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diff --git a/old/35623.txt b/old/35623.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7734dc6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/35623.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8520 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 3 (of 10), by +Francois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 3 (of 10) + From "The Works of Voltaire - A Contemporary Version" + +Author: Francois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire) + +Commentator: John Morley + Tobias Smollett + H.G. Leigh + +Translator: William F. Fleming + +Release Date: March 28, 2011 [EBook #35623] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY *** + + + + +Produced by Andrea Ball, Christine Bell & Marc D'Hooghe +at http://www.freeliterature.org (From images generously +made available by the Internet Archive.) + + + + + +A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY + +VOLUME III + +By + +VOLTAIRE + + + + +EDITION DE LA PACIFICATION + +THE WORKS OF VOLTAIRE + +A CONTEMPORARY VERSION + + +With Notes by Tobias Smollett, Revised and Modernized + New Translations by William F. Fleming, and an + Introduction by Oliver H.G. Leigh + + +A CRITIQUE AND BIOGRAPHY + +BY + +THE RT. HON. JOHN MORLEY + + +FORTY-THREE VOLUMES + + +One hundred and sixty-eight designs, comprising reproductions + of rare old engravings, steel plates, photogravures, + and curious facsimiles + +VOLUME VII + + +E.R. DuMONT + +PARIS--LONDON--NEW YORK--CHICAGO + + + + _The WORKS of VOLTAIRE_ + + _"Between two servants of Humanity, who appeared eighteen hundred + years apart, there is a mysterious relation. * * * * Let us say it + with a sentiment of profound respect: JESUS WEPT: VOLTAIRE SMILED. + Of that divine tear and of that human smile is composed the + sweetness of the present civilization."_ + + _VICTOR HUGO._ + + + +LIST OF PLATES--VOL. III + + +VOLTAIRE'S RECEPTION OF MADAME D'EPINAY AT LES DELICES _Frontispiece_ + +THE DEATH OF COLIGNY + +CATHERINE II. OF RUSSIA + +THE ALMONER AND THE ANABAPTIST + + +[Illustration: Voltaire receives Mme. d'Epinay at Les Delices.] + + + * * * * * + +VOLTAIRE + +A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY + +IN TEN VOLUMES + +VOL. III + +CANNIBALS--COUNCILS + + + * * * * * + + +CANNIBALS. + + +SECTION I. + +We have spoken of love. It is hard to pass from people _kissing_ to +people _eating_ one another. It is, however, but too true that there +have been cannibals. We have found them in America; they are, perhaps, +still to be found; and the Cyclops were not the only individuals in +antiquity who sometimes fed on human flesh. Juvenal relates that among +the Egyptians--that wise people, so renowned for their laws--those pious +worshippers of crocodiles and onions--the Tentyrites ate one of their +enemies who had fallen into their hands. He does not tell this tale on +hearsay; the crime was committed almost before his eyes; he was then in +Egypt, and not far from Tentyra. On this occasion he quotes the Gascons +and the Saguntines, who formerly fed on the flesh of their countrymen. + +In 1725 four savages were brought from the Mississippi to Fontainebleau, +with whom I had the honor of conversing. There was among them a lady of +the country, whom I asked if she had eaten men; she answered, with great +simplicity that she had. I appeared somewhat scandalized; on which she +excused herself by saying that it was better to eat one's dead enemy +than to leave him to be devoured by wild beasts, and that the conquerors +deserved to have the preference. We kill our neighbors in battles, or +skirmishes; and, for the meanest consideration, provide meals for the +crows and the worms. There is the horror; there is the crime. What +matters it, when a man is dead, whether he is eaten by a soldier, or by +a dog and a crow? + +We have more respect for the dead than for the living. It would be +better to respect both the one and the other. The nations called +polished have done right in not putting their vanquished enemies on the +spit; for if we were allowed to eat our neighbors, we should soon eat +our countrymen, which would be rather unfortunate for the social +virtues. But polished nations have not always been so; they were all for +a long time savage; and, in the infinite number of revolutions which +this globe has undergone, mankind have been sometimes numerous and +sometimes scarce. It has been with human beings as it now is with +elephants, lions, or tigers, the race of which has very much decreased. +In times when a country was but thinly inhabited by men, they had few +arts; they were hunters. The custom of eating what they had killed +easily led them to treat their enemies like their stags and their boars. +It was superstition that caused human victims to be immolated; it was +necessity that caused them to be eaten. + +Which is the greater crime--to assemble piously together to plunge a +knife into the heart of a girl adorned with fillets, or to eat a +worthless man who has been killed in our own defence? + +Yet we have many more instances of girls and boys sacrificed than of +girls and boys eaten. Almost every nation of which we know anything has +sacrificed boys and girls. The Jews immolated them. This was called _the +Anathema_; it was a real sacrifice; and in Leviticus it is ordained that +the living souls which shall be devoted shall not be spared; but it is +not in any manner prescribed that they shall be eaten; this is only +threatened. Moses tells the Jews that unless they observe his ceremonies +they shall not only have the itch, but the mothers shall eat their +children. It is true that in the time of Ezekiel the Jews must have been +accustomed to eat human flesh; for, in his thirty-ninth chapter, he +foretells to them that God will cause them to eat, not only the horses +of their enemies, but moreover the horsemen and the rest of the +warriors. And, indeed, why should not the Jews have been cannibals? It +was the only thing wanting to make the people of God the most abominable +people upon earth. + + +SECTION II. + +In the essay on the "Manners and Spirit of Nations" we read the +following singular passage: "Herrera assures us that the Mexicans ate +the human victims whom they immolated. Most of the first travellers and +missionaries say that the Brazilians, the Caribbees, the Iroquois, the +Hurons, and some other tribes, ate their captives taken in war; and +they do not consider this as the practice of some individuals alone, but +as a national usage. So many writers, ancient and modern, have spoken of +cannibals, that it is difficult to deny their existence. A hunting +people, like the Brazilians or the Canadians, not always having a +certain subsistence, may sometimes become cannibals. Famine and revenge +accustomed them to this kind of food; and while in the most civilized +ages we see the people of Paris devouring the bleeding remains of +Marshal d'Ancre, and the people of The Hague eating the heart of the +grand pensionary, De Witt, we ought not to be surprised that a momentary +outrage among us has been continual among savages. + +"The most ancient books we have leave no room to doubt that hunger has +driven men to this excess. The prophet Ezekiel, according to some +commentators, promises to the Hebrews from God that if they defend +themselves well against the king of Persia, they shall eat of 'the flesh +of horses and of mighty men.' + +"Marco Polo says that in his time in a part of Tartary the magicians or +priests--it was the same thing--had the privilege of eating the flesh of +criminals condemned to death. All this is shocking to the feelings; but +the picture of humanity must often have the same effect. + +"How can it have been that nations constantly separated from one another +have united in so horrible a custom? Must we believe that it is not so +absolutely opposed to human nature as it appears to be? It is certain +that it has been rare, but it is equally certain that it has existed. It +is not known that the Tartars and the Jews often ate their fellow +creatures. During the sieges of Sancerre and Paris, in our religious +wars, hunger and despair compelled mothers to feed on the flesh of their +children. The charitable Las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, says that this +horror was committed in America, only by some nations among whom he had +not travelled. Dampierre assures us that he never met with cannibals; +and at this day there are not, perhaps, any tribes which retain this +horrible custom." + +Americus Vespucius says in one of his letters that the Brazilians were +much astonished when he made them understand that for a long time the +Europeans had not eaten their prisoners of war. + +According to Juvenal's fifteenth satire, the Gascons and the Spaniards +had been guilty of this barbarity. He himself witnessed a similar +abomination in Egypt during the consulate of Junius. A quarrel happening +between the inhabitants of Tentyra and those of Ombi, they fought; and +an Ombian having fallen into the hands of the Tentyrians, they had him +cooked, and ate him, all but the bare bones. But he does not say that +this was the usual custom; on the contrary, he speaks of it as an act of +more than ordinary fury. + +The Jesuit Charlevoix, whom I knew very well, and who was a man of +great veracity, gives us clearly to understand in his "History of +Canada," in which country he resided thirty years, that all the nations +of northern America were cannibals; since he remarks, as a thing very +extraordinary, that in 1711 the Acadians did not eat men. + +The Jesuit Brebeuf relates that in 1640 the first Iroquois that was +converted, having unfortunately got drunk with brandy, was taken by the +Hurons, then at war with the Iroquois. The prisoner, baptized by Father +Brebeuf by the name of Joseph, was condemned to death. He was put to a +thousand tortures, which he endured, singing all the while, according to +the custom of his country. They finished by cutting off a foot, a hand, +and lastly his head; after which the Hurons put all the members into a +cauldron, each one partook of them, and a piece was offered to Father +Brebeuf. + +Charlevoix speaks in another place of twenty-two Hurons eaten by the +Iroquois. It cannot, then, be doubted, that in more countries than one, +human nature has reached this last pitch of horror; and this execrable +custom must be of the highest antiquity; for we see in the Holy +Scriptures that the Jews were threatened with eating their children if +they did not obey their laws. The Jews are told not only that they shall +have the itch, and that their wives shall give themselves up to others, +but also that they shall eat their sons and daughters in anguish and +devastation; that they shall contend with one another for the eating of +their children; and that the husband will not give to his wife a morsel +of her son, because, he will say, he has hardly enough for himself. + +Some very bold critics do indeed assert that the Book of Deuteronomy was +not composed until after the siege of Samaria by Benhadad, during which, +it is said in the Second Book of Kings, that mothers ate their children. +But these critics, in considering Deuteronomy as a book written after +the siege of Samaria, do but verify this terrible occurrence. Others +assert that it could not happen as it is related in the Second Book of +Kings. It is there said: "And as the king of Israel was passing by upon +the wall [of Samaria], there cried a woman unto him, saying, 'Help, my +lord, O king.' And he said, 'If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall +I help thee? out of the barn floor? or out of the wine-press?' And the +king said unto her, 'What aileth thee?' And she answered, 'This woman +said unto me, give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we shall eat +my son to-morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him; and I said unto +her on the next day, 'Give thy son, that we may eat him,' and she hath +hid her son.'" + +These censors assert that it is not likely that while King Benhadad was +besieging Samaria, King Joram passed quietly by the wall, or upon the +wall, to settle differences between Samaritan women. It is still less +likely that one child should not have satisfied two women for two days. +There must have been enough to feed them for four days at least. But +let these critics reason as they may, we must believe that fathers and +mothers ate their children during the siege of Samaria, since it is +expressly foretold in Deuteronomy. The same thing happened at the siege +of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar; and this, too, was foretold by Ezekiel. + +Jeremiah exclaims, in his "Lamentations": "Shall the women eat their +fruit, and children of a span long?" And in another place: "The hands of +the pitiful women have sodden their own children." Here may be added the +words of Baruch: "Man has eaten the flesh of his son and of his +daughter." + +This horror is repeated so often that it cannot but be true. Lastly, we +know the story related in Josephus, of the woman who fed on the flesh of +her son when Titus was besieging Jerusalem. The book attributed to +Enoch, cited by St. Jude, says that the giants born from the commerce of +the angels with the daughters of men were the first cannibals. + +In the eighth homily attributed to St. Clement, St. Peter, who is made +to speak in it, says that these same giants quenched their thirst with +human blood and ate the flesh of their fellow creatures. Hence resulted, +adds the author, maladies until then unknown; monsters of all kinds +sprung up on the earth; and then it was that God resolved to drown all +human kind. All this shows us how universal was the reigning opinion of +the existence of cannibals. + +What St. Peter is made to say in St. Clement's homily has a palpable +affinity with the story of Lycaon, one of the oldest of Greek fables, +and which we find in the first book of Ovid's "Metamorphoses." + +The "Relations of the Indies and China," written in the eighth century +by two Arabs, and translated by the Abbe Renaudot, is not a book to +which implicit credit should be attached; far from it; but we must not +reject all these two travellers say, especially when their testimony is +corroborated by that of other authors who have merited some belief. They +tell us that there are in the Indian Sea islands peopled with blacks who +ate men; they call these islands Ramni. + +Marco Polo, who had not read the works of these two Arabs, says the same +thing four hundred years after them. Archbishop Navarette, who was +afterwards a voyager in the same seas, confirms this account: "_Los +Europeos que cogen, es constante que vivos se los van comiendo_." + +Texeira asserts that the people of Java ate human flesh, which +abominable custom they had not left off more than two hundred years +before his time. He adds that they did not learn milder manners until +they embraced Mahometanism. + +The same thing has been said of the people of Pegu, of the Kaffirs, and +of several other African nations. Marco Polo, whom we have just now +cited, says that in some Tartar hordes, when a criminal had been +condemned to death they made a meal of him: _"Hanno costoro un bestiale +e orribile costume, che quando alcuno e guidicato a morte, lo tolgono, +e cuocono, e mangian' selo."_ + +What is more extraordinary and incredible is that the two Arabs +attributed to the Chinese what Marco Polo says of some of the Tartars: +that, "in general, the Chinese eat all who have been killed." This +abomination is so repugnant to Chinese manners, that it cannot be +believed. Father Parennin has refuted it by saying that it is unworthy +of refutation. + +It must, however, be observed that the eighth century, the time when +these Arabs wrote their travels, was one of those most disastrous to the +Chinese. Two hundred thousand Tartars passed the great wall, plundered +Pekin, and everywhere spread the most horrible desolation. It is very +likely that there was then a great famine, for China was as populous as +it is now; and some poor creatures among the lowest of the people might +eat dead bodies. What interest could these Arabians have in inventing so +disgusting a fable? Perhaps they, like most other travellers, took a +particular instance for a national custom. + +Not to go so far for examples, we have one in our own country, in the +very province in which I write; it is attested by our conqueror, our +master, Julius Caesar. He was besieging Alexia, in the Auxois. The +besieged being resolved to defend themselves to the last extremity, and +wanting provisions, a great council was assembled, in which one of the +chiefs, named Critognatus, proposed that the children should be eaten +one after another to sustain the strength of the combatants. His +proposal was carried by a majority of voices. Nor is this all; +Critognatus in his harangue tells them that their ancestors had had +recourse to the same kind of sustenance in the war with the Cimbri and +Teutones. + +We will conclude with the testimony of Montaigne. Speaking of what was +told him by the companions of Villegagnon, returned from Brazil, and of +what he had seen in France, he certifies that the Brazilians ate their +enemies killed in war, but mark what follows: "Is it more barbarous to +eat a man when dead than to have him roasted by a slow fire, or torn to +pieces by dogs and swine, as is yet fresh in our memories--and that not +between ancient enemies, but among neighbors and fellow-citizens--and, +which is worse, on pretence of piety and religion?" What a question for +a philosopher like Montaigne! Then, if Anacreon and Tibullus had been +Iroquois, they would have eaten men! Alas! alas! + + +SECTION III. + +Well; two Englishmen have sailed round the world. They have discovered +that New Holland is an island larger than Europe, and that men still eat +one another there, as in New Zealand. Whence come this race? supposing +that they exist. Are they descended from the ancient Egyptians, from the +ancient people of Ethiopia, from the Africans, from the Indians--or from +the vultures, or the wolves? What a contrast between Marcus Aurelius, or +Epictetus, and the cannibals of New Zealand! Yet they have the same +organs, they are alike human beings. We have already treated on this +property of the human race; it may not be amiss to add another +paragraph. + +The following are St. Jerome's own words in one of his letters: _"Quid +loquar de caeteris nationibus, quum ipse adolescentulus in Gallia viderim +Scotos, gentem Britannicam, humanis vesci carnibus, et quum per silvas +porcorum greges pecudumque reperiant, tamen pastorum nates et faeminarum +papillas solere abscindere et has solas ciborum delicias +arbitrari?"_--What shall I say of other nations; when I myself, when +young, have seen Scotchmen in Gaul, who, though they might have fed on +swine and other animals of the forest, chose rather to cut off the +posteriors of the youths and the breasts of the young women, and +considered them as the most delicious food." + +Pelloutier, who sought for everything that might do honor to the Celts, +took the pains to contradict Jerome, and to maintain that his credulity +had been imposed on. But Jerome speaks very gravely, and of what he +_saw_. We may, with deference, dispute with a father of the church about +what he has heard; but to doubt of what he has _seen_ is going very far. +After all, the safest way is to doubt of everything, even of what we +have seen ourselves. + +One word more on cannibalism. In a book which has had considerable +success among the well-disposed we find the following, or words to the +same effect: "In Cromwell's time a woman who kept a tallow chandler's +shop in Dublin sold excellent candles, made of the fat of Englishmen. +After some time one of her customers complained that the candles were +not so good. 'Sir,' said the woman, 'it is because we are short of +Englishmen.'" + +I ask which were the most guilty--those who assassinated the English, or +the poor woman who made candles of their fat? And further, I ask which +was the greatest crime--to have Englishmen cooked for dinner, or to use +their tallow to give light at supper? It appears to me that the great +evil is the being killed; it matters little to us whether, after death, +we are roasted on the spit or are made into candles. Indeed, no +well-disposed man can be unwilling to be useful when he is dead. + + + + +CASTING (IN METAL). + + +There is not an ancient fable, not an old absurdity which some simpleton +will not revive, and that in a magisterial tone, if it be but authorized +by some classical or theological writer. + +Lycophron (if I remember rightly) relates that a horde of robbers who +had been justly condemned in Ethiopia by King Actisanes to lose their +ears and noses, fled to the cataracts of the Nile and from thence +penetrated into the Sandy Desert, where they at length built the temple +of Jupiter Ammon. + +Lycophron, and after him Theopompus, tells us that these banditti, +reduced to extreme want, having neither shoes, nor clothes, nor +utensils, nor bread, bethought themselves of raising a statue of gold +to an Egyptian god. This statue was ordered one evening and made in the +course of the night. A member of the university much attached to +Lycophron and the Ethiopian robbers asserts that nothing was more common +in the venerable ages of antiquity than to cast a statue of gold in one +night, and afterwards throw it into a fire to reduce it to an impalpable +powder, in order to be swallowed by a whole people. + +But where did these poor devils, without breeches, find so much gold? +"What, sir!" says the man of learning, "do you forget that they had +stolen enough to buy all Africa and that their daughters' earrings alone +were worth nine millions five hundred thousand livres of our currency?" + +Be it so. But for casting a statue a little preparation is necessary. M. +Le Moine employed nearly two years in casting that of Louis XV. "Oh! but +this Jupiter Ammon was at most but three feet high. Go to any pewterer; +will he not make you half a dozen plates in a day?" + +Sir, a statue of Jupiter is harder to make than pewter plates, and I +even doubt whether your thieves had wherewith to make plates so quickly, +clever as they might be at pilfering. It is not very likely that they +had the necessary apparatus; they had more need to provide themselves +with meal. I respect Lycophron much, but this profound Greek and his yet +more profound commentators know so little of the arts--they are so +learned in all that is useless, and so ignorant in all that concerns +the necessaries and conveniences of life, professions, trades, and daily +occupations that we will take this opportunity of informing them how a +metal figure is cast. This is an operation which they will find neither +in Lycophron, nor in Manetho, nor even in St. Thomas's dream. + +I omit many other preparations which the encyclopaedists, especially M. +Diderot, have explained much better than I could do, in the work which +must immortalize their glory as well as all the arts. But to form a +clear idea of the process of this art the artist must be seen at work. +No one can ever learn in a book to weave stockings, nor to polish +diamonds, nor to work tapestry. Arts and trades are learned only by +example and practice. + + + + +CATO. + +ON SUICIDE, AND THE ABBE ST. CYRAN's BOOK LEGITIMATING SUICIDE. + + +The ingenious La Motte says of Cato, in one of his philosophical rather +than poetical odes: + + _Caton, d'une ame plus egale,_ + _Sous l'heureux vainqueur de Pharsale,_ + _Eut souffert que Rome pliat;_ + _Mais, incapable de se rendre,_ + _Il n'eut pas la force d'attendre_ + _Un pardon qui l'humiliat._ + + Stern Cato, with more equal soul, + Had bowed to Caesar's wide control-- + With Rome had to the conqueror bowed-- + But that his spirit, rough and proud, + Had not the courage to await + A pardoned foe's too humbling fate. + +It was, I believe, because Cato's soul was always equal, and retained +to the last its love for his country and her laws that he chose rather +to perish with her than to crouch to the tyrant. He died as he had +lived. Incapable of surrendering! And to whom? To the enemy of Rome--to +the man who had forcibly robbed the public treasury in order to make war +upon his fellow-citizens and enslave them by means of their own money. A +pardoned foe! It seems as if La Motte-Houdart were speaking of some +revolted subject who might have obtained his majesty's pardon by letters +in chancery. + +It seems rather absurd to say that Cato slew himself through weakness. +None but a strong mind can thus surmount the most powerful instinct of +nature. This strength is sometimes that of frenzy, but a frantic man is +not weak. + +Suicide is forbidden amongst us by the canon law. But the decretals, +which form the jurisprudence of a part of Europe, were unknown to Cato, +to Brutus, to Cassius, to the sublime Arria, to the Emperor Otho, to +Mark Antony, and the rest of the heroes of true Rome, who preferred a +voluntary death to a life which they believed to be ignominious. + +We, too, kill ourselves, but it is when we have lost our money, or in +the very rare excess of foolish passion for an unworthy object. I have +known women kill themselves for the most stupid men imaginable. And +sometimes we kill ourselves when we are in bad health, which action is a +real weakness. + +Disgust with our own existence, weariness of ourselves is a malady +which is likewise a cause of suicide. The remedy is a little exercise, +music, hunting, the play, or an agreeable woman. The man who, in a fit +of melancholy, kills himself to-day, would have wished to live had he +waited a week. + +I was almost an eye-witness of a suicide which deserves the attention of +all cultivators of physical science. A man of a serious profession, of +mature age, of regular conduct, without passions, and above indigence, +killed himself on Oct. 17, 1769, and left to the town council of the +place where he was born, a written apology for his voluntary death, +which it was thought proper not to publish lest it should encourage men +to quit a life of which so much ill is said. Thus far there is nothing +extraordinary; such instances are almost every day to be met with. The +astonishing part of the story is this: + +His brother and his father had each killed himself at the same age. What +secret disposition of organs, what sympathy, what concurrence of +physical laws, occasions a father and his two sons to perish by their +own hands, and by the same kind of death, precisely when they have +attained such a year? Is it a disease which unfolds itself successively +in the different members of a family--as we often see fathers and +children die of smallpox, consumption, or any other complaint? Three or +four generations have become deaf or blind, gouty or scorbutic, at a +predetermined period. + +Physical organization, of which moral is the offspring, transmits the +same character from father to son through a succession of ages. The +Appii were always haughty and inflexible, the Catos always severe. The +whole line of the Guises were bold, rash, factious; compounded of the +most insolent pride, and the most seductive politeness. From Francis de +Guise to him who alone and in silence went and put himself at the head +of the people of Naples, they were all, in figure, in courage, and in +turn of mind, above ordinary men. I have seen whole length portraits of +Francis de Guise, of the Balafre, and of his son: they are all six feet +high, with the same features, the same courage and boldness in the +forehead, the eye, and the attitude. + +This continuity, this series of beings alike is still more observable in +animals, and if as much care were taken to perpetuate fine races of men +as some nations still take to prevent the mixing of the breeds of their +horses and hounds the genealogy would be written in the countenance and +displayed in the manners. There have been races of crooked and of +six-fingered people, as we see red-haired, thick-lipped, long-nosed, and +flat-nosed races. + +But that nature should so dispose the organs of a whole race that at a +certain age each individual of that family will have a passion for +self-destruction--this is a problem which all the sagacity of the most +attentive anatomists cannot resolve. The effect is certainly all +physical, but it belongs to occult physics. Indeed, what principle is +not occult? + +We are not informed, nor is it likely that in, the time of Caesar and the +emperors the inhabitants of Great Britain killed themselves as +deliberately as they now do, when they have the vapors which they +denominate the spleen. + +On the other hand, the Romans, who never had the spleen, did not +hesitate to put themselves to death. They reasoned, they were +philosophers, and the people of the island of Britain were not so. Now, +English citizens are philosophers and Roman citizens are nothing. The +Englishman quits this life proudly and disdainfully when the whim takes +him, but the Roman must have an _indulgentia in articulo mortis_; he can +neither live nor die. + +Sir William Temple says that a man should depart when he has no longer +any pleasure in remaining. So died Atticus. Young women who hang and +drown themselves for love should then listen to the voice of hope, for +changes are as frequent in love as in other affairs. + +An almost infallible means of saving yourself from the desire of +self-destruction is always to have something to do. Creech, the +commentator on Lucretius, marked upon his manuscripts: "N.B. Must hang +myself when I have finished." He kept his word with himself that he +might have the pleasure of ending like his author. If he had undertaken +a commentary upon Ovid he would have lived longer. + +Why have we fewer suicides in the country than in the towns? Because in +the fields only the body suffers; in the town it is the mind. The +laborer has not time to be melancholy; none kill themselves but the +idle--they who, in the eyes of the multitude, are so happy. + +I shall here relate some suicides that have happened in my own time, +several of which have already been published in other works. The dead +may be made useful to the living: + +_A Brief Account of Some Singular Suicides._ + +Philip Mordaunt, cousin-german to the celebrated earl of +Peterborough--so well known in all the European courts, and who boasted +of having seen more postillions and kings than any other man--was a +young man of twenty-seven, handsome, well made, rich, of noble blood, +with the highest pretensions, and, which was more than all, adored by +his mistress, yet Mordaunt was seized with a disgust for life. He paid +his debts, wrote to his friends, and even made some verses on the +occasion. He dispatched himself with a pistol without having given any +other reason than that his soul was tired of his body and that when we +are dissatisfied with our abode we ought to quit it. It seemed that he +wished to die because he was disgusted with his good fortune. + +In 1726 Richard Smith exhibited a strange spectacle to the world from a +very different cause. Richard Smith was disgusted with real misfortune. +He had been rich, and he was poor; he had been in health, and he was +infirm; he had a wife with whom he had naught but his misery to share; +their only remaining property was a child in the cradle. Richard Smith +and Bridget Smith, with common consent, having embraced each other +tenderly and given their infant the last kiss began with killing the +poor child, after which they hanged themselves to the posts of their +bed. + +I do not know any other act of cold-blooded horror so striking as this. +But the letter which these unfortunate persons wrote to their cousin, +Mr. Brindley, before their death, is as singular as their death itself. +"We believe," say they, "that God will forgive us.... We quit this life +because we are miserable--without resource, and we have done our only +son the service of killing him, lest he should become as unfortunate as +ourselves...." It must be observed that these people, after killing +their son through parental tenderness, wrote to recommend their dog and +cat to the care of a friend. It seems they thought it easier to make a +cat and dog happy in this life than a child, and they would not be a +burden to their friends. + +Lord Scarborough quitted this life in 1727, with the same coolness as he +had quitted his office of Master of the Horse. He was reproached, in the +House of Peers, with taking the king's part because he had a good place +at court. "My lords," said he, "to prove to you that my opinion is +independent of my place, I resign it this moment." He afterwards found +himself in a perplexing dilemma between a mistress whom he loved, but +to whom he had promised nothing, and a woman whom he esteemed, and to +whom he had promised marriage. He killed himself to escape from his +embarrassment. + +These tragical stories which swarm in the English newspapers, have made +the rest of Europe think that, in England, men kill themselves more +willingly than elsewhere. However, I know not but there are as many +madmen or heroes to be found in Paris as in London. Perhaps, if our +newspapers kept an exact list of all who had been so infatuated as to +seek their own destruction, and so lamentably courageous as to effect +it, we should, in this particular, have the misfortune to rival the +English. But our journals are more discreet. In such of them as are +acknowledged by the government private occurrences are never exposed to +public slander. + +All I can venture to say with assurance is that there is no reason to +apprehend that this rage for self-murder will ever become an epidemical +disorder. Against this, nature has too well provided. Hope and fear are +the powerful agents which she often employs to stay the hand of the +unhappy individual about to strike at his own breast. Cardinal Dubois +was once heard to say to himself: "Kill thyself! Coward, thou darest +not!" + +It is said that there have been countries in which a council was +established to grant the citizens permission to kill themselves when +they had good and sufficient reasons. I answer either that it was not +so or that those magistrates had not much to do. + +It might, indeed, astonish us, and does, I think, merit a serious +examination, that almost all the ancient Roman heroes killed themselves +when they had lost a battle in the civil wars. But I do not find, +neither in the time of the League, nor in that of the Frond, nor in the +troubles of Italy, nor in those of England, that any chief thought +proper to die by his own hand. These chiefs, it is true, were +Christians, and there is a great difference between the principles of a +Christian warrior and those of a Pagan hero. But why were these men whom +Christianity restrained when they would have put themselves to death, +restrained by nothing when they chose to poison, assassinate, and bring +their conquered enemies to the scaffold? Does not the Christian religion +forbid these murders much more than self-murder, of which the New +Testament makes no mention? + +The apostles of suicide tell us that it is quite allowable to quit one's +house when one is tired of it. Agreed, but most men would prefer +sleeping in a mean house to lying in the open air. + +I once received a circular letter from an Englishman, in which he +offered a prize to any one who should most satisfactorily prove that +there are occasions on which a man might kill himself. I made no answer: +I had nothing to prove to him. He had only to examine whether he liked +better to die than to live. + +Another Englishman came to me at Paris in 1724; he was ill, and promised +me that he would kill himself if he was not cured by July 20. He +accordingly gave me his epitaph in these words: "_Valet curia!_" +"Farewell care!" and gave me twenty-five louis to get a small monument +erected to him at the end of the Faubourg St. Martin. I returned him his +money on July 20, and kept his epitaph. + +In my own time the last prince of the house of Courtenai, when very old, +and the last branch of Lorraine-Harcourt, when very young, destroyed +themselves almost without its being heard of. These occurrences cause a +terrible uproar the first day, but when the property of the deceased has +been divided they are no longer talked of. + +The following most remarkable of all suicides has just occurred at +Lyons, in June, 1770: A young man well known, who was handsome, well +made, clever, and amiable, fell in love with a young woman whom her +parents would not give to him. So far we have nothing more than the +opening scene of a comedy, the astonishing tragedy is to follow. + +The lover broke a blood-vessel and the surgeons informed him there was +no remedy. His mistress engaged to meet him, with two pistols and two +daggers in order that, if the pistols missed the daggers might the next +moment pierce their hearts. They embraced each other for the last time: +rose-colored ribbons were tied to the triggers of the pistols; the lover +holding the ribbon of his mistress's pistol, while she held the ribbon +of his. Both fired at a signal given, and both fell at the same instant. + +Of this fact the whole city of Lyons is witness. Paetus and Arria, you +set the example, but you were condemned by a tyrant, while love alone +immolated these two victims. + +_Laws Against Suicide._ + +Has any law, civil or religious, ever forbidden a man to kill himself, +on pain of being hanged after death, or on pain of being damned? It is +true that Virgil has said: + + _Proximo, deinde tenent maesti loca, qui sibi lethum_ + _Insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi_ + _Projecere animas. Quam vellent aethere in alto_ + _Nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores!_ + _Fata obstant, tristique palus inamabilis unda_ + _Alligat, et novies Styx interfusa coercet._ + --AENEIS, lib. vi. v. 434 et seq. + + The next in place, and punishment, are they + Who prodigally throw their souls away-- + Fools, who repining at their wretched state, + And loathing anxious life, suborn their fate; + With late repentance now they would retrieve + The bodies they forsook, and wish to live; + Their pains and poverty desire to bear, + To view the light of heaven and breathe the vital air;-- + But fate forbids, the Stygian floods oppose, + And, with nine circling streams, the captive souls inclose. + --DRYDEN. + +Such was the religion of some of the pagans, yet, notwithstanding the +weariness which awaited them in the next world it was an honor to quit +this by killing themselves--so contradictory are the ways of men. And +among us is not duelling unfortunately still honorable, though forbidden +by reason, by religion, and by every law? If Cato and Caesar, Antony and +Augustus, were not duellists it was not that they were less brave than +our Frenchmen. If the duke of Montmorency, Marshal de Marillac, de Thou, +Cinq-Mars, and so many others, chose rather to be dragged to execution +in a wagon, like highwaymen, than to kill themselves like Cato and +Brutus, it was not that they had less courage than those Romans, nor +less of what is called _honor_. The true reason is that at Paris +self-murder in such cases was not then the fashion; but it was the +fashion at Rome. + +The women of the Malabar coast throw themselves, living, on the funeral +piles of their husbands. Have they, then, more courage than Cornelia? +No; but in that country it is the custom for the wives to burn +themselves. + +In Japan it is the custom for a man of honor, when he has been insulted +by another man of honor, to rip open his belly in the presence of his +enemy and say to him: "Do you likewise if thou hast the heart." The +aggressor is dishonored for ever if he does not immediately plunge a +great knife into his belly. + +The only religion in which suicide is forbidden by a clear and positive +law is Mahometanism. In the fourth sura it is said: "Do not kill +yourself, for God is merciful unto you, and whosoever killeth himself +through malice and wickedness shall assuredly be burned in hell fire." + +This is a literal translation. The text, like many other texts, appears +to want common sense. What is meant by "Do not kill yourself for God is +merciful"? Perhaps we are to understand--Do not sink under your +misfortunes, which God may alleviate: do not be so foolish as to kill +yourself to-day since you may be happy to-morrow. + +"And whosoever killeth himself through malice and wickedness." This is +yet more difficult to explain. Perhaps, in all antiquity, this never +happened to any one but the Phraedra of Euripides, who hanged herself on +purpose to make Theseus believe that she had been forcibly violated by +Hippolytus. In our own times a man shot himself in the head, after +arranging all things to make another man suspected of the act. + +In the play of George Dandin, his jade of a wife threatens him with +killing herself to have him hanged. Such cases are rare. If Mahomet +foresaw them he may be said to have seen a great way. The famous +Duverger de Haurane, abbot of St. Cyran, regarded as the founder of Port +Royal, wrote, about the year 1608, a treatise on "Suicide," which has +become one of the scarcest books in Europe. + +"The Decalogue," says he, "forbids us to kill. In this precept +self-murder seems no less to be comprised than murder of our neighbor. +But if there are cases in which it is allowable to kill our neighbor +there likewise are cases in which it is allowable to kill ourselves. + +"We must not make an attempt upon our lives until we have consulted +reason. The public authority, which holds the place of God, may dispose +of our lives. The reason of man may likewise hold the place of the +reason of God: it is a ray of the eternal light." + +St. Cyran extends this argument, which may be considered as a mere +sophism, to great length, but when he comes to the explanation and the +details it is more difficult to answer him. He says: "A man may kill +himself for the good of his prince, for that of his country, or for that +of his relations." + +We do not, indeed, see how Codrus or Curtius could be condemned. No +sovereign would dare to punish the family of a man who had devoted +himself to death for him; nay, there is not one who would dare neglect +to recompense it. St. Thomas, before St. Cyran, had said the same thing. +But we need neither St. Thomas, nor Cardinal Bonaventura, nor Duverger +de Haurane to tell us that a man who dies for his country is deserving +of praise. + +The abbot of St. Cyran concludes that it is allowable to do for +ourselves what it is noble to do for others. All that is advanced by +Plutarch, by Seneca, by Montaigne, and by fifty other philosophers, in +favor of suicide is sufficiently known; it is a hackneyed topic--a +wornout commonplace. I seek not to apologize for an act which the laws +condemn, but neither the Old Testament, nor the New has ever forbidden +man to depart this life when it has become insupportable to him. No +Roman law condemned self-murder; on the contrary, the following was the +law of the Emperor Antoine, which was never revoked: + +"If your father or your brother not being accused of any crime kill +himself, either to escape from grief, or through weariness of life, or +through despair, or through mental derangement, his will shall be valid, +or, if he die intestate his heirs shall succeed." + +Notwithstanding this humane law of our masters we still drag on a sledge +and drive a stake through the body of a man who has died a voluntary +death; we do all we can to make his memory infamous; we dishonor his +family as far as we are able; we punish the son for having lost his +father, and the widow for being deprived of her husband. + +We even confiscate the property of the deceased, which is robbing the +living of the patrimony which of right belongs to them. This custom is +derived from our canon law, which deprives of Christian burial such as +die a voluntary death. Hence it is concluded that we cannot inherit from +a man who is judged to have no inheritance in heaven. The canon law, +under the head "_De Poenitentia_," assures us that Judas committed a +greater crime in strangling himself than in selling our Lord Jesus +Christ. + + + + +CELTS. + + +Among those who have had the leisure, the means, and the courage to seek +for the origin of nations, there have been some who have found that of +our Celts, or at least would make us believe that they had met with it. +This illusion being the only recompense of their immense travail, we +should not envy them its possession. + +If we wish to know anything about the Huns--who, indeed, are scarcely +worth knowing anything about, for they have rendered no service to +mankind--we find some slight notices of those barbarians among the +Chinese--that most ancient of all nations, after the Indians. From them +we learn that, in certain ages, the Huns went like famishing wolves and +ravaged countries which, even at this day are regarded as places of +exile and of horror. This is a very melancholy, a very miserable sort of +knowledge. It is, doubtless, much better to cultivate a useful art at +Paris, Lyons, or Bordeaux, than seriously to study the history of the +Huns and the bears. Nevertheless we are aided in these researches by +some of the Chinese archives. + +But for the Celts there are no archives. We know no more of their +antiquities than we do of those of the Samoyeds or the Australasians. + +We have learned nothing about our ancestors except from the few words +which their conqueror, Julius Caesar, condescended to say of them. He +begins his "Commentaries" by dividing the Gauls into the Belgians, +Aquitanians, and Celts. + +Whence some of the daring among the erudite have concluded that the +Celts were the Scythians, and they have made these Scythio-Celts +include all Europe. But why not include the whole earth? Why stop short +in so fine a career? + +We have also been duly told that Noah's son, Japhet, came out of the +Ark, and went with all speed to people all those vast regions with +Celts, whom he governed marvellously well. But authors of greater +modesty refer the origin of our Celts to the tower of Babel--to the +confusion of tongues--to Gomer, of whom no one ever heard until the very +recent period when some wise men of the West read the name of Gomer in a +bad translation of the Septuagint. + +Bochart, in his "Sacred Chronology"--what a chronology!--takes quite a +different turn. Of these innumerable hordes of Celts he makes an +Egyptian colony, skilfully and easily led by Hercules from the fertile +banks of the Nile into the forests and morasses of Germany, whither, no +doubt, these colonists carried the arts and the language of Egypt and +the mysteries of Isis, no trace of which has ever been found among them. + +I think they are still more to be congratulated on their discoveries, +who say that the Celts of the mountains of Dauphiny were called +Cottians, from their King Cottius; that the Berichons were named from +their King Betrich; the Welsh, or Gaulish, from their King Wallus, and +the Belgians from Balgem, which means quarrelsome. + +A still finer origin is that of the Celto-Pannonians, from the Latin +word _pannus_, cloth, for, we are told they dressed themselves in old +pieces of cloth badly sewn together, much resembling a harlequin's +jacket. But the best origin of all is, undeniably, the tower of Babel. + + + + +CEREMONIES--TITLES--PRECEDENCE. + + +All these things, which would be useless and impertinent in a state of +pure nature, are, in our corrupt and ridiculous state, of great service. +Of all nations, the Chinese are those who have carried the use of +ceremonies to the greatest length; they certainly serve to calm as well +as to weary the mind. The Chinese porters and carters are obliged, +whenever they occasion the least hindrance in the streets, to fall on +their knees and ask one another's pardon according to the prescribed +formula. This prevents ill language, blows and murders. They have time +to grow cool and are then willing to assist one another. + +The more free a people are, the fewer ceremonies, the fewer ostentatious +titles, the fewer demonstrations of annihilation in the presence of a +superior, they possess. To Scipio men said "Scipio"; to Caesar, "Caesar"; +but in after times they said to the emperors, "your majesty," "your +divinity." + +The titles of St. Peter and St. Paul were "Peter" and "Paul." Their +successors gave one another the title of "your holiness," which is not +to be found in the Acts of the Apostles, nor in the writings of the +disciples. + +We read in the history of Germany that the dauphin of France, afterwards +Charles V., went to the Emperor Charles IV. at Metz and was presented +after Cardinal de Perigord. + +There has since been a time when chancellors went before cardinals; +after which cardinals again took precedence of chancellors. + +In France the peers preceded the princes of the blood, going in the +order of their creation, until the consecration of Henry III. + +The dignity of peer was, until that time, so exalted that at the +ceremony of the consecration of Elizabeth, wife to Charles IX., in 1572, +described by Simon Bouquet, _echevin_ of Paris, it is said that the +queen's _dames_ and _demoiselles_ having handed to the _dame d'honneur_ +the bread, wine and wax, with the silver, for the offering to be +presented to the queen by the said _dame d'honneur_, the said _dame +d'honneur_, being a duchess, commanded the _dames_ to go and carry the +offering to the princesses themselves, etc. This _dame d'honneur_ was +the wife of the constable Montmorency. + +The armchair, the chair with a back, the stool, the right hand and the +left were for several ages important political matters. I believe that +we owe the ancient etiquette concerning armchairs to the circumstance +that our barbarians of ancestors had at most but one in a house, and +even this was used only by the sick. In some provinces of Germany and +England an armchair is still called a sick-chair. + +Long after the times of Attila and Dagobert, when luxury found its way +into our courts and the great men of the earth had two or three +armchairs in their donjons, it was a noble distinction to sit upon one +of these thrones; and a castellain would place among his titles how he +had gone half a league from home to pay his court to a count, and how he +had been received in an easy-chair. + +We see in the Memoirs of Mademoiselle that that august princess passed +one-fourth of her life amid the mortal agonies of disputes for the +back-chair. Were you to sit in a certain apartment, in a chair, or on a +stool, or not to sit at all? Here was enough to involve a whole court in +intrigue. Manners are now more easy; ladies may use couches and sofas +without occasioning any disturbance in society. + +When Cardinal de Richelieu was treating with the English ambassadors for +the marriage of Henriette of France with Charles I., the affair was on +the point of being broken off on account of a demand made by the +ambassadors of two or three steps more towards a door; but the cardinal +removed the difficulty by taking to his bed. History has carefully +handed clown this precious circumstance. I believe that, if it had been +proposed to Scipio to get between the sheets to receive the visit of +Hannibal, he would have thought the ceremony something like a joke. + +For a whole century the order of carriages and taking the wall were +testimonials of greatness and the source of pretensions, disputes, and +conflicts. To procure the passing of one carriage before another was +looked upon as a signal victory. The ambassadors went along the streets +as if they were contending for the prize in the circus; and when a +Spanish minister had succeeded in making a Portuguese coachman pull up, +he sent a courier to Madrid to apprise the king, his master, of this +great advantage. + +Our histories regale us with fifty pugilistic combats for precedence--as +that of the parliament with the bishops' clerks at the funeral of Henry +IV., the _chambre des comptes_ with the parliament in the cathedral when +Louis XIII. gave France to the Virgin, the duke of Epernon with the +keeper of the seals, Du Vair, in the church of St. Germain. The +presidents of the _enquetes_ buffeted Savare, the _doyen_ of the +_conseillers de grand' chambre_, to make him quit his place of honor (so +much is honor the soul of monarchical governments!), and four archers +were obliged to lay hold of the President Barillon, who was beating the +poor _doyen_ without mercy. We find no contests like these in the +Areopagus, nor in the Roman senate. + +In proportion to the barbarism of countries or the weakness of courts, +we find ceremony in vogue. True power and true politeness are above +vanity. We may venture to believe that the custom will at last be given +up which some ambassadors still retain, of ruining themselves in order +to go along the streets in procession with a few hired carriages, fresh +painted and gilded, and preceded by a few footmen. This is called +"making their entry"; and it is a fine joke to make your entry into a +town seven or eight months before you arrive. + +This important affair of punctilio, which constitutes the greatness of +the modern Romans--this science of the number of steps that should be +made in showing in a _monsignor_, in drawing or half drawing a curtain, +in walking in a room to the right or to the left--this great art, which +neither Fabius nor Cato could ever imagine, is beginning to sink; and +the train-bearers to the cardinals complain that everything indicates a +decline. + +A French colonel, being at Brussels a year after the taking of that +place by Marshal de Saxe, and having nothing to do, resolved to go to +the town assembly. "It is held at a princess'," said one to him. "Be it +so," answered the other, "what matters it to me?" "But only princes go +there; are you a prince?" "Pshaw!" said the colonel, "they are a very +good sort of princes; I had a dozen of them in my anteroom last year, +when we had taken the town, and they were very polite." + +In turning over the leaves of "Horace" I observe this line in an epistle +to Maecenas, "_Te, dulcis amice revisam_."