A Sin Against God

Thou shalt not kill. --Deuteronomy 5: 17

The Elizabethans saw in revenge not only a travesty on the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer, but also a repetition of the prideful sin of Lucifer. In seeking revenge, human beings were usurping a perogative reserved for God. Biblical sources repeatedly state that vengeance is for God alone, not for mankind.

Deuteronomy 32:35: To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

Proverbs 19: 11: The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.

Romans 12:17: Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
19 Dearly beloved, aveng not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Hebrews 10:30: For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, and I will compense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people

Sermons and textual exegesis from the time also repeatedly picked up the theme.

If we gladly and freely forgive them [our neighbors] that trespass against us, it is a most manifest argument and undoubted assurance, that we are forgiven of God; but contrariwise, if we be unmerciful, cruel, and vengeance-thirsty against our neighbour, so that we will not forgive them, but seek to be revenged, and to reward evil for evil, by this means neglecting and nothing regarding the blessed will of God, which hath commanded us to forgive our offenders; then it is a most sure sign, that our sins are not forgiven, but that the hot wrath and fierce vengeance of God abideth still upon us, and that we remain in a most damnable state; seeing that the property of such as be in the favour of God, and have obtained remission for their sins, is to be the very same to their neighbour that they feel in their conscience God is unto them. --Thomas Becon (Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury), A New Chatechism, (1560), ed. John Alyre for The Parker Society, Cambridge, Eng. 1844, v.3, p.183

Revenge was also a subject for religious allegory. Anthonie Copley's allegorical poem "A Fig for Fortune" (1596) maps the spiritual journey of an out-cast of Fortune past the Spirit of Dispair (who advocates revenge) to the Temple of Peace, where he is catechised by the good monk, Catechysius.

As vaine it is to thinke Revenges deed
Can counter-doome thy bale to blessednesse,
The power of Flesh being but a rotten reed
And selfely inclined unto all distresse:
    Then since we are so wretched of our selves
    Add worse to yll doth but encrease our helles.

Such is Revenge: It is a haggard yll,
A Luciferiall ranke uncharitie:
The venum, and Blacke-Santus of our will
Unreasons rage; spawn of Impietie,
    Breath of Despaire, Prime-brat of Envies
    And all good Natures Satyr-Antipode.

Revenges arme rear'd up against the Foe
Aimes to defeat God of his interest
Who clausually reserv'd that worke of woe
Unto his owne judiciall behest;
    Thou art a man, and once didst sucke thy mother,
    Thou canst not judge thy selfe, much less another.
--Anthonie Copley, A Fig for Fortune, (1596), New York, Burt Franklin Press for The Spenser Society, (reprint 1967), pp. 30f.

Copley's good monk argues that:
      1. Revenge is an urging sent by Satan.
      2. Revenge compounds the injury it seeks to redress.
      3. Revenge is spiritually unhealthy. It "Canker-like consumes thine Innocence."
      4. Revenge feeds on melancholy and despair.
      5. The avenger takes as a human perogative that which is reserved for God alone.
      6. The avenger overrides God's great mercy and charity.

He sees Christ on the cross as the supreme image of one who overcame the urge to revenge.

Behold his image yonder on the Crosse,
See how he droops and dies and damnes Revenge
Yeelding his whole humanity in grosse
A pendular reproch on woodden henge:
-- Anthonie Copley, A Fig for Fortune, (1596), New York, Burt Franklin Press for The Spenser Society, (reprint 1967), p. 54.

Shakespeare's characters, themselves, speak of the urge to revenge as coming from Hell itself.

And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry "havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.
     -- Julius Caesar.III.i.273-278

O that the slave had forty thousand lives!
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.
Now do I see 'tis true. Look here, Iago.
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven - 'tis gone.
Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell.
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate!
     -- Othello, III.iii.447-453