66. Arianism worse than other heresies, because of Persecution.
P. 295 The other heresies also, when the very Truth has refuted them on the clearest evidence, are wont to be silent, being simply confounded by their conviction. But this modern and accursed heresy, when it is overthrown by argument, when it is cast down and covered with shame by the very Truth, forthwith endeavours to coerce by violence and stripes and imprisonment those whom it has been unable to persuade by argument, thereby acknowledging itself to be anything rather than godly. For it is the part of true godliness not to compel 1, but to persuade, as I said before. Thus our Lord Himself, not as employing force, but as offering to their free choice, has said to all, ‘If any man will follow after Me 2;’ and to His disciples, ‘Will ye also go away 3?’ This heresy, however, is altogether alien from godliness; and therefore how otherwise should it act, than contrary to our Saviour, seeing also that it has enlisted that enemy of Christ, Constantius, as it were Antichrist himself 4, to be its leader in impiety? He for its sake has earnestly endeavoured to emulate Saul in savage cruelty. For when the priests gave victuals to David, Saul commanded, and they were all destroyed, in number three hundred and five 5; and this man, now that all avoid the heresy, and confess a sound faith in the Lord, annuls a Council of full three hundred Bishops, banishes the Bishops themselves, and hinders the people from the practice of piety, and from their prayers to God, preventing their public assemblies. And as Saul overthrew Nob, the city of the priests, so this man, advancing even further in wickedness, has given up the Churches to the impious. And as he honoured Doeg the accuser before the true priests, and persecuted David, giving ear to the Ziphites; so this man prefers heretics to the godly, and still persecutes them that flee from him, giving ear to his own eunuchs, who falsely accuse the orthodox. He does not perceive that whatever he does or writes in behalf of the heresy of the Arians, involves an attack 6 upon the Saviour.
The early theory about persecution seems to have been this,—that that was a bad cause which ‘depended’ upon it, but that, when a ‘cause’ was good, there was nothing wrong in using force in due ‘subordination’ to argument [so Pius IX. inEncycl.‘Quanta cura,’ speaks of the ’officium coercendi sancitis pœnis violatores catholicæ religionis]; that there was as little impropriety in the civil magistrate’s inducing ‘individuals’ by force, when they were incapable of higher motives, as by those secular blessings which follow on Christianity. Our Lord’s kingdom was not of this world, that is, it did not depend on this world; but, as subduing, engrossing, and swaying this world, it at times condescended to make use of this world’s weapons against itself. The simple question was ‘whether a cause depended on force for its existence.’ S. Athanasius declared and the event proved, that Arianism was so dependent. When Emperors ceased to persecute, Arianism ceased to be; it had no life in itself. Again, all cruel persecution, or long continued, or on a large scale, was wrong, as arguing ‘an absence’ of moral and rational grounds in the ‘cause’ so maintained. Again, there was an evident ‘impropriety’ in ecclesiastical functionaries using secular weapons, as there would be in their engaging in a secular pursuit, or forming secular connections; whereas the soldier might as suitably, and should as dutifully, defend religion with the sword, as the scholar with his pen. And further there was an abhorrence of cruelty natural to us, which it was a duty to cherish and maintain. All this being considered, there is no inconsistency in S. Athanasius denouncing persecution, and in Theodosius decreeing that ‘the heretical teachers, who usurped the sacred titles of Bishops or Presbyters,’ should be ‘exposed to the heavy penalties of exile and confiscation.’ Gibbon,Hist.ch. 27. For a list of passages from the Fathers on the subject, vid. Limborch on the Inquisition, vol. 1. Bellarmin.de Laicis,c. 21, 22, and of authors in favour of persecution, vid. Gerhardde Magistr. Polit.p. 741, &c. [But vide supr.,Apol. Fug.23: ‘persecution is a device of the devil;’ see alsoSocr.vii. 3.] ↩
Matt. xvi. 24 . ↩
John vi. 67 . ↩
Cf.De Syn.5, note 10. ↩
1 Sam. xxii. 18 , LXX. ↩
Apol. Ar.23. ↩