--"I will come and see you, my +good friend." This Maecenas was the second person in the Roman Empire; +that is, a man of greater power and influence than the greatest monarch +of modern Europe. + +Looking into the works of Corneille, I observed that in a letter to the +great Scuderi, governor of Notre Dame de la Garde, etc., he uses this +expression in reference to Cardinal Richelieu: "Monsieur the cardinal, +your master and mine." It is, perhaps, the first time that such language +has been applied to a minister, since there have been ministers, kings +and flatterers in the world. The same Peter Corneille, the author of +"Cinna," humbly dedicates that work to the Sieur de Montauron, the +king's treasurer, whom in direct terms he compares to Augustus. I regret +that he did not give Montauron the title of monseigneur or my lord. + +An anecdote is related of an old officer, but little conversant with the +precedents and formulas of vanity, who wrote to the Marquis Louvois as +plain monsieur, but receiving no answer, next addressed him under the +title of monseigneur, still, however, without effect, the unlucky +monsieur continuing to rankle in the minister's heart. He finally +directed his letter "to my God, my God Louvois"; commencing it by the +words, "my God, my Creator." Does not all this sufficiently prove that +the Romans were magnanimous and modest, and that we are frivolous and +vain? + +"How d'ye do, my dear friend?" said a duke and peer to a gentleman. "At +your service, my dear friend," replied he; and from that instant his +"dear friend" became his implacable enemy. A grandee of Portugal was +once conversing with a Spanish hidalgo and addressing him every moment +in the terms, "your excellency." The Castilian as frequently replied, +"your courtesy" (_vuestra merced_), a title bestowed on those who have +none by right. The irritated Portuguese in return retorted "your +courtesy" on the Spaniard, who then called the Portuguese "your +excellency." The Portuguese, at length wearied out, demanded, "How is it +that you always call me your courtesy, when I call you your excellency, +and your excellency when I call you your courtesy?" "The reason is," +says the Castilian with a bow, "that all titles are equal to me, +provided that there is nothing equal between you and me." + +The vanity of titles was not introduced into our northern climes of +Europe till the Romans had become acquainted with Asiatic magnificence. +The greater part of the sovereigns of Asia were, and still are, cousins +german of the sun and the moon; their subjects dare not make any +pretension to such high affinity; and many a provincial governor, who +styles himself "nutmeg of consolation" and "rose of delight" would be +empaled alive if he were to claim the slightest relationship to the sun +and moon. + +Constantine was, I think, the first Roman emperor who overwhelmed +Christian humility in a page of pompous titles. It is true that before +his time the emperors bore the title of god, but the term implied +nothing similar to what we understand by it. Divus Augustus, Divus +Trajanus, meant St. Augustus, St. Trajan. It was thought only +conformable to the dignity of the Roman Empire that the soul of its +chief should, after his death, ascend to heaven; and it frequently even +happened that the title of saint, of god, was granted to the emperor by +a sort of anticipated inheritance. Nearly for the same reason the first +patriarchs of the Christian church were all called "your holiness." They +were thus named to remind them of what in fact they ought to be. + +Men sometimes take upon themselves very humble titles, provided they can +obtain from others very honorable ones. Many an abbe who calls himself +brother exacts from his monks the title of monseigneur. The pope styles +himself "servant of the servants of God." An honest priest of Holstein +once addressed a letter "to Pius IV., servant of the servants of God." +He afterwards went to Rome to urge his suit, and the inquisition put him +in prison to teach him how to address letters. + +Formerly the emperor alone had the title of majesty. Other sovereigns +were called your highness, your serenity, your grace. Louis XI. was the +first in France who was generally called majesty, a title certainly not +less suitable to the dignity of a powerful hereditary kingdom than to an +elective principality. But long after him the term highness was applied +to kings of France; and some letters to Henry III. are still extant in +which he is addressed by that title. The states of Orleans objected to +Queen Catherine de Medici being called majesty. But this last +denomination gradually prevailed. The name is indifferent; it is the +power alone that is not so. + +The German chancery, ever unchangeable in its stately formalities, has +pretended down to our own times that no kings have a right to a higher +title than serenity. At the celebrated treaty of Westphalia, in which +France and Sweden dictated the law to the holy Roman Empire, the +emperor's plenipotentiaries continually presented Latin memorials, in +which "his most sacred imperial majesty" negotiated with the "most +serene kings of France and Sweden"; while, on the other hand, the French +and Swedes fail not to declare that their "sacred majesties of France +and Sweden" had many subjects of complaint against the "most serene +emperor." Since that period, however, the great sovereigns have, in +regard to rank, been considered as equals, and he alone who beats his +neighbor is adjudged to have the pre-eminence. + +Philip II. was the first majesty in Spain, for the serenity of Charles +V. was converted into majesty only on account of the empire. The +children of Philip II. were the first highnesses; and afterwards they +were royal highnesses. The duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIII., did +not take up the title of royal highness till 1631; then the prince of +Conde claimed that the most serene highness, which the Dukes de Vendome +did not venture to assume. The duke of Savoy, at that time royal +highness, afterwards substituted majesty. The grand duke of Florence +did the same, excepting as to majesty; and finally the czar, who was +known in Europe only as the grand duke, declared himself emperor, and +was recognized as such. + +Formerly there were only two marquises in Germany, two in France and two +in Italy. The marquis of Brandenburg has become a king, and a great +king. But at present our Italian and French marquises are of a somewhat +different species. + +If an Italian citizen has the honor of giving a dinner to the legate of +his province, and the legate, when drinking, says to him, "Monsieur le +marquis, to your good health," he suddenly becomes a marquis, he and his +heirs after him, forever. If the inhabitant of any province of France, +whose whole estate consists of a quarter part of a little decayed +castle-ward, goes to Paris, makes something of a fortune, or carries the +air of having made one, he is styled in the deeds and legal instruments +in which he is concerned "high and mighty seigneur, marquis and count," +and his son will be denominated by his notary "very high and very mighty +seigneur," and as this frivolous ambition is in no way injurious to +government or civil society, it is permitted to take its course. Some +French lords boast of employing German barons in their stables; some +German lords say they have French marquises in their kitchens; it is not +a long time since a foreigner at Naples made his coachman a duke. Custom +in these cases has more power than royal authority. If you are but +little known at Paris, you may there be a count or a marquis as long as +you please; if you are connected with the law of finance, though the +king should confer on you a real marquisate, you will not, therefore, be +monsieur le marquis. The celebrated Samuel Bernard was, in truth, more a +count than five hundred such as we often see not possessing four acres +of land. The king had converted his estate of Coubert into a fine +county; yet if on any occasion he had ordered himself to be announced as +Count Bernard, etc., he would have excited bursts of laughter. In +England it is different; if the king confers the title of earl or baron +on a merchant, all classes address him with the designation suitable to +it without the slightest hesitation. By persons of the highest birth, by +the king himself, he is called my lord. It is the same in Italy; there +is a register kept there of monsignori. The pope himself addresses them +under that title; his physician is monsignor, and no one objects. + +In France the title of monseigneur or my lord is a very serious +business. Before the time of Cardinal Richelieu a bishop was only "a +most reverend father in God." + +Before the year 1635 bishops did not only not assume the title of +monseigneur themselves, but they did not even give it to cardinals. +These two customs were introduced by a bishop of Chartres, who, in full +canonicals of lawn and purple, went to call Cardinal Richelieu +monseigneur, on which occasion Louis XIII. observed that "Chartrain +would not mind saluting the cardinal _au derriere_." + +It is only since that period that bishops have mutually applied to each +other the title of monseigneur. + +The public made no objection to this application of it; but, as it was a +new title, not conferred on bishops by kings, they continued to be +called sieurs in edicts, declarations, ordinances and all official +documents; and when the council wrote to a bishop they gave him no +higher title than monsieur. + +The dukes and peers have encountered more difficulty in acquiring +possession of the title of monseigneur. The _grande noblesse_, and what +is called the grand robe, decidedly refuse them that distinction. The +highest gratification of human pride consists in a man's receiving +titles of honor from those who conceive themselves his equals; but to +attain this is exceedingly difficult; pride always finds pride to +contend with. + +When the dukes insisted on receiving the title of monseigneur from the +class of gentlemen, the presidents of the parliaments required the same +from advocates and proctors. A certain president actually refused to be +bled because his surgeon asked: "In which arm will you be bled, +monsieur?" An old counsellor treated this matter somewhat more gayly. A +pleader was saying to him, "Monseigneur, monsieur, your secretary".... +He stopped him short: "You have uttered three blunders," says he, "in +as many words. I am not monseigneur; my secretary is not monsieur; he is +my clerk." + +To put an end to this grand conflict of vanity it will eventually be +found necessary to give the title of monseigneur to every individual in +the nation; as women, who were formerly content with mademoiselle, are +now to be called madame. In Spain, when a mendicant meets a brother +beggar, he thus accosts him: "Has your courtesy taken chocolate?" This +politeness of language elevates the mind and keeps up the dignity of the +species. Caesar and Pompey were called in the senate Caesar and Pompey. +But these men knew nothing of life. They ended their letters with +_vale_--adieu. We, who possess more exalted notions, were sixty years +ago "affectionate servants"; then "very humble and very obedient"; and +now we "have the honor to be" so. I really grieve for posterity, which +will find it extremely difficult to add to these very beautiful +formulas. The Duke d'Epernon, the first of Gascons in pride, though far +from being the first of statesmen, wrote on his deathbed to Cardinal +Richelieu and ended his letter with: "Your very humble and very +obedient." Recollecting, however, that the cardinal had used only the +phrase "very affectionate," he despatched an express to bring back the +letter (for it had been actually sent off), began it anew, signed "very +affectionate," and died in the bed of honor. + +We have made many of these observations elsewhere. It is well, however, +to repeat them, were it only to correct some pompous peacocks, who would +strut away their lives in contemptibly displaying their plumes and their +pride. + + + + +CERTAIN--CERTAINTY. + + +I am certain; I have friends; my fortune is secure; my relations will +never abandon me; I shall have justice done me; my work is good, it will +be well received; what is owing to me will be paid; my friend will be +faithful, he has sworn it; the minister will advance me--he has, by the +way, promised it--all these are words which a man who has lived a short +time in the world erases from his dictionary. + +When the judges condemned L'Anglade, Le Brun, Calas, Sirven, Martin, +Montbailli, and so many others, since acknowledged to have been +innocent, they were certain, or they ought to have been certain, that +all these unhappy men were guilty; yet they were deceived. There are two +ways of being deceived; by false judgment and self-blindness--that of +erring like a man of genius, and that of deciding like a fool. + +The judges deceived themselves like men of genius in the affair of +L'Anglade; they were blinded by dazzling appearances and did not +sufficiently examine the probabilities on the other side. Their wisdom +made them believe it certain that L'Anglade had committed a theft, which +he certainly had not committed; and on this miserable _uncertain_ +certainty of the human mind, a gentleman was put to the ordinary and +extraordinary question; subsequent thrown, without succor, into a +dungeon and condemned to the galleys, where he died. His wife was shut +up in another dungeon, with her daughter, aged seven years, who +afterwards married a counsellor of the same parliament which had +condemned her father to the galleys and her mother to banishment. + +It is clear that the judges would not have pronounced this sentence had +they been really certain. However, even at the time this sentence was +passed several persons knew that the theft had been committed by a +priest named Gagnat, associated with a highwayman, and the innocence of +L'Anglade was not recognized till after his death. + +They were in the same manner certain when, by a sentence in the first +instance, they condemned to the wheel the innocent Le Brun, who, by an +arret pronounced on his appeal, was broken on the rack, and died under +the torture. + +The examples of Calas and Sirven are well known, that of Martin is less +so. He was an honest agriculturist near Bar in Lorraine. A villain stole +his dress and in this dress murdered a traveller whom he knew to have +money and whose route he had watched. Martin was accused, his dress was +a witness against him; the judges regarded this evidence as a certainty. +Not the past conduct of the prisoner, a numerous family whom he had +brought up virtuously, neither the little money found on him, nor the +extreme probability of his innocence--nothing could save him. The +subaltern judge made a merit of his rigor. He condemned the innocent +victim to be broken on the wheel, and, by an unhappy fatality the +sentence was executed to the full extent. The senior Martin is broken +alive, calling God to witness his innocence to his last breath; his +family is dispersed, his little property is confiscated, and scarcely +are his broken members exposed on the great road when the assassin who +had committed the murder and theft is put in prison for another crime, +and confesses on the rack, to which he is condemned in his turn, that he +only was guilty of the crime for which Martin had suffered torture and +death. + +Montbailli, who slept with his wife, was accused with having, in concert +with her, killed his mother, who had evidently died of apoplexy. The +council of Arras condemned Montbailli to expire on the rack, and his +wife to be burnt. Their innocence was discovered, but not until +Montbailli had been tortured. Let us cease advertence to these +melancholy adventures, which make us groan at the human condition; but +let us continue to lament the pretended certainty of judges, when they +pass such sentences. + +There is no certainty, except when it is physically or morally +impossible that the thing can be otherwise. What! is a strict +demonstration necessary to enable us to assert that the surface of a +sphere is equal to four times the area of its great circle; and is not +one required to warrant taking away the life of a citizen by a +disgraceful punishment? + +If such is the misfortune of humanity that judges must be contented with +extreme probabilities, they should at least consult the age, the rank, +the conduct of the accused--the interest which he could have in +committing the crime, and the interest of his enemies to destroy him. +Every judge should say to himself: Will not posterity, will not entire +Europe condemn my sentence? Shall I sleep tranquilly with my hands +tainted with innocent blood? Let us pass from this horrible picture to +other examples of a certainty which leads directly to error. + +Why art thou loaded with chains, fanatical and unhappy Santon? Why hast +thou added a large iron ring on thy miserable scourge? It is because I +am certain of being one day placed in the first heaven, by the side of +our great prophet. Alas, my friend, come with me to the neighborhood of +Mount Athos and thou wilt see three thousand mendicants who are as +certain that thou wilt go to the gulf which is under the narrow bridge, +as that they will all go to the first heaven! + +Stop, miserable Malabar widow, believe not the fool who persuades you +that you shall be reunited to your husband in all the delights of +another world, if you burn yourself on his funeral pile! No, I persist +in burning myself because I am certain of living in felicity with my +husband; my brahmin told me so. + +Let us attend to less frightful certainties, and which have a little +more appearance of truth. What is the age of your friend Christopher? +Twenty-eight years. I have seen his marriage contract, and his baptismal +register; I knew him in his infancy; he is twenty-eight--I am certain of +it. + +Scarcely have I heard the answer of this man, so sure of what he said, +and of twenty others who confirmed the same thing, when I learn that for +secret reasons, and by a singular circumstance the baptismal register of +Christopher has been antedated. Those to whom I had spoken as yet know +nothing of it, yet they have still the same certainty of that which is +not. + +If you had asked the whole earth before the time of Copernicus: has the +sun risen? has it set to-day? all men would have answered: We are quite +certain of it. They were certain and they were in error. + +Witchcraft, divinations, and possessions were for a long time the most +certain things in the world in the eyes of society. What an innumerable +crowd of people who have seen all these fine things and who have been +certain of them! At present this certainty is a little shaken. + +A young man who is beginning to study geometry comes to me; he is only +at the definition of triangles. Are you not certain, said I to him, that +the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles? He +answered that not only was he not certain of it, but that he had not the +slightest idea of the proposition. I demonstrated it to him. He then +became very certain of it, and will remain so all his life. This is a +certainty very different from the others; they were only probabilities +and these probabilities, when examined, have turned out errors, but +mathematical certainty is immutable and eternal. + +I exist, I think, I feel grief--is all that as certain as a geometrical +truth? Yes, skeptical as I am, I avow it. Why? It is that these truths +are proved by the same principle that it is impossible for a thing to +exist and not exist at the same time. I cannot at the same time feel and +not feel. A triangle cannot at the same time contain a hundred and +eighty degrees, which are the sum of two right angles, and not contain +them. The physical certainty of my existence, of my identity, is of the +same value as mathematical certainty, although it is of a different +kind. + +It is not the same with the certainty founded on appearances, or on the +unanimous testimony of mankind. + +But how, you will say to me, are you not certain that Pekin exists? Have +you not merchandise from Pekin? People of different countries and +different opinions have vehemently written against one another while +preaching the truth at Pekin; then are you not assured of the existence +of this town? I answer that it is extremely probable that there may be a +city of Pekin but I would not wager my life that such a town exists, and +I would at any time wager my life that the three angles of a triangle +are equal to two right angles. + +In the "_Dictionnaire Encyclopedique_" a very pleasant thing appears. It +is there maintained that a man ought to be as certain that Marshal Saxe +rose from the dead, if all Paris tells him so, as he is sure that +Marshal Saxe gained the battle of Fontenoy, upon the same testimony. +Pray observe the beauty of this reasoning: as I believe all Paris when +it tells me a thing morally possible, I ought to believe all Paris when +it tells me a thing morally and physically impossible. Apparently the +author of this article has a disposition to be risible; as to ourselves +who have only undertaken this little dictionary to ask a few questions, +we are very far from possessing this very extensive certainty. + + + + +CHAIN OF CREATED BEINGS. + + +The gradation of beings rising from the lowest to the Great Supreme--the +scale of infinity--is an idea that fills us with admiration, but when +steadily regarded this phantom disappears, as apparitions were wont to +vanish at the crowing of the cock. + +The imagination is pleased with the imperceptible transition from brute +matter to organized matter, from plants to zoophytes, from zoophytes to +animals, from animals to men, from men to genii, from these genii, clad +in a light aerial body, to immaterial substances of a thousand different +orders, rising from beauty to perfection, up to God Himself. This +hierarchy is very pleasing to young men who look upon it as upon the +pope and cardinals, followed by the archbishops and bishops, after whom +are the vicars, curates and priests, the deacons and subdeacons, then +come the monks, and the capuchins bring up the rear. + +But there is, perhaps, a somewhat greater distance between God and His +most perfect creatures than between the holy father and the dean of the +sacred college. The dean may become pope, but can the most perfect genii +created by the Supreme Being become God? Is there not infinity between +them? + +Nor does this chain, this pretended gradation, any more exist in +vegetables and animals; the proof is that some species of plants and +animals have been entirely destroyed. We have no murex. The Jews were +forbidden to eat griffin and ixion, these two species, whatever Bochart +may say, have probably disappeared from the earth. Where, then, is the +chain? + +Supposing that we had not lost some species, it is evident that they may +be destroyed. Lions and rhinoceroses are becoming very scarce, and if +the rest of the nations had imitated the English, there would not now +have been a wolf left. It is probable that there have been races of men +who are no longer to be found. Why should they not have existed as well +as the whites, the blacks, the Kaffirs, to whom nature has given an +apron of their own skin, hanging from the belly to the middle of the +thigh; the Samoyeds, whose women have nipples of a beautiful jet. + +Is there not a manifest void between the ape and man? Is it not easy to +imagine a two-legged animal without feathers having intelligence without +our shape or the use of speech--one which we could tame, which would +answer our signs, and serve us? And again, between this species and man, +cannot we imagine others? + +Beyond man, divine Plato, you place in heaven a string of celestial +substances, in some of which we believe because the faith so teaches us. +But what reason had you to believe in them? It does not appear that you +had spoken with the genius of Socrates, and though Heres, good man, rose +again on purpose to tell you the secrets of the other world, he told you +nothing of these substances. In the sensible universe the pretended +chain is no less interrupted. + +What gradation, I pray you, is there among the planets? The moon is +forty times smaller than our globe. Travelling from the moon through +space, you find Venus, about as large as the earth. From thence you go +to Mercury, which revolves in an ellipsis very different from the +circular orbit of Venus; it is twenty-seven times smaller than the +earth, the sun is a million times larger, and Mars is five times +smaller. The latter goes his round in two years, his neighbor Jupiter in +twelve, and Saturn in thirty; yet Saturn, the most distant of all, is +not so large as Jupiter. Where is the pretended gradation? + +And then, how, in so many empty spaces, do you extend a chain +connecting the whole? There can certainly be no other than that which +Newton discovered--that which makes all the globes of the planetary +world gravitate one towards another in the immense void. + +Oh, much admired Plato! I fear that you have told us nothing but fables, +that you have spoken to us only as a sophist! Oh, Plato! you have done +more mischief than you are aware of. How so? you will ask. I will not +tell you. + + + + +CHAIN OR GENERATION OF EVENTS. + + +The present, we say, is pregnant with the future; events are linked one +with another by an invincible fatality. This is the fate which, in +Homer, is superior to Jupiter himself. The master of gods and men +expressly declares that he cannot prevent his son Sarpedon from dying at +the time appointed. Sarpedon was born at the moment when it was +necessary that he should be born, and could not be born at any other; he +could not die elsewhere than before Troy; he could not be buried +elsewhere than in Lycia; his body must, in the appointed time, produce +vegetables, which must change into the substance of some of the Lycians; +his heirs must establish a new order of things in his states; that new +order must influence neighboring kingdoms; thence must result a new +arrangement in war and in peace with the neighbors of Lycia. So that, +from link to link, the destiny of the whole earth depended on the +elopement of Helen, which had a necessary connection with the marriage +of Hecuba, which, ascending to higher events, was connected with the +origin of things. + +Had any one of these occurrences been ordered otherwise, the result +would have been a different universe. Now, it was not possible for the +actual universe not to exist; therefore it was not possible for Jupiter, +Jove as he was, to save the life of his son. We are told that this +doctrine of necessity and fatality has been invented in our own times by +Leibnitz, under the name of sufficing reason. It is, however, of great +antiquity. It is no recent discovery that there is no effect without a +cause and that often the smallest cause produces the greatest effects. + +Lord Bolingbroke acknowledges that he was indebted to the petty quarrels +between the duchess of Marlborough and Mrs. Masham for an opportunity of +concluding the private treaty between Queen Anne and Louis XIV. This +treaty led to the peace of Utrecht; the peace of Utrecht secured the +throne of Spain to Philip V.; Philip took Naples and Sicily from the +house of Austria. Thus the Spanish prince, who is now king of Naples, +evidently owes his kingdom to Mrs. Masham; he would not have had it, nor +even have been born, if the duchess of Marlborough had been more +complaisant towards the queen of England; his existence at Naples +depended on one folly more or less at the court of London. + +Examine the situations of every people upon earth; they are in like +manner founded on a train of occurrences seemingly without connection, +but all connected. In this immense machine all is wheel, pulley, cord, +or spring. It is the same in physical order. A wind blowing from the +southern seas and the remotest parts of Africa brings with it a portion +of the African atmosphere, which, falling in showers in the valleys of +the Alps, fertilizes our lands; on the other hand our north wind carries +our vapors among the negroes; we do good to Guinea, and Guinea to us. +The chain extends from one end of the universe to the other. + +But the truth of this principle seems to me to be strangely abused; for +it is thence concluded that there is no atom, however small, the +movement of which has not influenced the actual arrangement of the whole +world; that the most trivial accident, whether among men or animals, is +an essential link in the great chain of destiny. + +Let us understand one another. Every effect evidently has its cause, +ascending from cause to cause, into the abyss of eternity; but every +cause has not its effect, going down to the end of ages. I grant that +all events are produced one by another; if the past was pregnant with +the present, the present is pregnant with the future; everything is +begotten, but everything does not beget. It is a genealogical tree; +every house, we know, ascends to Adam, but many of the family have died +without issue. + +The events of this world form a genealogical tree. It is indisputable +that the inhabitants of Spain and Gaul are descended from Gomer, and the +Russians from his younger brother Magog, for in how many great books is +this genealogy to be found! It cannot then be denied that the grand +Turk, who is also descended from Magog, is obliged to him for the good +beating given him in 1769 by the Empress Catherine II. This occurrence +is evidently linked with other great events; but whether Magog spat to +the right or to the left near Mount Caucasus--made two or three circles +in a well--or whether he lay on his right side or his left, I do not see +that it could have much influence on present affairs. + +It must be remembered, because it is proved by Newton, that nature is +not a plenum, and that motion is not communicated by collision until it +has made the tour of the universe. Throw a body of a certain density +into water, you easily calculate that at the end of such a time the +movement of this body, and that which it has given to the water, will +cease; the motion will be lost and rest will be restored. So the motion +produced by Magog in spitting into a well cannot have influenced what is +now passing in Moldavia and Wallachia. Present events, then, are not the +offspring of all past events, they have their direct lines, but with a +thousand small collateral fines they have nothing to do. Once more be it +observed that every being has a parent but every one has not an +offspring. + + + + +CHANGES THAT HAVE OCCURRED IN THE GLOBE. + + +When we have seen with our own eyes a mountain advancing into a +plain--that is, an immense rock detached from that mountain, and +covering the fields, an entire castle buried in the earth, or a +swallowed-up river bursting from below, indubitable marks of an immense +mass of water having once inundated a country now inhabited, and so many +traces of other revolutions, we are even more disposed to believe in the +great changes that have altered the face of the world than a Parisian +lady who knows that the square in which her house stands was formerly a +cultivated field, but a lady of Naples who has seen the ruins of +Herculaneum underground is still less enthralled by the prejudice which +leads us to believe that everything has always been as it now is. + +Was there a great burning of the world in the time of Phaethon? Nothing +is more likely, but this catastrophe was no more caused by the ambition +of Phaethon or the anger of Jupiter the Thunderer than at Lisbon, in +1755, the Divine vengeance was drawn down, the subterraneous fires +kindled, and half the city destroyed by the fires so often lighted there +by the inquisition--besides, we know that Mequinez, Tetuan and +considerable hordes of Arabs have been treated even worse than Lisbon, +though they had no inquisition. The island of St. Domingo, entirely +devastated not long ago, had no more displeased the Great Being than +the island of Corsica; all is subject to eternal physical laws. + +Sulphur, bitumen, nitre, and iron, enclosed within the bowels of the +earth have overturned many a city, opened many a gulf, and we are +constantly liable to these accidents attached to the way in which this +globe is put together, just as, in many countries during winter, we are +exposed to the attacks of famishing wolves and tigers. If fire, which +Heraclitus believed to be the principle of all, has altered the face of +a part of the earth, Thales's first principle, water, has operated as +great changes. + +One-half of America is still inundated by the ancient overflowings of +the Maranon, Rio de la Plata, the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, and all +the rivers perpetually swelled by the eternal snows of the highest +mountains in the world, stretching from one end of that continent to the +other. These accumulated floods have almost everywhere produced vast +marshes. The neighboring lands have become uninhabitable, and the earth, +which the hands of man should have made fruitful, has produced only +pestilence. + +The same thing happened in China and in Egypt: a multitude of ages were +necessary to dig canals and dry the lands. Add to these lengthened +disasters the irruptions of the sea, the lands it has invaded and +deserted, the islands it has detached from the continent and you will +find that from east to west, from Japan to Mount Atlas, it has +devastated more than eighty thousand square leagues. + +The swallowing up of the island Atlantis from the ocean may, with as +much reason, be considered historical, as fabulous. The shallowness of +the Atlantic as far as the Canaries might be taken as a proof of this +great event and the Canaries themselves for fragments of the island +Atlantis. + +Plato tells us in his "_Timaeus_," that the Egyptian priests, among whom +he had travelled, had in their possession ancient registers which +certified that island's going under water. Plato says that this +catastrophe happened nine thousand years before his time. No one will +believe this chronology on Plato's word only, but neither can any one +adduce against it any physical proof, nor even a historical testimony +from any profane writer. + +Pliny, in his third book, says that from time immemorial the people of +the southern coasts of Spain believed that the sea had forced a passage +between Calpe and Abila: _"Indigenae columnas Herculis vocant, creduntque +per fossas exclusa antea admisisse maria, et rerum naturae mutasse +faciem."_ + +An attentive traveller may convince himself by his own eyes that the +Cyclades and the Sporades were once part of the continent of Greece, and +especially that Sicily was once joined to Apulia. The two volcanos of +Etna and Vesuvius having the same basis in the sea, the little gulf of +Charybdis, the only deep part of that sea, the perfect resemblance of +the two soils are incontrovertible testimonies. The floods of Deucalion +and Ogyges are well known, and the fables founded upon this truth are +still more the talk of all the West. + +The ancients have mentioned several deluges in Asia. The one spoken of +by Berosus happened (as he tells us) in Chaldaea, about four thousand +three, or four hundred years before the Christian era, and Asia was as +much inundated with fables about this deluge as it was by the +overflowings of the Tigris and Euphrates, and all the rivers that fall +into the Euxine. + +It is true that such overflowings cannot cover the country with more +than a few feet of water, but the consequent sterility, the washing away +of houses, and the destruction of cattle are losses which it requires +nearly a century to repair. We know how much they have cost Holland, +more than the half of which has been lost since the year 1050. She is +still obliged to maintain a daily conflict with the ever-threatening +ocean. She has never employed so many soldiers in resisting her enemies +as she employs laborers in continually defending her against the +assaults of a sea always ready to swallow her. + +The road from Egypt to Phoenicia, along the borders of Lake Serbo, was +once quite practicable, but it has long ceased to be so; it is now +nothing but a quicksand, moistened by stagnant water. In short, a great +portion of the earth would be no other than a vast poisonous marsh +inhabited by monsters, but for the assiduous labor of the human race. + +We shall not here speak of the universal deluge of Noah. Let it suffice +to read the Holy Scriptures with submission. Noah's flood was an +incomprehensible miracle supernaturally worked by the justice and +goodness of an ineffable Providence whose will it was to destroy the +whole guilty human race and form a new and innocent race. If the new +race was more wicked than the former, and became more criminal from age +to age, from reformation to reformation, this is but another effect of +the same Providence, of which it is impossible for us to fathom the +depths, the inconceivable mysteries transmitted to the nations of the +West for many ages, in the Latin translation of the Septuagint. We shall +never enter these awful sanctuaries; our questions will be limited to +simple nature. + + + + +CHARACTER. + +[From the Greek word signifying _Impression_, _Engraving_.--It is what +nature has engraved in us.] + + +Can we change our character? Yes, if we change our body. A man born +turbulent, violent, and inflexible, may, through falling in his old age +into an apoplexy, become like a silly, weak, timid, puling child. His +body is no longer the same, but so long as his nerves, his blood, and +his marrow remain in the same state his disposition will not change any +more than the instinct of a wolf or a polecat. The English author of +"The Dispensary," a poem much superior to the Italian "_Capitoli_" and +perhaps even to Boileau's "_Lutrin_", has, as it seems to me, well +observed. + + How matter, by the varied shape of pores, + Or idiots frames, or solemn senators. + +The character is formed of our ideas and our feelings. Now it is quite +clear that we neither give ourselves feelings nor ideas, therefore our +character cannot depend on ourselves. If it did so depend, every one +would be perfect. We cannot give ourselves tastes, nor talents, why, +then, should we give ourselves qualities? When we do not reflect we +think we are masters of all: when we reflect we find that we are masters +of nothing. + +If you would absolutely change a man's character purge him with diluents +till he is dead. Charles XII., in his illness on the way to Bender, was +no longer the same man; he was as tractable as a child. If I have a wry +nose and cat's eyes I can hide them behind a mask, and can I do more +with the character that nature has given me? + +A man born violent and passionate presents himself before Francis I., +king of France, to complain of a trespass. The countenance of the +prince, the respectful behavior of the courtiers, the very place he is +in make a powerful impression upon this man. He mechanically casts down +his eyes, his rude voice is softened, he presents his petition with +humility, you would think him as mild as (at that moment at least) the +courtiers appear to be, among whom he is often disconcerted, but if +Francis I. knows anything of physiognomy, he will easily discover in his +eye, though downcast, glistening with a sullen fire, in the extended +muscles of his face, in his fast-closed lips, that this man is not so +mild as he is forced to appear. The same man follows him to Pavia, is +taken prisoner along with him and thrown into the same dungeon at +Madrid. The majesty of Francis I. no longer awes him as before, he +becomes familiar with the object of his reverence. One day, pulling on +the king's boots, and happening to pull them on ill, the king, soured by +misfortune, grows angry, on which our man of courtesy wishes his majesty +at the devil and throws his boots out the window. + +Sixtus V. was by nature petulant, obstinate, haughty, impetuous, +vindictive, arrogant. This character, however, seems to have been +softened by the trials of his novitiate. But see him beginning to +acquire some influence in his order; he flies into a passion against a +guardian and knocks him down. Behold him an inquisitor at Venice, he +exercises his office with insolence. Behold him cardinal; he is +possessed _della rabbia papale_; this rage triumphs over his natural +propensities; he buries his person and his character in obscurity and +counterfeits humility and infirmity. He is elected pope, and the spring +which policy had held back now acts with all the force of its +long-restrained elasticity; he is the proudest and most despotic of +sovereigns. + + _Naturam expellas furea, tamen usque recurret._ + Howe'er expelled, nature will still return. + +Religion and morality curb the strength of the disposition, but they +cannot destroy it. The drunkard in a cloister, reduced to a quarter of a +pint of cider each meal will never more get drunk, but he will always be +fond of wine. + +Age weakens the character; it is as an old tree producing only a few +degenerate fruits, but always of the same nature, which is covered with +knots and moss and becomes worm-eaten, but is ever the same, whether oak +or pear tree. If we could change our character we could give ourselves +one and become the master of nature. Can we give ourselves anything? do +not we receive everything? To strive to animate the indolent man with +persevering activity, to freeze with apathy the boiling blood of the +impetuous, to inspire a taste for poetry into him who has neither taste +nor ear were as futile as to attempt to give sight to one born blind. We +perfect, we ameliorate, we conceal what nature has placed in us, but we +place nothing there ourselves. + +An agriculturist is told: "You have too many fish in this pond; they +will not thrive, here are too many cattle in your meadows; they will +want grass and grow lean." After this exhortation the pikes come and eat +one-half this man's carps, the wolves one-half of his sheep, and the +rest fatten. And will you applaud his economy? This countryman is +yourself; one of your passions devours the rest and you think you have +gained a triumph. Do we not almost all resemble the old general of +ninety, who, having found some young officers behaving in a rather +disorderly manner with some young women, said to them in anger: +"Gentlemen, is this the example that I set you?" + + + + +CHARITY. + +CHARITABLE AND BENEFICENT INSTITUTIONS, ALMS-HOUSES, HOSPITALS, ETC. + + +Cicero frequently speaks of universal charity, _charitas humani +generis_; but it does not appear that the policy or the beneficence of +the Romans ever induced them to establish charitable institutions, in +which the indigent and the sick might be relieved at the expense of the +public. There was a receptacle for strangers at the port of Ostia, +called Xenodokium, St. Jerome renders this justice to the Romans. +Almshouses seem to have been unknown in ancient Rome. A more noble usage +prevailed--that of supplying the people with corn. There were in Rome +three hundred and twenty-seven public granaries. This constant +liberality precluded any need of alms-houses. They were strangers to +necessity. + +Neither was there any occasion among the Romans for founding charities. +None exposed their own children. Those of slaves were taken care of by +their masters. Childbirth was not deemed disgraceful to the daughters of +citizens. The poorest families, maintained by the republic and +afterwards by the emperors, saw the subsistence of their children +secured. + +The expression, "charitable establishment," _maison de charite_, implies +a state of indigence among modern nations which the form of our +governments has not been able to preclude. + +The word "hospital," which recalls that of hospitality, reminds us of a +virtue in high estimation among the Greeks, now no longer existing; but +it also expresses a virtue far superior. There is a mighty difference +between lodging, maintaining, and providing in sickness for all +afflicted applicants whatever, and entertaining in your own house two or +three travellers by whom you might claim a right to be entertained in +return. Hospitality, after all, was but an exchange. Hospitals are +monuments of beneficence. + +It is true that the Greeks were acquainted with charitable institutions +under the name of _Xenodokia_, for strangers, _Nosocomeia_, for the +sick, and _Ptokia_, for the indigent. In Diogenes Laertius, concerning +Bion, we find this passage: "He suffered much from the indigence of +those who were charged with the care of the sick." + +Hospitality among friends was called _Idioxenia_, and among strangers +_Proxenia_. Hence, the person who received and entertained strangers in +his house, in the name of the whole city, was called _Proxenos_. But +this institution appears to have been exceedingly rare. At the present +day there is scarcely a city in Europe without its hospitals. The Turks +have them even for beasts, which seems to be carrying charity rather too +far, it would be better to forget the beasts and think more about men. + +This prodigious multitude of charitable establishments clearly proves a +truth deserving of all our attention--that man is not so depraved as he +is stated to be, and that, notwithstanding all his absurd opinions, +notwithstanding all the horrors of war which transform him into a +ferocious beast, we have reason to consider him as a creature naturally +well disposed and kind, and who, like other animals, becomes vicious +only in proportion as he is stung by provocation. + +The misfortune is that he is provoked too often. + +Modern Rome has almost as many charitable institutions as ancient Rome +had triumphal arches and other monuments of conquest. The most +considerable of them all is a bank which lends money at two per cent. +upon pledge, and sells the property if the borrower does not redeem it +by an appointed time. This establishment is called the _Archiospedale_, +or chief hospital. It is said always to contain within its walls nearly +two thousand sick, which would be about the fiftieth part of the +population of Rome for this one house alone, without including the +children brought up, and the pilgrims lodged there. Where are the +computations which do not require abatement? + +Has it not been actually published at Rome that the hospital of the +Trinity had lodged and maintained for three days four hundred and forty +thousand five hundred male and twenty-five thousand female pilgrims at +the jubilee in 1600? Has not Misson himself told us that the hospital of +the Annunciation at Naples possesses a rental of two millions in our +money? (About four hundred thousand dollars.) + +However, to return, perhaps a charitable establishment for pilgrims who +are generally mere vagabonds, is rather an encouragement to idleness +than an act of humanity. It is, however, a decisive evidence of humanity +that Rome contains fifty charitable establishments including all +descriptions. These beneficent institutions are quite as useful and +respectable as the riches of some monasteries and chapels are useless +and ridiculous. + +To dispense food, clothing, medicine, and aid of every kind, to our +brethren, is truly meritorious, but what need can a saint have of gold +and diamonds? What benefit results to mankind from "our Lady of Loretto" +possessing more gorgeous treasures than the Turkish sultan? Loretto is a +house of vanity, and not of charity. London, reckoning its charity +schools, has as many beneficent establishments as Rome. + +The most beautiful monument of beneficence ever erected is the Hotel des +Invalides, founded by Louis XIV. + +Of all hospitals, that in which the greatest number of indigent sick are +daily received is the Hotel Dieu of Paris. It frequently contains four +or five thousand inmates at a time. It is at once the receptacle of all +the dreadful ills to which mankind are subject and the temple of true +virtue, which consists in relieving them. + +It is impossible to avoid frequently drawing a contrast between a fete +at Versailles or an opera at Paris, in which all the pleasures and all +the splendors of life are combined with the most exquisite art, and a +Hotel Dieu, where all that is painful, all that is loathsome, and even +death itself are accumulated in one mass of horror. Such is the +composition of great cities! By an admirable policy pleasures and luxury +are rendered subservient to misery and pain. The theatres of Paris pay +on an average the yearly sum of a hundred thousand crowns to the +hospital. It often happens in these charitable institutions that the +inconveniences counterbalance the advantages. One proof of the abuses +attached to them is that patients dread the very idea of being removed +to them. + +The Hotel Dieu, for example, was formerly well situated, in the middle +of the city, near the bishop's palace. The situation now is very bad, +for the city has become overgrown; four or five patients are crowded +into every bed, the victim of scurvy communicates it to his neighbor and +in return receives from him smallpox, and a pestilential atmosphere +spreads incurable disease and death, not only through the building +destined to restore men to healthful life but through a great part of +the city which surrounds it. + +M. de Chamousset, one of the most valuable and active of citizens, has +computed, from accurate authorities, that in the Hotel Dieu, a fourth +part of the patients die, an eighth in the hospital of Charity, a ninth +in the London hospitals, and a thirtieth in those of Versailles. In the +great and celebrated hospital of Lyons, which has long been one of the +best conducted in Europe, the average mortality has been found to be +only one-fifteenth. It has been often proposed to divide the Hotel Dieu +of Paris into smaller establishments better situated, more airy, and +salubrious, but money has been wanting to carry the plan into execution. + + _Curtae nescio quid semper abest rei._ + +Money is always to be found when men are to be sent to the frontiers to +be destroyed, but when the object is to preserve them it is no longer +so. Yet the Hotel Dieu of Paris has a revenue amounting to more than a +million (forty thousand pounds), and every day increasing, and the +Parisians have rivalled each other in their endowments of it. + +We cannot help remarking in this place that Germain Brice, in his +"Description of Paris," speaking of some legacies bequeathed by the +first president, Bellievre, to the hall of the Hotel Dieu, named St. +Charles, says: "Every one ought to read the beautiful inscription, +engraved in letters of gold on a grand marble tablet, and composed by +Oliver Patru, one of the choicest spirits of his time, some of whose +pleadings are extant and in very high esteem. + +"Whoever thou art that enterest this sacred place thou wilt almost +everywhere behold traces of the charity of the great Pomponne. The gold +and silver tapestry and the exquisite furniture which formerly adorned +his apartments are now, by a happy metamorphosis, made to minister to +the necessities of the sick. That divine man, who was the ornament and +delight of his age, even in his conflict with death, considered how he +might relieve the afflicted. The blood of Bellievre was manifested in +every action of his life. The glory of his embassies is full well +known," etc. + +The useful Chamousset did better than Germain Brice, or than Oliver +Patru, "one of the choicest spirits of his time." He offered to +undertake at his own expense, backed by a responsible company, the +following contract: + +The administrators of the Hotel Dieu estimated the cost of every +patient, whether killed or cured, at fifty livres. M. Chamousset and the +company offered to undertake the business, on receiving fifty livres on +recovery only. The deaths were to be thrown out of the account, of which +the expenses were to be borne by himself. + +The proposal was so very advantageous that it was not accepted. It was +feared that he would not be able to accomplish it. Every abuse attempted +to be reformed is the patrimony of those who have more influence than +the reformers. + +A circumstance no less singular is that the Hotel Dieu alone has the +privilege of selling meat in Lent, for its own advantage and it loses +money thereby. M. Chamousset proposed to enter into a contract by which +the establishment would gain; his offer was rejected and the butcher, +who was thought to have suggested it to him, was dismissed. + + _Ainsi chez les humains, par un abus fatal,_ + _Le bien le plus parfait est la source du mal._ + + Thus serious ill, if tainted by abuse, + The noblest works of man will oft produce. + + + + +CHARLES IX. + + +Charles IX., king of France, was, we are told, a good poet. It is quite +certain that while he lived his verses were admired. Brantome does not, +indeed, tell us that this king was the best poet in Europe, but he +assures us that "he made very genteel quatrains impromptu, without +thinking (for he had seen several of them), and when it was wet or +gloomy weather, or very hot, he would send for the poets into his +cabinet and pass his time there with them." + +Had he always passed his time thus, and, above all, had he made good +verses, we should not have had a St. Bartholomew, he would not have +fired with a carbine through his window upon his own subjects, as if +they had been a covey of partridges. Is it not impossible for a good +poet to be a barbarian? I am persuaded it is. + +These lines, addressed in his name to Ronsard, have been attributed to +him: + + _La lyre, qui ravit par de si doux accords,_ + _Te soumets les esprits dont je n'ai que les corps;_ + _Le maitre elle t'en rend, et te fait introduire_ + _Ou le plus fier tyran ne peut avoir d'empire._ + + The lyre's delightful softly swelling lay + Subdues the mind, I but the body sway; + Make thee its master, thy sweet art can bind + What haughty tyrants cannot rule--the mind. + +These lines are good. But are they his? Are they not his preceptor's? +Here are some of his royal imaginings, which are somewhat different: + + _Il faut suivre ton roi qui t'aime par sur tous_ + _Pour les vers qui de toi coulent braves et doux;_ + _Et crois, si tu ne viens me trouver a Pontoise,_ + _Qu'entre nous adviendra une tres-grande noise._ + + Know, thou must follow close thy king, who oft + Hath heard, and loves thee for, thy verse so soft; + Unless thou come and meet me at Pontoise, + Believe me, I shall make no little noise. + +These are worthy the author of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Caesar's +lines on Terence are written with rather more spirit and taste; they +breathe Roman urbanity. In those of Francis I. and Charles IX. we find +the barbarism of the Celts. Would to God that Charles IX. had written +more verses, even though bad ones! For constant application to the fine +arts softens the manners and dispels ferocity: + + _Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros._ + +Besides, the French languages scarcely began to take any form until long +after Charles IX. See such of Francis I.'s letters as have been +preserved: "_Tout est perdu hors l'honneur_"--"All is lost save +honor"--was worthy of a chevalier. But the following is neither in the +style of Cicero nor in that of Caesar: + +[Illustration: The massacre of St. Bartholomew--Death of Coligny.] + +"_Tout a fleure ynsi que je me volois mettre o lit est arrive Laval qui +m'a aporte la sertenete du levement du siege."