Читать книгу The History of Persecution - Samuel Chandler - Страница 10

Table of Contents

ASocrates,6 who, in the judgment of an oracle, was the wisest man living, was persecuted by the Athenians on the account of his religion, and, when past seventy years of age, brought to a public trial, and condemned. His accusation was principally this: “That he did unrighteously and curiously search into the great mysteries of heaven and earth; that he corrupted the youth, and did not esteem the gods worshipped by the city to be really gods, and that he introduced new deities.” This last part of his accusation was undoubtedly owing to his inculcating upon them more rational and excellent conceptions of the Deity, than were allowed by the established creeds of his country, and to his arguing against the corruptions and superstitions which he saw universally practised by the Greeks. This was called corrupting the youth who were his scholars, and what, together with his superior wisdom, raised him many enemies amongst all sorts of people, who loaded him with reproaches, and spread reports concerning him greatly to his disadvantage, endeavouring thereby to prejudice the minds of his very judges against him. When he was brought to his trial, several of his accusers were never so much as named or discovered to him; so that, as he himself complained, he was, as it were, fighting with a shadow, when he was defending himself against his adversaries, because he knew not whom he opposed, and had no one to answer him. However, he maintained his own innocence with the noblest resolution and courage; shewed he was far from corrupting the youth, and openly declared that he believed the Being of a God. And, as the proof of this his belief, he bravely said to his judges; “that though he was very sensible of his danger from the hatred and malice of the people, yet that, as he apprehended, God himself had appointed him to teach his philosophy, so he should grievously offend him should he forsake his station through fear of death, or any other evil; and that for such a disobedience to the Deity, they might more justly accuse him, as not believing there were any gods:” adding, as though he had somewhat of the same blessed spirit that afterwards rested on the apostles of Christ, “that if they would dismiss him upon the condition of not teaching his philosophy any more, ‘I will obey God rather than you, and teach my philosophy as long as I live’.” However, notwithstanding the goodness of his cause and defence, he was condemned for impiety and atheism, and ended his life with a draught of poison, dying a real martyr for God, and the purity of his worship. Thus we see that in the ages of natural reason and light, not to be orthodox, or to differ from the established religion, was the same thing as to be impious and atheistical; and that one of the wisest and best men that ever lived in the heathen world was put to death merely on account of his religion. The Athenians, indeed, afterwards repented of what they had done, and condemned one of his accusers, Melitus, to death, and the others to banishment.

I must add, in justice to the laity, that the judges and accusers of Socrates were not priests. Melitus was a poet, Anytus an artificer, and Lycon an orator; so that the prosecution was truly laic, and the priests do not appear to have had any share in his accusation, condemnation, and death. Nor, indeed, was there any need of the assistance of priestcraft in this affair, the prosecution of this excellent man being perfectly agreeable to the constitution and maxims of the Athenian government; which had, to use the words of a late reverend author,7 “incorporated or made religion a part of the laws of the civil community.” One of the Attic laws was to this effect: “Let it be a perpetual law, and binding at all times, to worship our national gods and heroes publicly, according to the laws of our ancestors.” So that no new gods, nor new doctrines about old gods, nor any new rites of worship, could be introduced by any person whatsoever, without incurring the penalty of this law, which was death. Thus Josephus tells us,8 that it was prohibited by law to teach new gods, and that the punishment ordained against those who should introduce any such, was death. Agreeably to this, the orator Isocrates,9 pleading in the grand council of Athens, puts them in mind of the custom and practice of their ancestors: “This was their principal care to abolish nothing they had received from their fathers in matters of religion, nor to make any addition to what they had established.” And therefore, in his advice to Nicocles, he exhorts him to be “of the same religion with his ancestors.” So that the civil establishment of religion in Athens was entirely exclusive, and no toleration whatsoever allowed to those who differed from it. On this account, the philosophers10 in general were, by a public decree, banished from Athens, as teaching heterodox opinions, and “corrupting the youth” in matters of religion; and, by a law, very much resembling the famous modern Schism Bill, prohibited from being masters and teachers of schools, without leave of the senate and people, even under pain of death. This law, indeed, like the other, was but very short-lived, and Sophocles, the author of it, punished in a fine of five talents. Lysimachus11 also banished them from his kingdom. It is evident from these things, that, according to the Athenian constitution, Socrates was legally condemned for not believing in the gods of his country, and presuming to have better notions of the Deity than his superiors. In like manner, a certain woman,12 a priestess, was put to death, upon an accusation of her introducing new deities.

Diogenes Laertius13 tells us, that Anaxagoras, the philosopher, was accused of impiety, because he affirmed, that “the sun was a globe of red-hot iron;” which was certainly great heresy, because his country worshipped him as a god. Stilpo14 was also banished his country, as the same writer tells us, because he denied “Minerva to be a god, allowing her only to be a goddess.” A very deep and curious controversy this, and worthy the cognizance of the civil magistrate. Diagoras15 was also condemned to death, and a talent decreed to him that should kill him upon his escape, being accused of “deriding the mysteries of the gods.” Protagoras also would have suffered death, had he not fled his country, because he had written something about the gods, that differed from the orthodox opinions of the Athenians. Upon the same account, Theodorus, called Atheus, and Theotimus,16 who wrote against Epicurus, being accused by Zeno, an Epicurean, were both put to death.

The Lacedemonians17 constantly expelled foreigners, and would not suffer their own citizens to dwell in foreign parts, because they imagined that both the one and the other tended to corrupt and weaken their own laws; nor would they suffer the teaching of rhetoric or philosophy, because of the quarrels and disputes that attended it. The Scythians, who delighted in human blood, and were, as Josephus says,18 little different from beasts, yet were zealously tenacious of their own rites, and put Anacharsis, a very wise person, to death, because he seemed to be very fond of the Grecian rites and ceremonies. DHerodotus19 says, that he was shot through the heart with an arrow, by Saulius their king, for sacrificing to the mother of the gods after the manner of the Grecians; and that Scyles, another of their kings, was deposed by them, for sacrificing to Bacchus, and using the Grecian ceremonies of religion, and his head afterwards cut off by Octamasades, who was chosen king in his room. “So rigid were they,” says the historian,20 “in maintaining their own customs, and so severe in punishing the introducers of foreign rites.” Many also amongst the Persians21 were put to death, on the same account. And, indeed, it was almost the practice of all nations to punish those who disbelieved or derided their national gods; as appears from Timocles, who, speaking of the gods of the Egyptians,22 says, “How shall the ibis, or the dog, preserve me?” And then adds, “Where is the place that doth not immediately punish those who behave impiously towards the gods, such as are confessed to be gods?”