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宽容（名著双语读物·中文导读+英文原版）

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版次：1
页数：
字数：
印刷时间：2016年11月01日
开本：16开
纸张：胶版纸
包装：平装-胶订
是否套装：否
国际标准书号ISBN：9787302412151

作者:[美] 房龙著张辰韵出版社:清华大学出版社出版时间:2017年01月

编辑推荐

本书是英汉双语版名著系列丛书中的一种，编写本系列丛书的另一个主要目的就是为准备参加英语国家留学考试的学生提供学习素材。对于留学考试，无论是SSAT、SAT还是TOEFL、GRE，要取得好的成绩，就必须了解西方的社会、历史、文化、生活等方面的背景知识，而阅读西方原版名著是了解这些知识*重要的手段之一。

内容简介

《宽容》是一部描写人类思想发展史的经典之作。房龙以“宽容”为视角，剖析了人类为寻求思想解放的权利所走过的艰难历程，勾勒出一部波澜壮阔的人类思想解放史，再现了两千年来欧洲政治、宗教、文化、社会的曲折发展历史和人类追求自身解放的漫长历程。从古希腊、罗马的文明，到中世纪欧洲的黑暗时代；从文艺复兴对人的重视，到启蒙运动对社会的唤醒，房龙以欧洲“思想史”为主线，讲述人类寻求思想解放的漫长历程。从雅典卫城到古罗马斗兽场；从种族屠杀到十字军东征；从教会对异端徒的迫害到宗教改革；从文艺复兴的达·芬奇到启蒙运动的拉伯雷，围绕历史上的重大事件和重要人物，展示了西方两千多年来跌宕起伏的历史画卷。无论作为通俗的思想史读本，还是作为英文学习的课外读物，本书对当代中国读者，特别是青少年读者都将产生积极的影响。为了使读者能够了解英文故事概况，进而提高阅读速度和阅读水平，在每章的开始部分增加了中文导读。同时，为了读者更好地理解书中的内容，在部分章节中加入了插图，这些插图大多来自不同时期著名画家的作品。

目　　录

目录
1．无知的暴政/The Tyranny oflgnorance 1
2．希腊人/The Greeks 13
3．禁锢的开始/The Beginningof Restraint 59
4．上帝的晨光/The Twilightof the Gods 72
5．禁锢/Imprisonment 100
6．纯洁的生活/The Pure ofLife 112
7．宗教裁判所/TheInquisition 127
8．好奇的人/The Curiousones 150
9．对书籍开战/The War uponthe Printed Word 165
10．关于写历史书的普通问题，以及写这本书的特殊问题/
Concerning the Writing of History inGeneral
and this Book in Particular 174
11．文艺复兴/Renaissance 178

目录
1．无知的暴政/The Tyranny of
lgnorance     1
2．希腊人/The Greeks   13
3．禁锢的开始/The Beginning
of Restraint  59
4．上帝的晨光/The Twilight
of the Gods       72
5．禁锢/Imprisonment  100
6．纯洁的生活/The Pure of
Life    112
7．宗教裁判所/The
Inquisition      127
8．好奇的人/The Curious
ones      150
9．对书籍开战/The War upon
the Printed Word  165
10．关于写历史书的普通问题，以及写这本书的特殊问题/
Concerning the Writing of History in
General 
and this Book in Particular       174
11．文艺复兴/Renaissance   178
12．宗教改革/The Reformation    188
13．伊拉斯谟/Erasmus 203
14．拉伯雷/Rabelais      221
15．新招牌换掉旧招牌/New
Signboards for Old 232
16．再洗礼派教徒/The
Anabaptists     257
17．索齐尼叔侄/The Sozzini
Family       270
18．蒙田/Montaigne      282
19．阿米尼乌斯/Arminius     291
20．布鲁诺/Bruno 302
21．斯宾诺莎/Spinoza   308
22．新天堂/The New Zion     325
23．太阳王/The Sun King       340
24．腓特烈大帝/Frederick the
Great    346
25．伏尔泰/Voltaire       350
26．百科全书/The
Encyclopedia   373
27．革命的不宽容/The
Intolerance of Revolution        384
28．莱辛/Lessing   395
29．拖马斯·潘恩/Tom Paine       411
30．最后一百年/The Last
Hundred Years     419

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前　　言

前言亨德里克·威廉·房龙（Hendrik Willem Van Loon，1882—1944），荷兰裔美国人，20世纪美国著名通俗历史学家、科普作家和文学家，在历史、文化、文明
、科学等方面都有著作，被誉为“伟大的文化普及者，传播人类文明的文化骑士”。　　1882年1月14日，房龙出生于荷兰鹿特丹。幼年时对历史、地理、船舶、绘画和音乐感兴趣，这种兴趣伴随着他的一生。从8岁起，房龙进入著名的寄宿制学校，
学习拉丁文、希腊文和英文。10岁时，房龙便立志要成为历史学家。1902年，房龙进入美国康奈尔大学学习，获学士学位；之后，进入德国慕尼黑大学学习，1911年
获博士学位。房龙求学前后，当过编辑、记者、播音员，也先后在美国几所大学任教，游历过世界上很多地方。1913年，房龙编著并出版了第一本历史书《荷兰共和
国的衰亡》，虽然销路一般，但受到了书评界的赞扬。1920年圣诞节期间，房龙出版了他的第二本书《古代的人》，这是一部带插图的通俗历史读本，市场反映良好
。经过知识、阅历、研究成果等方面的积累，房龙于1921年出版了他的第三部历史著作《世界文明简史》（多译《人类的故事》），并一举成名，从此房龙迎来了他
创作的丰收期。之后，房龙陆续出版了《发明的故事》《圣经的故事》《美国简史》（多译《美国的故事》）《地理的故事》（也译《人类的家园》）《人类的艺术

前言
