Harold J. Laski: “But if the Church is not a supernatural institution, what is its nature?”

The essence of the persecuting position is always that the persecutor has hold of truth and that he would betray its service by allowing it to be questioned.

Ultimately, that denial is always made upon the same ground: it is insisted that the doctrines or practices attacked are subversive of the civil order.

Each age finds that the incidence of freedom is significant at some special point, and there, once more, the lesson of freedom has to be learned.

It has been the historic character of persecution always to degrade the persecutor and to strengthen the persecuted by drawing attention to their claims.