f4le out against the other. For example, he\ncured the Queen Dowager of Poland, Bona Sforza (widow of King Sigismund),\nso successfully of the obsession that those who doubted the Trinity were\nwrong, that she repented of her errors and thereafter only executed those\nwho held the doctrine of the Trinity to be true.\n\nThe good queen, alas, was gone (murdered by one of her lovers) but two\nof her daughters had married local noblemen and as their medical adviser,\nBlandrata exercised a great deal of influence upon the politics of his\nadopted land. He knew that the country was ripe for civil war and that\nit would happen very soon unless something be done to make an end to the\neverlasting religious quarrels. Wherefore he set to work to bring about\na truce between the different opposing sects. But for this purpose he\nneeded some one more skilled in the intricacies of a religious debate\nthan he was himself. Then he had an inspiration. The author of the life\nof Jesus was his man.\n\nHe sent Socinius a letter and asked him to come east.\n\nUnfortunately when Socinius reached Transylvania the private life of\nBlandrata had just led to so grave a public scandal that the Italian had\nbeen forced to resign and leave for parts unknown. Socinius, however,\nremained in this far away land, married a Polish girl and died in his\nadopted country in the year 1604.\n\nThese last two decades of his life proved to be the most interesting\nperiod of his career. For it was then that he gave a concrete expression\nto his ideas upon the subject of tolerance.\n\nThey are to be found in the so-called \u201cCatechism of Rakow,\u201d a document\nwhich Socinius composed as a sort of common constitution for all those\nwho meant well by this world and wished to make an end to future\nsectarian strife.\n\nThe latter half of the sixteenth century was an era of catechism,\nconfessions of faith, credos and creeds. People were writing them\nin Germany and in Switzerland and in France and in Holland and in\nDenmark. But everywhere these carelessly printed little booklets gave\nexpression to the ghastly belief that they (and they alone) contained\nthe real Truth with a great big capital T and that it was the duty of\nall authorities who had solemnly pledged themselves to uphold this one\nparticular form of Truth with a great big capital T to punish with the\nsword and the gallows and the stake those who willfully remained faithful\nto a different sort of truth (which was only written with a small t and\ntherefore was of an inferior quality).\n\nThe Socinian confession of faith breathed an entirely different spirit.\nIt began by the flat statement that it was not the intention of those who\nhad signed this document to quarrel with anybody else.\n\n\u201cWith good reason,\u201d it continued, \u201cmany pious people complain that the\nvarious confessions and catechisms which have hitherto been published and\nwhich the different churches are now publishing are apples of discord\namong the Christians because they all try to impose certain principles\nupon people\u2019s conscience and to consider those who disagree with them as\nheretics.\u201d\n\nThereupon it denied in the most formal way that it was the intention of\nthe Socinians to proscribe or oppress any one else on account of his\nreligious convictions and turning to humanity in general, it made the\nfollowing appeal:\n\n\u201cLet each one be free to judge of his own religion, for this is the rule\nset forth by the New Testament and by the example of the earliest church.\nWho are we, miserable people, that we would smother and extinguish in\nothers the fire of divine spirit which God has kindled in them? Have\nany of us a monopoly of the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures? Why do\nwe not remember that our only master is Jesus Christ and that we are\nall brothers and that to no one has been given power over the souls of\nothers? It may be that one of our brothers is more learned than the\nothers, yet in regard to liberty and the relationship with Christ we are\nall equal.\u201d\n\nAll this was very fine and very wonderful, but it was said three hundred\nyears ahead of the times. Neither the Socinians nor any of the other\nProtestant sects could in the long run hope to hold their own in this\nturbulent part of the world. The counter-reformation had begun in all\nseriousness. Veritable hordes of Jesuit fathers were beginning to be\nturned loose upon the lost provinces. While they worked, the Protestants\nquarreled. Soon the people of the eastern frontier were back within\nthe fold of Rome. Today the traveler who visits these distant parts of\ncivilized Europe would hardly guess that, once upon a time, they were\na stronghold of the most advanced and liberal thought of the age. Nor\nwould he suspect that somewhere among those dreary Lithuanian hills there\nlies a village where the world was for the first time presented with a\ndefinite program for a practical system of tolerance.\n\nDriven by idle curiosity, I took a morning off recently and went to the\nlibrary and read through the index of all our most popular text-books\nout of which the youth of our country learns the story of the past. Not\na single one mentioned Socinianism or the Sozzinis. They all jumped from\nSocial Democrats to Sophia of Hanover and from Sobieski to Saracens. The\nusual leaders of the great religious revolution were there, including\nOecolampadius and the lesser lights.\n\nOne volume only contained a reference to the two great Siennese humanists\nbut they appeared as a vague appendix to something Luther or Calvin had\nsaid or done.\n\nIt is dangerous to make predictions, but I have a suspicion that in the\npopular histories of three hundred years hence, all this will have been\nchanged and that the Sozzinis shall enjoy the luxury of a little chapter\nof their own and that the traditional heroes of the Reformation shall be\nrelegated to the bottom of the page.\n\nThey have the sort of names that look terribly imposing in footnotes.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nMONTAIGNE\n\n\nIn the Middle Ages it used to be said that city air made for freedom.\n\nThat was true.\n\nA man behind a high stone wall could thumb his nose safely at baron and\npriest.\n\nA little later, when conditions upon the European continent had improved\nso much that international commerce was once more becoming a possibility,\nanother historical phenomenon began to make itself manifest.\n\nDone into words of three syllables it read: \u201cBusiness makes for\ntolerance.\u201d\n\nYou can verify this statement any day of the week and most of all on\nSunday in any part of our country.\n\nWinesberg, Ohio, can afford to support the Ku Klux Klan, but New York\ncannot. If the people of New York should ever start a movement for the\nexclusion of all Jews and all Catholics and all foreigners in general,\nthere would be such a panic in Wall Street and such an upheaval in the\nlabor movement that the town would be ruined beyond the hope of repair.\n\nThe same held true during the latter half of the Middle Ages. Moscow, the\nseat of a small grand ducal count, might rage against the pagans, but\nNovgorod, the international trading post, must be careful lest she offend\nthe Swedes and Norwegians and the Germans and the Flemish merchants who\nvisited her market place and drive them to Wisby.\n\nA purely agricultural state could with impunity regale its peasantry with\na series of festive autos da f\u00e9. But if the Venetians or the Genoese\nor the people of Bruges had started a pogrom among the heathen within\ntheir walls, there would have been an immediate exodus of all those who\nrepresented foreign business houses and the subsequent withdrawal of\ncapital would have driven the city into bankruptcy.\n\nA few countries which were constitutionally unable to learn from\nexperience (like Spain and the papal dominions and certain possessions\nof the Habsburgs), actuated by a sentiment which they proudly called\n\u201cloyalty to their convictions,\u201d ruthlessly expelled the enemies of\nthe true faith. As a result they either ceased to exist altogether or\ndwindled down to the rank of seventh rate Ritter states.\n\nCommercial nations and cities, however, are as a rule governed by men\nwho have a profound respect for established facts, who know on which\nside their bread is buttered, and who therefore maintain such a state of\nspiritual neutrality that their Catholic and Protestant and Jewish and\nChinese customers can do business as usual and yet remain faithful to\ntheir own particular religion.\n\nFor the sake of outward respectability Venice might pass a law against\nthe Calvinists, but the Council of Ten was careful to explain to their\ngendarmes that this decree must not be taken too seriously and that\nunless the heretics actually tried to get hold of San Marco and convert\nit into a meeting-house of their own, they must be left alone and must be\nallowed to worship as they saw fit.\n\nTheir good friends in Amsterdam did likewise. Every Sunday their\nministers fulminated against the sins of the \u201cScarlet Woman.\u201d But in\nthe next block the terrible Papists were quietly saying mass in some\ninconspicuous looking house, and outside the Protestant chief-of-police\nstood watch lest an over-zealous admirer of the Geneva catechism try to\nbreak up this forbidden meeting and frighten the profitable French and\nItalian visitors away.\n\nThis did not in the least mean that the mass of the people in Venice or\nAmsterdam ceased to be faithful sons of their respective churches. They\nwere as good Catholics or Protestants as they had ever been. But they\nremembered that the good will of a dozen profitable heretics from Hamburg\nor L\u00fcbeck or Lisbon was worth more than the approbation of a dozen shabby\nclerics from Geneva or Rome and they acted accordingly.\n\nIt may seem a little far-fetched to connect the enlightened and liberal\nopinions (they are not always the same) of Montaigne with the fact that\nhis father and grandfather had been in the herring business and that\nhis mother was of Spanish-Jewish descent. But it seems to me that these\ncommercial antecedents had a great deal to do with the man\u2019s general\npoint of view and that the intense dislike of fanaticism and bigotry\nwhich characterized his entire career as a soldier and statesman had\noriginated in a little fish-shop somewhere off the main quai of Bordeaux.\n\nMontaigne himself would not have thanked me if I had been able to make\nthis statement to his face. For when he was born, all vestiges of mere\n\u201ctrade\u201d had been carefully wiped off the resplendent family escutcheon.\n\nHis father had acquired a bit of property called Montaigne and had spent\nmoney lavishly that his son might be brought up as a gentleman. Before\nhe was fairly able to walk private tutors had stuffed his poor little\nhead full of Latin and Greek. At the age of six he had been sent to\nhigh-school. At thirteen he had begun to study law. And before he was\ntwenty he was a full-fledged member of the Bordeaux town council.\n\nThen followed a career in the army and a period at court, until at the\nage of thirty-eight, after the death of his father, he retired from all\nactive business and spent the last twenty-one years of his life, (with\nthe exception of a few unwilling excursions into politics), among his\nhorses and his dogs and his books and learned as much from the one as he\ndid from the other.\n\nMontaigne was very much a man of his time and suffered from several\nweaknesses. He was never quite free from certain affections and\nmannerisms which he, the fish-monger\u2019s grandson, believed to be a part of\ntrue gentility. Until the end of his days he protested that he was not\nreally a writer at all, only a country gentleman who occasionally whiled\naway the tedious hours of winter by jotting down a few random ideas upon\nsubjects of a slightly philosophic nature. All this was pure buncombe. If\never a man put his heart and his soul and his virtues and his vices and\neverything he had into his books, it was this cheerful neighbor of the\nimmortal d\u2019Artagnan.\n\nAnd as this heart and this soul and these virtues and these vices were\nthe heart and the soul and the virtues and the vices of an essentially\ngenerous, well-bred and agreeable person, the sum total of Montaigne\u2019s\nworks has become something more than literature. It has developed into\na definite philosophy of life, based upon common sense and an ordinary\npractical variety of decency.\n\nMontaigne was born a Catholic. He died a Catholic, and in his younger\nyears he was an active member of that League of Catholic Noblemen which\nwas formed among the French nobility to drive Calvinism out of France.\n\nBut after that fateful day in August of the year 1572 when news reached\nhim of the joy with which Pope Gregory XIII had celebrated the murder of\nthirty thousand French Protestants, he turned away from the Church for\ngood. He never went so far as to join the other side. He continued to go\nthrough certain formalities that he might keep his neighbors\u2019 tongues\nfrom wagging, but those of his chapters written after the night of Saint\nBartholomew might just as well have been the work of Marcus Aurelius or\nEpictetus or any of a dozen other Greek or Roman philosophers. And in\none memorable essay, entitled \u201cOn the Freedom of Conscience,\u201d he spoke\nas if he had been a contemporary of Pericles rather than a servant of\nHer Majesty Catherine de\u2019 Medici and he used the career of Julian the\nApostate as an example of what a truly tolerant statesman might hope to\naccomplish.\n\nIt is a very short chapter. It is only five pages long and you will find\nit in part nineteen of the second book.\n\nMontaigne had seen too much of the incorrigible obstinacy of both\nProtestants and Catholics to advocate a system of absolute freedom, which\n(under the existing circumstances) could only provoke a new outbreak\nof civil war. But when circumstances allowed it, when Protestants and\nCatholics no longer slept with a couple of daggers and pistols underneath\ntheir pillows, then an intelligent government should keep away as much\nas possible from interfering with other people\u2019s consciences and should\npermit all of its subjects to love God as best suited the happiness of\ntheir own particular souls.\n\nMontaigne was neither the only, nor the first Frenchman who had hit upon\nthis idea or had dared to express it in public. As early as the year\n1560, Michel de l\u2019H\u00f4pital, a former chancellor of Catherine de\u2019 Medici\nand a graduate of half a dozen Italian universities (and incidentally\nsuspected of being tarred with the Anabaptist brush) had suggested that\nheretics be attacked exclusively with verbal arguments. He had based his\nsomewhat startling opinion upon the ground that conscience being what it\nwas, it could not possibly be changed by force, and two years later he\nhad been instrumental in bringing about that royal Edict of Toleration\nwhich had given the Huguenots the right to hold meetings of their own,\nto call synods to discuss the affairs of their church and in general to\nbehave as if they were a free and independent denomination and not merely\na tolerated little sect.\n\nJean Bodin, a Parisian lawyer, a most respectable citizen (the man who\nhad defended the rights of private property against the communistic\ntendencies expressed in Thomas More\u2019s \u201cUtopia\u201d), had spoken in a similar\nvein when he denied the right of sovereigns to use violence in driving\ntheir subjects to this or that church.\n\nBut the speeches of chancellors and the Latin treatises of political\nphilosophers very rarely make best sellers. Whereas Montaigne was read\nand translated and discussed wherever civilized people came together in\nthe name of intelligent company and good conversation and continued to be\nread and translated and discussed for more than three hundred years.\n\nHis very amateurishness, his insistence that he just wrote for the fun\nof it and had no axes to grind, made him popular with large numbers of\npeople who otherwise would never dream of buying (or borrowing) a book\nthat was officially classified under \u201cphilosophy.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\nARMINIUS\n\n\nThe struggle for tolerance is part of the age-old conflict between\n\u201corganized society\u201d which places the continued safety of the \u201cgroup\u201d\nahead of all other considerations and those private citizens of unusual\nintelligence or energy who hold that such improvement as the world has\nthus far experienced was invariably due to the efforts of the individual\nand not due to the efforts of the mass (which by its very nature is\ndistrustful of all innovations) and that therefore the rights of the\nindividual are far more important than those of the mass.\n\nIf we agree to accept these premises as true, it follows that the amount\nof tolerance in any given country must be in direct proportion to the\ndegree of individual liberty enjoyed by the majority of its inhabitants.\n\nNow in the olden days it sometimes happened that an exceptionally\nenlightened ruler spake unto his children and said, \u201cI firmly believe in\nthe principle of live and let live. I expect all my beloved subjects to\npractice tolerance towards their neighbors or bear the consequences.\u201d\n\nIn that case, of course, eager citizens hastened to lay in a supply of\nthe official buttons bearing the proud inscription, \u201cTolerance first.\u201d\n\nBut these sudden conversions, due to a fear of His Majesty\u2019s hangman,\nwere rarely of a lasting nature and only bore fruit if the sovereign\naccompanied his threat by an intelligent system of gradual education\nalong the lines of practical every day politics.\n\nSuch a fortunate combination of circumstances occurred in the Dutch\nRepublic during the latter half of the sixteenth century.\n\nIn the first place the country consisted of several thousand\nsemi-independent towns and villages and these for the greater part were\ninhabited by fishermen, sailors and traders, three classes of people who\nare accustomed to a certain amount of independence of action and who are\nforced by the nature of their trade to make quick decisions and to judge\nthe casual occurrences of the day\u2019s work upon their own merits.\n\nI would not for a moment claim that, man for man, they were a whit more\nintelligent or broadminded than their neighbors in other parts of the\nworld. But hard work and tenacity of purpose had made them the grain\nand fish carriers of all northern and western Europe. They knew that\nthe money of a Catholic was just as good as that of a Protestant and\nthey preferred a Turk who paid cash to a Presbyterian who asked for six\nmonths\u2019 credit. An ideal country therefore to start a little experiment\nin tolerance and furthermore the right man was in the right place and\nwhat is infinitely more important the right man was in the right place at\nthe right moment.\n\nWilliam the Silent was a shining example of the old maxim that \u201cthose\nwho wish to rule the world must know the world.\u201d He began life as a very\nfashionable and rich young man, enjoying a most enviable social position\nas the confidential secretary of the greatest monarch of his time. He\nwasted scandalous sums of money upon dinners and dances, married several\nof the better known heiresses of his day and lived gayly without a care\nfor the day of tomorrow. He was not a particularly studious person and\nracing charts interested him infinitely more than religious tracts.\n\nThe social unrest which followed in the wake of the Reformation did not\nat first impress him as anything more serious than still another quarrel\nbetween capital and labor, the sort of thing that could be settled by the\nuse of a little tact and the display of a few brawny police constables.\n\nBut once he had grasped the true nature of the issue that had arisen\nbetween the sovereign and his subjects, this amiable grand seigneur was\nsuddenly transformed into the exceedingly able leader of what, to all\nintents and purposes, was the prime lost cause of the age. The palaces\nand horses, the gold plate and the country estates were sold at short\nnotice (or confiscated at no notice at all) and the sporting young man\nfrom Brussels became the most tenacious and successful enemy of the house\nof Habsburg.\n\nThis change of fortune, however, did not affect his private character.\nWilliam had been a philosopher in the days of plenty. He remained a\nphilosopher when he lived in a couple of furnished rooms and did not know\nhow to pay for Saturday\u2019s clean wash. And just as in the olden days he\nhad worked hard to frustrate the plans of a cardinal who had expressed\nthe intention of building a sufficient number of gallows to accommodate\nall Protestants, he now made it a point to bridle the energy of those\nardent Calvinists who wished to hang all Catholics.\n\nHis task was wellnigh hopeless.\n\nBetween twenty and thirty thousand people had already been killed, the\nprisons of the Inquisition were full of new candidates for martyrdom and\nin far off Spain new armies were being recruited to smash the rebellion\nbefore it should spread to other parts of the Empire.\n\nTo tell people who were fighting for their lives that they must love\nthose who had just hanged their sons and brothers and uncles and\ngrandfathers was out of the question. But by his personal example, by his\nconciliatory attitude towards those who opposed him, William was able to\nshow his followers how a man of character can invariably rise superior to\nthe old Mosaic law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.\n\nIn this campaign for public decency he enjoyed the support of a very\nremarkable man. In the church of Gouda you may this very day read a\ncurious monosyllabic epitaph which enumerates the virtues of one Dirck\nCoornhert, who lies buried there. This Coornhert was an interesting\nfellow. He was the son of well-to-do people and had spent many years\nof his youth traveling in foreign lands and getting some first hand\ninformation about Germany, Spain and France. As soon as he had returned\nhome from this trip he fell in love with a girl who did not have a\ncent. His careful Dutch father had forbidden the marriage. When his son\nmarried the girl just the same, he did what those ancestral patriarchs\nwere supposed to do under the circumstances; he talked about filial\ningratitude and disinherited the boy.\n\nThis was inconvenient, in so far as young Coornhert was now obliged to go\nto work for a living. But he was a young man of parts, learned a trade\nand set up as a copper-engraver.\n\nAlas! once a Dutchman, always a dominie. When evening came, he hastily\ndropped the burin, picked up the goose-quill and wrote articles upon the\nevents of the day. His style was not exactly what one would nowadays\ncall \u201camusing.\u201d But his books contained a great deal of that amiable\ncommon sense which had distinguished the work of Erasmus and they made\nhim many friends and brought him into contact with William the Silent\nwho thought so highly of his abilities that he employed him as one of his\nconfidential advisers.\n\nNow William was engaged in a strange sort of debate. King Philip, aided\nand abetted by the Pope, was trying to rid the world of the enemy of\nthe human race (to wit, his own enemy, William) by a standing offer\nof twenty-five thousand golden ducats and a patent of nobility and\nforgiveness of all sins to whomsoever would go to Holland and murder the\narch-heretic. William, who had already lived through five attempts upon\nhis life, felt it his duty to refute the arguments of good King Philip in\na series of pamphlets and Coornhert assisted him.\n\nThat the house of Habsburg, for whom these arguments were intended,\nshould thereby be converted to tolerance was of course an idle hope. But\nas all the world was watching the duel between William and Philip, those\nlittle pamphlets were translated and read everywhere and they caused a\nhealthy discussion of many subjects that people had never before dared to\nmention above a whisper.\n\nUnfortunately the debates did not last very long. On the ninth of July of\nthe year 1584 a young French Catholic gained that reward of twenty-five\nthousand ducats and six years later Coornhert died before he had been\nable to finish the translation of the works of Erasmus into the Dutch\nvernacular.\n\nAs for the next twenty years, they were so full of the noise of battle\nthat even the fulminations of the different theologians went unheard.\nAnd when finally the enemy had been driven from the territory of the\nnew republic, there was no William to take hold of internal affairs and\nthree score sects and denominations, who had been forced into temporary\nbut unnatural friendship by the presence of a large number of Spanish\nmercenaries, flew at each other\u2019s throats.\n\nOf course, they had to have a pretext for their quarrel but who ever\nheard of a theologian without a grievance?\n\nIn the University of Leiden there were two professors who disagreed. That\nwas nothing either new or unusual. But these two professors disagreed\nupon the question of the freedom of the will and that was a very serious\nmatter. At once the delighted populace took a hand in the discussion and\nwithin less than a month the entire country was divided into two hostile\ncamps.\n\nOn the one side, the friends of Arminius.\n\nOn the other, the followers of Gomarus.\n\nThe latter, although born of Dutch parents, had lived all his life in\nGermany and was a brilliant product of the Teuton system of pedagogy.\nHe possessed immense learning combined with a total absence of ordinary\nhorse-sense. His mind was versed in the mysteries of Hebrew prosody but\nhis heart beat according to the rules of the Aramaic syntax.\n\nHis opponent, Arminius, was a very different sort of man. He was born\nin Oudewater, a little city not far away from that cloister Steyn where\nErasmus had spent the unhappy years of his early manhood. As a child\nhe had won the friendship of a neighbor, a famous mathematician and\nprofessor of astronomy in the University of Marburg. This man, Rudolf\nSnellius, had taken Arminius back with him to Germany that he might be\nproperly educated. But when the boy went home for his first vacation he\nfound that his native town had been sacked by the Spaniards and that all\nhis relatives had been murdered.\n\nThat seemed to end his career but fortunately some rich people with kind\nhearts heard of the sad plight of the young orphan and they put up a\npurse and sent him to Leiden to study theology. He worked hard and after\nhalf a dozen years he had learned all there was to be learned and looked\nfor fresh intellectual grazing grounds.\n\nIn those days, brilliant students could always find a patron willing\nto invest a few dollars in their future. Soon Arminius, provided with\na letter of credit issued by certain guilds of Amsterdam, was merrily\ntrotting southward in search of future educational opportunities.\n\nAs behooved a respectable candidate of theology, he went first of all to\nGeneva. Calvin was dead, but his man Friday, the learned Theodore Beza,\nhad succeeded him as shepherd of the seraphic flock. The fine nose of\nthis old heresy hunter at once detected a slight odor of Ramism in the\ndoctrines of the young Dutchman and the visit of Arminius was cut short.\n\nThe word Ramism means nothing to modern readers. But three hundred years\nago it was considered a most dangerous religious novelty, as those who\nare familiar with the assembled works of Milton will know. It had been\ninvented or originated (or what you please) by a Frenchman, a certain\nPierre de la Ram\u00e9e. As a student, de la Ram\u00e9e had been so utterly\nexasperated by the antiquated methods of his professors that he had\nchosen as subject for his doctor\u2019s dissertation the somewhat startling\ntext, \u201cEverything ever taught by Aristotle is absolutely wrong.\u201d\n\nNeedless to say this subject did not gain him the good will of his\nteachers. When a few years afterwards he elaborated his idea in a number\nof learned volumes, his death was a foregone conclusion. He fell as one\nof the first victims of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew.\n\nBut his books, those pesky books which refuse to be assassinated together\nwith their authors, had survived and Ram\u00e9e\u2019s curious system of logic had\ngained great popularity throughout northern and western Europe. Truly\npious people however believed that Ramism was the password to Hades\nand Arminius was advised to go to Basel where \u201clibertines\u201d (a sixteenth\ncentury colloquialism meaning \u201cliberals\u201d) had been considered good form\never since that unfortunate city had fallen under the spell of the\nquizzical Erasmus.\n\nArminius, thus forewarned, traveled northward and then decided upon\nsomething quite unusual. He boldly invaded the enemy\u2019s territory, studied\nfor a few semesters in the University of Padua and paid a visit to Rome.\nThis made him a dangerous person in the eyes of his fellow countrymen\nwhen he returned to his native country in the year 1587. But as he\nseemed to develop neither horns nor a tail, he was gradually taken back\ninto their good favor and was allowed to accept a call as minister to\nAmsterdam.\n\nThere he made himself not only useful but he gained quite a reputation\nas a hero during one of the many outbreaks of the plague. Soon he was\nheld in such genuine esteem that he was entrusted with the task of\nreorganizing the public school system of that big city and when in\nthe year 1603 he was called to Leiden as a full-fledged professor of\ntheology, he left the capital amidst the sincere regrets of the entire\npopulation.\n\nIf he had known beforehand what was awaiting him in Leiden, I am sure\nhe would never have gone. He arrived just when the battle between the\nInfralapsarians and the Supralapsarians was at its height.\n\nArminius was both by nature and education an Infralapsarian. He tried\nto be fair to his colleague, the Supralapsarian Gomarus. But alas, the\ndifferences between the Supralapsarians and the Infralapsarians were such\nas allowed of no compromise. And Arminius was forced to declare himself\nan out and out Infralapsarian.\n\nOf course, you will ask me what Supra- and Infralapsarians were. I\ndon\u2019t know, and I seem unable to learn such things. But as far as I can\nmake out, it was the age-old quarrel between those who believed (as did\nArminius) that man is to a certain extent possessed of a free will and\nable to shape his own destinies and those who like Sophocles and Calvin\nand Gomarus taught that everything in our lives has been pre-ordained\nages before we were born and that our fate therefore depends upon a throw\nof the divine dice at the hour of creation.\n\nIn the year 1600 by far the greater number of the people of northern\nEurope were Supralapsarians. They loved to listen to sermons which\ndoomed the majority of their neighbors to eternal perdition and those\nfew ministers who dared to preach a gospel of good will and charity\nwere at once suspected of criminal weakness, fit rivals of those tender\nhearted doctors who fail to prescribe malodorous medicines and kill their\npatients by their kindness.\n\nAs soon as the gossiping old women of Leiden had discovered that Arminius\nwas an Infralapsarian, his usefulness had come to an end. The poor man\ndied under the torrent of abuse that was let loose upon him by his former\nfriends and supporters. And then, as seemed unavoidable during the\nseventeenth century, Infralapsarianism and Supralapsarianism made their\nentrance into the field of politics and the Supralapsarians won at the\npolls and the Infralapsarians were declared enemies of the public order\nand traitors to their country.\n\nBefore this absurd quarrel had come to an end, Oldenbarnevelt, the man\nwho next to William the Silent had been responsible for the foundation\nof the Republic, lay dead with his head between his feet; Grotius, whose\nmoderation had made him the first great advocate of an equitable system\nof international law, was eating the bread of charity at the court of\nthe Queen of Sweden; and the work of William the Silent seemed entirely\nundone.\n\nBut Calvinism did not gain the triumph it had hoped.\n\nThe Dutch Republic was a republic only in name. It was really a sort\nof merchants\u2019 and bankers\u2019 club, ruled by a few hundred influential\nfamilies. These gentlemen were not at all interested in equality and\nfraternity, but they did believe in law and order. They recognized and\nsupported the established church. On Sundays with a great display of\nunction they proceeded to the large white-washed sepulchers which in\nformer days had been Catholic Cathedrals and which now were Protestant\nlecture halls. But on Monday, when the clergy paid its respects to the\nHonorable Burgomaster and Town Councilor, with a long list of grievances\nagainst this and that and the other person, their lordships were \u201cin\nconference\u201d and unable to receive the reverend gentlemen. If the reverend\ngentlemen insisted, and induced (as frequently happened) a few thousand\nof their loyal parishioners to \u201cdemonstrate\u201d in front of the town hall,\nthen their lordships would graciously deign to accept a neatly written\ncopy of the reverend gentlemen\u2019s complaints and suggestions. But as\nsoon as the door had been closed upon the last of the darkly garbed\npetitioners, their lordships would use the document to light their pipes.\n\nFor they had adopted the useful and practical maxim of \u201conce is enough\nand too many\u201d and they were so horrified by what had happened during\nthe terrible years of the great Supralapsarian civil war that they\nuncompromisingly suppressed all further forms of religious frenzy.\n\nPosterity has not always been kind to those aristocrats of the ledger.\nUndoubtedly they regarded the country as their private property and did\nnot always differentiate with sufficient nicety between the interests\nof their fatherland and those of their own firm. They lacked that\nbroad vision which goes with empire and almost invariably they were\npenny-wise and pound-foolish. But they did something which deserves our\nhearty commendation. They turned their country into an international\nclearing-house where all sorts of people with all sorts of ideas were\ngiven the widest degree of liberty to say, think, write and print\nwhatever pleased them.\n\nI do not want to paint too rosy a picture. Here and there, under a threat\nof ministerial disapprobation, the Town Councilors were sometimes obliged\nto suppress a secret society of Catholics or to confiscate the pamphlets\nprinted by a particularly noisy heretic. But generally speaking, as long\nas one did not climb on a soap-box in the middle of the market place\nto denounce the doctrine of predestination or carry a big rosary into\na public dining-hall or deny the existence of God in the South Side\nMethodist Church of Haarlem, one enjoyed a degree of personal immunity\nwhich for almost two centuries made the Dutch Republic a veritable haven\nof rest for all those who in other parts of the world were persecuted for\nthe sake of their opinions.\n\nSoon the rumor of this Paradise Regained spread abroad. And during the\nnext two hundred years, the print shops and the coffee-houses of Holland\nwere filled with a motley crew of enthusiasts, the advance guard of a\nstrange new army of spiritual liberation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\nBRUNO\n\n\nIt has been said (and with a good deal of reason) that the Great War was\na war of non-commissioned officers.\n\nWhile the generals and the colonels and the three-star strategists sat in\nsolitary splendor in the halls of some deserted ch\u00e2teau and contemplated\nmiles of maps until they could evolve a new bit of tactics that was to\ngive them half a square mile of territory (and lose some thirty thousand\nmen), the junior officers, the sergeants and the corporals, aided and\nabetted by a number of intelligent privates, did the so-called \u201cdirty\nwork\u201d and eventually brought about the collapse of the German line of\ndefense.\n\nThe great crusade for spiritual independence was fought along similar\nlines.\n\nThere were no frontal attacks which drew into action half a million\nsoldiers.\n\nThere were no desperate charges to provide the enemy\u2019s gunners with an\neasy and agreeable target.\n\nI might go even further and say that the vast majority of the people\nnever knew that there was any fighting at all. Now and then, curiosity\nmay have compelled them to ask who was being burned that morning or who\nwas going to be hanged the next afternoon. Then perhaps they discovered\nthat a few desperate individuals continued to fight for certain\nprinciples of freedom of which both Catholics and Protestants disapproved\nmost heartily. But I doubt whether such information affected them beyond\nthe point of mild regret and the comment that it must be very sad for\ntheir poor relatives to bear, that uncle had come to such a terrible end.\n\nIt could hardly have been otherwise. What martyrs actually accomplish for\nthe cause for which they give their lives cannot possibly be reduced to\nmathematical formulae or be expressed in terms of amperes or horsepower.\n\nAny industrious young man in search of a Ph.D. may read carefully through\nthe assembled works of Giordano Bruno and by the patient collection of\nall sentences containing such sentiments as \u201cthe state has no right to\ntell people what to think\u201d or \u201csociety may not punish with the sword\nthose who dissent from the generally approved dogmas,\u201d he may be able to\nwrite an acceptable dissertation upon \u201cGiordano Bruno (1549-1600) and the\nprinciples of religious freedom.\u201d\n\nBut those of us no longer in search of those fatal letters must approach\nthe subject from a different angle.\n\nThere were, so we say in our final analysis, a number of devout men who\nwere so profoundly shocked by the fanaticism of their day, by the yoke\nunder which the people of all countries were forced to exist, that they\nrose in revolt. They were poor devils. They rarely owned more than the\ncloak upon their back and they were not always certain of a place to\nsleep. But they burned with a divine fire. Up and down the land they\ntraveled, talking and writing, drawing the learned professors of learned\nacademies into learned disputes, arguing humbly with the humble country\nfolk in humble rustic inns, eternally preaching a gospel of good will,\nof understanding, of charity towards others. Up and down the land they\ntraveled in their shabby clothes with their little bundles of books and\npamphlets until they died of pneumonia in some miserable village in the\nhinterland of Pomerania or were lynched by drunken peasants in a Scotch\nhamlet or were broken on the wheel in a provincial borough of France.\n\nAnd if I mention the name of Giordano Bruno, I do not mean to imply that\nhe was the only one of his kind. But his life, his ideas, his restless\nzeal for what he held to be true and desirable, were so typical of that\nentire group of pioneers that he will serve very well as an example.\n\nThe parents of Bruno were poor people. Their son, an average Italian\nboy of no particular promise, followed the usual course and went into a\nmonastery. Later he became a Dominican monk. He had no business in that\norder for the Dominicans were the most ardent supporters of all forms of\npersecution, the \u201cpolice-dogs of the true faith,\u201d as their contemporaries\ncalled them. And they were clever. It was not necessary for a heretic\nto have his ideas put into print to be nosed out by one of those eager\ndetectives. A single glance, a gesture of the hand, a shrug of the\nshoulders were often sufficient to give a man away and bring him into\ncontact with the Inquisition.\n\nHow Bruno, brought up in an atmosphere of unquestioning obedience,\nturned rebel and deserted the Holy Scriptures for the works of Zeno and\nAnaxagoras, I do not know. But before this strange novice had finished\nhis course of prescribed studies, he was expelled from the Dominican\norder and henceforth he was a wanderer upon the face of the earth.\n\nHe crossed the Alps. How many other young men before him had braved the\ndangers of those ancient mountain passes that they might find freedom in\nthe mighty fortress which the new faith had erected at the junction of\nthe Rhone and the Arve!\n\nAnd how many of them had turned away, broken hearted when they discovered\nthat here as there it was the inner spirit which guided the hearts of\nmen and that a change of creed did not necessarily mean a change of heart\nand mind.\n\nBruno\u2019s residence in Geneva lasted less than three months. The town was\nfull of Italian refugees. These brought their fellow-countryman a new\nsuit of clothes and found him a job as proof-reader. In the evenings he\nread and wrote. He got hold of a copy of de la Ram\u00e9e\u2019s works. There at\nlast was a man after his own heart. De la Ram\u00e9e believed too that the\nworld could not progress until the tyranny of the medieval text-books\nwas broken. Bruno did not go as far as his famous French teacher and did\nnot believe that everything the Greeks had ever taught was wrong. But\nwhy should the people of the sixteenth century be bound by words and\nsentences that were written in the fourth century before the birth of\nChrist? Why indeed?\n\n\u201cBecause it has always been that way,\u201d the upholders of the orthodox\nfaith answered him.\n\n\u201cWhat have we to do with our grandfathers and what have they to do with\nus? Let the dead bury the dead,\u201d the young iconoclast answered.\n\nAnd very soon afterwards the police paid him a visit and suggested that\nhe had better pack his satchels and try his luck elsewhere.\n\nBruno\u2019s life thereafter was one endless peregrination in search of\na place where he might live and work in some degree of liberty and\nsecurity. He never found it. From Geneva he went to Lyons and then to\nToulouse. By that time he had taken up the study of astronomy and had\nbecome an ardent supporter of the ideas of Copernicus, a dangerous step\nin an age when all the contemporary Bryans brayed, \u201cThe world turning\naround the sun! The world a commonplace little planet turning around the\nsun! Ho-ho and hee-hee! Who ever heard such nonsense?\u201d\n\nToulouse became uncomfortable. He crossed France, walking to Paris. And\nnext to England as private secretary to a French ambassador. But there\nanother disappointment awaited him. The English theologians were no\nbetter than the continental ones. A little more practical, perhaps. In\nOxford, for example, they did not punish a student when he committed an\nerror against the teachings of Aristotle. They fined him ten shillings.\n\nBruno became sarcastic. He began to write brilliantly dangerous bits of\nprose, dialogues of a religious-philosophic-political nature in which the\nentire existing order of things was turned topsy turvy and submitted to a\nminute but none too flattering examination.\n\nAnd he did some lecturing upon his favorite subject, astronomy.\n\nBut college authorities rarely smile upon professors who please the\nhearts of their students. Bruno once more found himself invited to\nleave. And so back again to France and then to Marburg, where not so\nlong before Luther and Zwingli had debated upon the true nature of the\ntransubstantiation in the castle of pious Elisabeth of Hungary.\n\nAlas! his reputation as a \u201cLibertine\u201d had preceded him. He was not\neven allowed to lecture. Wittenberg proved more hospitable. That old\nstronghold of the Lutheran faith, however, was beginning to be overrun by\nthe disciples of Dr. Calvin. After that there was no further room for a\nman of Bruno\u2019s liberal tendencies.\n\nSouthward he wended his way to try his luck in the land of John Huss.\nFurther disappointment awaited him. Prague had become a Habsburg capital\nand where the Habsburg entered, freedom went out by the city gates. Back\nto the road and a long, long walk to Z\u00fcrich.\n\nThere he received a letter from an Italian youth, Giovanni Mocenigo,\nwho asked him to come to Venice. What made Bruno accept, I do not know.\nPerhaps the Italian peasant in him was impressed by the luster of an old\npatrician name and felt flattered by the invitation.\n\nGiovanni Mocenigo, however, was not made of the stuff which had enabled\nhis ancestors to defy both Sultan and Pope. He was a weakling and a\ncoward and did not move a finger when officers of the Inquisition\nappeared at his house and took his guest to Rome.\n\nAs a rule, the government of Venice was terribly jealous of its rights.\nIf Bruno had been a German merchant or a Dutch skipper, they would have\nprotested violently and they might even have gone to war when a foreign\npower dared to arrest some one within their own jurisdiction. But why\nincur the hostility of the pope on account of a vagabond who had brought\nnothing to their city but his ideas?\n\nIt was true he called himself a scholar. The Republic was highly\nflattered, but she had scholars enough of her own.\n\nAnd so farewell to Bruno and may San Marco have mercy upon his soul.\n\nSeven long years Bruno was kept in the prison of the Inquisition.\n\nOn the seventeenth of February of the year 1600 he was burned at the\nstake and his ashes were blown to the winds.\n\nHe was executed on the Campo dei Fiori. Those who know Italian may\ntherein find inspiration for a pretty little allegory.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI\n\nSPINOZA\n\n\nThere are certain things in history which I have never been able to\nunderstand and one of these is the amount of work done by some of the\nartists and literary men of bygone ages.\n\nThe modern members of our writing guild, with typewriters and dictaphones\nand secretaries and fountain pens, can turn out between three and four\nthousand words a day. How did Shakespeare, with half a dozen other jobs\nto distract his mind, with a scolding wife and a clumsy goose-quill,\nmanage to write thirty-seven plays?\n\nWhere did Lope de Vega, veteran of the Invincible Armada and a busy man\nall his life, find the necessary ink and paper for eighteen hundred\ncomedies and five hundred essays?\n\nWhat manner of man was this strange Hofkonzertmeister, Johann Sebastian\nBach, who in a little house filled with the noise of twenty children\nfound time to compose five oratorios, one hundred and ninety church\ncantatas, three wedding cantatas, and a dozen motets, six solemn masses,\nthree fiddle concertos, a concerto for two violins which alone would\nhave made his name immortal, seven concertos for piano and orchestra,\nthree concertos for two pianos, two concertos for three pianos, thirty\norchestral scores and enough pieces for the flute, the harpsichord, the\norgan, the bull-fiddle and the French horn to keep the average student of\nmusic busy for the rest of his days.\n\nOr again, by what process of industry and application could painters\nlike Rembrandt and Rubens produce a picture or an etching at the rate\nof almost four a month during more than thirty years? How could an\nhumble citizen like Antonio Stradivarius turn out five hundred and forty\nfiddles, fifty violoncellos and twelve violas in a single lifetime?\n\nI am not now discussing the brains capable of devising all these plots,\nhearing all these melodies, seeing all those diversified combinations\nof color and line, choosing all this wood. I am just wondering at the\nphysical part of it. How did they do it? Didn\u2019t they ever go to bed?\nDidn\u2019t they sometimes take a few hours off for a game of billiards? Were\nthey never tired? Had they ever heard of nerves?\n\nBoth the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were full of that sort of\npeople. They defied all the laws of hygiene, ate and drank everything\nthat was bad for them, were totally unconscious of their high destinies\nas members of the glorious human race, but they had an awfully good time\nand their artistic and intellectual output was something terrific.\n\nAnd what was true of the arts and the sciences held equally true of such\nfinicky subjects as theology.\n\nGo to any of the libraries that date back two hundred years and you\nwill find their cellars and attics filled with tracts and homilies and\ndiscussions and refutations and digests and commentaries in duodecimo\nand octodecimo and octavo, bound in leather and in parchment and in\npaper, all of them covered with dust and oblivion, but without exception\ncontaining an enormous if useless amount of learning.\n\nThe subjects of which they treated and many of the words they used have\nlost all meaning to our modern ears. But somehow or other these moldy\ncompilations served a very useful purpose. If they accomplished nothing\nelse, they at least cleared the air. For they either settled the\nquestions they discussed to the general satisfaction of all concerned,\nor they convinced their readers that those particular problems could\nnot possibly be decided with an appeal to logic and argument and might\ntherefore just as well be dropped right then and there.\n\nThis may sound like a back-handed compliment. But I hope that critics of\nthe thirtieth century shall be just as charitable when they wade through\nthe remains of our own literary and scientific achievements.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBaruch de Spinoza, the hero of this chapter, did not follow the fashion\nof his time in the matter of quantity. His assembled works consist of\nthree or four small volumes and a few bundles of letters.\n\nBut the amount of study necessary for the correct mathematical solution\nof his abstract problems in ethics and philosophy would have staggered\nany normally healthy man. It killed the poor consumptive who had\nundertaken to reach God by way of the table of multiplication.\n\nSpinoza was a Jew. His people, however, had never suffered the\nindignities of the Ghetto. Their ancestors had settled down in the\nSpanish peninsula when that part of the world was a Moorish province.\nAfter the reconquest and the introduction of that policy of \u201cSpain for\nthe Spaniard\u201d which eventually forced that country into bankruptcy, the\nSpinozas had been forced to leave their old home. They had sailed for\nthe Netherlands, had bought a small house in Amsterdam, had worked hard,\nhad saved their money and soon were known as one of the most respectable\nfamilies of the \u201cPortuguese colony.\u201d\n\nIf nevertheless their son Baruch was conscious of his Jewish origin,\nthis was due more to the training he received in his Talmud school than\nto the gibes of his little neighbors. For the Dutch Republic was so\nchock full of class prejudice that there was little room left for mere\nrace prejudice and therefore lived in perfect peace and harmony with all\nthe alien races that had found a refuge along the banks of the North\nand Zuider Seas. And this was one of the most characteristic bits of\nDutch life which contemporary travelers never failed to omit from their\n\u201cSouvenirs de Voyage\u201d and with good reason.\n\nIn most other parts of Europe, even at that late age, the relation\nbetween the Jew and the non-Jew was far from satisfactory. What made the\nquarrel between the two races so hopeless was the fact that both sides\nwere equally right and equally wrong and that both sides could justly\nclaim to be the victim of their opponent\u2019s intolerance and prejudice.\nIn the light of the theory put forward in this book that intolerance\nis merely a form of self-protection of the mob, it becomes clear that\nas long as they were faithful to their own respective religions, the\nChristian and the Jew must have conceded each other as enemies. In the\nfirst place, they both of them maintained that their God was the only\ntrue God and that all the other Gods of all the other nations were false.\nIn the second place, they were each other\u2019s most dangerous commercial\nrival. The Jews had come to western Europe as they had originally come\nto Palestine, as immigrants in search of a new home. The labor unions\nof that day, the Guilds, had made it impossible for them to take up a\ntrade. They had therefore been obliged to content themselves with such\neconomic makeshifts as pawnbroking and banking. In the Middle Ages these\ntwo professions, which closely resembled each other, were not thought\nfit occupations for decent citizens. Why the Church, until the days\nof Calvin, should have felt such a repugnance towards money (except\nin the form of taxes) and should have regarded the taking of interest\nas a crime, is hard to understand. Usury, of course, was something\nno government could tolerate and already the Babylonians, some forty\ncenturies before, had passed drastic laws against the money changers who\ntried to make a profit out of other people\u2019s money. In several chapters\nof the Old Testament, written two thousand years later, we read how Moses\ntoo had expressly forbidden his followers to lend money at exorbitant\nrates of interest to any one except foreigners. Still later, the great\nGreek philosophers, including Aristotle and Plato, had given expression\nto their great disapproval of money that was born of other money. The\nChurch fathers had been even more explicit upon this subject. All during\nthe Middle Ages the money lenders were held in profound contempt. Dante\neven provided a special little alcove in his Hell for the exclusive\nbenefit of his banker friends.\n\nTheoretically perhaps it could be proved that the pawnbroker and his\ncolleague, the man behind the \u201cbanco,\u201d were undesirable citizens and\nthat the world would be better off without them. At the same time,\nas soon as the world had ceased to be entirely agricultural, it was\nfound to be quite impossible to transact even the simplest business\noperations without the use of credit. The money lender therefore had\nbecome a necessary evil and the Jew, who (according to the views of the\nChristians) was doomed to eternal damnation any way, was urged to occupy\nhimself with a trade which was necessary but which no respectable man\nwould touch.\n\nIn this way these unfortunate exiles were forced into certain unpleasant\ntrades which made them the natural enemy of both the rich and the poor,\nand then, as soon as they had established themselves, these same enemies\nturned against them, called them names, locked them up in the dirtiest\npart of the city and in moments of great emotional stress, hanged them as\nwicked unbelievers or burned them as renegade Christians.\n\nIt was all so terribly silly. And besides it was so stupid. These endless\nannoyances and persecutions did not make the Jews any fonder of their\nChristian neighbors. And as a direct result, a large volume of first-rate\nintelligence was withdrawn from public circulation, thousands of bright\nyoung fellows, who might have advanced the cause of commerce and science\nand the arts, wasted their brains and energy upon the useless study of\ncertain old books filled with abstruse conundrums and hair-splitting\nsyllogisms and millions of helpless boys and girls were doomed to lead\nstunted lives in stinking tenements, listening on the one hand to their\nelders who told them that they were God\u2019s chosen people who would surely\ninherit the earth and all the wealth thereof, and on the other hand being\nfrightened to death by the curses of their neighbors who never ceased to\ninform them that they were pigs and only fit for the gallows or the wheel.\n\nTo ask that people (any people) doomed to live under such adverse\ncircumstances shall retain a normal outlook upon life is to demand the\nimpossible.\n\nAgain and again the Jews were goaded into some desperate act by their\nChristian compatriots and then, when white with rage, they turned upon\ntheir oppressors, they were called \u201ctraitors\u201d and \u201cungrateful villains\u201d\nand were subjected to further humiliations and restrictions. But these\nrestrictions had only one result. They increased the number of Jews who\nhad a grievance, turned the others into nervous wrecks and generally made\nthe Ghetto a ghastly abode of frustrated ambitions and pent-up hatreds.\n\nSpinoza, because he was born in Amsterdam, escaped the misery which was\nthe birthright of most of his relatives. He went first of all to the\nschool maintained by his synagogue (appropriately called \u201cthe Tree of\nLife\u201d) and as soon as he could conjugate his Hebrew verbs was sent to the\nlearned Dr. Franciscus Appinius van den Ende, who was to drill him in\nLatin and in the sciences.\n\nDr. Franciscus, as his name indicates, was of Catholic origin. Rumor had\nit that he was a graduate of the University of Louvain and if one were to\nbelieve the best informed deacons of the town, he was really a Jesuit in\ndisguise and a very dangerous person. This however was nonsense. Van den\nEnde in his youth had actually spent a few years at a Catholic seminary.