<div>亨德里克·威廉·房龙（Hendrik Willem Van Loon，1882—1944），荷兰裔美国人，20世纪美国著名通俗历史学家、科普作家和文学家，在历史、文化、文明 、科学等方面都有著作，被誉为“伟大的文化普及者，传播人类文明的文化骑士”。　　1882年1月14日，房龙出生于荷兰鹿特丹。幼年时对历史、地理、船舶、绘画和音乐感兴趣，这种兴趣伴随着他的一生。从8岁起，房龙进入著名的寄宿制学校， 学习拉丁文、希腊文和英文。10岁时，房龙便立志要成为历史学家。1902年，房龙进入美国康奈尔大学学习，获学士学位；之后，进入德国慕尼黑大学学习，1911年 获博士学位。房龙求学前后，当过编辑、记者、播音员，也先后在美国几所大学任教，游历过世界上很多地方。1913年，房龙编著并出版了第一本历史书《荷兰共和 国的衰亡》，虽然销路一般，但受到了书评界的赞扬。1920年圣诞节期间，房龙出版了他的第二本书《古代的人》，这是一部带插图的通俗历史读本，市场反映良好 。经过知识、阅历、研究成果等方面的积累，房龙于1921年出版了他的第三部历史著作《世界文明简史》（多译《人类的故事》），并一举成名，从此房龙迎来了他 创作的丰收期。之后，房龙陆续出版了《发明的故事》《圣经的故事》《美国简史》（多译《美国的故事》）《地理的故事》（也译《人类的家园》）《人类的艺术 》《宽容》《与世界伟人谈心》《伦勃朗传》和《太平洋的故事》等二十多部著作。房龙作品的内容涉及历史、地理、宗教、文学、政治、艺术、科学和技术等诸多 方面。房龙多才多艺，能用十种语言写作和与人交流，拉得一手优美的小提琴，还能画画，他的著作中的所有插图全部出自他自己手笔。1944年3月11日，房龙在美 国康涅狄格州去世，美国《星期日快报》刊登讣告时用了这样的标题“历史成就了他的名声——房龙逝世”。　　房龙的作品文笔优美、知识广博，在世界各地广受读者喜爱。其作品内容丰富、资料翔实、知识广博而不乏真知灼见，文字深入浅出、通俗优美、轻松风趣而又 发人深省，贯穿着理性、宽容和进步的思想，具有经久不衰的魅力。他的绝大部分著作均是风靡世界的畅销书，历经近一个世纪仍不失魅力，影响了一代又一代的读 者。房龙的作品饮誉世界，荷兰、德国、法国、瑞典、丹麦、芬兰、挪威、日本、印度、前苏联、西班牙、意大利、波兰、匈牙利、希腊等国都翻译出版了他的作品 。　　自20世纪20年代开始，房龙的主要作品几乎被同步介绍给中国的读者。翻译者把这个荷兰名字译为“房龙”。此后，这个名字为我国读者所熟悉，并流传下来。 房龙作品深入浅出的通俗文风和百科全书般的渊博知识，对与之同时代的中国读者产生了巨大的影响。这是因为，一方面是房龙的文风正好适合于当时新文化运动所 提倡的生活化的白话文，房龙的书也为中国求知者提供了关于人类和自然的启蒙知识；另一方面，房龙的写作技巧也给中国当时的作家以很多启发。据历史学家和著 名报人曹聚仁回忆：20世纪20年代，他在候车时偶然买到《人类的故事》中译本，“那天下午，我发痴似的，车来了，在车上读，到了家中，把晚饭吞下去，就靠在 床上读，一直读到天明，走马观花地总算看完了。这50年中，我总是看了又看，除了《儒林外史》《红楼梦》，没有其他的书这么吸引我了”。郁达夫曾说：“房龙 的笔，有一种魔力……是将文学家的手法，拿来用以讲述科学……无论大人小孩，读他书的人，都觉得娓娓忘倦了。”20世纪80年代是中国改革开放的年代，房龙的 作品重新被发现，且被逐步引进。而自20世纪90年代后期开始，国内兴起“房龙热”，房龙的作品再次受到读者的青睐，这是因为他的著作特别符合现代中国人的心 理：务实进取的时代，读书趋向于知识性、趣味性。基于以上原因，我们决定编译房龙系列著作中的经典，其中包括《世界文明简史》《圣经的故事》《房龙地理》 《发明的故事》《太平洋的故事》《宽容》和《美国简史》，并采用中文导读英文版的形式出版。同时，为了读者更好地理解书中内容，在部分章节中加入了插图或 照片，在中文导读中，我们尽力使其贴近原作的精髓，也尽可能保留原作的风格。我们希望能够编出为当代中国读者所喜爱的经典读本。读者在阅读英文故事之前， 可以先阅读中文导读内容，这样有利于了解故事背景，从而加快阅读速度。我们相信，这些经典著作的引进对加强当代中国读者，特别是青少年读者的科学素养和人 文修养是非常有帮助的。　　房龙始终站在全人类的高度在写作，他摒弃了深奥理论，却拥有自己独立的思想和体系，他的论述主要是围绕人类生存与发展等本质的问题，贯穿其中的精神是 科学、宽容和进步，他的目标是向人类的无知与偏执挑战，他采取的方式是普及知识和真理，使它们成为人所皆知的常识。房龙毕生持人文主义立场，在有的问题上 不免有与唯物主义者不同的观点；同时，由于他是生活在二十世纪早期的美国作家，其思想的观点不可避免地会受到时代和历史的局限，比如在他的《房龙地理》一 书中错误地将西藏放到“中亚高地”这一章，而不是“中国”这一章来讲述，又比如他以地理环境决定论来解释日本近代侵略行为，希望读者朋友阅读这些著作时能 够甄别。　　本书是英汉双语版名著系列丛书中的一种，编写本系列丛书的另一个主要目的就是为准备参加英语国家留学考试的学生提供学习素材。对于留学考试，无论是 SSAT、SAT还是TOEFL、GRE，要取得好的成绩，就必须了解西方的社会、历史、文化、生活等方面的背景知识，而阅读西方原版名著是了解这些知识最重要的手段之 一。　　本书中文导读内容由张辰韵编写。参加本书故事素材搜集整理及编译工作的还有纪飞、赵雪、刘乃亚、蔡红昌、陈起永、熊红华、熊建国、程来川、徐平国、龚 桂平、付泽新、熊志勇、胡贝贝、李军、宋亭、张灵羚、张玉瑶、付建平等。限于我们的科学、人文素养和英语水平，书中难免会有不当之处，衷心希望读者朋友批 评指正。</div>

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5．禁    锢Imprisonment　　　　公元337年，君士坦丁大帝死了，他的三个儿子为了他们的共同遗产大打出手。他们杀掉了住在城中或城附近的所有亲戚。六岁的朱立安的父亲就在其列。当时他正和一个同父异母的哥哥一起学习一些赞美基督教的课程。　　长大一些后，他们被送到了远一点的地方，这样不会引起注意。那是一个偏僻的小村子，生活很枯燥，但朱立安学到了很多有用的东西。那里的邻居仍信仰着自己祖先的众神。朱立安请求投身研究生活，并得到了允许。他在尼哥美迪亚学习文学和科学，在雅典学习哲学。这时，他的同父异母的哥哥也被杀死了。　　他的堂兄君士坦丁乌斯把小哲学家朱立安召来，把自己的妹妹嫁给了他，然后派他去了高卢，抗击蛮族人。朱立安干得非常不错，大败敌军并把默兹河和莱茵河之间的所有土地并入了自己的省份。　　胜利的消息传到了皇帝耳朵里，他设下计策要除掉这个竞争对手。但朱立安很受士兵的爱戴，在他们的保护下，朱立安回到了首都，这时他的堂兄已经死了。这样，异教徒再次成了西方世界的统治者。　　但朱立安却要用武力使死掉的“过去”复活。他要重建跟原来一模一样的雅典卫城，重现伯里克利的时代。各方面的反对足以让比他更坚韧的人都疯狂、绝望，但他至少暂时信守了伟大祖先的开明原则——拒绝惩罚攻击他的人。公元363年，一支仁慈的波斯之箭结束了这个人奇怪的一生。 煽动造反的天使（这是英国画家布莱克根据长篇史诗《失乐园》创作的）　　如果他活得再长些，他的宽容观念和他对愚蠢的憎恨，会把他变成最不宽容的人。他的基督教臣民回报他的则是永远的仇恨，用尽恶言恶语来贬低这个诚实人的名声——尽管这个人一生过着朴素、严谨的生活，把所有精力都用在给臣民谋求幸福上。　　基督教的主教终于可以说自己是帝国的真正统治者了。他们马上开始摧毁欧洲、亚洲、非洲各个角落里残留的反对其统治的势力。开始时，异教教士被剥夺了收入来源，被迫改行。后来国王下令，所有的臣民都必须接受基督教。