The Anatomy of Melancholy

We are all brothers in Christ, servants of one Lord, members of one body; and therefore we are, or at least should be, dearly loved, inseparably joined in the closest bond of love and intimacy. United, we should not merely share the same cross but assist, comfort and help one another at all times and on every occasion. So they did in the early Church: in Acts 5 they sold their inherited property and laid it at the apostles’ feet. We have many such memorable examples of mutual love during the ten general persecutions, and many since. Yet on the other side are unparalleled examples of discord: as our Saviour says, he came into the world to set father against son, and so on.

Apparently in imitation of him, the Devil—for “superstition has crept in as an imitator of true religion”; superstition always apes religion, in this as in everything else—so binds and glues his superstitious followers together in love and affection that they will live and die together. And what deeply rooted hatred he has always inspired against any rival superstition! The ten persecutions bear witness to the temper of those ancient Romans, as does that cruel executioner in Eusebius: “Either sacrifice or die”—sacrifice or die. In every age there has been no greater hatred, no more persistent and bitter faction, war or persecution than that over religion; no such savage conflict of father against son, mother against daughter, husband against wife, city against city, kingdom against kingdom—as long ago at Tentira and Combos:

Undying hatred, a wound that can never be healed; Hence the people’s fury: the neighbours’ gods Are hated by each town, since each believes that only The gods it worships should be held as gods. —

It breeds undying hate, a wound beyond all cure, And fury that the common people must endure: One city mocks the other’s gods as vain, And holds that its own gods alone are good.

The Turks today think no better of us than of dogs. They commonly call us Gaures, infidels, unbelievers, and make this their chief grievance and reason for persecuting Christians. If a man will become a Turk, he will be welcomed as a brother and held in esteem as a Muselman, or believer—a bond stronger to them than any relationship by marriage or blood.

The Jews cling together like burrs; but the rest, whom they call Gentiles, they hate and abhor. They cannot bear that their Messiah should be a common Saviour to us all; and, as Luther writes, rather than allow those who now mock, curse, persecute and revile them to become their fellow heirs and brothers, or to share in any fellowship with their Messiah, they would crucify their Messiah ten times over, and God himself, his angels and all his creatures, if that were possible, though they should suffer a thousand hells for it. Such is their malice towards us.

As for Papists, our traitors and false Catholics show us what they will endure in a common cause to advance their religion. As evidence of their bitterness and violent hostility towards their opponents, let Mary’s reign stand on record, along with the miserable massacres at Mérindol and Cabrières, the Spanish Inquisition, the Duke of Alba’s tyranny in the Low Countries, and the French massacres and civil wars.