Voices for Tolerance in an Age of Persecution

Voices for Tolerance in an Age of Persecution, part of the Exhibitions at the Folger, opened on June 9, 2004 and closed on October 30, 2004. The exhibition was curated by Vincent Carey, Guest Curator, Elizabeth Walsh, Head of Reader Services, and Ron Bogdan, Senior Rare Book Cataloger. The exhibition catalog can be purchased from the Folger Shop.

The struggle between tolerance and intolerance is an enduring and painful component of the human experience. The refusal to acknowledge and accept as fully human individuals or groups on the basis of their religion, race, or ethnic background has caused immense human misery. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe provides obvious examples of these tendencies, but it also provides ample evidence of the opposite impulse, that of the struggle for tolerance and for freedom of expression. Though justifiably regarded as an era of crisis, religious warfare and persecution, this period also generated powerful, though often isolated, voices for peace and toleration.

Early modern Europeans–occupying a different mental world from our own–did not, by and large, share the values that we associate with the concept of tolerance. While we recognize toleration as a positive value, the majority of them seemingly understood tolerance as the endurance of something negative, even something loathsome. While most Americans today ascribe to the belief that society benefits from having a plurality of peoples and religions, early modern Europeans considered the presence of minority groups and religions dangerous to the state and to the very fabric of their community.

Acknowledging the differences in mentalité between the past and the present, Voices for Tolerance in an Age of Persecution demonstrated how this period witnessed the first challenges to persecution as a world-view. Advocates for toleration did not succeed in ending oppression, but their ideas contributed to the modern struggle for freedom from oppression and the horrors of war

The exhibition did not assume a linear progression from some supposed late-medieval "darkness" to enlightenment liberalism. It explored how rapidly changing times and political instability created conflict and oppression. By tracing the struggles of groups and individuals as they pursued both religious "truth" and freedom from oppression, we hoped to raise questions and heighten awareness of the relevance of these issues for our own time. The books, manuscripts, and art treasures of the Folger Shakespeare Library speak for themselves, suggesting the links between the past and the present. The voices that emerge from these works are alternately shocking and inspiring. They provide us with a window into the timeless and often unsuccessful struggle to balance religious conviction and toleration, a struggle that continues to shape our world today.

Exhibition material

Humanists for Peace

At the dawn of the sixteenth century, Europe's leading intellectuals looked forward to a world enlightened by the insights of the ancient Greeks and Romans, by the advance of Christian education, and by an openness to other cultures and languages. Central to this humanist vision of a "New World Order" was the hope that war, especially between the European princes, could be stopped. Desiderius Erasmus, leading spokesman for the humanist peace movement, advocated toleration and an end to all war, even with Christendom's great rival, the Ottoman Turk.

This case included

• Desiderius Erasmus. Querela pacis undique gentium eiectae profligataeque. [Strasbourg: Matthias Schürer, ca.1516]. PA8517 .Q9 1516 Cage.

The Reformation

Luther's translation of the New Testament into the vernacular German was arguably the most significant work of his life. The text, written over eleven weeks while Luther was in hiding in the Wartburg castle, was to be the building block of the Reformation, for it provided lay people access to scripture. Competing interpretations of this seminal edition and subsequent translations into other European languages would buttress arguments for both persecution and toleration. Luther himself was an early advocate for the separation of church and state and for religious toleration but as the increasingly revolutionary reform movement evolved into a series of territorial churches and challenges by religious radicals, Luther shifted his position and argued for the suppression of religious dissent and social revolution.

Though hostile in intent, this image is an interesting representation of the fragmentation of Protestantism that occurred in the aftermath of Luther's split with Rome. Here Luther is depicted, with his wife Katharina von Bora, as the "Archehereticke" that nurtured that nurtured the various Protestant sectaries.

This case included

• Fridericus Staphylus. The apologie of Fridericus Staphylus counseller to the late Emperour Ferdinandus, &c. Antwerp: Iohn Latius, 1565. STC 23230.

Struggle for Religious Toleration

The burning of the radical Spanish theologian and medical doctor Michael Servetus in Geneva on 27 October 1553 on the charge of denying the Christian trinity galvanized some of the most influential voices for and against religious toleration in early modern Europe. Servetus' execution horrified many and permanently damaged the reputation of Jean Calvin, the leader of the Genevan reformed church.

Among the voices for toleration of religious viewpoints was Jacopo Aconcio. In his Satanae stratagemata libri octo [1565], Aconcio advocated freedom of religious thought and argued that religious conflict was in fact the work of the devil.

This case included

• Jacopo Aconcio. Satans Stratagems, or the devils cabinet-councel discovered. London: John Macock, 1648. A443a.

St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

Although it comprised only a tiny minority of the population (no more than ten per-cent), the French Huguenot or Calvinist faith, and its rapid spread in France, had the effect of destabilizing the country by the early 1560s. The Huguenot struggle for toleration, for the acceptance of two faiths under one ruler, and the ensuing wars of religion (1562-1598) were the occasion of some of the sixteenth century's worst excesses of religious extremism. Nonetheless, this struggle also gave rise to eloquent pleas for toleration and, with the Edict of Nantes (1598) at the end of the conflict, to state-imposed, if ultimately temporary and limited, religious freedom.

