Student Essay on Religious Toleration

In the 1600's, the Catholic Church had become a powerful monopoly with wealth and land comparable to the most powerful European Nations. Power and wealth bred corruption and the government sanctioned the corruption for a cut of the profits. This marriage of Church and State was arranged to stop sedition therefore eliminating all threats to the religious monopoly. One religion under one nation would be indivisible. Religion dominated the lives of the people therefore the Church attempted to control how people thought. Tyranny reigned and it was justified by religion. However, tyranny could not stifle independent thought totally. On the contrary, tyranny fueled independent thought and in the process inspired the movement towards religious liberty.

The Catholic Church had become a powerful and wealthy religious monopoly in Europe by the 1600's. This monopoly was upheld by instituting religious doctrine that was impressed on the people as being the truth. To doubt any Catholic doctrine was not acceptable. To voice any doubt of Catholic doctrine was heresy. An Inquisition was established by the Catholic Church to combat heresy. The Inquisition actively sought out heretics resulting in a reign of terror. The Church viewed heresy as a sin against the Church. Any sin against the Church was a crime against the State punishable by torture and death by burning. This as an all out effort by both the Church and State to suppress independent thought and enforce conformity. Moreover, the prevailing view among society was that State sanctioned religion insured a bond between society and government maintaining order and stability. Allowing more than one religion would threaten established society. (7:1)

During the 1600's, the wealth and the power of the Catholic Church was established from religious conformity. It was mandatory to attend Mass thus clergy were always employed. A steady income derived from the populace in which the Bible mandated a percentage of income to God (Church). This income was called tithes and was collected without any incidence. Many people seeking salvation willed their lands to the Church making the Catholic Church one of the largest landholders. There was money to be made from selling religious relics. Forgiveness of sins cold be obtained for a fee. The Church and State shared confiscated property of condemned heretics and their families. It was even common practice to accuse the dead of heresy, exhume the body and burn it. Thereby, allowing the State to confiscate the property belonging to the family of the dead heretic. (7:2). Religion had developed into a lucrative business. As Voltaire argued, .Clergyman is a generic title under which is designated any Christian who consecrates himself to the service of God, and feels himself to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live..

The invention of the printing press and the spread of literacy encouraged the rise of independent thought. The printing press made independent though easier and safer to share. Seditious pamphlets could be quickly disposed of if the need arose and pamphlets could be printed and distributed in multitudes. With the rise of independent thought, people began to question the authority of the church and in doing so became more aware of the corruption within the Church. The Protestant Reformation began as a protest to this corruption. The Catholic Church responded with increased persecution. The idea was to control the populace with fear. Instead, this tyranny instigated rebellion. Mass executions resulted. Retaliations resulted in massacres. Catholics burned Protestants. Protestants burned Catholics. Protestants burned Protestants. Both Catholics and Protestants burned Jews and Quakers. Religious wars developed. After which a country's faith was determined by the faith of its ruler who used tyranny to maintain the established religion. 'secular rulers in England, France, Germany and others regularly burned heretics on their own without any Inquisitorial help. Protestant sovereigns in England ordered capital punishment for Catholics. And in John Calvin's Geneva, that great haven for Protestantism, Catholicism, adultery, blasphemy, idolatry, and witchcraft were all punishable by death (and 58 people were executed during Calvin's reign on such charges). (7:1). Protestants were just as oppressive as their Catholic counterparts.

The Scientific Revolution was another contributor to independent thought and consequently religious liberty. Scientific discoveries contradicted Biblical test inflaming both Catholic and Protestant Churches. Giordan Bruno was an Italian philosopher and scientist who's writings questioned religious doctrine using reason and logic. Worse yet, Bruno's books were published in the vernacular making his ideas available to those that could read. (4:5). The Inquisition tried Bruno for heresy. As a result of the trial, Bruno was burned at the stake and his books placed on the Catholic Index of Forbidden Books. Both Catholic and Protestant Churches sought to extinguish the seeds of sedition (reason and logic). John Calvin had Michael Servetus burned at the stake. Servetus was on the verge of mapping the circulation of the blood. However, he was burnt because he wrote a book contradicting the Christian theology of Trinity with reason and logic (4:2) All notions of the universe and the world were controlled by religion during prior to and during the 1600's. Challenging these ideas was the same as questioning religious authority and proving controversial ideas true was the same as exposing the fallibility of religion.

