I've begun a reading of Craig Hovey's "To Share in the Body: a Theology of Martyrdom for Today's Church." Today, I'm merely posting some excellent quotes from the first third of the book. When I finish, I will do a more complete review. Check these few passages out.
There is one canon from the Council of Arles in particular that grabbed my attention, as well as the attention of others who understand the stark reality that the Church was patently nonviolent for the first 280 or so years of her existence.
Ninthly, he has said that if the Turks should invade the country, no resistance ought to be offered them; and if it were right to wage war, he would rather take the field against the Christians than against the Turks; and it is certainly a great matter, to set the greatest enemies of our holy [...]
And I wanted to share a story of exemplary freedom and independence. ‘The opinions for which men go to war,’ he said, ‘do not deserve those great tragedies of which they make us spectators. Let there be no longer any question among us of Zwinglians or Lutherans, for neither Zwingle nor Luther died for us, [...]
Not long after the Diet of Worms and the subsequent Edict in 1521, Augustinian monks Johann van den Esschen (Johannes Esch) and Hendrik Vos (Heinrich Voes), sympathetic to Luther and his teachings, were taken captive and branded for execution. On 1 July 1523, van den Esschen and Vos were burned at the stake. They are [...]
The persecutors and executioners would press for them to convert or face death. Probably 99% of the time, a recantation or conversion garnered them freedom.Then you have quite the dilemma that I have to work through almost on a daily basis in my studies on Christian martyrdom and persecution. What do you do with the lapsi?
His evil and heresy was nothing more than his faith and convictions that one must believe and baptized. In the poetic style of many of the persecutors of the faith over the centuries, death for the re-baptizer was via his third baptism.
