第5章　囚禁

当帷幕最后一次落在古代社会的时候，有一个人物出现在历史舞台上。他本该有更好的命运，但却过早地死去了，并且背着一个没人喜欢的“叛教者”的称号。

我指的是朱利安皇帝，君士坦丁大帝的侄子，他于公元331年出生在帝国的新首都。公元337年，他那声名显赫的叔叔死了，三个儿子立刻扑向他们共有的遗产，像饿狼般打成一团。

为了除掉那些可能要求分享遗产的人，他们命令杀死住在城里和附近的皇亲。朱利安的父亲就是受害者之一。他母亲生下他几年之后就死了。这样，他在六岁时就成了孤儿。一个体弱多病的表兄与他在一起读书，学的东西大部分都是宣扬基督信仰的好处，由和蔼但却平庸的尤斯比乌斯主教授课。

这两个孩子长大以后，大家觉得最好把他们送远些，免得引起别人注意，重蹈拜占廷小王子们的厄运。他们被送到小亚细亚中部的一个小村庄，生活虽然单调乏味，却使朱利安有机会学到不少有用的东西。因为他的邻居卡帕多西亚山民是朴实人，仍然信仰他们祖先的神灵。

在那里，朱利安根本没有机会担任什么要职。当他要求专心做研究时，得到了批准。

There was not the slightest chance that the boy would ever hold a responsible position and when he asked permission to devote himself to a life of study, he was told to go ahead.

First of all he went to Nicomedia, one of the few places where the old Greek philosophy continued to be taught. There he crammed his head so full of literature and science that there was no space left for the things he had learned from Eusebius.

Next he obtained leave to go to Athens, that he might study on the very spot hallowed by the recollections of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle.

Meanwhile, his half-brother too had been assassinated and Constantius, his cousin and the one and only remaining son of Constantine, remembering that he and his cousin, the boy philosopher, were by this time the only two surviving male members of the imperial family, sent for Julian, received him kindly, married him, still in the kindest of spirits, to his own sister, Helena, and ordered him to proceed to Gaul and defend that province against the barbarians.

It seems that Julian had learned something more practical from his Greek teachers than an ability to argue. When in the year 357 the Alamanni threatened France, he destroyed their army near Strassburg, and for good measure added all the country between the Meuse and the Rhine to his own province and went to live in Paris， filled his library with a fresh supply of books by his favorite authors and was as happy as his serious nature allowed him to be.

When news of these victories reached the ears of the Emperor, little Greek fire was wasted in celebration of the event. On the contrary, elaborate plans were laid to get rid of a competitor who might be just a trifle too successful.

But Julian was very popular with his soldiers. When they heard that their commander-in-chief had been ordered to return home（a polite invitation to come and have one's head

他首先来到尼科米迪亚，那是少数几个还在教授古希腊哲学的地方之一。他的脑子里装满了文学和科学，完全放弃了从尤斯比乌斯那儿学到的知识。

然后他获准去雅典，打算在苏格拉底、柏拉图和亚里士多德待过的圣地学习。

与此同时，他的表兄也被暗杀了。他的堂兄——君士坦丁唯一在世的儿子君士坦丁乌斯，想起只有他和他的堂弟——朱利安这位小哲学家是皇族中至今仅存的两个男性，便派人把他接回来，亲切地接待了他，还以极度的善意把自己的妹妹海伦娜嫁给他，并命令他去高卢抵御野蛮人。

看来朱利安从希腊老师那儿学到了比辩论更实用的东西。公元357年，阿拉曼尼人威胁法国，朱利安在斯特拉斯堡附近击垮了他们的军队，还巧用计谋把默兹河和莱茵河之间的土地纳入了自己的省份。他住进了巴黎，在图书室重新装满了自己喜爱的作家的书。尽管他生性严肃，这回却很高兴。

当这些胜利的消息传到皇帝耳朵中时，希腊却没有点燃庆祝的火焰。相反，他们制定了除掉对手的周密计划，因为朱利安有点儿太成功了。

但朱利安在士兵中享有崇高威望。他们一听到总司令要被召回（客气地请他回去，但回去就要斩首），便闯入他的宫殿，当即宣布他为皇帝；同时四处宣扬道，如果朱利安拒不接受就杀死他。

朱利安是个明智的人，他接受了这种拥戴。

即使是那时候，罗马的道路仍然秩序井然。朱利安以迅雷不及掩耳之势，把部队从法国中部开到了博斯普鲁斯海岸。但是在他到达首都之前，他获悉堂兄君士坦

cut off., they invaded his palace and then and there proclaimed him emperor.At the same time they let it be known that they would kill him if he should refuse to accept.

