"Ideological division was tearing the country apart. Factions denounced each other as unpatriotic and evil. There were attempted kidnappings and assassinations of political figures. Public monuments and art were desecrated all over the country. This was France in the middle of the 16th century. The divisions were rooted in religion. The Protestant minority denounced Catholics as "superstitious idolaters," while the Catholics condemned Protestants as " seditious heretics." In 1560, Protestant conspirators attempted to kidnap the young King Francis II, hoping to replace his zealous Catholic regents with ones more sympathetic to the Protestant cause. Two years later, the country collapsed into civil war. The French Wars of Religion had begun - and would convulse the country for the next 36 years."
"Soon after the first war in France broke out, Castellio penned a treatise that was far ahead of its time. Rather than join in the bitter denunciations raging between Protestants and Catholics, Castellio condemned intolerance itself. He identified the main problem as both sides' efforts to "force consciences" - to compel people to believe things they did not believe."
"Castellio rose to prominence in 1554 when he condemned the execution of Michael Servetus, a medical doctor and theologian convicted of heresy. Servetus had rejected the standard Christian belief in the Trinity, which holds that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three persons in one God."
Sixteenth-century France experienced escalating ideological and religious conflict that produced attempted kidnappings, assassinations, and the desecration of public monuments and art. Protestant and Catholic factions traded mutual denunciations, labeling rivals "superstitious idolaters" and "seditious heretics," and conspiracies aimed to control royal authority. The tensions erupted into the French Wars of Religion, a series of civil wars lasting thirty-six years. Sebastian Castellio emerged as a prominent critic of coercion, condemning executions for heresy and arguing that both sides' attempts to "force consciences" were the central problem. Castellio advocated tolerance and the protection of individual conscience against punitive religious enforcement.
Read at The Conversation
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