依旧坚持“错误见解”的人，依旧坚持“疯狂的异端思想”的人，仍旧忠实于“可怕的教义”的人，要么被流放，要么被处死。　　古代世界迅速走向了死亡，几乎一个异教神庙都没有剩下。在罗马、高卢、希腊，寺庙、大学、场馆都被毁灭了。5世纪前半叶，大主教可以毫不夸张地说，古代作者和哲学家的著作都从地球上消失了。西塞洛、苏格拉底、维吉尔、荷马都躺在成千上万个阁楼和地窖里，被人遗忘了。又过了六百年，他们才被唤醒。　　尽管教会战胜了异教敌人，却被很多严重问题困扰着。头脑简单、武器强大的蛮族人都接受了基督教，他们有不幸的错误观点，但他们是教会的忠诚朋友和支持者。对他们不能用一个普遍的诅咒、永恒的地狱烈火来惩罚。必须和善地劝说他们，告诉他们错了。但是，首先应该给他们一个明确的教义。　　在所有信仰问题上都需要有某种统一，这最终导致了著名的“全基督教大会”或“全体会议”。会议最后固定在罗马召开，从4世纪中期，就不定期地召开来决定什么是对，什么是错。这些神圣会议达成的结论，不得到教皇或他的某个代表的正式批准，是没有约束力的。　　有两种人，一种认为宽容是人类最大的美德，另一种谴责宽容是道德软弱的体现。应该承认，教会在解释为什么对所有异端分子都施加可怕惩罚时，推理方式听起来头头是道。迄今为止，所有的说法完全对，完全有道理。　　但现在是蒸汽轮船、火车的时代，有无限的经济机会。　　5世纪的世界要想找到一个感受不到罗马主教的势力的地方，很不容易，除非你永远放逐了你自己和你的孩子。相反，如果你真心觉得自己对耶稣的看法是对的，那么劝说教会进行修改则只是时间的问题，又何必放弃按照自己的心意进行信仰的权利呢？　　早期基督徒，不管是信徒还是异端分子，他们的观点都是相对的，不是绝对的，就像一群数学家既不能在X的绝对值上达成一致，也不能把彼此送上绞刑架一样。　　但是，“自以为正确”和“不宽容”已经完全攫取了世界。直到不久前，如果有人说“我们无法知道谁对谁错”，并因此宣扬宽容，还会有生命     危险。　　　　　　     ust before the curtain rings down for the last time upon the ancient world, a figure crosses the stage which had deserved a better fate than an untimely death and the unflattering appellation of “the Apostate.”　　The Emperor Julian, to whom I refer, was a nephew of Constantine the Great and was born in the new capital of the empire in the year 331. In 337 his famous uncle died. At once his three sons fell upon their common heritage and upon each other with the fury of famished wolves.　　To rid themselves of all those who might possibly lay claim to part of the spoils, they ordered that those of their relatives who lived in or near the city be murdered. Julian’s father was one of the victims. His mother had died a few years after his birth. In this way, at the age of six, the boy was left an orphan. An older half-brother, an invalid, shared his loneliness and his lessons. These consisted mostly of lectures upon the advantages of the Christian faith, given by a kindly but uninspired old bishop by the name of Eusebius.　　But when the children grew older, it was thought wiser to send them a little further away where they would be less conspicuous and might possibly escape the usual fate of junior Byzantine princes. They were removed to a little village in the heart of Asia Minor. It was a dull life, but it gave Julian a chance to learn many useful things. For his neighbors, the Cappadocian mountaineers, were a simple people and still believed in the gods of their ancestors.　　There was not the slightest chance that the boy would ever hold a responsible position and when he asked permission to devote himself to a life of study, he was told to go ahead. 　　First of all he went to Nicomedia, one of the few places where the old Greek philosophy continued to be taught. There he crammed his head so full of literature and science that there was no space left for the things he had learned from Eusebius.　　Next he obtained leave to go to Athens, that he might study on the very spot hallowed by the recollections of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle.　　