Julian, like a sensible fellow, accepted.

Even at that late date, the Roman roads must have been in a remarkably good state of preservation. Julian was able to break all records by the speed with which he marched his troops from the heart of France to the shores of the Bosphorus. But ere he reached the capital, he heard that his cousin Constantius had died.

And in this way, a pagan once more became ruler of the western world.

Of course the thing which Julian had undertaken to do was impossible. It is a strange thing indeed that so intelligent a man should have been under the impression that the dead past could ever be brought back to life by the use of force; that the age of Pericles could be revived by reconstructing an exact replica of the Acropolis and populating the deserted groves of the Academy with professors dressed up in togas of a bygone age and talking to each other in a tongue that had disappeared from the face of the earth more than five centuries before.

And yet that is exactly what Julian tried to do.

All his efforts during the two short years of his reign were directed towards the reestablishment of that ancient science which was now held in profound contempt by the majority of his people; towards the rekindling of a spirit of research in a world ruled by illiterate monks who felt certain that everything worth knowing was contained in a single book and that independent study and investigation could only lead to unbelief and hell fire; towards the requickening of the joy-of-living among those who had the vitality and the enthusiasm of ghosts.

Many a man of greater tenacity than Julian would have been driven to madness and

丁乌斯驾崩了。

就这样，一个异教徒又当上了西方世界的统治者。

朱利安要做的事情当然是不可能实现的。但奇怪的是，像他这样聪明的人竟然认为，已经逝去的东西可以借助某种力量复活；只要重建卫城的废墟、在荒芜的学园树林里重新住上教授、教授们穿着过时的宽外袍并相互用五个世纪以前就已经在世界上消失的语言交谈，伯里克利时代就可以复苏。

然而这正是朱利安想做到的。

在他执政的短暂两年时间里，想努力恢复当时大多数人都不屑一顾的古老科学；想重新点燃对僧侣统治的世界的研究热情，这些僧侣目不识丁，认为一切值得知道的东西都包括在一本书里，独立研究和调查只会导致信仰丧失和使地狱燃起烈火；还想重新点燃具有高度活力和热情的人的生活乐趣。

朱利安四面楚歌，许多比他更坚忍的人也会被这些反对之声逼入疯狂绝望的境地。至于朱利安，他在这种情况下快要崩溃了，但他至少暂时奉行了伟大祖先的

despair by the spirit of opposition which met him on all sides.As for Julian, he simply went to pieces under it.Temporarily at least he clung to the enlightened principles of his great ancestors. The Christian rabble of Antioch might pelt him with stones and mud, yet he refused to punish the city.Dull-witted monks might try to provoke him into another era of persecution, yet the Emperor persistently continued to instruct his officials “not to make any martyrs.”

In the year 363 a merciful Persian arrow made an end to this strange career.

It was the best thing that could have happened to this, the last and greatest of the Pagan rulers.

Had he lived any longer, his sense of tolerance and his hatred of stupidity would have turned him into the most intolerant man of his age. Now, from his cot in the hospital, he could reflect that during his rule, not a single person had suffered death for his private opinions. For this mercy, his Christian subjects rewarded him with their undying hatred. They boasted that an arrow from one of his own soldiers（a Christian legionary）had killed the Emperor and with rare delicacy they composed eulogies in praise of the murderer. They told how, just before he collapsed, Julian had confessed the errors of his ways and had acknowledged the power of Christ. And they emptied the arsenal of foul epithets with which the vocabulary of the fourth century was so richly stocked to disgrace the fame of an honest man who had lived a life of ascetic simplicity and had devoted all his energies to the happiness of the people who had been entrusted to his care.

When he had been carried to his grave the Christian bishops could at last consider themselves the veritable rulers of the Empire and immediately began the task of destroying whatever opposition to their domination might remain in isolated corners of Europe, Asia and Africa.