The Puritan revolution in England began as a resistance movement to tyranny demanding religious liberty. However, the victorious Puritans established their own tyranny and refused to grant religious liberty to others. Thousands fled England and Ireland seeking religious liberty. These refugees who came to America did not learn the lesion of toleration and did not grant others religious liberty This seemed to have been a common malady (2:157). The persecuted became the persecutor. Among the religious groups singled out for persecution was the Quakers. In New England, those caught practicing the Quaker faith were whipped, tarred and/or hanged (5:6). William Rogers spoke out against religious intolerance and was banned from the colony. .The blood of so many hundred thousand souls of Protestants and Papists, spilt in the wars of present and former ages, for their respective consciences, is not required nor accepted by Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace.. Williams established Colonial Rhode Island on the principle of separation of Church and State. 6:11).

The passion for religious intolerance among the common people was slowly being exhausted. People grew weary from the senseless killing. More and more people were willing to live and let live. However government policies were reluctant to change. Over the next hundred years of religious intolerance many more dared to speak out against the tyranny putting them at mortal risk. Of those who dared to speak their conscience, William Penn, Voltaire, John Locke and Thomas Jefferson contributed the most gains for religious liberty. William Penn was a Quaker. It was a crime in itself to be Quaker but Penn went even further by challenging the English laws restricting religious liberty. Penn blatantly questioned the Anglican doctrine of Trinity and was quickly imprisoned in the Tower of London for doing so. From his cell in the Tower, Penn wrote pamphlets defining the primary fundamentals of Quakerism (5:3). These pamphlets were circulated among the Quaker underground. Penn had become quite a celebrity among the people due to his defiance. Charles II, who was King at that time, was anxious to get rid of the bothersome Quakers. After his release from prison, Penn petitioned and secured a charter from the King to start an American colony. The colony was called Pennsylvania. Penn called the colony his holy experiment. because the government of the Pennsylvania colony (indoctrinated by Penn) provided for the protection of private property, trial by jury, religious liberty, and free press (5:5). These policies created a relative safe haven for the individual, which attracted many European immigrants to Pennsylvania. By the time to the American Revolution, Pennsylvania was one of the largest colonies in America (5:7). Voltaire offered lavish praise when he said, .William Penn might, with reason, boast of having brought down upon earth the Golden Age, which in all probability, never had any real existence but in his dominions. (5:1).

Voltaire was among the few Frenchmen who was courageous enough to speak out against the Catholic Church and live to a ripe old age. His real name was Francois Marie Arouet but became Voltaire after he was thrown into prison for writing satirical verses criticizing the government and the Catholic Church. Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary was one of his best-known mockeries of religious intolerance (3:1). In the Philosophical Dictionary under the section, Religion, Voltaire describes the horrible cruelties of religious fanaticism resulting from religious intolerance. This section was aimed at the hypocrisy of religious intolerance. .At the following avenues as the bones of Christians butchered by one another on account of metaphysical disputes. They are divided into several piles of four centuries each; it was necessary to separate them; for had they all been together, they would have reached the sky. (1:120). In the section on Tolerance, Voltaire goes further, criticizing not just the government but also the people; those who spoke of tolerance and injustices quietly to their friends yet denounce tolerance publicly. .Why then do the same men who in private advocate indulgence, kindness and justice, vise in public with so much fury against these virtues?. (1:30). These excerpts from the Philosophical Dictionary expressed Voltaire's contempt for hypocrisy. Although Voltaire was not a revolutionary, he wrote the Philosophical Dictionary along with other ant-establishment material with the intention of shaming the public into reform. Voltaire's writing had more impact than just reform. Voltaire's writing coupled with the writings of John Locke influenced the public by appealing to reason. This influence led to revolution in both France and America.

