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his rescript against the Novatians and other heretics , wherein he terms them enemies of truth , adversaries of life , abettors of the most abominable wickedness , which a whole day would not suffice to describe * He declares it impossible to bear their most destructive tenets any longer , and orders the destruction of their places of assembly , and the banishment of the heretics , whose offence it was to differ from the emperor as to whether a person who sinned after baptism should be forgiven by the church as well as by God .
The fulfilment of this edict , as of many which were passed by persecuting emperors , occasioned much bloodshed , and violences at which humanity shudders . On the questions whether the body of Christ was corruptible , whether he was capable of feeling hunger and thirst after his resurrection , whether Christ was created out of nothing or out of something , whether the union between the Son of God and the Son of Man was an union of nature
or of person , or only of will and affection , and whether Mary was the mother of one , or both , or neither ; whether the Holy Ghost was silent respecting himself to the Apostles for the sake of giving them a lesson not to commend themselves , or for some other reason , —the minds of men were agitated for centuries , the true spirit of Christianity was lost , lives were sacrificed
without number , the laws of society violated , and the bond of human sympathies broken . Bishops made war upon one another , or ranged themselves under the banners of princes ; their followers imitated their example , and perpetrated the most dreadful cruelties . In the eighth century , midnight murders , by the hands of the clergy , were frequent : heretics were torn limb from limb in the streets and churches , and , to use the words of the historian ,
" Des yeux et des langues arrachees sont les 6 vfenemens les plus ordinaires de ces siecles malheureux . " These fiend-like passions were roused by dis ^ putes about words , the more violent because they were without ideas . The horrid effects of these passions were not confined to one period or country , but drew a veil of thick darkness over the minds of countless multitudes through successive generations .
The belief of the infallibility of the Pope , arising from an erroneous interpretation of one sentence of Scripture , occasionedthe most terrible series of calamities under which the Christian world has groaned . An absurd credulity respecting the efficacy of pilgrimages led to the sacrifice of millions of lives in the Crusades . Perverted notions of the character of the Deity , and of the obligations of his creatures , occasioned the institutions of Monachism , which , though overruled to beneficial purposes by Divine Wisdom , will ever be a monument of the folly of the human race * and an example of the pitiable weakness of human reason . . In former times the number of beings thus
cut off from the duties and pleasures most congenial to their natures was greater than many persons have now- an idea of . In Egypt alone , in the fourth century , there were 70 , 000 monks . If we thus cast a cursory glance over the state of Europe during the dark ages , taking into our view the disasters of wars abroad , of dissensions at home , of frequent and dreadful
persecutions , —if the perils of the human soul under the influence of superstition be considered , the general belief in the efficacy of indulgences , the license which thousands allowed themselves on pretence of zeal for religion , and under promise of atonement in gold , —if we feel compassion for the innocent hearts which have been either liardened or broken under monastic penalties ,
or for the immortal faculties which have been wasted on unworthy objects , or debased by crime , —if we mark the progress which our race has made since divine truth has in part unveiled her awful face , we shall be confirmed in our
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Essays on the Art of Thinking . 523
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 523, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/3/
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