_ + +"All was going so well that, when I was going to bed Laval arrived, and +brought me the certainty of the siege being raised." + +We have letters from the hand of Louis XIII., which are no better +written. It is not required of a king to write letters like Pliny, or +verses like Virgil; but no one can be excused from expressing himself +with propriety in his own tongue. Every prince that writes like a lady's +maid has been ill educated. + + + + +CHINA. + + +SECTION I. + +We have frequently observed elsewhere, how rash and injudicious it is to +controvert with any nation, such as the Chinese, its authentic +pretensions. There is no house in Europe, the antiquity of which is so +well proved as that of the Empire of China. Let us figure to ourselves a +learned Maronite of Mount Athos questioning the nobility of the +Morozini, the Tiepolo, and other ancient houses of Venice; of the +princes of Germany, of the Montmorencys, the Chatillons, or the +Talleyrands, of France, under the pretence that they are not mentioned +in St. Thomas, or St. Bonaventure. We must impeach either his sense or +his sincerity. + +Many of the learned of our northern climes have felt confounded at the +antiquity claimed by the Chinese. The question, however, is not one of +learning. Leaving all the Chinese literati, all the mandarins, all the +emperors, to acknowledge Fo-hi as one of the first who gave laws to +China, about two thousand five hundred years before our vulgar era; +admit that there must be people before there are kings. Allow that a +long period of time is necessary before a numerous people, having +discovered the necessary arts of life, unite in the choice of a common +governor. But if you do not make these admissions, it is not of the +slightest consequence. Whether you agree with us or not, we shall always +believe that two and two make four. + +In a western province, formerly called Celtica, the love of singularity +and paradox has been carried so far as to induce some to assert that the +Chinese were only an Egyptian, or rather perhaps a Phoenician colony. +It was attempted to prove, in the same way as a thousand other things +have been proved, that a king of Egypt, called Menes by the Greeks, was +the Chinese King Yu; and that Atoes was Ki, by the change of certain +letters. In addition to which, the following is a specimen of the +reasoning applied to the subject: + +The Egyptians sometimes lighted torches at night. The Chinese light +lanterns: the Chinese are, therefore, evidently a colony from Egypt. The +Jesuit Parennin who had, at the time, resided five and twenty years in +China, and was master both of its language and its sciences, has +rejected all these fancies with a happy mixture of elegance and +sarcasm. All the missionaries, and all the Chinese, on receiving the +intelligence that a country in the extremity of the west was developing +a new formation of the Chinese Empire, treated it with a contemptuous +ridicule. Father Parennin replied with somewhat more seriousness: "Your +Egyptians," said he, "when going to people China, must evidently have +passed through India." Was India at that time peopled or not? If it was, +would it permit a foreign army to pass through it? If it was not, would +not the Egyptians have stopped in India? Would they have continued their +journey through barren deserts, and over almost impracticable mountains, +till they reached China, in order to form colonies there, when they +might so easily have established them on the fertile banks of the Indus +or the Ganges? + +The compilers of a universal history, printed in England, have also +shown a disposition to divest the Chinese of their antiquity, because +the Jesuits were the first who made the world acquainted with China. +This is unquestionably a very satisfactory reason for saying to a whole +nation--"You are liars." + +It appears to me a very important reflection, which may be made on the +testimony given by Confucius, to the antiquity of his nation; and which +is, that Confucius had no interest in falsehood: he did not pretend to +be a prophet; he claimed no inspiration: he taught no new religion; he +used no delusions; flattered not the emperor under whom he lived: he +did not even mention him. In short, he is the only founder of +institutions among mankind who was not followed by a train of women. I +knew a philosopher who had no other portrait than that of Confucius in +his study. At the bottom of it were written the following lines: + + Without assumption he explored the mind, + Unveiled the light of reason to mankind; + Spoke as a sage, and never as a seer, + Yet, strange to say, his country held him dear. + +I have read his books with attention; I have made extracts from them; I +have found in them nothing but the purest morality, without the +slightest tinge of charlatanism. He lived six hundred years before our +vulgar era. His works were commented on by the most learned men of the +nation. If he had falsified, if he had introduced a false chronology, if +he had written of emperors who never existed, would not some one have +been found, in a learned nation, who would have reformed his chronology? +One Chinese only has chosen to contradict him, and he met with universal +execration. + +Were it worth our while, we might here compare the great wall of China +with the monuments of other nations, which have never even approached +it; and remark, that, in comparison with this extensive work, the +pyramids of Egypt are only puerile and useless masses. We might dwell on +the thirty-two eclipses calculated in the ancient chronology of China, +twenty-eight of which have been verified by the mathematicians of +Europe. We might show, that the respect entertained by the Chinese for +their ancestors is an evidence that such ancestors have existed; and +repeat the observation, so often made, that this reverential respect has +in so small degree impeded, among this people, the progress of natural +philosophy, geometry, and astronomy. + +It is sufficiently known, that they are, at the present day, what we all +were three hundred years ago, very ignorant reasoners. The most learned +Chinese is like one of the learned of Europe in the fifteenth century, +in possession of his Aristotle. But it is possible to be a very bad +natural philosopher, and at the same time an excellent moralist. It is, +in fact, in morality, in political economy, in agriculture, in the +necessary arts of life, that the Chinese have made such advances towards +perfection. All the rest they have been taught by us: in these we might +well submit to become their disciples. + +_Of the Expulsion of the Missionaries from China._ + +Humanly speaking, independently of the service which the Jesuits might +confer on the Christian religion, are they not to be regarded as an +ill-fated class of men, in having travelled from so remote a distance to +introduce trouble and discord into one of the most extended and +best-governed kingdoms of the world? And does not their conduct involve +a dreadful abuse of the liberality and indulgence shown by the +Orientals, more particularly after the torrents of blood shed, through +their means, in the empire of Japan? A scene of horror, to prevent the +consequence of which the government believed it absolutely indispensable +to shut their ports against all foreigners. + +The Jesuits had obtained permission of the emperor of China, Cam-hi, to +teach the Catholic religion. They made use of it, to instil into the +small portion of the people under their direction, that it was incumbent +on them to serve no other master than him who was the viceregent of God +on earth, and who dwelt in Italy on the banks of a small river called +the Tiber; that every other religious opinion, every other worship, was +an abomination in the sight of God, and whoever did not believe the +Jesuits would be punished by Him to all eternity; that their emperor and +benefactor, Cam-hi, who could not even pronounce the name of Christ, as +the Chinese language possesses not the letter "r," would suffer eternal +damnation; that the Emperor Yontchin would experience, without mercy, +the same fate; that all the ancestors, both of Chinese and Tartars, +would incur a similar penalty; that their descendants would undergo it +also, as well as the rest of the world; and that the reverend fathers, +the Jesuits, felt a sincere and paternal commiseration for the damnation +of so many souls. + +They, at length, succeeded in making converts of three princes of the +Tartar race. In the meantime, the Emperor Cam-hi died, towards the close +of the year 1722. He bequeathed the empire to his fourth son, who has +been so celebrated through the whole world for the justice and the +wisdom of his government, for the affection entertained for him by his +subjects, and for the expulsion of the Jesuits. + +They began by baptizing the three princes, and many persons of their +household. These neophytes had the misfortune to displease the emperor +on some points which merely respected military duty. About this very +period the indignation of the whole empire against the missionaries +broke out into a flame. All the governors of provinces, all the Colaos, +presented memorials against them. The accusations against them were +urged so far that the three princes, who had become disciples of the +Jesuits, were put into irons. + +It is clear that they were not treated with this severity simply for +having been baptized, since the Jesuits themselves acknowledge in their +letters, that _they_ experienced no violence, and that they were even +admitted to an audience of the emperor, who honored them with some +presents. It is evident, therefore, that the Emperor Yonchin was no +persecutor; and, if the princes were confined in a prison on the borders +of Tartary, while those who had converted them were treated so +liberally, it is a decided proof that they were state prisoners, and not +martyrs. + +The emperor, soon after this, yielded to the supplications of all his +people. They petitioned that the Jesuits might be sent away, as their +abolition has been since prayed for in France and other countries. All +the tribunals of China urged their being immediately sent to Macao, +which is considered as a place without the limits of the empire, and the +possession of which has always been left to the Portuguese, with a +Chinese garrison. + +Yonchin had the humanity to consult the tribunals and governors, whether +any danger could result from conveying all the Jesuits to the province +of Canton. While awaiting the reply, he ordered three of them to be +introduced to his presence, and addressed them in the following words, +which Father Parennin, with great ingenuousness, records: "Your +Europeans, in the province of Fo-Kien, intended to abolish our laws, and +disturbed our people. The tribunals have denounced them before me. It is +my positive duty to provide against such disorders: the good of the +empire requires it.... What would you say were I to send over to your +country a company of bonzes and lamas to preach their law? How would you +receive them?... If you deceived my father, hope not also to deceive +me.... You wish to make the Chinese Christians: your law, I well know, +requires this of you. But in case you should succeed, what should we +become? the subjects of your kings. Christians believe none but you: in +a time of confusion they would listen to no voice but yours. I know +that, at present, there is nothing to fear; but on the arrival of a +thousand, or perhaps ten thousand vessels, great disturbances might +ensue. + +"China, on the north, joins the kingdom of Russia, which is by no means +contemptible; to the south it has the Europeans, and their kingdoms, +which are still more considerable; and to the west, the princes of +Tartary, with whom we have been at war eight years.... Laurence Lange, +companion of Prince Ismailoff, ambassador from the czar, requested that +the Russians might have permission to establish factories in each of the +provinces. The permission was confined to Pekin, and within the limits +of Calcas. In like manner I permit you to remain here and at Canton as +long as you avoid giving any cause of complaint. Should you give any, I +will not suffer you to remain either here or at Canton." + +In the other provinces their houses and churches were levelled to the +ground. At length the clamor against them redoubled. The charges most +strenuously insisted upon against them were, that they weakened the +respect of children for their parents, by not paying the honors due to +ancestors; that they indecently brought together young men and women in +retired places, which they called churches; that they made girls kneel +before them, and enclosed them with their legs, and conversed with them, +while in this posture, in undertones. To Chinese delicacy, nothing +appeared more revolting than this. Their emperor, Yonchin, even +condescended to inform the Jesuits of this fact; after which he sent +away the greater part of the missionaries to Macao, but with all that +polite attention which perhaps the Chinese alone are capable of +displaying. + +Some Jesuits, possessed of mathematical science, were retained at +Pekin; and among others, that same Parennin whom we have mentioned; and +who, being a perfect master both of the Chinese and of the Tartar +language, had been frequently employed as an interpreter. Many of the +Jesuits concealed themselves in the distant provinces; others even in +Canton itself; and the affair was connived at. + +At length, after the death of the Emperor Yonchin, his son and +successor, Kien-Lung, completed the satisfaction of the nation by +compelling all the missionaries who were in concealment throughout his +empire to remove to Macao: a solemn edict prevented them from ever +returning. If any appear, they are civilly requested to carry their +talents somewhere else. There is nothing of severity, nothing of +persecution. I have been told that, in 1760, a Jesuit having gone from +Rome to Canton, and been informed against by a Dutch factor, the Colao +governor of Canton had him sent away, presenting him at the same time +with a piece of silk, some provisions, and money. + +_Of the pretended Atheism of China._ + +The charge of Atheism, alleged by our theologians of the west, against +the Chinese government at the other end of the world, has been +frequently examined, and is, it must be admitted, the meanest excess of +our follies and pedantic inconsistencies. It was sometimes pretended, in +one of our learned faculties, that the Chinese tribunals or parliaments +were idolatrous; sometimes that they acknowledged no divinity whatever: +and these reasoners occasionally pushed their logic so far as to +maintain that the Chinese were, at the same time, atheists and +idolaters. + +In the month of October, 1700, the Sorbonne declared every proposition +which maintained that the emperor and the Colaos believed in God to be +heretical. Bulky volumes were composed in order to demonstrate, +conformably to the system of theological demonstration, that the Chinese +adored nothing but the material heaven. + + _Nil praeter nubes et coeli numen adorant._ + They worship clouds and firmament alone. + +But if they did adore the material heaven, that was their God. They +resembled the Persians, who are said to have adored the sun: they +resembled the ancient Arabians, who adored the stars: they were neither +worshippers of idols nor atheists. But a learned doctor, when it is an +object to denounce from his tripod any proposition as heretical or +obnoxious, does not distinguish with much clearness. + +Those contemptible creatures who, in 1700, created such a disturbance +about the material heaven of the Chinese, did not know that, in 1689, +the Chinese, having made peace with the Russians at Nicptchou, which +divides the two empires, erected, in September of the same year, a +marble monument, on which the following memorable words were engraved in +the Chinese and Latin languages: + +"Should any ever determine to rekindle the flames of war, we pray the +sovereign reign of all things, who knows the heart, to punish their +perfidy," etc. + +A very small portion of modern history is sufficient to put an end to +these ridiculous disputes: but those who believe that the duty of man +consists in writing commentaries on St. Thomas, or Scotus, cannot +condescend to inform themselves of what is going on among the great +empires of the world. + + +SECTION II. + +We travel to China to obtain clay for porcelain, as if we had none +ourselves; stuffs, as if we were destitute of stuffs; and a small herb +to be infused in water, as if we had no simples in our own countries. In +return for these benefits, we are desirous of converting the Chinese. It +is a very commendable zeal; but we must avoid controverting their +antiquity, and also calling them idolaters. Should we think it well of a +capuchin, if, after having been hospitably entertained at the chateau of +the Montmorencys, he endeavored to persuade them that they were new +nobility, like the king's secretaries; or accused them of idolatry, +because he found two or three statues of constables, for whom they +cherished the most profound respect? + +The celebrated Wolf, professor of mathematics in the university of +Halle, once delivered an excellent discourse in praise of the Chinese +philosophy. He praised that ancient species of the human race, +differing, as it does, in respect to the beard, the eyes, the nose, the +ears, and even the reasoning powers themselves; he praised the Chinese, +I say, for their adoration of a supreme God, and their love of virtue. +He did that justice to the emperors of China, to the tribunals, and to +the literati. The justice done to the bonzes was of a different kind. + +It is necessary to observe, that this Professor Wolf had attracted +around him a thousand pupils of all nations. In the same university +there was also a professor of theology, who attracted no one. This man, +maddened at the thought of freezing to death in his own deserted hall, +formed the design, which undoubtedly was only right and reasonable, of +destroying the mathematical professor. He scrupled not, according to the +practice of persons like himself, to accuse him of not believing in God. + +Some European writers, who had never been in China, had pretended that +the government of Pekin was atheistical. Wolf had praised the +philosophers of Pekin; therefore Wolf was an atheist. Envy and hatred +seldom construct the best syllogisms. This argument of Lange, supported +by a party and by a protector, was considered conclusive by the +sovereign of the country, who despatched a formal dilemma to the +mathematician. This dilemma gave him the option of quitting Halle in +twenty-four hours, or of being hanged; and as Wolf was a very accurate +reasoner, he did not fail to quit. His withdrawing deprived the king of +two or three hundred thousand crowns a year, which were brought into +the kingdom in consequence of the wealth of this philosopher's +disciples. + +This case should convince sovereigns that they should not be over ready +to listen to calumny, and sacrifice a great man to the madness of a +fool. But let us return to China. + +Why should we concern ourselves, we who live at the extremity of the +west--why should we dispute with abuse and fury, whether there were +fourteen princes or not before Fo-hi, emperor of China, and whether the +said Fo-hi lived three thousand, or two thousand nine hundred years +before our vulgar era? I should like to see two Irishmen quarrelling at +Dublin, about who was the owner, in the twelfth century, of the estate I +am now in possession of. Is it not clear, that they should refer to me, +who possess the documents and titles relating to it? To my mind, the +case is the same with respect to the first emperors of China, and the +tribunals of that country are the proper resort upon the subject. + +Dispute as long as you please about the fourteen princes who reigned +before Fo-hi, your very interesting dispute cannot possibly fail to +prove that China was at that period populous, and that laws were in +force there. I now ask you, whether a people's being collected together, +under laws and kings, involves not the idea of very considerable +antiquity? Reflect how long a time is requisite, before by a singular +concurrence of circumstances, the iron is discovered in the mine, +before it is applied to purposes of agriculture, before the invention of +the shuttle, and all the arts of life. + +Some who multiply mankind by a dash of the pen, have produced very +curious calculations. The Jesuit Petau, by a very singular computation, +gives the world, two hundred and twenty-five years after the deluge, one +hundred times as many inhabitants as can be easily conceived to exist on +it at present. The Cumberlands and Whistons have formed calculations +equally ridiculous; had these worthies only consulted the registers of +our colonies in America, they would have been perfectly astonished, and +would have perceived not only how slowly mankind increase in number, but +that frequently instead of increasing they actually diminish. + +Let us then, who are merely of yesterday, descendants of the Celts, who +have only just finished clearing the forests of our savage territories, +suffer the Chinese and Indians to enjoy in peace their fine climate and +their antiquity. Let us, especially, cease calling the emperor of China, +and the souba of the Deccan, idolaters. There is no necessity for being +a zealot in estimating Chinese merit. The constitution of their empire +is the only one entirely established upon paternal authority; the only +one in which the governor of a province is punished, if, on quitting his +station, he does not receive the acclamations of the people; the only +one which has instituted rewards for virtue, while, everywhere else, the +sole object of the laws is the punishment of crime; the only one which +has caused its laws to be adopted by its conquerors, while we are still +subject to the customs of the Burgundians, the Franks, and the Goths, by +whom we were conquered. Yet, we must confess, that the common people, +guided by the bonzes, are equally knavish with our own; that everything +is sold enormously dear to foreigners, as among ourselves; that, with +respect to the sciences, the Chinese are just where we were two hundred +years ago; that, like us, they labor under a thousand ridiculous +prejudices; and that they believe in talismans and judicial astrology, +as we long did ourselves. + +We must admit also, that they were astonished at our thermometer, at our +method of freezing fluids by means of saltpetre, and at all the +experiments of Torricelli and Otto von Guericke; as we were also, on +seeing for the first time those curious processes. We add, that their +physicians do not cure mortal diseases any more than our own; and that +minor diseases, both here and in China, are cured by nature alone. All +this, however, does not interfere with the fact, that the Chinese, for +four thousand years, when we were unable even to read, knew everything +essentially useful of which we boast at the present day. + +I must again repeat, the religion of their learned is admirable, and +free from superstitions, from absurd legends, from dogmas insulting both +to reason and nature, to which the bonzes give a thousand different +meanings, because they really often have none. The most simple worship +has appeared to them the best, for a series of forty centuries. They +are, what we conceive Seth, Enoch, and Noah to have been; they are +contented to adore one God in communion with the sages of the world, +while Europe is divided between Thomas and Bonaventure, between Calvin +and Luther, between Jansenius and Molina. + + + + +CHRISTIANITY. + +_Establishment of Christianity, in its Civil and Political +State.--Section I._ + + +God forbid that we should dare to mix the sacred with the profane! We +seek not to fathom the depths of the ways of Providence. We are men, and +we address men only. + +When Antony, and after him Augustus, had given Judaea to the Arabian, +Herod--their creature and their tributary--that prince, a stranger among +the Jews, became the most powerful of all kings. He had ports on the +Mediterranean--Ptolemais and Ascalon; he built towns; he erected a +temple to Apollo at Rhodes, and one to Augustus in Caesarea; he rebuilt +that of Jerusalem from the foundation, and converted it into a strong +citadel. Under his rule, Palestine enjoyed profound peace. In short, +barbarous as he was to his family, and tyrannical towards his people, +whose substance he consumed in the execution of his projects, he was +looked upon as a Messiah. He worshipped only Caesar, and he was also +worshipped by the Herodians. + +The sect of the Jews had long been spread in Europe and Asia; but its +tenets were entirely unknown. No one knew anything of the Jewish books, +although we are told that some of them had already been translated into +Greek, in Alexandria. The Jews were known only as the Armenians are now +known to the Turks and Persians, as brokers and traders. Further, a Turk +never takes the trouble to inquire, whether an Armenian is a Eutychian, +a Jacobite, one of St. John's Christians, or an Arian. The theism of +China, and the much to be respected books of Confucius, were still less +known to the nations of the west, than the Jewish rites. + +The Arabians, who furnished the Romans with the precious commodities of +India, had no more idea of the theology of the Brahmins than our sailors +who go to Pondicherry or Madras. The Indian women had from time +immemorial enjoyed the privilege of burning themselves on the bodies of +their husbands; yet these astonishing sacrifices, which are still +practised, were as unknown to the Jews as the customs of America. Their +books, which speak of Gog and Magog, never mention India. + +The ancient religion of Zoroaster was celebrated; but not therefore the +more understood in the Roman Empire. It was only known, in general, that +the magi admitted a resurrection, a hell, and a paradise; which doctrine +must at that time have made its way to the Jews bordering on Chaldaea; +since, in Herod's time, Palestine was divided between the Pharisees, +who began to believe the dogma of the resurrection, and the Sadducees, +who regarded it only with contempt. + +Alexandria, the most commercial city in the whole world, was peopled +with Egyptians, who worshipped Serapis, and consecrated cats; with +Greeks, who philosophized; with Romans, who ruled; and with Jews, who +amassed wealth. All these people were eagerly engaged in money-getting, +immersed in pleasure, infuriate with fanaticism, making and unmaking +religious sects, especially during the external tranquillity which they +enjoyed when Augustus had shut the temple of Janus. + +The Jews were divided into three principal factions. Of these, the +Samaritans called themselves the most ancient, because Samaria (then +Sebaste) had subsisted, while Jerusalem, with its temple, was destroyed +under the Babylonian kings. But these Samaritans were a mixture of the +people of Persia with those of Palestine. + +The second, and most powerful faction, was that of the Hierosolymites. +These Jews, properly so called, detested the Samaritans, and were +detested by them. Their interests were all opposite. They wished that no +sacrifices should be offered but in the temple of Jerusalem. Such a +restriction would have brought a deal of money into their city; and, for +this very reason, the Samaritans would sacrifice nowhere but at home. A +small people, in a small town, may have but one temple; but when a +people have extended themselves over a country seventy leagues long, by +twenty-three wide, as the Jews had done--when their territory is almost +as large and populous as Languedoc or Normandy, it would be absurd to +have but one church. What would the good people of Montpellier say, if +they could attend mass nowhere but at Toulouse? + +The third faction were the Hellenic Jews, consisting chiefly of such as +were engaged in trade or handicraft in Egypt and Greece. These had the +same interests with the Samaritans. Onias, the son of a high priest, +wishing to be a high priest like his father, obtained permission from +Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt, and in particular from the king's +wife, Cleopatra, to build a Jewish temple near Bubastis. He assured +Queen Cleopatra that Isaiah had foretold that the Lord should one day +have a temple on that spot; and Cleopatra, to whom he made a handsome +present, sent him word that, since Isaiah had said it, it must be. This +temple was called the Onion; and if Onias was not a great sacrificer, he +commanded a troop of militia. It was built one hundred and sixty years +before the Christian era. The Jews of Jerusalem always held this Onion +in abhorrence, as they did the translation called the Septuagint. They +even instituted an expiatory feast for these two pretended sacrileges. +The rabbis of the Onion, mingling with the Greeks, became more learned +(in their way) than the rabbis of Jerusalem and Samaria; and the three +factions began to dispute on controversial questions, which necessarily +make men subtle, false, and unsocial. + +The Egyptian Jews, in order to equal the austerity of the Essenes, and +the Judates of Palestine, established, some time before the birth of +Christianity, the sect of the Therapeutae, who, like them, devoted +themselves to a sort of monastic life, and to mortifications. These +different societies were imitations of the old Egyptian, Persian, +Thracian, and Greek mysteries, which had filled the earth, from the +Euphrates and the Nile to the Tiber. At first, such as were initiated +into these fraternities were few in number, and were looked upon as +privileged men; but in the time of Augustus, their number was very +considerable; so that nothing but religion was talked of, from Syria to +Mount Atlas and the German Ocean. + +Amidst all these sects and worships, the school of Plato had established +itself, not in Greece alone, but also in Rome, and especially in Egypt. +Plato had been considered as having drawn his doctrine from the +Egyptians, who thought that, in turning Plato's ideas to account, his +word, and the sort of trinity discoverable in some of his works, they +were but claiming their own. + +This philosophic spirit, spread at that time over all the known +countries of the west, seems to have emitted, in the neighborhood of +Palestine, at least a few sparks of the spirit of reasoning. It is +certain that, in Herod's time, there were disputes on the attributes of +the divinity, on the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of +the body. The Jews relate, that Queen Cleopatra asked them whether we +were to rise again dressed or naked? + +The Jews, then, were reasoners in their way. The exaggerating Josephus +was, for a soldier, very learned. Such being the case with a military +man, there must have been many a learned man in civil life. His +contemporary, Philo, would have had reputation, even among the Greeks. +St. Paul's master, Gamaliel, was a great controversialist. The authors +of the "_Mishna_" were polymathists. + +The Jewish populace discoursed on religion. As, at the present day, in +Switzerland, at Geneva, in Germany, in England, and especially in the +Cevennes, we find even the meanest of the inhabitants dealing in +controversy. Nay, more; men from the dregs of the people have founded +sects: as Fox, in England; Muenzer, in Germany; and the first reformers +in France. Indeed, Mahomet himself, setting apart his great courage, was +nothing more than a camel-driver. + +Add to these preliminaries that, in Herod's time, it was imagined, as is +elsewhere remarked, that the world was soon to be at an end. In those +days, prepared by divine providence, it pleased the eternal Father to +send His Son upon earth--an adorable and incomprehensible mystery, which +we presume not to approach. + +We only say, that if Jesus preached a pure morality; if He announced the +kingdom of heaven as the reward of the just; if He had disciples +attached to His person and His virtues; if those very virtues drew upon +Him the persecutions of the priests; if, through calumny, He was put to +a shameful death; His doctrine, constantly preached by His disciples, +would necessarily have a great effect in the world. Once more let me +repeat it--I speak only after the manner of this world, setting the +multitude of miracles and prophecies entirely aside. I maintain it, that +Christianity was more likely to proceed by His death, than if He had not +been persecuted. You are astonished that His disciples made other +disciples. I should have been much more astonished, if they had not +brought over a great many to their party. Seventy individuals, convinced +of the innocence of their leader, the purity of His manners, and the +barbarity of His judges, must influence many a feeling heart. + +St. Paul, alone, became (for whatever reason) the enemy of his master +Gamaliel, must have had it in his power to bring Jesus a thousand +adherents, even supposing Jesus to have been only a worthy and oppressed +man. Paul was learned, eloquent, vehement, indefatigable, skilled in the +Greek tongue, and seconded by zealots much more interested than himself +in defending their Master's reputation. St. Luke was an Alexandrian +Greek, and a man of letters, for he was a physician. + +The first chapter of John displays a Platonic sublimity, which must have +been gratifying to the Platonists of Alexandria. And indeed there was +even formed in that city a school founded by Luke, or by Mark (either +the evangelist or some other), and perpetuated by Athenagoras, Pantaenus, +Origen, and Clement--all learned and eloquent. This school once +established, it was impossible for Christianity not to make rapid +progress. + +Greece, Syria, and Egypt, were the scenes of those celebrated ancient +mysteries, which enchanted the minds of the people. The Christians, too, +had their mysteries, in which men would eagerly seek to be initiated; +and if at first only through curiosity, this curiosity soon became +persuasion. The idea of the approaching end of all things was especially +calculated to induce the new disciples to despise the transitory goods +of this life, which were so soon to perish with them. The example of the +Therapeutae was an incitement to a solitary and mortified life. All these +things, then, powerfully concurred in the establishment of the Christian +religion. + +The different flocks of this great rising society could not, it is true, +agree among themselves. Fifty-four societies had fifty-four different +gospels; all secret, like their mysteries; all unknown to the Gentiles, +who never saw our four canonical gospels until the end of two hundred +and fifty years. These various flocks, though divided, acknowledged the +same pastor. Ebionites, opposed to St. Paul; Nazarenes, disciples of +Hymeneos, Alexandres, and Hermogenes; Carpocratians, Basilidians, +Valentinians, Marcionites, Sabellians, Gnostics, Montanists--a hundred +sects, rising one against another, and casting mutual reproaches, were +nevertheless all united in Jesus; all called upon Jesus; all made Jesus +the great object of their thoughts, and reward of their travails. + +The Roman Empire, in which all these societies were formed, at first +paid no attention to them. They were known at Rome only by the general +name of Jews, about whom the government gave itself no concern. The Jews +had, by their money, acquired the right of trading. In the reign of +Tiberius four thousand of them were driven out of Rome; in that of Nero +the people charged them and the new demi-Christian Jews with the burning +of Rome. + +They were again expelled in the reign of Claudius, but their money +always procured them re-admission; they were quiet and despised. The +Christians of Rome were not so numerous as those of Greece, Alexandria +and Syria. The Romans in the earlier ages had neither fathers of the +church nor heresiarchs. The farther they were from the birthplace of +Christianity, the fewer doctors and writers were to be found among them. +The church was Greek; so much so, that every mystery, every rite, every +tenet, was expressed in the Greek tongue. + +All Christians, whether Greek, Syrian, Roman, or Egyptian, were +considered as half Jewish. This was another reason for concealing their +books from the Gentiles, that they might remain united and +impenetrable. Their secret was more inviolably kept than that of the +mysteries of Isis or of Ceres; they were a republic apart--a state +within the state. They had no temples, no altars, no sacrifice, no +public ceremony. They elected their secret superiors by a majority of +voices. These superiors, under the title of ancients, priests, bishops, +or deacons, managed the common purse, took care of the sick and pacified +quarrels. Among them it was a shame and a crime to plead before the +tribunals or to enlist in the armed force; and for a hundred years there +was not a single Christian in the armies of the empire. + +Thus, retired in the midst of the world and unknown even when they +appeared, they escaped the tyranny of the proconsuls and praetors and +were free amid the public slavery. It is not known who wrote the famous +book entitled [Greek: "_Ton Apostolon Didachai_"] (the Apostolical +Constitutions), as it is unknown who were the authors of the fifty +rejected gospels, of the Acts of St. Peter, of the Testament of the +Twelve Patriarchs, and of so many other writings of the first +Christians; but it is likely that the "Constitutions" are of the second +century. Though falsely attributed to the apostles, they are very +valuable. They show us what were the duties of a bishop chosen by the +Christians, how they were to reverence him, and what tribute they were +to pay him. The bishop could have but one wife, who was to take good +care of his household: [Greek: "_Mias andra gegenomenon gunaikos +monogamou kalon tou idiou proestota_."] + +Rich Christians were exhorted to adopt the children of poor ones. +Collections were made for the widows and orphans; but the money of +sinners was rejected; and, nominally, an innkeeper was not permitted to +give his mite. It is said that they were regarded as cheats; for which +reason very few tavern-keepers were Christians. This also prevented the +Christians from frequenting the taverns; thus completing their +separation from the society of the Gentiles. + +The dignity of deaconess being attainable by the women, they were the +more attached to the Christian fraternity. They were consecrated; the +bishop anointing them on the forehead, as of old the Jewish kings were +anointed. By how many indissoluble ties were the Christians bound +together! + +The persecutions, which were never more than transitory, did but serve +to redouble their zeal and inflame their fervor; so that, under +Diocletian, one-third of the empire was Christian. Such were a few of +the human causes that contributed to the progress of Christianity. If to +these we add the divine causes, which are to the former as infinity to +unity, there is only one thing which can surprise us; that a religion so +true did not at once extend itself over the two hemispheres, not +excepting the most savage islet. + +God Himself came down from heaven and died to redeem mankind and +extirpate sin forever from the face of the earth; and yet he left the +greater part of mankind a prey to error, to crime, and to the devil. +This, to our weak intellects, appears a fatal contradiction. But it is +not for us to question Providence; our duty is to humble ourselves in +the dust before it. + + +SECTION II. + +Several learned men have testified their surprise at not finding in the +historian, Flavius Josephus, any mention of Jesus Christ; for all men of +true learning are now agreed that the short passage relative to him in +that history has been interpolated. The father of Flavius Josephus must, +however, have been witness to all the miracles of Jesus. Josephus was of +the sacerdotal race and akin to Herod's wife, Mariamne. He gives us long +details of all that prince's actions, yet says not a word of the life or +death of Jesus; nor does this historian, who disguises none of Herod's +cruelties, say one word of the general massacre of the infants ordered +by him on hearing that there was born a king of the Jews. The Greek +calendar estimates the number of children murdered on this occasion at +fourteen thousand. This is, of all actions of all tyrants, the most +horrible. There is no example of it in the history of the whole world. + +Yet the best writer the Jews have ever had, the only one esteemed by the +Greeks and Romans, makes no mention of an event so singular and so +frightful, he says nothing of the appearance of a new star in the east +after the birth of our Saviour--a brilliant phenomenon, which could not +escape the knowledge of a historian so enlightened as Josephus. He is +also silent respecting the darkness which, on our Saviour's death, +covered the whole earth for three hours at midday--the great number of +graves that opened at that moment, and the multitude of the just that +rose again. + +The learned are constantly evincing their surprise that no Roman +historian speaks of these prodigies, happening in the empire of +Tiberius, under the eyes of a Roman governor and a Roman garrison, who +must have sent to the emperor and the senate a detailed account of the +most miraculous event that mankind had ever heard of. Rome itself must +have been plunged for three hours in impenetrable darkness; such a +prodigy would have had a place in the annals of Rome, and in those of +every nation. But it was not God's will that these divine things should +be written down by their profane hands. + +The same persons also find some difficulties in the gospel history. They +remark that, in Matthew, Jesus Christ tells the scribes and pharisees +that all the innocent blood that has been shed upon earth, from that of +Abel the Just down to that of Zachary, son of Barac, whom they slew +between the temple and the altar, shall be upon their heads. + +There is not (say they) in the Hebrew history any Zachary slain in the +temple before the coming of the Messiah, nor in His time, but in the +history of the siege of Jerusalem, by Josephus, there is a Zachary, son +of Barac, slain by the faction of the Zelotes. This is in the +nineteenth chapter of the fourth book. Hence they suspect that the +gospel according to St. Matthew was written after the taking of +Jerusalem by Titus. But every doubt, every objection of this kind, +vanishes when it is considered how great a difference there must be +between books divinely inspired and the books of men. It was God's +pleasure to envelop alike in awful obscurity His birth, His life, and +His death. His ways are in all things different from ours. + +The learned have also been much tormented by the difference between the +two genealogies of Jesus Christ. St. Matthew makes Joseph the son of +Jacob, Jacob of Matthan, Matthan of Eleazar. St. Luke, on the contrary, +says that Joseph was the son of Heli, Heli of Matthat, Matthat of Levi, +Levi of Melchi, etc. They will not reconcile the fifty-six progenitors +up to Abraham, given to Jesus by Luke, with the forty-two other +forefathers up to the same Abraham, given him by Matthew; and they are +quite staggered by Matthew's giving only forty-one generations, while he +speaks of forty-two. They start other difficulties about Jesus being the +son, not of Joseph, but of Mary. They moreover raise some doubts +respecting our Saviour's miracles, quoting St. Augustine. St. Hilary, +and others, who have given to the accounts of these miracles a mystic or +allegorical sense; as, for example, to the fig tree cursed and blasted +for not having borne figs when it was not the fig season; the devils +sent into the bodies of swine in a country where no swine were kept; the +water changed into wine at the end of a feast, when the guests were +already too much heated. But all these learned critics are confounded by +the faith, which is but the purer for their cavils. The sole design of +this article is to follow the historical thread and give a precise idea +of the facts about which there is no dispute. + +First, then, Jesus was born under the Mosaic law; He was circumcised +according to that law; He fulfilled all its precepts; He kept all its +feasts; He did not reveal the mystery of His incarnation; He never told +the Jews He was born of a virgin; He received John's blessing in the +waters of the Jordan, a ceremony to which various of the Jews submitted; +but He never baptized any one; He never spoke of the seven sacraments; +He instituted no ecclesiastical hierarchy during His life. He concealed +from His contemporaries that He was the Son of God, begotten from all +eternity, consubstantial with His Father; and that the Holy Ghost +proceeded from the Father and the Son. He did not say that His person +was composed of two natures and two wills. He left these mysteries to be +announced to men in the course of time by those who were to be +enlightened by the Holy Ghost. So long as He lived, He departed in +nothing from the law of His fathers. In the eyes of men He was no more +than a just man, pleasing to God, persecuted by the envious and +condemned to death by prejudiced magistrates. He left His holy church, +established by Him, to do all the rest. + +Let us consider the state of religion in the Roman Empire at that +period. Mysteries and expiations were in credit almost throughout the +earth. The emperors, the great, and the philosophers, had, it is true, +no faith in these mysteries; but the people, who, in religious matters, +give the law to the great, imposed on them the necessity of conforming +in appearance to their worship. To succeed in chaining the multitude you +must seem to wear the same fetters. Cicero himself was initiated in the +Eleusinian mysteries. The knowledge of only one God was the principal +tenet inculcated in these mysteries and magnificent festivals. It is +undeniable that the prayers and hymns handed down to us as belonging to +these mysteries are the most pious and most admirable of the relics of +paganism. The Christians, who likewise adored only one God, had thereby +greater facility in converting some of the Gentiles. Some of the +philosophers of Plato's sect became Christians; hence in the three first +centuries the fathers of the church were all Platonists. + +The inconsiderate zeal of some of them in no way detracts from the +fundamental truths. St. Justin, one of the primitive fathers, has been +reproached with having said, in his commentary on Isaiah, that the +saints should enjoy, during a reign of a thousand years on earth, every +sensual pleasure. He has been charged with criminality in saying, in +his "Apology for Christianity," that God, having made the earth, left it +in the care of the angels, who, having fallen in love with the women, +begot children, which are the devils. + +Lactantius, with other fathers, has been condemned for having supposed +oracles of the sibyls. He asserted that the sibyl Erythrea made four +Greek lines, which rendered literally are: + + With five loaves and two fishes + He shall feed five thousand men in the desert; + And, gathering up the fragments that remain, + With them he shall fill twelve baskets. + +The primitive Christians have been reproached with inventing some +acrostic verses on the name Jesus Christ and attributing them to an +ancient sibyl. They have also been reproached with forging letters from +Jesus Christ to the king of Edessa, dated at a time when there was no +king in Edessa; with having forged letters of Mary, letters of Seneca to +Paul, false gospels, false miracles, and a thousand other impostures. + +We have, moreover, the history or gospel of the nativity and marriage of +the Virgin Mary; wherein we are told that she was brought to the temple +at three years old and walked up the stairs by herself. It is related +that a dove came down from heaven to give notice that it was Joseph who +was to espouse Mary. We have the protogospel of James, brother of Jesus +by Joseph's first wife. It is there said that when Joseph complained of +Mary's having become pregnant in his absence, the priests made each of +them drink the water of jealousy, and both were declared innocent. + +We have the gospel of the Infancy, attributed to St. Thomas. According +to this gospel, Jesus, at five years of age, amused himself, like other +children of the same age, with moulding clay, and making it, among other +things, into the form of little birds. He was reproved for this, on +which he gave life to the birds, and they flew away. Another time, a +little boy having beaten him, was struck dead on the spot. We have also +another gospel of the Infancy in Arabic, which is much more serious. + +We have a gospel of Nicodemus. This one seems more worthy of attention, +for we find in it the names of those who accused Jesus before Pilate. +They were the principal men of the synagogue--Ananias, Caiaphas, Sommas, +Damat, Gamaliel, Judah, Nephthalim. In this history there are some +things that are easy to reconcile with the received gospels, and others +which are not elsewhere to be found. We here find that the woman cured +of a flux was called Veronica. We also find all that Jesus did in hell +when He descended thither. Then we have the two letters supposed to have +been written by Pilate to Tiberius concerning the execution of Jesus; +but their bad Latin plainly shows that they are spurious. To such a +length was this false zeal carried that various letters were circulated +attributed to Jesus Christ. The letter is still preserved which he is +said to have written to Abgarus, king of Edessa; but, as already +remarked, there had at that time ceased to be a king of Edessa. + +Fifty gospels were fabricated and were afterwards declared apocryphal. +St. Luke himself tells us that many persons had composed gospels. It has +been believed that there was one called the Eternal Gospel, concerning +which it is said in the Apocalypse, chap, xiv., "And I saw another angel +fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel.".... In the +thirteenth century the Cordeliers, abusing these words, composed an +"eternal gospel," by which the reign of the Holy Ghost was to be +substituted for that of Jesus Christ. But never in the early ages of the +church did any book appear with this title. Letters of the Virgin were +likewise invented, written to Ignatius the martyr, to the people of +Messina, and others. + +Abdias, who immediately succeeded the apostles, wrote their history, +with which he mixed up such absurd fables that in time these histories +became wholly discredited, although they had at first a great +reputation. To Abdias we are indebted for the account of the contest +between St. Peter and Simon the magician. There was at Rome, in reality, +a very skilful mechanic named Simon, who not only made things fly across +the stage, as we still see done, but moreover revived in his own person +the prodigy attributed to Daedalus. He made himself wings; he flew; and, +like Icarus, he fell. So say Pliny and Suetonius. + +Abdias, who was in Asia and wrote in Hebrew, tells us that Peter and +Simon met at Rome in the reign of Nero. A young man, nearly related to +the emperor, died, and the whole court begged that Simon would raise him +to life. St. Peter presented himself to perform the same operation. +Simon employed all the powers of his art, and he seemed to have +succeeded, for the dead man moved his head. "This is not enough," cries +Peter; "the dead man must speak; let Simon leave the bedside and we +shall see whether the young man is alive." Simon went aside and the +deceased no longer stirred, but Peter brought him to life with a single +word. + +Simon went and complained to the emperor that a miserable Galilean had +taken upon himself to work greater wonders than he. Simon was confronted +with Peter and they made a trial of skill. "Tell me," said Simon to +Peter, "what I am thinking of?" "If," returned Peter, "the emperor will +give me a barley loaf, thou shalt find whether or not I know what thou +hast in thy heart." A loaf was given him; Simon immediately caused two +large dogs to appear and they wanted to devour it. Peter threw them the +loaf, and while they were eating it he said: "Well, did I not know thy +thoughts? thou wouldst have had thy dogs devour me." + +After this first sitting it was proposed that Simon and Peter should +make a flying-match, and try which could raise himself highest in the +air. Simon tried first; Peter made the sign of the cross and down came +Simon and broke his legs. This story was imitated from that which we +find in the "_Sepher toldos Jeschut_," where it is said that Jesus +Himself flew, and that Judas, who would have done the same, fell +headlong. Nero, vexed that Peter had broken his favorite, Simon's, legs, +had him crucified with his head downwards. Hence the notion of St. +Peter's residence at Rome, the manner of his execution and his +sepulchre. + +The same Abdias established the belief that St. Thomas went and preached +Christianity in India to King Gondafer, and that he went thither as an +architect. The number of books of this sort, written in the early ages +of Christianity, is prodigious. + +St. Jerome, and even St. Augustine, tell us that the letters of Seneca +and St. Paul are quite authentic. In the first of these letters Seneca +hopes his brother Paul is well: "_Bene te valere, frater, cupio_." Paul +does not write quite so good Latin as Seneca: "I received your letters +yesterday," says he, "with joy."