"It is like the Bishop who said that if we totally disarmed he had too high an opinion of human nature to think that anybody would attack us. There might be great virtue in disarming and consenting to be made martyrs for the sake of the good cause; but to promise that we should not have to endure martyrdom in that situation, or to rely on such a supposition, is against both theology and history. It is essential not to have faith in human nature. Such faith is a recent heresy and a very disastrous one."

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

Sources

Christianity and History (1949), p. 47

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Butterfield