\nBut his heart was not in his work and he had left his native city of\nAntwerp, had gone to Amsterdam and there had opened a private school of\nhis own.\n\nHe had such a tremendous flair for choosing the methods that would make\nhis pupils like their classical lessons, that heedless of the man\u2019s\npopish past, the Calvinistic burghers of Amsterdam willingly entrusted\ntheir children to his care and were very proud of the fact that the\npupils of his school invariably out-hexametered and out-declined the\nlittle boys of all other local academies.\n\nVan den Ende taught little Baruch his Latin, but being an enthusiastic\nfollower of all the latest discoveries in the field of science and a\ngreat admirer of Giordano Bruno, he undoubtedly taught the boy several\nthings which as a rule were not mentioned in an orthodox Jewish household.\n\nFor young Spinoza, contrary to the customs of the times, did not board\nwith the other boys, but lived at home. And he so impressed his family by\nhis profound learning that all the relations proudly pointed to him as\nthe little professor and liberally supplied him with pocket money. He\ndid not waste it upon tobacco. He used it to buy books on philosophy.\n\nOne author especially fascinated him.\n\nThat was Descartes.\n\nRen\u00e9 Descartes was a French nobleman born in that region between Tours\nand Poitiers where a thousand years before the grandfather of Charlemagne\nhad stopped the Mohammedan conquest of Europe. Before he was ten years\nold he had been sent to the Jesuits to be educated and he spent the next\ndecade making a nuisance of himself. For this boy had a mind of his own\nand accepted nothing without \u201cbeing shown.\u201d The Jesuits are probably the\nonly people in the world who know how to handle such difficult children\nand who can train them successfully without breaking their spirit.\nThe proof of the educational pudding is in the eating. If our modern\npedagogues would study the methods of Brother Loyola, we might have a few\nDescartes of our own.\n\nWhen he was twenty years old, Ren\u00e9 entered military service and went to\nthe Netherlands where Maurice of Nassau had so thoroughly perfected his\nmilitary system that his armies were the post-graduate school for all\nambitious young men who hoped to become generals. Descartes\u2019 visit to\nthe headquarters of the Nassau prince was perhaps a little irregular.\nA faithful Catholic taking service with a Protestant chieftain! It\nsounds like high treason. But Descartes was interested in problems of\nmathematics and artillery but not of religion or politics. Therefore\nas soon as Holland had concluded a truce with Spain, he resigned his\ncommission, went to Munich and fought for a while under the banner of the\nCatholic Duke of Bavaria.\n\nBut that campaign did not last very long. The only fighting of any\nconsequence then still going on was near La Rochelle, the city which the\nHuguenots were defending against Richelieu. And so Descartes went back to\nFrance that he might learn the noble art of siege-craft. But camp life\nwas beginning to pall upon him. He decided to give up a military career\nand devote himself to philosophy and science.\n\nHe had a small income of his own. He had no desire to marry. His wishes\nwere few. He anticipated a quiet and happy life and he had it.\n\nWhy he chose Holland as a place of residence, I do not know. But it was\na country full of printers and publishers and bookshops and as long as\none did not openly attack the established form of government or religion,\nthe existing law on censorship remained a dead letter. Furthermore, as\nhe never learned a single word of the language of his adopted country (a\ntrick not difficult to a true Frenchman), Descartes was able to avoid\nundesirable company and futile conversations and could give all of his\ntime (some twenty hours per day) to his own work.\n\nThis may seem a dull existence for a man who had been a soldier. But\nDescartes had a purpose in life and it seems that he was perfectly\ncontented with his self-inflicted exile. He had during the course of\nyears become convinced that the world was still plunged in a profound\ngloom of abysmal ignorance; that what was then being called science\nhad not even the remotest resemblance to true science, and that no\ngeneral progress would be possible until the whole ancient fabric of\nerror and falsehood had first of all been razed to the ground. No small\norder, this. Descartes however was possessed of endless patience and at\nthe age of thirty he set to work to give us an entirely new system of\nphilosophy. Warming up to his task he added geometry and astronomy and\nphysics to his original program and he performed his task with such noble\nimpartiality of mind that the Catholics denounced him as a Calvinist and\nthe Calvinists cursed him for an atheist.\n\nThis clamor, if ever it reached him, did not disturb him in the least.\nHe quietly continued his researches and died peacefully in the city of\nStockholm, whither he had gone to talk philosophy with the Queen of\nSweden.\n\nAmong the people of the seventeenth century, Cartesianism (the name under\nwhich his philosophies became known) made quite as much of a stir as\nDarwinism was to make among the contemporaries of Queen Victoria. To be\na Cartesian in the year 1680 meant something terrible, something almost\nindecent. It proclaimed one an enemy of the established order of society,\na Socinian, a low fellow who by his own confession had set himself apart\nfrom the companionship of his respectable neighbors. This did not prevent\nthe majority of the intelligent classes from accepting Cartesianism as\nreadily and as eagerly as our grandfathers accepted Darwinism. But among\nthe orthodox Jews of Amsterdam, such subjects were never even mentioned.\nCartesianism was not mentioned in either Talmud or Torah. Hence it did\nnot exist. And when it became apparent that it existed just the same in\nthe mind of one Baruch de Spinoza, it was a foregone conclusion that said\nBaruch de Spinoza would himself cease to exist as soon as the authorities\nof the synagogue had been able to investigate the case and take official\naction.\n\nThe Amsterdam synagogue had at that moment passed through a severe\ncrisis. When little Baruch was fifteen years old, another Portuguese\nexile by the name of Uriel Acosta had arrived in Amsterdam, had forsworn\nCatholicism, which he had accepted under a threat of death, and had\nreturned to the faith of his fathers. But this fellow Acosta had not been\nan ordinary Jew. He was a gentleman accustomed to carry a feather in his\nhat and a sword at his side. To him the arrogance of the Dutch rabbis,\ntrained in the German and Polish schools of learning, had come as a most\nunpleasant surprise, and he had been too proud and too indifferent to\nhide his opinions.\n\nIn a small community like that, such open defiance could not possibly be\ntolerated. A bitter struggle had followed. On the one side a solitary\ndreamer, half prophet, half hidalgo. On the other side the merciless\nguardians of the law.\n\nIt had ended in tragedy.\n\nFirst of all Acosta had been denounced to the local police as the author\nof certain blasphemous pamphlets which denied the immortality of the\nsoul. This had got him into trouble with the Calvinist ministers. But\nthe matter had been straightened out and the charge had been dropped.\nThereupon the synagogue had excommunicated the stiff-necked rebel and had\ndeprived him of his livelihood.\n\nFor months thereafter the poor man had wandered through the streets\nof Amsterdam until destitution and loneliness had driven him back to\nhis own flock. But he was not re-admitted until he had first of all\npublicly apologized for his evil conduct and had then suffered himself\nto be whipped and kicked by all the members of the congregation. These\nindignities had unbalanced his mind. He had bought a pistol and had blown\nhis brains out.\n\nThis suicide had caused a tremendous lot of talk among the principal\ncitizens of Amsterdam. The Jewish community felt that it could not risk\nthe chance of another public scandal. When it became evident that the\nmost promising pupil of the \u201cTree of Life\u201d had been contaminated by the\nnew heresies of Descartes, a direct attempt was made to hush things up.\nBaruch was approached and was offered a fixed annual sum if he would give\nhis word that he would be good, would continue to show himself in the\nsynagogue and would not publish or say anything against the law.\n\nNow Spinoza was the last man to consider such a compromise. He curtly\nrefused to do anything of the sort. In consequence whereof he was duly\nread out of his own church according to that famous ancient Formula of\nDamnation which leaves very little to the imagination and goes back all\nthe way to the days of Jericho to find the appropriate number of curses\nand execrations.\n\nAs for the victim of these manifold maledictions, he remained quietly in\nhis room and read about the occurrence in next day\u2019s paper. Even when an\nattempt was made upon his life by an over zealous follower of the law, he\nrefused to leave town.\n\nThis came as a great blow to the prestige of the Rabbis who apparently\nhad invoked the names of Joshua and Elisha in vain and who saw themselves\npublicly defied for the second time in less than half a dozen years. In\ntheir anxiety they went so far as to make an appeal to the town hall.\nThey asked for an interview with the Burgomasters and explained that this\nBaruch de Spinoza whom they had just expelled from their own church was\nreally a most dangerous person, an agnostic who refused to believe in God\nand who therefore ought not to be tolerated in a respectable Christian\ncommunity like the city of Amsterdam.\n\nTheir lordships, after their pleasant habit, washed their hands of the\nwhole affair and referred the matter to a sub-committee of clergymen. The\nsub-committee studied the question, discovered that Baruch de Spinoza had\ndone nothing that could be construed as an offense against the ordinances\nof the town, and so reported to their lordships. At the same time\nthey considered it to be good policy for members of the cloth to stand\ntogether and therefore they suggested that the Burgomasters ask this\nyoung man, who seemed to be so very independent, to leave Amsterdam for a\ncouple of months and not to return until the thing had blown over.\n\nFrom that moment on the life of Spinoza was as quiet and uneventful as\nthe landscape upon which he looked from his bedroom windows. He left\nAmsterdam and hired a small house in the village of Rijnsberg near\nLeiden. He spent his days polishing lenses for optical instruments and\nat night he smoked his pipe and read or wrote as the spirit moved him.\nHe never married. There was rumor of a love affair between him and a\ndaughter of his former Latin teacher, van den Ende. But as the child was\nten years old when Spinoza left Amsterdam, this does not seem very likely.\n\nHe had several very loyal friends and at least twice a year they offered\nto give him a pension that he might devote all his time to his studies.\nHe answered that he appreciated their good intentions but that he\npreferred to remain independent and with the exception of an allowance\nof eighty dollars a year from a rich young Cartesian, he never touched\na penny and spent his days in the respectable poverty of the true\nphilosopher.\n\nHe had a chance to become a professor in Germany, but he declined.\nHe received word that the illustrious King of Prussia would be happy\nto become his patron and protector, but he answered nay and remained\nfaithful to the quiet routine of his pleasant exile.\n\nAfter a number of years in Rijnsberg he moved to the Hague. He had never\nbeen very strong and the particles of glass from his half-finished lenses\nhad affected his lungs.\n\nHe died quite suddenly and alone in the year 1677.\n\nTo the intense disgust of the local clergy, not less than six private\ncarriages belonging to prominent members of the court followed the\n\u201catheist\u201d to his grave. And when two hundred years later a statue was\nunveiled to his memory, the police reserves had to be called out to\nprotect the participants in this solemn celebration against the fury of a\nrowdy crowd of ardent Calvinists.\n\nSo much for the man. What about his influence? Was he merely another\nof those industrious philosophers who fill endless books with endless\ntheories and speak a language which drove even Omar Khayyam to an\nexpression of exasperated annoyance?\n\nNo, he was not.\n\nNeither did he accomplish his results by the brilliancy of his wit or the\nplausible truth of his theories. Spinoza was great mainly by force of his\ncourage. He belonged to a race that knew only one law, a set of hard and\nfast rules laid down for all times in the dim ages of a long forgotten\npast, a system of spiritual tyranny created for the benefit of a class of\nprofessional priests who had taken it upon themselves to interpret this\nsacred code.\n\nHe lived in a world in which the idea of intellectual freedom was almost\nsynonymous with political anarchy.\n\nHe knew that his system of logic must offend both Jews and Gentiles.\n\nBut he never wavered.\n\nHe approached all problems as universal problems. He regarded them\nwithout exception as the manifestation of an omnipresent will and\nbelieved them to be the expression of an ultimate reality which would\nhold good on Doomsday as it had held good at the hour of creation.\n\nAnd in this way he greatly contributed to the cause of human tolerance.\n\nLike Descartes before him, Spinoza discarded the narrow boundaries laid\ndown by the older forms of religion and boldly built himself a new system\nof thought based upon the rocks of a million stars.\n\nBy so doing he made man what man had not been since the days of the\nancient Greeks and Romans, a true citizen of the universe.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII\n\nTHE NEW ZION\n\n\nThere was little reason to fear that the works of Spinoza would ever be\npopular. They were as amusing as a text-book on trigonometry and few\npeople ever get beyond the first two or three sentences of any given\nchapter.\n\nIt took a different sort of man to spread the new ideas among the mass of\nthe people.\n\nIn France the enthusiasm for private speculation and investigation had\ncome to an end as soon as the country had been turned into an absolute\nmonarchy.\n\nIn Germany the poverty and the horror which had followed in the wake of\nthe Thirty Years War had killed all personal initiative for at least two\nhundred years.\n\nDuring the second half of the seventeenth century, therefore, England was\nthe only one among the larger countries of Europe where further progress\nalong the lines of independent thought was still possible and the\nprolonged quarrel between the Crown and Parliament was adding an element\nof instability which proved to be of great help to the cause of personal\nfreedom.\n\nFirst of all we must consider the English sovereigns. For years these\nunfortunate monarchs had been between the devil of Catholicism and the\ndeep sea of Puritanism.\n\nTheir Catholic subjects (which included a great many faithful\nEpiscopalians with a secret leaning towards Rome) were forever clamoring\nfor a return to that happy era when the British kings had been vassals of\nthe pope.\n\nTheir Puritan subjects on the other hand, with one eye firmly glued upon\nthe example of Geneva, dreamed of the day when there should be no king at\nall and England should be a replica of the happy commonwealth tucked away\nin a little corner of the Swiss mountains.\n\nBut that was not all.\n\nThe men who ruled England were also kings of Scotland and their Scottish\nsubjects, when it came to religion, knew exactly what they wanted. And so\nthoroughly were they convinced that they themselves were right that they\nwere firmly opposed to the idea of liberty of conscience. They thought\nit wicked that other denominations should be suffered to exist and to\nworship freely within the confines of their own Protestant land. And they\ninsisted not only that all Catholics and Anabaptists be exiled from the\nBritish Isles but furthermore that Socinians, Arminians, Cartesians, in\nshort all those who did not share their own views upon the existence of a\nliving God, be hanged.\n\nThis triangle of conflicts, however, produced an unexpected result. It\nforced the men who were obliged to keep peace between those mutually\nhostile parties to be much more tolerant than they would have been\notherwise.\n\nIf both the Stuarts and Cromwell at different times of their careers\ninsisted upon equal rights for all denominations, and history tells\nus they did, they were most certainly not animated by a love for\nPresbyterians or High Churchmen, or vice versa. They were merely making\nthe best of a very difficult bargain. The terrible things which happened\nin the colonies along the Bay of Massachusetts, where one sect finally\nbecame all powerful, show us what would have been the fate of England if\nany one of the many contending factions had been able to establish an\nabsolute dictatorship over the entire country.\n\nCromwell of course reached the point where he was able to do as he liked.\nBut the Lord Protector was a very wise man. He knew that he ruled by the\ngrace of his iron brigade and carefully avoided such extremes of conduct\nor of legislation as would have forced his opponents to make common\ncause. Beyond that, however, his ideas concerning tolerance did not go.\n\nAs for the abominable \u201catheists\u201d\u2014the aforementioned Socinians and\nArminians and Cartesians and other apostles of the divine right of the\nindividual human being, their lives were just as difficult as before.\n\nOf course, the English \u201cLibertines\u201d enjoyed one enormous advantage. They\nlived close to the sea. Only thirty-six hours of sickness separated them\nfrom the safe asylum of the Dutch cities. As the printing shops of these\ncities were turning out most of the contraband literature of southern\nand western Europe, a trip across the North Sea really meant a voyage to\none\u2019s publisher and gave the enterprising traveler a chance to gather in\nhis royalties and see what were the latest additions to the literature of\nintellectual protest.\n\nAmong those who at one time or another availed themselves of this\nconvenient opportunity for quiet study and peaceful reflection, no one\nhas gained a more deserving fame than John Locke.\n\nHe was born in the same year as Spinoza. And like Spinoza (indeed like\nmost independent thinkers) he was the product of an essentially pious\nhousehold. The parents of Baruch were orthodox Jews. The parents of John\nwere orthodox Christians. Undoubtedly they both meant well by their\nchildren when they trained them in the strict doctrines of their own\nrespective creeds. But such an education either breaks a boy\u2019s spirit or\nit turns him into a rebel. Baruch and John, not being the sort that ever\nsurrenders, gritted their teeth, left home and struck out for themselves.\n\nAt the age of twenty Locke went to Oxford and there for the first time\nheard of Descartes. But among the dusty book-stalls of St. Catherine\nStreet he found certain other volumes that were much to his taste. For\nexample, there were the works of Thomas Hobbes.\n\nAn interesting figure, this former student of Magdalen College, a\nrestless person who had visited Italy and had held converse with Galileo,\nwho had exchanged letters with the great Descartes himself and who had\nspent the greater part of his life on the continent, an exile from the\nfury of the Puritans. Between times he had composed an enormous book\nwhich contained all his ideas upon every conceivable subject and which\nbore the inviting title of \u201cLeviathan, or the Matter, Form and Power of a\nCommonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil.\u201d\n\nThis learned tome made its appearance when Locke was in his Sophomore\nyear. It was so outspoken upon the nature of princes, their rights\nand most especially their duties, that even the most thorough going\nCromwellian must approve of it, and that many of Cromwell\u2019s partisans\nfelt inclined to pardon this doubting Thomas who was a full-fledged\nroyalist yet exposed the royalist pretensions in a volume that weighed\nnot less than five pounds. Of course Hobbes was the sort of person whom\nit has never been easy to classify. His contemporaries called him a\nLatitudinarian. That meant that he was more interested in the ethics\nof the Christian religion than in the discipline and the dogmas of the\nChristian church and believed in allowing people a fair degree of\n\u201clatitude\u201d in their attitude upon those questions which they regarded as\nnon-essential.\n\nLocke had the same temperament as Hobbes. He too remained within the\nChurch until the end of his life but he was heartily in favor of a most\ngenerous interpretation both of life and of faith. What was the use,\nLocke and his friends argued, of ridding the country of one tyrant (who\nwore a golden crown) if it only led up to a fresh abuse of power by\nanother tyrant (who wore a black slouch hat)? Why renounce allegiance\nto one set of priests and then the next day accept the rule of another\nset of priests who were fully as overbearing and arrogant as their\npredecessors? Logic undoubtedly was on their side but such a point of\nview could not possibly be popular among those who would have lost their\nlivelihood if the \u201clatitude men\u201d had been successful and had changed a\nrigid social system into an ethical debating society?\n\nAnd although Locke, who seems to have been a man of great personal charm,\nhad influential friends who could protect him against the curiosity of\nthe sheriffs, the day was soon to come when he would no longer be able to\nescape the suspicion of being an atheist.\n\nThat happened in the fall of the year 1683, and Locke thereupon went\nto Amsterdam. Spinoza had been dead for half a dozen years, but the\nintellectual atmosphere of the Dutch capital continued to be decidedly\nliberal and Locke was given a chance to study and write without the\nslightest interference on the part of the authorities. He was an\nindustrious fellow and during the four years of his exile he composed\nthat famous \u201cLetter on Tolerance\u201d which makes him one of the heroes of\nour little history. In this letter (which under the criticism of his\nopponents grew into three letters) he flatly denied that the state had\nthe right to interfere with religion. The state, as Locke saw it (and\nin this he was borne out by a fellow exile, a Frenchman by the name of\nPierre Bayle, who was living in Rotterdam at that time composing his\nincredibly learned one-man encyclopedia), the state was merely a sort\nof protective organization which a certain number of people had created\nand continued to maintain for their mutual benefit and safety. Why such\nan organization should presume to dictate what the individual citizens\nshould believe and what not\u2014that was something which Locke and his\ndisciples failed to understand. The state did not undertake to tell them\nwhat to eat or drink. Why should it force them to visit one church and\nkeep away from another?\n\nThe seventeenth century, as a result of the half-hearted victory of\nProtestantism, was an era of strange religious compromises.\n\nThe peace of Westphalia which was supposed to make an end to all\nreligious warfare had laid down the principle that \u201call subjects\nshall follow the religion of their ruler.\u201d Hence in one six-by-nine\nprincipality all citizens were Lutherans (because the local grand duke\nwas a Lutheran) and in the next they were all Catholics (because the\nlocal baron happened to be a Catholic).\n\n\u201cIf,\u201d so Locke reasoned, \u201cthe State has the right to dictate to the\npeople concerning the future weal of their souls, then one-half of the\npeople are foreordained to perdition, for since both religions cannot\npossibly be true (according to article I of their own catechisms) it\nfollows that those who are born on one side of a boundary line are bound\nfor Heaven and those who are born on the other side are bound for Hell\nand in this way the geographical accident of birth decides one\u2019s future\nsalvation.\u201d\n\nThat Locke did not include Catholics in his scheme of tolerance is\nregrettable, but understandable. To the average Britisher of the\nseventeenth century Catholicism was not a form of religious conviction\nbut a political party which had never ceased to plot against the safety\nof the English state, which had built Armadas and had bought barrels of\ngun-powder with which to destroy the parliament of a supposedly friendly\nnation.\n\nHence Locke refused to his Catholic opponents those rights which he was\nwilling to grant to the heathen in his colonies and asked that they\ncontinue to be excluded from His Majesty\u2019s domains, but solely on the\nground of their dangerous political activities and not because they\nprofessed a different faith.\n\nOne had to go back almost sixteen centuries to hear such sentiments. Then\na Roman emperor had laid down the famous principle that religion was an\naffair between the individual man and his God and that God was quite\ncapable of taking care of himself whenever he felt that his dignity had\nbeen injured.\n\nThe English people who had lived and prospered through four changes\nof government within less than sixty years were inclined to see the\nfundamental truth of such an ideal of tolerance based upon common sense.\n\nWhen William of Orange crossed the North Sea in the year 1688, Locke\nfollowed him on the next ship, which carried the new Queen of England.\nHenceforth he lived a quiet and uneventful existence and when he died at\nthe ripe old age of seventy-two he was known as a respectable author and\nno longer feared as a heretic.\n\nCivil war is a terrible thing but it has one great advantage. It clears\nthe atmosphere.\n\nThe political dissensions of the seventeenth century had completely\nconsumed the superfluous energy of the English nation and while the\ncitizens of other countries continued to kill each other for the sake\nof the Trinity and prenatal damnation, religious persecution in Great\nBritain came to an end. Now and then a too presumptuous critic of the\nestablished church, like Daniel Defoe, might come into unpleasant contact\nwith the law, but the author of \u201cRobinson Crusoe\u201d was pilloried because\nhe was a humorist rather than an amateur theologian and because the\nAnglo-Saxon race, since time immemorial, has felt an inborn suspicion of\nirony. Had Defoe written a serious defense of tolerance, he would have\nescaped with a reprimand. When he turned his attack upon the tyranny of\nthe church into a semi-humorous pamphlet entitled \u201cThe Shortest Way with\nDissenters,\u201d he showed that he was a vulgar person without a decent sense\nof the proprieties and one who deserved no better than the companionship\nof the pickpockets of Newgate Prison.\n\nEven then Defoe was fortunate that he had never extended his travels\nbeyond the confines of the British Isles. For intolerance having been\ndriven from the mother country had found a most welcome refuge in certain\nof the colonies on the other side of the ocean. And this was due not so\nmuch to the character of the people who had moved into these recently\ndiscovered regions as to the fact that the new world offered infinitely\ngreater economic advantages than the old one.\n\nIn England itself, a small island so densely populated that it offered\nstanding room only to the majority of her people, all business would soon\nhave come to an end if the people had not been willing to practice the\nancient and honorable rule of \u201cgive and take.\u201d But in America, a country\nof unknown extent and unbelievable riches, a continent inhabited by a\nmere handful of farmers and workmen, no such compromise was necessary.\n\nAnd so it happened that a small communist settlement on the shores of\nMassachusetts Bay could develop into such a stronghold of self-righteous\northodoxy that the like of it had not been seen since the happy days\nwhen Calvin exercised the functions of Chief of Police and Lord High\nExecutioner in western Switzerland.\n\nThe credit for the first permanent settlement in the chilly regions\nof the Charles River usually goes to a small group of people who are\nreferred to as the Pilgrim Fathers. A Pilgrim, in the usual sense of\nthe word, is one who \u201cjourneys to a sacred place as an act of religious\ndevotion.