--"_Litteras tuas hilaris +accepi_".--"And I would have answered them immediately had I had the +presence of the young man whom I would have sent with them."--"_Si +praesentiam juvenis habuissem_." Unfortunately these letters, in which +one would look for instruction, are nothing more than compliments. + +All these falsehoods, forged by ill-informed and mistakenly-zealous +Christians, were in no degree prejudicial to the truth of Christianity; +they obstructed not its progress; on the contrary, they show us that the +Christian society was daily increasing and that each member was desirous +of hastening its growth. + +The Acts of the Apostles do not tell us that the apostles agreed on a +symbol. Indeed, if they had put together the symbol (the creed, as we +now call it), St. Luke could not in his history have omitted this +essential basis of the Christian religion. The substance of the creed is +scattered through the gospels; but the articles were not collected until +long after. + +In short, our creed is, indisputably, the belief of the apostles; but it +was not written by them. Rufinus, a priest of Aquileia, is the first who +mentions it; and a homily attributed to St. Augustine is the first +record of the supposed way in which this creed was made; Peter saying, +when they were assembled, "I believe in God the Father Almighty"--Andrew, +"and in Jesus Christ"--James, "who was conceived by the Holy Ghost"; and +so of the rest. + +This formula was called in Greek _symbolos_; and in Latin _collatio_. +Only it must be observed that the Greek version has it: "I believe in +God the Father, maker of heaven and earth." In the Latin, _maker_, +_former_, is rendered by "_creatorem_". But afterwards, in translating +the symbol of the First Council of Nice, it was rendered by +"_factorem_". + +Constantine assembled at Nice, opposite Constantinople, the first +ecumenical council, over which Ozius presided. The great question +touching the divinity of Jesus Christ, which so much agitated the +church, was there decided. One party held the opinion of Origen, who +says in his sixth chapter against Celsus, "We offer our prayers to God +through Christ, who holds the middle place between natures created and +uncreated; who leads us to the grace of His Father and presents our +prayers to the great God in quality of our high priest." These +disputants also rest upon many passages of St. Paul, some of which they +quote. They depend particularly upon these words of Jesus Christ: "My +Father is greater than I"; and they regard Jesus as the first-born of +the creation; as a pure emanation of the Supreme Being, but not +precisely as God. + +The other side, who were orthodox, produced passages more conformable to +the eternal divinity of Jesus; as, for example, the following: "My +Father and I are one"; words which their opponents interpret as +signifying: "My Father and I have the same object, the same intention; I +have no other will than that of My Father." Alexander, bishop of +Alexandria, and after him Athanasius, were at the head of the orthodox; +and Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, with seventeen other bishops, the +priest Arius, and many more priests, led the party opposed to them. The +quarrel was at first exceedingly bitter, as St. Alexander treated his +opponents as so many anti-christs. + +At last, after much disputation, the Holy Ghost decided in the council, +by the mouths of two hundred and ninety-nine bishops, against eighteen, +as follows: "Jesus is the only Son of God; begotten of the Father; light +of light; very God of very God; of one substance with the Father. We +believe also in the Holy Ghost," etc. Such was the decision of the +council; and we perceive by this fact how the bishops carried it over +the simple priests. Two thousand persons of the latter class were of the +opinion of Arius, according to the account of two patriarchs of +Alexandria, who have written the annals of Alexandria in Arabic. Arius +was exiled by Constantine, as was Athanasius soon after, when Arius was +recalled to Constantinople. Upon this event St. Macarius prayed so +vehemently to God to terminate the life of Arius before he could enter +the cathedral, that God heard his prayer--Arius dying on his way to +church in 330. The Emperor Constantine ended his life in 337. He placed +his will in the hands of an Arian priest and died in the arms of the +Arian leader, Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, not receiving baptism until +on his deathbed, and leaving a triumphant, but divided church. The +partisans of Athanasius and of Eusebius carried on a cruel war; and what +is called Arianism was for a long time established in all the provinces +of the empire. + +Julian the philosopher, surnamed the apostate, wished to stifle their +divisions, but could not succeed. The second general council was held at +Constantinople in 1381. It was there laid down that the Council of Nice +had not decided quite correctly in regard to the Holy Ghost; and it +added to the Nicene creed that "the Holy Ghost was the giver of life and +proceeded from the Father, and with the Father and Son is to be +worshipped and glorified." It was not until towards the ninth century +that the Latin church decreed that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the +Father and the Son. + +In the year 431, the third council-general, held at Ephesus, decided +that Jesus had "two natures and one person." Nestorius, bishop of +Constantinople, who maintained that the Virgin Mary should be entitled +Mother of Christ, was called _Judas_ by the council; and the "two +natures" were again confirmed by the council of Chalcedon. + +I pass lightly over the following centuries, which are sufficiently +known. Unhappily, all these disputes led to wars, and the church was +uniformly obliged to combat. God, in order to exercise the patience of +the faithful, also allowed the Greek and Latin churches to separate in +the ninth century. He likewise permitted in the east no less than +twenty-nine horrible schisms with the see of Rome. + +If there be about six hundred millions of men upon earth, as certain +learned persons pretend, the holy Roman Catholic church possesses +scarcely sixteen millions of them--about a twenty-sixth part of the +inhabitants of the known world. + + + + +CHRISTMAS. + + +Every one knows that this is the feast of the nativity of Jesus. The +most ancient feast kept in the church, after those of Easter and +Pentecost, was that of the baptism of Jesus. There were only these three +feasts, until St. Chrysostom delivered his homily on Pentecost. We here +make no account of the feasts of the martyrs, which were of a very +inferior order. That of the baptism of Jesus was named the Epiphany, an +imitation of the Greeks, who gave that name to the feasts which they +held to commemorate the appearance or manifestation of the gods upon +earth--since it was not until after his baptism that Jesus began to +preach the gospel. + +We know not whether, about the end of the fourth century, this feast was +solemnized in the Isle of Cyprus on the 6th of November; but St. +Epiphanius maintained that Jesus was born on that day. St. Clement of +Alexandria tells us that the Basilidians held this feast on the 15th of +the month _tybi_, while others held it on the 15th of the same month; +that is, it was kept by some on the 10th of January, and by others on +the 6th; the latter opinion is the one now adopted. As for the nativity, +as neither the day nor the month nor the year of it was known, it was +not celebrated. + +According to the remarks which we find appended to the works of the same +father, they who have been the most curious in their researches +concerning the day on which Jesus was born, some said that it was on +the 25th of the Egyptian month _pachon_, answering to the 20th of May; +others that it was the 24th or 25th of _pharmuthi_, corresponding to the +19th and 20th of April. The learned M. de Beausobre says that these +latter were the days of St. Valentine. Be this as it may, Egypt and the +East kept the feast of the birth of Jesus on the 6th of January, the +same day as that of His baptism; without it being known (at least with +certainty) when, or for what reason, this custom commenced. + +The opinion and practice of the western nations were quite different +from those of the east. The centuriators of Magdeburg repeat a passage +in Theophilus of Caesarea, which makes the churches of Gaul say: "Since +the birth of Christ is celebrated on the 25th of December, on whatever +day of the week it may fall, so also should the resurrection of Jesus be +celebrated on the 25th of March, whatever day of the week it may be, the +Lord having risen again on that day." + +If this be true, it must be acknowledged that the bishops of Gaul were +very prudent and very reasonable. Being persuaded, as all the ancients +were, that Jesus had been crucified on the 23d of March, and had risen +again on the 25th, they commemorated His death on the 23d and His +resurrection on the 25th, without paying any regard to the observance of +the full moon, which was originally a Jewish ceremony, and without +confining themselves to the Sunday. Had the church imitated them, she +would have avoided the long and scandalous disputes which nearly +separated the East from the West, and were not terminated until the +First Council of Nice. + +Some of the learned conjecture that the Romans chose the winter solstice +for holding the birth of Jesus, because the sun then begins again to +approach our hemisphere. In Julius Caesar's time the civil and political +solstice was fixed for the 25th of December. This at Rome was a festival +in celebration of the returning sun. Pliny tells us that it was called +_bruma_; and, like Servius, places it on the 8th of the calends of +January. This association might have some connection with the choice of +the day, but it was not the origin of it. A passage in Josephus +(evidently forged), three or four errors of the ancients, and a very +mystical explanation of a saying of St. John the Baptist, determined +this choice, as Joseph Scaliger is about to inform us. + +It pleased the ancients (says that learned critic) to suppose--first, +that Zacharias was sovereign sacrificer when Jesus was born. But nothing +is more untrue; it is no longer believed by any one, at least among +those of any information. + +Secondly--the ancients supposed that Zacharias was in the holy of +holies, offering incense, when the angel appeared to him and announced +the birth of a son. + +Thirdly--as the sovereign sacrificer entered the temple but once a year, +on the day of expiation, which was the 10th of the Jewish month +_rifri_, partly answering to the month of September, the ancients +supposed that it was the 27th; and that _afterwards_, on the 23d or +24th, Zacharias having returned home after the feast, Elizabeth, his +wife, conceived John the Baptist; when the feast of the conception of +that saint was fixed for those days. As women ordinarily go with child +for two hundred and seventy or two hundred and seventy-four days, it +followed that the nativity of John was fixed for the 24th of June. Such +was the origin of St. John's day, and of Christmas day, which was +regulated by it. + +Fourthly--it was supposed that there were six entire months between the +conception of John the Baptist and that of Jesus; although the angel +simply tells Mary that Elizabeth was then in the sixth month of her +pregnancy; consequently the conception of Jesus was fixed for the 25th +of March; and from these various suppositions it was concluded that +Jesus must have been born on the 25th of December, precisely nine months +after his conception. + +There are many wonderful things in these arrangements. It is not one of +the least worthy of admiration, that the four cardinal points of the +year--the equinoxes and the solstices, as they were then fixed--were +marked by the conceptions and births of John the Baptist and Jesus. But +it is yet more marvellous and worthy of remark, that the solstice when +Jesus was born is that at which the days begin to increase; while that +on which John the Baptist came into the world was the period at which +they begin to shorten. The holy forerunner had intimated this in a very +mystical manner, when speaking of Jesus, in these words: "He must grow, +and I must become less." + +Prudentius alludes to this in a hymn on the nativity of our Lord. Yet +St. Leo says that in his time there were persons in Rome who said the +feast was venerable, not so much on account of the birth of Jesus as of +the return, and, as they expressed it, the new birth of the sun. St. +Epiphanius assures us it was fully established that Jesus was born on +the 6th of January; but St. Clement of Alexandria, much more ancient and +more learned than he, fixes the birth on the 18th of November, of the +twenty-eighth year of Augustus. This is deduced, according to the Jesuit +Petau's remark on St. Epiphanius, from these words of St. Clement: "The +whole time from the birth of Jesus Christ to the death of Commodus was a +hundred and ninety-four years, one month and thirteen days." Now +Commodus died, according to Petau, on the last of December, in the year +192 of our era; therefore, according to St. Clement, Jesus was born one +month and thirteen days before the last of December; consequently, on +the 18th of November, in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of +Augustus. Concerning which it must be observed that St. Clement dates +the reign of Augustus only from the death of Antony and the capture of +Alexandria, because it was not until then that Augustus was left the +sole master of the empire. Thus we are no more assured of the year of +this birth than we are of the month or the day. Though St. Luke +declares, "that He had perfect understanding of all things from the very +first," he clearly shows that he did not know the exact age of Jesus +when He says that, when baptized, He "began to be about thirty years +old." Indeed, this evangelist makes Jesus born in the year of the +numbering which, according to him, was made by Cyrenus or Cyrenius, +governor of Syria; while, according to Tertullian, it was made by +Sentius Saturninus. But Saturninus had quitted the province in the last +year of Herod, and, as Tacitus informs us, was succeeded by Quintilius +Varus; and Publius Sulpicius Quirinus or Quirinius, of whom it would +seem St. Luke means to speak, did not succeed Quintilius Varus until +about ten years after Herod's death, when Archelaus, king of Judaea, was +banished by Augustus, as Josephus tells us in his "Jewish Antiquities." + +It is true that Tertullian, and St. Justin before him, referred the +pagans and the heretics of their time to the public archives containing +the registers of this pretended numbering; but Tertullian likewise +referred to the public archives for the account of the darkness at +noonday at the time of the passion of Jesus, as will be seen in the +article on "Eclipse"; where we have remarked the want of exactness in +these two fathers, and in similar authorities, in our observations on a +statue which St. Justin--who assures us that he saw it at Rome--says +was dedicated to Simon the magician, but which was in reality dedicated +to a god of the ancient Sabines. + +These uncertainties, however, will excite no astonishment when it is +recollected that Jesus was unknown to His disciples until He had +received baptism from John. It is expressly, "beginning with the baptism +of Jesus," that Peter will have the successor of Judas testify +concerning Jesus; and, according to the same Acts, Peter thereby +understands the whole time that Jesus had lived with them. + + + + +CHRONOLOGY. + + +The world has long disputed about ancient chronology; but has there ever +been any? Every considerable people must necessarily possess and +preserve authentic, well-attested registers. But how few people were +acquainted with the art of writing? and, among the small number of men +who cultivated this very rare art, are any to be found who took the +trouble to mark two dates with exactness? + +We have, indeed, in very recent times the astronomical observations of +the Chinese and the Chaldaeans. They only go back about two thousand +years, more or less, beyond our era. But when the early annals of a +nation confine themselves simply to communicating the information that +there was an eclipse in the reign of a certain prince, we learn, +certainly, that such a prince existed, but not what he performed. + +Moreover, the Chinese reckon the year in which an emperor dies as still +constituting a part of his reign, until the end of it; even though he +should die the first day of the year, his successor dates the year +following his death with the name of his predecessor. It is not possible +to show more respect for ancestors; nor is it possible to compute time +in a manner more injudicious in comparison with modern nations. + +We may add that the Chinese do not commence their sexagenary cycle, into +which they have introduced arrangement, till the reign of the Emperor +Iao, two thousand three hundred and fifty-seven years before our vulgar +era. Profound obscurity hangs over the whole period of time which +precedes that epoch. + +Men are generally contented with an approximation--with the "pretty +nearly" in every case. For example, before the invention of watches, +people could learn the time of day or night only approximately. In +building, the stones were pretty nearly hewn to a certain shape, the +timber pretty nearly squared, and the limbs of the statue pretty nearly +chipped to a proper finish; a man was only pretty nearly acquainted with +his nearest neighbors; and, notwithstanding the perfection we have +ourselves attained, such is the state of things at present throughout +the greater part of the world. + +Let us not then be astonished that there is nowhere to be found a +correct ancient chronology. + +That which we have of the Chinese is of considerable value, when +compared with the chronological labors of other nations. We have none of +the Indians, nor of the Persians, and scarcely any of the ancient +Egyptians. All our systems formed on the history of these people are as +contradictory as our systems of metaphysics. + +The Greek Olympiads do not commence till seven hundred and twenty-eight +years before our era of reckoning. Until we arrive at them, we perceive +only a few torches to lighten the darkness, such as the era of +Nabonassar, the war between Lacedaemon and Messene; even those epochs +themselves are subjects of dispute. + +Livy took care not to state in what year Romulus began his pretended +reign. The Romans, who well knew the uncertainty of that epoch, would +have ridiculed him had he undertaken to decide it. It is proved that the +duration of two hundred and forty years ascribed to the seven first +kings of Rome is a very false calculation. The first four centuries of +Rome are absolutely destitute of chronology. + +If four centuries of the most memorable empire the world ever saw +comprise only an undigested mass of events, mixed up with fables, and +almost without a date, what must be the case with small nations, shut up +in an obscure corner of the earth, that have never made any figure in +the world, notwithstanding all their attempts to compensate, by prodigy +and imposture, for their deficiency in real power and cultivation? + +_Of the Vanity of Systems, Particularly in Chronology._ + +The Abbe Condillac performed a most important service to the human mind +when he displayed the false points of all systems. If we may ever hope +that we shall one day find the road to truth, it can only be after we +have detected all those which lead to error. It is at least a +consolation to be at rest, to be no longer seeking, when we perceive +that so many philosophers have sought in vain. + +Chronology is a collection of bladders of wind. All who thought to pass +over it as solid ground have been immersed. We have, at the present +time, twenty-four systems, not one of which is true. + +The Babylonians said, "We reckon four hundred and seventy-three thousand +years of astronomical observations." A Parisian, addressing him, says, +"Your account is correct; your years consisted each of a solar day; they +amount to twelve hundred and ninety-seven of ours, from the time of +Atlas, the great astronomer, king of Africa, till the arrival of +Alexander at Babylon." + +But, whatever our Parisian may say, no people in the world have ever +confounded a day with a year; and the people of Babylon still less than +any other. This Parisian stranger should have contented himself with +merely observing to the Chaldaeans: "You are exaggerators, and our +ancestors were ignorant. Nations are exposed to too many revolutions to +permit their keeping a series of four thousand seven hundred and +thirty-six centuries of astronomical calculations. And, with respect to +Atlas, king of the Moors, no one knows at what time he lived. Pythagoras +might pretend to have been a cock, just as reasonably as you may boast +of such a series of observations." + +The great point of ridicule in all fantastic chronologies is the +arrangement of all the great events of a man's life in precise order of +time, without ascertaining that the man himself ever existed. Lenglet +repeats after others, in his chronological compilation of universal +history, that precisely in the time of Abraham, and six years after the +death of Sarah, who was little known to the Greeks, Jupiter, at the age +of sixty-two, began to reign in Thessaly; that his reign lasted sixty +years; that he married his sister Juno; that he was obliged to cede the +maritime coasts to his brother Neptune; and that the Titans made war +against him. But was there ever a Jupiter? It never occurred to him that +with this question he should have begun. + + + + +CHURCH. + +_Summary of the History of the Christian Church._ + + +We shall not extend our views into the depths of theology. God preserve +us from such presumption. Humble faith alone is enough for us. We never +assume any other part than that of mere historians. + +In the years that immediately followed Jesus Christ, who was at once God +and man, there existed among the Hebrews nine religious schools or +societies--Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenians, Judahites, Therapeutae, +Rechabites, Herodians, the disciples of John, and the disciples of +Jesus, named the "brethren," the "Galileans," the "believers," who did +not assume the name of Christians till about the sixteenth year of our +era, at Antioch; being directed to its adoption by God himself, in ways +unknown to men. The Pharisees believed in the metempsychosis. The +Sadducees denied the immortality of the soul, and the existence of +spirits, yet believed in the Pentateuch. + +Pliny, the naturalist--relying, evidently, on the authority of Flavius +Josephus--calls the Essenians "_gens aeterna in qua nemo nascitur_"--"a +perpetual family, in which no one is ever born"--because the Essenians +very rarely married. The description has been since applied to our +monks. + +It is difficult to decide whether the Essenians or the Judahites are +spoken of by Josephus in the following passage: "They despise the evils +of the world; their constancy enables them to triumph over torments; in +an honorable cause, they prefer death to life. They have undergone fire +and sword, and submitted to having their very bones crushed, rather +than utter a syllable against their legislator, or eat forbidden food." + +It would seem, from the words of Josephus, that the foregoing portrait +applies to the Judahites, and not to the Essenians. "Judas was the +author of a new sect, completely different from the other three;" that +is, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenians. "They are," he goes +on, "Jews by nation; they live in harmony with one another, and consider +pleasure to be a vice." The natural meaning of this language would +induce us to think that he is speaking of the Judahites. + +However that may be, these Judahites were known before the disciples of +Christ began to possess consideration and consequence in the world. Some +weak people have supposed them to be heretics, who adored Judas +Iscariot. + +The Therapeutae were a society different from the Essenians and the +Judahites. They resembled the Gymnosophists and Brahmins of India. "They +possess," says Philo, "a principle of divine love which excites in them +an enthusiasm like that of the Bacchantes and the Corybantes, and which +forms them to that state of contemplation to which they aspire. This +sect originated in Alexandria, which was entirely filled with Jews, and +prevailed greatly throughout Egypt." The Rechabites still continued as a +sect. They vowed never to drink wine; and it is, possibly, from their +example that Mahomet forbade that liquor to his followers. + +The Herodians regarded Herod, the first of that name, as a Messiah, a +messenger from God, who had rebuilt the temple. It is clear that the +Jews at Rome celebrated a festival in honor of him, in the reign of +Nero, as appears from the lines of Persius: "_Herodis venere dies_," +etc. (Sat. v. 180.) + + "King Herod's feast, when each Judaaean vile, + Trims up his lamp with tallow or with oil." + +The disciples of John the Baptist had spread themselves a little in +Egypt, but principally in Syria, Arabia, and towards the Persian gulf. +They are recognized, at the present day, under the name of the +Christians of St. John. There were some also in Asia Minor. It is +mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (chap, xix.) that Paul met with +many of them at Ephesus. "Have you received," he asked them, "the holy +spirit?" They answered him. "We have not heard even that there is a holy +spirit." "What baptism, then," says he, "have you received?" They +answered him, "The baptism of John." + +In the meantime the true Christians, as is well known, were laying the +foundation of the only true religion.' He who contributed most to +strengthen this rising society, was Paul, who had himself persecuted it +with the greatest violence. He was born at Tarsus in Cilicia, and was +educated under one of the most celebrated professors among the +Pharisees--Gamaliel, a disciple of Hillel. The Jews pretend that he +quarrelled with Gamaliel, who refused to let him have his daughter in +marriage. Some traces of this anecdote are to be found in the sequel to +the "Acts of St. Thekla." These acts relate that he had a large +forehead, a bald head, united eye-brows, an aquiline nose, a short and +clumsy figure, and crooked legs. Lucian, in his dialogue +"_Philopatres_," seems to give a very similar portrait of him. It has +been doubted whether he was a Roman citizen, for at that time the title +was not given to any Jew; they had been expelled from Rome by Tiberius; +and Tarsus did not become a Roman colony till nearly a hundred years +afterwards, under Caracalla; as Cellarius remarks in his "Geography" +(book iii.), and Grotius in his "Commentary on the Acts," to whom alone +we need refer. + +God, who came down upon earth to be an example in it of humanity and +poverty, gave to his church the most feeble infancy, and conducted it in +a state of humiliation similar to that in which he had himself chosen to +be born. All the first believers were obscure persons. They labored with +their hands. The apostle St. Paul himself acknowledges that he gained +his livelihood by making tents. St. Peter raised from the dead Dorcas, a +sempstress, who made clothes for the "brethren." The assembly of +believers met at Joppa, at the house of a tanner called Simon, as +appears from the ninth chapter of the "Acts of the Apostles." + +The believers spread themselves secretly in Greece: and some of them +went from Greece to Rome, among the Jews, who were permitted by the +Romans to have a synagogue. They did not, at first, separate themselves +from the Jews. They practised circumcision; and, as we have elsewhere +remarked, the first fifteen obscure bishops of Jerusalem were all +circumcised, or at least were all of the Jewish nation. + +When the apostle Paul took with him Timothy, who was the son of a +heathen father, he circumcised him himself, in the small city of Lystra. +But Titus, his other disciple, could not be induced to submit to +circumcision. The brethren, or the disciples of Jesus, continued united +with the Jews until the time when St. Paul experienced a persecution at +Jerusalem, on account of his having introduced strangers into the +temple. He was accused by the Jews of endeavoring to destroy the law of +Moses by that of Jesus Christ. It was with a view to his clearing +himself from this accusation that the apostle St. James proposed to the +apostle Paul that he should shave his head, and go and purify himself in +the temple, with four Jews, who had made a vow of being shaved. "Take +them with you," says James to him (Acts of the Apostles xxi.), "purify +yourself with them, and let the whole world know that what has been +reported concerning you is false, and that you continue to obey the law +of Moses." Thus, then, Paul, who had been at first the most summary +persecutor of the holy society established by Jesus--Paul, who +afterwards endeavored to govern that rising society--Paul the +Christian, Judaizes, "that the world may know that he is calumniated +when he is charged with no longer following the law of Moses." + +St. Paul was equally charged with impiety and heresy, and the +persecution against him lasted a long time; but it is perfectly clear, +from the nature of the charges, that he had travelled to Jerusalem in +order to fulfil the rites of Judaism. + +He addressed to Faustus these words: "I have never offended against the +Jewish law, nor against the temple." (Acts xxv.) The apostles announced +Jesus Christ as a just man wickedly persecuted, a prophet of God, a son +of God, sent to the Jews for the reformation of manners. + +"Circumcision," says the apostle Paul, "is good, if you observe the law; +but if you violate the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. If +any uncircumcised person keep the law, he will be as if circumcised. The +true Jew is one that is so inwardly." + +When this apostle speaks of Jesus Christ in his epistles, he does not +reveal the ineffable mystery of his consubstantiality with God. "We are +delivered by him," says he, "from the wrath of God. The gift of God hath +been shed upon us by the grace bestowed on one man, who is Jesus +Christ.... Death reigned through the sin of one man; the just shall +reign in life by one man, who is Jesus Christ." (Romans v.) + +And, in the eighth chapter: "We are heirs of God, and joint-heirs of +Christ;" and in the sixteenth chapter: "To God, who is the only wise, be +honor and glory through Jesus Christ... You are Jesus Christ's, and +Jesus Christ is God's." (1 Cor. chap. iii.) + +And, in 1 Cor. xv. 27: "Everything is made subject to him, undoubtedly, +excepting God, who made all things subject to him." + +Some difficulty has been found in explaining the following part of the +Epistle of the Philippians: "Do nothing through vain glory. Let each +humbly think others better than himself. Be of the same mind with Jesus +Christ, _who, being in the likeness of God, assumed not to equal himself +to God_." This passage appears exceedingly well investigated and +elucidated in a letter, still extant, of the churches of Vienna and +Lyons, written in the year 117, and which is a valuable monument of +antiquity. In this letter the modesty of some believers is praised. +"They did not wish," says the letter, "to assume the lofty title of +martyrs, in consequence of certain tribulations; after the example of +Jesus Christ, who, being in the likeness of God, did not assume the +quality of being equal to God." Origen, also, in his commentary on John, +says: "The greatness of Jesus shines out more splendidly in consequence +of his self-humiliation than if he had assumed equality with God." In +fact, the opposite interpretation would be a solecism. What sense would +there be in this exhortation: "Think others superior to yourselves; +imitate Jesus, who did not think it an _assumption_ to be equal to God?" +It would be an obvious contradiction; it would be putting an example of +full pretension for an example of modesty; it would be an offence +against logic. + +Thus did the wisdom of the apostles establish the rising church. That +wisdom did not change its character in consequence of the dispute which +took place between the apostles Peter, James, and John, on one side, and +Paul on the other. This contest occurred at Antioch. The apostle +Peter--formerly Cephas, or Simon Bar Jona--ate with the converted +Gentiles, and among them did not observe the ceremonies of the law and +the distinction of meats. He and Barnabas, and the other disciples, ate +indifferently of pork, of animals which had been strangled, or which had +cloven feet, or which did not chew the cud; but many Jewish Christians +having arrived, St. Peter joined with them in abstinence from forbidden +meats, and in the ceremonies of the Mosaic law. + +This conduct appeared very prudent; he wished to avoid giving offence to +the Jewish Christians, his companions; but St. Paul attacked him on the +subject with considerable severity. "I withstood him," says he, "to his +face, because he was blamable." (Gal. chap. ii.) + +This quarrel appears most extraordinary on the part of St. Paul. Having +been at first a persecutor, he might have been expected to have acted +with moderation; especially as he had gone to Jerusalem to sacrifice in +the temple, had circumcised his disciple Timothy, and strictly complied +with the Jewish rites, for which very compliance he now reproached +Cephas. St. Jerome imagines that this quarrel between Paul and Cephas +was a pretended one. He says, in his first homily (vol. iii.) that they +acted like two advocates, who had worked themselves up to an appearance +of great zeal and exasperation against each other, to gain credit with +their respective clients. He says that Peter--Cephas--being appointed to +preach to the Jews, and Paul to the Gentiles, they assumed the +appearance of quarrelling--Paul to gain the Gentiles, and Peter to gain +the Jews. But St. Augustine is by no means of the same opinion. "I +grieve," says he, in his epistle to Jerome, "that so great a man should +be the patron of a lie."--(_patronum mendacii_). + +This dispute between St. Jerome and St. Augustine ought not to diminish +our veneration for them, and still less for St. Paul and St. Peter. As +to what remains, if Peter was destined for the Jews, who were, after +their conversion, likely to Judaize, and Paul for strangers, it appears +probable that Peter never went to Rome. The Acts of the Apostles makes +no mention of Peter's journey to Italy. + +However that may be, it was about the sixtieth year of our era that +Christians began to separate from the Jewish communion; and it was this +which drew upon them so many quarrels and persecutions from the various +synagogues of Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Asia. They were accused of +impiety and atheism by their Jewish brethren, who excommunicated them in +their synagogues three times every Sabbath-day. But in the midst of +their persecutions God always supported them. + +By degrees many churches were formed, and the separation between Jews +and Christians was complete before the close of the first century. This +separation was unknown to the Roman government. Neither the senate nor +the emperors of Rome interested themselves in those quarrels of a small +flock of mankind, which God had hitherto guided in obscurity, and which +he exalted by insensible gradations. + +Christianity became established in Greece and at Alexandria. The +Christians had there to contend with a new set of Jews, who, in +consequence of intercourse with the Greeks, had become philosophers. +This was the sect of _gnosis_, or gnostics. Among them were some of the +new converts to Christianity. All these sects, at that time, enjoyed +complete liberty to dogmatize, discourse, and write, whenever the Jewish +courtiers, settled at Rome and Alexandria, did not bring any charge +against them before the magistrates. But, under Domitian, Christianity +began to give some umbrage to the government. + +The zeal of some Christians, which was not according to knowledge, did +not prevent the Church from making that progress which God destined from +the beginning. The Christians, at first, celebrated their mysteries in +sequestered houses, and in caves, and during the night. Hence, according +to Minucius Felix, the title given them of _lucifugaces._ Philo calls +them Gesseens. The names most frequently applied to them by the +heathens, during the first four centuries, were "Galileans" and +"Nazarenes"; but that of "Christians" has prevailed above all others. +Neither the hierarchy, nor the services of the church, were established +all at once; the apostolic times were different from those which +followed. + +The mass now celebrated at matins was the supper performed in the +evening; these usages changed in proportion as the church strengthened. +A more numerous society required more regulations, and the prudence of +the pastors accommodated itself to times and places. St. Jerome and +Eusebius relate that when the churches received a regular form, five +different orders might be soon perceived to exist inthem--superintendents, +_episcopoi_, Whence Originate The Bishops; Elders Of The Society, +_presbyteroi_, Priests, _diaconoi_, Servants Or Deacons; _pistoi_, +Believers, The Initiated--that Is, The Baptized, Who Participated In The +Suppers Of The Agape, Or Love-feasts; The _catechumens_, Who Were +Awaiting Baptism; And The _energumens_, Who Awaited Their Being +Exorcised Of Demons. In These Five Orders, No One Had Garments Different +From The Others, No One Was Bound To Celibacy; Witness Tertullian's +Book, Dedicated To His Wife; And Witness Also The Example Of The +Apostles. No Paintings Or Sculptures Were To Be Found In Their +Assemblies During The First Two Centuries; No Altars; And, Most +Certainly, No Tapers, Incense, And Lustral Water. The Christians +Carefully Concealed Their Books From The Gentiles; They Intrusted Them +Only To The Initiated. Even The Catechumens Were Not Permitted To Recite +The Lord's Prayer. + +_Of the Power of Expelling Devils, Given to the Church._ + +That which most distinguished the Christians, and which has continued +nearly to our own times, was the power of expelling devils with the sign +of the cross. Origen, in his treaties against Celsus, declares--at No. +133--that Antinous, who had been defied by the emperor Adrian, performed +miracles in Egypt by the power of charms and magic; but he says that the +devils came out of the bodies of the possessed on the mere utterance of +the name of Jesus. + +Tertullian goes farther; and from the recesses of Africa, where he +resided, he says, in his "Apology"--chap. xxiii.--"If your gods do not +confess themselves to be devils in the presence of a true Christian, we +give you full liberty to shed that Christian's blood." Can any +demonstration be possibly clearer? + +In fact, Jesus Christ sent out his apostles to expel demons. The Jews, +likewise, in his time, had the power of expelling them; for, when Jesus +had delivered some possessed persons, and sent the devils into the +bodies of a very numerous herd of swine, and had performed many other +similar cures, the Pharisees said: "He expels devils through the power +of Beelzebub." Jesus replied: "By whom do your sons expel them?" It is +incontestable that the Jews boasted of this power. They had exorcists +and exorcisms. They invoked the name of God, of Jacob, and of Abraham. +They put consecrated herbs into the nostrils of the demoniacs. Josephus +relates a part of these ceremonies. This power over devils, which the +Jews have lost, was transferred to the Christians, who seem likewise to +have lost it in their turn. + +The power of expelling demons comprehended that of destroying the +operations of magic; for magic has been always prevalent in every +nation. All the fathers of the Church bear testimony to magic. St. +Justin, in his "Apology"--book iii.--acknowledges that the souls of the +dead are frequently evoked, and thence draws an argument in favor of the +immortality of the soul. Lactantius, in the seventh book of his "Divine +Institutions," says that "if any one ventured to deny the existence of +souls after death, the magician would convince him of it by making them +appear." Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian the bishop, +all affirm the same. It is true that, at present, all is changed, and +that there are now no more magicians than there are demoniacs. But God +has the sovereign power of admonishing mankind by prodigies at some +particular seasons, and of discontinuing those prodigies at others. + +_Of the Martyrs of the Church._ + +When Christians became somewhat numerous, and many arrayed themselves +against the worship established in the Roman Empire, the magistrates +began to exercise severity against them, and the people more +particularly persecuted them. The Jews, who possessed particular +privileges, and who confined themselves to their synagogues, were not +persecuted. They were permitted the free exercise of their religion, as +is the case at Rome at the present day. All the different kinds of +worship scattered over the empire were tolerated, although the senate +did not adopt them. But the Christians, declaring themselves enemies to +every other worship than their own, and more especially so to that of +the empire, were often exposed to these cruel trials. + +One of the first and most distinguished martyrs was Ignatius, bishop of +Antioch, who was condemned by the Emperor Trajan himself, at that time +in Asia, and sent to Rome by his orders, to be exposed to wild beasts, +at a time when other Christians were not persecuted at Rome. It is not +known precisely what charges were alleged against him before that +emperor, otherwise so renowned for his clemency. St. Ignatius must, +necessarily, have had violent enemies. Whatever were the particulars of +the case, the history of his martyrdom relates that the name of Jesus +Christ was found engraved on his heart in letters of gold; and from this +circumstance it was that Christians, in some places, assumed the name of +Theophorus, which Ignatius had given himself. + +A letter of his has been preserved in which he entreats the bishops and +Christians to make no opposition to his martyrdom, whether at the time +they might be strong enough to effect his deliverance, or whether any +among them might have influence enough to obtain his pardon. Another +remarkable circumstance is that when he was brought to Rome the +Christians of that capital went to visit him; which would prove clearly +that the individual was punished and not the sect. + +The persecutions were not continued. Origen, in his third book against +Celsus, says: "The Christians who have suffered death on account of +their religion may easily be numbered, for there were only a few of +them, and merely at intervals." + +God was so mindful of his Church that, notwithstanding its enemies, he +so ordered circumstances that it held five councils in the first +century, sixteen in the second, and thirty in the third; that is, +including both secret and tolerated ones. Those assemblies were +sometimes forbidden, when the weak prudence of the magistrates feared +that they might become tumultuous. But few genuine documents of the +proceedings before the proconsuls and praetors who condemned the +Christians to death have been delivered down to us. Such would be the +only authorities which would enable us to ascertain the charges brought +against them, and the punishments they suffered. + +We have a fragment of Dionysius of Alexandria, in which he gives the +following extract of a register, or of records, of a proconsul of Egypt, +under the Emperor Valerian: "Dionysius, Faustus Maximus, Marcellus, and +Chaeremon, having been admitted to the audience, the prefect AEmilianus +thus addressed them: 'You are sufficiently informed through the +conferences which I have had with you, and all that I have written to +you, of the good-will which our princes have entertained towards you. I +wish thus to repeat it to you once again. They make the continuance of +your safety to depend upon yourselves, and place your destiny in your +own hands. They require of you only one thing, which reason demands of +every reasonable person--namely, that you adore the gods who protect +their empire, and abandon that different worship, so contrary to sense +and nature.'" + +Dionysius replied, "All have not the same gods; and all adore those whom +they think to be the true ones." The prefect AEmilianus replied: "I see +clearly that you ungratefully abuse the goodness which the emperors have +shown you. This being the case, you shall no longer remain in this city; +and I now order you to be conveyed to Cephro, in the heart of Libya. +Agreeably to the command I have received from your emperor, that shall +be the place of your banishment. As to what remains, think not to hold +your assemblies there, nor to offer up your prayers in what you call +cemeteries. This is positively forbidden. I will permit it to none." + +Nothing bears a stronger impress of truth than this document. We see +from it that there were times when assemblies were prohibited. Thus the +Calvinists were forbidden to assemble in France. Sometimes ministers or +preachers, who held assemblies in violation of the laws, have suffered +even by the altar and the rack; and since 1745 six have been executed on +the gallows. Thus, in England and Ireland, Roman Catholics are forbidden +to hold assemblies; and, on certain occasions, the delinquents have +suffered death. + +Notwithstanding these prohibitions declared by the Roman laws, God +inspired many of the emperors with indulgence towards the Christians. +Even Diocletian, whom the ignorant consider as a persecutor--Diocletian, +the first year of whose reign is still regarded as constituting the +commencement of the era of martyrdom, was, for more than eighteen years, +the declared protector of Christianity, and many Christians held +offices of high consequence about his person. He even married a +Christian; and, in Nicomedia, the place of his residence, he permitted a +splendid church to be erected opposite his palace. + +The Caesar Galerius having unfortunately taken up a prejudice against the +Christians, of whom he thought he had reason to complain, influenced +Diocletian to destroy the cathedral of Nicomedia. One of the Christians, +with more zeal than prudence, tore the edict of the emperor to pieces; +and hence arose that famous persecution, in the course of which more +than two hundred persons were executed in the Roman Empire, without +reckoning those whom the rage of the common people, always fanatical and +always cruel, destroyed without even the form of law. + +So great has been the number of actual martyrs that we should be careful +how we shake the truth of the history of those genuine confessors of our +holy religion by a dangerous mixture of fables and of false martyrs. + +The Benedictine Prior (Dom) Ruinart, for example, a man otherwise as +well informed as he was respectable and devout, should have selected his +genuine records, his "_actes sinceres_," with more discretion. It is not +sufficient that a manuscript, whether taken from the abbey of St. Benoit +on the Loire, or from a convent of Celestines at Paris, corresponds with +a manuscript of the Feuillans, to show that the record is authentic; +the record should possess a suitable antiquity; should have been +evidently written by contemporaries; and, moreover, should bear all the +characters of truth. + +He might have dispensed with relating the adventure of young Romanus, +which occurred in 303. This young Romanus had obtained the pardon of +Diocletian, at Antioch. However, Ruinart states that the judge +Asclepiades condemned him to be burnt. The Jews who were present at the +spectacle, derided the young saint and reproached the Christians, that +their God, who had delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out of the +furnace, left _them_ to be burned; that immediately, although the +weather had been as calm as possible, a tremendous storm arose and +extinguished the flames; that the judge then ordered young Romanus's +tongue to be cut out; that the principal surgeon of the emperor, being +present, eagerly acted the part of executioner, and cut off the tongue +at the root; that instantly the young man, who, before had an impediment +in his speech, spoke with perfect freedom; that the emperor was +astonished that any one could speak so well without a tongue; and that +the surgeon, to repeat the experiment, directly cut out the tongue of +some bystander, who died on the spot. + +Eusebius, from whom the Benedictine Ruinart drew his narrative, should +have so far respected the real miracles performed in the Old and New +Testament--which no one can ever doubt--as not to have associated with +them relations so suspicious, and so calculated to give offence to weak +minds. This last persecution did not extend through the empire. There +was at that time some Christianity in England, which soon eclipsed, to +reappear afterwards under the Saxon kings. The southern districts of +Gaul and Spain abounded with Christians. The Caesar Constantius Chlorus +afforded them great protection in all his provinces. He had a concubine +who was a Christian, and who was the mother of Constantine, known under +the name of St. Helena; for no marriage was ever proved to have taken +place between them; he even divorced her in the year 292, when he +married the daughter of Maximilian Hercules; but she had preserved great +ascendency over his mind, and had inspired him with a great attachment +to our holy religion. + +_Of the Establishment of the Church Under Constantine._ + +Thus did divine Providence prepare the triumph of its church by ways +apparently conformable to human causes and events. Constantius Chlorus +died in 306, at York, in England, at a time when the children he had by +the daughter of a Caesar were of tender age, and incapable of making +pretensions to the empire. Constantine boldly got himself elected at +York, by five or six thousand soldiers, the greater part of whom were +French and English. There was no probability that this election, +effected without the consent of Rome, of the senate and the armies, +could stand; but God gave him the victory over Maxentius, who had been +elected at Rome, and delivered him at last from all his colleagues. It +is not to be dissembled that he at first rendered himself unworthy of +the favors of heaven, by murdering all his relations, and at length even +his own wife and son. + +We may be permitted to doubt what Zosimus relates on this subject. He +states that Constantine, under the tortures of remorse from the +perpetration of so many crimes, inquired of the pontiffs of the empire, +whether it were possible for him to obtain any expiation, and that they +informed him that they knew of none. It is perfectly true that none was +found for Nero, and that he did not venture to assist at the sacred +mysteries in Greece. However, the Taurobolia were still observed, and it +is difficult to believe that an emperor, supremely powerful, could not +obtain a priest who would willingly indulge him in expiatory sacrifices. +Perhaps, indeed, it is less easy to believe that Constantine, occupied +as he was with war, politic enterprises, and ambition, and surrounded by +flatterers, had time for remorse at all. Zosimus adds that an Egyptian +priest, who had access to his gate, promised him the expiation of all +his crimes in the Christian religion. It has been suspected that this +priest was Ozius, bishop of Cordova. + +However this might be, God reserved Constantine for the purpose of +enlightening his mind, and to make him the protector of the Church. This +prince built the city of Constantinople, which became the centre of the +empire and of the Christian religion. The Church then assumed a form of +splendor. And we may hope that, being purified by his baptism, and +penitent at his death, he may have found mercy, although he died an +Arian. It would be not a little severe, were all the partisans of both +the bishops of the name of Eusebius to incur damnation. + +In the year 314, before Constantine resided in his new city, those who +had persecuted the Christians were punished by them for their cruelties. +The Christians threw Maxentius's wife into the Orontes; they cut the +throats of all his relations, and they massacred, in Egypt and +Palestine, those magistrates who had most strenuously declared against +Christianity. The widow and daughter of Diocletian, having concealed +themselves at Thessalonica, were recognized, and their bodies thrown +into the sea. It would certainly have been desirable that the Christians +should have followed less eagerly the cry of vengeance; but it was the +will of God, who punishes according to justice, that, as soon as the +Christians were able to act without restraint, their hands should be +dyed in the blood of their persecutors. + +Constantine summoned to meet at Nice, opposite Constantinople, the first +ecumenical council, of which Ozius was president. Here was decided the +grand question that agitated the Church, relating to the divinity of +Jesus Christ. It is well known how the Church, having contended for +three hundred years against the rights of the Roman Empire, at length +contended against itself, and was always militant and triumphant. + +In the course of time almost the whole of the Greek church and the whole +African church became slaves under the Arabs, and afterwards under the +Turks, who erected the Mahometan religion on the ruins of the Christian. +The Roman church subsisted; but always reeking with blood, through more +than six centuries of discord between the western empire and the +priesthood. Even these quarrels rendered her very powerful. The bishops +and abbots in Germany all became princes; and the popes gradually +acquired absolute dominion in Rome, and throughout a considerable +territory. Thus has God proved his church, by humiliations, by +afflictions, by crimes, and by splendor. + +This Latin church, in the sixteenth century, lost half of Germany, +Denmark, Sweden, England, Scotland, Ireland, and the greater part of +Switzerland and Holland. She gained more territory in America by the +conquests of the Spaniards than she lost in Europe; but, with more +territory, she has fewer subjects. + +Divine Providence seemed to call upon Japan, Siam, India, and China to +place themselves under obedience to the pope, in order to recompense +him for Asia Minor, Syria, Greece, Egypt, Africa, Russia, and the other +lost states which we mentioned. St. Francis Xavier, who carried the holy +gospel to the East Indies and Japan, when the Portuguese went thither +upon mercantile adventure, performed a great number of miracles, all +attested by the R.R.P.P. Jesuits. Some state that he resuscitated nine +dead persons. But R.P. Ribadeneira, in his "Flower of the Saints," +limits himself to asserting that he resuscitated only four. That is +sufficient. Providence was desirous that, in less than a hundred years, +there should have been thousands of Catholics in the islands of Japan. +But the devil sowed his tares among the good grain. The Jesuits, +according to what is generally believed, entered into a conspiracy, +followed by a civil war, in which all the Christians were exterminated +in 1638. The nation then closed its ports against all foreigners except +the Dutch, who were considered merchants and not Christians, and were +first compelled to trample on the cross in order to gain leave to sell +their wares in the prison in which they are shut up, when they land at +Nagasaki. + +The Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion has become proscribed in +China in our own time, but with circumstances of less cruelty. The +R.R.P.P. Jesuits had not, indeed, resuscitated the dead at the court of +Pekin; they were contented with teaching astronomy, casting cannon, and +being mandarins. Their unfortunate disputes with the Dominicans and +others gave such offence to the great Emperor Yonchin that that prince, +who was justice and goodness personified, was blind enough to refuse +permission any longer to teach our holy religion, in respect to which +our missionaries so little agreed. He expelled them, but with a kindness +truly paternal, supplying them with means of subsistence, and conveyance +to the confines of his empire. + +All Asia, all Africa, the half of Europe, all that belongs to the +English and Dutch in America, all the unconquered American tribes, all +the southern climes, which constitute a fifth portion of the globe, +remain the prey of the demon, in order to fulfil those sacred words, +"many are called, but few are chosen."