Leo Tolstoy
Translated by
Dmitry Fadeyev
From the hour the leaders of the churches proclaimed: “please us and the holy spirit,” i.e. when they had elevated external authority over the inner one and deemed the results of their churches’ pitiful human reasoning more important and more sacred than the truly holy one that exists within the human being—his reason and his conscience—from that hour began the lie that lulls people’s bodies and souls, which has ruined millions of human beings and which continues its terrible work right up to this very day.
As strange as it may seem, it is doubtless that Christianity manifested itself and progressed, i.e. grew clearer and was carried out to a greater degree, only in those teachings which were called heresies. Heresies could consist of delusions, but they could also consist of what was truly Christian; on the other hand, the teachings that were recognized by the state and supported by authority and violence could not be Christian because their foundation—violence—is anti-Christian. Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Lutheranism and Anglicanism could not be Christian teachings because they contradict one of Christianity’s chief demands—enlightenment through love—which they had replaced with the most anti-Christian methods of violence, reaching the highest levels of torture, executions and burnings. All these churches, which have merged with the state, and which are not called by sectarians the apocalyptic harlot for nothing, not only were they never Christian, they were always the cruelest enemies of Christianity, and they continue to be so even now, unrepentant of their crimes, and, declaring all their past to be sacred, they continue, albeit in milder forms, to fight true Christianity in the same fashion, thereby acting as the main obstacle for the peoples’ perceiving of the truth that was revealed to them.
Anglicanism was from the very beginning the most obsequious and zealous servant of oppression, endeavoring, with the aid of secular power and by means of splendid solemnity, to achieve the same position that Catholicism had achieved in Europe. At every difficulty it turned to government authorities for help.
— Lecky
In 1682 in England, the venerable doctor Leighton, having written a book against episcopacy, was tried and sentenced to the following punishments, which were administered unto him. He was cruelly whipped, then one of his ears was cut off and one side of his nose was ripped open, and then they used a hot iron to brand the letters “SS” on his cheek: Sower of Sedition. Seven days later he was whipped again, despite the fact that the scars on his back had not yet healed, and they ripped open the other side of his nose, and cut off his other ear, and branded his other cheek. All this was done in the name of Christianity.
— Morrison Davidson
Christ did not found a church, did not establish a government, did not pass laws or set up an administration, an external authority, but he strove to inscribe God’s law in human hearts so as to make them capable of governing themselves.
— Herbert Newton
In 1415, Jan Hus was declared a heretic for denouncing the godless actions of the pope. He was tried and sentenced to death without the spilling of blood, that is, to be burned alive.
The place of execution was located outside the city gates, amid the gardens near the Rhine. When Hus was brought to the place of execution, he fell to his knees and started praying. When the executioner ordered him to go onto the pyre, Hus stood up straight and loudly said:
“Jesus Christ! This terrible, shameful death I bear for preaching your word; I will bear it obediently and humbly!”
The executioners undressed Hus and tied his hands behind a post; Hus’s legs stood on a bench. They put firewood and straw around him. The pyre rose up to Hus’s chin. For the last time the imperial marshal, von Pappenheim, offered Hus the chance to save his life by renouncing heresy.
“No,” said Hus, “I do not recognize my guilt.”
Then the executioners lit the pyre.
Hus began singing a hymn: “Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me!” The flame, blown up by the wind, rose to a great height, and Hus soon fell silent.
They say that true believers constitute a church. Whether these true believers exist or not we cannot know. Every one of us would naturally want to be such a true believer, and every one of us tries to be one; but no one can say about themselves or about those who believe as they do that they are true believers. The one who can say this renounces true Christianity by this very fact.
If there is such a thing as a church, then it is not visible to those who are in it.