Meanwhile, his half-brother too had been assassinated and Constantins, his cousin and the one and only remaining son of Constantine, remembering that he and his cousin, the boy philosopher, were by this time the only two surviving male members of the imperial family, sent for Julian, received him kindly, married him, still in the kindest of spirits, to his own sister, Helena, and ordered him to proceed to Gaul and defend that province against the barbarians.　　It seems that Julian had learned something more practical from his Greek teachers than an ability to argue. When in the year 357 the Alamanni threatened France, he destroyed their army near Strassburg, and for good measure added all the country between the Meuse and the Rhine to his own province and went to live in Paris, filled his library with a fresh supply of books by his favorite authors and was as happy as his serious nature allowed him to be. 　　When news of these victories reached the ears of the Emperor, little Greek fire was wasted in celebration of the event. On the contrary, elaborate plans were laid to get rid of a competitor who might be just a trifle too successful.　　But Julian was very popular with his soldiers. When they heard that their commander- in-chief had been ordered to return home (a polite invitation to come and have one’s head cut off), they invaded his palace and then and there proclaimed him emperor. At the same time they let it be known that they would kill him if he should refuse to accept.　　Julian, like a sensible fellow, accepted.　　Even at that late date, the Roman roads must have been in a remarkably good state of preservation. Julian was able to break all records by the speed with which he marched his troops from the heart of France to the shores of the Bosphorus. But ere he reached the capital, he heard that his cousin Constantius had died. 　　And in this way, a pagan once more became ruler of the western world.　　Of course the thing which Julian had undertaken to do was impossible. It is a strange thing indeed that so intelligent a man should have been under the impression that the dead past could ever be brought back to life by the use of force; that the age of Pericles could be revived by reconstructing an exact replica of the Acropolis and populating the deserted groves of the Academy with professors dressed up in togas of a bygone age and talking to each other in a tongue that had disappeared from the face of the earth more than five centuries before.　　And yet that is exactly what Julian tried to do.　　All his efforts during the two short years of his reign were directed towards the re?stablishment of that ancient science which was now held in profound contempt by the majority of his people; towards the rekindling of a spirit of research in a world ruled by illiterate monks who felt certain that everything worth knowing was contained in a single book and that independent study and investigation could only lead to unbelief and hell fire; towards the requickening of the joy-of-living among those who had the vitality and the enthusiasm of ghosts.　　