PROTESTANT TI-IEORY OF PERSECUTION 179
apostates from the community. In this \vay, he said, there was no pretext given to the Catholics to retaliate. l They, as \vell as the Jews and Mohammedans, must be allowed to live: death was only the penalty of Protest- ants who relapsed into error; but to them it applied equally whether they were converted to the Church or joined the sects and fell into unbelief. Only in cases where there was no danger of his words being used against the Protestants, and in letters not intended for publication, he required that Catholics should suffer the same penalties as those who were guilty of sedition, on the ground that the majesty of God must be as strictly avenged as the throne of the king. 2 If the defence of the truth was the purpose for which power was intrusted to princes, it was natural that it should be also the condition on which they held it. Long before the revolution of 1688, Calvin had decided that princes who deny the true faith, "abdicate" thcir crowns, and are no longer to be obeyed; S and that no oaths are binding which are in contradiction to the interests of Protestantism. 4 He painted the princes of his age in the blackest colours,5 and prayed to God for 1 II Ita tollitur offensio, quae multos imperitos fallit, dum metuunt ne hoc praetextu ad saevicndum armentur Papae carnifices." Calvin was warned by experience of the imprudence of Luther's language. .. In Gallis proceres in excusanda saevitia imrnani allegant autoritatem Lutheri" (Melanchthon, Opera, v. 176), 2 .. Vous avez deux espèces de mutins qui se sont esIevez en!re le roy et I'estat du royaume: Les uns sont gens fantastiques, qui soubs couleur de l'évan- gile vouldroient mettre tout en confusion, Les aultres sont gens obstinés aux superstitions' de l' Antéchrist de Rome, Tous ensemble méritent bien d'estre réprimés par Ie glayve qui vous est commis, veu qu'ils s'attaschent non seulement au roy, mais à Dieu qui l' a assis au siège royal" (Calvin to Somerset, Oct, 22, 1540; Lettres de Calvin, ed, Bonnet, i. 267, See also Henry, Lebel1_ Calvins, ii. Append, 30), 3 .. Abdicant enim se potestate terreni principes dum insurgunt contra Deum : imo indigni sunt qui censeantur in hominum numero, Potius ergo conspnere oportet in ipsorum capita, quam illis parere, ubi ita proterviunt ut velint etiam spoliare Deum jure suo, et quasi occupare solium ejus, acsi possent eum a coelo detrahere" (Pr. in Da1lielem, v, 91), 4 .. Quant au serment qu'on vons a contraincte de faire, comme vous avez failli et offensé Dieu en Ie faisant, aussi n'estes - vous tenue de Ie garder It (Calvin to the Duchess of Ferrara, Bonnet, ii. 338). She had taken an oath, at her husband's death, that she would not correspond with Calvin. ð .. In aulis regum videmus primas teneri a bestiis. Nam hodie, ne repetamus veteres historias, ut reges fere omnes fatui sunt ac bruti, ita etiam sunt quasi equi et asini brutorum animalium. . . . Reges sunt hodie fere mancipia" (Pr, Ï1l Da1lielem, v. 82). .. Videmus enim ut hodie quoque pro su
libidine com-
