Johannes Althusius: Politica - Hubertlerch.com - HubertLerch.com

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dwell and engage in business with the faithful.
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But I do not think that magistrates should permit Jews to have synagogues.
However, the theologians Peter Martyr and Jerome Zanchius conclude that even this can be done if the Jews are content to read
the Bible and offer prayers in them, and not to blaspheme Christ or the church.
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[§ 54] Their reason is that Christ and the
apostles are known to have gone into synagogues and to have conferred with the Jews. In the civil life of Jews with inhabitants,
the most prudent and pious consider that the following precautions ought to be observed: (1) that the faithful not enter into
wedlock with Jews, and (2) that they not share in their religion or their rites, cultivate too close friendship with them, or live
familiarly with them. The Jews should have separate quarters, as is the case in Frankfurt, and bear insignia or marks by which
they are easily recognized by all. …
[§ 55] The theologians determine how far it is permitted to have private contact with infidels, atheists, impious men, or
persons of different religions by distinguishing between the learned, the faithful, and uneducated, and the weak, and the purposes
for which the contacts are to be held.
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[§ 56] The same can be said about papists born in the territory of the magistrate or having homes there. The magistrate can in
good conscience permit them to live within the boundaries of the realm if the pious do not partake of their superstitions, live
familiarly with them, or contract marriages with them. Furthermore, the magistrate ought not to permit them temples for the
practice of their idolatrous worship.
Distinctions should be made concerning heretics in a well-constituted imperium. For there are some heresies that tear up the
foundation of faith, such as Arianism and the like. But there are others that, although they err in certain articles of faith, do not
overthrow the foundation, such as the Novatian and similar heresies. [§ 57] Heretics of the first sort should be severely
attended to by the magistrate with exile, prison, or the sword. This is in order that they cannot have fellowship or intercourse
with the faithful, impart their disease to others, or infect, ruin, or corrupt them. The magistrate should command men by public
interdicts to abstain from fellowship with them.
Heretics of the second sort are to be excommunicated if, having been convicted of heresies and admonished by the church, they
nevertheless persist in them. [§ 58] But those who uphold some error or doctrine that has not yet been condemned as manifest
heresy are not for this reason to be driven from the church, nor the sacred services to be prohibited to them or social intercourse
forbidden with them.
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[§ 59] The magistrate can even order by published edicts that the orthodox are not to ridicule or heap
abuse upon those whose error does not reach to the foundations of doctrine, and that instead of publicly judging them the
orthodox are rather to cultivate friendship among them until the matter is legitimately discussed and decided in a free synod. …
[§ 63] A magistrate in whose realm the true worship of God does not thrive should take care that he not claim imperium over
faith and religion of men, which exist only in the soul and conscience. God alone has imperium in this area. To him alone the
secrets and intimate recesses of the heart are known. And he administers his kingdom, which is not of this world, through his
ministers of the Word. For this reason, faith is said to be a gift of God, not of Caesar. It is not subject to the will, nor can it be
coerced. If in religion the soul has once been destroyed, nothing henceforth remains, as Lactantius says. We are not able to
command religion because no one is required to believe against his will. Faith must be persuaded, not commanded, and taught,
not ordered. Christ said to his disciples who were willing to destroy the Samaritans, “Are you ignorant of whose spirit you are
sons?”
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The emperor Constantine said that to inflict bodily punishments upon men whose minds have been captured is
senseless and stupid to the extreme.
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[§ 64] Those who err in religion are therefore to be ruled not by external force or by corporal arms, but by the sword of the
spirit, that is, by the Word and spiritual arms through which God is able to lead them to himself. They are to be entrusted to
ministers of the Word of God for care and instruction.
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If they cannot be persuaded by the Word of God, how much less can
they be coerced by the threats or punishments of the magistrate to think or believe what he or some other person believes.
Therefore, the magistrate should leave this matter to God, attribute to him the things that are his—who alone impels, leads, and
changes hearts—and reserve to himself what God has given him, namely, imperium over bodies. He is forbidden in his
administration to impose a penalty over the thoughts of men. Heretics, so far as they are delinquent in external actions, are to
be punished just as any other subjects, even the otherwise pious. [§ 65] But if the magistrate invades the imperium of God,
exceeds the limits of his jurisdiction, and arrogates to himself imperium over the consciences of men, he shall not do this evil
with impunity. For because of this action, seditions and tumults, which persecution is wont to cause, will arise in his realm. Thus,
in the time of the Maccabees long wars and tumults arose because of persecutions. When the Scribes and Pharisees persecuted
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