--Matt. xx., 16. + +_Of the Signification of the Word "Church." Picture of the Primitive +Church. Its Degeneracy. Examination into those Societies which have +Attempted to Re-establish the Primitive Church, and Particularly into +that of the Primitives called Quakers._ + +The term "church" among the Greeks signified the assembly of the people. +When the Hebrew books were translated into Greek, "synagogue" was +rendered by "church", and the same term was employed to express the +"Jewish society," the "political congregation," the "Jewish assembly," +the "Jewish people." Thus it is said in the Book of Numbers, "Why hast +thou conducted the church into the wilderness;" and in Deuteronomy, "The +eunuch, the Moabite, and the Ammonite, shall not enter the church; the +Idumaeans and the Egyptians shall not enter the church, even to the third +generation." + +Jesus Christ says, in St. Matthew, "If thy brother have sinned against +thee [have offended thee] rebuke him, between yourselves. Take with you +one or two witnesses, that, from the mouth of two or three witnesses, +everything may be made clear; and, if he hear not them, complain to the +assembly of the people, to the church; and, if he hear not the church, +let him be to thee as a heathen or a publican. Verily, I say unto you, +so shall it come to pass, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be +bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed +in heaven"--an illusion to the keys of doors which close and unclose the +latch. + +The case is here, that of two men, one of whom has offended the other, +and persists. He could not be made to appear in the assembly, in the +Christian church, as there was none; the person against whom his +companion complained could not be judged by a bishop and priests who +were not in existence; besides which, it is to be observed, that neither +Jewish priests nor Christian priests ever became judges in quarrels +between private persons. It was a matter of police. Bishops did not +become judges till about the time of Valentinian III. + +The commentators have therefore concluded that the sacred writer of +this gospel makes our Lord speak in this passage by anticipation--that +it is an allegory, a prediction of what would take place when the +Christian church should be formed and established. + +Selden makes an important remark on this passage, that, among the Jews, +publicans or collectors of the royal moneys were not excommunicated. The +populace might detest them, but as they were indispensable officers, +appointed by the prince, the idea had never occurred to any one of +separating them from the assembly. The Jews were at that time under the +administration of the proconsul of Syria, whose jurisdiction extended to +the confines of Galilee, and to the island of Cyprus, where he had +deputies. It would have been highly imprudent in any to show publicly +their abomination of the legal officers of the proconsul. Injustice, +even, would have been added to imprudence, for the Roman +knights--equestrians--who farmed the public domain and collected Caesar's +money, were authorized by the laws. + +St. Augustine, in his eighty-first sermon, may perhaps suggest +reflections for comprehending this passage. He is speaking of those who +retain their hatred, who are slow to pardon. + +_"Cepisti habere fratrem tuum tanquam publicanum. Ligas ilium in terra; +sed ut juste alliges vide; nam injusta vincula dirsumpit justitia. Cum +autem correxeris et concordaveris cum fratre tuo solvisti eum in +terra."_ You began to regard your brother as a publican; that is, to +bind him on the earth. But be cautious that you bind him justly, for +justice breaks unjust bonds. But when you have corrected, and afterwards +agreed with your brother, you have loosed him on earth. + +From St. Augustine's interpretation, it seems that the person offended +shut up the offender in prison; and that it is to be understood that, if +the offender is put in bonds on earth, he is also in heavenly bonds; but +that if the offended person is inexorable, he becomes bound himself. In +St. Augustine's explanation there is nothing whatever relating to the +Church. The whole matter relates to pardoning or not pardoning an +injury. St. Augustine is not speaking here of the sacerdotal power of +remitting sins in the name of God. That is a right recognized in other +places; a right derived from the sacrament of confession. St. Augustine, +profound as he is in types and allegories, does not consider this famous +passage as alluding to the absolution given or refused by the ministers +of the Roman Catholic Church, in the sacrament of penance. + +_Of the "Church" in Christian Societies._ + +In the greater part of Christian states we perceive no more than four +churches--the Greek, the Roman, the Lutheran, and the reformed or +Calvinistic. It is thus in Germany. The Primitives or Quakers, the +Anabaptists, the Socinians, the Memnonists, the Pietists, the +Moravians, the Jews, and others, do not form a church. The Jewish +religion has preserved the designation of synagogue. The Christian sects +which are tolerated have only private assemblies, "conventicles." It is +the same in London. We do not find the Catholic Church in Sweden, nor in +Denmark, nor in the north of Germany, nor in Holland, nor in three +quarters of Switzerland, nor in the three kingdoms of Great Britain. + +_Of the Primitive Church, and of Those Who Have Endeavored to +Re-establish It._ + +The Jews, as well as all the different people of Syria, were divided +into many different congregations, as we have already seen. All were +aimed at a mystical perfection. A ray of purer light shone upon the +disciples of St. John, who still subsist near Mosul. At last, the Son of +God, announced by St. John, appeared on earth, whose disciples were +always on a perfect equality. Jesus had expressly enjoined them, "There +shall not be any of you either first or last.... I came to serve, not to +be served. He who strives to be master over others shall be their +servant." + +One proof of equality is that the Christians at first took no other +designation than that of "brethren." They assembled in expectation of +the spirit. They prophesied when they were inspired. St. Paul, in his +first letter to the Corinthians, says to them, "If, in your assembly, +any one of you have the gift of a psalm, a doctrine, a revelation, a +language, an interpretation, let all be done for edification. If any +speak languages, as two or three may do in succession, let there be an +interpreter. + +"Let two or three prophets speak, and the others judge; and if anything +be revealed to another while one is speaking, let the latter be silent; +for you may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all exhort; +the spirit of prophecy is subject to the prophets; for the Lord is a God +of peace.... Thus, then, my brethren, be all of you desirous of +prophesying, and hinder not the speaking of languages." + +I have translated literally, both out of reverence for the text, and to +avoid any disputes about words. St. Paul, in the same epistle, admits +that women may prophesy; although, in the fourteenth chapter, he forbids +their speaking in the assemblies. "Every woman," says he, "praying or +prophesying without having a veil over her head, dishonoreth her head, +for it is the same as if she were shaven." + +It is clear, from all these passages and from many others, that the +first Christians were all equal, not merely as brethren in Jesus Christ, +but as having equal gifts. The spirit was communicated to them equally. +They equally spoke different languages; they had equally the gift of +prophesying, without distinction of rank, age, or sex. + +The apostles who instructed the neophytes possessed over them, +unquestionably, that natural pre-eminence which the preceptor has over +the pupil; but of jurisdiction, of temporal authority, of what the world +calls "honors," of distinction in dress, of emblems of superiority, +assuredly neither they, nor those who succeeded them, had any. They +possessed another, and a very different superiority, that of persuasion. + +The brethren put their money into one common stock. Seven persons were +chosen by themselves out of their own body, to take charge of the +tables, and to provide for the common wants. They chose, in Jerusalem +itself, those whom we call Stephen, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, +Parmenas, and Nicholas. It is remarkable that, among seven persons +chosen by a Jewish community, six were Greeks. + +After the time of the apostles we find no example of any Christian who +possessed any other power over other Christians than that of +instructing, exhorting, expelling demons from the bodies of +"energumens," and performing miracles. All is spiritual; nothing savors +of worldly pomp. It was only in the third century that the spirit of +pride, vanity, and interest, began to be manifested among the believers +on every side. + +The agapae had now become splendid festivals, and attracted reproach for +the luxury and profusion which attended them. Tertullian acknowledges +it. + +"Yes," says he, "we make splendid and plentiful entertainments, but was +not the same done at the mysteries of Athens and of Egypt? Whatever +learning we display, it is useful and pious, as the poor benefit by it." +_Quantiscumque sumptibus constet, lucrum est pietatis, si quidem inopes +refrigerio isto juvamus._ + +About this very period, certain societies of Christians, who pronounced +themselves more perfect than the rest, the Montanists, for example, who +boasted of so many prophecies and so austere a morality; who regarded +second nuptials as absolute adulteries, and flight from persecution as +apostasy; who had exhibited in public holy convulsions and ecstasies, +and pretended to speak with God face to face, were convicted, it was +said, of mixing the blood of an infant, a year old, with the bread of +the eucharist. They brought upon the true Christians this dreadful +reproach, which exposed them to persecutions. + +Their method of proceeding, according to St. Augustine, was this: they +pricked the whole body of the infant with pins and, kneading up flour +with the blood, made bread of it. If any one died by eating it, they +honored him as a martyr. + +Manners were so corrupted that the holy fathers were incessantly +complaining of it. Hear what St. Cyprian says, in his book concerning +tombs: "Every priest," says he, "seeks for wealth and honor with +insatiable avidity. Bishops are without religion; women without modesty; +knavery is general; profane swearing and perjury abound; animosities +divide Christians asunder; bishops abandon their pupils to attend the +exchange, and obtain opulence by merchandise; in short, we please +ourselves alone, and excite the disgust of all the rest of the world." + +Before the occurrence of these scandals, the priest Novatian had been +the cause of a very dreadful one to the people of Rome. He was the first +anti-pope. The bishopric of Rome, although secret, and liable to +persecution, was an object of ambition and avarice, on account of the +liberal contributions of the Christians, and the authority attached to +that high situation. + +We will not here describe again what is contained in so many authentic +documents, and what we every day hear from the mouths of persons +correctly informed--the prodigious number of schisms and wars; the six +hundred years of fierce hostility between the empire and the priesthood; +the wealth of nations, flowing through a thousand channels, sometimes +into Rome, sometimes into Avignon, when the popes, for two and seventy +years together, fixed their residence in that place; the blood rushing +in streams throughout Europe, either for the interest of a tiara utterly +unknown to Jesus Christ, or on account of unintelligible questions which +He never mentioned. Our religion is not less sacred or less divine for +having been so defiled by guilt and steeped in carnage. + +When the frenzy of domination, that dreadful passion of the human heart, +had reached its greatest excess; when the monk Hildebrand, elected +bishop of Rome against the laws, wrested that capital from the emperors, +and forbade all the bishops of the west from bearing the name of pope, +in order to appropriate it to himself alone; when the bishops of +Germany, following his example, made themselves sovereigns, which all +those of France and England also attempted; from those dreadful times +down even to our own, certain Christian societies have arisen which, +under a hundred different names, have endeavored to re-establish the +primitive equality in Christendom. + +But what had been practicable in a small society, concealed from the +world, was no longer so in extensive kingdoms. The church militant and +triumphant could no longer be the church humble and unknown. The bishops +and the large, rich, and powerful monastic communities, uniting under +the standards of the new pontificate of Rome, fought at that time _pro +aris et focis_, for their hearths and altars. Crusades, armies, sieges, +battles, rapine, tortures, assassinations by the hand of the +executioner, assassinations by the hands of priests of both the +contending parties, poisonings, devastations by fire and sword--all were +employed to support and to pull down the new ecclesiastical +administration; and the cradle of the primitive church was so hidden as +to be scarcely discoverable under the blood and bones of the slain. + +_Of the Primitives called Quakers._ + +The religious and civil wars of Great Britain having desolated England, +Scotland, and Ireland, in the unfortunate reign of Charles I., William +Penn, son of a vice-admiral, resolved to go and establish what he called +the primitive Church on the shores of North America, in a climate which +appeared to him to be mild and congenial to his own manners. His sect +went under the denomination of "Quakers," a ludicrous designation, but +which they merited, by the trembling of the body which they affected +when preaching, and by a nasal pronunciation, such as peculiarly +distinguished one species of monks in the Roman Church, the Capuchins. +But men may both snuffle and shake, and yet be meek, frugal, modest, +just, and charitable. No one denies that this society of Primitives +displayed an example of all those virtues. + +Penn saw that the English bishops and the Presbyterians had been the +cause of a dreadful war on account of a surplice, lawn sleeves, and a +liturgy. He would have neither liturgy, lawn, nor surplice. The apostles +had none of them. Jesus Christ had baptized none. The associates of Penn +declined baptism. + +The first believers were equal; these new comers aimed at being so, as +far as possible. The first disciples received the spirit, and spoke in +the assembly; they had no altars, no temples, no ornaments, no tapers, +incense, or ceremonies. Penn and his followers flattered themselves +that they received the spirit, and they renounced all pomp and ceremony. +Charity was in high esteem with the disciples of the Saviour; those of +Penn formed a common purse for assisting the poor. Thus these imitators +of the Essenians and first Christians, although in error with respect to +doctrines and ceremonies, were an astonishing model of order and morals +to every other society of Christians. + +At length this singular man went, with five hundred of his followers, to +form an establishment in what was at that time the most savage district +of America. Queen Christina of Sweden had been desirous of founding a +colony there, which, however, had not prospered. The Primitives of Penn +were more successful. + +It was on the banks of the Delaware, near the fortieth degree of +latitude. This country belonged to the king of England only because +there were no others who claimed it, and because the people whom we call +savages, and who might have cultivated it, had always remained far +distant in the recesses of the forests. If England had possessed this +country merely by right of conquest, Penn and his Primitives would have +held such an asylum in horror. They looked upon the pretended right of +conquest only as a violation of the right of nature, and as absolute +robbery. + +King Charles II. made Penn sovereign of all this wild country by a +charter granted March 4, 1681. In the following year Penn promulgated +his code of laws. The first was complete civil liberty, in consequence +of which every colonist possessing five acres of land became a member of +the legislature. The next was an absolute prohibition against advocates +and attorneys ever taking fees. The third was the admission of all +religions, and even the permission to every inhabitant to worship God in +his own house, without ever taking part in public worship. + +This is the law last mentioned, in the terms of its enactment: "Liberty +of conscience being a right which all men have received from nature with +their very being, and which all peaceable persons ought to maintain, it +is positively established that no person shall be compelled to join in +any public exercise of religion. + +"But every one is expressly allowed full power to engage freely in the +public or private exercise of his religion, without incurring thereby +any trouble or impediment, under any pretext; provided that he +acknowledge his belief in one only eternal God Almighty, the creator, +preserver, and governor of the universe, and that he fulfil all the +duties of civil society which he is bound to perform to his fellow +citizens." + +This law is even more indulgent, more humane, than that which was given +to the people of Carolina by Locke, the Plato of England, so superior to +the Plato of Greece. Locke permitted no public religions except such as +should be approved by seven fathers of families. This is a different +sort of wisdom from Penn's. + +But that which reflects immortal honor on both legislators, and which +should operate as an eternal example to mankind, is, that this liberty +of conscience has not occasioned the least disturbance. It might, on the +contrary, be said that God had showered down the most distinguished +blessings on the colony of Pennsylvania. It consisted, in 1682, of five +hundred persons, and in less than a century its population had increased +to nearly three hundred thousand. One half of the colonists are of the +primitive religion; twenty different religions comprise the other half. +There are twelve fine chapels in Philadelphia, and in other places every +house is a chapel. This city has deserved its name: "Brotherly Love." +Seven other cities, and innumerable small towns, flourish under this law +of concord. Three hundred vessels leave the port in the course of every +year. + +This state, which seems to deserve perpetual duration, was very nearly +destroyed in the fatal war of 1755, when the French, with their savage +allies on one side, and the English, with theirs, on the other, began +with disputing about some frozen districts of Nova Scotia. The +Primitives, faithful to their pacific system of Christianity, declined +to take up arms. The savages killed some of their colonists on the +frontier; the Primitives made no reprisals. They even refused, for a +long time, to pay the troops. They addressed the English general in +these words: "Men are like pieces of clay, which are broken to pieces +one against another. Why should we aid in breaking one another to +pieces?" + +At last, in the general assembly of the legislature of Pennsylvania, the +other religions prevailed; troops were raised; the Primitives +contributed money, but declined being armed. They obtained their object, +which was peace with their neighbors. These pretended savages said to +them, "Send us a descendant of the great Penn, who never deceived us; +with him we will treat." A grandson of that great man was deputed, and +peace was concluded. Many of the Primitives had negro slaves to +cultivate their estates. But they blushed at having, in this instance, +imitated other Christians. They gave liberty to their slaves in 1769. + +At present all the other colonists imitate them in liberty of +conscience, and although there are among them Presbyterians and persons +of the high church party, no one is molested about his creed. It is this +which has rendered the English power in America equal to that of Spain, +with all its mines of gold and silver. If any method could be devised to +enervate the English colonies it would be to establish in them the +Inquisition. + +The example of the Primitives, called "Quakers," has given rise in +Pennsylvania to a new society, in a district which it calls Euphrates. +This is the sect of Dunkers or Dumpers, a sect much more secluded from +the world than Penn's; a sort of religious hospitallers, all clothed +uniformly. Married persons are not permitted to reside in the city of +Euphrates: they reside in the country, which they cultivate. The public +treasury supplies all their wants in times of scarcity. This society +administers baptism only to adults. It rejects the doctrine of original +sin as impious, and that of the eternity of punishment as barbarous. The +purity of their lives permits them not to imagine that God will torment +His creatures cruelly or eternally. Gone astray in a corner of the new +world, far from the great flock of the Catholic Church, they are, up to +the present hour, notwithstanding this unfortunate error, the most just +and most inimitable of men. + +_Quarrel between the Greek and Latin Churches in Asia and Europe._ + +It has been a matter of lamentation to all good men for nearly fourteen +centuries that the Greek and Latin Churches have always been rivals, and +that the robe of Jesus Christ, which was without a seam, has been +continually rent asunder. This opposition is perfectly natural. Rome and +Constantinople hate each other. When masters cherish a mutual aversion, +their dependents entertain no mutual regard. The two communions have +disputed on the superiority of language, the antiquity of sees, on +learning, eloquence, and power. + +It is certain that, for a long time, the Greeks possessed all the +advantage. They boasted that they had been the masters of the Latins, +and that they had taught them everything. The Gospels were written in +Greek. There was not a doctrine, a rite, a mystery, a usage, which was +not Greek; from the word "baptism" to the word "eucharist" all was +Greek. No fathers of the Church were known except among the Greeks till +St. Jerome, and even he was not a Roman, but a Dalmatian. St. Augustine, +who flourished soon after St. Jerome, was an African. The seven great +ecumenical councils were held in Greek cities: the bishops of Rome were +never present at them, because they were acquainted only with their own +Latin language, which was already exceedingly corrupted. + +The hostility between Rome and Constantinople broke out in 452, at the +Council of Chalcedon, which had been assembled to decide whether Jesus +Christ had possessed two natures and one person, or two persons with one +nature. It was there decided that the Church of Constantinople was in +every respect equal to that of Rome, as to honors, and the patriarch of +the one equal in every respect to the patriarch of the other. The pope, +St. Leo, admitted the two natures, but neither he nor his successors +admitted the equality. It may be observed that, in this dispute about +rank and pre-eminence, both parties were in direct opposition to the +injunction of Jesus Christ, recorded in the Gospel: "There shall not be +among you first or last." Saints are saints, but pride will insinuate +itself everywhere. The same disposition which made a mason's son, who +had been raised to a bishopric, foam with rage because he was not +addressed by the title of "my lord," has set the whole Christian world +in flames. + +The Romans were always less addicted to disputation, less subtle, than +the Greeks, but they were much more politic. The bishops of the east, +while they argued, yet remained subjects: the bishop of Rome, without +arguments, contrived eventually to establish his power on the ruins of +the western empire. And what Virgil said of the Scipios and Caesars might +be said of the popes: + +_"Romanos rerum dominos gentemque togatam"_--AEneid, i. 286. + +This mutual hatred led, at length, to actual division, in the time of +Photius, papa or overseer of the Byzantine Church, and Nicholas I., papa +or overseer of the Roman Church. As, unfortunately, an ecclesiastical +quarrel scarcely ever occurs without something ludicrous being attached +to it, it happened, in this instance, that the contest began between two +patriarchs, both of whom were eunuchs: Ignatius and Photius, who +disputed the chair of Constantinople, were both emasculated. This +mutilation depriving them of the power of becoming natural fathers, they +could become fathers only of the Church. It is observed that persons of +this unfortunate description are meddling, malignant, and plotting. +Ignatius and Photius kept the whole Greek court in a state of +turbulence. + +The Latin, Nicholas I., having taken the part of Ignatius, Photius +declared him a heretic, on account of his admitting the doctrine that +the breath of God, or the Holy Spirit, proceeded from the Father and the +Son, contrary to the unanimous decision of the whole Church, which had +decided that it proceeded from the Father only. + +Besides this heretical doctrine respecting the procession, Nicholas ate, +and permitted to be eaten, eggs and cheese in Lent. In fine, as the very +climax of unbelief, the Roman papa had his beard shaved, which, to the +Greek papas, was nothing less than downright apostasy; as Moses, the +patriarchs, and Jesus Christ were always, by the Greek and Latin +painters, pictured with beards. + +When, in 879, the patriarch Photius was restored to his seat by the +eighth ecumenical council--consisting of four hundred bishops, three +hundred of whom had condemned him in the preceding council--he was +acknowledged by Pope John as his brother. Two legates, despatched by him +to this council, joined the Greek Church, and declared that whoever +asserted the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son was a +Judas. But the practice of shaving the chin and eating eggs in Lent +being persisted in, the two churches always remained divided. + +The schism was completed in 1053 and 1054, when Michael Cerularius, +patriarch of Constantinople, publicly condemned the bishop of Rome, Leo +IX., and all the Latins, adding to all the reproaches against them by +Photius that, contrary to the practice of the apostles, they dared to +make use of unleavened bread in the eucharist; that they wickedly ate +blood puddings, and twisted the necks, instead of cutting off the heads, +of pigeons intended for the table. All the Latin churches in the Greek +empire were shut up, and all intercourse with those who ate blood +puddings was forbidden. + +Pope Leo IX. entered into serious negotiation on this matter with the +Emperor Constantine Monomachus, and obtained some mitigations. It was +precisely at this period that those celebrated Norman gentlemen, the +sons of Tancred de Hauteville, despising at once the pope and the Greek +emperor, plundered everything they could in Apulia and Calabria, and ate +blood puddings with the utmost hardihood. The Greek emperor favored the +pope as much as he was able; but nothing could reconcile the Greeks with +the Latins. The Greeks regarded their adversaries as barbarians, who did +not know a single word of Greek. The irruption of the Crusaders, under +pretence of delivering the Holy Land, but in reality to gain possession +of Constantinople, completed the hatred entertained against the Romans. + +But the power of the Latin Church increased every day, and the Greeks +were at length gradually vanquished by the Turks. The popes, long +since, became powerful and wealthy sovereigns; the whole Greek Church +became slaves from the time of Mahomet II., except Russia, which was +then a barbarous country, and in which the Church was of no account. + +Whoever is but slightly informed of the state of affair in the Levant +knows that the sultan confers the patriarchate of the Greeks by a cross +and a ring, without any apprehension of being excommunicated, as some of +the German emperors were by the popes, for this same ceremony. + +It is certainly true that the church of Stamboul has preserved, in +appearance, the liberty of choosing its archbishop; but never, in fact, +chooses any other than the person pointed out by the Ottoman court. This +preferment costs, at present, about eighty thousand francs, which the +person chosen contrives to get refunded from the Greeks. If any canon of +influence and wealth comes forward, and offers the grand vizier a large +sum, the titular possessor is deprived, and the place given to the last +bidder; precisely as the see of Rome was disposed of, in the tenth +century, by Marozia and Theodora. If the titular patriarch resists, he +receives fifty blows on the soles of his feet, and is banished. +Sometimes he is beheaded, as was the case with Lucas Cyrille, in 1638. + +The Grand Turk disposes of all the other bishoprics, in the same manner, +for money; and the price charged for every bishopric under Mahomet II. +is always stated in the patent; but the additional sum paid is not +mentioned in it. It is not exactly known what a Greek priest gives for +his bishopric. + +These patents are rather diverting documents: "I grant to N----, a +Christian priest, this order, for the perfection of his felicity. I +command him to reside in the city herein named, as bishop of the infidel +Christians, according to their ancient usage, and their vain and +extravagant ceremonies, willing and ordaining that all Christians of +that district shall acknowledge him, and that no monk or priest shall +marry without his permission." That is to say, without paying for the +same. + +The slavery of this Church is equal to its ignorance. But the Greeks +have only what they deserve. They were wholly absorbed in disputes about +the light on Mount Tabor, and the umbilical cord, at the very time of +the taking of Constantinople. + +While recording these melancholy truths we entertain the hope that the +Empress Catherine II. will give the Greeks their liberty. Would she +could restore to them that courage and that intellect which they +possessed in the days of Miltiades and Themistocles; and that Mount +Athos supplied good soldiers and fewer monks. + +_Of the Present Greek Church._ + +The Greek Church has scarcely deserved the toleration which the +Mussulmans granted it. The following observations are from Mr. Porter, +the English ambassador in Turkey: + +"I am inclined to draw a veil over, those scandalous disputes between +the Greeks and Romans, on the subject of Bethlehem and the holy land, as +they denominate it. The unjust and odious proceedings which these have +occasioned between them are a disgrace to the Christian name. In the +midst of these debates the ambassador appointed to protect the Romish +communion becomes, with all high dignity, an object of sincere +compassion. + +"In every country where the Roman Catholic prevails, immense sums are +levied in order to support against the Greek's equivocal pretensions to +the precarious possession of a corner of the world reputed holy; and to +preserve in the hands of the monks of the Latin communion the remains of +an old stable at Bethlehem, where a chapel has been erected, and where +on the doubtful authority of oral tradition, it is pretended that Christ +was born; as also a tomb, which may be, and most probably may not be, +what is called his sepulchre; for the precise situation of these two +places is as little ascertained as that which contains the ashes of +Caesar." + +What renders the Greeks yet more contemptible in the eyes of the Turks +is the miracle which they perform every year at Easter. The poor bishop +of Jerusalem is inclosed in a small cave, which is passed off for the +tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ, with packets of small wax tapers; he +strikes fire, lights one of these little tapers, and comes out of his +cave exclaiming: "The fire is come down from heaven, and the holy taper +is lighted." All the Greeks immediately buy up these tapers, and the +money is divided between the Turkish commander and the bishop. The +deplorable state of this Church, under the dominion of the Turk, may be +judged from this single trait. + +The Greek Church in Russia has of late assumed a much more respectable +consistency, since the Empress Catherine II. has delivered it from its +secular cares; she has taken from it four hundred thousand slaves, which +it possessed. It is now paid out of the imperial treasury, entirely +dependent on the government, and restricted by wise laws; it can effect +nothing but good, and is every day becoming more learned and useful. It +possesses a preacher of the name of Plato, who has composed sermons +which the Plato of antiquity would not have disdained. + + + + +CHURCH OF ENGLAND. + + +England is the country of sects; "_multae sunt mansiones in domo patris +mei:_" an Englishman, like a free man, goes to heaven which way he +pleases. However, although every one can serve God in his own way, the +national religion--that in which fortunes are made--is the Episcopal, +called the Church of England, or emphatically, "The Church." No one can +have employment of any consequence, either in England or Ireland, +without being members of the establishment. This reasoning, which is +highly demonstrative, has converted so many nonconformists that at +present there is not a twentieth part of the nation out of the bosom of +the dominant church. + +[Illustration: Empress Catherine.] + +The English clergy have retained many Catholic ceremonies, and above all +that of receiving tithes, with a very scrupulous attention. They also +possess the pious ambition of ruling the people, for what village rector +would not be a pope if he could? + +With regard to manners, the English clergy are more decorous than those +of France, chiefly because the ecclesiastics are brought up in the +universities of Oxford and Cambridge, far from the corruption of the +metropolis. They are not called to the dignities of the Church until +very late, and at an age when men, having no other passion than avarice, +their ambition is less aspiring. Employments are, in England, the +recompense of long service in the church, as well as in the army. You do +not _there_ see young men become bishops or colonels on leaving college; +and, moreover, almost all the priests are married. The pedantry and +awkwardness of manners, acquired in the universities, and the little +commerce they have with women, generally oblige a bishop to be contented +with the one which belongs to him. The clergy go sometimes to the +tavern, because custom permits it, and if they get "_Bacchi plenum_" it +is in the college style, gravely and with due decorum. + +That indefinable character which is neither ecclesiastical nor secular, +which we call abbe, is unknown in England. The ecclesiastics there are +generally respected, and for the greater part pedants. When the latter +learn that in France young men distinguished by their debaucheries, and +raised to the prelacy by the intrigues of women, publicly make love; vie +with each other in the composition of love songs; give luxurious suppers +every day, from which they arise to implore the light of the Holy +Spirit, and boldly call themselves the apostles' successors--they thank +God they are Protestants. But what then? They arc vile heretics, and fit +only for burning, as master Francis Rabelais says, "with all the +devils." Hence I drop the subject. + + + + +CHURCH PROPERTY. + + +The Gospel forbids those who would attain perfection to amass treasures, +and to preserve their temporal goods: "Lay not up for yourselves +treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where +thieves break through and steal." "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell +that thou hast, and give to the poor." "And every one that hath forsaken +houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or +children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, +and shall inherit everlasting life." + +The apostles and their first successors would not receive estates; they +only accepted the value, and, after having provided what was necessary +for their subsistence, they distributed the rest among the poor. +Sapphira and Ananias did not give their goods to St. Peter, but they +sold them and brought him the price: _"Vende quae habes et da +pauperibus."_ + +The Church already possessed considerable property at the close of the +third century, since Diocletian and Maximian had pronounced the +confiscation of it, in 302. + +As soon as Constantine was upon the throne he permitted the churches to +be endowed like the temples of the ancient religion, and from that time +the Church acquired rich estates. St. Jerome complains of it in one of +his letters to Eustochium: "When you see them," says he, "accost the +rich widows whom they meet with a soft and sanctified air, you would +think that their hands were only extended to give them their blessing; +but it is, on the contrary, to receive the price of their hypocrisy." + +The holy priests received without claiming. Valentinian I. thought it +right to forbid the ecclesiastics from receiving anything from widows +and women, by will or otherwise. This law, which is found in the +Theodosian code, was revoked by Marcian and Justinian. + +Justinian, to favor the ecclesiastics, forbade the judges, by his new +code xviii. chap. ii., to annul the wills made in favor of the Church, +even when executed without the formalities prescribed by the laws. + +Anastasius had enacted, in 471, that church property should be held by a +prescription, or title, of forty years' duration. Justinian inserted +this law in his code; but this prince, who was continually changing his +jurisprudence, subsequently extended this proscription to a century. +Immediately several ecclesiastics, unworthy of their profession, forged +false titles, and drew out of the dust old testaments, void by the +ancient laws, but valid according to the new. Citizens were deprived of +their patrimonies by fraud; and possessions, which until then were +considered inviolable, were usurped by the Church. In short, the abuse +was so crying that Justinian himself was obliged to re-establish the +dispositions of the law of Anastasius, by his novel cxxxi. chap. vi. + +The possessions of the Church during the first five centuries of our era +were regulated by deacons, who distributed them to the clergy and to the +poor. This community ceased at the end of the fifth century, and Church +property was divided into four parts--one being given to the bishops, +another to the clergy, a third to the place of worship, and the fourth +to the poor. Soon after this division the bishops alone took charge of +the whole four portions, and this is the reason why the inferior clergy +are generally very poor. + +_Monks possessing Slaves._ + +What is still more melancholy, the Benedictines, Bernardines, and even +the Chartreux are permitted to have mortmains and slaves. Under their +domination in several provinces of France and Germany are still +recognized: personal slavery, slavery of property, and slavery of person +and property. Slavery of the person consists in the incapacity of a +man's disposing of his property in favor of his children, if they have +not always lived with their father in the same house, and at the same +table, in which case all belongs to the monks. The fortune of an +inhabitant of Mount Jura, put into the hands of a notary, becomes, even +in Paris, the prey of those who have originally embraced evangelical +poverty at Mount Jura. The son asks alms at the door of the house which +his father has built; and the monks, far from giving them, even arrogate +to themselves the right of not paying his father's creditors, and of +regarding as void all the mortgages on the house of which they take +possession. In vain the widow throws herself at their feet to obtain a +part of her dowry. This dowry, these debts, this paternal property, all +belong, by divine right, to the monks. The creditors, the widow, and the +children are all left to die in beggary. + +Real slavery is that which is effected by residence. Whoever occupies a +house within the domain of these monks, and lives in it a year and a +day, becomes their serf for life. It has sometimes happened that a +French merchant, and father of a family, led by his business into this +barbarous country, has taken a house for a year. Dying afterwards in his +own country, in another province of France, his widow and children have +been quite astonished to see officers, armed with writs, come and take +away their furniture, sell it in the name of St. Claude, and drive away +a whole family from the house of their father. + +Mixed slavery is that which, being composed of the two, is, of all that +rapacity has ever invented, the most execrable, and beyond the +conception even of freebooters. There are, then, Christian people +groaning in a triple slavery under monks who have taken the vow of +humility and poverty. You will ask how governments suffer these fatal +contradictions? It is because the monks are rich and the vassals are +poor. It is because the monks, to preserve their Hunnish rights, make +presents to their commissaries and to the mistresses of those who might +interpose their authority to put down their oppression. The strong +always crush the weak; but why must monks be the stronger? + + + + +CICERO. + + +It is at a time when, in France, the fine arts are in a state of +decline; in an age of paradox, and amidst the degradation and +persecution of literature and philosophy, that an attempt is made to +tarnish the name of Cicero. And who is the man who thus endeavors to +throw disgrace upon his memory? It is one who lends his services in +defence of persons accused like himself; it is an advocate, who has +studied eloquence under that great master; it is a citizen who appears +to be, like Cicero, animated by devotion to the public good. + +In a book entitled "Navigable Canals," a book abounding in grand and +patriotic rather than practical views, we feel no small astonishment at +finding the following philippic against Cicero, who was never concerned +in digging canals: + +"The most glorious trait in the history of Cicero is the destruction of +Catiline's conspiracy, which, regarded in its true light, produced +little sensation at Rome, except in consequence of his affecting to give +it importance. The danger existed much more in his discourses than in +the affair itself. It was an enterprise of debauchees which it was easy +to disconcert. Neither the principal nor the accomplices had taken the +slightest measure to insure the success of their guilty attempt. There +was nothing astonishing in this singular matter but the blustering which +attended all the proceedings of the consul, and the facility with which +he was permitted to sacrifice to his self-love so many scions of +illustrious families. + +"Besides, the life of Cicero abounds in traits of meanness. His +eloquence was as venal as his soul was pusillanimous. If his tongue was +not guided by interest it was guided by fear or hope. The desire of +obtaining partisans led him to the tribune, to defend, without a blush, +men more dishonorable, and incalculably more dangerous, than Catiline. +His clients were nearly all miscreants, and, by a singular exercise of +divine justice, he at last met death from the hands of one of those +wretches whom his skill had extricated from the fangs of human justice." + +We answer that, "regarded in its true light," the conspiracy of Catiline +excited at Rome somewhat more than a "slight sensation." It plunged her +into the greatest disturbance and danger. It was terminated only by a +battle so bloody that there is no example of equal carnage, and scarcely +any of equal valor. All the soldiers of Catiline, after having killed +half of the army of Petrius, were killed, to the last man. Catiline +perished, covered with wounds, upon a heap of the slain; and all were +found with their countenances sternly glaring upon the enemy. This was +not an enterprise so wonderfully easy as to be disconcerted. Caesar +encouraged it; Caesar learned from it to conspire on a future day more +successfully against his country. + +"Cicero defended, without a blush, men more dishonorable, and +incalculably more dangerous than Catiline!" Was this when he defended in +the tribune Sicily against Verres, and the Roman republic against +Antony? Was it when he exhorted the clemency of Caesar in favor of +Ligarius and King Deiotarus? or when he obtained the right of +citizenship for the poet Archias? or when, in his exquisite oration for +the Manilian law, he obtained every Roman suffrage on behalf of the +great Pompey? + +He pleaded for Milo, the murderer of Clodius; but Clodius had deserved +the tragical end he met with by his outrages. Clodius had been involved +in the conspiracy of Catiline; Clodius was his mortal enemy. He had +irritated Rome against him, and had punished him for having saved Rome. +Milo was his friend. + +What! is it in our time that any one ventures to assert that God +punished Cicero for having defended a military tribune called Popilius +Lena, and that divine vengeance made this same Popilius Lena the +instrument of his assassination? No one knows whether Popilius Lena was +guilty of the crime of which he was acquitted, after Cicero's defence of +him upon his trial; but all know that the monster was guilty of the most +horrible ingratitude, the most infamous avarice, and the most detestable +cruelty to obtain the money of three wretches like himself. It was +reserved for our times to hold up the assassination of Cicero as an act +of divine justice. The triumvirs would not have dared to do it. Every +age, before the present, has detested and deplored the manner of his +death. + +Cicero is reproached with too frequently boasting that he had saved +Rome, and with being too fond of glory. But his enemies endeavored to +stain his glory. A tyrannical faction condemned him to exile, and razed +his house, because he had preserved every house in Rome from the flames +which Catiline had prepared for them. Men are permitted and even bound +to boast of their services, when they meet with forgetfulness or +ingratitude, and more particularly when they are converted into crimes. + +Scipio is still admired for having answered his accusers in these words: +"This is the anniversary of the day on which I vanquished Hannibal; let +us go and return thanks to the gods." The whole assembly followed him to +the Capitol, and our hearts follow him thither also, as we read the +passage in history; though, after all, it would have been better to have +delivered in his accounts than to extricate himself from the attack by a +_bon mot_. + +Cicero, in the same manner, excited the admiration of the Roman people +when, on the day in which his consulship expired, being obliged to take +the customary oaths, and preparing to address the people as was usual, +he was hindered by the tribune Matellus, who was desirous of insulting +him. Cicero had begun with these words: "I swear,"--the tribune +interrupted him, and declared that he would not suffer him to make a +speech. A great murmuring was heard. Cicero paused a moment, and +elevating his full and melodious voice, he exclaimed, as a short +substitute for his intended speech, "I swear that I have saved the +country." The assembly cried out with delight and enthusiasm, "We swear +that he has spoken the truth." That moment was the most brilliant of +his life. This is the true way of loving glory. I do not know where I +have read these unknown verses: + + _Romains, j'aime la gloire, et ne veux point m'en taire_ + _Des travaux des humains c'est le digne salaire,_ + _Ce n'est qu'en vous qu'il la faut acheter;_ + _Qui n'ose la vouloir, n'ose la meriter._ + + Romans, I own that glory I regard + Of human toil the only just reward; + Placed in your hands the immortal guerdon lies, + And he will ne'er deserve who slights the prize. + +Can we despise Cicero if we consider his conduct in his government of +Cilicia, which was then one of the most important provinces of the Roman +Empire, in consequence of its contiguity to Syria and the Parthian +Empire. Laodicea, one of the most beautiful cities of the East, was the +capital of it. This province was then as flourishing as it is at the +present day degraded under the government of the Turks, who never had a +Cicero. + +He begins by protecting Ariobarzanes, king of Cappadocia, and he refuses +the presents which that king desires to make him. The Parthians come and +attack Antioch in a state of perfect peace. Cicero hastily marches +towards it, comes up with the Parthians by forced marches at Mount +Taurus, routs them, pursues them in their retreat, and Arsaces, their +general, is slain, with a part of his army. + +Thence he rushes on Pendenissum, the capital of a country in alliance +with the Parthians, and takes it, and the province is reduced to +submission. He instantly directs his forces against the tribes of +people called Tiburanians, and defeats them, and his troops confer on +him the title of Imperator, which he preserved all his life. He would +have obtained the honors of a triumph at Rome if he had not been opposed +by Cato, who induced the senate merely to decree public rejoicings and +thanks to the gods, when, in fact, they were due to Cicero. + +If we picture to ourselves the equity and disinterestedness of Cicero in +his government; his activity, his affability--two virtues so rarely +compatible; the benefits which he accumulated upon the people over whom +he was an absolute sovereign; it will be extremely difficult to withhold +from such a man our esteem. + +If we reflect that this is the same man who first introduced philosophy +into Rome; that his "Tusculan Questions," and his book "On the Nature of +the Gods," are the two noblest works that ever were written by mere +human wisdom, and that his treatise, "_De Officiis_," is the most useful +one that we possess in morals; we shall find it still more difficult to +despise Cicero. We pity those who do not read him; we pity still more +those who refuse to do him justice. + +To the French detractor we may well oppose the lines of the Spanish +Martial, in his epigram against Antony (book v., epig. 69, v. 7): + + _Quid prosunt sacrae pretiosa silentia linguae?