Table of Contents:

Johann Heinrich Alsted (c. 1638):

[Quaestiones Theologicae; (Frankfurt, 1627)]

Can the magistrate with a good conscience punish heretics, especially those who seduce the people into deadly errors or who persistently blaspheme, with capital punishment?

If they be outright atheists, grievous blasphemers, and their actions merit the total subversion of the civil or ecclesiastical order, he can and ought to use this extreme remedy. Beyond these cases, it is better to restrain heretics with equity and discretionary penalties.