Saint Thomas Aquinas did not think kindly of heretics and witches are you a heretic or witch?

Question

The Night Is Large: Collected Essays 1938-1995
By Martin Gardner pg 522
Saint Agustine has opposed the death penalty for heresy; he thought the church should limit its punishment to flogging,fines and exile." To put a heretic to death would be to introduce upon the earth an inexpiable crime". declared Saint John Chrysostom. But Saint Thomas Aquinas thought otherwise.
" If false coiners or other felons are justly committed to death without delay by worldly princes." he wrote in his Summa theologoica( II, xi), " much more may heretics from the moment that they are convicted, be not only excommunicated. but slain justly out of hand" By the end of the sixteenth century hundreds of thousands of poor souls had been savagely tortured and burned alive , or otherwise murdered, for holding opinions contrary to those of the church. Public executions of heretics and witches became festive occasions, like watching the deaths of gladiators.

Heretics don't exist, witches are mostly good

Answer 1

As a former Roman Catholic religious, who converted to Islam and then to Buddhism, one who no longer believes or has faith in any "supreme being / deity", this one would be one of the first to be tied to a stake and burned (after probably being tortured for a long while so as to "save my immortal soul" and lead me to repentance) as I am undoubtedly a heretic.

may it be well with you.

Answer 2

the certainty of the difficulty is, the middle a while have been a time of considerable upheaval, politically, economically, scientifically, geographically, and religiously. save in mind that Europe replaced into nonetheless reeling from dissimilar wars, plagues, and famines. And tillable land became the main acceptable commodity that a guy or woman would desire to very own. upload all this in with a great quantity of superstition and an attempt to envision perceived portents, and you have an somewhat risky mixture. If it had no longer been Christians appearing in the call of Christianity, it would have been something else. Why did they do it? See my first paragraph. all the justifications are there. because of the fact their international replaced into in disarray, they have been superstitious and observed omens everywhere, and that they needed land. Jews and "witches" have been marvelous scapegoats. So extremely what it boils all the way down to is lack of information and greed, a maximum deadly mixture. BTW, i've got no longer got here upon any documented evidence that the Church incredibly ordered Bruno to be burned, in basic terms that they got here upon him responsible of heresy and became him over to secular government. perchance they knew what would ensue, perchance they did no longer. perchance there is extra to the tale than what historians have gleaned from the the rest information. history is in basic terms too complicated to think of of it in terms of black and white. All that all of us understand is what's survived years of dirt and rot. And *that* won't be the completed image.

Answer 3

Augustine was a better writer than Aquinas.

Answer 4

Yeah. And what really gets me is they would take it up again if they had their way. I just wish they would let everybody live their lives in peace without being preached to.

Answer 5

And yet he is known as one of the most wise, just, humble and tolerant of all the saints.

Answer 6

bring your marsh mellows and coat hangers

Answer 7

So