_ + _Incipient omnes pro Cicerone loqui._ + + Why still his tongue with vengeance weak, + For Cicero all the world will speak! + +See, likewise, what is said by Juvenal (sat. iv., v. 244): + + _Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit._ + Freed Rome, him father of his country called. + + + + +CIRCUMCISION. + + +When Herodotus narrates what he was told by the barbarians among whom he +travelled, he narrates fooleries, after the manner of the greater part +of travellers. Thus, it is not to be supposed that he expects to be +believed in his recital of the adventure of Gyges and Candaules; of +Arion, carried on the back of a dolphin; of the oracle which was +consulted on what Croesus was at the time doing, that he was then +going to dress a tortoise in a stew-pan; of Darius' horse, which, being +the first out of a certain number to neigh, in fact proclaimed his +master a king; and of a hundred other fables, fit to amuse children, and +to be compiled by rhetoricians. But when he speaks of what he has seen, +of the customs of people he has examined, of their antiquities which he +has consulted, he then addresses himself to men. + +"It appears," says he, in his book "_Euterpe_," "that the inhabitants of +Colchis sprang from Egypt. I judge so from my own observations rather +than from hearsay; for I found that, at Colchis, the ancient Egyptians +were more frequently recalled to my mind than the ancient customs of +Colchis were when I was in Egypt. + +"These inhabitants of the shores of the Euxine Sea stated themselves to +be a colony founded by Sesostris. As for myself, I should think this +probable, not merely because they are dark and woolly-haired, but +because the inhabitants of Colchis, Egypt, and Ethiopia are the only +people in the world who, from time immemorial, have practised +circumcision; for the Phoenicians, and the people of Palestine, +confess that they adopted the practice from the Egyptians. The Syrians, +who at present inhabit the banks of Thermodon, acknowledge that it is, +comparatively, but recently that they have conformed to it. It is +principally from this usage that they are considered of Egyptian origin. + +"With respect to Ethiopia and Egypt, as this ceremony is of great +antiquity in both nations, I cannot by any means ascertain which has +derived it from the other. It is, however, probable that the Ethiopians +received it from the Egyptians; while, on the contrary, the +Phoenicians have abolished the practice of circumcising new-born +children since the enlargement of their commerce with the Greeks." + +From this passage of Herodotus it is evident that many people had +adopted circumcision from Egypt, but no nation ever pretended to have +received it from the Jews. To whom, then, can we attribute the origin of +this custom; to a nation from whom five or six others acknowledge they +took it, or to another nation, much less powerful, less commercial, less +warlike, hid away in a corner of Arabia Petraea, and which never +communicated any one of its usages to any other people? + +The Jews admit that they were, many ages since, received in Egypt out of +charity. Is it not probable that the lesser people imitated a usage of +the superior one, and that the Jews adopted some customs from their +masters? + +Clement of Alexandria relates that Pythagoras, when travelling among the +Egyptians, was obliged to be circumcised in order to be admitted to +their mysteries. It was, therefore, absolutely necessary to be +circumcised to be a priest in Egypt. Those priests existed when Joseph +arrived in Egypt. The government was of great antiquity, and the ancient +ceremonies of the country were observed with the most scrupulous +exactness. + +The Jews acknowledge that they remained in Egypt two hundred and five +years. They say that, during that period, they did not become +circumcised. It is clear, then, that for two hundred and five years the +Egyptians did not receive circumcision from the Jews. Would they have +adopted it from them after the Jews had stolen the vessels which they +had lent them, and, according to their own account, fled with their +plunder into the wilderness? Will a master adopt the principal symbol of +the religion of a robbing and runaway slave? It is not in human nature. + +It is stated in the Book of Joshua that the Jews were circumcised in the +wilderness. "I have delivered you from what constituted your reproach +among the Egyptians." But what could this reproach be, to a people +living between Phoenicians, Arabians, and Egyptians, but something +which rendered them contemptible to these three nations? How effectually +is that reproach removed by abstracting a small portion of the prepuce? +Must not this be considered the natural meaning of the passage? + +The Book of Genesis relates that Abraham had been circumcised before. +But Abraham travelled in Egypt, which had been long a flourishing +kingdom, governed by a powerful king. There is nothing to prevent the +supposition that circumcision was, in this very ancient kingdom, an +established usage. Moreover, the circumcision of Abraham led to no +continuation; his posterity was not circumcised till the time of Joshua. + +But, before the time of Joshua, the Jews, by their own acknowledgment, +adopted many of the customs of the Egyptians. They imitated them in many +sacrifices, in many ceremonies; as, for example, in the fasts observed +on the eves of the feasts of Isis; in ablutions; in the custom of +shaving the heads of the priests; in the incense, the branched +candle-stick, the sacrifice of the red-haired cow, the purification with +hyssop, the abstinence from swine's flesh, the dread of using the +kitchen utensils of foreigners; everything testifies that the little +people of Hebrews, notwithstanding its aversion to the great Egyptian +nation, had retained a vast number of the usages of its former masters. +The goat Azazel, which was despatched into the wilderness laden with the +sins of the people, was a visible imitation of an Egyptian practice. The +rabbis are agreed, even, that the word Azazel is not Hebrew. Nothing, +therefore, could exist to have prevented the Hebrews from imitating the +Egyptians in circumcision, as the Arabs, their neighbors, did. + +It is by no means extraordinary that God, who sanctified baptism, a +practice so ancient among the Asiatics, should also have sanctified +circumcision, not less ancient among the Africans. We have already +remarked that he has a sovereign right to attach his favors to any +symbol that he chooses. + +As to what remains since the time when, under Joshua, the Jewish people +became circumcised, it has retained that usage down to the present day. +The Arabs, also, have faithfully adhered to it; but the Egyptians, who, +in the earlier ages, circumcised both their males and females, in the +course of time abandoned the practice entirely as to the latter, and at +last applied it solely to priests, astrologers, and prophets. This we +learn from Clement of Alexandria, and Origen. In fact, it is not clear +that the Ptolemies ever received circumcision. + +The Latin authors who treat the Jews with such profound contempt as to +apply to them in derision the expressions, "_curtus Apella_", "_credat +Judaeus Apella_," "_curti Judaei_" never apply such epithets to the +Egyptians. The whole population of Egypt is at present circumcised, but +for another reason than that which operated formerly; namely, because +Mahometanism adopted the ancient circumcision of Arabia. It is this +Arabian circumcision which has extended to the Ethiopians, among whom +males and females are both still circumcised. + +We must acknowledge that this ceremony appears at first a very strange +one; but we should remember that, from the earliest times, the oriental +priests consecrated themselves to their deities by peculiar marks. An +ivy leaf was indented with a graver on the priests of Bacchus. Lucian +tells us that those devoted to the goddess Isis impressed characters +upon their wrist and neck. The priests of Cybele made themselves +eunuchs. + +It is highly probable that the Egyptians, who revered the instrument of +human production, and bore its image in pomp in their processions, +conceived the idea of offering to Isis and Osiris through whom +everything on earth was produced, a small portion of that organ with +which these deities had connected the perpetuation of the human species. +Ancient oriental manners are so prodigiously different from our own that +scarcely anything will appear extraordinary to a man of even but little +reading. A Parisian is excessively surprised when he is told that the +Hottentots deprive their male children of one of the evidences of +virility. The Hottentots are perhaps surprised that the Parisians +preserve both. + + + + +CLERK--CLERGY. + + +There may be something perhaps still remaining for remark under this +head, even after Du Cange's "Dictionary" and the "Encyclopaedia." We may +observe, for instance, that so wonderful was the respect paid to +learning, about the eleventh and twelfth centuries, that a custom was +introduced and followed in France, in Germany, and in England, of +remitting the punishment of the halter to every condemned criminal who +was able to read. So necessary to the state was every man who possessed +such an extent of knowledge. William the Bastard, the conqueror of +England, carried thither this custom. It was called _benefit of +clergy_--"_beneficum clericorum aut clergicorum._" + +We have remarked, in more places than one, that old usages, lost in +other countries, are found again in England, as in the island of +Samothrace were discovered the ancient mysteries of Orpheus. To this day +the benefit of clergy subsists among the English, in all its vigor, for +manslaughter, and for any theft not exceeding a certain amount of value, +and being the first offence. The prisoner who is able to read demands +his "benefit of clergy," which cannot be refused him. The judge refers +to the chaplain of the prison, who presents a book to the prisoner, upon +which the judge puts the question to the chaplain, "_Legit?_" "Does he +read?" The chaplain replies: "_Legit ut clericus._" "He reads like a +clergyman." After this the punishment of the prisoner is restricted to +the application of a hot branding iron to the palm of his hand. + +_Of the Celibacy of the Clergy._ + +It is asked whether, in the first ages of the Church, marriage was +permitted to the clergy, and when it was forbidden? It is unquestionable +that the clergy of the Jewish religion, far from being bound to +celibacy, were, on the contrary, urged to marriage, not merely by the +example of their patriarchs, but by the disgrace attached to not leaving +posterity. + +In the times, however, that preceded the first calamities which befell +the Jews, certain sects of rigorists arose--Essenians, Judaites, +Therapeutae, Herodians; in some of which--the Essenians and Therapeutae, +for examples--the most devout of the sect abstained from marriage. This +continence was an imitation of the chastity of the vestals, instituted +by Numa Pompilius; of the daughter of Pythagoras, who founded a convent; +of the priests of Diana; of the Pythia of Delphos; and, in more remote +antiquity, of the priestesses of Apollo, and even of the priestesses of +Bacchus. The priests of Cybele not only bound themselves by vows of +chastity, but, to preclude the violation of their vows, became eunuchs. +Plutarch, in the eighth question of his "Table-talk," informs us that, +in Egypt, there are colleges of priests which renounce marriage. + +The first Christians, although professing to lead a life as pure as that +of the Essenians and Therapeutae, did not consider celibacy as a virtue. +We have seen that nearly all the apostles and disciples were married. +St. Paul writes to Titus: "Choose for a priest him who is the husband of +one wife, having believing children, and not under accusation of +dissoluteness." He says the same to Timothy: "Let the superintendent be +the husband of one wife." He seems to think so highly of marriage that, +in the same epistle to Timothy, he says: "The wife, notwithstanding her +prevarication, shall be saved in child-bearing." + +The proceedings of the Council of Nice, on the subject of married +priests, deserve great attention. Some bishops, according to the +relations of Sozomen and Socrates, proposed a law commanding bishops and +priests thenceforward to abstain from their wives; but St. Paphnucius +the Martyr, bishop of Thebes, in Egypt, strenuously opposed it; +observing, "that marriage was chastity"; and the council adopted his +opinion. Suidas, Gelasius, Cesicenus, Cassiodorus, and Nicephorus +Callistus, record precisely the same thing. The council merely forbade +the clergy from living with agapetae, or female associates besides their +own wives, except their mothers, sisters, aunts, and others whose age +would preclude suspicion. + +After that time, the celibacy of the clergy was recommended, without +being commanded. St. Jerome, a devout recluse, was, of all the fathers, +highest in his eulogiums of the celibacy of priests; yet he resolutely, +supports the cause of Carterius, a Spanish bishop, who had been married +twice. "Were I," says he, "to enumerate all the bishops who have entered +into second nuptials, I should name as many as were present at the +Council of Rimini"--_"Tantus numerus congregabitur ut Riminensis synodus +superetur."_ + +The examples of clergymen married, and living with their wives, are +innumerable. Sydonius, bishop of Clermont, in Auvergne, in the fifth +century, married Papianilla, daughter of the Emperor Avitus, and the +house of Polignac claims descent from this marriage. Simplicius, bishop +of Bourges, had two children by his wife Palladia. St. Gregory of +Nazianzen was the son of another Gregory, bishop of Nazianzen, and of +Nonna, by whom that bishop had three children--Cesarius, Gorgonia, and +the saint. + +In the Roman decretals, under the canon Osius, we find a very long list +of bishops who were the sons of priests. Pope Osius himself was the son +of a sub-deacon Stephen; and Pope Boniface I., son of the priest +Jocondo. Pope Felix III. was the son of Felix, a priest, and was himself +one of the grandfathers of Gregory the Great. The priest Projectus was +the father of John II.; and Gordian, the father of Agapet. Pope +Sylvester was the son of Pope Hormisdas. Theodore I. was born of a +marriage of Theodore, patriarch of Jerusalem; a circumstance which +should produce the reconciliation of the two Churches. + +At length, after several councils had been held without effect on the +subject of the celibacy, which ought always to accompany the priesthood, +Pope Gregory excommunicated all married priests; either to add +respectability to the Church, by the greater rigor of its discipline, or +to attach more closely to the court of Rome the bishops and priests of +other countries, who would thus have no other family than the Church. +This law was not established without great opposition. + +It is a very remarkable circumstance that the Council of Basel, having +deposed, at least nominally, Pope Eugenius IV., and elected Amadeus of +Savoy, many bishops having objected against that prince that he had been +married, AEneas Sylvius, who was afterwards pope, under the name of Pius +II., supported the election of Amadeus in these words: "_Non solum qui +uxorem habuit, sed uxorem habens, potest assumere_"--"Not only may he be +made a pope who _has been_ married, but also he who _is_ so." + +This Pius II. was consistent. Peruse his letters to his mistress, in the +collection of his works. He was convinced, that to defraud nature of her +rights was absolute insanity, and that it was the duty of man not to +destroy, but to control her. + +However this may be, since the Council of Trent there has no longer been +any dispute about the celibacy of the Roman Catholic clergy; there have +been only desires. All Protestant communions are, on this point, in +opposition to Rome. + +In the Greek Church, which at present extends from the frontiers of +China to Cape Matapan, the priests may marry once. Customs everywhere +vary; discipline changes conformably to time and place. We here only +record facts; we enter into no controversy. + +_Of Clerks of the Closet, Since Denominated Secretaries of State and +Ministers._ + +Clerks of the closet, clerks of the king, more recently denominated +secretaries of state, in France and England, were originally the "king's +notaries." They were afterwards called "secretaries of orders" +--_secretaires des commandemens_. This we are informed of by the +learned and laborious Pasquier. His authority is unquestionable, as he +had under his inspection the registers of the chamber of accounts, +which, in our own times, have been destroyed by fire. + +At the unfortunate peace of Cateau-Cambresis, a clerk of Philip II., +having taken the title of secretary of state, de l'Aubespine, who was +secretary of orders to the king of France, and his notary, took that +title likewise, that the honors of both might be equal, whatever might +be the case with their emoluments. + +In England, before the reign of Henry VIII., there was only one +secretary of the king, who stood while he presented memorials and +petitions to the council. Henry VIII. appointed two, and conferred on +them the same titles and prerogatives as in Spain. The great nobles did +not, at that period, accept these situations; but, in time, they have +become of so much consequence that peers of the realm and commanders of +armies are now invested with them. Thus everything changes. There is at +present no relic in France of the government of Hugh Capet, nor in +England of the administration of William the Bastard. + + + + +CLIMATE. + + +It is certain that the sun and atmosphere mark their empire on all the +productions of nature, from man to mushrooms. In the grand age of Louis +XIV., the ingenious Fontenelle remarked: + +"One might imagine that the torrid and two frigid zones are not well +suited to the sciences. Down to the present day they have not travelled +beyond Egypt and Mauritania, on the one side, nor on the other beyond +Sweden. Perhaps it is not owing to mere chance that they are retained +within Mount Atlas and the Baltic Sea. We know not whether these may not +be the limits appointed to them by nature, or whether we may ever hope +to see great authors among Laplanders or negroes." + +Chardin, one of those travellers who reason and investigate, goes still +further than Fontenelle, when speaking of Persia. "The temperature of +warm climates," says he, "enervates the mind as well as the body, and +dissipates that fire which the imagination requires for invention. In +such climates men are incapable of the long studies and intense +application which are necessary to the production of first-rate works in +the liberal and mechanic arts," etc. + +Chardin did not consider that Sadi and Lokman were Persians. He did not +recollect that Archimedes belonged to Sicily, where the heat is greater +than in three-fourths of Persia. He forgot that Pythagoras formerly +taught geometry to the Brahmins. The Abbe Dubos supported and developed, +as well as he was able, the opinion of Chardin. + +One hundred and fifty years before them, Bodin made it the foundation of +his system in his "Republic," and in his "Method of History"; he asserts +that the influence of climate is the principle both of the government +and the religion of nations. Diodorus of Sicily was of the same opinion +long before Bodin. + +The author of the "Spirit of Laws," without quoting any authority, +carried this idea farther than Chardin and Bodin. A certain part of the +nation believed him to have first suggested it, and imputed it to him as +a crime. This was quite in character with that part of the nation +alluded to. There are everywhere men who possess more zeal than +understanding. + +We might ask those who maintain that climate does everything, why the +Emperor Julian, in his "_Misopogon_" says that what pleased him in the +Parisians was the gravity of their characters and the severity of their +manners; and why these Parisians, without the slightest change of +climate, are now like playful children, at whom the government punishes +and smiles at the same moment, and who themselves, the moment after, +also smile and sing lampoons upon their masters. + +Why are the Egyptians, who are described as having been still more grave +than the Parisians, at present the most lazy, frivolous, and cowardly of +people, after having, as we are told, conquered the whole world for +their pleasure, under a king called Sesostris? Why are there no longer +Anacreons, Aristotles, or Zeuxises at Athens? Whence comes it that Rome, +instead of its Ciceros, Catos, and Livys, has merely citizens who dare +not speak their minds, and a brutalized populace, whose supreme +happiness consists in having oil cheap, and in gazing at processions? + +Cicero, in his letters, is occasionally very jocular on the English. He +desires his brother Quintus, Caesar's lieutenant, to inform him whether +he has found any great philosophers among them, in his expedition to +Britain. He little suspected that that country would one day produce +mathematicians whom he could not understand. Yet the climate has not at +all changed, and the sky of London is as cloudy now as it was then. + +Everything changes, both in bodies and minds, by time. Perhaps the +Americans will in some future period cross the sea to instruct Europeans +in the arts. Climate has some influence, government a hundred times +more; religion and government combined more still. + +_Influence of Climate._ + +Climate influences religion in respect to ceremonies and usages. A +legislator could have experienced no difficulty in inducing the Indians +to bathe in the Ganges at certain appearances of the moon; it is a high +gratification to them. Had any one proposed a like bath to the people +who inhabit the banks of the Dwina, near Archangel, he would have been +stoned. Forbid pork to an Arab, who after eating this species of animal +food (the most miserable and disgusting in his own country) would be +affected by leprosy, he will obey you with joy; prohibit it to a +Westphalian, and he will be tempted to knock you down. Abstinence from +wine is a good precept of religion in Arabia, where orange, citron, and +lemon waters are necessary to health. Mahomet would not have forbidden +wine in Switzerland, especially before going to battle. + +There are usages merely fanciful. Why did the priests of Egypt devise +circumcision? It was not for the sake of health. Cambyses, who treated +as they deserved both them and their bull Apis, the courtiers of +Cambyses, and his soldiers, enjoyed perfectly good health without such +mutilation. Climate has no peculiar influence over this particular +portion of the person of a priest. The offering in question was made to +Isis, probably on the same principle as the firstlings of the fruits of +the earth were everywhere offered. It was typical of an offering of the +first fruits of life. + +Religions have always turned on two pivots--forms of ceremonies, and +faith. Forms and ceremonies depend much on climate; faith not at all. A +doctrine will be received with equal facility under the equator or near +the pole. It will be afterwards equally rejected at Batavia and the +Orcades, while it will be maintained, _unguibus et rostro_--with tooth +and nail--at Salamanca. This depends not on sun and atmosphere, but +solely upon opinion, that fickle empress of the world. + +Certain libations of wine will be naturally enjoined in a country +abounding in vineyards; and it would never occur to the mind of any +legislator to institute sacred mysteries, which could not be celebrated +without wine, in such a country as Norway. + +It will be expressly commanded to burn incense in the court of a temple +where beasts are killed in honor of the Divinity, and for the priests' +supper. This slaughter-house, called a temple, would be a place of +abominable infection, if it were not continually purified; and without +the use of aromatics, the religion of the ancients would have +introduced the plague. The interior of the temple was even festooned +with flowers to sweeten the air. + +The cow will not be sacrificed in the burning territory of the Indian +peninsula, because it supplies the necessary article of milk, and is +very rare in arid and barren districts, and because its flesh, being dry +and tough, and yielding but little nourishment, would afford the +Brahmins but miserable cheer. On the contrary, the cow will be +considered sacred, in consequence of its rareness and utility. + +The temple of Jupiter Ammon, where the heat is excessive, will be +entered only with bare feet. To perform his devotions at Copenhagen, a +man requires his feet to be warm and well covered. + +It is not thus with doctrine. Polytheism has been believed in all +climates; and it is equally easy for a Crim Tartar and an inhabitant of +Mecca to acknowledge one only incommunicable God, neither begotten nor +begetting. It is by doctrine, more than by rites, that a religion +extends from one climate to another. The doctrine of the unity of God +passed rapidly from Medina to Mount Caucasus. Climate, then, yields to +opinion. + +The Arabs said to the Turks: "We practiced the ceremony of circumcision +in Arabia without very well knowing why. It was an ancient usage of the +priests of Egypt to offer to Oshiret, or Osiris, a small portion of what +they considered most valuable. We had adopted this custom three +thousand years before we became Mahometans. You will become circumcised +like us; you will bind yourself to sleep with one of your wives every +Friday, and to give two and a half per cent. of your income annually to +the poor. We drink nothing but water and sherbet; all intoxicating +liquors are forbidden us. In Arabia they are pernicious. You will +embrace the same regimen, although you should be passionately fond of +wine; and even although, on the banks of the Phasis and Araxes, it +should often be necessary for you. In short, if you wish to go to +heaven, and to obtain good places there, you will take the road through +Mecca." + +The inhabitants north of the Caucasus subject themselves to these laws, +and adopt, in the fullest extent, a religion which was never framed for +them. + +In Egypt the emblematical worship of animals succeeded to the doctrines +of Thaut. The gods of the Romans afterwards shared Egypt with the dogs, +the cats, and the crocodiles. To the Roman religion succeeded +Christianity; that was completely banished by Mahometanism, which will +perhaps be superseded by some new religion. + +In all these changes climate has effected nothing; government has done +everything. We are here considering only second causes, without raising +our unhallowed eyes to that Providence which directs them. The Christian +religion, which received its birth in Syria, and grew up towards its +fulness of stature in Alexandria, inhabits now those countries where +Teutat and Irminsul, Freya and Odin, were formerly adored. + +There are some nations whose religion is not the result either of +climate or of government. What cause detached the north of Germany, +Denmark, three parts of Switzerland, Holland, England, Scotland, and +Ireland, from the Romish communion? Poverty. Indulgences, and +deliverance from purgatory for the souls of those whose bodies were at +that time in possession of very little money, were sold too dear. The +prelates and monks absorbed the whole revenue of a province. People +adopted a cheaper religion. In short, after numerous civil wars, it was +concluded that the pope's religion was a good one for nobles, and the +reformed one for citizens. Time will show whether the religion of the +Greeks or of the Turks will prevail on the coasts of the Euxine and +AEgean seas. + + + + +COHERENCE--COHESION--ADHESION. + + +The power by which the parts of bodies are kept together. It is a +phenomenon the most common, but the least understood. Newton derides the +hooked atoms, by means of which it has been attempted to explain +coherence; for it still remained to be known why they are hooked, and +why they cohere. He treats with no greater respect those who have +explained cohesion by rest. "It is," says he, "an occult quality." + +He has recourse to an attraction. But is not this attraction, which may +indeed exist, but is by no means capable of demonstration, itself an +occult quality? The grand attraction of the heavenly bodies is +demonstrated and calculated. That of adhering bodies is incalculable. +But how can we admit a force that is immeasurable to be of the same +nature as one that can be measured? + +Nevertheless, it is demonstrated that the force of attraction acts upon +all the planets and all heavy bodies in proportion to their solidity; +but it acts on all the particles of matter; it is, therefore, very +probable that, while it exists in every part in reference to the whole, +it exists also in every part in reference to cohesion; coherence, +therefore, may be the effect of attraction. + +This opinion appears admissible till a better one can be found, and that +better is not easily to be met with. + + + + +COMMERCE. + + +Since the fall of Carthage, no people had been powerful in commerce and +arms at the same time, until Venice set the example. The Portuguese +having passed the Cape of Good Hope, were, for some time, great lords on +the coast of India, and even formidable in Europe. The United Provinces +have only been warriors in spite of themselves, and it was not as united +between themselves, but as united with England that they assisted to +hold the balance of Europe at the commencement of the eighteenth +century. + +Carthage, Venice, and Amsterdam have been powerful; but they have acted +like those people among us, who, having amassed money by trade, buy +lordly estates. Neither Carthage, Venice, Holland, nor any people, have +commenced by being warriors, and even conquerors, to finish by being +merchants. The English only answer this description; they had fought a +long time before they knew how to reckon. They did not know, when they +gained the battles of Agincourt, Crecy, and Poitiers, that they were +able to deal largely in corn, and make broadcloth, which would be of +much more value to them than such victories. The knowledge of these arts +alone has augmented, enriched, and strengthened the nation. It is only +because the English have become merchants that London exceeds Paris in +extent and number of citizens; that they can spread two hundred ships of +war over the seas, and keep royal allies in pay. + +When Louis XIV. made Italy tremble, and his armies, already masters of +Savoy and Piedmont, were ready to take Turin, Prince Eugene was obliged +to march to the skirts of Germany, to the succor of the duke of Savoy. +Having no money, without which he could neither take nor defend towns, +he had recourse to the English merchants. In half an hour they advanced +him the sum of five millions of livres, with which he delivered Turin, +beat the French, and wrote this little billet to those who had lent it +him: "Gentlemen, I have received your money, and I flatter myself that I +have employed it to your satisfaction." All this excites just pride in +an English merchant, and makes him venture to compare himself, and not +without reason, to a Roman citizen. Thus the younger sons of a peer of +the realm disdain not to be merchants. Lord Townsend, minister of state, +had a brother who was contented with being a merchant in the city. At +the time that Lord Orford governed England, his younger brother was a +factor at Aleppo, whence he would not return, and where he died. This +custom--which, however, begins to decline--appeared monstrous to the +petty German princes. They could not conceive how the son of a peer of +England was only a rich and powerful trader, while in Germany they are +all princes. We have seen nearly thirty highnesses of the same name, +having nothing for their fortunes but old armories and aristocratical +hauteur. In France, anybody may be a marquis that likes; and whoever +arrives at Paris from a remote province, with money to spend, and a name +ending in _ac_ or _ille_, may say: "A man like me!" "A man of my +quality!" and sovereignly despise a merchant; while the merchant so +often hears his profession spoken of with disdain that he is weak enough +to blush at it. Which is the more useful to a state--a well-powdered +lord, who knows precisely at what hour the king rises and retires, and +who gives himself airs of greatness, while playing the part of a slave +in the antechamber of a minister; or a merchant who enriches his +country, sends orders from his office to Surat and Aleppo, and +contributes to the happiness of the world? + + + + +COMMON SENSE. + + +There is sometimes in vulgar expressions an image of what passes in the +heart of all men. "_Sensus communis_" signified among the Romans not +only common sense, but also humanity and sensibility. As we are not +equal to the Romans, this word with us conveys not half what it did with +them. It signifies only good sense--plain, straightforward +reasoning--the first notion of ordinary things--a medium between dulness +and intellect. To say, "that man has not common sense," is a gross +insult; while the expression, "that man has common sense," is an affront +also; it would imply that he was not quite stupid, but that he wanted +intellect. But what is the meaning of common sense, if it be not sense? +Men, when they invented this term, supposed that nothing entered the +mind except by the senses; otherwise would they have used the word +"sense" to signify the result of the common faculty of reason? + +It is said, sometimes, that common sense is very rare. What does this +expression mean? That, in many men, dawning reason is arrested in its +progress by some prejudices; that a man who judges reasonably on one +affair will deceive himself grossly in another. The Arab, who, besides +being a good calculator, was a learned chemist and an exact astronomer, +nevertheless believed that Mahomet put half of the moon into his sleeve. + +How is it that he was so much above common sense in the three sciences +above mentioned, and beneath it when he proceeded to the subject of half +the moon? It is because, in the first case, he had seen with his own +eyes, and perfected his own intelligence; and, in the second, he had +used the eyes of others, by shutting his own, and perverting the common +sense within him. + +How could this strange perversion of mind operate? How could the ideas +which had so regular and firm a footing in his brain, on many subjects, +halt on another a thousand times more palpable and easy to comprehend? +This man had always the same principles of intelligence in him; he must +have therefore possessed a vitiated organ, as it sometimes happens that +the most delicate epicure has a depraved taste in regard to a particular +kind of nourishment. + +How did the organ of this Arab, who saw half of the moon in Mahomet's +sleeve, become disordered--By fear. It had been told him that if he did +not believe in this sleeve his soul, immediately after his death, in +passing over the narrow bridge, would fall forever into the abyss. He +was told much worse--if ever you doubt this sleeve, one dervish will +treat you with ignominy; another will prove you mad, because, having all +possible motives for credibility, you will not submit your superb reason +to evidence; a third will refer you to the little divan of a small +province, and you will be legally impaled. + +All this produces a panic in the good Arab, his wife, sister, and all +his little family. They possess good sense in all the rest, but on this +article their imagination is diseased like that of Pascal, who +continually saw a precipice near his couch. But did our Arab really +believe in the sleeve of Mahomet? No; he endeavored to believe it; he +said, "It is impossible, but true--I believe that which I do not +credit." He formed a chaos of ideas in his head in regard to this +sleeve, which he feared to disentangle, and he gave up his common sense. + + + + +CONFESSION. + + +Repentance for one's faults is the only thing that can repair the loss +of innocence; and to appear to repent of them, we must begin by +acknowledging them. Confession, therefore, is almost as ancient as civil +society. Confession was practised in all the mysteries of Egypt, Greece, +and Samothrace. We are told, in the life of Marcus Aurelius, that when +he deigned to participate in the Eleusinian mysteries, he confessed +himself to the hierophant, though no man had less need of confession +than himself. + +This might be a very salutary ceremony; it might also become very +detrimental; for such is the case with all human institutions. We know +the answer of the Spartan whom a hierophant would have persuaded to +confess himself: "To whom should I acknowledge my faults? to God, or to +thee?" "To God," said the priest. "Retire, then, O man." + +It is hard to determine at what time this practice was established among +the Jews, who borrowed a great many of their rites from their neighbors. +The Mishna, which is the collection of the Jewish laws, says that often, +in confessing, they placed their hand upon a calf belonging to the +priest; and this was called "the confession of calves." + +It is said, in the same Mishna, that every culprit under sentence of +death, went and confessed himself before witnesses, in some retired +spot, a short time before his execution. If he felt himself guilty he +said, "May my death atone for all my sins!" If innocent, he said, "May +my death atone for all my sins, excepting that of which I am now +accused." + +On the day of the feast which was called by the Jews _the solemn +atonement_, the devout among them confessed to one another, specifying +their sins. The confessor repeated three times thirteen words of the +seventy-seventh Psalm, at the same time giving the confessed thirty-nine +stripes, which the latter returned, and they went away quits. It is said +that this ceremony is still in use. + +St. John's reputation for sanctity brought crowds to confess to him, as +they came to be baptized by him with the baptism of justice; but we are +not informed that St. John gave his penitents thirty-nine stripes. +Confession was not then a sacrament; for this there are several reasons. +The first is, that the word "sacrament" was at that time unknown, which +reason is of itself sufficient. The Christians took their confession +from the Jewish rites, and not from the mysteries of Isis and Ceres. The +Jews confessed to their associates, and the Christians did also. It +afterwards appeared more convenient that this should be the privilege of +the priests. No rite, no ceremony, can be established but in process of +time. It was hardly possible that some trace should not remain of the +ancient usage of the laity of confessing to one another. + +In Constantine's reign, it was at first the practice publicly to confess +public offences. In the fifth century, after the schism of Novatus and +Novatian, penitentiaries were instituted for the absolution of such as +had fallen into idolatry. This confession to penitentiary priests was +abolished under the Emperor Theodosius. A woman having accused herself +aloud, to the penitentiary of Constantinople, of lying with the deacon, +caused so much scandal and disturbance throughout the city that +Nectarius permitted all the faithful to approach the holy table without +confession, and to communicate in obedience to their consciences alone. +Hence these words of St. John Chrysostom, who succeeded Nectarius: +"Confess yourselves continually to God; I do not bring you forward on a +stage to discover your faults to your fellow-servants; show your wounds +to God, and ask of Him their cure; acknowledge your sins to Him who will +not reproach you before men; it were vain to strive to hide them from +Him who knows all things," etc. + +It is said that the practice of auricular confession did not begin in +the west until about the seventh century, when it was instituted by the +abbots, who required their monks to come and acknowledge their offences +to them twice a year. These abbots it was who invented the formula: "I +absolve thee to the utmost of my power and thy need." It would surely +have been more respectful towards the Supreme Being, as well as more +just, to say: "May He forgive both thy faults and mine!" + +The good which confession has done is that it has sometimes procured +restitution from petty thieves. The ill is, that, in the internal +troubles of states, it has sometimes forced the penitents to be +conscientiously rebellious and blood-thirsty. The Guelph priests refused +absolution to the Ghibellines, and the Ghibellines to the Guelphs. + +The counsellor of state, Lenet, relates, in his "Memoirs," that all he +could do in Burgundy to make the people rise in favor of the Prince +Conde, detained at Vincennes by Cardinal Mazarin, was "to let loose the +priests in the confessionals"--speaking of them as bloodhounds, who were +to fan the flame of civil war in the privacy of the confessional. + +At the siege of Barcelona, the monks refused absolution to all who +remained faithful to Philip V. In the last revolution of Genoa, it was +intimated to all consciences that there was no salvation for whosoever +should not take up arms against the Austrians. This salutary remedy has, +in every age, been converted into a poison. Whether a Sforza, a Medici, +a Prince of Orange, or a King of France was to be assassinated, the +parricide always prepared himself by the sacrament of confession. Louis +XI., and the Marchioness de Brinvilliers always confessed as soon as +they had committed any great crime; and they confessed often, as +gluttons take medicines to increase their appetite. + +_The Disclosure of Confessions._ + +Jaurigini and Balthazar Gerard, the assassins of William I., Prince of +Orange, the dominican Jacques Clement, Jean Chatel, the Feuillant +Ravaillac, and all the other parricides of that day, confessed +themselves before committing their crimes. Fanaticism, in those +deplorable ages, had arrived at such a pitch that confession was but an +additional pledge for the consummation of villainy. It became sacred for +this reason--that confession is a sacrament. + +Strada himself says: _"Jaurigni non ante facinus aggredi sustinuit, quam +expiatam noxis animam apud Dominicanum sacerdotem coelesti pane +firmaverit"._ "Jaurigini did not venture upon this act until he had +purged his soul by confession at the feet of a Dominican, and fortified +it by the celestial bread." + +We find, in the interrogatory of Ravaillac, that the wretched man, +quitting the Feuillans, and wishing to be received among the Jesuits, +applied to the Jesuit d'Aubigny and, after speaking of several +apparitions that he had seen, showed him a knife, on the blade of which +was engraved a heart and a cross, and said, "This heart indicates that +the king's heart must be brought to make war on the Huguenots." + +Perhaps, if this d'Aubigny had been zealous and prudent enough to have +informed the king of these words, and given him a faithful picture of +the man who had uttered them, the best of kings would not have been +assassinated. + +On August 20, 1610, three months after the death of Henry IV., whose +wounds yet bleed in the heart of every Frenchman, the Advocate-General +Sirvin, still of illustrious memory, required that the Jesuits should be +made to sign the four following rules: + +1. That the council is above the pope. 2. That the pope cannot deprive +the king of any of his rights by excommunication. 3. That ecclesiastics, +like other persons, are entirely subject to the king. 4. That a priest +who is made acquainted, by confession, with a conspiracy against the +king and the state, must disclose it to the magistrates. + +On the 22nd, the parliament passed a decree, by which it forbade the +Jesuits to instruct youth before they had signed these four articles; +but the court of Rome was then so powerful, and that of France so +feeble, that this decree was of no effect. A fact worthy of attention +is, that this same court of Rome, which did not choose that confession +should be disclosed when the lives of sovereigns were endangered, +obliged its confessors to denounce to the inquisitors those whom their +female penitents accused in confession of having seduced and abused +them. Paul IV., Pius IV., Clement VIII., and Gregory XV., ordered these +disclosures to be made. + +This was a very embarrassing snare for confessors and female penitents; +it was making the sacrament a register of informations, and even of +sacrileges. For, by the ancient canons, and especially by the Lateran +Council under Innocent III., every priest that disclosed a confession, +of whatever nature, was to be interdicted and condemned to perpetual +imprisonment. + +But this is not the worst; here are four popes, of the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries, ordering the disclosure of a sin of impurity, but +not permitting that of a parricide. A woman, in the sacrament, declares, +or pretends, before a carmelite, that a cordelier has seduced her; and +the carmelite must denounce the cordelier. A fanatical assassin, +thinking that he serves God by killing his prince, comes and consults a +confessor on this case of conscience; and the confessor commits a +sacrilege if he saves his sovereign's life. + +This absurd and horrible contradiction is one unfortunate consequence of +the constant opposition existing for so many centuries between the civil +and ecclesiastical laws. The citizen finds himself, on fifty occasions, +placed without alternative between sacrilege and high treason; the rules +of good and evil being not yet drawn from beneath the chaos under which +they have so long been buried. The Jesuit Coton's reply to Henry IV. +will endure longer than his order. "Would you reveal the confession of a +man who had resolved to assassinate me?" "No; but I would throw myself +between him and you." + +Father Coton's maxim has not always been followed. In some countries +there are state mysteries unknown to the public, of which revealed +confessions form no inconsiderable part. By means of suborned confessors +the secrets of prisoners are learned. Some confessors, to reconcile +their conscience with their interest, make use of a singular artifice. +They give an account, not precisely of what the prisoner has told them, +but of what he has not told them. If, for example, they are employed to +find out whether an accused person has for his accomplice a Frenchman or +an Italian, they say to the man who employs them, "the prisoner has +sworn to me that no Italian was informed of his designs;" whence it is +concluded that the suspected Frenchman is guilty. + +Bodin thus expresses himself, in his book, "_De la Republique_": "Nor +must it be concealed, if the culprit is discovered to have conspired +against the life of the sovereign, or even to have willed it only; as in +the case of a gentleman of Normandy, who confessed to a monk that he had +a mind to kill Francis I. The monk apprised the king, who sent the +gentleman to the court of parliament, where he was condemned to death, +as I learned from M. Canage, an advocate in parliament." + +The writer of this article was himself almost witness to a disclosure +still more important and singular. It is known how the Jesuit Daubenton +betrayed Philip V., king of Spain, to whom he was confessor. He thought, +from a very mistaken policy, that he should report the secrets of his +penitent to the duke of Orleans, regent of the kingdom, and had the +imprudence to write to him what he should not, even verbally, +communicate to any one. The duke of Orleans sent his letter to the king +of Spain. The Jesuit was discarded, and died a short time after. This is +an authenticated fact. + +It is still a grave and perplexing question, in what cases confessions +should be disclosed. For, if we decide that it should be in cases of +human high treason, this treason may be made to include any direct +offence against majesty, even the smuggling of salt or muslins. Much +more should high treasons against the Divine Majesty be disclosed; and +these may be extended to the smallest faults, as having missed evening +service. + +It would, then, be very important to come to a perfect understanding +about what confessions should be disclosed, and what should be kept +secret. Yet would such a decision be very dangerous; for how many things +are there which must not be investigated! + +Pontas, who, in three folio volumes, decides on all the possible cases +of conscience in France, and is unknown to the rest of the world, says +that on no occasion should confession be disclosed. The parliaments have +decided the contrary. Which are we to believe? Pontas, or the guardians +of the laws of the realm, who watch over the lives of princes and the +safety of the state? + +_Whether Laymen and Women Have Been Confessors?_ + +As, in the old law, the laity confessed to one another; so, in the new +law, they long had the same privilege by custom. In proof of this, let +it suffice to cite the celebrated Joinville, who expressly says that +"the constable of Cyprus confessed himself to him, and he gave him +absolution, according to the right which he had so to do." St. Thomas, +in his dream, expresses himself thus: _"Confessio ex defectu sacerdotis +laico facta, sacramentalis est quodam modo."