\u201d The passengers of the _Mayflower_ were not pilgrims in\nthat sense of the word. They were English bricklayers and tailors and\ncord-wainers and blacksmiths and wheelwrights who had left their country\nto escape certain of those hated \u201cpoperies\u201d which continued to cling to\nthe worship in most of the churches around them.\n\nFirst they had crossed the North Sea and had gone to Holland\nwhere they arrived at a moment of great economic depression. Our\nschool-books continue to ascribe their desire for further travel to\ntheir unwillingness to let their children learn the Dutch language and\notherwise to see them absorbed by the country of their adoption. It\nseems very unlikely, however, that those simple folk were guilty of such\nshocking ingratitude and purposely followed a most reprehensible course\nof hyphenation. The truth is that most of the time they were forced to\nlive in the slums, that they found it very difficult to make a living\nin an already over-populated country, and that they expected a better\nrevenue from tobacco planting in America than from wool-carding in\nLeiden. Hence to Virginia they sailed, but having been thrown by adverse\ncurrents and bad seamanship upon the shores of Massachusetts, they\ndecided to stay where they were rather than risk the horrors of another\nvoyage in their leaky tub.\n\nBut although they had now escaped the dangers of drowning and\nseasickness, they were still in a highly perilous position. Most of them\ncame from small cities in the heart of England and had little aptitude\nfor a life of pioneering. Their communistic ideas were shattered by\nthe cold, their civic enthusiasm was chilled by the endless gales and\ntheir wives and children were killed by an absence of decent food. And,\nfinally, the few who survived the first three winters, good-natured\npeople accustomed to the rough and ready tolerance of the home country,\nwere entirely swamped by the arrival of thousands of new colonists who\nwithout exception belonged to a sterner and less compromising variety\nof Puritan faith and who made Massachusetts what it was to remain for\nseveral centuries, the Geneva on the Charles River.\n\nHanging on for dear life to their small stretch of land, forever on\nthe verge of disaster, they felt more than ever inclined to find an\nexcuse for everything they thought and did within the pages of the Old\nTestament. Cut off from polite human society and books, they began to\ndevelop a strange religious psyche of their own. In their own eyes they\nhad fallen heir to the traditions of Moses and Gideon and soon became\nveritable Maccabees to their Indian neighbors of the west. They had\nnothing to reconcile them to their lives of hardship and drudgery except\nthe conviction that they were suffering for the sake of the only true\nfaith. Hence their conclusion (easily arrived at) that all other people\nmust be wrong. Hence the brutal treatment of those who failed to share\ntheir own views, who suggested by implication that the Puritan way of\ndoing and thinking was not the only right way. Hence the exclusion from\ntheir country of all harmless dissenters who were either unmercifully\nflogged and then driven into the wilderness or suffered the loss of their\nears and tongues unless they were fortunate enough to find a refuge in\none of the neighboring colonies which belonged to the Swedes and the\nDutch.\n\nNo, for the cause of religious freedom or tolerance, this colony\nachieved nothing except in that roundabout and involuntary fashion\nwhich is so common in the history of human progress. The very violence\nof their religious despotism brought about a reaction in favor of a\nmore liberal policy. After almost two centuries of ministerial tyranny,\nthere arose a new generation which was the open and avowed enemy of all\nforms of priest-rule, which believed profoundly in the desirability of\nthe separation of state and church and which looked askance upon the\nancestral admixture of religion and politics.\n\nBy a stroke of good luck this development came about very slowly and the\ncrisis did not occur until the period immediately before the outbreak of\nhostilities between Great Britain and her American colonies. As a result,\nthe Constitution of the United States was written by men who were either\nfreethinkers or secret enemies of the old-fashioned Calvinism and who\nincorporated into this document certain highly modern principles which\nhave proved of the greatest value in maintaining the peaceful balance of\nour republic.\n\nBut ere this happened, the new world had experienced a most unexpected\ndevelopment in the field of tolerance and curiously enough it took place\nin a Catholic community, in that part of America now covered by the free\nstate of Maryland.\n\nThe Calverts, who were responsible for this interesting experiment, were\nof Flemish origin, but the father had moved to England and had rendered\nvery distinguished services to the house of Stuart. Originally they had\nbeen Protestants, but George Calvert, private secretary and general\nutility man to King James I, had become so utterly disgusted with the\nfutile theological haggling of his contemporaries that he returned to the\nold faith. Good, bad or indifferent, it called black, black and white,\nwhite and did not leave the final settlement of every point of doctrine\nto the discretion of a board of semi-literate deacons.\n\nThis George Calvert, so it seems, was a man of parts. His back-sliding (a\nvery serious offense in those days!) did not lose him the favor of his\nroyal master. On the contrary, he was made Baron Baltimore of Baltimore\nand was promised every sort of assistance when he planned to establish a\nlittle colony of his own for the benefit of persecuted Catholics. First,\nhe tried his luck in Newfoundland. But his settlers were frozen out of\nhouse and home and his Lordship then asked for a few thousand square\nmiles in Virginia. The Virginians, however, staunchly Episcopalian, would\nhave naught of such dangerous neighbors and Baltimore then asked for a\nslice of that wilderness which lay between Virginia and the Dutch and\nSwedish possessions of the north. Ere he received his charter he died.\nHis son Cecil, however, continued the good work, and in the winter of\n1633-1634 two little ships, the _Ark_ and the _Dove_, under command of\nLeonard Calvert, brother to George, crossed the ocean, and in March of\n1634 they safely landed their passengers on the shores of the Chesapeake\nBay. The new country was called Maryland. This was done in honor of Mary,\ndaughter of that French king, Henri IV, whose plans for a European League\nof Nations had been cut short by the dagger of a crazy monk, and wife\nto that English monarch who soon afterwards was to lose his head at the\nhands of his Puritan subjects.\n\nThis extraordinary colony which did not exterminate its Indian neighbors\nand offered equal opportunities to both Catholics and Protestants\npassed through many difficult years. First of all it was overrun by\nEpiscopalians who tried to escape the fierce intolerance of the Puritans\nin Massachusetts. Next it was invaded by Puritans who tried to escape the\nfierce intolerance of the Episcopalians in Virginia. And the two groups\nof fugitives, with the usual arrogance of that sort of people, tried hard\nto introduce their own \u201ccorrect form of worship\u201d into the commonwealth\nthat had just offered them refuge. As \u201call disputes which might give rise\nto religious passions\u201d were expressly forbidden on Maryland territory,\nthe older colonists were entirely within their right when they bade both\nEpiscopalians and Puritans to keep the peace. But soon afterwards war\nbroke out in the home country between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads\nand the Marylanders feared that, no matter who should win, they would\nlose their old freedom. Hence, in April of the year 1649 and shortly\nafter news of the execution of Charles I had reached them, and at the\ndirect suggestion of Cecil Calvert, they passed their famous Act of\nTolerance which, among other things, contained this excellent passage:\n\n\u201cThat since the coercion of conscience in the matter of religion has\noften produced very harmful results in those communities in which it\nwas exercised, for the more tranquil and pacific government in this\nprovince and for the better preservation of mutual love and unity among\nits inhabitants, it is hereby decided that nobody in this province\nwho professes faith in Jesus Christ shall be disturbed, molested or\npersecuted in any way for reasons respecting his religion or the free\nexercise thereof.\u201d\n\nThat such an act could be passed in a country in which the Jesuits\noccupied a favorite position shows that the Baltimore family was\npossessed of remarkable political ability and of more than ordinary\ncourage. How profoundly this generous spirit was appreciated by some of\ntheir guests was shown in the same year when a number of Puritan exiles\noverthrew the government of Maryland, abolished the Act of Tolerance and\nreplaced it by an \u201cAct Concerning Religion\u201d of their own which granted\nfull religious liberty to all those who declared themselves Christians\n\u201cwith the exception of Catholics and Episcopalians.\u201d\n\nThis period of reaction fortunately did not last long. In the year 1660\nthe Stuarts returned to power and once more the Baltimores reigned in\nMaryland.\n\nThe next attack upon their policy came from the other side. The\nEpiscopalians gained a complete victory in the mother country and they\ninsisted that henceforth their church should be the official church of\nall the colonies. The Calverts continued to fight but they found it\nimpossible to attract new colonists. And so, after a struggle which\nlasted another generation, the experiment came to an end.\n\nProtestantism triumphed.\n\nSo did intolerance.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII\n\nTHE SUN KING\n\n\nThe eighteenth century is usually referred to as an era of despotism. And\nin an age which believes in the dogma of democracy, despotism, however\nenlightened, is not apt to be regarded as a desirable form of government.\n\nHistorians who mean well by the human race are very apt to point the\nfinger of scorn at that great monarch Louis XIV and ask us to draw our\nown conclusions. When this brilliant sovereign came to the throne, he\ninherited a country in which the forces of Catholicism and Protestantism\nwere so evenly balanced that the two parties, after a century of mutual\nassassination (with the odds heavily in favor of the Catholics), had at\nlast concluded a definite peace and had promised to accept each other as\nunwelcome but unavoidable neighbors and fellow citizens. The \u201cperpetual\nand irrevocable\u201d Edict of Nantes of the year 1598 which contained the\nterms of agreement, stated that the Catholic religion was the official\nreligion of the state but that the Protestants should enjoy complete\nliberty of conscience and should not suffer any persecution on account\nof their belief. They were furthermore allowed to build churches of\ntheir own and to hold public office. And as a token of good faith,\nthe Protestants were allowed to hold two hundred fortified cities and\nvillages within the realm of France.\n\nThis, of course, was an impossible arrangement. The Huguenots were no\nangels. To leave two hundred of the most prosperous cities and villages\nof France in the hands of a political party which was the sworn enemy of\nthe government was quite as absurd as if we should surrender Chicago and\nSan Francisco and Philadelphia to the Democrats to make them accept a\nRepublican administration, or vice versa.\n\nRichelieu, as intelligent a man as ever ruled a country, recognized this.\nAfter a long struggle he deprived the Protestants of their political\npower, but although a cardinal by profession, he scrupulously refrained\nfrom any interference with their religious freedom. The Huguenots could\nno longer conduct independent diplomatic negotiations with the enemies\nof their own country, but otherwise they enjoyed the same privileges as\nbefore and could sing psalms and listen to sermons or not as pleased them.\n\nMazarin, the next man to rule France in the real sense of the word, had\nfollowed a similar policy. But he died in the year 1661. Then young Louis\nXIV personally undertook to rule his domains, and there was an end to the\nera of good will.\n\nIt seems most unfortunate that when this brilliant if disreputable\nMajesty was forced for once in his life into the companionship of decent\npeople he should have fallen into the clutches of a good woman who was\nalso a religious fanatic. Fran\u00e7oise d\u2019Aubign\u00e9, the widow of a literary\nhack by the name of Scarron, had begun her career at the French court\nas governess to the seven illegitimate children of Louis XIV and the\nMarquise de Montespan. When that lady\u2019s love philtres ceased to have the\ndesired effect and the King began to show occasional signs of boredom,\nit was the governess who stepped into her shoes. Only she was different\nfrom all her predecessors. Before she agreed to move into His Majesty\u2019s\napartments, the Archbishop of Paris had duly solemnized her marriage to\nthe descendant of Saint Louis.\n\nDuring the next twenty years the power behind the throne was therefore\nin the hands of a woman who was completely dominated by her confessor.\nThe clergy of France had never forgiven either Richelieu or Mazarin for\ntheir conciliatory attitude towards the Protestants. Now at last they had\na chance to undo the work of these shrewd statesmen and they went to it\nwith a will. For not only were they the official advisers of the Queen,\nbut they also became the bankers of the King.\n\nThat again is a curious story.\n\nDuring the last eight centuries the monasteries had accumulated the\ngreater part of the wealth of France and as they paid no taxes in a\ncountry which suffered perpetually from a depleted treasury, their\nsurplus wealth was of great importance. And His Majesty, whose glory\nwas greater than his credit, made a grateful use of this opportunity to\nreplenish his own coffers and in exchange for certain favors extended\nto his clerical supporters he was allowed to borrow as much money as he\nwanted.\n\nIn this way the different stipulations of the \u201cirrevocable\u201d Edict of\nNantes were one by one revoked. At first the Protestant religion was\nnot actually forbidden, but life for those who remained faithful to the\nHuguenot cause was made exasperatingly uncomfortable. Whole regiments of\ndragoons were turned loose upon those provinces where the false doctrines\nwere supposed to be most strongly entrenched. The soldiers were billeted\namong the inhabitants with instructions to make themselves thoroughly\ndetestable. They ate the food and drank the wine and stole the forks and\nspoons and broke the furniture and insulted the wives and daughters of\nperfectly harmless citizens and generally behaved as if they were in a\nconquered territory. When their poor hosts, in their despair, rushed to\nthe courts for some form of redress and protection, they were laughed at\nfor their trouble and were told that they had brought their misfortunes\nupon their own heads and knew perfectly well how they could get rid of\ntheir unwelcome guests and at the same time regain the good will of the\ngovernment.\n\nA few, a very few, followed this suggestion and allowed themselves to be\nbaptized by the nearest village priest. But the vast majority of these\nsimple people remained faithful to the ideals of their childhood. At\nlast, however, when one after another their churches were closed and\ntheir clergy were sent to the galleys, they began to understand that they\nwere doomed. Rather than surrender, they decided to go into exile. But\nwhen they reached the frontier, they were told that no one was allowed\nto leave the country, that those who were caught in the act were to be\nhanged, and that those who aided and abetted such fugitives were liable\nto be sent to the galleys for life.\n\nThere are apparently certain things which this world will never learn.\n\nFrom the days of the Pharaohs to those of Lenin, all governments at one\ntime or another have tried the policy of \u201cclosing the frontier\u201d and none\nof them has ever been able to score a success.\n\nPeople who want to get out so badly that they are willing to take all\nsorts of risks can invariably find a way. Hundreds of thousands of French\nProtestants took to the \u201cunderground route\u201d and soon afterwards appeared\nin London or Amsterdam or Berlin or Basel. Of course, such fugitives were\nnot able to carry much ready cash. But they were known everywhere as\nhonest and hard working merchants and artisans. Their credit was good\nand their energy undiminished. After a few years they usually regained\nthat prosperity which had been their share in the old country and the\nhome government was deprived of a living economic asset of incalculable\nvalue.\n\nIndeed, it is no exaggeration to say that the revocation of the Edict of\nNantes was the prelude to the French Revolution.\n\nFrance had been and still was a very rich country. But commerce and\nclericalism have never been able to co\u00f6perate.\n\nFrom the moment that the French government surrendered to petticoats and\ncassocks, her fate was sealed. The same pen that decreed the expulsion of\nthe Huguenots signed the death-warrant of Louis XVI.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV\n\nFREDERICK THE GREAT\n\n\nThe house of Hohenzollern has never been famous for its love of\npopular forms of government. But ere the crazy strain of the Bavarian\nWittelsbachs had tainted this sober-minded family of bookkeepers and\noverseers, they rendered some very useful service to the cause of\ntolerance.\n\nIn part this was the result of a practical necessity. The Hohenzollerns\nhad fallen heir to the poorest part of Europe, a half-populated\nwilderness of sand and forests. The Thirty Years War had left them\nbankrupt. They needed both men and money to start in business once more\nand they set out to get them, regardless of race, creed or previous\ncondition of servitude.\n\nThe father of Frederick the Great, a vulgarian with the manners of a\ncoal-heaver and the personal tastes of a bartender, could grow quite\ntender when he was called upon to meet a delegation of foreign fugitives.\n\u201cThe more the merrier,\u201d was his motto in all matters pertaining to the\nvital statistics of his kingdom and he collected the disinherited of all\nnations as carefully as he collected the six-foot-three grenadiers of his\nlifeguard.\n\nHis son was of a very different caliber, a highly civilized human being\nwho, having been forbidden by his father to study Latin and French, had\nmade a speciality of both languages and greatly preferred the prose of\nMontaigne to the poetry of Luther and the wisdom of Epictetus of that\nof the Minor Prophets. The Old Testament severity of his father (who\nordered the boy\u2019s best friend to be decapitated in front of his window\nso as to teach him a lesson in obedience) had not inclined his heart\ntoward those Judaean ideals of rectitude of which the Lutheran and\nCalvinist ministers of his day were apt to speak with such great praise.\nHe came to regard all religion as a survival of prehistoric fear and\nignorance, a mood of subservience carefully encouraged by a small class\nof clever and unscrupulous fellows who knew how to make good use of\ntheir own pre-eminent position by living pleasantly at the expense of\ntheir neighbors. He was interested in Christianity and even more so in\nthe person of Christ himself, but he approached the subject by way of\nLocke and Socinius and as a result he was, in religious matters at least,\na very broad minded person, and could truly boast that in his country\n\u201cevery one could find salvation after his own fashion.\u201d\n\nThis clever saying he made the basis for all his further experiments\nalong the line of Tolerance. For example, he decreed that all religions\nwere good as long as those who professed them were upright people who led\ndecent, law-abiding lives; that therefore all creeds must enjoy equal\nrights and the state must never interfere in religious questions, but\nmust content herself with playing policeman and keeping the peace between\nthe different denominations. And because he truly believed this, he asked\nnothing of his subjects except that they be obedient and faithful and\nleave the final judgment of their thoughts and deeds \u201cto Him alone who\nknew the conscience of men\u201d and of whom he (the King) did not venture to\nform so small an opinion as to believe him to be in need of that human\nassistance which imagines that it can further the divine purpose by the\nexercise of violence and cruelty.\n\nIn all these ideas, Frederick was a couple of centuries ahead of his day.\nHis contemporaries shook their heads when the king gave his Catholic\nsubjects a piece of land that they might build themselves a church right\nin the heart of his capital. They began to murmur ominous words of\nwarning when he made himself the protector of the Jesuit order, which\nhad just been driven out of most Catholic countries, and they definitely\nceased to regard him as a Christian when he claimed that ethics and\nreligion had nothing to do with each other and that each man could\nbelieve whatever he pleased as long as he paid his taxes and served his\ntime in the army.\n\nBecause at that time they happened to live within the boundaries of\nPrussia, these critics held their peace, for His Majesty was a master\nof epigram and a witty remark on the margin of a royal rescript could\ndo strange things to the career of those who in some way or another had\nfailed to please him.\n\nThe fact however remains that it was the head of an unlimited monarchy,\nan autocrat of thirty years\u2019 standing, who gave Europe a first taste of\nalmost complete religious liberty.\n\nIn this distant corner of Europe, Protestant and Catholic and Jew and\nTurk and Agnostic enjoyed for the first time in their lives equal rights\nand equal prerogatives. Those who preferred to wear red coats could not\nlord it over their neighbors who preferred to wear green coats, and vice\nversa. And the people who went back for their spiritual consolation to\nNicaea were forced to live in peace and amity with others who would as\nsoon have supped with the Devil as with the Bishop of Rome.\n\nThat Frederick was entirely pleased with the outcome of his labors, that\nI rather doubt. When he felt his last hour approaching, he sent for his\nfaithful dogs. They seemed better company in this supreme hour than the\nmembers of \u201cthe so-called human race.\u201d (His Majesty was a columnist of no\nmean ability.)\n\nAnd so he died, another Marcus Aurelius who had strayed into the wrong\ncentury and who, like his great predecessor, left a heritage which was\nentirely too good for his successors.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV\n\nVOLTAIRE\n\n\nIn this day and age we hear a great deal of talk about the nefarious\nlabors of the press agent and many good people denounce \u201cpublicity\u201d\nas an invention of the modern devil of success, a new-fangled and\ndisreputable method of attracting attention to a person or to a cause.\nBut this complaint is as old as the hills. Events of the past, when\nexamined without prejudice, completely contradict the popular notion that\npublicity is something of recent origin.\n\nThe prophets of the Old Testament, both major and minor, were\npast-masters in the art of attracting a crowd. Greek history and Roman\nhistory are one long succession of what we people of the journalistic\nprofession call \u201cpublicity stunts.\u201d Some of that publicity was dignified.\nA great deal of it was of so patent and blatant a nature that today even\nBroadway would refuse to fall for it.\n\nReformers like Luther and Calvin fully understood the tremendous value of\ncarefully pre-arranged publicity. And we cannot blame them. They were not\nthe sort of men who could be happy growing humbly by the side of the road\nlike the blushing daisies. They were very much in earnest. They wanted\ntheir ideas to live. How could they hope to succeed without attracting a\ncrowd of followers?\n\nA Thomas \u00e0 Kempis can become a great moral influence by spending eighty\nyears in a quiet corner of a monastery, for such long voluntary exile,\nif duly advertised (as it was), becomes an excellent selling point and\nmakes people curious to see the little book which was born of a lifetime\nof prayer and meditation. But a Francis of Assisi or a Loyola, who hope\nto see some tangible results of their work while they are still on this\nplanet, must willy-nilly resort to methods now usually associated with a\ncircus or a new movie star.\n\nChristianity lays great stress upon modesty and praises those who are\nhumble of spirit. But the sermon which extols these virtues was delivered\nunder circumstances which have made it a subject of conversation to this\nvery day.\n\nNo wonder that those men and women who were denounced as the arch enemies\nof the Church took a leaf out of the Holy Book and resorted to certain\nrather obvious methods of publicity when they began their great fight\nupon the spiritual tyranny which held the western world in bondage.\n\nI offer this slight explanation because Voltaire, the greatest of all\nvirtuosos in the field of free advertisement, has very often been blamed\nfor the way in which he sometimes played upon the tom-tom of public\nconsciousness. Perhaps he did not always show the best of good taste. But\nthose whose lives he saved may have felt differently about it.\n\nAnd furthermore, just as the proof of the pudding is in the eating,\nthe success or failure of a man like Voltaire should be measured by\nthe services he actually rendered to his fellow-men and not by his\npredilection for certain sorts of dressing-gowns, jokes and wall-paper.\n\nIn an outburst of justifiable pride this strange creature once said,\n\u201cWhat of it if I have no scepter? I have got a pen.\u201d And right he was.\nHe had a pen. Any number of pens. He was the born enemy of the goose\nand used more quills than two dozen ordinary writers. He belonged to\nthat class of literary giants who all alone and under the most adverse\ncircumstances can turn out as much copy as an entire syndicate of modern\nsport writers. He scribbled on the tables of dirty country inns. He\ncomposed endless hexameters in the chilly guest-rooms of lonely country\nhouses. His scrawls littered the floors of dingy boarding-houses in\nGreenwich. He spattered ink upon the carpets of the royal Prussian\nresidence and used reams of the private stationery which bore the\nmonogram of the governor of the Bastille. Before he had ceased to play\nwith a hoop and marbles, Ninon de Lenclos had presented him with a\nconsiderable sum of pocket-money that he might \u201cbuy some books,\u201d and\neighty years later, in the self-same town of Paris, we hear him ask for\na pad of foolscap and unlimited coffee that he may finish yet one more\nvolume before the inevitable hour of darkness and rest.\n\nHis tragedies, however, and his stories, his poetry and his treatises\nupon philosophy and physics, do not entitle him to an entire chapter of\nthis book. He wrote no better verses than half a hundred other sonneteers\nof that era. As a historian he was both unreliable and dull, while his\nventures in the realm of science were no better than the sort of stuff we\nfind in the Sunday papers.\n\nBut as the brave and unyielding enemy of all that was stupid and narrow\nand bigoted and cruel, he wielded an influence which has endured until\nthe beginning of the Great Civil War of the year 1914.\n\nThe age in which he lived was a period of extremes. On the one hand, the\nutter selfishness and corruption of a religious, social and economic\nsystem which had long since outlived its usefulness. On the other side,\na large number of eager but overzealous young men and young women ready\nto bring about a millennium which was based upon nothing more substantial\nthan their good intentions. A humorous fate dropped this pale and sickly\nson of an inconspicuous notary public into this maelstrom of sharks and\npollywogs, and bade him sink or swim. He preferred to swim and struck\nout for shore. The methods he employed during his long struggle with\nadverse circumstances were often of a questionable nature. He begged and\nflattered and played the clown. But this was in the days before royalties\nand literary agents. And let the author who never wrote a potboiler throw\nthe first stone!