Murder in the Name of Allah — Page 51
The Maududian Law of Apostasy came full circle when Justinian (483-565) prescribed the death penalty for apostasy. The penalty became part of the codification of Roman law in AD535. . It is a tragic twist of fate that freedom of conscience was snuffed out by the very Roman Christians whose newly converted forefathers were burned to provide fire and fun in Nero's Rome (AD64). As long as. Christians were persecuted by non-Christian political authorities, Christian writers defended religious liberty. But once the imperial throne was won over to Christianity, the Church looked 'with the same hostile eye upon individualism in belief as the state upon secession or revolt'. 6 By the middle of the fifth century things that were and still are God's were rendered unto Caesar. Political authority had become the right arm of the. Church. In the course of his campaign against the Donatists, St Augustine (354-430) argued: 'There is a righteous persecution which the Church of. Christ inflicts upon the impious. She persecutes in the spirit of love. . . that she may correct. . . that she may recall from error . . . [taking] measures for their good, to secure their eternal salvation. ". In 385 a Spanish bishop, Priscillian, was accused of preaching. Manicheism and universal celibacy. He denied the charge, but was tried, condemned and burned at the stake with several companions. . Martin Luther (1483-1546), the German leader of the Protestant. Reformation, concurred with his Roman Catholic predecessor, Augustine, and said: 'The clergy had authority over conscience, but it was thought necessary that they should be supported by the State with absolute penalties of outlawry, in order that error might be exterminated, although it was impossible to banish sin. "8. But it was the French Protestant theologican John Calvin (1509-64) who really inspired Maulana Maududi. . He [Calvin] wished to extend religion by the sword and reserve death as the punishment of apostasy. . . . Catholics should suffer the same penalties as those who were guilty of sedition, on the grounds that the majesty of God must be as strictly avenged as the throne of the king. . While the inspiration came to the Maulana from Calvin, the rationale was provided by the English thinker Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) in his book, Leviathan. Since the power to work miracles is one of the signs of a true prophet, and, according to Hobbes, the days of miracles were over, there was no possibility of guidance by a prophet or through divine inspiration. The sovereign alone had civil or religious authority. He alone had the power to make law, ‘For whosoever hath a lawful power over any 51