_ "Confession made to a +layman, in default of a priest, is in some sort sacramental." + +We find in the life of St. Burgundosarius, and in the rule of an unknown +saint, that the nuns confessed their very grossest sins to their abbess. +The rule of St. Donatus ordains that the nuns shall discover their +faults to their superior three times a day. The capitulars of our kings +say that abbesses must be forbidden the exercise of the right which they +have arrogated against the custom of the holy church, of giving +benediction and imposing hands, which seems to signify the pronouncing +of absolution, and supposes the confession of sins. Marcus, patriarch of +Alexandria, asks Balzamon, a celebrated canonist of his time, whether +permission should be granted to abbesses to hear confessions, to which +Balzamon answers in the negative. We have, in the canon law, a decree of +Pope Innocent III., enjoining the bishops of Valencia and Burgos, in +Spain, to prevent certain abbesses from blessing their nuns, from +confessing, and from public preaching: "Although," says he, "the blessed +Virgin Mary was superior to all the apostles in dignity and in merit, +yet it is not to her, but to the apostles, that the Lord has confided +the keys of the kingdom of heaven." + +So ancient was this right, that we find it established in the rules of +St. Basil. He permits abbesses to confess their nuns, conjointly with a +priest. Father Martene, in his "Rights of the Church," says that, for a +long time, abbesses confessed their nuns; but, adds he, they were so +_curious_, that it was found necessary to deprive them of this +privilege. + +The ex-Jesuit Nonnotte should confess himself and do penance; not for +having been one of the most ignorant of daubers on paper, for that is no +crime; not for having given the name of _errors_ to truths which he did +not understand; but for having, with the most insolent stupidity, +calumniated the author of this article, and called his brother _raca_ (a +fool), while he denied these facts and many others, about which he knew +not one word. He has put himself in danger of hell fire; let us hope +that he will ask pardon of God for his enormous folly. We desire not the +death of a sinner, but that he turn from his wickedness and live. + +It has long been debated why men, very famous in this part of the world +where confession is in use, have died without this sacrament. Such are +Leo X., Pelisson, and Cardinal Dubois. The cardinal had his perineum +opened by La Peyronie's bistoury; but he might have confessed and +communicated before the operation. Pelisson, who was a Protestant until +he was forty years old, became a convert that he might be made master of +requests and have benefices. As for Pope Leo X., when surprised by +death, he was so much occupied with temporal concerns, that he had no +time to think of spiritual ones. + +_Confession Tickets._ + +In Protestant countries confession is made to God; in Catholic ones, to +man. The Protestants say you can hide nothing from God, whereas man +knows only what you choose to tell him. As we shall never meddle with +controversy, we shall not enter here into this old dispute. Our literary +society is composed of Catholics and Protestants, united by the love of +letters; we must not suffer ecclesiastical quarrels to sow dissension +among us. We will content ourselves with once more repeating the fine +answer of the Greek already mentioned, to the priest who would have had +him confess in the mysteries of Ceres: "Is it to God, or to thee, that I +am to address myself?" "To God." "Depart then, O man." + +In Italy, and in all the countries of obedience, every one, without +distinction, must confess and communicate. If you have a stock of +enormous sins on hand, you have also grand penitentiaries to absolve +you. If your confession is worth nothing, so much the worse for you. At +a very reasonable rate, you get a printed receipt, which admits you to +communion; and all the receipts are thrown into a pix; such is the rule. + +These bearers' tickets were unknown at Paris until about the year 1750, +when an archbishop of Paris bethought himself of introducing a sort of +spiritual bank, to extirpate Jansenism and insure the triumph of the +bull _Unigenitus_. It was his pleasure that extreme unction and the +viaticum should be refused to every sick person who did not produce a +ticket of confession, signed by a constitutionary priest. + +This was refusing the sacrament to nine-tenths of Paris. In vain was he +told: "Think what you are doing; either these sacraments are necessary, +to escape damnation, or salvation may be obtained without them by faith, +hope, charity, good works, and the merits of our Saviour. If salvation +be attainable without this viaticum, your tickets are useless; if the +sacraments be absolutely necessary, you damn all whom you deprive of +them; you consign to eternal fire seven hundred thousand souls, +supposing you live long enough to bury them; this is violent; calm +yourself, and let each one die as well as he can." + +In this dilemma he gave no answer, but persisted. It is horrible to +convert religion, which should be man's consolation, into his torment. +The parliament, in whose hands is the high police, finding that society +was disturbed, opposed--according to custom--decrees to mandaments. But +ecclesiastical discipline would not yield to legal authority. The +magistracy was under the necessity of using force, and to send archers +to obtain for the Parisians confession, communion, and interment. + +By this excess of absurdity, men's minds were soured and cabals were +formed at court, as if there had been a farmer-general to be appointed, +or a minister to be disgraced. In the discussion of a question there are +always incidents mixed up that have no radical connection with it; and +in this case so much so, that all the members of the parliament were +exiled, as was also the archbishop in his turn. + +These confession tickets would, in the times preceding, have caused a +civil war, but happily, in our days, they produced only civil cavils. +The spirit of philosophy, which is no other than reason, has become, +with all honest men, the only antidote against these epidemic disorders. + + + + +CONFISCATION. + + +It is well observed, in the "_Dictionnaire Encyclopedique_," in the +article "Confiscation," that the _fisc_, whether public, or royal, or +seignorial, or imperial, or disloyal, was a small basket of reeds or +osiers, in which was put the little money that was received or could be +extorted. We now use bags; the royal _fisc_ is the royal _bag_. + +In several countries of Europe it is a received maxim, that whosoever +confiscates the body, confiscates the goods also. This usage is +established in those countries in particular where custom holds the +place of law; and in all cases, an entire family is punished for the +fault of one man only. + +To confiscate the body, is not to put a man's body into his sovereign +lord's basket. This phrase, in the barbarous language of the bar, means +to get possession of the body of a citizen, in order either to take away +his life, or to condemn him to banishment for life. If he is put to +death, or escapes death by flight, his goods are seized. Thus it is not +enough to put a man to death for his offences; his children, too, must +be deprived of the means of living. + +In more countries than one, the rigor of custom confiscates the property +of a man who has voluntarily released himself from the miseries of this +life, and his children are reduced to beggary because their father is +dead. In some Roman Catholic provinces, the head of a family is +condemned to the galleys for life, by an arbitrary sentence, for having +harbored a preacher in his house, or for having heard one of his sermons +in some cavern or desert place, and his wife and family are forced to +beg their bread. + +This jurisprudence, which consists in depriving orphans of their food, +was unknown to the Roman commonwealth. Sulla introduced it in his +proscriptions, and it must be acknowledged that a rapine invented by +Sulla was not an example to be followed. Nor was this law, which seems +to have been dictated by inhumanity and avarice alone, followed either +by Caesar, or by the good Emperor Trajan, or by the Antonines, whose +names are still pronounced in every nation with love and reverence. Even +under Justinian, confiscations took place only in cases of high treason. +Those who were accused having been, for the most part, men of great +possessions, it seems that Justinian made this ordinance through avarice +alone. It also appears that, in the times of feudal anarchy, the princes +and lords of lands, being not very rich, sought to increase their +treasure by the condemnation of their subjects. They were allowed to +draw a revenue from crime. Their laws being arbitrary, and the Roman +jurisprudence unknown among them, their customs, whether whimsical or +cruel, prevailed. But now that the power of sovereigns is founded on +immense and assured wealth, their treasure needs no longer to be swollen +by the slender wreck of the fortunes of some unhappy family. It is true +that the goods so appropriated are abandoned to the first who asks for +them. But is it for one citizen to fatten on the remains of the blood of +another citizen? + +Confiscation is not admitted in countries where the Roman law is +established, except within the jurisdiction of the parliament of +Toulouse. It was formerly established at Calais, where it was abolished +by the English when they were masters of that place. It appears very +strange that the inhabitants of the capital live under a more rigorous +law than those of the smaller towns; so true is it, that jurisprudence +has often been established by chance, without regularity, without +uniformity, as the huts are built in a village. + +The following was spoken by Advocate-General Omer Talon, in full +parliament, at the most glorious period in the annals of France, in +1673, concerning the property of one Mademoiselle de Canillac, which had +been confiscated. Reader, attend to this speech; it is not in the style +of Cicero's oratory, but it is curious: + +"In the thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, God says, 'If thou shalt find +a city where idolatry prevails, thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants +of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all +that is therein. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the +midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city and all +the spoil thereof, every whit, for the Lord thy God.' + +"So, in the crime of high treason, the king seized the property, and the +children were deprived of it. Naboth having been proceeded against, +'_quia maledixerat regi_,' King Ahab took possession of his inheritance. +David, being apprised that Mephibosheth had taken part in the rebellion, +gave all his goods to Sheba, who brought him the news--'_Tibi sunt omnia +quae fuerunt Mephibosheth._'" + +The question here was, who should inherit the property of Mademoiselle +de Canillac--property formerly confiscated from her father, abandoned by +the king to a keeper of the royal treasure, and afterwards given by this +keeper of the royal treasure to the testatrix. And in this case of a +woman of Auvergne a lawyer refers us to that of Ahab, one of the petty +kings of a part of Palestine, who confiscated Naboth's vineyard, after +assassinating its proprietor with the poniard of Jewish justice--an +abominable act, which has become a proverb to inspire men with a horror +for usurpation. Assuredly, Naboth's vineyard has no connection with +Mademoiselle de Canillac's inheritance. Nor do the murder and +confiscation of the goods of Mephibosheth, grandson of King Saul, and +son of David's friend Jonathan, bear a much greater affinity to this +lady's will. + +With this pedantry, this rage for citations foreign to the subject; with +this ignorance of the first principles of human nature; with these +ill-conceived and ill-adapted prejudices, has jurisprudence been treated +on by men who, in their sphere, have had some reputation. + + + + +CONSCIENCE. + + +SECTION I. + +_Of the Conscience of Good and of Evil._ + +Locke has demonstrated--if we may use that term in morals and +metaphysics--that we have no innate ideas or principles. He was obliged +to demonstrate this position at great length, as the contrary was at +that time universally believed. It hence clearly follows that it is +necessary to instil just ideas and good principles into the mind as soon +as it acquires the use of its faculties. + +Locke adduces the example of savages, who kill and devour their +neighbors without any remorse of conscience; and of Christian soldiers, +decently educated, who, on the taking of a city by assault, plunder, +slay, and violate, not merely without remorse, but with rapture, honor, +and glory, and with the applause of all their comrades. + +It is perfectly certain that, in the massacres of St. Bartholomew, and +in the "_autos-da-fe_" the holy acts of faith of the Inquisition, no +murderer's conscience ever upbraided him with having massacred men, +women, and children, or with the shrieks, faintings, and dying tortures +of his miserable victims, whose only crime consisted in keeping Easter +in a manner different from that of the inquisitors. It results, +therefore, from what has been stated, that we have no other conscience +than what is created in us by the spirit of the age, by example, and by +our own dispositions and reflections. + +Man is born without principles, but with the faculty of receiving them. +His natural disposition will incline him either to cruelty or kindness; +his understanding will in time inform him that the square of twelve is a +hundred and forty-four, and that he ought not to do to others what he +would not that others should do to him; but he will not, of himself, +acquire these truths in early childhood. He will not understand the +first, and he will not feel the second. + +A young savage who, when hungry, has received from his father a piece of +another savage to eat, will, on the morrow, ask for the like meal, +without thinking about any obligation not to treat a neighbor otherwise +than he would be treated himself. He acts, mechanically and +irresistibly, directly contrary to the eternal principle. + +Nature has made a provision against such horrors. She has given to man a +disposition to pity, and the power of comprehending truth. These two +gifts of God constitute the foundation of civil society. This is the +reason there have ever been but few cannibals; and which renders life, +among civilized nations, a little tolerable. Fathers and mothers bestow +on their children an education which soon renders them social, and this +education confers on them a conscience. + +Pure religion and morality, early inculcated, so strongly impress the +human heart that, from the age of sixteen or seventeen, a single bad +action will not be performed without the upbraidings of conscience. Then +rush on those headlong passions which war against conscience, and +sometimes destroy it. During the conflict, men, hurried on by the +tempest of their feelings, on various occasions consult the advice of +others; as, in physical diseases, they ask it of those who appear to +enjoy good health. + +This it is which has produced casuists; that is, persons who decide on +cases of conscience. One of the wisest casuists was Cicero. In his book +of "Offices," or "Duties" of man, he investigates points of the greatest +nicety; but long before him Zoroaster had appeared in the world to guide +the conscience by the most beautiful precept, "If you _doubt_ whether an +action be good or bad, abstain from doing it." We treat of this +elsewhere. + +_Whether a Judge Should Decide according to his Conscience, or according +to the Evidence._ + +Thomas Aquinas, you are a great saint, and a great divine, and no +Dominican has a greater veneration for you than I have; but you have +decided, in your "Summary," that a judge ought to give sentence +according to the evidence produced against the person accused, although +he knows that person to be perfectly innocent. You maintain that the +deposition of witnesses, which must inevitably be false, and the +pretended proofs resulting from the process, which are impertinent, +ought to weigh down the testimony of his own senses. He saw the crime +committed by another; and yet, according to you, he ought in conscience +to condemn the accused, although his conscience tells him the accused is +innocent. According to your doctrine, therefore, if the judge had +himself committed the crime in question, his conscience ought to oblige +him to condemn the man falsely accused of it. + +In my conscience, great saint, I conceive that you are most absurdly and +most dreadfully deceived. It is a pity that, while possessing such a +knowledge of canon law, you should be so little acquainted with natural +law. The duty of a magistrate to be just, precedes that of being a +formalist. If, in virtue of evidence which can never exceed probability, +I were to condemn a man whose innocence I was otherwise convinced of, I +should consider myself a fool and an assassin. + +Fortunately all the tribunals of the world think differently from you. I +know not whether Farinaceus and Grillandus may be of your opinion. +However that may be, if ever you meet with Cicero, Ulpian, Trebonian, +Demoulin, the Chancellor de l'Hopital, or the Chancellor d'Aguesseau, in +the shades, be sure to ask pardon of them for falling into such an +error. + +_Of a Deceitful Conscience._ + +The best thing perhaps that was ever said upon this important subject is +in the witty work of "Tristram Shandy," written by a clergyman of the +name of Sterne, the second Rabelais of England. It resembles those small +satires of antiquity, the essential spirit of which is so piquant and +precious. + +An old half-pay captain and his corporal, assisted by Doctor Slop, put a +number of very ridiculous questions. In these questions the French +divines are not spared. Mention is particularly made of a memoir +presented to the Sorbonne by a surgeon, requesting permission to baptize +unborn children by means of a clyster-pipe, which might be introduced +into the womb without injuring either the mother or the child. At length +the corporal is directed to read to them a sermon, composed by the same +clergyman, Sterne. + +Among many particulars, superior even to those of Rembrandt and Calot, +it describes a gentleman, a man of the world, spending his time in the +pleasures of the table, in gaming, and debauchery, yet doing nothing to +expose himself to the reproaches of what is called good company, and +consequently never incurring his own. His conscience and his honor +accompany him to the theatres, to the gaming houses, and are more +particularly present when he liberally pays his lady under protection. +He punishes severely, when in office, the petty larcenies of the vulgar, +lives a life of gayety, and dies without the slightest feeling of +remorse. + +Doctor Slop interrupts the reading to observe that such a case was +impossible with respect to a follower of the Church of England, and +could happen only among papists. At last the sermon adduces the example +of David, who sometimes possessed a conscience tender and enlightened, +at others hardened and dark. + +When he has it in his power to assassinate his king in a cavern, he +scruples going beyond cutting off a corner of his robe--here is the +tender conscience. He passes an entire year without feeling the +slightest compunction for his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of +Uriah--here is the same conscience in a state of obduracy and darkness. + +Such, says the preacher, are the greater number of mankind. We concede +to this clergyman that the great ones of the world are very often in +this state; the torrent of pleasures and affairs urges them almost +irresistibly on; they have no time to keep a conscience. Conscience is +proper enough for the people; but even the people dispense with it, when +the question is how to gain money. It is judicious, however, at times, +to endeavor to awaken conscience both in mantua-makers and in monarchs, +by the inculcation of a morality calculated to make an impression upon +both; but, in order to make this impression, it is necessary to preach +better than modern preachers usually do, who seldom talk effectively to +either. + +_Liberty of Conscience._ + +[Translated from the German.] + +[We do not adopt the whole of the following article; but, as it contains +some truths, we did not consider ourselves obliged to omit it; and we do +not feel ourselves called upon to justify what may be advanced in it +with too great rashness or severity.--_Author._] + +"The almoner of Prince ----, who is a Roman Catholic, threatened an +anabaptist that he would get him banished from the small estates which +the prince governed. He told him that there were only three authorized +sects in the empire--that which eats Jesus Christ, by faith alone, in a +morsel of bread, while drinking out of a cup; that which eats Jesus +Christ with bread alone; and that which eats Jesus Christ in body and in +soul, without either bread or wine; and that as for the anabaptist who +does not in any way eat God, he was not fit to live in monseigneur's +territory. At last, the conversation kindling into greater violence, the +almoner fiercely threatened the anabaptist that he would get him hanged. +'So much the worse for his highness,' replied the anabaptist; 'I am a +large manufacturer; I employ two hundred workmen; I occasion the influx +of two hundred thousand crowns a year into his territories; my family +will go and settle somewhere else; monseigneur will in consequence be a +loser.' + +"'But suppose monseigneur hangs up your two hundred workmen and your +family,' rejoined the almoner, 'and gives your manufactory to good +Catholics?' + +"'I defy him to do it,' says the old gentleman. 'A manufactory is not to +be given like a farm; because industry cannot be given. It would be more +silly for him to act so than to order all his horses to be killed, +because, being a bad horseman, one may have thrown him off his back. The +interest of monseigneur does not consist in my swallowing the godhead in +a wafer, but in my procuring something to eat for his subjects, and +increasing the revenues by my industry. I am a gentleman; and although I +had the misfortune not to be born such, my occupation would compel me to +become one; for mercantile transactions are of a very different nature +from those of a court, and from your own. There can be no success in +them without probity. Of what consequence is it to you that I was +baptized at what is called the age of discretion, and you while you were +an infant? Of what consequence is it to you that I worship God after the +manner of my fathers? Were you able to follow up your wise maxims, from +one end of the world to the other, you will hang up the Greek, who does +not believe that the spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son; all +the English, all the Hollanders, Danes, Swedes, Icelanders, Prussians, +Hanoverians, Saxons, Holsteiners, Hessians, Wuertembergers, Bernese, +Hamburgers, Cossacks, Wallachians, and Russians, none of whom believe +the pope to be infallible; all the Mussulmans, who believe in one God, +and who give him neither father nor mother; the Indians, whose religion +is more ancient than the Jewish; and the lettered Chinese, who, for the +space of four thousand years, have served one only God without +superstition and without fanaticism. This, then, is what you would +perform had you but the power!' 'Most assuredly,' says the monk, 'for +the zeal of the house of the Lord devours me.' _'Zelus domus suae comedit +me.'_ + +"'Just tell me now, my good almoner,' resumed the anabaptist, 'are you a +Dominican, or a Jesuit, or a devil?' 'I am a Jesuit,' says the other. +'Alas, my friend, if you are not a devil, why do you advance things so +utterly diabolical?' 'Because the reverend father, the rector, has +commanded me to do so.' 'And who commanded the reverend father, the +rector, to commit such an abomination?' 'The provincial.' 'From whom did +the provincial receive the command?' 'From our general, and all to +please the pope.' + +"The poor anabaptist exclaimed: 'Ye holy popes, who are at Rome in +possession of the throne of the Caesars--archbishops, bishops, and abbes, +become sovereigns, I respect and fly you; but if, in the recesses of +your heart, you confess that your opulence and power are founded only on +the ignorance and stupidity of our fathers, at least enjoy them with +moderation. We do not wish to dethrone you; but do not crush us. Enjoy +yourselves, and let us be quiet. If otherwise, tremble, lest at last +people should lose their patience, and reduce you, for the good of your +souls, to the condition of the apostles, of whom you pretend to be the +successors.' + +"'Wretch! you would wish the pope and the bishop of Wuertemberg to gain +heaven by evangelical poverty!' 'You, reverend father, would wish to +have me hanged!'" + +[Illustration: "I'm a Jesuit."] + + + + +CONSEQUENCE. + + +What is our real nature, and what sort of a curious and contemptible +understanding do we possess? A man may, it appears, draw the most +correct and luminous conclusions, and yet be destitute of common sense. +This is, in fact, too true. The Athenian fool, who believed that all the +vessels which came into the port belonged to him, could calculate to a +nicety what the cargoes of those vessels were worth, and within how many +days they would arrive from Smyrna at the Piraeus. + +We have seen idiots who could calculate and reason in a still more +extraordinary manner. They were not idiots, then, you tell me. I ask +your pardon--they certainly were. They rested their whole superstructure +on an absurd principle; they regularly strung together chimeras. A man +may walk well, and go astray at the same time; and, then, the better he +walks the farther astray he goes. + +The Fo of the Indians was son of an elephant, who condescended to +produce offspring by an Indian princess, who, in consequence of this +species of left-handed union, was brought to bed of the god Fo. This +princess was sister to an emperor of the Indies. Fo, then, was the +nephew of that emperor, and the grandson of the elephant and the monarch +were cousins-german; therefore, according to the laws of the state, the +race of the emperor being extinct, the descendants of the elephant +become the rightful successors. Admit the principle, and the conclusion +is perfectly correct. + +It is said that the divine elephant was nine standard feet in height. +You reasonably suppose that the gate of his stable should be above nine +feet in height, in order to admit his entering with ease. He consumed +twenty pounds of rice every day, and twenty pounds of sugar, and drank +twenty-five pounds of water. You find, by using your arithmetic, that he +swallows thirty-six thousand five hundred pounds weight in the course of +a year; it is impossible to reckon more correctly. But did your elephant +ever, in fact, exist? Was he the emperor's brother-in-law? Had his wife +a child by this left-handed union? This is the matter to be +investigated. Twenty different authors, who lived in Cochin China, have +successively written about it; it is incumbent on you to collate these +twenty authors, to weigh their testimonies, to consult ancient records, +to see if there is any mention of this elephant in the public registers; +to examine whether the whole account is not a fable, which certain +impostors have an interest in sanctioning. You proceed upon an +extravagant principle, but draw from it correct conclusions. + +Logic is not so much wanting to men as the source of logic. It is not +sufficient for a madman to say six vessels which belong to me carry two +hundred tons each; the ton is two thousand pounds weight; I have +therefore twelve hundred thousand pounds weight of merchandise in the +port of the Piraeus. The great point is, are those vessels yours? That is +the principle upon which your fortune depends; when that is settled, you +may estimate and reckon up afterwards. + +An ignorant man, who is a fanatic, and who at the same time strictly +draws his conclusions from his premises, ought sometimes to be smothered +to death as a madman. He has read that Phineas, transported by a holy +zeal, having found a Jew in bed with a Midianitish woman, slew them +both, and was imitated by the Levites, who massacred every household +that consisted one-half of Midianites and the other of Jews. He learns +that Mr. ----, his Catholic neighbor, intrigued with Mrs. ----, another +neighbor, but a Huguenot, and he will kill both of them without scruple. +It is impossible to act in greater consistency with principle; but what +is the remedy for this dreadful disease of the soul? It is to accustom +children betimes to admit nothing which shocks reason, to avoid relating +to them histories of ghosts, apparitions, witches, demoniacal +possessions, and ridiculous prodigies. A girl of an active and +susceptible imagination hears a story of demoniacal possessions; her +nerves become shaken, she falls into convulsions, and believes herself +possessed by a demon or devil. I actually saw one young woman die in +consequence of the shock her frame received from these abominable +histories. + + + + +CONSTANTINE. + + +SECTION I. + +_The Age of Constantine._ + +Among the ages which followed the Augustan, that of Constantine merits +particular distinction. It is immortalized by the great changes which it +ushered into the world. It commenced, it is true, with bringing back +barbarism. Not merely were there no Ciceros, Horaces, and Virgils, any +longer to be found, but there was not even a Lucan or a Seneca; there +was not even a philosophic and accurate historian. Nothing was to be +seen but equivocal satires or mere random panegyrics. + +It was at that time that the Christians began to write history, but they +took not Titus Livy, or Thucydides as their models. The followers of the +ancient religion wrote with no greater eloquence or truth. The two +parties, in a state of mutual exasperation, did not very scrupulously +investigate the charges which they heaped upon their adversaries; and +hence it arises that the same man is sometimes represented as a god and +sometimes as a monster. + +The decline of everything, in the commonest mechanical arts, as well as +in eloquence and virtue, took place after the reign of Marcus Aurelius. +He was the last emperor of the sect of stoics, who elevated man above +himself by rendering him severe to himself only, and compassionate to +others. After the death of this emperor, who was a genuine philosopher, +there was nothing but tyranny and confusion. The soldiers frequently +disposed of the empire. The senate had fallen into such complete +contempt that, in the time of Gallienus, an express law was enacted to +prevent senators from engaging in war. Thirty heads of parties were +seen, at one time, assuming the title of emperor in thirty provinces of +the empire. The barbarians already poured in, on every side, in the +middle of the third century, on this rent and lacerated empire. Yet it +was held together by the mere military discipline on which it had been +founded. + +During all these calamities, Christianity gradually established itself, +particularly in Egypt, Syria, and on the coasts of Asia Minor. The Roman +Empire admitted all sorts of religions, as well as all sects of +philosophy. The worship of Osiris was permitted, and even the Jews were +left in the enjoyment of considerable privileges, notwithstanding their +revolts. But the people in the provinces frequently rose up against the +Christians. The magistrates persecuted them, and edicts were frequently +obtained against them from the emperors. There is no ground for +astonishment at the general hatred in which Christians were at first +held, while so many other religions were tolerated. The reason was that +neither Egyptians nor Jews, nor the worshippers of the goddess of Syria +and so many other foreign deities, ever declared open hostility to the +gods of the empire. They did not array themselves against the +established religion; but one of the most imperious duties of the +Christians was to exterminate the prevailing worship. The priests of the +gods raised a clamor on perceiving the diminution of sacrifices and +offerings; and the people, ever fanatical and impetuous, were stirred up +against the Christians, while in the meantime many emperors protected +them. Adrian expressly forbade the persecution of them. Marcus Aurelius +commanded that they should not be prosecuted on account of religion. +Caracalla, Heliogabalus, Alexander, Philip, and Gallienus left them +entire liberty. They had, in the third century, public churches +numerously attended and very opulent; and so great was the liberty they +enjoyed that, in the course of that century, they held sixteen councils. +The road to dignities was shut up against the first Christians, who were +nearly all of obscure condition, and they turned their attention to +commerce, and some of them amassed great affluence. This is the resource +of all societies that cannot have access to offices in the state. Such +has been the case with the Calvinists in France, all the Nonconformists +in England, the Catholics in Holland, the Armenians in Persia, the +Banians in India, and the Jews all over the world. However, at last the +toleration was so great, and the administration of the government so +mild, that the Christians gained access to all the honors and dignities +of the state. They did not sacrifice to the gods of the empire; they +were not molested, whether they attended or avoided the temples; there +was at Rome the most perfect liberty with respect to the exercises of +their religion; none were compelled to engage in them. The Christians, +therefore, enjoyed the same liberty as others. It is so true that they +attained to honors, that Diocletian and Galerius deprived no fewer than +three hundred and three of them of those honors, in the persecution of +which we shall have to speak. + +It is our duty to adore Providence in all its dispensations; but I +confine myself to political history. Manes, under the reign of Probus, +about the year 278, formed a new religion in Alexandria. The principles +of this sect were made up of some ancient doctrines of the Persians and +certain tenets of Christianity. Probus, and his successor, Carus, left +Manes and the Christians in the enjoyment of peace. Numerien permitted +them entire liberty. Diocletian protected the Christians, and tolerated +the Manichaeans, during twelve years; but in 296 he issued an edict +against the Manichaeans, and proscribed them as enemies to the empire and +adherents of the Persians. The Christians were not comprehended in the +edict; they continued in tranquillity under Diocletian, and made open +profession of their religion throughout the whole empire until the +latter years of that prince's reign. + +To complete the sketch, it is necessary to describe of what at that +period the Roman Empire consisted. Notwithstanding internal and foreign +shocks, notwithstanding the incursions of barbarians, it comprised all +the possessions of the grand seignor at the present day, except Arabia; +all that the house of Austria possesses in Germany, and all the German +provinces as far as the Elbe; Italy, France, Spain, England, and half of +Scotland; all Africa as far as the desert of Sahara, and even the Canary +Isles. All these nations were retained under the yoke by bodies of +military less considerable than would be raised by Germany and France at +the present day, when in actual war. + +This immense power became more confirmed and enlarged, from Caesar down +to Theodosius, as well by laws, police, and real services conferred on +the people, as by arms and terror. It is even yet a matter of +astonishment that none of these conquered nations have been able, since +they became their own rulers, to form such highways, and to erect such +amphitheatres and public baths, as their conquerors bestowed upon them. +Countries which are at present nearly barbarous and deserted, were then +populous and well governed. Such, were Epirus, Macedonia, Thessaly, +Illyria, Pannonia, with Asia Minor, and the coasts of Africa; but it +must also be admitted that Germany, France, and Britain were then very +different from what they are now. These three states are those which +have most benefited by governing themselves; yet it required nearly +twelve centuries to place those kingdoms in the flourishing situation in +which we now behold them; but it must be acknowledged that all the rest +have lost much by passing under different laws. The ruins of Asia Minor +and Greece, the depopulation of Egypt and the barbarism of Africa, are +still existing testimonials of Roman greatness. The great number of +flourishing cities which covered those countries had now become +miserable villages, and the soil had become barren under the hands of a +brutalized population. + + +SECTION II. + +_Character of Constantine._ + +I will not here speak of the confusion which agitated the empire after +the abdication of Diocletian. There were after his death six emperors +at once. Constantine triumphed over them all, changed the religion of +the empire, and was not merely the author of that great revolution, but +of all those which have since occurred in the west. What was his +character? Ask it of Julian, of Zosimus, of Sozomen, and of Victor; they +will tell you that he acted at first like a great prince, afterwards as +a public robber, and that the last stage of his life was that of a +sensualist, a trifler, and a prodigal. They will describe him as ever +ambitious, cruel, and sanguinary. Ask his character of Eusebius, of +Gregory Nazianzen, and Lactantius; they will inform you that he was a +perfect man. Between these two extremes authentic facts alone can enable +us to obtain the truth. He had a father-in-law, whom he impelled to hang +himself; he had a brother-in-law whom he ordered to be strangled; he had +a nephew twelve or thirteen years old, whose throat he ordered to be +cut; he had an eldest son, whom he beheaded; he had a wife, whom he +ordered to be suffocated in a bath. An old Gallic author said that "he +loved to make a clear house." + +If you add to all these domestic acts that, being on the banks of the +Rhine in pursuit of some hordes of Franks who resided in those parts, +and having taken their kings, who probably were of the family of our +Pharamond or Clodion _le Chevelu_, he exposed them to beasts for his +diversion; you may infer from all this, without any apprehension of +being deceived, that he was not the most courteous and accommodating +personage in the world. + +Let us examine, in this place, the principal events of his reign. His +father, Constantius Chlorus, was in the heart of Britain, where he had +for some months assumed the title of emperor. Constantine was at +Nicomedia, with the emperor Galerius. He asked permission of the emperor +to go to see his father, who was ill. Galerius granted it, without +difficulty. Constantine set off with government relays, called +_veredarii_. It might be said to be as dangerous to be a post-horse as +to be a member of the family of Constantine, for he ordered all the +horses to be hamstrung after he had done with them, fearful lest +Galerius should revoke his permission and order him to return to +Nicomedia. He found his father at the point of death, and caused himself +to be recognized emperor by the small number of Roman troops at that +time in Britain. + +An election of a Roman emperor at York, by five or six thousand men, was +not likely to be considered legitimate at Rome. It wanted at least the +formula of "_Senatus populusque Romanus_." The senate, the people, and +the praetorian bands unanimously elected Maxentius, son of the Caesar +Maximilian Hercules, who had been already Caesar, and brother of that +Fausta whom Constantine had married, and whom he afterwards caused to be +suffocated. This Maxentius is called a tyrant and usurper by our +historians, who are uniformly the partisans of the successful. He was +the protector of the pagan religion against Constantine, who already +began to declare himself for the Christians. Being both pagan and +vanquished, he could not but be an abominable man. + +Eusebius tells us that Constantine, when going to Rome to fight +Maxentius, saw in the clouds, as well as his whole army, the grand +imperial standard called the _labarum_, surmounted with a Latin P. or a +large Greek R. with a cross in "_saltier_," and certain Greek words +which signified, "By this sign thou shalt conquer." Some authors pretend +that this sign appeared to him at Besancon, others at Cologne, some at +Trier and others at Troyes. It is strange that in all these places +heaven should have expressed its meaning in Greek. It would have +appeared more natural to the weak understandings of men that this sign +should have appeared in Italy on the day of the battle; but then it +would have been necessary that the inscription should have been in +Latin. A learned antiquary, of the name of Loisel, has refuted this +narrative; but he was treated as a reprobate. + +It might, however, be worth while to reflect that this war was not a war +of religion, that Constantine was not a saint, that he died suspected of +being an Arian, after having persecuted the orthodox; and, therefore, +that there is no very obvious motive to support this prodigy. + +After this victory, the senate hastened to pay its devotion to the +conqueror, and to express its detestation of the memory of the +conquered. The triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius was speedily dismantled +to adorn that of Constantine. A statue of gold was prepared for him, an +honor which had never been shown except to the gods. He received it, +notwithstanding the _labarum_, and received further the title of +Pontifex Maximus, which he retained all his life. His first care, +according to Zosimus, was to exterminate the whole race of the tyrant, +and his principal friends; after which he assisted very graciously at +the public spectacles and games. + +The aged Diocletian was at that time dying in his retreat at Salonica. +Constantine should not have been in such haste to pull down his statues +at Rome; he should have recollected that the forgotten emperor had been +the benefactor of his father, and that he was indebted to him for the +empire. Although he had conquered Maxentius, Licinius, his +brother-in-law, an Augustus like himself, was still to be got rid of; +and Licinius was equally anxious to be rid of Constantine, if he had it +in his power. However, their quarrels not having yet broken out in +hostility, they issued conjointly at Milan, in 313, the celebrated edict +of liberty of conscience. "We grant," they say, "to all the liberty of +following whatever religion they please, in order to draw down the +blessing of heaven upon us and our subjects; we declare that we have +granted to the Christians the free and full power of exercising their +religion; it being understood that all others shall enjoy the same +liberty, in order to preserve the tranquillity of our government." A +volume might be written on such an edict, but I shall merely venture a +few lines. + +Constantine was not as yet a Christian; nor, indeed, was his colleague, +Licinius, one. There was still an emperor or a tyrant to be +exterminated; this was a determined pagan, of the name of Maximin. +Licinius fought with him before he fought with Constantine. Heaven was +still more favorable to him than to Constantine himself; for the latter +had only the apparition of a standard, but Licinius that of an angel. +This angel taught him a prayer, by means of which he would be sure to +vanquish the barbarian Maximin. Licinius wrote it down, ordered it to be +recited three times by his army, and obtained a complete victory. If +this same Licinius, the brother-in-law of Constantine, had reigned +happily, we should have heard of nothing but his angel; but Constantine +having had him hanged, and his son slain, and become absolute master of +everything, nothing has been talked of but Constantine's _labarum_. + +It is believed that he put to death his eldest son Crispus, and his own +wife Fausta, the same year that he convened the Council of Nice. Zosimus +and Sozomen pretend that, the heathen priests having told him that there +were no expiations for such great crimes, he then made open profession +of Christianity, and demolished many temples in the East. It is not +very probable that the pagan pontiffs should have omitted so fine an +opportunity of getting back their grand pontiff, who had abandoned them. +However, it is by no means impossible that there might be among them +some severe men; scrupulous and austere persons are to be found +everywhere. What is more extraordinary is, that Constantine, after +becoming a Christian, performed no penance for his parricide. It was at +Rome that he exercised that cruelty, and from that time residence at +Rome became hateful to him. He quitted it forever, and went to lay the +foundations of Constantinople. How dared he say, in one of his +rescripts, that he transferred the seat of empire to Constantinople, "by +the command of God himself?" Is it anything but an impudent mockery of +God and man? If God had given him any command, would it not have +been--not to assassinate his wife and son? + +Diocletian had already furnished an example of transferring the empire +towards Asia. The pride, the despotism, and the general manners of the +Asiatics disgusted the Romans, depraved and slavish as they had become. +The emperors had not ventured to require, at Rome, that their feet +should be kissed, nor to introduce a crowd of eunuchs into their +palaces. Diocletian began in Nicomedia, and Constantine completed the +system at Constantinople, to assimilate the Roman court to the courts of +the Persians. The city of Rome from that time languished in decay, and +the old Roman spirit declined with her. Constantine thus effected the +greatest injury to the empire that was in his power. + +Of all the emperors, he was unquestionably the most absolute. Augustus +had left an image of liberty; Tiberius, and even Nero, had humored the +senate and people of Rome; Constantine humored none. He had at first +established his power in Rome by disbanding those haughty praetorians who +considered themselves the masters of the emperors. He made an entire +separation between the gown and the sword. The depositories of the laws, +kept down under military power, were only jurists in chains. The +provinces of the empire were governed upon a new system. + +The grand object of Constantine was to be master in everything; he was +so in the Church, as well as in the State. We behold him convoking and +opening the Council of Nice; advancing into the midst of the assembled +fathers, covered over with jewels, and with the diadem on his head, +seating himself in the highest place, and banishing unconcernedly +sometimes Arius and sometimes Athanasius. He put himself at the head of +Christianity without being a Christian; for at that time baptism was +essential to any person's becoming one; he was only a catechumen. The +usage of waiting for the approach of death before immersing in the water +of regeneration, was beginning to decline with respect to private +individuals. If Constantine, by delaying his baptism till near the point +of death, entertained the notion that he might commit every act with +impunity in the hope of a complete expiation, it was unfortunate for the +human race that such an opinion should have ever suggested itself to the +mind of a man in possession of uncontrolled power. + + + + +CONTRADICTIONS. + + +SECTION I. + +The more we see of the world, the more we see it abounding in +contradictions and inconsistencies. To begin with the Grand Turk: he +orders every head that he dislikes struck off, and can very rarely +preserve his own. If we pass from the Grand Turk to the Holy Father, he +confirms the election of emperors, and has kings among his vassals; but +he is not so powerful as a duke of Savoy. He expedites orders for +America and Africa, yet could not withhold the slightest of its +privileges from the republic of Lucca. The emperor is the king of the +Romans; but the right of their king consists in holding the pope's +stirrup, and handing the water to him at mass. The English serve their +monarch upon their knees, but they depose, imprison, and behead him. + +Men who make a vow of poverty, gain in consequence an income of about +two hundred thousand crowns; and, in virtue of their vow of humility, +they become absolute sovereigns. The plurality of benefices with care +of souls is severely denounced at Rome, yet every day it despatches a +bull to some German, to enable him to hold five or six bishoprics at +once. The reason, we are told, is that the German bishops have no cure +of souls. The chancellor of France is the first person in the State, but +he cannot sit at table with the king, at least he could not till lately, +although a colonel, who is scarcely perhaps a gentleman--_gentil-homme_ +--may enjoy that distinction. The wife of a provincial governor is a +queen in the province, but merely a citizen's wife at court. + +Persons convicted of the crime of nonconformity are publicly roasted, +and in all our colleges the second eclogue of Virgil is explained with +great gravity, including Corydon's declarations of love to the beautiful +Alexis; and it is remarked to the boys that, although Alexis be fair and +Amyntas brown, yet Amyntas may still deserve the preference. + +If an unfortunate philosopher, without intending the least harm, takes +it into his head that the earth turns round, or to imagine that light +comes from the sun, or to suppose that matter may contain some other +properties than those with which we are acquainted, he is cried down as +a blasphemer, and a disturber of the public peace; and yet there are +translations _in usum Delphini_ of the "Tusculan Questions" of Cicero, +and of Lucretius, which are two complete courses of irreligion. + +Courts of justice no longer believe that persons are possessed by +devils, and laugh at sorcerers; but Gauffredi and Grandier were burned +for sorcery; and one-half of a parliament wanted to sentence to the +stake a monk accused of having bewitched a girl of eighteen by breathing +upon her. + +The skeptical philosopher Bayle was persecuted, even in Holland. La +Motte le Vayer, more of a skeptic, but less of a philosopher, was +preceptor of the king Louis XIV., and of the king's brother. Gourville +was hanged in effigy at Paris, while French minister in Germany. + +The celebrated atheist Spinoza lived and died in peace. Vanini, who had +merely written against Aristotle, was burned as an atheist; he has, in +consequence, obtained the honor of making one article in the histories +of the learned, and in all the dictionaries, which, in fact, constitute +immense repositories of lies, mixed up with a very small portion of +truth. Open these books, and you will there find not merely that Vanini +publicly taught atheism in his writings, but that twelve professors of +his sect went with him to Naples with the intention of everywhere making +proselytes. Afterwards, open the books of Vanini, and you will be +astonished to find in them nothing but proofs of the existence of God. +Read the following passage, taken from his "_Amphitheatrum_," a work +equally unknown and condemned; "God is His own original and boundary, +without end and without beginning, requiring neither the one nor the +other, and father of all beginning and end; He ever exists, but not in +time; to Him there has been no past, and will be no future; He reigns +everywhere, without being in any place; immovable without rest, rapid +without motion; He is all, and out of all; He is in all, without being +enclosed; out of everything, without being excluded from anything; good, +but without quality; entire, but without parts; immutable, while +changing the whole universe; His will is His power; absolute, there is +nothing of Him of what is merely possible; all in Him is real; He is the +first, the middle, and the last; finally, although constituting all, He +is above all beings, out of them, within them, beyond them, before them, +and after them." It was after such a profession of faith that Vanini was +declared an atheist. Upon what grounds was he condemned? Simply upon the +deposition of a man named Francon. In vain did his books depose in favor +of him; a single enemy deprived him of life, and stigmatized his name +throughout Europe. + +The little book called "_Cymbalum Mundi_," which is merely a cold +imitation of Lucian, and which has not the slightest or remotest +reference to Christianity, was condemned to be burned. But Rabelais was +printed "_cum privilegio_"; and a free course was allowed to the +"Turkish Spy," and even to the "Persian Letters"; that volatile, +ingenious, and daring work, in which there is one whole letter in favor +of suicide; another in which we find these words: "If we suppose such a +thing as religion;" a third, in which it is expressly said that "the +bishops have no other functions than dispensing with the observance of +the laws"; and, finally, another in which the pope is said to be a +magician, who makes people believe that three are one, and that the +bread we eat is not bread, etc. + +The Abbe St. Pierre, a man who could frequently deceive himself, but who +never wrote without a view to the public good, and whose works were +called by Cardinal Dubois, "The dreams of an honest citizen"; the Abbe +St. Pierre, I say, was unanimously expelled from the French Academy for +having, in some political work, preferred the establishment of councils +under the regency to that of secretaries of state under Louis XIV.; and +for saying that towards the close of that glorious reign the finances +were wretchedly conducted. The author of the "Persian Letters" has not +mentioned Louis XIV. in his book, except to say that he was a magician +who could make his subjects believe that paper was money; that he liked +no government but that of Turkey; that he preferred a man who handed him +a napkin to a man who gained him battles; that he had conferred a +pension on a man who had run away two leagues, and a government upon +another who had run away four; that he was overwhelmed with poverty, +although it is said, in the same letter, that his finances are +inexhaustible. Observe, then, I repeat, all that this writer, in the +only work then known to be his, has said of Louis XIV., the patron of +the French