\n\nNot that Voltaire would have been greatly worried by a few additional\nbricks. During a long and busy life devoted to warfare upon stupidity,\nhe had experienced too many defeats to worry about such trifles as a\npublic beating or a couple of well aimed banana peels. But he was a man\nof indomitable good cheer. If today he must spend his leisure hours in\nHis Majesty\u2019s prison, tomorrow he may find himself honored with a high\ntitulary position at the same court from which he has just been banished.\nAnd if all his life he is obliged to listen to angry village priests\ndenouncing him as the enemy of the Christian religion, isn\u2019t there\nsomewhere in a cupboard filled with old love letters that beautiful medal\npresented to him by the Pope to prove that he can gain the approbation of\nHoly Church as well as her disapproval?\n\nIt was all in the day\u2019s work.\n\nMeanwhile he fully intended to enjoy himself hugely and crowd his days\nand weeks and months and years with a strange and colorful assortment of\nthe most variegated experiences.\n\nBy birth Voltaire belonged to the better middle class. His father was\nwhat for the lack of a better term we might call a sort of private trust\ncompany. He was the confidential handy-man of a number of rich nobles\nand looked after their legal and financial interests. Young Arouet (for\nthat was the family name) was therefore accustomed to a society a little\nbetter than that of his own people, something which later in life gave\nhim a great advantage over most of his literary rivals. His mother was\na certain Mademoiselle d\u2019Aumard. She had been a poor girl who did not\nbring her husband a cent of dowry. But she was possessed of that small\n\u201cd\u2019\u201d which all Frenchmen of the middle classes (and all Europeans in\ngeneral and a few Americans in particular) regard with humble awe, and\nher husband thought himself pretty lucky to win such a prize. As for the\nson, he also basked in the reflected glory of his ennobled grandparents\nand as soon as he began to write, he exchanged the plebeian Fran\u00e7ois\nMarie Arouet for the more aristocratic Fran\u00e7ois Marie de Voltaire, but\nhow and where he hit upon this surname is still a good deal of a mystery.\nHe had a brother and a sister. The sister, who took care of him after\nhis mother\u2019s death, he loved very sincerely. The brother, on the other\nhand, a faithful priest of the Jansenist denomination, full of zeal and\nrectitude, bored him to distraction and was one of the reasons why he\nspent as little time as possible underneath the paternal shingles.\n\nFather Arouet was no fool and soon discovered that his little \u201cZozo\u201d\npromised to be a handful. Wherefore he sent him to the Jesuits that he\nmight become versed in Latin hexameters and Spartan discipline. The good\nfathers did their best by him. They gave their spindly-legged pupil a\nsound training in the rudiments of both the dead and living tongues. But\nthey found it impossible to eradicate a certain bump of \u201cqueerness\u201d\nwhich from the very beginning had set this child apart from the other\nscholars.\n\nAt the age of seventeen they willingly let him go, and to please his\nfather, young Fran\u00e7ois then took up the study of the law. Unfortunately\none could not read all day long. There were the long hours of the\nlazy evenings. These hours Fran\u00e7ois whiled away either writing funny\nlittle pieces for the local newspapers or reading his latest literary\ncompositions to his cronies in the nearest coffee-house. Two centuries\nago such a life was generally believed to lead straight to perdition.\nFather Arouet fully appreciated the danger his son was running. He went\nto one of his many influential friends and obtained for M. Fran\u00e7ois a\nposition as secretary to the French Legation at the Hague. The Dutch\ncapital, then as now, was exasperatingly dull. Out of sheer boredom\nVoltaire began a love affair with the not particularly attractive\ndaughter of a terrible old woman who was a society reporter. The lady,\nwho hoped to marry her darling to a more promising party, rushed to the\nFrench minister and asked him to please remove this dangerous Romeo\nbefore the whole city knew about the scandal. His Excellency had troubles\nenough of his own and was not eager for more. He bundled his secretary\ninto the next stage-coach for Paris and Fran\u00e7ois, without a job, once\nmore found himself at the mercy of his father.\n\nIn this emergency Ma\u00eetre Arouet bethought himself of an expedient which\nwas often used by such Frenchmen as had a friend at court. He asked and\nobtained a \u201clettre de cachet\u201d and placed his son before the choice of\nenforced leisure in a jail or industrious application in a law-school.\nThe son said that he would prefer the latter and promised that he would\nbe a model of industry and application. He was as good as his word and\napplied himself to the happy life of a free lance pamphleteer with such\nindustry that the whole town talked about it. This was not according to\nthe agreement with his papa and the latter was entirely within his rights\nwhen he decided to send his son away from the flesh-pots of the Seine and\npacked him off to a friend in the country, where the young man was to\nremain for a whole year.\n\nThere, with twenty-four hours leisure each day of the week (Sundays\nincluded) Voltaire began the study of letters in all seriousness and\ncomposed the first of his plays. After twelve months of fresh air and a\nvery healthy monotony, he was allowed to return to the scented atmosphere\nof the capital and at once made up for lost time by a series of lampoons\nupon the Regent, a nasty old man who deserved all that was said about him\nbut did not like this publicity the least little bit. Hence, a second\nperiod of exile in the country, followed by more scribbling and at last\na short visit to the Bastille. But prison in those days, that is to say,\nprison for young gentlemen of Voltaire\u2019s social prominence, was not a bad\nplace. One was not allowed to leave the premises but otherwise did pretty\nmuch as one pleased. And it was just what Voltaire needed. A lonely cell\nin the heart of Paris gave him a chance to do some serious work. When\nhe was released, he had finished several plays and these were performed\nwith such tremendous success that one of them broke all records of the\neighteenth century and ran for forty-five nights in succession.\n\nThis brought him some money (which he needed badly) but it also\nestablished his reputation as a wit, a most unfortunate thing for a\nyoung man who still has to make his career. For hereafter he was held\nresponsible for every joke that enjoyed a few hours\u2019 popularity on\nthe boulevards and in the coffee-houses. And incidentally it was the\nreason why he went to England and took a post-graduate course in liberal\nstatesmanship.\n\nIt happened in the year 1725. Voltaire had (or had not) been funny about\nthe old but otherwise useless family of de Rohan. The Chevalier de Rohan\nfelt that his honor had been assailed and that something must be done\nabout it. Of course, it was impossible for a descendant of the ancient\nrulers of Brittany to fight a duel with the son of a notary public and\nthe Chevalier delegated the work of revenge to his flunkeys.\n\nOne night Voltaire was dining with the Duc de Sully, one of his father\u2019s\ncustomers, when he was told that some one wished to speak to him outside.\nHe went to the door, was fallen upon by the lackeys of my Lord de Rohan\nand was given a sound beating. The next day the story was all over the\ntown. Voltaire, even on his best days, looked like the caricature of\na very ugly little monkey. What with his eyes blackened and his head\nbandaged, he was a fit subject for half a dozen popular reviews. Only\nsomething very drastic could save his reputation from an untimely death\nat the hands of the comic papers. And as soon as raw beefsteak had done\nits work, M. de Voltaire sent his witnesses to M. le Chevalier de Rohan\nand began his preparation for mortal combat by an intensive course in\nfencing.\n\nAlas! when the morning came for the great fight, Voltaire once more found\nhimself behind the bars. De Rohan, a cad unto the last, had given the\nduel away to the police, and the battling scribe remained in custody\nuntil, provided with a ticket for England, he was sent traveling in\na northwestern direction and was told not to return to France until\nrequested to do so by His Majesty\u2019s gendarmes.\n\nFour whole years Voltaire spent in and near London. The British kingdom\nwas not exactly a Paradise, but compared to France, it was a little bit\nof Heaven.\n\nA royal scaffold threw its shadow over the land. The thirtieth of January\nof the year 1649 was a date remembered by all those in high places. What\nhad happened to sainted King Charles might (under slightly modified\ncircumstances) happen to any one else who dared to set himself above\nthe law. And as for the religion of the country, of course the official\nchurch of the state was supposed to enjoy certain lucrative and agreeable\nadvantages, but those who preferred to worship elsewhere were left in\npeace and the direct influence of the clerical officials upon the affairs\nof state was, compared to France, almost negligible. Confessed Atheists\nand certain bothersome non-conformists might occasionally succeed in\ngetting themselves into jail, but to a subject of King Louis XV the\ngeneral condition of life in England must have seemed wellnigh perfect.\n\nIn 1729, Voltaire returned to France, but although he was permitted to\nlive in Paris, he rarely availed himself of that privilege. He was like\na scared animal, willing to accept bits of sugar from the hands of his\nfriends, but forever on the alert and ready to escape at the slightest\nsign of danger. He worked very hard. He wrote prodigiously and with a\nsublime disregard for dates and facts, and choosing for himself subjects\nwhich ran all the way from Lima, Peru, to Moscow, Russia, he composed a\nseries of such learned and popular histories, tragedies and comedies that\nat the age of forty he was by far the most successful man of letters of\nhis time.\n\nFollowed another episode which was to bring him into contact with a\ndifferent kind of civilization.\n\nIn distant Prussia, good King Frederick, yawning audibly among the yokels\nof his rustic court, sadly pined for the companionship of a few amusing\npeople. He felt a tremendous admiration for Voltaire and for years he had\ntried to induce him to come to Berlin. But to a Frenchman of the year\n1750 such a migration seemed like moving into the wilds of Virginia and\nit was not until Frederick had repeatedly raised the ante that Voltaire\nat last condescended to accept.\n\nHe traveled to Berlin and the fight was on. Two such hopeless egotists\nas the Prussian king and the French playwright could not possibly hope\nto live under one and the same roof without coming to hate each other.\nAfter two years of sublime disagreement, a violent quarrel about nothing\nin particular drove Voltaire back to what he felt inclined to call\n\u201ccivilization.\u201d\n\nBut he had learned another useful lesson. Perhaps he was right, and the\nFrench poetry of the Prussian king was atrocious. But His Majesty\u2019s\nattitude upon the subject of religious liberty left nothing to be desired\nand that was more than could be said of any other European monarch.\n\nAnd when at the age of almost sixty Voltaire returned to his native\nland, he was in no mood to accept the brutal sentences by which the\nFrench courts tried to maintain order without some very scathing words of\nprotest. All his life he had been greatly angered by man\u2019s unwillingness\nto use that divine spark of intelligence which the Lord on the sixth\nday of creation had bestowed upon the most sublime product of His\nhandiwork. He (Voltaire) hated and loathed stupidity in every shape, form\nand manner. The \u201cinfamous enemy\u201d against whom he directed most of his\nanger and whom, Cato-like, he was forever threatening to demolish, this\n\u201cinfamous enemy\u201d was nothing more or less than the lazy stupidity of the\nmass of the people who refused to think for themselves as long as they\nhad enough to eat and to drink and a place to sleep.\n\nFrom the days of his earliest childhood he had felt himself pursued by a\ngigantic machine which seemed to move through sheer force of lethargy and\ncombined the cruelty of Huitzilopochtli with the relentless persistency\nof Juggernaut. To destroy or at least upset this contraption become the\nobsession of his old years, and the French government, to give this\nparticular devil his due, ably assisted him in his efforts by providing\nthe world with a choice collection of legal scandals.\n\nThe first one occurred in the year 1761.\n\nIn the town of Toulouse in the southern part of France there lived a\ncertain Jean Calas, a shop-keeper and a Protestant. Toulouse had always\nbeen a pious city. No Protestant was there allowed to hold office or\nto be a doctor or a lawyer, a bookseller or a midwife. No Catholic was\npermitted to keep a Protestant servant. And on August 23rd and 24th\nof each year the entire community celebrated the glorious anniversary\nof the massacre of St. Bartholomew with a solemn feast of praise and\nthanksgiving.\n\nNotwithstanding these many disadvantages, Calas had lived all his life in\ncomplete harmony with his neighbors. One of his sons had turned Catholic,\nbut the father had continued to be on friendly terms with the boy and\nhad let it be known that as far as he was concerned, his children were\nentirely free to choose whatever religion pleased them best.\n\nBut there was a skeleton in the Calas closet. That was Marc Antony, the\noldest son. Marc was an unfortunate fellow. He wanted to be a lawyer but\nthat career was closed to Protestants. He was a devout Calvinist and\nrefused to change his creed. The mental conflict had caused an attack\nof melancholia and this in time seemed to prey upon the young man\u2019s\nmind. He began to entertain his father and mother with long recitations\nof Hamlet\u2019s well known soliloquy. He took long solitary walks. To his\nfriends he often spoke of the superior advantages of suicide.\n\nThis went on for some time and then one night, while the family was\nentertaining a friend, the poor boy slipped into his father\u2019s storeroom,\ntook a piece of packing rope and hanged himself from the doorpost.\n\nThere his father found him a few hours later, his coat and vest neatly\nfolded upon the counter.\n\nThe family was in despair. In those days the body of a person who had\ncommitted suicide was dragged nude and face downward through the streets\nof the town and was hanged on a gibbet outside the gate to be eaten by\nthe birds.\n\nThe Calas were respectable folks and hated to think of such a disgrace.\nThey stood around and talked of what they ought to do and what they were\ngoing to do until one of the neighbors, hearing the commotion, sent\nfor the police, and the scandal spreading rapidly, their street was\nimmediately filled with an angry crowd which loudly clamored for the\ndeath of old Calas \u201cbecause he had murdered his son to prevent him from\nbecoming a Catholic.\u201d\n\nIn a little town all things are possible and in a provincial nest of\neighteenth century France, with boredom like a black funeral pall hanging\nheavily upon the entire community, the most idiotic and fantastic yarns\nwere given credence with a sigh of profound and eager relief.\n\nThe high magistrates, fully aware of their duty under such suspicious\ncircumstances, at once arrested the entire family, their guests and\ntheir servants and every one who had recently been seen in or near the\nCalas home. They dragged their prisoners to the town hall, put them in\nirons and threw them into the dungeons provided for the most desperate\ncriminals. The next day they were examined. All of them told the same\nstory. How Marc Antony had come into the house in his usual spirits, how\nhe had left the room, how they thought that he had gone for one of his\nsolitary walks, etc., etc.\n\nBy this time, however, the clergy of the town of Toulouse had taken\na hand in the matter and with their help the dreadful news of this\nbloodthirsty Huguenot, who had killed one of his own children because he\nwas about to return to the true faith, had spread far and wide throughout\nthe land of Languedoc.\n\nThose familiar with modern methods of detecting crime might think that\nthe authorities would have spent that day inspecting the scene of the\nmurder. Marc Antony enjoyed quite a reputation as an athlete. He was\ntwenty-eight and his father was sixty-three. The chances of the father\nhaving hanged his son from his own doorpost without a struggle were\nsmall indeed. But none of the town councilors bothered about such little\ndetails. They were too busy with the body of the victim. For Marc Antony,\nthe suicide, had by now assumed the dignity of a martyr and for three\nweeks his corpse was kept at the town hall and thereupon it was most\nsolemnly buried by the White Penitents who for some mysterious reason had\nmade the defunct Calvinist an ex-officio member of their own order and\nwho conducted his embalmed remains to the Cathedral with the circumstance\nand the pomp usually reserved for an archbishop or an exceedingly rich\npatron of the local Basilica.\n\nDuring these three weeks, from every pulpit in town, the good people of\nToulouse had been urged to bring whatever testimony they could against\nthe person of Jean Calas and his family and finally, after the case had\nbeen thoroughly thrashed out in the public press, and five months after\nthe suicide, the trial began.\n\nOne of the judges in a moment of great lucidity suggested that the shop\nof the old man be visited to see whether such a suicide as he described\nwould have been possible, but he was overridden and with twelve votes\nagainst one, Calas was sentenced to be tortured and to be broken on the\nwheel.\n\nHe was taken to the torture room and was hanged by his wrists until his\nfeet were a meter from the ground. Then his body was stretched until the\nlimbs were \u201cdrawn from their sockets.\u201d (I am copying from the official\nreport.) As he refused to confess to a crime which he had not committed,\nhe was then taken down and was forced to swallow such vast quantities of\nwater that his body had soon \u201cswollen to twice its natural size.\u201d As he\npersisted in his diabolical refusal to confess his guilt, he was placed\non a tumbril and was dragged to the place of execution where his arms\nand legs were broken in two places by the executioner. During the next\ntwo hours, while he lay helpless on the block, magistrates and priests\ncontinued to bother him with their questions. With incredible courage the\nold man continued to proclaim his innocence. Until the chief justice,\nexasperated by such obstinate lying, gave him up as a hopeless case and\nordered him to be strangled to death.\n\nThe fury of the populace had by this time spent itself and none of the\nother members of the family were killed. The widow, deprived of all her\ngoods, was allowed to go into retirement and starve as best she could in\nthe company of her faithful maid. As for the children, they were sent to\ndifferent convents with the exception of the youngest who had been away\nat school at N\u00eemes at the time of his brother\u2019s suicide and who had\nwisely fled to the territory of the sovereign city of Geneva.\n\nThe case had attracted a great deal of attention. Voltaire in his castle\nof Ferney (conveniently built near the frontier of Switzerland so that a\nfew minutes\u2019 walk could carry him to foreign ground) heard of it but at\nfirst refused to be interested. He was forever at loggerheads with the\nCalvinist ministers of Geneva who regarded his private little theater\nwhich stood within sight of their own city as a direct provocation and\nthe work of Satan. Hence Voltaire, in one of his supercilious moods,\nwrote that he could not work up any enthusiasm for this so-called\nProtestant martyr, for if the Catholics were bad, how much worse those\nterribly bigoted Huguenots, who boycotted his plays! Besides, it\nseemed impossible to him (as to a great many other people) that twelve\nsupposedly respectable judges would have condemned an innocent man to\nsuch a terrible death without very good reason.\n\nBut a few days later the sage of Ferney, who kept open house to all\ncomers and no questions asked, had a visit from an honest merchant from\nMarseilles who had happened to be in Toulouse at the time of the trial\nand who was able to give him some first-hand information. Then at last he\nbegan to understand the horror of the crime that had been committed and\nfrom that moment on he could think of nothing else.\n\nThere are many sorts of courage, but a special order of merit is reserved\nfor those rare souls who, practically alone, dare to face the entire\nestablished order of society and who loudly cry for justice when the high\ncourts of the land have pronounced sentence and when the community at\nlarge has accepted their verdict as equitable and just.\n\nVoltaire well knew the storm that would break if he should dare to\naccuse the court of Toulouse of a judicial murder, and he prepared\nhis case as carefully as if he had been a professional attorney. He\ninterviewed the Calas boy who had escaped to Geneva. He wrote to every\none who could possibly know something of the inside of the case. He hired\ncounsel to examine and if possible to correct his own conclusions, lest\nhis anger and his indignation carry him away. And when he felt sure of\nhis ground, he opened his campaign.\n\nFirst of all he induced every man of some influence whom he knew within\nthe realm of France (and he knew most of them) to write to the Chancellor\nof the Kingdom and ask for a revision of the Calas case. Then he set\nabout to find the widow and as soon as she had been located, he ordered\nher to be brought to Paris at his own expense and engaged one of the\nbest known lawyers to look after her. The spirit of the woman had been\ncompletely broken. She vaguely prayed that she might get her daughters\nout of the convent before she died. Beyond that, her hopes did not extend.\n\nThen he got into communication with the other son who was a Catholic,\nmade it possible for him to escape from his school and to join him in\nGeneva. And finally he published all the facts in a short pamphlet\nentitled \u201cOriginal Documents Concerning the Calas Family,\u201d which\nconsisted of letters written by the survivors of the tragedy and\ncontained no reference whatsoever to Voltaire himself.\n\nAfterwards, too, during the revision of the case, he remained carefully\nbehind the scenes, but so well did he handle his publicity campaign that\nsoon the cause of the Calas family was the cause of all families in all\ncountries of Europe and that thousands of people everywhere (including\nthe King of England and the Empress of Russia) contributed to the funds\nthat were being raised to help the defense.\n\nEventually Voltaire gained his victory, but not until he had fought one\nof the most desperate battle of his entire career.\n\nThe throne of France just then was occupied by Louis XV of unsavory\nmemory. Fortunately his mistress hated the Jesuits and all their works\n(including the Church) with a most cordial hatred and was therefore\non the side of Voltaire. But the King loved his ease above all other\nthings and was greatly annoyed at all the fuss made about an obscure and\ndead Protestant. And of course as long as His Majesty refused to sign a\nwarrant for a new trial, the Chancellor would not take action, and as\nlong as the Chancellor would not take action, the tribunal of Toulouse\nwas perfectly safe and so strong did they feel themselves that they\ndefied public opinion in a most high-handed fashion and refused to let\nVoltaire or his lawyers have access to the original documents upon which\nthey had based their conviction.\n\nDuring nine terrible months, Voltaire kept up his agitation until finally\nin March of the year 1765 the Chancellor ordered the Tribunal of Toulouse\nto surrender all the records in the Calas case and moved that there be\na new trial. The widow of Jean Calas and her two daughters, who had at\nlast been returned to their mother, were present in Versailles when this\ndecision was made public. A year later the special court which had been\nordered to investigate the appeal reported that Jean Calas had been done\nto death for a crime which he had not committed. By herculean efforts the\nKing was induced to bestow a small gift of money upon the widow and her\nchildren. Furthermore the magistrates who had handled the Calas case were\ndeprived of their office and it was politely suggested to the people of\nToulouse that such a thing must not happen again.\n\nBut although the French government might take a lukewarm view of the\nincident, the people of France had been stirred to the very depths of\ntheir outraged souls. And suddenly Voltaire became aware that this was\nnot the only miscarriage of justice on record, that there were many\nothers who had suffered as innocently as Calas.\n\nIn the year 1760 a Protestant country squire of the neighborhood of\nToulouse had offered the hospitality of his house to a visiting Calvinist\nminister. For this hideous crime he had been deprived of his estate and\nhad been sent to the galleys for life. He must have been a terribly\nstrong man for thirteen years later he was still alive. Then Voltaire was\ntold of his plight. He set to work, got the unfortunate man away from\nthe galleys, brought him to Switzerland where his wife and children were\nbeing supported by public charity and looked after the family until the\ncrown was induced to surrender a part of the confiscated property and the\nfamily were given permission to return to their deserted homestead.\n\nNext came the case of Chaumont, a poor devil who had been caught at\nan open-air meeting of Protestants and who for that crime had been\ndispatched to the galleys for an indeterminate period, but who now, at\nthe intercession of Voltaire, was set free.\n\nThese cases, however, were merely a sort of grewsome hors d\u2019\u0153uvre to what\nwas to follow.\n\nOnce more the scene was laid in Languedoc, that long suffering part of\nFrance which after the extermination of the Albigensian and Waldensian\nheretics had been left a wilderness of ignorance and bigotry.\n\nIn a village near Toulouse there lived an old Protestant by the name of\nSirven, a most respectable citizen who made a living as an expert in\nmedieval law, a lucrative position at a time when the feudal judicial\nsystem had grown so complicated that ordinary rent-sheets looked like an\nincome tax blank.\n\nSirven had three daughters. The youngest was a harmless idiot, much given\nto brooding. In March of the year 1764 she left her home. The parents\nsearched far and wide but found no trace of the child until a few days\nlater when the bishop of the district informed the father that the girl\nhad visited him, had expressed a desire to become a nun and was now in a\nconvent.\n\nCenturies of persecution had successfully broken the spirit of the\nProtestants in that part of France. Sirven humbly answered that\neverything undoubtedly would be for the best in this worst of all\npossible worlds and meekly accepted the inevitable. But in the\nunaccustomed atmosphere of the cloister, the poor child had soon lost the\nlast vestiges of reason and when she began to make a nuisance of herself,\nshe was returned to her own people. She was then in a state of terrible\nmental depression and in such continual horror of voices and spooks that\nher parents feared for her life. A short time afterwards she once more\ndisappeared. Two weeks later her body was fished out of an old well.\n\nAt that time Jean Calas was up for trial and the people were in a mood\nto believe anything that was said against a Protestant. The Sirvens,\nremembering what had just happened to innocent Jean Calas, decided not\nto court a similar fate. They fled and after a terrible trip through\nthe Alps, during which one of their grandchildren froze to death, they\nat last reached Switzerland. They had not left a moment too soon. A few\nmonths later, both the father and the mother were found guilty (in their\nabsence) of the crime of having murdered their child and were ordered\nto be hanged. The daughters were condemned to witness the execution of\ntheir parents and thereafter to be banished for life.