开明原则。安条克的基督教众向他投掷石块和泥土，但他并没有惩罚这座城市。头脑迟钝的僧侣想激怒他再次掀起新的迫害悲剧，而朱利安皇帝却一再告诫官员们：“不要再有人流血牺牲了。”

公元363年，一支仁慈的波斯箭结束了朱利安奇怪的一生。

对于这位最后也是最伟大的异教徒统治者来说，这可能是最好的结局了。

如果他活得再长一些，他的宽容和对蠢行的憎恶会将他变为当时最专横的人。如今他躺在医院的病床上，能宽慰地回忆起在他统治期间，没有一个人因为个人见解而被处死。可是对他的这种仁慈，他的基督臣民却报之以永恒的仇恨。他们夸张地说是皇帝自己的士兵（一个基督徒士兵）射死了他，还精心谱写了赞歌来颂扬凶手。他们造谣说，朱利安死前已经承认了自己的错误，并承认了基督的权力。为了诋毁这位一生过着俭朴严谨的生活、全心全意为自己臣民谋取幸福的正人君子的名声，他们挖空心思地把公元4世纪盛行的污言秽语全都泼向了他。

朱利安被抬进坟墓之后，基督教的主教们终于可以自诩为帝国真正的统治者了。他们立即开始摧毁残存在欧洲、亚洲和非洲每个偏僻角落的反对势力。

在瓦伦提尼安和瓦伦斯兄弟联合执政的公元364年至公元378年，通过了一项法令，禁止所有罗马人向旧天神祭献牲畜。于是异教教士被剥夺了收入，必须另谋生路。

但这些规定和狄奥多斯皇帝颁布的法律相比还算是轻的。他规定，所有臣民不但要接受基督教义，而且只能接受“天主教”形式的基督教；他自己则成了天主教

Under Valentinian and Valens, two brothers who ruled from 364 to 37., an edict was passed forbidding all Romans to sacrifice animals to the old Gods. The pagan priests were thereby deprived of their revenue and forced to look for other employment.

But the regulations were mild compared to the law by which Theodosius ordered all his subjects not only to accept the Christian doctrines, but to accept them only in the form laid down by the “universal” or “Catholic” church of which he had made himself the protector and which was to have a monopoly in all matters spiritual.

All those who after the promulgation of this ordinance stuck to their “erroneous opinions”—who persisted in their “insane heresies”—who remained faithful to their “scandalous doctrines”—were to suffer the consequences of their willful disobedience and were to be exiled or put to death.

From then on the old world marched rapidly to its final doom. In Italy and Gaul and Spain and England hardly a pagan temple remained. They were either wrecked by the contractors who needed stones for new bridges and streets and city-walls and water-works, or they were remodeled to serve as meeting places for the Christians. The thousands of golden and silver images which had been accumulated since the beginning of the Republic were publicly confiscated and privately stolen and such statues as remained were made into mortar.

The Serapeum of Alexandria, a temple which Greeks and Romans and Egyptians alike had held in the greatest veneration for more than six centuries, was razed to the ground. There remained the university, famous all over the world ever since it had been founded by Alexander the Great. It had continued to teach and explain the old philosophies and as a result attracted a large number of students from all parts of the Mediterranean.When it was not closed at the behest of the Bishop of Alexandria, the monks of his diocese took the

的保护者，天主教垄断了人们所有的精神思想。

这项法律颁布之后，所有仍然坚持“错误观点”的人，仍然坚持“疯狂的异端邪说”的人，仍然信仰“可耻教义”的人，都要自食拒不服从法律的后果，或者被流放，或者被处死。

从那以后，旧世界快步走向了最后的灭亡。在意大利、高卢、西班牙和英格兰，异教徒的庙宇一座都不见了，不是被需要石头的建筑商拆去建造桥梁、街道、城墙和水利工程，就是被重新改造为基督徒的集会场所。成千上万座从共和国建立时开始积累下来的金制和银制神像，不是被公然没收，就是被偷盗，即使侥幸残存下来的也被打得粉碎。

六个多世纪以来一直深受希腊人、罗马人和埃及人尊崇的亚历山大的塞拉

matter into their own hands. They broke into the lecture rooms, lynched Hypatia, the last of the great Platonic teachers, and threw her mutilated body into the streets where it was left to the mercy of the dogs.

In Rome things went no better.

The temple of Jupiter. was closed, the Sibylline books, the very basis of the old Roman faith, were burned. The capitol was left a ruin.

In Gaul, under the leadership of the famous bishop of Tours, the old Gods were declared to be the predecessors of the Christian devils and their temples were therefore ordered to be wiped off the face of the earth.

