The New Gospel

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">These [martyrs, Eleazar, an old woman and her seven sons], then, who have been consecrated for the sake of God, are honored … by the fact that because of them our enemies did not rule over our nation, the tyrant [Antiochus IV] was punished, and the homeland purified — they having become, as it were, </em><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;"><strong>a ransom for the sin of our nation</strong></em><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;"><strong>.&nbsp;</strong> And through the blood of those devout ones and their death as </em><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;"><strong>an atoning sacrifice</strong></em><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">, divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been mistreated.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">May I have the full pleasure of the wild beasts prepared for me; I pray they will be found ready for me.&nbsp; Indeed, I will coax them to devour me quickly … Fire and cross and packs of wild beasts, cuttings and being torn apart, the scattering of bones, the mangling of limbs, the grinding of the whole body, the evil torments of the devil—let them come upon me, only that I may attain to Jesus Christ.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.&nbsp;</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">While thus, then, we spread ourselves before God, let the hooks pierce us, the crosses suspend us, the fires play upon us, the swords gash our throats, the beasts leap on us.&nbsp; The very posture of the Christian at prayer is readiness for any torture.&nbsp; Go to it, my good magistrates, rack out the soul that prays to God for the Emperor.&nbsp;</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe the one deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in equally majesty and in a holy Trinity.&nbsp; We authorize the followers of this law to assume the title of Catholic Christians; but as for the others, since, in our judgment, they are foolish madmen, we decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of heretics … They will suffer in the first place the chastisement of the divine condemnation, and in the second the punishment which our authority, in accordance with the will of Heaven, shall decide to inflict.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">With regard to heretics … there is the sin, by which they deserve not only to be separated from the Church by excommunication, but also to be severed from the world by death.&nbsp; For it is a much graver matter to corrupt the faith which quickens the soul, then to forge money, which supports temporal life.&nbsp; Therefore, if forgers of money and other evil-doers are condemned to death at once by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">First, I say that it seems to me that Your Reverence and Galileo did prudently to content yourself with speaking hypothetically, and not absolutely, as I have always believed Copernicus spoke.&nbsp; For to say that, assuming the earth moves and sun stands still, all the appearances are saved better than with eccentrics and epicycles, is to speak well; there is no danger in this, and it is sufficient for mathematicians [astronomers].&nbsp; But to want to affirm [these things], is a very dangerous thing, not only by irritating all philosophers and scholastic theologians, but also by injuring our holy faith and rendering the Holy Scriptures false. &nbsp;</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">We say, pronounce, sentence and declare that you, the said Galileo … have rendered yourself in the judgment of this Holy office vehemently suspected of heresy, namely, of having believed and held the doctrine which is false and contrary to the Sacred and Divine Scriptures, that the sun is the center of the world and does not move from east to west and that the earth moves and is not the center of the world … after it has been declared and defined as contrary to Holy Scripture … From which we are content that you be absolved, provided that … you abjure, curse, and detest before us the aforesaid errors and heresies …</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">I, Galileo Galilei, … aged seventy years … and kneeling before you … having before my eyes the Holy Gospels which I touch with my own hands, swear that I have always believed, and, with the help of God, will in future believe, every article which the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church or Rome holds, teaches, and preaches … therefore, with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, I abjure, curse, and detest the said errors and heresies.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">I have purposely refrained from describing the particular sufferings and deaths of the Christian martyrs.&nbsp; It would have been an easy task, from the history of Eusebius, from the declamations of Lactantius, and from the most ancient acts, to collect a long series of horrid and disgusting pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and scourges, with iron hooks and red-hot beds, and with all the variety of tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts, and more savage executioners, could inflict on the human body … But I cannot determine what I ought to transcribe, till I am satisfied how much I ought to believe.&nbsp; The gravest of ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to disgrace, of religion.&nbsp;</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">The pitchy smoke, shot through with red flashes of flame, rolled up in a thick volume and hid her [Joan of Arc] from sight; and from the heart of this darkness her voice rose strong and eloquent in prayer, and when by moments the wind shredded somewhat of the smoke aside, there were veiled glimpses of an upturned face and moving lips.&nbsp; At last a merciful swift tide of flame burst upward, and none saw the face any more nor that form, and the voice was still.&nbsp; Yes, she was gone from us: J</em><strong style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;"><em>oan of </em></strong><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">A</em><strong style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;"><em>rc!&nbsp;</em></strong><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;"> What little words they are, to tell of a rich world made empty and poor! &nbsp;</em></p>