\n\nA friend of Rousseau brought the case to the notice of Voltaire and as\nsoon as the Calas affair came to an end, he turned his attention to the\nSirvens. The wife meanwhile had died. Remained the duty of vindicating\nthe husband. It took exactly seven years to do this. Once again the\ntribunal of Toulouse refused to give any information or to surrender\nany documents. Once more Voltaire had to beat the tom-tom of publicity\nand beg money from Frederick of Prussia and Catherine of Russia and\nPoniatowski of Poland before he could force the crown to take an\ninterest. But finally, in the seventy-eighth year of his own life and in\nthe eighth year of this interminable lawsuit, the Sirvens were exonerated\nand the survivors were allowed to go back to their homes.\n\nSo ended the second case.\n\nThe third one followed immediately.\n\nIn the month of August of the year 1765 in the town of Abbeville, not far\nfrom Amiens, two crucifixes that stood by the side of the road were found\nbroken to pieces by an unknown hand. Three young boys were suspected\nof this sacrilege and orders were given for their arrest. One of them\nescaped and went to Prussia. The others were caught. Of these, the older\none, a certain Chevalier de la Barre, was suspected of being an atheist.\nA copy of the Philosophical Dictionary, that famous work to which all the\ngreat leaders of liberal thought had contributed, was found among his\nbooks. This looked very suspicious and the judges decided to look into\nthe young man\u2019s past. It was true they could not connect him with the\nAbbeville case but had he not upon a previous occasion refused to kneel\ndown and uncover while a religious procession went by?\n\nDe la Barre said yes, but he had been in a hurry to catch a stage-coach\nand had meant no offense.\n\nThereupon he was tortured, and being young and bearing the pain less\neasily than old Calas, he readily confessed that he had mutilated one\nof the two crucifixes and was condemned to death for \u201cimpiously and\ndeliberately walking before the Host without kneeling or uncovering,\nsinging blasphemous songs, tendering marks of adoration to profane\nbooks,\u201d and other crimes of a similar nature which were supposed to have\nindicated a lack of respect for the Church.\n\nThe sentence was so barbarous (his tongue was to be torn out with hot\nirons, his right hand was to be cut off, and he was to be slowly burned\nto death, and all that only a century and a half ago!) that the public\nwas stirred into several expressions of disapproval. Even if he were\nguilty of all the things enumerated in the bill of particulars, one could\nnot butcher a boy for a drunken prank! Petitions were sent to the King,\nministers were besieged with requests for a respite. But the country was\nfull of unrest and there must be an example, and de la Barre, having\nundergone the same tortures as Calas, was taken to the scaffold, was\ndecapitated (as a sign of great and particular favor) and his corpse,\ntogether with his Philosophical Dictionary and some volumes by our old\nfriend Bayle, were publicly burned by the hangman.\n\nIt was a day of rejoicing for those who dreaded the ever-growing\ninfluence of the Sozzinis and the Spinozas and the Descartes. It showed\nwhat invariably happened to those ill-guided young men who left the\nnarrow path between the right and the wrong and followed the leadership\nof a group of radical philosophers.\n\nVoltaire heard this and accepted the challenge. He was fast approaching\nhis eightieth birthday, but he plunged into the case with all his old\nzeal and with a brain that burned with a clear white flame of outraged\ndecency.\n\nDe la Barre had been executed for \u201cblasphemy.\u201d First of all, Voltaire\ntried to discover whether there existed a law by which people guilty\nof that supposed crime could be condemned to death. He could not find\none. Then he asked his lawyer friends. They could not find one. And it\ngradually dawned upon the community that the judges in their unholy\neagerness had \u201cinvented\u201d this bit of legal fiction to get rid of their\nprisoner.\n\nThere had been ugly rumors at the time of de la Barre\u2019s execution. The\nstorm that now arose forced the judges to be very circumspect and the\ntrial of the third of the youthful prisoners was never finished. As for\nde la Barre, he was never vindicated. The review of the case dragged on\nfor years and when Voltaire died, no decision had as yet been reached.\nBut the blows which he had struck, if not for tolerance at least against\nintolerance, were beginning to tell.\n\nThe official acts of terror instigated by gossiping old women and senile\ncourts came to an end.\n\nTribunals that have religious axes to grind are only successful when they\ncan do their work in the dark and are able to surround themselves with\nsecrecy. The method of attack followed by Voltaire was one against which\nsuch courts had no means of defense.\n\nVoltaire turned on all the lights, hired a voluminous orchestra, invited\nthe public to attend, and then bade his enemies do their worst.\n\nAs a result, they did nothing at all.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVI\n\nTHE ENCYCLOPEDIA\n\n\nThere are three different schools of statesmanship. The first one teaches\na doctrine which reads somewhat as follows: \u201cOur planet is inhabited by\npoor benighted creatures who are unable to think for themselves, who\nsuffer mental agonies whenever they are obliged to make an independent\ndecision and who therefore can be led astray by the first ward-heeler\nthat comes along. Not only is it better for the world at large that these\n\u2018herd people\u2019 be ruled by some one who knows his own mind, but they\nthemselves, too, are infinitely happier when they do not have to bother\nabout parliaments and ballot-boxes and can devote all their time to their\nwork-shops, their children, their flivvers and their vegetable gardens.\u201d\n\nThe disciples of this school become emperors, sultans, sachems, sheiks\nand archbishops and they rarely regard labor unions as an essential part\nof civilization. They work hard and build roads, barracks, cathedrals and\njails.\n\nThe adherents of the second school of political thought argue as follows:\n\u201cThe average man is God\u2019s noblest invention. He is a sovereign in his own\nright, unsurpassed in wisdom, prudence and the loftiness of his motives.\nHe is perfectly capable of looking after his own interests, but those\ncommittees through which he tries to rule the universe are proverbially\nslow when it comes to handling delicate affairs of state. Therefore, the\nmasses ought to leave all executive business to a few trusted friends\nwho are not hampered by the immediate necessity of making a living and\nwho can devote all their time to the happiness of the people.\u201d\n\nNeedless to say the apostles of this glorious ideal are the logical\ncandidates for the job of oligarch, dictator, first consul and Lord\nprotector.\n\nThey work hard and build roads and barracks, but the cathedrals they turn\ninto jails.\n\nBut there is a third group of people. They contemplate man with the\nsober eye of science and accept him as he is. They appreciate his good\nqualities, they understand his limitations. They are convinced from a\nlong observation of past events that the average citizen, when not under\nthe influence of passion or self-interest, tries really very hard to do\nwhat is right. But they make themselves no false illusions. They know\nthat the natural process of growth is exceedingly slow, that it would be\nas futile to try and hasten the tides or the seasons as the growth of\nhuman intelligence. They are rarely invited to assume the government of\na state, but whenever they have a chance to put their ideas into action,\nthey build roads, improve the jails and spend the rest of the available\nfunds upon schools and universities. For they are such incorrigible\noptimists that they believe that education of the right sort will\ngradually rid this world of most of its ancient evils and is therefore a\nthing that ought to be encouraged at all costs.\n\nAnd as a final step towards the fulfillment of this ideal, they usually\nwrite an encyclopedia.\n\nLike so many other things that give evidence of great wisdom and profound\npatience, the encyclopedia-habit took its origin in China. The Chinese\nEmperor K\u2019ang-hi tried to make his subjects happy with an encyclopedia in\nfive thousand and twenty volumes.\n\nPliny, who introduced encyclopedias in the west, was contented with\nthirty-seven books.\n\nThe first fifteen hundred years of the Christian era produced nothing of\nthe slightest value along this line of enlightenment. A fellow-countryman\nof Saint Augustine, the African Felix Capella, wasted a great many years\nof his life composing something which he held to be a veritable treasure\nhouse of miscellaneous knowledge. In order that people might the more\neasily retain the many interesting facts which he presented to them, he\nused poetry. This terrible mass of misinformation was duly learned by\nheart by eighteen successive generations of medieval children and was\nheld by them to be the last word in the fields of literature, music and\nscience.\n\nTwo hundred years later a bishop of Sevilla by the name of Isidore wrote\nan entirely new encyclopedia and after that, the output increased at the\nregular rate of two for every hundred years. What has become of them\nall, I do not know. The book-worm (most useful of domestic animals) has\npossibly acted as our deliverer. If all these volumes had been allowed to\nsurvive, there would not be room for anything else on this earth.\n\nWhen at last during the first half of the eighteenth century, Europe\nexperienced a tremendous outbreak of intellectual curiosity, the\npurveyors of encyclopedias entered into a veritable Paradise. Such books,\nthen as now, were usually compiled by very poor scholars who could live\non eight dollars a week and whose personal services counted for less\nthan the money spent upon paper and ink. England especially was a great\ncountry for this sort of literature and so it was quite natural that John\nMills, a Britisher who lived in Paris, should think of translating the\nsuccessful \u201cUniversal Dictionary\u201d of Ephraim Chambers into the French\nlanguage that he might peddle his product among the subjects of good\nKing Louis and grow rich. For this purpose he associated himself with a\nGerman professor and then approached Lebreton, the king\u2019s printer, to do\nthe actual publishing. To make a long story short, Lebreton, who saw a\nchance to make a small fortune, deliberately swindled his partner and as\nsoon as he had frozen Mills and the Teuton doctor out of the enterprise,\ncontinued to publish the pirated edition on his own account. He called\nthe forthcoming work the \u201cEncyclop\u00e9die ou Dictionnaire Universel des Arts\net des Sciences\u201d and issued a series of beautiful prospectuses with such\na tremendous selling appeal that the list of subscribers was soon filled.\n\nThen he hired himself a professor of philosophy in the Coll\u00e8ge de France\nto act as his editor-in-chief, bought a lot of paper and awaited results.\n\nUnfortunately, the work of writing an encyclopedia did not prove as\nsimple as Lebreton had thought. The professor produced notes but no\narticles, the subscribers loudly clamored for Volume I and everything was\nin great disorder.\n\nIn this emergency Lebreton remembered that a \u201cUniversal Dictionary of\nMedicine\u201d which had appeared only a few months before had been very\nfavorably received. He sent for the editor of this medical handbook and\nhired him on the spot. And so it happened that a mere encyclopedia became\nthe \u201cEncyclop\u00e9die.\u201d For the new editor was no one less than Denis Diderot\nand the work which was to have been a hack job became one of the most\nimportant contributions of the eighteenth century towards the sum total\nof human enlightenment.\n\nDiderot at that time was thirty-seven years old and his life had been\nneither easy nor happy. He had refused to do what all respectable young\nFrenchmen were supposed to do and go to a university. Instead, as soon\nas he could get away from his Jesuit teachers, he had proceeded to Paris\nto become a man of letters. After a short period of starvation (acting\nupon the principle that two can go hungry just as cheaply as one) he\nhad married a lady who proved to be a terribly pious woman and an\nuncompromising shrew, a combination which is by no means as rare as some\npeople seem to believe. But as he was obliged to support her, he had been\nforced to take all sorts of odd jobs and to compile all sorts of books\nfrom \u201cInquiries concerning Virtue and Merit\u201d to a rather disreputable\nrehash of Boccaccio\u2019s \u201cDecameron.\u201d In his heart, however, this pupil of\nBayle remained faithful to his liberal ideals. Soon the government (after\nthe fashion of governments during times of stress) discovered that this\ninoffensive looking young author maintained grave doubts about the story\nof creation as rendered in the first chapter of Genesis and otherwise was\nconsiderable of a heretic. In consequence whereof Diderot was conducted\nto the prison of Vincennes and there held under lock and key for almost\nthree months.\n\nIt was after his release from jail that he entered the service of\nLebreton. Diderot was one of the most eloquent men of his time. He saw\nthe chance of a lifetime in the enterprise of which he was to be the\nhead. A mere rehash of Chambers\u2019 old material seemed entirely beneath his\ndignity. It was an era of tremendous mental activity. Very well! Let the\nEncyclopedia of Lebreton contain the latest word upon every conceivable\nsubject and let the articles be written by the foremost authorities in\nevery line of human endeavor.\n\nDiderot was so full of enthusiasm that he actually persuaded Lebreton to\ngive him full command and unlimited time. Then he made up a tentative\nlist of his co\u00f6perators, took a large sheet of foolscap and began, \u201cA:\nthe first letter of the alphabet, etc., etc.\u201d\n\nTwenty years later he reached the Z and the job was done. Rarely,\nhowever, has a man worked under such tremendous disadvantages. Lebreton\nhad increased his original capital when he hired Diderot, but he never\npaid his editor more than five hundred dollars per year. And as for the\nother people who were supposed to lend their assistance, well, we all\nknow how those things are. They were either busy just then, or they\nwould do it next month, or they had to go to the country to see their\ngrandmother. With the result that Diderot was obliged to do most of the\nwork himself while smarting under the abuse that was heaped upon him by\nthe officials of both the Church and the State.\n\nToday copies of his Encyclopedia are quite rare. Not because so many\npeople want them but because so many people are glad to get rid of\nthem. The book which a century and a half ago was howled down as a\nmanifestation of a pernicious radicalism reads today like a dull and\nharmless tract on the feeding of babies. But to the more conservative\nelement among the clergy of the eighteenth century, it sounded like a\nclarion call of destruction, anarchy, atheism and chaos.\n\nOf course, the usual attempts were made to denounce the editor-in-chief\nas an enemy of society and religion, a loose reprobate who believed\nneither in God, home or the sanctity of the family ties. But the Paris\nof the year 1770 was still an overgrown village where every one knew\nevery one else. And Diderot, who not only claimed that the purpose of\nlife was \u201cto do good and to find the truth,\u201d but who actually lived up\nto this motto, who kept open house for all those who were hungry, who\nlabored twenty hours a day for the sake of humanity and asked nothing in\nreturn but a bed, a writing desk and a pad of paper, this simple-minded,\nhard-working fellow was so shining an example of those virtues in which\nthe prelates and the monarchs of that day were so conspicuously lacking,\nthat it was not easy to attack him from that particular angle. And\nso the authorities contented themselves with making his life just as\nunpleasant as they possibly could by a continual system of espionage,\nby everlastingly snooping around the office, by raiding Diderot\u2019s home,\nby confiscating his notes and occasionally by suppressing the work\naltogether.\n\nThese obstructive methods, however, could not dampen his enthusiasm. At\nlast the work was finished and the \u201cEncyclop\u00e9die\u201d actually accomplished\nwhat Diderot had expected of it\u2014it became the rallying point for all\nthose who in one way or another felt the spirit of the new age and who\nknew that the world was desperately in need of a general overhauling.\n\nIt may seem that I have dragged the figure of the editor slightly out of\nthe true perspective.\n\nWho, after all, was this Denis Diderot, who wore a shabby coat, counted\nhimself happy when his rich and brilliant friend, the Baron D\u2019Holbach,\ninvited him to a square meal once a week, and who was more than satisfied\nwhen four thousand copies of his book were actually sold? He lived at the\nsame time as Rousseau and D\u2019Alembert and Turgot and Helv\u00e9tius and Volney\nand Condorcet and a score of others, all of whom gained a much greater\npersonal renown than he did. But without the Encyclop\u00e9die these good\npeople would never have been able to exercise the influence they did.\nIt was more than a book, it was a social and economic program. It told\nwhat the leading minds of the day were actually thinking. It contained a\nconcrete statement of those ideas that soon were to dominate the entire\nworld. It was a decisive moment in the history of the human race.\n\nFrance had reached a point where those who had eyes to see and ears to\nhear knew that something drastic must be done to avoid an immediate\ncatastrophe, while those who had eyes to see and ears to hear yet refused\nto use them, maintained with an equal display of stubborn energy that\npeace and order could only be maintained by a strict enforcement of a\nset of antiquated laws that belonged to the era of the Merovingians. For\nthe moment, those two parties were so evenly balanced that everything\nremained as it had always been and this led to strange complications.\nThe same France which on one side of the ocean played such a conspicuous\nr\u00f4le as the defender of liberty and freedom and addressed the most\naffectionate letters to Monsieur Georges Washington (who was a Free\nMason) and arranged delightful week-end parties for Monsieur le Ministre,\nBenjamin Franklin, who was what his neighbors used to call a \u201csceptic\u201d\nand what we call a plain atheist, this country on the other side of\nthe broad Atlantic stood revealed as the most vindictive enemy of all\nforms of spiritual progress and only showed her sense of democracy in\nthe complete impartiality with which she condemned both philosopher and\npeasant to a life of drudgery and privation.\n\nEventually all this was changed.\n\nBut it was changed in a way which no one had been able to foresee. For\nthe struggle that was to remove the spiritual and social handicaps of all\nthose who were born outside the royal purple was not fought by the slaves\nthemselves. It was the work of a small group of disinterested citizens\nwhom the Protestants, in their heart of hearts, hated quite as bitterly\nas their Catholic oppressors and who could count upon no other reward\nthan that which is said to await all honest men in Heaven.\n\nThe men who during the eighteenth century defended the cause of tolerance\nrarely belonged to any particular denomination. For the sake of personal\nconvenience they sometimes went through certain outward motions of\nreligious conformity which kept the gendarmes away from their writing\ndesks. But as far as their inner life was concerned, they might just as\nwell have lived in Athens in the fourth century B.C. or in China in the\ndays of Confucius.\n\nThey were often most regrettably lacking in a certain reverence for\nvarious things which most of their contemporaries held in great respect\nand which they themselves regarded as harmless but childish survivals of\na bygone day.\n\nThey took little stock in that ancient national history which the\nwestern world, for some curious reason, had picked out from among all\nBabylonian and Assyrian and Egyptian and Hittite and Chaldean records and\nhad accepted as a guide-book of morals and customs. But true disciples\nof their great master, Socrates, they listened only to the inner voice\nof their own conscience and regardless of consequences, they lived\nfearlessly in a world that had long since been surrendered to the timid.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVII\n\nTHE INTOLERANCE OF REVOLUTION\n\n\nThe ancient edifice of official glory and unofficial misery known as the\nKingdom of France came crashing down on a memorable evening in the month\nof August of the year of grace 1789.\n\nOn that hot and sultry night, after a week of increasing emotional fury,\nthe National Assembly worked itself into a veritable orgy of brotherly\nlove. Until in a moment of intense excitement the privileged classes\nsurrendered all those ancient rights and prerogatives which it had taken\nthem three centuries to acquire and as plain citizens declared themselves\nin favor of those theoretical rights of man which henceforth would be the\nfoundation-stone for all further attempts at popular self-government.\n\nAs far as France was concerned, this meant the end of the feudal system.\nAn aristocracy which is actually composed of the \u201caristoi,\u201d of the best\nof the most enterprising elements of society, which boldly assumes\nleadership and shapes the destinies of the common country, has a chance\nto survive. A nobility which voluntarily retires from active service and\ncontents itself with ornamental clerical jobs in diverse departments of\ngovernment is only fit to drink tea on Fifth Avenue or run restaurants on\nSecond.\n\nThe old France therefore was dead.\n\nWhether for better or for worse, I do not know.\n\nBut it was dead and with it there passed away that most outrageous form\nof an invisible government which the Church, ever since the days of\nRichelieu, had been able to impose upon the anointed descendants of Saint\nLouis.\n\nVerily, now as never before, mankind was given a chance.\n\nOf the enthusiasm which at that period filled the hearts and souls of all\nhonest men and women, it is needless to speak.\n\nThe millennium was close at hand, yea, it had come.\n\nAnd intolerance among the many other vices inherent in an autocratic form\nof government was for good and all to be eradicated from this fair earth.\n\nAllons, enfants de la patrie, the days of tyranny are gone!\n\nAnd more words to that effect.\n\nThen the curtain went down, society was purged of its many iniquities,\nthe cards were re-shuffled for a new deal and when it was all over,\nbehold our old friend Intolerance, wearing a pair of proletarian\npantaloons and his hair brushed \u00e0 la Robespierre, a-sitting side by side\nwith the public prosecutor and having the time of his wicked old life.\n\nTen years ago he had sent people to the scaffold for claiming that\nauthority maintaining itself solely by the grace of Heaven might\nsometimes be in error.\n\nNow he hustled them to their doom for insisting that the will of the\npeople need not always and invariably be the will of God.\n\nA ghastly joke!\n\nBut a joke paid for (after the nature of such popular fancies) with the\nblood of a million innocent bystanders.\n\nWhat I am about to say is unfortunately not very original. One can find\nthe same idea couched in different if more elegant words in the works of\nmany of the ancients.\n\nIn matters pertaining to man\u2019s inner life there are, and apparently\nthere always have been, and most likely there always will be two entirely\ndifferent varieties of human beings.\n\nA few, by dint of endless study and contemplation and the serious\nsearching of their immortal souls will be able to arrive at certain\ntemperate philosophical conclusions which will place them above and\nbeyond the common worries of mankind.\n\nBut the vast majority of the people are not contented with a mild diet of\nspiritual \u201clight wines.\u201d They want something with a kick to it, something\nthat burns on the tongue, that hurts the gullet, that will make them sit\nup and take notice. What that \u201csomething\u201d is does not matter very much,\nprovided it comes up to the above-mentioned specifications and is served\nin a direct and simple fashion and in unlimited quantities.\n\nThis fact seems to have been little understood by historians and\nthis has led to many and serious disappointments. No sooner has an\noutraged populace torn down the stronghold of the past (a fact duly and\nenthusiastically reported by the local Herodoti and Taciti), than it\nturns mason, carts the ruins of the former citadel to another part of the\ncity and there remolds them into a new dungeon, every whit as vile and\ntyrannical as the old one and used for the same purpose of repression and\nterror.\n\nThe very moment a number of proud nations have at last succeeded in\nthrowing off the yoke imposed upon them by an \u201cinfallible man\u201d they\naccept the dictates of an \u201cinfallible book.\u201d\n\nYea, on the very day when Authority, disguised as a flunkey, is madly\ngalloping to the frontier, Liberty enters the deserted palace, puts\non the discarded royal raiment and forthwith commits herself to those\nselfsame blunders and cruelties which have just driven her predecessor\ninto exile.\n\nIt is all very disheartening, but it is an honest part of our story and\nmust be told.\n\nNo doubt the intentions of those who were directly responsible for the\ngreat French upheaval were of the best. The Declaration of the Rights of\nMan had laid down the principle that no citizen should ever be disturbed\nin the peaceful pursuit of his ways on account of his opinion, \u201cnot even\nhis religious opinion,\u201d provided that his ideas did not disturb the\npublic order as laid down by the various decrees and laws.\n\nThis however did not mean equal rights for all religious denominations.\nThe Protestant faith henceforth was to be tolerated, Protestants were not\nto be annoyed because they worshiped in a different church from their\nCatholic neighbors, but Catholicism remained the official, the \u201cdominant\u201d\nChurch of the state.\n\nMirabeau, with his unerring instinct for the essentials of political\nlife, knew that this far famed concession was only a half-way measure.\nBut Mirabeau, who was trying to turn a great social cataclysm into a\none-man revolution, died under the effort and many noblemen and bishops,\nrepenting of their generous gesture of the night of the fourth of August,\nwere already beginning that policy of obstructionism which was to be of\nsuch fatal consequence to their master the king. And it was not until\ntwo years later in the year 1791 (and exactly two years too late for any\npractical purpose) that all religious sects including the Protestants and\nthe Jews, were placed upon a basis of absolute equality and were declared\nto enjoy the same liberty before the law.\n\nFrom that moment on, the r\u00f4les began to be reversed. The constitution\nwhich the representatives of the French people finally bestowed upon\nan expectant country insisted that all priests of whatsoever faith\nshould swear an oath of allegiance to the new form of government and\nshould regard themselves strictly as servants of the state, like the\nschool-teachers and postal employees and light-house keepers and customs\nofficials who were their fellow-citizens.\n\nPope Pius VI objected. The clerical stipulations of the new constitution\nwere in direct violation of every solemn agreement that had been\nconcluded between France and the Holy See since the year 1516. But the\nAssembly was in no mood to bother about such little trifles as precedents\nand treaties. The clergy must either swear allegiance to this decree\nor resign their positions and starve to death. A few bishops and a few\npriests accepted what seemed inevitable. They crossed their fingers and\nwent through the formality of an oath. But by far the greater number,\nbeing honest men, refused to perjure themselves and taking a leaf out\nof the book of those Huguenots whom they had persecuted during so many\nyears, they began to say mass in deserted stables and to give communion\nin pigsties, to preach their sermons behind country hedges and to pay\nclandestine visits to the homes of their former parishioners in the\nmiddle of the night.