Many a man of greater tenacity than Julian would have been driven to madness and despair by the spirit of opposition which met him on all sides. As for Julian, he simply went to pieces under it. Temporarily at least he clung to the enlightened principles of his great ancestors. The Christian rabble of Antioch might pelt him with stones and mud, yet he refused to punish the city. Dull-witted monks might try to provoke him into another era of persecution, yet the Emperor persistently continued to instruct his officials “not to make any martyrs.”　　In the year 363 a merciful Persian arrow made an end to this strange career.　　It was the best thing that could have happened to this, the last and greatest of the Pagan rulers.　　Had he lived any longer, his sense of tolerance and his hatred of stupidity would have turned him into the most intolerant man of his age. Now, from his cot in the hospital, he could reflect that during his rule, not a single person had suffered death for his private opinions. For this mercy, his Christian subjects rewarded him with their undying hatred. They boasted that an arrow from one of his own soldiers (a Christian legionary) had killed the Emperor and with rare delicacy they composed eulogies in praise of the murderer. They told how, just before he collapsed, Julian had confessed the errors of his ways and had acknowledged the power of Christ. And they emptied the arsenal of foul epithets with which the vocabulary of the fourth century was so richly stocked to disgrace the fame of an honest man who had lived a life of ascetic simplicity and had devoted all his energies to the happiness of the people who had been entrusted to his care.　　When he had been carried to his grave the Christian bishops could at last consider themselves the veritable rulers of the Empire and immediately began the task of destroying whatever opposition to their domination might remain in isolated corners of Europe, Asia and Africa.　　Under Valentinian and Valens, two brothers who ruled from 364 to 378, an edict was passed forbidding all Romans to sacrifice animals to the old Gods. The pagan priests were thereby deprived of their revenue and forced to look for other employment.　　But the regulations were mild compared to the law by which Theodosius ordered all his subjects not only to accept the Christian doctrines, but to accept them only in the form laid down by the “universal” or “Catholic” church of which he had made himself the protector and which was to have a monopoly in all matters spiritual.　　All those who after the promulgation of this ordinance stuck to their “erroneous opinions”—who persisted in their “insane heresies”—who remained faithful to their “scandalous doctrines”—were to suffer the consequences of their willful disobedience and were to be exiled or put to death. 　　From then on the old world marched rapidly to its final doom. In Italy and Gaul and Spain and England hardly a pagan temple remained. They were either wrecked by the contractors who needed stones for new bridges and streets and city-walls and water-works, or they were remodeled to serve as meeting places for the Christians. The thousands of golden and silver images which had been accumulated since the beginning of the Republic were publicly confiscated and privately stolen and such statues as remained were made into mortar. 　　