Читать книгу Mennonites in the World War - Jonas Smucker Hartzler - Страница 10

In all ages after that there were those who would not bow to the mandates of the Roman Church but rather suffered terrible persecutions. Faber, in speaking of the Paulicans (so called be cause they so often quoted from the Apostle Paul) says, "The firmness of their religious adherence to principle was marked by their frequent and ready submission to martyrdom. Hundreds of them were burned alive upon a huge funeral pile."

John Haynes Holmes, in his book, "New Wars for Old," gives some illustrations of the position of the early Christians He says, "One said, 'It is not lawful to bear arms.' Another, 'Because I am a Christian I have abandoned my profession as a soldier.' A third, 'I am a Christian and therefore I can not fight.' A fourth, 'I can not fight if I die; I am not a soldier of this world but a soldier of God.'" Speaking of the time when the Church was largely won by the Roman Empire, he says, "One of the most surprising results of this conquest of Christianity by the Empire is the practical annihilation of the doctrine of nonresistance, which had played such a conspicuous and heroic part in the early history of the Church."

The same author, speaking of the Catharists or Cathari, says, "It is a matter of record that when the persecutors of Rome fell upon them with fire and sword .and rock pillaged their homes, tortured their old and young, and slaughtered men, women, and children, all alike without compunction they died for the faith that was within them."