John Locke's writings both supported and complemented the writings of Voltaire. While Voltaire hammered out the injustices of religious intolerance, John Locke attacked the reasoning behind it. In Letters of Toleration, Locke asked what harm does another man's belief do. . If a roman Catholic believe that to be really the body of Christ, which another man calls bread, he does no injury thereby to his neighbor. (1:38). By using reason, Locke built a convincing case. Addressing the role of the magistrate and Church, Locke stated that the magistrate had no concern with the business of men's souls (1:84-89). .The power of civil government relates only to men's civil interests, is confined to the care of the things of this world, and hath nothing to do with the world to come. . Furthermore, Locke stated that the Church was a voluntary society of men based on unconfirmed opinions. Religion is of the conscience and thereby cannot be controlled by outside forces. To make a man lie for the sake of their salvation is absurd. (1:81). Locke's contemporaries accused him of trying to destroy religion on which Voltaire rose to Locke's defense (1:193). Locke, Voltaire and other men of the Enlightenment were willing to risk everything to make their independent thought known. In doing so, these men gave the public the strength to do what was necessary to end the tyranny.

Drawing from the writings of Locke and Voltaire, as well as the example set forth by William Penn in Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson spoke out against the established Anglican Church in Virginia (1:158). In doing so, Jefferson noted that religious liberty had a direct correlation with all other liberties thereby necessitating the protection of religious liberty. Jefferson proposed that the only way to establish religious liberty wss by separation of Church and State. By reiterating the views of both Voltaire and Locke, Jefferson was able to convince the legislature of Virginia of the necessity of separation of Church and State. Later using the same tactics, Jefferson was able to convince the legislature of the newly established United States of the necessity of religious liberty for the entire country. Jefferson stressed Locke's reasoning .The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my eighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. (2:159). Jefferson added that limiting religion would only cover up the present corruptions encouraging even greater corruption. In defending his opinion on separation of church and State, Jefferson noted 'subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors? Fallible men; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as public reasons. And why subject it to coercion? To produce uniformity. But is uniformity of opinion desirable?. (2:160).

Thanks to the lifelong struggles of men such as Rogers, Penn, Voltaire, Locke and Jefferson religious liberty is ingrained into American Society. Moreover, the United States Bill of Rights protects religious liberty guaranteeing all liberties to future generations of Americans. Religious liberty together with other natural rights was added to the Constitution to prevent tyranny. All natural rights, religious and otherwise depend on each other for survival. Religious liberty could not exist if freedom of speech was denied. If the right to bear arms was denied then all liberties would be in danger. The Catholic Church was at one time the most powerful institution in Europe. This power corrupted the State and Church. To maintain power, order and stability it was thought necessary to enforce one and only one religion. However, uniformity of religion does not bring order and stability of society as it was once thought. To enforce uniformity of religion and maintain control the Catholic Church along with the State ruthlessly killed dissenters. The result was Tyranny because religion is of the conscience and cannot be controlled by outside forces. Tyranny stimulated independent thought, which led to resistance. In the end, religious liberty emerged triumphant.

Reference:

1. Kramnick, Isaac, The Portable Enlightenment Reader, Penguin books,

New York, New York, 1995.

2. Jefferson, Thomas, Notes on the State of Virginia, The University of

North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1995.

3. Murphy, John Patrick Michael Murphy, Murphy's Law: Voltaire,

Http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/joh_murphy/voltaire.html,

1999.

4. Gaglioti, Frank, Giordano Bruno, Philosopher and Scientist, Burt at the

Stake 400 years ago, http:///www.wsws.org/articles/2000/feb2000/brun-

f16.html, February 16, 2002.

5. Powell, Jim, William Penn, America's First Great Champion for Liberty