The Serapeum of Alexandria, a temple which Greeks and Romans and Egyptians alike had held in the greatest veneration for more than six centuries, was razed to the ground. There remained the university, famous all over the world ever since it had been founded by Alexander the Great. It had continued to teach and explain the old philosophies and as a result attracted a large number of students from all parts of the Mediterranean. When it was not closed at the behest of the Bishop of Alexandria, the monks of his diocese took the matter into their own hands. They broke into the lecture rooms, lynched Hypatia, the last of the great Platonic teachers, and threw her mutilated body into the streets where it was left to the mercy of the dogs. 　　In Rome things went no better. 　　The temple of Jupiter was closed, the Sibylline books, the very basis of the old Roman faith, were burned. The capitol was left a ruin. 　　In Gaul, under the leadership of the famous bishop of Tours, the old Gods were declared to be the predecessors of the Christian devils and their temples were therefore ordered to be wiped off the face of the earth.　　If, as sometimes happened in remote country districts, the peasants rushed forth to the defense of their beloved shrines, the soldiers were called out and by means of the ax and the gallows made an end to such “insurrections of Satan.”　　In Greece, the work of destruction proceeded more slowly. But finally in the year 394, the Olympic games were abolished. As soon as this center of Greek national life (after an uninterrupted existence of eleven hundred and seventy years) had come to an end, the rest was comparatively easy. One after the other, the philosophers were expelled from the country. Finally, by order of the Emperor Justinian, the University of Athens was closed. The funds established for its maintenance were confiscated. The last seven professors, deprived of their livelihood, fled to Persia where King Chosroes received them hospitably and allowed them to spend the rest of their days peacefully playing the new and mysterious Indian game called “chess.”　　In the first half of the fifth century, archbishop Chrysostomus could truthfully state that the works of the old authors and philosophers had disappeared from the face of the earth. Cicero and Socrates and Virgil and Homer (not to mention the mathematicians and the astronomers and the physicians who were an object of special abomination to all good Christians) lay forgotten in a thousand attics and cellars. Six hundred years were to go by before they were called back to life, and in the meantime the world would be obliged to subsist on such literary fare as it pleased the theologians to place before it.　　A strange diet, and not exactly (in the jargon of the medical faculty) a balanced one. 　　