The Reformation · 1554
Concerning Heretics, Whether They Are to Be Persecuted
Sebastian Castellio · 1515–1563
What it is
An anthology of passages against persecution — from the fathers, from Luther, even from Calvin's own early work — published under a pseudonym after Servetus was burned.
Why it lasted
The founding text of the modern argument for religious toleration, containing the line that to kill a man is not to defend a doctrine but to kill a man.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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