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draw it into an orbit of common tradition and discourse within
which a humanist solution is possible-until we remember how
Christian heresies were treated by the Church. M. Maritain does
not approve of physical extermination of heretics today; but neither
does he approve of an earthly city (state) which is
neutral
towards
heresy. "It is necessary that Christ should be made known; that is
the work of the Church, not of the State. But, be its type sacred
or secular, a temporal Christian city knows that it is its duty to
assist the Church in the free accomplishment of this mission."
The Christian city, not to be confused with the City of
God
which is outside of time, is of two types--consecrational and secu·
lar. In the former, the assistance which the State renders the
Church "is of an instrumental order: the secular arm puts its sword
at the disposition of spirituality.
It
is then normal that the coercive
force of the State should come into play to protect the faith and the
community against disintegrating influence. . . ." In the secular
city, the State integrates "christian activities in its own temporal
work." The Church is assisted by the State "in the fulfillment of
its rightful mission" without the use of the sword.
Which mode of collaboration should exist between Church
and State, says M. Maritain, depends upon historical conditions.
He does not approve of the consecrational state today on historical
grounds; and historical grounds, as M. Maritain himself never
tires of reiterating, are variable. Clear it is that he does not
in prin.
ciple,
as an integral humanist, disapprove of the secular arm put·
ting its sword at the disposition of spi,rituality. He states the cir·
cumstances under which such practices may be extenuated, i.e.,
where heretics offend "the consciousness of the community (which)
is vitally impregnated with the same unanimous certitude. It may
even happen that the intervention of the State in such matters will
moderate and curb the excesses of spontaneous popular reaction;
what more natural impulse to the crowd than to lynch the heretic?"
In order to save the heretic from lynching in a consecrational
community, the State steps in to put him to the sword according to
whatever due process of law obtains at the time. Such practices are
not incompatible with the
principle
of integral humanism. They
are incompatible with the principles of that "bourgeois" free
thought and humanism to which, according to Marx, the socialists
fell heir, and of which M. Maritain says, departing from his cus·
