Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-06-04
Trials for Heresy.

1HeFC Is IN mOQern society no moro
curious medieval survival than trial foI
heresy before an ecclesiastical tribunal
When such Il ials first began. they wee
based on two assumptions: one was that
the tribunal could condemn the culprit to
torment in the next life; the othrr-sOme-
what inconsistent with the first-was that
heraSy was contagious disease, which
could be prevented trcm spreading, or
''sIamped OUT if taken in time, like
pleuro pneumonia among cattle, by kill
ing the persons infected with it. Behind
these assumptions, too. there was the not
unnatural feeling, in the days when
futh rity reigned in Church and State,
that when heretics, or persons inclined to
heresy. found that great persOnages, like
bishops and canOnists, disapprOved of
their opinions, they would discard them &.
This last was the real origin of the prac-
tice which prevailed, even in England :,
down to the middle of the eighteenth
century, of having obnoxious books
'burnt by the cCmAlon hangman' in
some public place. The employment of
the ''comman hangman" was Intended
to emphasize the horror felt i'm high places
| for the authors views. In truth, all trials
for expression of opinion both in the Mid :
| die Ages and more recent times were the
natural and proper outcome of the gen
| eral belief that there was such a thing as
| divinelv appointed earthly authority In
matters of opinion; that the persons COM
posing an ecclesiastical tribunal did, eX-
officiO, know more than the defendant
could possibly know touching the matter
in hand, and that their judgments were
registered and confirmed in the unseen
world by final spiritual court of appeal.
In those days, trials for heresy in which
the judges anu defendants were simply
rival literary critics, whose opportunities
of becoming acquainted with the divine
will were about equally good, and in
which the Court claimed no jurisdiction
which it did not derive from what we
may call popular election, could get no
respect whatever. In fact, they would
have been considered punishable and
rreverent absurdity. A court of any
Nlid. SlNI vi CSSiCsldSllCdl, uluSl nave
force of some kind behind it in order to
secure respect and obedience. A spiritual
court must have the power of intlicting
spiritual penalties to take effect on the
offenders soul after death. A temporal
court must have the power of inf1icting
penalties on the offenders body. In other
words, courts of all kinds must have au-
thority suited to their jurisdiction and
machinery for enforcing 1t, otherwise
they rapidly become mockery.
If all this be true, it is an easy inference
from it, that Protestant trials for heresy.
are and have been ever since the Reforma-
ton, a rank absurdity. All Protestant
sects-the Episcopal Church would per-
haps claim to be an eXception-are simp
ly conflicting Biblical critics. They have
all arisen out of the differences of inter-
prefers touching the language of one
book. A Protestant ecclesiastical tri-
bunal, therefore, unless when. as in Eng
land, it sits to apply acts of Parliament
to church ritual (ald here ii really is try
ing the title to property, If it undertakes
y
ranging for debate between two bodies
OF opposing commentators. with almost
certainty that the defendant at the bar
will be the ADLER of the two part es.
When beresy means not defiance of gen.
orally accepted divine authority, but
simply pharmaceutical difference from
other brethren OF the same standing in
the Church, the chance are 100 to that
the hereto will be by far better equipped
and more competent than his Judges. 1t
is, as a rule, owing to his hermeneutical
capacity and devotion that he has be-
come conspicuous. and the reason for try
ing him is that his conclusions OH ques-
tons of Interpretation have begun to
weigh more with those who attach i'm |
portance to such matters and are capable |
of understanding them, than those OF his |
opponents. TO take DR.. Briggs case
as an example, the pI Liabilities are that
his word touching the true meaning aud
origin of any chapter or verse Of the Bible |
would go twice as far with the more in
telligent readers of the Bible as that of
any man who will sit on the bench to |
judge him. Moreover. the man who sits |
on the bench to judge him Will not be |
able to close his mouth with any assump- |
tion of authority whatever, owing to the |
fact that all Biblical questions are Ques-
tons of translation from dead languages |
Nobody but learned Greek or jew of
the first three centuries is, in fact, COM
petent to sit on the Briggs case as an au-
All others must sit as disputanus,
with strong chance Of getting the worst
of the dispute.
Another absurdity about modern heresy
trials is that although their avowed OBJ
ject is to prevent mischief tC the Church,
no pretence is made that the condemna-
ton of the hereto will prevent the spread
of his opinions. A medieval hereto
could be silenced by death. and the mere
fact that spiritual tribunal thought him
worthy of death no doubt closed the ears
of a vast body of pious people to his
as probably suggestive of Satan.
DR. Briggs's condemnation by the Pres
bytcrian courts Will not prevent a single
human being from listening to his inter-
pretasions. while it will certainly greatly
help to spread them, by drawing public
attention to them and exciting public in
tere st i'm them. IN. Y. Sun.
25 PhOtoeraphS for 81.