82 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
of the faith which sustained them. He quoted again from the Bible
to prove that his system was entirely compatible with the funda
mental tenets of Christianity. He reviewed the history of religious
liberalism, with a shrewd reference to the reformer Zwingli, of
whom Zurich was particularly proud, and contended that since
the Reformation it had been illogical to regard differences in inter
pretation of the Bible as synonymous with hostility to religion,
which he defined as "a spiritual possession, an inexhaustible treas
ure in heaven," not subject to "compulsion."
Thereafter the speaker turned to a discussion of the social ref
ormation, for he realized that he really was being tried for com
munism. He tried to show that in the charges filed against him
property and religion had been combined improperly. With many
a reference to Luther and the Peasants' War, to Voltaire and
Rousseau, and to Calvin, who had Servetus burned at the stake, he
maintained that one could attack the evils of the system of private
property without necessarily becoming the enemy of religion. He
cited the New Testament as proof that Christianity itself had
repudiated usury and private property, and that the first Chris
tians had lived in communal harmony and happiness. His views
about law, courts, crime and punishment were elucidated, and
the judiciary was accused of blindly ignoring the causes and con
ditions which made men criminals, and of being unwilling to treat
the unfortunate offenders as socially diseased. He did not retreat
from the views expressed in the Evangelium about the life and
nature of Jesus, and he frankly admitted that one purpose in
writing the book was to expose the supernaturalism and supersti
tion that had gathered around the legend of this "prophet of free
dom and love," who had died before his work was finished and
whose mission must be carried forward by those who came after
him. In short, communism, defined as "not a faith but a universal
science," must carry Christ's message to full fruition and, to
achieve that end, must turn to the Bible as one of its most effective
instruments.
Weitling was in a highly emotional state when he appeared the
barré
(Barré)
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