corpiace_, cap. ii, Migne, P.L., vol. 11,
col. 125.

[2] _De Idololatria_, cap. xvii, P.L., vol. i, col. 687.

If a Christian has no right to use physical force, even in the name
of the State, he is all the more bound not to use it against his
dissenting brethren in the name of the Gospel, which is a law of
gentleness. Tertullian was a Montanist when he wrote this. But
although he wrote most bitterly against the Gnostics whom he
detested, he always protested against the use of brute force in the
matter of religion. "It is a fundamental human right," he says, "a
privilege of nature, that every man should worship according to his
convictions. It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion.
It must be embraced freely, and not forced."[1] These words prove
that Tertullian was a strong advocate of absolute toleration.

[1] _Liber ad Scapulam_, cap. ii, P.L., vol. i, col. 699

Origen likewise never granted Christians the right to punish those
who denied the Gospel. In answering Celsus, who had brought forward
certain texts of the Old Testament that decreed the death penalty for
apostasy, he says: "If we must refer briefly to the difference
between the law given to the Jews of old by Moses, and the law laid
down by Christ for Christians, we would state that it is impossible
to harmonize the legislation of Moses, taken literally, with the
calling of the Gentiles.... For Christians cannot slay their enemies,
or condemn, as Moses commanded, the contemners of the law to be put
to death by burning or stoning."[1]

[1] _Contra Celsum_, lib. vii, cap. xxvi.

St. Cyprian also repudiates in the name of the Gospel the laws of the
Old Testament on this point. He writes as follows: "God commanded
that those who did not obey his priests or hearken to his judges,[1]
appointed for the time, should be slain. Then indeed they were slain
with the sword, while the circumcision of the flesh was yet in force;
but now that circumcision has begun to be of the spirit among God's
faithful servants, the proud and contumacious are slain with the
sword of the spirit by being cast out of the Church."[2]

[1] Deut. xvii. 12.

[2] Ep. lxii, _ad Pomponium_, n. 4, P.L., vol. iii. col. 371. Cf. _De
unitate Ecclesiae_, n. 17 seq.; _ibid.,_ col. 513 seq.

The Bishop of Carthage, who was greatly troubled by stubborn
schismatics, and men who violated every moral principle of the
Gospel, felt that the greatest punishment he could inflict was
exc