n do not fright any
from it, and use none ill that goes over to it, so that all the while I
was there one man was only punished on this occasion. He being newly
baptised did, notwithstanding all that we could say to the contrary,
dispute publicly concerning the Christian religion, with more zeal than
discretion, and with so much heat, that he not only preferred our worship
to theirs, but condemned all their rites as profane, and cried out
against all that adhered to them as impious and sacrilegious persons,
that were to be damned to everlasting burnings. Upon his having
frequently preached in this manner he was seized, and after trial he was
condemned to banishment, not for having disparaged their religion, but
for his inflaming the people to sedition; for this is one of their most
ancient laws, that no man ought to be punished for his religion. At the
first constitution of their government, Utopus having understood that
before his coming among them the old inhabitants had been engaged in
great quarrels concerning religion, by which they were so divided among
themselves, that he found it an easy thing to conquer them, since,
instead of uniting their forces against him, every different party in
religion fought by themselves. After he had subdued them he made a law
that every man might be of what religion he pleased, and might endeavour
to draw others to it by the force of argument and by amicable and modest
ways, but without bitterness against those of other opinions; but that he
ought to use no other force but that of persuasion, and was neither to
mix with it reproaches nor violence; and such as did otherwise were to be
condemned to banishment or slavery.

"This law was made by Utopus, not only for preserving the public peace,
which he saw suffered much by daily contentions and irreconcilable heats,
but because he thought the interest of religion itself required it. He
judged it not fit to determine anything rashly; and seemed to doubt
whether those different forms of religion might not all come from God,
who might inspire man in a different manner, and be pleased with this
variety; he therefore thought it indecent and foolish for any man to
threaten and terrify another to make him believe what did not appear to
him to be true. And supposing that only one religion was really true,
and the rest false, he imagined that the native force of truth would at
last break forth and shine bright, if supported only by the str