Page:History of Freedom.djvu/197

 PROTESTANT THEORY OF PERSECUTION 153

This freedom is attainable only in communities where rights are sacred, and \vhere la,v is supreme. If the first duty is held to be obedience to authority and the preservation of order, as in the case of aristocracies and monarchies of the patriarchal type, there is no safety for the liberties either of inrlividuals or of religion. Where the highest consideration is the public good and the popular will, as in democracies, and in constitutional monarchies after the French pattern, majority takes the place of authority; an irresistible power is substituted for an idolatrous principle, and all private rights are equally insecure. The true theory of freedom excludes all absolute power and arbitrary action, and requires that a tyrannical or revolutionary government shall be coerced by the people; but it teaches that insurrection is criminal, except as a corrective of revolution and tyranny. In order to understand the vie,vs of the Protestant reformers on toleration, they must be considered \vith reference to these points. While the Reformation was an act of individual resistance and not a system, and when the secular Powers were engaged in supporting the authority of the Church, the authors of the movement were compelled to claim impunity for their opinions, and they held language regarding the right of governments to interfere with religious belief \vhich resembles that of friends of tolera- tion. Every religious party, however exclusive or servile its theory may be, if it is in contradiction with a system generally accepted and protected by law, must necessarily, at its first appearance, assume the protection of the idea that the conscience is free.! Before a new authority can be set up in the place of one that exists, there is an interval when the right of dissent must be proclaimed. At the beginning of Luther's contest with the Holy See

1 ., Le vrai principe de Luther est celui-ci: La volonté est esc1ave par nature. ., . Le libre examen a été pour Luther un moyen et non un principe, II s'en est servi, et était contraint de s'en servir pour établir son vrai principe. qui était la toute-puissance de la foi et de la grâce,. . . C'est ainsi que Ie libre examen s'imposa au Protestantisrne. L'accessoire devint Ie principal, et la forme dévora plus au mains Ie fond" (Janet. IIistoire de la Philosophie JIm"cZle. iL 3 8, 39).