The famous painting of the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris on 24 August 1572 depicts scenes from the most notorious incident in the French wars of religion and one of the most striking examples of the extremes of religious intolerance in the age. The Huguenot (French Calvinist) painter, François Dubois is reputed to have been an eyewitness to the massacre of thousands of his fellow Huguenots on the streets of Paris.

This case included

• LOAN from Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne. Francois Dubois. Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre. Sixteenth century.

Jews in Early Modern England

The Jewish people and their faith constituted early modern Europe's most significant minority and non-Christian religious group. Living a separate and at best uneasy existence among their Christian counterparts, Jews frequently experienced torture, expulsion, and death. Among the factors contributing to the European refusal to tolerate the Jews was a series of anti-Jewish myths that associated Jews with the devil and diabolical practices. Despite the Humanist openness to Hebrew learning, the age was characterized by vicious stereotypes and dark fantasies. However, in places like Venice and London (after 1650), where discrimination was moderated, Jewish communities and culture thrived.

In this image from Pierre Boaistuau, a turbaned Jew is depicted poisoning a well. The fiendish alliance to the devil is further suggested by a devil urinating in the same well. The belief that the Jews abducted and ritualistically murdered Christians is illustrated by the image of a child nailed to a cross.

Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1600) reflects the anti-Semitism of his age, particularly in the less well-known subtitle that highlights Shylock's Judaism and his inveterate cruelty. Nonetheless there is also a marked ambivalence in Shakespeare's treatment of Shylock. In emphasizing Shylock's humanity, the play gestures toward toleration. By tracing Shylock's inhumanity to his own experience of intolerance, the play suggests the endless cycle of violence brought on by intolerance.

This case included

• Richard Westall. Shylock Rebuffing Antonio. Oil on canvas, commissioned for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, 1795. FPa83. LUNA Digital Image.
• William Shakespeare. Most excellent historie of the merchant of Venice. With the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the Jew towards the sayd merchant, in cutting a just pound of his flesh: and the obtayning of Portia by the choyce of three chests. London: Printed by I[ames]. R[oberts] for Thomas Heyes, 1600. STC 22296 Copy 1. LUNA Digital Image.
• Pierre Boaistuau. Certaine secrete wonders of nature, containing a description of sundry strange things, seming monstrous in our eyes and judgement, because we are not privie to the reasons of them. London: Henry Bynneman, 1569. STC 10787. LUNA Digital Image.
• Symon Patrick. Jewish hypocrisie, a caveat to the present generation. London: Printed by R. W[hite]. for Francis Tyton, 1660. P817. LUNA Digital Image.

Miseries of Religious Wars

Religious intolerance ultimately led to conflicts that, when combined with international power struggles, became complex. The refusal of Philip II of Spain to countenance ancient Dutch freedoms and tolerate a diverse religious society led to an extended conflict referred to as both the Dutch Revolt and the Eighty Years' War. It overlapped with pre-modern Europe's most extensive and destructive war, the Thirty Years' War. Though sparked by a religious revolt by Bohemian Calvinists against Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, the dispute rapidly lost its religious basis as it expanded into a European-wide superpower conflict.

In a war full of horrors, the depredation of soldiers on both sides was notorious. "The cruelty of the souldier towards the inhabitants of those countries, is inexpressible," wrote Philip Vincent in his account, which included gruesome illustrations to help convince readers.

This case included

• Philip Vincent. The lamentations of Germany. Wherein, as in a glasse, we may behold her miserable condition, and reade the woefull effects of sine. London: Printed by E. G[riffin] for Iohn Rothwell, 1638. STC 24761 Bd.w. STC 11791. LUNA Digital Image.

Ambivalence towards Islam

Europeans had a long history of interaction with Muslims going back to before the crusades of the Middle Ages. Considering themselves engaged in both religious and cultural conflict with Islam, early modern Europeans had a wide variety of bigoted stereotypical views of Muslims in general and of the two major societies of contact, the Ottoman Turks and the Moors of North Africa, in particular. In travel narratives, stories of pirates and religious and political texts, Christian writers portrayed a complex and contradictory Islamic world that was largely imaginary. Though demonizing stereotypes of racial difference, sexual promiscuity, and cruelty remained, increased contact and experience gained through travel, diplomacy, and trade modified some of these myths into a grudging admiration for the power and sophistication of Islamic society. In a small way, a deeper understanding of a religion and people believed to be inherently different was achieved.

An excerpt from a thirteenth-century work by Bar Hebraeus (also known as Abu 'l-Faraj) on the history of Islam serves as the backdrop for an extensive study by Edward Pococke of the religion, history, and literature of the Arab world that marks the beginning of modern Islamic studies in the West.

This case included

• Bar Hebraeus. De origine & moribus Arabum. Specimen historiæ Arabum, sive Gregorii Abul Farajii Malatiensis, De origine & moribus Arabum succincta narratio, in linguam Latinam conversa, notisque è probatissimis apud ipsos authoribus, fusiùs illustrata. Operâ & studio Eduardi Pocockii linguarum Hebr. & Arab. in Academia Oxoniensi professoris. Oxford, 1650. 141- 964q.
• LOAN from The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. Portrait of the Moorish Ambassador to the Court of Queen Elizabeth, 1600.
• Willem Janszoon Blaeu. Appendix Theatri A. Ortelii et Atlantis G. Mercatoris. Amsterdam, 1631. G1015 .B5 1631 Cage. LUNA Digital Image.