Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

575
obnoxious than that of Servetus, and scarcely a voice was raised in
disapproval of the sentence. f1032
The Reformers of French Switzerland went further than those of German
Switzerland. Farel defended death by fire, and feared that Calvin in
advising a milder punishment was guided by the feelings of a friend against
his bitterest foe. Beza wrote a special work in defence of the execution of
Servetus, whom he characterized as “a monstrous compound of mere
impiety and horrid blasphemy.” f1033 Peter Martyr called him “a genuine son
of the devil,” whose “pestiferous and detestable doctrines” and “intolerable
blasphemies” justified the severe sentence of the magistracy. f1034
Cranmer.
The English Reformers were not behind those of the continent in the
matter of intolerance. Several years before the execution of Servetus,
Archbishop Cranmer had persuaded the reluctant young King Edward VI.
to sign the death-warrant of two Anabaptists—one a woman, called Joan
Becher of Kent, and the other a foreigner from Holland, George Van Pare;
the former was burnt May 2, 1550, the latter, April 6, 1551.
The only advocates of toleration in the sixteenth century were Anabaptists
and Antitrinitarians, who were themselves sufferers from persecution. Let
us give them credit for their humanity.
Gradual Triumph of Toleration and Liberty.
The reign of intolerance continued to the end of the seventeenth century. It
was gradually undermined during the eighteenth century, and demolished
by the combined influences of Protestant Dissenters, as the Anabaptists,
Socinians, Arminians, Quakers, Presbyterians, Independents, of Anglican
Latitudinarians, and of philosophers, like Bayle, Grotius, Locke, Leibnitz;
nor should we forget Voltaire and Frederick the Great, who were
unbelievers, but sincere and most influential advocates of religious
toleration; nor Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison in America. Protestant
Holland and Protestant England took the lead in the legal recognition of
the principles of civil and religious liberty, and the Constitution of the
United States completed the theory by putting all Christian denominations
on a parity before the law and guaranteeing them the full enjoyment of
equal rights.