If, as sometimes happened in remote country districts, the peasants rushed forth to the defense of their beloved shrines, the soldiers were called out and by means of the ax and the gallows made an end to such “insurrections of Satan.”

In Greece, the work of destruction proceeded more slowly. But finally in the year 39., the Olympic games were abolished.As soon as this center of Greek national life（after an uninterrupted existence of eleven hundred and seventy years）had come to an end, the rest was comparatively easy.One after the other, the philosophers were expelled from the country.Finally, by order of the Emperor Justinian, the University of Athens was closed. The funds established for its maintenance were confiscated. The last seven professors, deprived of their livelihood， fied to Persia where King Chosroes received them hospitably and allowed them to spend the rest of their days peacefully playing the new and mysterious Indian game called “chess.”

In the first half of the fifth century, archbishop Chrysostomus could truthfully state that the works of the old authors and philosophers had disappeared from the face of the earth.Cicero and Socrates and Virgil and Homer（not to mention the mathematicians and the

佩雍神庙被夷为平地。有一所从亚历山大大帝时代以来就闻名于世的大学仍然保留着，继续教授和解释古代哲学，结果吸引了大批来自地中海各地的学生。亚历山大的主教下谕不许关闭这所大学，但教区的僧侣自行其是。他们闯入教堂，私刑处死了最后一位伟大的柏拉图学派的教师西帕蒂娅，把她大卸八块扔到了街上喂狗。

罗马的情况也好不到哪里去。

朱庇特的庙宇被关闭了，古罗马信仰的经典《预言集》被付之一炬。首都成了一片废墟。

由著名主教图尔斯统治的高卢，旧天神被宣布为基督教义中魔鬼的前身，于是所有旧神的庙宇都从地球上消失了。

如果边远乡村的农民偶尔起来保卫自己敬爱的神庙，这时军队就会开来，用残暴武力平息“撒旦的叛乱”。

在希腊，破坏进行得慢一些。但是到公元394年，奥林匹克运动会终于被禁止。希腊国家这一生活中心（从未间断地进行了1170年）一终止，其他事情就更容易被扼杀了。哲学家一个接一个地被驱逐出境，最后查士丁尼皇帝一纸令下，雅典大学也被关了，维持其运转的基金被没收。最后七位教授失去了谋生之路，逃到了波斯。波斯国王乔思罗斯倒是热情地接待了他们，让他们过着宁静的晚年生活，玩一种叫“棋”的新颖神奇的印度游戏。

公元5世纪上半叶，克里索斯托大主教可以毫不夸张地宣称，古代作者和哲学家的著作已经从地球上消失了。西塞罗、苏格拉底、维吉尔和荷马（更不必说被所

astronomers and the physicians who were an object of special abomination to all good Christians）lay forgotten in a thousand attics and cellars.Six hundred years were to go by before they were called back to life, and in the meantime the world would be obliged to subsist on such literary fare as it pleased the theologians to place before it.

A strange diet, and not exactly（in the jargon of the medical faculty）a balanced one.

For the Church, although triumphant over its pagan enemies, was beset by many and serious tribulations. The poor peasant in Gaul and Lusitania, clamoring to burn incense in honor of his ancient Gods, could be silenced easily enough. He was a heathen and the law was on the side of the Christian. But the Ostrogoth or the Alaman or the Longobard who declared that Arius, the priest of Alexandria, was right in his opinion upon the true nature of Christ and that Athanasius, the bishop of that same city and Arius'bitter enemy, was wrong（of vice versa）—the Longobard or Frank who stoutly maintained that Christ was not “of the same nature” but of a “like nature only” with God（or vice versa）—the Vandal or the Saxon who insisted that Nestor spoke the truth when he called the Virgin Mary the “mother of Christ” and not the “mother of God”（or vice versa）—the Burgundian or Frisian who denied that Jesus was possessed of two natures, one human and one divine（or vice versa）—all these simpleminded but strong—armed barbarians who had accepted Christianity and were, outside of their unfortunate errors of opinion, staunch friends and supporters of the Church—these indeed could not be punished with a general anathema and a threat of perpetual hell fire. They must be persuaded gently that they were wrong and must be brought within the fold with charitable expressions of love and devotion. But before all else they must be given a definite creed that they might know for once and for all what they must hold to be true and what they must reject as false.