\n\nGenerally speaking, they fared infinitely better than the Protestants\nhad done under similar circumstances, for France was too hopelessly\ndisorganized to take more than very perfunctory measures against the\nenemies of her constitution. And as none of them seemed to run the risk\nof the galleys, the excellent clerics were soon emboldened to ask that\nthey, the non-jurors, the \u201crefractory ones\u201d as they were popularly\ncalled, be officially recognized as one of the \u201ctolerated sects\u201d and be\naccorded those privileges which during the previous three centuries\nthey had so persistently refused to grant to their compatriots of the\nCalvinist faith.\n\nThe situation, for those of us who look back at it from the safe distance\nof the year 1925, was not without a certain grim humor. But no definite\ndecision was taken, for the Assembly soon afterwards fell entirely under\nthe denomination of the extreme radicals and the treachery of the court,\ncombined with the stupidity of His Majesty\u2019s foreign allies, caused a\npanic which in less than a week spread from the coast of Belgium to the\nshores of the Mediterranean and which was responsible for that series of\nwholesale assassinations which raged from the second to the seventh of\nSeptember of the year 1792.\n\nFrom that moment on the Revolution was bound to degenerate into a reign\nof terror.\n\nThe gradual and evolutionary efforts of the philosophers came to naught\nwhen a starving populace began to suspect that their own leaders were\nengaged in a gigantic plot to sell the country to the enemy. The\nexplosion which then followed is common history. That the conduct\nof affairs in a crisis of such magnitude is likely to fall into the\nhands of unscrupulous and ruthless leaders is a fact with which every\nhonest student of history is sufficiently familiar. But that the\nprincipal actor in the drama should have been a prig, a model-citizen, a\nhundred-percenting paragon of Virtue, that indeed was something which no\none had been able to foresee.\n\nWhen France began to understand the true nature of her new master, it\nwas too late, as those who tried in vain to utter their belated words of\nwarning from the top of a scaffold in the Place de la Concorde could have\ntestified.\n\nThus far we have studied all revolutions from the point of view of\npolitics and economics and social organization. But not until the\nhistorian shall turn psychologist or the psychologist shall turn\nhistorian shall we really be able to explain and understand those dark\nforces that shape the destinies of nations in their hour of agony and\ntravail.\n\nThere are those who hold that the world is ruled by sweetness and light.\nThere are those who maintain that the human race respects only one\nthing, brute force. Some hundred years from now, I may be able to make a\nchoice. This much, however, seems certain to us, that the greatest of all\nexperiments in our sociological laboratory, the French revolution, was a\nnoisy apotheosis of violence.\n\nThose who had tried to prepare for a more humane world by way of reason\nwere either dead or were put to death by the very people whom they had\nhelped to glory. And with the Voltaires and Diderots and the Turgots\nand the Condorcets out of the way, the untutored apostles of the New\nPerfection were left the undisputed masters of their country\u2019s fate. What\na ghastly mess they made of their high mission!\n\nDuring the first period of their rule, victory lay with the out-and-out\nenemies of religion, those who had some particular reason to detest the\nvery symbols of Christianity; those who in some silent and hidden way had\nsuffered so deeply in the old days of clerical supremacy that the mere\nsight of a cassock drove them into a frenzy of hate and that the smell of\nincense made them turn pale with long forgotten rage. Together with a few\nothers who believed that they could disprove the existence of a personal\nGod with the help of mathematics and chemistry, they set about to destroy\nthe Church and all her works. A hopeless and at best an ungrateful task\nbut it is one of the characteristics of revolutionary psychology that the\nnormal becomes abnormal and the impossible is turned into an every day\noccurrence. Hence a paper decree of the Convention abolishing the old\nChristian calendar; abolishing all saints\u2019 days; abolishing Christmas and\nEaster; abolishing weeks and months and re-dividing the year into periods\nof ten days each with a new pagan Sabbath on every tenth. Hence another\npaper pronunciamento which abolished the worship of God and left the\nuniverse without a master.\n\nBut not for long.\n\nHowever eloquently explained and defended within the bare rooms of the\nJacobin club, the idea of a limitless and empty void was too repellent to\nmost citizens to be tolerated for more than a couple of weeks. The old\nDeity no longer satisfied the masses. Why not follow the example of Moses\nand Mahomet and invent a new one that should suit the demands of the\ntimes?\n\nAs a result, behold the Goddess of Reason!\n\nHer exact status was to be defined later. In the meantime a comely\nactress, properly garbed in ancient Greek draperies, would fill the bill\nperfectly. The lady was found among the dancers of his late Majesty\u2019s\ncorps de ballet and at the proper hour was most solemnly conducted to the\nhigh altar of Notre Dame, long since deserted by the loyal followers of\nan older faith.\n\nAs for the blessed Virgin who, during so many centuries, had stood a\ntender watch over all those who had bared the wounds of their soul before\nthe patient eyes of perfect understanding, she too was gone, hastily\nhidden by loving hands before she be sent to the limekilns and be turned\ninto mortar. Her place had been taken by a statue of Liberty, the proud\nproduct of an amateur sculptor and done rather carelessly in white\nplaster. But that was not all. Notre Dame had seen other innovations. In\nthe middle of the choir, four columns and a roof indicated a \u201cTemple\nof Philosophy\u201d which upon state occasions was to serve as a throne for\nthe new dancing divinity. When the poor girl was not holding court and\nreceiving the worship of her trusted followers, the Temple of Philosophy\nharbored a \u201cTorch of Truth\u201d which to the end of all time was to carry\nhigh the burning flame of world enlightenment.\n\nThe \u201cend of time\u201d came before another six months.\n\nOn the morning of the seventh of May of the year 1794 the French people\nwere officially informed that God had been re\u00ebstablished and that the\nimmortality of the soul was once more a recognized article of faith. On\nthe eighth of June, the new Supreme Being (hastily constructed out of the\nsecond-hand material left behind by the late Jean Jacques Rousseau) was\nofficially presented to his eager disciples.\n\nRobespierre in a new blue waistcoat delivered the address of welcome. He\nhad reached the highest point of his career. The obscure law clerk from\na third rate country town had become the high priest of the Revolution.\nMore than that, a poor demented nun by the name of Catherine Th\u00e9ot,\nrevered by thousands as the true mother of God, had just proclaimed the\nforthcoming return of the Messiah and she had even revealed his name.\nIt was Maximilian Robespierre; the same Maximilian who in a fantastic\nuniform of his own designing was proudly dispensing reams of oratory in\nwhich he assured God that from now on all would be well with His little\nworld.\n\nAnd to make doubly sure, two days later he passed a law by which those\nsuspected of treason and heresy (for once more they were held to be the\nsame, as in the good old days of the Inquisition) were deprived of all\nmeans of defense, a measure so ably conceived that during the next six\nweeks more than fourteen hundred people lost their heads beneath the\nslanting knife of the guillotine.\n\nThe rest of his story is only too well known.\n\nAs Robespierre was the perfect incarnation of all he himself held to be\nGood (with a capital G) he could, in his quality of a logical fanatic,\nnot possibly recognize the right of other men, less perfect, to exist on\nthe same planet with himself. As time went by, his hatred of Evil (with a\ncapital E) took on such proportions that France was brought to the brink\nof depopulation.\n\nThen at last, and driven by fear of their own lives, the enemies of\nVirtue struck back and in a short but desperate struggle destroyed this\nTerrible Apostle of Rectitude.\n\nSoon afterwards the force of the Revolution had spent itself. The\nconstitution which the French people then adopted recognized the\nexistence of different denominations and gave them the same rights\nand privileges. Officially at least the Republic washed her hands of\nall religion. Those who wished to form a church, a congregation, an\nassociation, were free to do so but they were obliged to support their\nown ministers and priests and recognize the superior rights of the state\nand the complete freedom of choice of the individual.\n\nEver since, the Catholics and Protestants in France have lived peacefully\nside by side.\n\nIt is true that the Church never recognized her defeat, continues to deny\nthe principle of a division of state and church (see the decree of Pope\nPius IX of December 8th, 1864) and has repeatedly tried to come back\nto power by supporting those political parties who hope to upset the\nrepublican form of government and bring back the monarchy or the empire.\nBut these battles are usually fought in the private parlors of some\nminister\u2019s wife, or in the rabbit-shooting-lodge of a retired general\nwith an ambitious mother-in-law.\n\nThey have thus far provided the funny papers with some excellent material\nbut they are proving themselves increasingly futile.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVIII\n\nLESSING\n\n\nOn the twentieth of September of the year 1792 a battle was fought\nbetween the armies of the French Revolution and the armies of the\nallied monarchs who had set forth to annihilate the terrible monster of\ninsurrection.\n\nIt was a glorious victory, but not for the allies. Their infantry could\nnot be employed on the slippery hillsides of the village of Valmy. The\nbattle therefore consisted of a series of solemn broadsides. The rebels\nfired harder and faster than the royalists. Hence the latter were the\nfirst to leave the field. In the evening the allied troops retreated\nnorthward. Among those present at the engagement was a certain Johann\nWolfgang von Goethe, aide to the hereditary Prince of Weimar.\n\nSeveral years afterwards this young man published his memoirs of that\nday. While standing ankle-deep in the sticky mud of Lorraine, he had\nturned prophet. And he had predicted that after this cannonade, the world\nwould never be the same. He had been right. On that ever memorable day,\nSovereignty by the grace of God was blown into limbo. The Crusaders of\nthe Rights of Man did not run like chickens, as they had been expected to\ndo. They stuck to their guns. And they pushed those guns forward through\nvalleys and across mountains until they had carried their ideal of\n\u201cLiberty, Equality and Fraternity\u201d to the furthermost corners of Europe\nand had stabled their horses in every castle and church of the entire\ncontinent.\n\nIt is easy enough for us to write that sort of sentence. The\nrevolutionary leaders have been dead for almost one hundred and fifty\nyears and we can poke as much fun at them as we like. We can even be\ngrateful for the many good things which they bestowed upon this world.\n\nBut the men and women who lived through those days, who one morning had\ngaily danced around the Tree of Liberty and then during the next three\nmonths had been chased like rats through the sewers of their own city,\ncould not possibly take such a detached view of those problems of civic\nupheaval. As soon as they had crept out of their cellars and garrets\nand had combed the cobwebs out of their perukes, they began to devise\nmeasures by which to prevent a reoccurrence of so terrible a calamity.\n\nBut in order to be successful reactionaries, they must first of all bury\nthe past. Not a vague past in the broad historical sense of the word but\ntheir own individual \u201cpasts\u201d when they had surreptitiously read the works\nof Monsieur de Voltaire and had openly expressed their admiration for\nthe Encyclop\u00e9die. Now the assembled works of Monsieur de Voltaire were\nstored away in the attic and those of Monsieur Diderot were sold to the\njunk-man. Pamphlets that had been reverently read as the true revelation\nof reason were relegated to the coal-bin and in every possible way an\neffort was made to cover up the tracks that betrayed a short sojourn in\nthe realm of liberalism.\n\nAlas, as so often happens in a case like that when all the literary\nmaterial has been carefully destroyed, the repentant brotherhood\noverlooked one item which was even more important as a telltale of the\npopular mind. That was the stage. It was a bit childish on the part of\nthe generation that had thrown whole cartloads of bouquets at \u201cThe\nMarriage of Figaro\u201d to claim that they had never for a moment believed\nin the possibilities of equal rights for all men, and the people who had\nwept over \u201cNathan the Wise\u201d could never successfully prove that they\nhad always regarded religious tolerance as a misguided expression of\ngovernmental weakness.\n\nThe play and its success were there to convict them of the opposite.\n\nThe author of this famous key play to the popular sentiment of the\nlatter half of the eighteenth century was a German, one Gotthold Ephraim\nLessing. He was the son of a Lutheran clergyman and had studied theology\nin the University of Leipzig. But he had felt little inclination for a\nreligious career and had played hooky so persistently that his father\nheard of it, had told him to come home and had placed him before\nthe choice of immediate resignation from the university or diligent\napplication as a member of the medical department. Gotthold, who was no\nmore of a doctor than a clergyman, promised everything that was asked\nof him, returned to Leipzig, went surety for some of his beloved actor\nfriends and upon their subsequent disappearance from town was obliged to\nhasten to Wittenberg that he might escape arrest for debt.\n\nHis flight meant the beginning of a period of long walks and short meals.\nFirst of all he went to Berlin where he spent several years writing badly\npaid articles for a number of theatrical papers. Then he engaged himself\nas private secretary to a rich friend who was going to take a trip around\nthe world. But no sooner had they started than the Seven Years\u2019 war must\nbreak out. The friend, obliged to join his regiment, had taken the first\npost-chaise for home and Lessing, once more without a job, found himself\nstranded in the city of Leipzig.\n\nBut he was of a sociable nature and soon found a new friend in the person\nof one Eduard Christian von Kleist, an officer by day and a poet by\nnight, a sensitive soul who gave the hungry ex-theologian insight into\nthe new spirit that was slowly coming over this world. But von Kleist was\nshot to death in the battle of Kunersdorf and Lessing was driven to such\ndire extremes of want that he became a columnist.\n\nThen followed a period as private secretary to the commander of the\nfortress of Breslau where the boredom of garrison life was mitigated by a\nprofound study of the works of Spinoza which then, a hundred years after\nthe philosopher\u2019s death, were beginning to find their way to foreign\ncountries.\n\nAll this, however, did not settle the problem of the daily Butterbrod.\nLessing was now almost forty years old and wanted a home of his own. His\nfriends suggested that he be appointed keeper of the Royal Library. But\nyears before, something had happened that had made Lessing persona non\ngrata at the Prussian court. During his first visit to Berlin he had made\nthe acquaintance of Voltaire. The French philosopher was nothing if not\ngenerous and being a person without any idea of \u201csystem\u201d he had allowed\nthe young man to borrow the manuscript of the \u201cCentury of Louis XIV,\u201d\nthen ready for publication. Unfortunately, Lessing, when he hastily left\nBerlin, had (entirely by accident) packed the manuscript among his own\nbelongings. Voltaire, exasperated by the bad coffee and the hard beds\nof the penurious Prussian court, immediately cried out that he had been\nrobbed. The young German had stolen his most important manuscript, the\npolice must watch the frontier, etc., etc., etc., after the manner of an\nexcited Frenchman in a foreign country. Within a few days the postman\nreturned the lost document, but it was accompanied by a letter from\nLessing in which the blunt young Teuton expressed his own ideas of people\nwho would dare to suspect his honesty.\n\nThis storm in a chocolate-pot might have easily been forgotten, but the\neighteenth century was a period when chocolate-pots played a great r\u00f4le\nin the lives of men and women and Frederick, even after a lapse of almost\ntwenty years, still loved his pesky French friend and would not hear of\nhaving Lessing at his court.\n\nAnd so farewell to Berlin and off to Hamburg, where there was rumor of a\nnewly to be founded national theater. This enterprise came to nothing and\nLessing in his despair accepted the office of librarian to the hereditary\ngrand duke of Brunswick. The town of Wolfenb\u00fcttel which then became\nhis home was not exactly a metropolis, but the grand-ducal library was\none of the finest in all Germany. It contained more than ten thousand\nmanuscripts and several of these were of prime importance in the history\nof the Reformation.\n\nBoredom of course is the main incentive to scandal mongering and gossip.\nIn Wolfenb\u00fcttel a former art critic, columnist and dramatic essayist was\nby this very fact a highly suspicious person and soon Lessing was once\nmore in trouble. Not because of anything he had done but on account of\nsomething he was vaguely supposed to have done, to wit: the publication\nof a series of articles attacking the orthodox opinions of the old school\nof Lutheran theology.\n\nThese sermons (for sermons they were) had actually been written by a\nformer Hamburg minister, but the grand duke of Brunswick, panic stricken\nat the prospect of a religious war within his domains, ordered his\nlibrarian to be discreet and keep away from all controversies. Lessing\ncomplied with the wishes of his employer. Nothing, however, had been\nsaid about treating the subject dramatically and so he set to work to\nre-valuate his opinions in terms of the stage.\n\nThe play which was born out of this small-town rumpus was called \u201cNathan\nthe Wise.\u201d The theme was very old and I have mentioned it before in this\nbook. Lovers of literary antiquities can find it (if Mr. Sumner will\nallow them) in Boccaccio\u2019s \u201cDecameron\u201d where it is called the \u201cSad Story\nof the Three Rings\u201d and where it is told as follows:\n\nOnce upon a time a Mohammedan prince tried to extract a large sum of\nmoney from one of his Jewish subjects. But as he had no valid reason to\ndeprive the poor man of his property, he bethought himself of a ruse.\nHe sent for the victim and having complimented him gracefully upon his\nlearning and wisdom, he asked him which of the three most widely spread\nreligions, the Turkish, the Jewish and the Christian, he held to be most\ntrue. The worthy patriarch did not answer the Padishah directly but said,\n\u201cLet me, oh great Sultan, tell you a little story. Once upon a time there\nwas a very rich man who had a beautiful ring and he made a will that\nwhichever of his sons at the time of his death should be found with that\nring upon his finger should fall heir to all his estates. His son made\na like will. His grandson too, and for centuries the ring changed hands\nand all was well. But finally it happened that the owner of the ring\nhad three sons whom he loved equally well. He simply could not decide\nwhich of the three should own that much valued treasure. So he went to a\ngoldsmith and ordered him to make two other rings exactly like the one\nhe had. On his death-bed he sent for his children and gave them each his\nblessing and what they supposed was the one and only ring. Of course, as\nsoon as the father had been buried, the three boys all claimed to be his\nheir because they had The Ring. This led to many quarrels and finally\nthey laid the matter before the Kadi. But as the rings were absolutely\nalike, even the judges could not decide which was the right one and so\nthe case has been dragged on and on and very likely will drag on until\nthe end of the world. Amen.\u201d\n\nLessing used this ancient folk-tale to prove his belief that no one\nreligion possessed a monopoly of the truth, that it was the inner spirit\nof man that counted rather than his outward conformity to certain\nprescribed rituals and dogmas and that therefore it was the duty of\npeople to bear with each other in love and friendship and that no one had\nthe right to set himself upon a high pedestal of self-assured perfection\nand say, \u201cI am better than all others because I alone possess the Truth.\u201d\n\nBut this idea, much applauded in the year 1778, was no longer popular\nwith the little princelings who thirty years later returned to salvage\nsuch goods and chattels as had survived the deluge of the Revolution. For\nthe purpose of regaining their lost prestige, they abjectly surrendered\ntheir lands to the rule of the police-sergeant and expected the clerical\ngentlemen who depended upon them for their livelihood to act as a\nspiritual militia and help the regular cops to re\u00ebstablish law and order.\n\nBut whereas the purely political reaction was completely successful, the\nattempt to reshape men\u2019s minds after the pattern of fifty years before\nended in failure. And it could not be otherwise. It was true that the\nvast majority of the people in all countries were sick and tired of\nrevolution and unrest, of parliaments and futile speeches and forms of\ntaxation that had completely ruined commerce and industry. They wanted\npeace. Peace at any price. They wanted to do business and sit in their\nown front parlors and drink coffee and not be disturbed by the soldiers\nbilleted upon them and forced to drink an odious extract of oak-leaves.\nProvided they could enjoy this blessed state of well-being, they were\nwilling to put up with certain small inconveniences such as saluting\nwhoever wore brass buttons, bowing low before every imperial letter-box\nand saying \u201cSir\u201d to every assistant official chimney-sweep.\n\nBut this attitude of humble obedience was the result of sheer necessity,\nof the need for a short breathing space after the long and tumultuous\nyears when every new morning brought new uniforms, new political\nplatforms, new police regulations and new rulers, both of Heaven and\nearth. It would be erroneous, however, to conclude from this general air\nof subservience, from this loud hurray-ing for the divinely appointed\nmasters, that the people in their heart of hearts had forgotten the new\ndoctrines which the drums of Sergeant Le Grand had so merrily beaten into\ntheir heads and hearts.\n\nAs their governments, with that moral cynicism inherent in all\nreactionary dictatorships, insisted chiefly upon an outward semblance\nof decency and order and cared not one whit for the inner spirit, the\naverage subject enjoyed a fairly wide degree of independence. On Sunday\nhe went to church with a large Bible under his arm. The rest of the week\nhe thought as he pleased. Only he held his tongue and kept his private\nopinions to himself and aired his views when a careful inspection of the\npremises had first assured him that no secret agent was hidden underneath\nthe sofa or was lurking behind the tile stove. Then however he discussed\nthe events of the day with great gusto and sadly shook his head when\nhis duly censored, fumigated and sterilized newspaper told him what new\nidiotic measures his masters had taken to assure the peace of the realm\nand bring about a return to the status quo of the year of grace 1600.\n\nWhat his masters were doing was exactly what similar masters with\nan imperfect knowledge of the history of human nature under similar\ncircumstances have been doing ever since the year one. They thought that\nthey had destroyed free speech when they ordered the removal of the\ncracker-barrels from which the speeches that had so severely criticized\ntheir government had been made. And whenever they could, they sent the\noffending orators to jail with such stiff sentences (forty, fifty, a\nhundred years) that the poor devils gained great renown as martyrs,\nwhereas in most instances they were scatter-brained idiots who had read a\nfew books and pamphlets which they had failed to understand.\n\nWarned by this example, the others kept away from the public parks and\ndid their grumbling in obscure wine shops or in the public lodging houses\nof overcrowded cities where they were certain of a discreet audience and\nwhere their influence was infinitely more harmful than it would have been\non a public platform.\n\nThere are few things more pathetic in this world than the man upon whom\nthe Gods in their wisdom have bestowed a little bit of authority and who\nis in eternal fear for his official prestige. A king may lose his throne\nand may laugh at a misadventure which means a rather amusing interruption\nof a life of dull routine. And anyway he is a king, whether he wears\nhis valet\u2019s brown derby or his grandfather\u2019s crown. But the mayor of a\nthird rate town, once he has been deprived of his gavel and his badge of\noffice, is just plain Bill Smith, a ridiculous fellow who gave himself\nairs and who is now laughed at for his troubles. Therefore woe unto\nhim who dares to approach such a potentate pro tem without visible\nmanifestations of that reverence and worship due to so exalted a human\nbeing.\n\nBut those who did not stop at burgomasters, but who openly questioned the\nexisting order of things in learned tomes and handbooks of geology and\nanthropology and economics, fared infinitely worse.\n\nThey were instantly and dishonorably deprived of their livelihood. Then\nthey were exiled from the town in which they had taught their pernicious\ndoctrines and with their wives and children were left to the charitable\nmercies of the neighbors.\n\nThis outbreak of the reactionary spirit caused great inconvenience to a\nlarge number of perfectly sincere people who were honestly trying to go\nto the root of our many social ills. Time, however, the great laundress,\nhas long since removed whatever spots the local police magistrates\nwere able to detect upon the professorial garments of these amiable\nscholars. Today, King Frederick William of Prussia is chiefly remembered\nbecause he interfered with the teachings of Emanuel Kant, that dangerous\nradical who taught that the maxims of our own actions must be worthy of\nbeing turned into universal laws and whose doctrines, according to the\npolice reports, appealed only to \u201cbeardless youths and idle babblers.\u201d\nThe Duke of Cumberland has gained lasting notoriety because as King of\nHanover he exiled a certain Jacob Grimm who had signed a protest against\n\u201cHis Majesty\u2019s unlawful abrogation of the country\u2019s constitution.\u201d And\nMetternich has retained a certain notoriety because he extended his\nwatchful suspicion to the field of music and once censored the music of\nSchubert.\n\nPoor old Austria!\n\nNow that it is dead and gone, all the world feels kindly disposed towards\nthe \u201cgay empire\u201d and forgets that once upon a time it had an active\nintellectual life of its own and was something more than an amusing and\nwell-mannered county-fair with excellent and cheap wine, atrocious cigars\nand the most enticing of waltzes, composed and conducted by no one less\nthan Johann Strauss himself.\n\nWe may go even further and state that during the entire eighteenth\ncentury Austria played a very important r\u00f4le in the development of the\nidea of religious tolerance. Immediately after the Reformation the\nProtestants had found a fertile field for their operations in the rich\nprovince between the Danube and the Carpathian Mountains. But this had\nchanged when Rudolf II became emperor.