For the Church, although triumphant over its pagan enemies, was beset by many and serious tribulations. The poor peasant in Gaul and Lusitania, clamoring to burn incense in honor of his ancient Gods, could be silenced easily enough. He was a heathen and the law was on the side of the Christian. But the Ostrogoth or the Alaman or the Longobard who declared that Arius, the priest of Alexandria, was right in his opinion upon the true nature of Christ and that Athanasius, the bishop of that same city and Arius’bitter enemy, was wrong (of vice versa )—the Longobard or Frank who stoutly maintained that Christ was not “of the same nature” but of a “like nature only” with God (or vice versa) —the Vandal or the Saxon who insisted that Nestor spoke the truth when he called the Virgin Mary the “mother of Christ” and not the “mother of God” (or vice versa) —the Burgundian or Frisian who denied that Jesus was possessed of two natures, one human and one divine (or vice versa)—all these simpleminded but strong-armed barbarians who had accepted Christianity and were, outside of their unfortunate errors of opinion, staunch friends and supporters of the Church—these indeed could not be punished with a general anathema and a threat of perpetual hell fire. They must be persuaded gently that they were wrong and must be brought within the fold with charitable expressions of love and devotion. But before all else they must be given a definite creed that they might know for once and for all what they must hold to be true and what they must reject as false.　　It was that desire for unity of some sort in all matters pertaining to the faith which finally caused those famous gatherings which have become known as Oecumenical or Universal Councils, and which since the middle of the fourth century have been called together at irregular intervals to decide what doctrine is right and what doctrine contains the germ of heresy and should therefore be adjudged erroneous, unsound, fallacious and heretical.　　The first of those Oecumenical councils was held in the town of Nicaea, not far from the ruins of Troy, in the year 325. The second one, fifty-six years later, was held in Constantinople. The third one in the year 431 in Ephesus. Thereafter they followed each other in rapid succession in Chalcedon, twice again in Constantinople, once more in Nicaea and finally once again in Constantinople in the year 869.　　After that, however, they were held in Rome or in some particular town of western Europe designated by the Pope. For it was generally accepted from the fourth century on that although the emperor had the technical right to call together such meetings (a privilege which incidentally obliged him to pay the traveling expenses of his faithful bishops) that very serious attention should be paid to the suggestions made by the powerful Bishop of Rome. And although we do not know with any degree of certainty who occupied the chair in Nicaea, all later councils were dominated by the Popes and the decisions of these holy gatherings were not regarded as binding unless they had obtained the official approval of the supreme pontiff himself or one of his delegates.　　Hence we can now say farewell to Constantinople and travel to the more congenial regions of the west.　　