Apostolic succession, the power of excommunication, the dealing out of forgiveness for men's sins, the determination of true doctrine, insofar as the Church claims these powers, it is usurping an authority that is not its own.
Laski argues that the Church's claims to powers like excommunication are illegitimate usurpations of authority.
Share
More from Harold J. Laski
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.
The intolerance may be Catholic, when it insists that a unity of outlook is essential for the preservation of society; or it may be Protestant when, as with Calvin and the Socinians, it holds that the blasphemous nature of the belief…
We grant it in religion to deny it in politics; we grant it in politics, to deny it in economic matters.
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.
Other voices in this conversation
