Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1912-08-16

Unlll ABOUT ZUU ytaiS az, IL was
he practice in Europe to torture, |
kin, otherwise mutllatc people, orr
o burn them alive, and all because |
such persons held to other opinions
.har those of the men who put
them to death. We cannot read OF
these things without horror. 1t is
very hard for us to accept the
statement that the very men who
these savage deeds con-
sidered themselves as discharging a
high and solemn duty. 1t is tar
more easy for us to regard them IS
hvpocritcs and ficnds: as murderers,
pure and simple. Nevertheless,
there is an explanation FOR these
strange facts.
For fifteen centuries there was
practically but one christian church
in all Europe. The one church up
held the various national govern
ments. and the various national
government upheld the,on church.
Not to uphold the integrity of the
one church looked to the people OF
that day as destructive of religion
itself.
Suppose for illustration there are
10000 people scattered up and
down the Valley. of Virginia who
insist on living under civil govern
ment of their own; one which does
not recognize the supremacy OF the
state government. Suppose there
are 5000 other people scattered
along the valley, who neither reco =
nized the government of the state
nor the government of the 10000.
These two groups, the 10000 and
.hv 1000, would each need their
oWn civil officials. There would
thus be three sets of county officers,
three sets of local magistrates, three
sets OF public schools, and three
codes of laws. But to use con-
Trajectory expression, this condl-
ton of things would not last long
enough to begin. The state govern
mput would at once put forth It's
>,srn2 arm. There would be trials,
fines, and Imprisonment, and the
judges inficting these penalties
would act through high sense OF
duty.
So it was once thought right and
proper for the church through the
medium of the state to crush out a
new religious sect, just as the state
will continue to crush any rival to
its own civil authority. The mod
ern world has learned that unity in
religious administration and unity
in civil administration do not stand
on common ground. Yet there
was a time when people thought
one as essential as the other, and
they acted as they thought. Those
times were harsh, and if a man
could be Hanged for stealing loaf
Of bread, he was quite as liable to
be burned alive for what was con
sidered the crime of heresy.
In course of time there was the
Protestant reformation. This was
= breaking away of a portion of
Christian Europe from the parent
church. But within the territory
it covered, the new church held to
the old view that within the boun-
diaries of country there should be
uniformity of religious practice.
However, the Reformation was the
opening wedge which led in time
to religious liberation. Divisions
arose within itself, and through the
sheer weight of inherited opinion,
each sect believed itself wholly in
the ri ht. Consequently each sect
was sincere and it had the courage
Of its convictions. 1t opposed 9TH
er sects by some form of persecu-
ton or by actual war. And when
men fought in battle in the name
of religion, the contest was bitter
and the victor was unrelenting.
But it was costly matter to exter-
inmate a sect whose members
were brave and whose opinions
were unbending. Stubborn men
thus learned to respect the belief
of the honest adversary, and finally
to stand with him on the common
of living and letting live. When
this point was reached, religious
federation became an accepted fact.
The flower Of freedom in religious
practice had to bud and then grad,
ually to unfold beforeit could come
to fullness of bloom.
But why did people go so far as
to torture, skin, or burn the man
who did not think as they did? 1t
was under the belief that in tortur-
ing his b-dy in this world they
were saving his soul for. the next,
and thus performing an act of kind
ness. This of course was a horri-
Bile mistake, and yet something OF
the opposite nature persisted a
long tine in the treatment of Grim
inals. After man was executed
it was the practice to take off his
head and set it on a pole. This
mutilation after death was like try
ing to punish the soul as well as