\n\nThis Rudolf was a German version of Spanish Philip, a ruler to whom\ntreaties made with heretics were of no consequence whatsoever. But\nalthough educated by the Jesuits, he was incurably lazy and this saved\nhis empire from too drastic a change of policy.\n\nThat came when Ferdinand II was chosen emperor. This monarch\u2019s chief\nqualification for office was the fact that he alone among all the\nHabsburgs was possessed of a few sons. Early during his reign he had\nvisited the famous House of the Annunciation, bodily moved in the year\n1291 by a number of angels from Nazareth to Dalmatia and hence to central\nItaly, and there in an outburst of religious fervor he had sworn a dire\noath to make his country one-hundred-percent Catholic.\n\nHe had been as good as his word. In the year 1629 Catholicism once more\nwas proclaimed the official and exclusive faith of Austria and Styria and\nBohemia and Silesia.\n\nHungary having been meanwhile married into that strange family, which\nacquired vast quantities of European real estate with every new wife, an\neffort was made to drive the Protestants from their Magyar strongholds.\nBut backed up by the Transylvanians, who were Unitarians, and by the\nTurks, who were heathen, the Hungarians were able to maintain their\nindependence until the second half of the eighteenth century. And by that\ntime a great change had taken place in Austria itself.\n\nThe Habsburgs were loyal sons of the Church, but at last even their\nsluggish brains grew tired of the constant interference with their\naffairs on the part of the Popes and they were willing for once to risk a\npolicy contrary to the wishes of Rome.\n\nIn an earlier part of this book I have already told how many medieval\nCatholics believed that the organization of the Church was all wrong.\nIn the days of the martyrs, these critics argued, the Church was a true\ndemocracy ruled by elders and bishops who were appointed by common\nconsent of all the parishioners. They were willing to concede that the\nBishop of Rome, because he claimed to be the direct successor of the\nApostle Peter, had been entitled to a favorite position in the councils\nof the Church, but they insisted that this power had been purely honorary\nand that the popes therefore should never have considered themselves\nsuperior to the other bishops and should not have tried to extend their\ninfluence beyond the confines of their own territory.\n\nThe popes from their side had fought this idea with all the bulls,\nanathemas and excommunications at their disposal and several brave\nreformers had lost their lives as a result of their bold agitation for\ngreater clerical decentralization.\n\nThe question had never been definitely settled, and then during\nthe middle of the eighteenth century, the idea was revived by the\nvicar-general of the rich and powerful archbishop of Trier. His name\nwas Johann von Hontheim, but he is better known by his Latin pseudonym\nof Febronius. Hontheim had enjoyed the advantages of a very liberal\neducation. After a few years spent at the University of Louvain he had\ntemporarily forsaken his own people and had gone to the University\nof Leiden. He got there at a time when that old citadel of undiluted\nCalvinism was beginning to be suspected of liberal tendencies. This\nsuspicion had ripened into open conviction when Professor Gerard Noodt,\na member of the legal faculty, had been allowed to enter the field of\ntheology and had been permitted to publish a speech in which he had\nextolled the ideal of religious tolerance.\n\nHis line of reasoning had been ingenious, to say the least.\n\n\u201cGod is allpowerful,\u201d so he had said. \u201cGod is able to lay down certain\nlaws of science which hold good for all people at all times and under all\nconditions. It follows that it would have been very easy for him, had\nhe desired to do so, to guide the minds of men in such a fashion that\nthey all of them should have had the same opinions upon the subject of\nreligion. We know that He did not do anything of the sort. Therefore, we\nact against the express will of God if we try to coerce others by force\nto believe that which we ourselves hold to be true.\u201d\n\nWhether Hontheim was directly influenced by Noodt or not, it is hard to\nsay. But something of that same spirit of Erasmian rationalism can be\nfound in those works of Hontheim in which he afterwards developed his own\nideas upon the subject of episcopal authority and papal decentralization.\n\nThat his books were immediately condemned by Rome (in February of\nthe year 1764) is of course no more than was to be expected. But it\nhappened to suit the interests of Maria Theresa to support Hontheim and\nFebronianism or Episcopalianism, as the movement which he had started\nwas called, continued to flourish in Austria and finally took practical\nshape in a Patent of Tolerance which Joseph II, the son of Maria Theresa,\nbestowed upon his subjects on the thirteenth of October of the year 1781.\n\nJoseph, who was a weak imitation of his mother\u2019s great enemy, Frederick\nof Prussia, had a wonderful gift for doing the right thing at the wrong\nmoment. During the last two hundred years the little children of Austria\nhad been sent to bed with the threat that the Protestants would get them\nif they did not go to sleep at once. To insist that those same infants\nhenceforth regard their Protestant neighbors (who, as they all knew,\nhad horns and a long black tail), as their dearly beloved brothers and\nsisters was to ask the impossible. All the same, poor, honest, hard\nworking, blundering Joseph, forever surrounded by a horde of uncles\nand aunts and cousins who enjoyed fat incomes as bishops and cardinals\nand deaconesses, deserves great credit for this sudden outburst of\ncourage. He was the first among the Catholic rulers who dared to advocate\ntolerance as a desirable and practical possibility of statecraft.\n\nAnd what he did three months later was even more startling. On the\nsecond of February of the year of grace 1782 he issued his famous\ndecree concerning the Jews and extended the liberty then only enjoyed\nby Protestants and Catholics to a category of people who thus far had\nconsidered themselves fortunate when they were allowed to breathe the\nsame air as their Christian neighbors.\n\nRight here we ought to stop and let the reader believe that the good work\ncontinued indefinitely and that Austria now became a Paradise for those\nwho wished to follow the dictates of their own conscience.\n\nI wish it were true. Joseph and a few of his ministers might rise to\na sudden height of common sense, but the Austrian peasant, taught\nsince time immemorial to regard the Jew as his natural enemy and the\nProtestant as a rebel and a renegade, could not possibly overcome that\nold and deep-rooted prejudice which told him to regard such people as his\nnatural enemies.\n\nA century and a half after the promulgation of these excellent Edicts\nof Tolerance, the position of those who did not belong to the Catholic\nChurch was quite as unfavorable as it had been in the sixteenth century.\nTheoretically a Jew and a Protestant could hope to become prime ministers\nor to be appointed commander-in-chief of the army. And in practice it was\nimpossible for them to be invited to dinner by the imperial boot-black.\n\nSo much for paper decrees.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIX\n\nTOM PAINE\n\n\nSomewhere or other there is a poem to the effect that God moves in a\nmysterious way, his wonders to perform.\n\nThe truth of this statement is most apparent to those who have studied\nthe history of the Atlantic seaboard.\n\nDuring the first half of the seventeenth century the northern part of the\nAmerican continent was settled by people who had gone so far in their\ndevotion to the ideals of the Old Testament that an unsuspecting visitor\nmight have taken them for followers of Moses, rather than disciples of\nthe words of Christ. Cut off from the rest of Europe by a very wide and\nvery stormy and very cold expanse of ocean, these pioneers had set up\na spiritual reign of terror which had culminated in the witch-hunting\norgies of the Mather family.\n\nNow at first sight it seems not very likely that those two reverend\ngentlemen could in any way be held responsible for the very tolerant\ntendencies which we find expounded with such able vigor in the\nConstitution of the United States and in the many documents that were\nwritten immediately before the outbreak of hostilities between England\nand her former colonies. Yet such is undoubtedly the case, for the period\nof repression of the seventeenth century was so terrible that it was\nbound to create a furious reaction in favor of a more liberal point of\nview.\n\nThis does not mean that all the colonists suddenly sent for the collected\nworks of Socinius and ceased to frighten little children with stories\nabout Sodom and Gomorrah. But their leaders were almost without\nexception representatives of the new school of thought and with great\nability and tact they infused their own conceptions of tolerance into the\nparchment platform upon which the edifice of their new and independent\nnation was to be erected.\n\nThey might not have been quite so successful if they had been obliged to\ndeal with one united country. But colonization in the northern part of\nAmerica had always been a complicated business. The Swedish Lutherans had\nexplored part of the territory. The French had sent over some of their\nHuguenots. The Dutch Arminians had occupied a large share of the land.\nWhile almost every sort and variety of English sect had at one time or\nanother tried to found a little Paradise of its own in the wilderness\nbetween the Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.\n\nThis had made for a variety of religious expression and so well had the\ndifferent denominations been balanced that in several of the colonies a\ncrude and rudimentary form of mutual forbearance had been forced upon a\npeople who under ordinary circumstances would have been forever at each\nother\u2019s throats.\n\nThis development had been very unwelcome to the reverend gentlemen who\nprospered where others quarreled. For years after the advent of the new\nspirit of charity they had continued their struggle for the maintenance\nof the old ideal of rectitude. They had achieved very little but they had\nsuccessfully estranged many of the younger men from a creed which seemed\nto have borrowed its conceptions of mercy and kindliness from some of its\nmore ferocious Indian neighbors.\n\nFortunately for our country, the men who bore the brunt of battle in the\nlong struggle for freedom belonged to this small but courageous group of\ndissenters.\n\nIdeas travel lightly. Even a little two-masted schooner of eighty\ntons can carry enough new notions to upset an entire continent. The\nAmerican colonists of the eighteenth century were obliged to do without\nsculpture and grand pianos, but they did not lack for books. The more\nintelligent among the people in the thirteen colonies began to understand\nthat there was something astir in the big world, of which they had\nnever heard anything in their Sunday sermons. The booksellers then\nbecame their prophets. And although they did not officially break away\nfrom the established church and changed little in their outer mode of\nlife, they showed when the opportunity offered itself that they were\nfaithful disciples of that old prince of Transylvania, who had refused\nto persecute his Unitarian subjects on the ground that the good Lord had\nexpressly reserved for himself the right to three things: \u201cTo be able\nto create something out of nothing; to know the future; and to dominate\nman\u2019s conscience.\u201d\n\nAnd when it became necessary to draw up a concrete political and social\nprogram for the future conduct of their country, these brave patriots\nincorporated their ideas into the documents in which they placed their\nideals before the high court of public opinion.\n\nIt would undoubtedly have horrified the good citizens of Virginia had\nthey known that some of the oratory to which they listened with such\nprofound respect was directly inspired by their arch-enemies, the\nLibertines. But Thomas Jefferson, their most successful politician, was\nhimself a man of exceedingly liberal views and when he remarked that\nreligion could only be regulated by reason and conviction and not by\nforce or violence; or again, that all men had an equal right to the free\nexercise of their religion according to the dictates of their conscience,\nhe merely repeated what had been thought and written before by Voltaire\nand Bayle and Spinoza and Erasmus.\n\nAnd later when the following heresies were heard: \u201cthat no declaration of\nfaith should be required as a condition of obtaining any public office in\nthe United States,\u201d or \u201cthat Congress should make no law which referred\nto the establishment of religion or which prohibited the free exercise\nthereof,\u201d the American rebels acquiesced and accepted.\n\nIn this way the United States came to be the first country where religion\nwas definitely separated from politics; the first country where no\ncandidate for office was forced to show his Sunday School certificate\nbefore he could accept the nomination; the first country in which people\ncould, as far as the law was concerned, worship or fail to worship as\nthey pleased.\n\nBut here as in Austria (or anywhere else for that matter) the average\nman lagged far behind his leaders and was unable to follow them as soon\nas they deviated the least little bit from the beaten track. Not only\ndid many of the states continue to impose certain restrictions upon\nthose of their subjects who did not belong to the dominant religion, but\nthe citizens in their private capacity as New Yorkers or Bostonians or\nPhiladelphians continued to be just as intolerant of those who did not\nshare their own views as if they had never read a single line of their\nown Constitution. All of which was to show itself soon afterwards in the\ncase of Thomas Paine.\n\nTom Paine rendered a very great service to the cause of the Americans.\n\nHe was the publicity man of the Revolution.\n\nBy birth he was an Englishman; by profession, a sailor; by instinct\nand training, a rebel. He was forty years old before he visited the\ncolonies. While on a visit to London he had met Benjamin Franklin and had\nreceived the excellent advice \u201cto go west.\u201d In the year 1774, provided\nwith letters of introduction from Benjamin himself, he had sailed for\nPhiladelphia and had helped Richard Bache, the son-in-law of Franklin, to\nfound a magazine, the \u201cPennsylvania Gazette.\u201d\n\nBeing an inveterate amateur politician, Tom had soon found himself in the\nmidst of those events that were trying men\u2019s souls. And being possessed\nof a singularly well-ordered mind, he had taken hold of the ill-assorted\ncollection of American grievances and had incorporated them into a\npamphlet, short but sweet, which by a thorough application of \u201ccommon\nsense\u201d should convince the people that the American cause was a just\ncause and deserved the hearty co\u00f6peration of all loyal patriots.\n\nThis little book at once found its way to England and to the continent\nwhere it informed many people for the first time in their lives that\nthere was such a thing as \u201can American nation\u201d and that it had an\nexcellent right, yea, it was its sacred duty to make war upon the mother\ncountry.\n\nAs soon as the Revolution was over, Paine went back to Europe to show the\nEnglish people the supposed absurdities of the government under which\nthey lived. It was a time when terrible things were happening along the\nbanks of the Seine and when respectable Britishers were beginning to look\nacross the Channel with very serious misgivings.\n\nA certain Edmund Burke had just published his panic-stricken \u201cReflections\non the French Revolution.\u201d Paine answered with a furious counter-blast of\nhis own called \u201cThe Rights of Man\u201d and as a result the English government\nordered him to be tried for high treason.\n\nMeanwhile his French admirers had elected him to the Convention and\nPaine, who did not know a word of French but was an optimist, accepted\nthe honor and went to Paris. There he lived until he fell under the\nsuspicion of Robespierre. Knowing that at any moment he might be arrested\nand decapitated, he hastily finished a book that was to contain his\nphilosophy of life. It was called \u201cThe Age of Reason.\u201d The first part was\npublished just before he was taken to prison. The second part was written\nduring the ten months he spent in jail.\n\nPaine believed that true religion, what he called \u201cthe religion of\nhumanity,\u201d had two enemies, atheism on the one hand and fanaticism on\nthe other. But when he gave expression to this thought he was attacked\nby every one and when he returned to America in 1802 he was treated with\nsuch profound and relentless hatred that his reputation as a \u201cdirty\nlittle atheist\u201d has survived him by more than a century.\n\nIt is true that nothing happened to him. He was not hanged or burned or\nbroken on the wheel. He was merely shunned by all his neighbors, little\nboys were encouraged to stick their tongues out at him when he ventured\nto leave his home, and at the time of his death he was an embittered and\nforgotten man who found relief for his anger in writing foolish political\ntracts against the other heroes of the Revolution.\n\nThis seems a most unfortunate sequel to a splendid beginning.\n\nBut it is typical of something that has repeatedly happened during the\nhistory of the last two thousand years.\n\nAs soon as public intolerance has spent its fury, private intolerance\nbegins.\n\nAnd lynchings start when official executions have come to an end.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXX\n\nTHE LAST HUNDRED YEARS\n\n\nTwelve years ago it would have been quite easy to write this book.\nThe word \u201cIntolerance,\u201d in the minds of most people, was then almost\nexclusively identified with the idea of \u201creligious intolerance\u201d and when\nan historian wrote that \u201cso and so had been a champion of tolerance\u201d it\nwas generally accepted that so and so had spent his life fighting the\nabuses of the Church and the tyranny of a professional priesthood.\n\nThen came the war.\n\nAnd much was changed in this world.\n\nInstead of one system of intolerance, we got a dozen.\n\nInstead of one form of cruelty, practiced by man upon his fellow-men, we\ngot a hundred.\n\nAnd a society which was just beginning to rid itself of the horrors\nof religious bigotry was obliged to put up with the infinitely more\npainful manifestations of a paltry form of racial intolerance and social\nintolerance and a score of petty forms of intolerance, the existence of\nwhich had not even been suspected a decade ago.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis seems very terrible to many good people who until recently lived in\nthe happy delusion that progress was a sort of automatic time-piece which\nneeded no other winding than their occasional approbation.\n\nThey sadly shake their heads, whisper \u201cVanity, vanity, all is vanity!\u201d\nand mutter disagreeable things about the cussedness of the human race\nwhich goes everlastingly to school, yet always refuses to learn.\n\nUntil, in sheer despair, they join the rapidly increasing ranks of our\nspiritual defeatists, attach themselves to this or that or the other\nreligious institution (that they may transfer their own burden to the\nback of some one else), and in the most doleful tones acknowledge\nthemselves beaten and retire from all further participation in the\naffairs of their community.\n\nI don\u2019t like such people.\n\nThey are not merely cowards.\n\nThey are traitors to the future of the human race.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSo far so good, but what is the solution, if a solution there be?\n\nLet us be honest with ourselves.\n\nThere is not any.\n\nAt least not in the eyes of a world which asks for quick results and\nexpects to settle all difficulties of this earth comfortably and speedily\nwith the help of a mathematical or medical formula or by an act of\nCongress. But those of us who have accustomed ourselves to consider\nhistory in the light of eternity and who know that civilization does not\nbegin and end with the twentieth century, feel a little more hopeful.\n\nThat vicious circle of despair of which we hear so much nowadays (\u201cman\nhas always been that way,\u201d \u201cman always will be that way,\u201d \u201cthe world\nnever changes,\u201d \u201cthings are just about the same as they were four\nthousand years ago,\u201d) does not exist.\n\nIt is an optical illusion.\n\nThe line of progress is often interrupted but if we set aside all\nsentimental prejudices and render a sober judgment upon the record of\nthe last twenty thousand years (the only period about which we possess\nmore or less concrete information) we notice an indubitable if slow rise\nfrom a condition of almost unspeakable brutality and crudeness to a state\nwhich holds the promise of something infinitely nobler and better than\nwhat has ever gone before and even the ghastly blunder of the Great War\ncan not shake the firm conviction that this is true.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe human race is possessed of almost incredible vitality.\n\nIt has survived theology.\n\nIt due time it will survive industrialism.\n\nIt has lived through cholera and plague, high heels and blue laws.\n\nIt will also learn how to overcome the many spiritual ills which beset\nthe present generation.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHistory, chary of revealing her secrets, has thus far taught us one great\nlesson.\n\nWhat the hand of man has done, the hand of man can also undo.\n\nIt is a question of courage, and next to courage, of education.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThat of course sounds like a platitude. For the last hundred years we\nhave had \u201ceducation\u201d driven into our ears until we are sick and tired\nof the word and look longingly back to a time when people could neither\nread nor write but used their surplus intellectual energy for occasional\nmoments of independent thinking.\n\nBut when I here speak of \u201ceducation\u201d I do not mean the mere accumulation\nof facts which is regarded as the necessary mental ballast of our modern\nchildren. Rather, I have in mind that true understanding of the present\nwhich is born out of a charitable and generous knowledge of the past.\n\nIn this book I have tried to prove that intolerance is merely a\nmanifestation of the protective instinct of the herd.\n\nA group of wolves is intolerant of the wolf that is different (be it\nthrough weakness or strength) from the rest of the pack and invariably\ntries to get rid of this offending and unwelcome companion.\n\nA tribe of cannibals is intolerant of the individual who by his\nidiosyncrasies threatens to provoke the wrath of the Gods and bring\ndisaster upon the whole village and brutally relegates him or her to the\nwilderness.\n\nThe Greek commonwealth can ill afford to harbor within its sacred walls a\ncitizen who dares to question the very fundaments upon which the success\nof the community has been built and in a poor outburst of intolerance\ncondemns the offending philosopher to the merciful death of poison.\n\nThe Roman state cannot possibly hope to survive if a small group of\nwell-meaning zealots is allowed to play fast and loose with certain laws\nwhich have been held indispensable ever since the days of Romulus, and\nmuch against her own will she is driven into deeds of intolerance which\nare entirely at variance with her age-old policy of liberal aloofness.\n\nThe Church, spiritual heir to the material dominions of the ancient\nEmpire, depends for her continued existence upon the absolute and\nunquestioning obedience of even the humblest of her subjects and is\ndriven to such extremes of suppression and cruelty that many people\nprefer the ruthlessness of the Turk to the charity of the Christian.\n\nThe great insurgents against ecclesiastical tyranny, beset by a thousand\ndifficulties, can only maintain their rule if they show themselves\nintolerant to all spiritual innovations and scientific experiments and in\nthe name of \u201cReform\u201d they commit (or rather try to commit) the self-same\nmistakes which have just deprived their enemies of most of their former\npower and influence.\n\nAnd so it goes throughout the ages until life, which might be a glorious\nadventure, is turned into a horrible experience and all this happens\nbecause human existence so far has been entirely dominated by fear.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFor fear, I repeat it, is at the bottom of all intolerance.\n\nNo matter what form or shape a persecution may take, it is caused by fear\nand its very vehemence is indicative of the degree of anguish experienced\nby those who erect the gallows or throw fresh logs upon the funeral pyre.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOnce we recognize this fact, the solution of the difficulty immediately\npresents itself.\n\nMan, when not under the influence of fear, is strongly inclined to be\nrighteous and just.\n\nThus far he has had very few opportunities to practice these two virtues.\n\nBut I cannot for the life of me see that this matters overmuch. It is\npart of the necessary development of the human race. And that race is\nyoung, hopelessly, almost ridiculously young. To ask that a certain form\nof mammal, which began its independent career only a few thousand years\nago should already have acquired those virtues which go only with age and\nexperience, seems both unreasonable and unfair.\n\nAnd furthermore, it warps our point of view.\n\nIt causes us to be irritated when we should be patient.\n\nIt makes us say harsh things where we should only feel pity.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the last chapters of a book like this, there is a serious temptation\nto assume the r\u00f4le of the prophet of woe and indulge in a little amateur\npreaching.\n\nHeaven forbid!\n\nLife is short and sermons are apt to be long.\n\nAnd what cannot be said in a hundred words had better never be said at\nall.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOur historians are guilty of one great error. They speak of prehistoric\ntimes, they tell us about the Golden Age of Greece and Rome, they talk\nnonsense about a supposedly dark period, they compose rhapsodies upon the\ntenfold glories of our modern era.\n\nIf perchance these learned doctors perceive certain characteristics which\ndo not seem to fit into the picture they have so prettily put together,\nthey offer a few humble apologies and mumble something about certain\nundesirable qualities which are part of our unfortunate and barbaric\nheritage but which in due course of time will disappear, just as the\nstage-coach has given way before the railroad engine.\n\nIt is all very pretty but it is not true. It may flatter our pride to\nbelieve ourselves heir to the ages. It will be better for our spiritual\nhealth if we know ourselves for what we are\u2014contemporaries of the folks\nthat lived in caves, neolithic men with cigarettes and Ford cars,\ncliff-dwellers who reach their homes in an elevator.\n\nFor then and only then shall we be able to make a first step toward that\ngoal that still lies hidden beyond the vast mountain ranges of the future.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTo speak of Golden Ages and Modern Eras and Progress is sheer waste of\ntime as long as this world is dominated by fear.\n\nTo ask for tolerance, as long as intolerance must of need be an integral\npart of our law of self-preservation, is little short of a crime.\n\nThe day will come when tolerance shall be the rule, when intolerance\nshall be a myth like the slaughter of innocent captives, the burning of\nwidows, the blind worship of a printed page.\n\nIt may take ten thousand years, it may take a hundred thousand.\n\nBut it will come, and it will follow close upon the first true victory of\nwhich history shall have any record, the triumph of man over his own fear.\n\n    _Westport, Connecticut_\n\n    _July, 19, 1925_","title":"Tolerance","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":112117}