It was that desire for unity of some sort in all matters pertaining to the faith which

有基督徒恨之入骨的数学家、天文学家和物理学家）都被扔在阁楼和地窖里，被世人遗忘了。直到600年之后，这些人才重见光明；在此期间，人们只能听凭神学家的任意摆布。

这就像一种奇怪的节食，但（按医学行话讲）并不平衡。

至于基督教会，虽然战胜了异教敌人，却陷入了多重困境。大声疾呼要为自己的古老神灵烧香祭奠的高卢和卢西塔尼亚贫苦农民还是很容易被制服的。他们是异教徒，法律则支持基督徒。但要命的是，东哥特人、阿拉曼人和朗巴族人为亚历山大教士阿里乌斯关于基督真实面目的观点是否正确，而住在同一城市的阿里乌斯的死对头阿忒那修斯是否错误（或正好相反）而争得面红耳赤；朗巴族人和法兰克人就基督与上帝“并非同类，只是相像而已”这个问题争执不休；汪达尔人和萨克森人为尼斯特尔所说的圣母玛丽亚是“基督之母”而非“上帝之母”是否正确而打得不可开交；布尔戈尼人和弗利西人为耶稣是否具有半人半神的二重性而互不相让——所有这些四肢发达头脑简单、已经接受了基督教义的野蛮人虽然在观念上不幸误入歧途，但他们还是教会的坚定朋友和支持者，不能以一般的诅咒和永恒的地狱炼火去惩罚他们。他们必须用婉言说服，指出其错误，将他们带回具有仁爱和献身精神的信徒队伍中来。但是他们必须首先有明确教会宗旨，知道什么是对的，什么是错误而必须抛弃的。

由于人们要求把各种各样的信仰统一起来，因而导致了那次著名的集会，即我们所知道的“基督教世界范围联合会”或“全世界基督教大会”。自从公元4世纪

finally caused those famous gatherings which have become known as Oecumenical or Universal Councils, and which since the middle of the fourth century have been called together at irregular intervals to decide what doctrine is right and what doctrine contains the germ of heresy and should therefore be adjudged erroneous, unsound, fallacious and heretical.

The first of those Oecumenical councils was held in the town of Nicaea, not far from the ruins of Troy, in the year 325. The second one, fifty-six years later, was held in Constantinople. The third one in the year 431 in Ephesus.Thereafter they followed each other in rapid succession in Chalcedon, twice again in Constantinople, once more in Nicaea and finally once again in Constantinople in the year 869.

After that, however, they were held in Rome or in some particular town of western Europe designated by the Pope. For it was generally accepted from the fourth century on that although the emperor had the technical right to call together such meetings（a privilege which incidentally obliged him to pay the traveling expenses of his faithful bishops）that very serious attention should be paid to the suggestions made by the powerful Bishop of Rome. And although we do not know with any degree of certainty who occupied the chair in Nicaea, all later councils were dominated by the Popes and the decisions of these holy gatherings were not regarded as binding unless they had obtained the official approval of the supreme pontiff himself or one of his delegates.

Hence we can now say farewell to Constantinople and travel to the more congenial regions of the west.

The field of Tolerance and Intolerance has been fought over so repeatedly by those who hold tolerance the greatest of all human virtues and those who denounce it as an evidence of moral weakness, that I shall pay very little attention to the purely theoretical aspects of the case.Nevertheless it must be confessed that the champions of the Church follow a

中叶以来，这种大会就不定期地召开，以决定哪些教义对，哪些教义带有异端邪说的萌芽，要被指为错误、谬论和异端。

第一届大会于公元325年在离特洛伊不远的尼西亚召开。56年后，第二届大会在君士坦丁堡举行。第三届大会于431年在以弗所召开。后来，大会连续在查尔斯顿开了几次，又在君士坦丁堡开了两次，在尼西亚开了一次，最后一届大会于公元869年又在君士坦丁堡召开。

但是从那以后，大会便在罗马或教皇指定的某个西欧城市召集。因为至公元四世纪以来，人们已经普遍承认了一个事实，即皇帝虽然有召集这种大会的权力（这一特权也迫使他为忠诚的主教出路费），可是权力强大的罗马主教提出的建议却必须予以高度重视。尽管我们不知道是谁主持了第一届尼西亚会议，但后来的会议都是由教皇主持的，这些神圣会议达成的决议不经教皇或他的代表批准就没有效力。

现在，我们可以告别君士坦丁堡，到西部气候更宜人的地方去看看。

宽容与专制之争一直没有停止过，一方认为宽容是人类的最高美德，另一方却诋毁它是道德观念衰弱的表现。我并不想从纯理论的角度去谈这个问题。不过

plausible line of reasoning when they try to explain away the terrible punishments which were inflicted upon all heretics.

