The rights of heretics

Author: (Austrian) Stefan Zweig / Ren Xiaojin / Fang Hong / Yin Rui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: In a world that solely celebrates the monuments of victors, The Rights of the Outcasts—Castiglione Against Calvin constantly reminds us that our true heroes are not those who built fleeting reigns by piled-up corpses, but rather those who, without resistance, succumb to the force of the victors—just as Castiglione, in his struggle for spiritual freedom and to establish a human kingdom on Earth, was crushed by Calvin. Heresy is a relative concept. A man burned as a criminal in one country may be revered as a martyr in another. Who has the right to control a fellow citizen's thoughts, or to judge their most private and intimate beliefs as crimes with secular law? The state cannot, and no existing authority can! A truth may invoke the name of God a thousand times, but it has no right to destroy another life bestowed by God, for this life is more sacred than any doctrine! We must constantly remind this world that only sees the victors of our true heroes are not those who rule over fleeting empires built on mountains of corpses, but those who, without resistance, are oppressed by the powers above! The Rights of the Outcasts tells a small story of the European continent when it fell from a brilliant dawn back into darkness. At this time, the reformer Calvin had already become the absolute ruler and tyrant of Geneva. The mild, humanitarian scholar Castiglione, with the courage of a "fly fighting an elephant," bravely resisted Calvin's reactionary measures. Without reading Zweig's book, Calvin remains a purely conceptual, glorious figure in people's minds: a reformer, a fighter against feudalism, standing on a step of history alongside countless bearded and robed great men. Without Zweig, no one could so clearly understand that it is precisely this emerging bourgeoisie, who, out of ideals, suffered persecution, pursuit, and had to flee into exile, once they seize power, would show such unbelievable arrogance, cruelty, and depravity toward those who were once, and even remain, their friends and comrades. These people had no desire to covet his power; they merely wanted to discuss a few purely academic issues with him—for real discussion, as the manuscript was sent to the "dear brother" for correction before it was published.