Happy Aquinas Day!

[Portrait]

Please! No more feeble attempts to justify the position Aquinas took on heretics. He believed they should be executed. The fact that this was a common attitude back then doesn’t justify it anymore than widespread acceptance of slavery justified slavery or overnment support of abortion in, say, China justifies abortion.

Aquinas was brilliant, but - as I stated - when I read his approval of murdering heretics my respect fell dramatically. I presume I've been 'brainwashed' by living in a country where freedom of religion flourishes and is guaranteed.

Dear Roy5,

Cordial greetings.

Surely Protestants also make some attempt to justify the historical execution of heretics. Thus, for example, one could cite Calvin’s part in the execution of Michael Servetus. He (Servetus) was an extremely perverse man and his speech and writings became increasingly blasphemous, so much so that the Inquisition was also most desirous to arrest him, though he eluded capture by moving from place to place. Rather unwisely he went to Geneva and ended up in debate with the reformer John Calvin, who very quickly demonstrated the folly of the renegades logic, and Servetus was arrested and, refusing to recant, was burnt as a heretic. Interestingly, this event gave rise to heated controversy among the Protestants as to whether heretics should be condemned to death.

Most conservative Protestant scholars make some attempt to defend Calvin’s part in this matter. They quite correctly observe that the state and the Church had in all countries of Europe been so united that men could not think of them as being anything but inseparable. It will be recollected that St. Paul and others were “beaten in the Synogogue”; the idea was that of administering justice in the Church. We now recognize that this was a most barbaric and objectionable procedure. However, it is correct to contend that in this matter of the burning of Servetus, Calvin rose no higher than the age in which he lived and moved and had his being.

As regards slavery, this has only been abolished relatively recently and yet it ought to have been wiped out a great deal sooner but, alas, it became accepted by all as a normal feature of the social structure. Moreover, old ways often die exceedingly hard and abolition only comes with a more civilised age and its consequent reform. Therefore, it is a gross oversimplification to talk of lame attempts to ‘justify’ Calvin of Aquinas’s position on the burning of heretics, since these men were inevitably men of a more barbarous age, at least in this respect at any rate.

Warmest good wishes,

Portrait

Pax

 

[Roy5]

I am not interested in defending Calvin, who, of course, was a Catholic who became a leading Protestant. But this thread is on Aquinas. I am pointing out that, while he was a brilliant scholar, he had some serious flaws. One of them was his advocacy of death for heretics.
For centuries there were Catholics and Protestants who sought to justify slavery, also, often quoting scripture. They were wrong. I presume we can be less harsh in our criticism of them because of the times they lived in, but that doesn't mean that we should ever seek to smile upon their erroneous position.