<p><strong style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;"><em>Second Jailor:</em></strong><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">&nbsp; You know, it seems so odd.</em></p><p><strong><em>First Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; What?</em></p><p><strong><em>Second Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Well, to look through that [prison] door and to see a heretic.&nbsp; I’ve never seen one before.</em></p><p><strong><em>First Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Well, they’re a poor lot, taken ‘em by and large.</em></p><p><strong><em>Second Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Are they dangerous?</em></p><p><strong><em>First Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; (smiling) Not when they get here.</em></p><p><strong><em>Second Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Yes, a heretic.&nbsp; You know it must be awful to be like him.&nbsp; To know you’re damned for all eternity.&nbsp; Terrifying.</em></p><p><strong><em>First Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; He might recant.</em></p><p><strong><em>Second Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; You think he will?</em></p><p><strong><em>First Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Might.</em></p><p><strong><em>Second Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Will he then be spared?</em></p><p><strong><em>First Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; (shaking his head) Not this one.&nbsp; He’s been accused before and found guilty.&nbsp; This time it’s the stake.</em></p><p><strong><em>Second Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; What makes them do it, I wonder?&nbsp; Heretics?</em></p><p><strong><em>First Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Why, they’re snared.&nbsp; Trapped with the Prince of Darkness.</em></p><p><strong><em>Second Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Really? … I mean what do they preach?</em></p><p><strong><em>First Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Heresy.</em></p><p><strong><em>Second Jailor:&nbsp; </em></strong><em>Yes, but what in particular?</em></p><p><strong><em>First Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; In particular?&nbsp; Well, there I thank the Lord I don’t know. &nbsp; And I hope I never shall.&nbsp; And (eyeing the Second Jailor directly) if I was you, I wouldn’t ask such questions.</em></p><p><strong><em>Second Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Why not?</em></p><p><strong><em>First Jailor:&nbsp; </em></strong><em>Heresy is the Devil’s own mischief.&nbsp; The less we know about it, the better.</em></p><p><strong><em>Second Jailor:</em></strong><em> Yes (nodding).&nbsp; Yes, no doubt you’re right.</em></p><p><strong><em>First Jailor:</em></strong><em>&nbsp; Oh, I’m right sure enough.&nbsp; And I’ll tell you this: I shant feel safe, shant sleep sound, until I see the flames, hear the cries and know that fellow’s burning.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">A large crowd, estimated at 7,000, turned out to watch the execution.&nbsp; Some were sympathetic, some hostile, and some wished merely to see a rare and memorable event, for it was not every day that the local bishop was burned a heretic.&nbsp; Like other martyrs who had been burned that week he was offered a pardon and his life if he recanted; but he refused to recant.&nbsp; The local authorities had decided to save money and carry out Hooper’s execution on the cheap …&nbsp; So the flames, after burning Hopper’s legs, did not reach the rest of his body; and soon the flames were almost extinguished.&nbsp; Hooper cried out in agony for the fire to come to him.&nbsp; The sheriff sent for more faggots … By now both his legs had been burned off … Then one of his arms was burned away, but he continued to strike his breast with the other hand as he called on God to receive his soul.&nbsp; He was still alive, and conscious, three-quarters of an hour after the faggots were lit, although he had lost both legs and arms; but at last he died.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">There exists, I believe, throughout the whole Christian world, a law which makes it a blasphemy to deny or doubt the divine inspiration of all the books of the Old and New Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation.&nbsp; In most countries in Europe it is punished by fire at the stake, or the rack, or the wheel.&nbsp; In England, itself, it is punished by boring through the tongue with a red-hot poker.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">As religious wars throughout history have shown, there is no struggle more bitter than between groups with a common heritage who are claiming to be authentic bearers and interpreters of this heritage.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">Martyrdom is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.</em></p>