. The Parable of the Tares has often been cited in support of various degrees of
religious toleration. Once
the wheat is identified with
orthodox believers and
the tares with heretics, the command
Let both grow together until the harvest becomes a call for toleration (at least to some degree). Preaching on the parable,
St. John Chrysostom declared that "it is not right to put a heretic to death, since an implacable war would be brought into the world" which would lead to the death of many saints. Furthermore, he suggested that the phrase
Lest ye root up the wheat with them can mean "that of the very tares it is likely that many may change and become wheat." However, he also asserted that God does not forbid depriving heretics of their freedom of speech, and "breaking up their assemblies and confederacies". In his "Letter to Bishop Roger of Chalons", Bishop
Wazo of Liege (c. 985-1048 AD) relied on the parable to argue that "the church should let dissent grow with orthodoxy until the Lord comes to separate and judge them", a remarkable departure from the standard Catholic view of the time of handing over heretics to the secular arm to be punished. Opponents of toleration, such as
Thomas Aquinas and the
inquisitors, but also
John Calvin and
Theodore Beza, did not interpret the parable as excluding the execution of heretics. Some argued that a number of tares can be carefully uprooted without harming the wheat. What is more, the tares could be identified with moral offenders within the Church, or alternatively the prohibition of pulling up the tares could be applied only to the clergy, not to the magistrates. As a
millennialist,
Thomas Müntzer could call for rooting up the tares, claiming that the time of harvest had come.
Martin Luther preached a sermon on the parable in which he affirmed that only God can separate false from true believers and stressed that killing heretics ends any opportunity they may have for salvation: From this observe what raging and furious people we have been these many years, in that we desired to force others to believe; the Turks with the sword, heretics with fire, the Jews with death, and thus outroot the tares by our own power, as if we were the ones who could reign over hearts and spirits, and make them pious and right, which God's Word alone must do. But by murder we separate the people from the Word, so that it cannot possibly work upon them and we bring thus, with one stroke a double murder upon ourselves, as far as it lies in our power, namely, in that we murder the body for time and the soul for eternity, and afterwards say we did God a service by our actions, and wish to merit something special in heaven. He concluded that "although the tares hinder the wheat, yet they make it the more beautiful to behold". Several years later, however, Luther emphasized that the magistrates should eliminate heretics: "The magistrate bears the sword with the command to cut off offense. ... Now the most dangerous and atrocious offense is false teaching and an incorrect church service." The Protestant
John Milton, in
Areopagitica (1644), calling for
freedom of speech and condemning Parliament's attempt to license printing, referred to this parable and the
Parable of Drawing in the Net, both found in Matthew 13: [I]t is not possible for man to sever the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the other fry; that must be the Angels' ministry at the end of mortal things. ==Commentary from the Church Fathers==