“A church,” so they argue, “is like any other organization. It is almost like a village or a tribe or a fortress.There must be a commander-in-chief and there must be a definite set of laws and bylaws, which all members are forced to obey. It follows that those who swear allegiance to the Church make a tacit vow both to respect the commander-in-chief and to obey the law. And if they find it impossible to do this, they must suffer the consequences of their own decisions and get out.”

All of which, so far, is perfectly true and reasonable.

If today a minister feels that he can no longer believe in the articles of faith of the Baptist Church, he can turn Methodist, and if for some reason he ceases to believe in the creed as laid down by the Methodist Church, he can become a Unitarian or a Catholic or a Jew, or for that matter, a Hindoo or a Turk. The world is wide. The door is open.There is no one outside his own hungry family to say him nay.

But this is an age of steamships and railroad trains and unlimited economic opportunities.

The world of the fifth century was not quite so simple. It was far from easy to discover a region where the influence of the Bishop of Rome did not make itself felt.One could of course go to Persia or to India, as a good many heretics did, but the voyage was long and the chances of survival were small. And this meant perpetual banishment for one's self and one's children.

And finally, why should a man surrender his good right to believe what he pleased if he felt sincerely that his conception of the

必须承认，当教会的支持者在辩解对所有异教徒的残酷镇压时，倒是说得头头是道。

他们说：“教会和任何其他组织一样，犹如一个村庄、一个部落或一片森林，必须有一名总指挥、一套明确的法律和规则，所有成员都必须遵守。凡是宣誓效忠教会的人，就等于发誓要尊敬总指挥，并遵守法律。如果他们做不到，那就要自食其果，从教会滚出去。”

迄今为止，这些都是非常正确合理的。

今天，一位牧师如果不再信仰浸礼会教派的教义，可以改信卫理公会，如果他因为某种原因而不再信仰卫理公会的教义，还可以改信唯一神教、天主教或犹太教，也可以改信印度教或伊斯兰教。世界广阔，大门敞开着，除了他饥肠辘辘的家人，别人不会反对他。

但这是轮船、火车和充满无限商机的时代。

idea of Christ was the right one and that it was only a question of time for him to convince the Church that its doctrines needed a slight modification?

For that was the crux of the whole matter.

The early Christians, both the faithful and the heretics, dealt with ideas which had a relative and not a positive value.

A group of mathematicians, sending each other to the gallows because they cannot agree upon the absolute value of x would be no more absurd than a council of learned theologians trying to de fine the undefinable and endeavoring to reduce the substance of God to a formula.

But so thoroughly had the spirit of self-righteousness and intolerance got hold of the world that until very recently all those who advocated tolerance upon the basis that “we cannot ever possibly know who is right and who is wrong” did so at the risk of their lives and usually couched their warnings in such careful Latin sentences that not more than one or two of their most intelligent readers ever knew what they meant.

而公元5世纪的世界却没有这么简单，当时罗马主教的影响无处不在。人们当然可以去波斯或印度，就像许多异教徒那样。但路途遥远，生还的机会渺茫，而且还意味着永远与家人分别。

最终如果一个人真的认为自己对基督的理解是正确的，对他而言说服教会稍微修改一下教义只是时间问题，那为什么还要放弃自由信仰的权利呢？

这正是整个问题的关键所在。

早期基督徒，不管是虔诚的还是异端的，都认为思想的价值只是相对的，而不是绝对的。

博学的神学家极力想说明无法解释的事情，想把上帝的本质归纳成公式，这就像一群数学家因为对X的绝对值难以达成一致而把对方送上绞刑架一样荒唐可笑。

但是，自以为是和专制的风气弥漫了整个世界。直到最近，如果有人说“我们永远不可能分辨孰对孰错”，并以此为依据来倡导宽容的话，还会有生命危险；因此他们通常会把忠告小心翼翼地隐含在拉丁文书本中，而能够理解他们意思的聪明读者却不会有几个人。