The field of Tolerance and Intolerance has been fought over so repeatedly by those who hold tolerance the greatest of all human virtues and those who denounce it as an evidence of moral weakness, that I shall pay very little attention to the purely theoretical aspects of the case. Nevertheless it must be confessed that the champions of the Church follow a plausible line of reasoning when they try to explain away the terrible punishments which were inflicted upon all heretics.　　“A church,” so they argue, “is like any other organization. It is almost like a village or a tribe or a fortress. There must be a commander-in-chief and there must be a definite set of laws and bylaws, which all members are forced to obey. It follows that those who swear allegiance to the Church make a tacit vow both to respect the commander-in-chief and to obey the law. And if they find it impossible to do this, they must suffer the consequences of their own decisions and get out.”　　All of which, so far, is perfectly true and reasonable. 　　If today a minister feels that he can no longer believe in the articles of faith of the Baptist Church, he can turn Methodist, and if for some reason he ceases to believe in the creed as laid down by the Methodist Church, he can become a Unitarian or a Catholic or a Jew, or for that matter, a Hindoo or a Turk. The world is wide. The door is open. There is no one outside his own hungry family to say him nay.　　But this is an age of steamships and railroad trains and unlimited economic opportunities. 　　The world of the fifth century was not quite so simple. It was far from easy to discover a region where the influence of the Bishop of Rome did not make itself felt. One could of course go to Persia or to India, as a good many heretics did, but the voyage was long and the chances of survival were small. And this meant perpetual banishment for one’s self and one’s children. 　　And finally, why should a man surrender his good right to believe what he pleased if he felt sincerely that his conception of the idea of Christ was the right one and that it was only a question of time for him to convince the Church that its doctrines needed a slight modification?　　For that was the crux of the whole matter. 　　The early Christians, both the faithful and the heretics, dealt with ideas which had a relative and not a positive value. 　　A group of mathematicians, sending each other to the gallows because they cannot agree upon the absolute value of x would be no more absurd than a council of learned theologians trying to define the undefinable and endeavoring to reduce the substance of God to a formula.　　But so thoroughly had the spirit of self-righteousness and in tolerance got hold of the world that until very recently all those who advocated tolerance upon the basis that “we cannot ever possibly know who is right and who is wrong” did so at the risk of their lives and usually couched their warnings in such careful Latin sentences that not more than one or two of their most intelligent readers ever knew what they meant.?? ?? ?? ??                      Tolerance                   Imprisonment 100 111

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