Punishment
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9.Persecution for religion and opinion
9a.Punishment of Christians and other dissenters
See also: Religion 14b · Courage 5a
Luke, The Acts of the ApostlesVol. 44
- p. 430–431Council finds no way to punish the apostles because the people glorify God for the miracle.read · scan
- p. 442–443The Jews plot to kill Saul, and he escapes over the wall in a basket.read · scan
- p. 472Paul describes binding and imprisoning believers to have them punished at Jerusalem.read · scan
- p. 479He recalls punishing believers in synagogues and voting for their deaths.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 404Uncertain whether profession alone or crimes are punishable, whether repentance pardons; obstinacy is punished.read · scan
- p. 407–408Trajan: Christians need not be sought out, proven ones are punished, those who deny and worship the gods are pardoned on repentance.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 903–904Pharaoh threatens mutilation and crucifixion of the believers.read · scan
The Song of RolandVol. 49
- p. 184–185Those who resist conversion are hanged or burned.read · scan
John Calvin, Dedication of the Institutes of the Christian ReligionVol. 39
- p. 27Protestants are condemned to imprisonment, banishment and flames on accusation alone, without proof of any crime.read · scan
- p. 45–47Describes persecution by prisons, tortures and flames, and God's coming punishment of the despisers.read · scan
Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26
- p. 81–84Law decrees Christians must die as foes of the human race.read · scan
- p. 99–102Felix orders Nearchus's death and hopes fear of torture will make Polyeucte recant and win pardon.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 93–94They are beaten, smeared with dirt and caged unjustly.read · scan
- p. 100–101Faithful is scourged, stoned, stabbed and burned; cruelty of the persecutors.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 106–107Superstitious men would burn those suspecting matter can think.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, EgmontVol. 19
- p. 289–290Alva's cruelty: heretics and traitors racked, impaled, quartered and burnt.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 89–91Dissenters over the old belief were beaten, hanged and burned.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 509The alleged witch is racked and burnt on flimsy charges.read · scan
- p. 531–532Delrio's treatise on magic became the impulse of legal, horrible, uninterrupted murders for a century.read · scan
- p. 534Alleged plague-spreaders were condemned to atrocious punishments in many cities; the Milan anointing trials are most notable.read · scan
George Gordon, Lord Byron, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 801–802Chains and dungeon inflicted for faith rather than crime.read · scan
George Long, M. Aurelius AntoninusVol. 2
- p. 306Christians tortured, beheaded or thrown to beasts under imperial rescript.read · scan
- p. 310Christians put to death for refusing to sacrifice to the gods.read · scan
- p. 311Pliny holds that persevering Christians deserve punishment for obstinacy, though no crimes are proved, and Trajan approves.read · scan
- p. 311–312Christians punished if they persisted and would not renounce by honouring heathen gods; false accusers also punished.read · scan
- p. 313Being a Christian became a crime punished unless the accused denied the religion.read · scan
- p. 314Men were put to death simply for being Christians under Antoninus.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 222Martyrdom of early Christians and Reformers as requital for benefactors; Locrian proposer with a halter.read · scan
- p. 223A man imprisoned twenty-one months for offensive words about Christianity.read · scan
9b.Arguments for and against punishing heresy and dissent
See also: Religion 12d
Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German NationVol. 36
- p. 318–319Burning heretics is absurd; if it worked the executioner would be the most learned doctor.read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35
- p. 257–258Archdeacons' visitations and courts punish offenders in person or purse, referring heresy and contempt to bishops or high commission for reform or severe penalty.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 138Advises against sanguinary persecutions; win over sect leaders by advancement rather than violence.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 276–277Fifteen hundred years of persecution have only hardened the Jews in error; persecution is an indirect way to plant religion.read · scan
John Milton, AreopagiticaVol. 3
- p. 216–217Bacon: punishing wits enhances their authority; suppression raises sects rather than ending them.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 280–281Burning of Faithful has left the townsmen ashamed, so they burn no more.read · scan
Daniel Defoe, The Shortest-Way with the DissentersVol. 27
- p. 133–134Says the time of mercy is past and Dissenters deserve just resentment.read · scan
- p. 136Argues that lenity was ill-repaid and Dissenters should be measured with the measure they meted.read · scan
- p. 142–143Argues fines are too light; gallows, galleys and banishment for attending conventicles would end dissent within a generation.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 71–72Persecution merely increases proselytes; imprisoned Quakers convert their jailers.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 164–166Heretics are imagined tortured, whipped and sent to hell.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 218–219Socrates was put to death after judicial conviction for impiety and immorality.read · scan
- p. 220–221Every plea for punishing anti-Christian teaching applied to Marcus Aurelius punishing Christianity; those defending such punishment must justify him.read · scan
- p. 223–225Mill condemns the rule excluding atheists' testimony as a relic of persecution that penalizes those clearly proved not to deserve it.read · scan
- p. 250Opinion delivered to an excited mob may justly incur punishment.read · scan
9c.Punishing books and restraints on the press
See also: Liberty 5a · Tyranny 7b
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 48Books are treated as offenders to be condemned; the niece demands no pardon, while the curate insists on reading first.read · scan
John Milton, AreopagiticaVol. 3
- p. 191–192Books may be imprisoned and punished like malefactors, though with care.read · scan
- p. 194Libelous authors like Naevius were jailed and libels burned by Augustus.read · scan
- p. 197A monstrous book may justly be burned, but should not be tried before birth like a soul.read · scan
- p. 213Requiring examination of all writing would be a disgraceful penalty even for one convicted of scandal; extending it to all is a disparagement.read · scan
- p. 231It would be fitting to suppress the suppressors themselves.read · scan
- p. 231–232Mischievous and libelous books may be remedied by fire and the executioner after publication.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 152–153Prynne's book burnt by the hangman and he loses his ears by Star Chamber sentence.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 294–295Authors and booksellers who defend Judaism would be punished.read · scan
Sydney Smith, Fallacies of Anti-ReformersVol. 27
- p. 245–246Timid, corrupt judges punish the bold press with years of captivity.read · scan
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