Academy. We may add, too, as a climax of contradiction, that +that society admitted him as a member for having turned them into +ridicule; for, of all the books by which the public have been +entertained at the expense of the society, there is not one in which it +has been treated more disrespectfully than in the "Persian Letters." See +that letter wherein he says, "The members of this body have no other +business than incessantly to chatter; panegyric comes and takes its +place as it were spontaneously in their eternal gabble," etc. After +having thus treated this society, they praise him, on his introduction, +for his skill in drawing likenesses. + +Were I disposed to continue the research into the contraries to be found +in the empire of letters, I might give the history of every man of +learning or wit; just in the same manner as, if I were inclined to +detail the contradictions existing in society, it would be necessary to +write the history of mankind. An Asiatic, who should travel to Europe, +might well consider us as pagans; our week days bear the names of Mars, +Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus; and the nuptials of Cupid and Psyche are +painted in the pope's palace; but, particularly, were this Asiatic to +attend at our opera, he would not hesitate in concluding it to be a +festival in honor of the pagan deities. If he endeavored to gain more +precise information respecting our manners, he would experience still +greater astonishment; he would see, in Spain, that a severe law forbids +any foreigner from having the slightest share, however indirect, in the +commerce of America; and that, notwithstanding, foreigners--through the +medium of Spanish factors--carry on a commerce with it to the extent of +fifteen millions a year. Thus Spain can be enriched only by the +violation of a law always subsisting and always evaded. He would see +that in another country the government establishes and encourages a +company for trading to the Indies, while the divines of that country +have declared the receiving of dividends upon the shares offensive in +the sight of God. He would see that the offices of a judge, a commander, +a privy counsellor, are purchased; he would be unable to comprehend why +it is stated in the patents appointing to such offices that they have +been bestowed gratis and without purchase, while the receipt for the sum +given for them is attached to the commission itself. Would not our +Asiatic be surprised, also, to see comedians salaried by sovereigns, and +excommunicated by priests? He would inquire why a plebeian +lieutenant-general, who had won battles, should be subject to the +_taille_, like a peasant; and a sheriff should be considered, at least +in reference to this point, as noble as a Montmorency; why, while +regular dramas are forbidden to be performed during a week sacred to +edification, merry-andrews are permitted to offend even the least +delicate ears with their ribaldry. He would almost everywhere see our +usages in opposition to our laws; and were we to travel to Asia, we +should discover the existence of exactly similar contradictions. + +Men are everywhere inconsistent alike. They have made laws by piecemeal, +as breaches are repaired in walls. Here the eldest sons take everything +they are able from the younger ones; there all share equally. Sometimes +the Church has ordered duels, sometimes it has anathematized them. The +partisans and the opponents of Aristotle have been both excommunicated +in their turn; as have also the wearers of long hair and short hair. +There has been but one perfect law in the world, and that was designed +to regulate a species of folly--that is to say, play. The laws of play +are the only ones which admit of no exception, relaxation, change or +tyranny. A man who has been a lackey, if he plays at _lansquenet_ with +kings, is paid with perfect readiness when he wins. In other cases the +law is everywhere a sword, with which the strongest party cuts in pieces +the weakest. + +In the meantime the world goes on as if everything was wisely arranged; +irregularity is part of our nature. Our social world is like the natural +globe, rude and unshapely, but possessing a principle of preservation; +it would be folly to wish that mountains, seas, and rivers were traced +in regular and finished forms; it would be a still greater folly to +expect from man the perfection of wisdom; it would be as weak as to +wish to attach wings to dogs or horns to eagles. + +_Examples Taken from History, from Sacred Scripture, from Numerous +Authors, etc._ + +We have just been instancing a variety of contradictions in our usages, +our manners, and our laws, but we have not said enough. Everything, +particularly in Europe, has been made in the same manner as Harlequin's +habit. His master, when he wanted to have a dress made for him, had not +a piece of cloth, and therefore took old cuttings of all sorts of +colors. Harlequin was laughed at, but then he was clothed. + +The Germans are a brave nation, whom neither the Germanicuses nor the +Trajans were ever able completely to subjugate. All the German nations +that dwelt beyond the Elbe were invincible, although badly armed; and +from these gloomy climes issued forth, in part, the avengers of the +world. Germany, far from constituting the Roman Empire, has been +instrumental in destroying it. + +This empire had found a refuge at Constantinople, when a German--an +Austrasian--went from Aix-la-Chapelle to Rome, to strip the Greek Caesars +of the remainder of their possessions in Italy. He assumed the name of +Caesar Imperator; but neither he nor his successors even ventured to +reside at Rome. That capital could not either boast or regret that from +the time of Augustulus, the final excrement of the genuine Roman +Empire, a single Caesar had lived and been buried within its walls. + +It is difficult to suppose the empire can be "holy," as it professes +three different religions, of which two are declared impious, +abominable, damnable, and damned, by the court of Rome, which the whole +imperial court considers in such cases to be supreme. It is certainly +not Roman, since the emperor has not any residence at Rome. + +In England people wait upon the king kneeling. The constant maxim is, +"The king can do no wrong"; his ministers only can deserve blame; he is +as infallible in his actions as the pope in his judgments. Such is the +fundamental, the "Salic" law of England. Yet the parliament sat in +judgment on its king, Edward II., who had been vanquished and taken +prisoner by his wife; he was declared to have done all possible wrong, +and deprived of all his rights to the crown. Sir William Tressel went to +him in prison, and made him the following complimentary address: + +"I, William Tressel, as proxy for the parliament and the whole English +nation, revoke the homage formerly paid you; I put you to defiance, and +deprive you of royal power, and from this time forth we will hold no +allegiance to you." + +The parliament tried and sentenced King Richard II., grandson of the +great Edward III. Thirty-one articles of accusation were brought against +him, among which two are not a little singular--that he had borrowed +money and not repaid it; and that he had asserted before witnesses that +he was master of the lives and properties of his subjects. + +The parliament deposed Henry VI., who, undoubtedly, was exceedingly +wrong, but in a somewhat different sense: he was imbecile. + +The parliament declared Edward IV. a traitor, and confiscated his goods; +and afterwards, on his being successful, restored him. As for Richard +III., he undoubtedly committed more wrong than all the others; he was a +Nero, but a bold one; and the parliament did not declare his wrongs till +after he was slain. + +The House of Commons imputed to Charles I. more wrong than he was justly +chargeable with, and brought him to the scaffold. Parliament voted that +James II. had committed very gross and flagrant wrongs, and particularly +that of withdrawing himself from the kingdom. It declared the throne +vacant; that is, it deposed him. In the present day, Junius writes to +the king of England that he is faulty in being good and wise. If these +are not contradictions, I know not where to find them. + +_Contradictions in Certain Rites._ + +Next to those great political contradictions, which are subdivided into +innumerable little ones, nothing more forcibly attracts our notice than +the contradiction apparent in reference to some of our rites. We hate +Judaism. No longer than fifteen years ago Jews were still burned at the +stake. We consider them as murderers of our God, and yet we assemble +every Sunday to chant Jewish psalms and canticles; it is only owing to +our ignorance of the language that we do not recite them in Hebrew. But +the fifteen first bishops, the priests, deacons and congregation of +Jerusalem, which was the cradle of the Christian religion, always +recited the Jewish psalms in the Jewish idiom of the Syriac language; +and, till the time of the Caliph Omar, almost all the Christians, from +Tyre to Aleppo, prayed in that Jewish idiom. At present any one reciting +the psalms as they were originally composed, or chanting them in the +Jewish language, would be suspected of being a circumcised Jew, and +might be burned as one; at least, not more than twenty years since, that +would have been his fate, although Jesus Christ was circumcised, as were +also his apostles and disciples. I set aside the mysterious doctrines of +our holy religion--everything that is an object of faith--everything +that we ought to approach only with awe and submission. I look only at +externals; I refer simply to observances; I ask if anything was ever +more contradictory? + +_Contradictions in Things and Men._ + +If any literary society is inclined to undertake a history of +contradictions, I will subscribe for twenty folio volumes. The world +displays nothing but contradictions. What would be necessary to put an +end to them? To assemble the states-general of the human race. But, +according to the nature and constitution of mankind, it would be a new +contradiction were they to agree. Bring together all the rabbits in the +world, and there would not be two different minds among them. + +I know only two descriptions of immovable beings in the +world--geometricians and brute animals; they are guided by two +invariable rules--demonstration and instinct. Some disputes, indeed, +have occurred between geometricians, but brutes have never varied. + +The contrasts, the lights and shades, in which men are represented in +history, are not contradictions; they are faithful portraits of human +nature. Every day both censure and admiration are applied to Alexander, +the murderer of Clitus, but the avenger of Greece; the conqueror of +Persia, and the founder of Alexandria; to Caesar, the debauchee, who +robbed the public treasury of Rome to enslave his country, but whose +clemency was equal to his valor, and whose genius was equal to his +courage; to Mahomet, the impostor and robber, but the only legislator of +religion that ever displayed courage, or founded a great empire; to the +enthusiast, Cromwell, at once knave and fanatic, the murderer of his +king by form of law, but equally profound as a politician, and valiant +as a warrior. A thousand contrasts frequently present themselves at once +to the mind, and these contrasts are in nature. They are not more +astonishing than a fine day followed by a tempest. + +_Apparent Contradictions in Books._ + +We must accurately distinguish in books, and particularly the sacred +ones, between apparent and real contradictions. It is said in the +Pentateuch that Moses was the meekest of men, and that he ordered +twenty-three thousand Hebrews to be slain who had worshipped the golden +calf, and twenty-four thousand more, who had, like himself, married +Midianitish women. But sagacious commentators have adduced solid proofs +that Moses possessed a most amiable temper, and that he only executed +the vengeance of God in massacring these forty-seven thousand +Israelites, as just stated. + +Some daring critics have pretended to perceive a contradiction in the +narrative in which it is said that Moses changed all the waters of Egypt +into blood, and that the magicians of Pharaoh afterwards performed the +same prodigy--the Book of Exodus leaving no interval of time between the +miracle of Moses and the magical operation of the enchanters. + +It appears, at first view, impossible that these magicians should change +to blood that which was already made such; but the difficulty may be +removed by supposing that Moses had allowed the waters to resume their +original nature, in order to give Pharaoh time for reflection. This +supposition is the more plausible, inasmuch as, if not expressly favored +by the text, the latter is not contrary to it. + +The same skeptics inquire how, after all the horses were destroyed by +hail, in the sixth plague, Pharaoh was able to pursue the Jewish nation +with cavalry. But this contradiction is not even an apparent one, since +the hail which killed all the horses that were out in the fields, could +not fall on those which were in the stables. + +One of the greatest contradictions which has been supposed to be found +in the history of the kings is the utter scarcity of offensive and +defensive arms among the Jews at the time of the accession of Saul, +compared with the army of three hundred and thirty thousand men, whom he +conducted against the Ammonites who were besieging Jabesh Gilead. + +It is a fact related that, then, and even after that battle, there was +not a lance, not even a single sword, among the whole Hebrew people; +that the Philistines prevented the Hebrews from manufacturing swords and +lances; that the Hebrews were obliged to have recourse to the +Philistines for sharpening and repairing their plowshares, mattocks, +axes, and pruning-hooks. + +This acknowledgment seems to prove that the Hebrews consisted of only a +very small number, and that the Philistines were a powerful and +victorious nation, who kept the Israelites under the yoke, and treated +them as slaves; in short, that it was impossible for Saul to collect +three hundred and thirty thousand fighting men, etc. + +The reverend Father Calmet says it is probable "that there is a little +exaggeration in what is stated about Saul and Jonathan"; but that +learned man forgets that the other commentators ascribe the first +victories of Saul and Jonathan to one of those decided miracles which +God so often condescended to perform in favor of his miserable people. +Jonathan, with his armor-bearer only, at the very beginning, slew twenty +of the enemy; and the Philistines, utterly confounded, turned their arms +against each other. The author of the Book of Kings positively declares +that it was a miracle of God: _"Accidit quasi miraculum a Deo."_ There +is, therefore, no contradiction. + +The enemies of the Christian religion, the Celsuses, the Porphyrys, and +the Julians, have exhausted the sagacity of their understandings upon +this subject. The Jewish writers have availed themselves of all the +advantages they derived from their superior knowledge of the Hebrew +language to explain these apparent contradictions. They have been +followed even by Christians, such as Lord Herbert, Wollaston, Tindal, +Toland, Collins, Shaftesbury, Woolston, Gordon, Bolingbroke, and many +others of different nations. Freret, perpetual secretary of the Academy +of Belles Lettres in France, the learned Le Clerc himself, and Simon of +the Oratory thought they perceived some contradictions which might be +ascribed to the copyists. An immense number of other critics have +endeavored to remove or correct contradictions which appeared to them +inexplicable. + +We read in a dangerous little book, composed with much art: "St. Matthew +and St. Luke give each a genealogy of Christ different from the other; +and lest it should be thought that the differences are only slight, such +as might be imputed to neglect or oversight, the contrary may easily be +shown by reading the first chapter of Matthew and the third of Luke. We +shall then see that fifteen generations more are enumerated in the one +than in the other; that, from David, they completely separate; that they +join again at Salathiel; but that, after his son, they again separate, +and do not reunite again but in Joseph. + +"In the same genealogy, St. Matthew again falls into a manifest +contradiction, for he says that Uzziah was the father of Jotham; and in +the "_Paralipomena_," book I, chap. iii., v. II, 12, we find three +generations between them--Joas, Amazias, and Azarias--of whom Luke, as +well as Matthew, make no mention. Further, this genealogy has nothing to +do with that of Jesus, since, according to our creed, Joseph had had no +intercourse with Mary." + +In order to reply to this objection, urged from the time of Origen, and +renewed from age to age, we must read Julius Africanus. See the two +genealogies reconciled in the following table, as we find it in the +repository of ecclesiastical writers: + + DAVID. + + Solomon and his Nathan and his + descendants, enumerated descendants, enumerated + by Saint by Saint + Matthew. Luke. + + + ESTHER. + + Mathan, her first Melchi, or rather + husband. Mathat, her second + husband. + The wife of these two + persons successively, + Jacob, son of married first to Heli, Heli. + Mathan, the by whom she had no + first husband. child, and afterwards + to Jacob, his brother. + + Joseph, natural Legitimate son of + son of Jacob. Heli. + +There is another method to reconcile the two genealogies, by St. +Epiphanius. According to him, Jacob Panther, descended from Solomon, is +the father of Joseph and of Cleophas. Joseph has six children by his +first wife--James, Joshua, Simeon, Jude, Mary, and Salome. He then +espouses the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the daughter of +Joachim and Anne. + +There are many other methods of explaining these two genealogies. See +the "Dissertation" of Father Calmet, in which he endeavors to reconcile +St. Matthew with St. Luke, on the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The same +learned skeptics, who make it their business to compare dates, to +explore books and medals, to collate ancient authors, and to seek for +truth by human skill and study, and who lose in their knowledge the +simplicity of their faith, reproach St. Luke with contradicting the +other evangelists, and in being mistaken in what he advances on the +subject of our Lord's birth. The author of the "Analysis of the +Christian Religion" thus rashly expresses himself on the subject (p. +23): + +"St. Luke says that Cyrenius was the governor of Syria, when Augustus +ordered the numbering of all the people of the empire. We will show how +many decided falsehoods are contained in these few words. First, Tacitus +and Suetonius, the most precise of historians, say not a single word of +the pretended numbering of the whole empire, which certainly would have +been a very singular event, since there never had been one under any +emperor--at least, no author mentions such a case. Secondly, Cyrenius +did not arrive in Syria till ten years after the time fixed by St. Luke; +it was then governed by Quintilius Varus, as Tertullian relates, and as +is confirmed by medals." + +We contend that in fact there never was a numbering of the whole Roman +empire, but only a census of Roman citizens, according to usage; +although it is possible that the copyists may have written "numbering" +for "census." With regard to Cyrenius, whom the copyists have made +Cirinus, it is certain that he was not governor of Syria at the time of +the birth of Jesus Christ, the governor being Quintilius Varus; but it +is very probable that Quintilius might send into Judaea this same +Cyrenius, who ten years after succeeded him in the government of Syria. +We cannot dissemble, however, that this explanation still leaves some +difficulties. + +In the first place, the census made under Augustus does not correspond +in time with the birth of Jesus Christ. Secondly, the Jews were not +comprised in that census. Joseph and his wife were not Roman citizens. +Mary, therefore, it is said, being under no necessity, was not likely to +go from Nazareth, which is at the extremity of Judaea, within a few miles +of Mount Tabor, in the midst of the desert, to lie in at Bethlehem, +which is eighty miles from Nazareth. + +But it might easily happen that Cirinus, or Cyrenius, having been sent +to Jerusalem by Quintilius Varus to impose a poll-tax, Joseph and Mary +were summoned by the magistrate of Bethlehem to go and pay the tax in +the town of Bethlehem, the place of their birth. In this there is +nothing contradictory. The critics may endeavor to weaken this solution +by representing that it was Herod only who imposed taxes; that the +Romans at that time levied nothing on Judaea; that Augustus left Herod +completely his own master for the tribute which that Idumean paid to the +empire. But, in an emergency, it is not impossible to make some +arrangement with a tributary prince, and send him an intendant to +establish in concert with him the new tax. + +We will not here say, like so many others, that copyists have committed +many errors, and that in the version we possess there are to be found +more than ten thousand; we had rather say with the doctors of the Church +and the most enlightened persons, that the Gospels were given us only to +teach us to live holily, and not to criticise learnedly. + +These pretended contradictions produced a dreadful impression on the +much lamented John Meslier, rector of Etrepigni and But in Champagne. +This truly virtuous and charitable, but at the same time melancholy, +man, being possessed of scarcely any other books than the Bible and some +of the fathers, read them with a studiousness of attention that became +fatal to him. Although bound by the duties of his office to inculcate +docility upon his flock, he was not sufficiently docile himself. He saw +apparent contradictions, and shut his eyes to the means suggested for +reconciling them. He imagined that he perceived the most frightful +contradictions between Jesus being born a Jew and afterwards being +recognized as God; in regard to that God known from the first as the son +of Joseph the carpenter and the brother of James, yet descended from an +empyrean which does not exist, to destroy sin upon earth that is still +covered with crimes; in regard to that God, the son of a common artisan +and a descendant of David on the side of his father, who was not in fact +his father; between the creator of all worlds, and the descendant of the +adulterous Bathsheba, the prurient Ruth, the incestuous Tamar, the +prostitute of Jericho, the wife of Abraham, so suspiciously attractive +to a king of Egypt, and again at the age of ninety years to a king of +Gerar. + +Meslier expatiates with an impiety absolutely monstrous on these +pretended contradictions, as they struck him, for which, however, he +might easily have found an explanation, had he possessed only a small +portion of docility. At length his gloom so grew upon him in his +solitude that he actually became horror-stricken at that holy religion +which it was his duty to preach and love; and, listening only to his +seduced and wandering reason, he abjured Christianity by a will written +in his own hand, of which he left three copies behind him at his death, +which took place in 1732. The copy of this will has been often printed, +and exhibits, in truth, a most cruel stumbling-block. A clergyman, who +at the point of death, asks pardon of God and his parishioners for +having taught the doctrines of Christianity; a charitable clergyman, who +holds Christianity in execration because many who profess it are +depraved; who is shocked at the pomp and pride of Rome, and exasperated +by the difficulties of the sacred volume; a clergyman who speaks of +Christianity like Porphyry, Jamblichus, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and +Julian! And this just as he is to make his appearance before God! How +fatal a case for him, and for all who may be led astray by his example! + +In a similar manner the unfortunate preacher Antony, misled by the +apparent contradictions which he imagined he saw between the new and the +old law, between the cultivated olive and the wild olive, wretchedly +abandoned the Christian religion for the Jewish; and, more courageous +than John Meslier, preferred death to recantation. + +It is evident from the will of John Meslier that the apparent +contradictions of the gospel were the principal cause of unsettling the +mind of that unfortunate pastor, who was, in other respects, a man of +the strictest virtue, and whom it is impossible to think of without +compassion. Meslier is deeply impressed by the two genealogies, which +seem in direct opposition; he had not seen the method of reconciling +them; he feels agitated and provoked to see that St. Matthew makes the +father and mother of the child travel into Egypt, after having received +the homage of the three eastern magi or kings, and while old King Herod, +under the apprehension of being dethroned by an infant just born at +Bethlehem, causes the slaughter of all the infants in the country, in +order to prevent such a revolution. He is astonished that neither St. +Luke, nor St. Mark, nor St. John make any mention of this massacre. He +is confounded at observing that St. Luke makes Joseph, and the blessed +Virgin Mary, and Jesus our Saviour, remain at Bethlehem, after which +they withdraw to Nazareth. He should have seen that the Holy Father +might at first go into Egypt, and some time afterwards to Nazareth, +which was their country. + +If St. Matthew alone makes mention of the three magi, and of the star +which guided them to Bethlehem from the remote climes of the East, and +of the massacre of the children; if the other evangelists take no notice +of these events, they do not contradict St. Matthew; silence is not +contradiction. + +If the three first evangelists--St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. +Luke--make Jesus Christ to have lived but three months from his baptism +in Galilee till his crucifixion at Jerusalem; and if St. John extends +that time to three years and three months, it is easy to approximate St. +John to the other evangelists, as he does not expressly state that Jesus +Christ preached in Galilee for three years and three months, but only +leaves it to be inferred from his narrative. Should a man renounce his +religion upon simple inferences, upon points of controversy, upon +difficulties in chronology? + +It is impossible, says Meslier, to harmonize St. Mark and St. Luke; +since the first says that Jesus, when he left the wilderness, went to +Capernaum, and the second that he went to Nazareth. St. John says that +Andrew was the first who became a follower of Jesus Christ; the three +other evangelists say that it was Simon Peter. + +He pretends, also, that they contradict each other with respect to the +day when Jesus celebrated the Passover, the hour and place of His +execution, the time of His appearance and resurrection. He is convinced +that books which contradict each other cannot be inspired by the Holy +Spirit; but it is not an article of faith to believe that the Holy +Spirit inspired every syllable; it did not guide the hand of the +copyist; it permitted the operation of secondary causes; it was +sufficient that it condescended to reveal the principal mysteries, and +that in the course of time it instituted a church for explaining them. +All those contradictions, with which the gospels have been so often and +so bitterly reproached, are explained by sagacious commentators; far +from being injurious, they mutually clear up each other; they present +reciprocal helps in the concordances and harmony of the four gospels. + +And if there are many difficulties which we cannot solve, mysteries +which we cannot comprehend, adventures which we cannot credit, prodigies +which shock the weakness of the human understanding, and contradictions +which it is impossible to reconcile, it is in order to exercise our +faith and to humiliate our reason. + +_Contradictions in Judgments Upon Works of Literature or Art._ + +I have sometimes heard it said of a good judge on these subjects, and of +exquisite taste, that man decides according to mere caprice. He +yesterday described Poussin as an admirable painter; to-day he +represents him as an ordinary one. The fact is, that Poussin has merited +both praise and censure. + +There is no contradiction in being enraptured by the delicious scenes +of the Horatii and Curiatii, of the Cid, of Augustus and of Cinna, and +afterwards in seeing, with disgust and indignation, fifteen tragedies in +succession, containing no interest, no beauty, and not even written in +French. + +It is the author himself who is contradictory. It is he who has the +misfortune to differ entirely from himself. The critic would contradict +himself, if he equally applauded what is excellent and detestable. He +will admire in Homer the description of the girdle of Venus; the parting +of Hector and Andromache; the interview between Achilles and Priam. But +will he equally applaud those passages which describe the gods as +abusing and fighting with one another; the uniformity in battles which +decide nothing; the brutal ferocity of the heroes, and the avarice by +which they are almost all actuated; in short, a poem which terminates +with a truce of eleven days, unquestionably exciting an expectation of +the continuation of the war and the taking of Troy, which, however, are +not related? + +A good critic will frequently pass from approbation to censure, however +excellent the work may be which he is perusing. + + + + +CONTRAST. + + +Contrast, opposition of figures, situations, fortune, manners, etc. A +modest shepherdess forms a beautiful contrast in a painting with a +haughty princess. The part of the impostor and that of Aristes +constitute a very admirable contrast in "_Tartuffe_." + +The little may contrast with the great in painting, but cannot be said +to be contrary to it. Opposition of colors contrasts; but there are also +colors contrary to each other; that is, which produce an ill effect +because they shock the eye when brought very near it. + +"Contradictory" is a term to be used only in logic. It is contradictory +for anything to be and not to be; to be in many places at once; to be of +a certain number or size, and not to be so. An opinion, a discourse, or +a decree, we may call contradictory. The different fortunes of Charles +XII. have been contrary, but not contradictory; they form in history a +beautiful contrast. + +It is a striking contrast--and the two things are perfectly +contrary--but it is not contradictory, that the pope should be +worshipped in Rome, and burned in London on the same day; that while he +was called God's vicegerent in Italy, he should be represented in the +streets of Moscow as a hog, for the amusement of Peter the Great. + +Mahomet, stationed at the right hand of God over half the globe, and +damned over the other half, is the greatest of contrasts. Travel far +from your own country, and everything will be contrast for you. The +white man who first saw a negro was much astonished; but the first who +said that the negro was the offspring of a white pair astonishes me +much more; I do not agree with him. A painter who represents white men, +negroes, and olive-colored people, may display fine contrasts. + + + + +CONVULSIONARIES. + + +About the year 1724 the cemetery of St. Medard abounded in amusement, +and many miracles were performed there. The following epigram by the +duchess of Maine gives a tolerable account of the character of most of +them: + + _Un decrotteur a la Royale,_ + _Du talon gauche estropie,_ + _Obtint, pour grace speciale,_ + _D'etre tortueux de l'autre pied._ + + A Port-Royal shoe-black, who had _one_ lame leg, + To make both alike the Lord's favor did beg; + Heaven listened, and straightway a miracle came, + For quickly he rose up, with _both_ his legs lame. + +The miracles continued, as is well known, until a guard was stationed at +the cemetery. + + _De par le roi, defense a Dieu_ + _De faire miracles en ce lieu._ + + Louis to God:--To keep the peace, + Here miracles must henceforth cease. + +It is also well known that the Jesuits, being no longer able to perform +similar miracles, in consequence of Xavier having exhausted their stock +of grace and miraculous power, by resuscitating nine dead persons at one +time, resolved in order to counteract the credit of the Jansenists, to +engrave a print of Jesus Christ dressed as a Jesuit. The Jansenists, on +the other hand, in order to give a satisfactory proof that Jesus Christ +had not assumed the habit of a Jesuit, filled Paris with convulsions, +and attracted great crowds of people to witness them. The counsellor of +parliament, Carre de Montgeron, went to present to the king a quarto +collection of all these miracles, attested by a thousand witnesses. He +was very properly shut up in a chateau, where attempts were made to +restore his senses by regimen; but truth always prevails over +persecution, and the miracles lasted for thirty years together, without +interruption. Sister Rose, Sister Illuminee, and the sisters Promise and +Comfitte, were scourged with great energy, without, however, exhibiting +any appearance of the whipping next day. They were bastinadoed on their +stomachs without injury, and placed before a large fire; but, being +defended by certain pomades and preparations, were not burned. At +length, as every art is constantly advancing towards perfection, their +persecutors concluded with actually thrusting swords through their +chairs, and with crucifying them. A famous schoolmaster had also the +benefit of crucifixion; all which was done to convince the world that a +certain bull was ridiculous, a fact that might have been easily proved +without so much trouble. However, Jesuits and Jansenists all united +against the "Spirit of Laws," and against, and against.... and +against.... and.... And after all this we dare to ridicule Laplanders, +Samoyeds, and negroes! + + + + +CORN. + + +They must be skeptics indeed who doubt that _pain_ comes from _panis_. +But to make bread we must have corn. The Gauls had corn in the time of +Caesar; but whence did they take the word _ble_? It is pretended that it +is from _bladum_, a word employed in the barbarous Latin of the middle +age by the Chancellor Desvignes, or De Erneis, whose eyes, it is said, +were torn out by order of the Emperor Frederick II. + +But the Latin words of these barbarous ages were only ancient Celtic or +Teutonic words Latinized. _Bladum_ then comes from our _blead_, and not +our _blead_ from _bladum_. The Italians call it _bioda_, and the +countries in which the ancient Roman language is preserved, still say +_blia_. + +This knowledge is not infinitely useful; but we are curious to know +where the Gauls and Teutons found corn to sow? We are told that the +Tyrians brought it into Spain, the Spaniards into Gaul, and the Gauls +into Germany. And where did the Tyrians get this corn? Probably from the +Greeks, in exchange for their alphabet. + +Who made this present to the Greeks? It was the goddess Ceres, without +doubt; and having ascended to Ceres, we can scarcely go any higher. +Ceres must have descended from heaven expressly to give us wheat, rye, +and barley. However, as the credit of Ceres, who gave corn to the +Greeks, and that of Ishet, or Isis, who gratified the Egyptians with +it, are at present very much decayed, we may still be said to remain in +uncertainty as to the origin of corn. + +Sanchoniathon tells us that Dagon or Dagan, one of the grandsons of +Thaut, had the superintendence of the corn in Phoenicia. Now his Thaut +was near the time of our Jared; from which it appears that corn is very +ancient, and that it is of the same antiquity as grass. Perhaps this +Dagon was the first who made bread, but that is not demonstrated. + +What a strange thing that we should know positively that we are obliged +to Noah for wine, and that we do not know to whom we owe the invention +of bread. And what is still more strange, we are still so ungrateful to +Noah that, while we have more than two thousand songs in honor of +Bacchus, we scarcely sing one in honor of our benefactor, Noah. + +A Jew assured me that corn came without cultivation in Mesopotamia, as +apples, wild pears, chestnuts, and medlars, in the west. It is as well +to believe him, until we are sure of the contrary; for it is necessary +that corn should grow spontaneously somewhere. It has become the +ordinary and indispensable nourishment in the finest climates, and in +all the north. + +The great philosophers whose talents we estimate so highly, and whose +systems we do not follow, have pretended, in the natural history of the +dog (page 195), that men created corn; and that our ancestors, by means +of sowing tares and cow-grass together, changed them into wheat. As +these philosophers are not of our opinion on shells, they will permit us +to differ from them on corn. We do not think that tulips could ever have +been produced from jasmine. We find that the germ of corn is quite +different from that of tares, and we do not believe in any +transmutation. When it shall be proved to us, we will retract. + +We have seen, in the article "Breadtree," that in three-quarters of the +earth bread is not eaten. It is pretended that the Ethiopians laughed at +the Egyptians, who lived on bread. But since corn is our chief +nourishment, it has become one of the greatest objects of commerce and +politics. So much has been written on this subject, that if a laborer +sowed as many pounds of wheat as we have volumes on this commodity, he +might expect a more ample harvest, and become richer than those who, in +their painted and gilded saloons, are ignorant of the excess of his +oppression and misery. + +Egypt became the best country in the world for wheat when, after several +ages, which it is difficult to reckon exactly, the inhabitants found the +secret of rendering a destructive river--which had always inundated the +country, and was only useful to the rats, insects, reptiles, and +crocodiles of Egypt--serviceable to the fecundity of the soil. Its +waters, mixed with a black mud, were neither useful to quench the thirst +of the inhabitants, nor for ablution. It must have required a long time +and prodigious labor to subdue the river, to divide it into canals, to +found towns on lands formerly movable, and to change the caverns of the +rocks into vast buildings. + +All this is more astonishing than the pyramids; for being accomplished, +behold a people sure of the best corn in the world, without the +necessity of labor! It is the inhabitant of this country who raises and +fattens poultry superior to that of Caux, who is habited in the finest +linen in the most temperate climate, and who has none of the real wants +of other people. + +Towards the year 1750, the French nation, surfeited with tragedies, +comedies, operas, romances, and romantic histories--with moral +reflections still more romantic, and with theological disputes on grace +and on convulsionaries, began to reason upon corn. They even forgot the +vine, in treating of wheat and rye. Useful things were written on +agriculture, and everybody read them except the laborers. The good +people imagined, as they walked out of the comic opera, that France had +a prodigious quantity of corn to sell, and the cry of the nation at last +obtained of the government, in 1764, the liberty of exportation. + +Accordingly they exported. The result was exactly what it had been in +the time of Henry IV., they sold a little too much, and a barren year +succeeding, Mademoiselle Bernard was obliged, for the second time, to +sell her necklace to get linen and chemises. Now the complainants passed +from one extreme to the other, and complained against the exportation +that they had so recently demanded, which shows how difficult it is to +please all the world and his wife. + +Able and well-meaning people, without interest, have written, with as +much sagacity as courage, in favor of the unlimited liberty of the +commerce in grain. Others, of as much mind, and with equally pure views, +have written in the idea of limiting this liberty; and the Neapolitan +Abbe Gagliana amused the French nation on the exportation of corn, by +finding out the secret of making, even in French, dialogues as amusing +as our best romances, and as instructive as our good serious books. If +this work did not diminish the price of bread, it gave great pleasure to +the nation, which was what it valued most. The partisans of unlimited +exportation answered him smartly. The result was that the readers no +longer knew where they were, and the greater part took to reading +romances, expecting that the three or four following years of abundance +would enable them to judge. The ladies were no longer able to +distinguish wheat from rye, while honest devotees continued to believe +that grain must lie and rot in the ground in order to spring up again. + + + + +COUNCILS. + +_Meetings of Ecclesiastics, Called Together to Resolve Doubts or +Questions on Points of Faith or Discipline._ + + +The use of councils was not unknown to the followers of the ancient +religion of Zerdusht, whom we call Zoroaster. About the year 200 of our +era, Ardeshir Babecan, king of Persia, called together forty thousand +priests, to consult them touching some of his doubts about paradise and +hell, which they call the _gehen_--a term adopted by the Jews during +their captivity at Babylon, as they did the names of the angels and of +the months. Erdoviraph, the most celebrated of the magi, having drunk +three glasses of a soporific wine, had an ecstasy which lasted seven +days and seven nights, during which his soul was transported to God. +When the paroxysm was over, he reassured the faith of the king, by +relating to him the great many wonderful things he had seen in the other +world, and having them written down. + +We know that Jesus was called _Christ_, a Greek word signifying +_anointed_; and his doctrine _Christianity_, or _gospel_, i.e., _good +news_, because having, as was his custom, entered one Sabbath day the +synagogue of Nazareth, where he was brought up, He applied to Himself +this passage of Isaiah, which He had just read: "The spirit of the Lord +is on me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the +poor." They of the synagogue did, to be sure, drive Him out of their +town, and carry Him to a point of the hill, on which it was built, in +order to throw Him headlong from it; and His relatives "went out to lay +hold on Him," for they were told, and they said, "that He was beside +Himself." Nor is it less certain that Jesus constantly declared He had +come not to destroy the law or the prophecies, but to fulfil them. + +But, as He left nothing written, His first disciples were divided on the +famous question, whether the Gentiles were to be circumcised and ordered +to keep the Mosaic law. The apostles and the priests, therefore, +assembled at Jerusalem to examine this point, and, after many +conferences, they wrote to the brethren among the Gentiles, at Antioch, +in Syria, and in Cilicia, a letter of which we give the substance: "It +has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us, not to impose upon you any +obligations but those which are necessary, viz., to abstain from meats +offered up to idols, from blood, from the flesh of choked animals, and +from fornication." + +The decision of this council did not prevent Peter, when at Antioch, +from continuing to eat with the Gentiles, before some of the +circumcised, who came from James, had arrived. But Paul, seeing that he +did not walk straight in the path of gospel truth, resisted him to the +face, saying to him before them all. "If thou, being a Jew, livest after +the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the +Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" Indeed Peter had lived like the +Gentiles ever since he had seen, in a trance, "heaven opened, and a +certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet, knit +at the four corners, and let down to the earth; wherein were all manner +of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping +things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, +Peter, kill and eat." + +Paul, who so loudly reproved Peter for using this dissimulation to make +them believe that he still observed the law, had himself recourse to a +similar feint at Jerusalem. Being accused of teaching the Jews who were +among the Gentiles to renounce Moses, he went and purified himself in +the temple for seven days, in order that all might know that what they +had heard of him was false, and that he continued to observe the law; +this, too, was done by the advice of all the priests, assembled at the +house of James--which priests were the same who had decided with the +Holy Ghost, that these observations were unnecessary. + +Councils were afterwards distinguished into general and particular. +Particular councils are of three kinds--national, convoked by the +prince, the patriarch, or the primate; provincial, assembled by the +metropolitan or archbishop; and diocesan, or synods held by each bishop. +The following is a decree of one of the councils held at Macon: + +"Whenever a layman meet a priest or a deacon on the road, he shall +offer him his arm; if the priest and the layman are both on horseback, +the layman shall stop and salute the priest reverently; and if the +priest be on foot, and the layman on horseback, the layman shall +dismount, and shall not mount again until the ecclesiastic be at a +certain distance; all on pain of interdiction for as long a time as it +shall please the metropolitan." + +The list of the councils, in Moreri's "Dictionary," occupies more than +sixteen pages, but as authors are not agreed concerning the number of +general councils, we shall here confine ourselves to the results of the +first eight that were assembled by order of the emperors. + +Two priests of Alexandria, seeking to know whether Jesus was God or +creature, not only did the bishops and priests dispute but the whole +people were divided, and the disorder arrived at such a pitch that the +Pagans ridiculed Christianity on the stage. The emperor Constantine +first wrote in these terms to Bishop Alexander and the priest Arius, the +authors of the dissension: "These questions, which are unnecessary, and +spring only from unprofitable idleness, may be discussed in order to +exercise the intellect; but they should not be repeated in the hearing +of the people. Being divided on so small a matter, it is not just that +you should govern, according to your thoughts, so great a multitude of +God's people. Such conduct is mean and puerile, unworthy of the priestly +office, and of men of sense. I do not say this to compel you entirely +to agree on this frivolous question, whatever it is. You may, with a +private difference, preserve unity, provided these subtleties and +different opinions remain secret in your inmost thoughts." + +The emperor, having learned that his letter was without effect, +resolved, by the advice of the bishops, to convoke an ecumenical +council--_i.e_., a council of the whole habitable earth, and chose for +the place of meeting the town of Nicaea, in Bithynia. There came thither +two thousand and forty-eight bishops, who, as Eutychius relates, were +all of different sentiments and opinions. This prince, having had the +patience to hear them dispute on this point, was much surprised at +finding among them so little unanimity; and the author of the Arabic +preface to this council says that the records of these disputes amounted +to forty volumes. + +This prodigious number of bishops will not appear incredible when it is +recollected that Usher, quoted by Selden, relates that St. Patrick, who +lived in the fifth century, founded three hundred and sixty-five +churches, and ordained the like number of bishops; which proves that +then each church had its bishop, that is, its overlooker. + +In the Council of Nice there was read a letter from Eusebius of +Nicomedia, containing manifest heresy, and discovering the cabal of +Arius's party. In it was said, among other things, that if Jesus were +acknowledged to be the Son of God uncreated, He must also be +acknowledged to be consubstantial with the Father. Therefore it was that +Athanasius, a deacon of Alexandria, persuaded the fathers to dwell on +the word _consubstantial_, which had been rejected as improper by the +Council of Antioch, held against Paul of Samosata; but he took it in a +gross sense, marking division; as we say, that several pieces of money +are of the same metal: whereas the orthodox explained the term +_consubstantial_ so well, that the emperor himself comprehended that it +involved no corporeal idea--signified no division of the absolutely +immaterial and spiritual substance of the Father--but was to be +understood in a divine and ineffable sense. They moreover showed the +injustice of the Arians in rejecting this word on pretence that it was +not in the Scriptures--they who employ so many words which are not there +to be found; and who say that the Son of God was brought out of nothing, +and had not existed from all eternity. + +Constantine then wrote two letters at the same time, to give publicity +to the ordinances of the council, and make them known to such as had not +attended it. The first, addressed to the churches in general, says, in +so many words, that the question of the faith has been examined, and so +well cleared up, that no difficulty remains. In the second, among +others, the church of Alexandria is thus addressed: "What three hundred +bishops have ordained is no other than the seed of the only Son of God; +the Holy Ghost has declared the will of God through these great men, +whom he inspired. Now, then, let none doubt--let none dispute, but each +one return with all his heart into the way of truth." + +The ecclesiastical writers are not agreed as to the number of bishops +who subscribed to the ordinances of this council. Eusebius reckons only +two hundred and fifty; Eustathius of Antioch, cited by Theodoret, two +hundred and seventy; St. Athanasius, in his epistle to the Solitaries, +three hundred, like Constantine; while, in his letter to the Africans, +he speaks of three hundred and eighteen. Yet these four authors were +eye-witnesses, and worthy of great faith. + +This number 318, which Pope St. Leo calls mysterious, has been adopted +by most of the fathers of the church. St. Ambrose assures us that the +number of 318 bishops was a proof of the presence of our Lord Jesus +Christ in his Council of Nicaea, because the cross designates three +hundred, and the name of Jesus eighteen. St. Hilary, in his defence of +the word _consubstantial_, approved in the Council of Nice, though +condemned fifty-five years before in the Council of Antioch, reasons +thus: "Eighty bishops rejected the word _consubstantial_, but three +hundred and eighteen have received it. Now this latter number seems to +me a sacred number, for if is that of the men who accompanied Abraham, +when, after his victory over the impious kings, he was blessed by him +who is the type of the eternal priesthood." And Selden relates that +Dorotheus, metropolitan of Monembasis, said there were precisely three +hundred and eighteen fathers at this council, because three hundred and +eighteen years had elapsed since the incarnation. All chronologists +place this council in the year 325 of our modern era; but Dorotheus +deducts seven years, to make his comparison complete; this, however, is +a mere trifle. Besides, it was not until the Council of Lestines, in +743, that the years began to be counted from the incarnation of Jesus. +Dionysius the Less had imagined this epoch in his solar cycle of the +year 526, and Bede had made use of it in his "Ecclesiastical History." + +It will not be a subject of astonishment that Constantine adopted the +opinion of the three hundred or three hundred and eighteen bishops who +held the divinity of Jesus, when it is borne in mind that Eusebius of +Nicomedia, one of the principal leaders of the Arian party, had been an +accomplice in the cruelty of Licinius, in the massacres of the bishops, +and the persecutions of the Christians. Of this the emperor himself +accuses him, in the private letter which he wrote to the church of +Nicomedia: + +"He sent spies about me," says he, "in the troubles, and did everything +but take up arms for the tyrant. I have proofs of this from the priests +and deacons of his train, whom I took. During the Council of Nicaea, with +what eagerness and what impudence he maintained, against the testimony +of his conscience, the error exploded on every side! repeatedly +imploring my protection, lest, being convicted of so great a crime, he +should lose his dignity. He shamefully circumvented and took me by +surprise, and carried everything as he chose. Again, see what has been +done but lately by him and Theogenes." + +Constantine here alludes to the fraud which Eusebius of Nicomedia and +Theogenes of Nicaea resorted to in subscribing. In the word "omoousios," +they inserted an iota, making it "omoiousios," meaning of like +substance; whereas the first means of _the same_ substance. We hereby +see that these bishops yielded to the fear of being displaced or +banished; for the emperor had threatened with exile such as should not +subscribe. The other Eusebius, too, bishop of Caesarea, approved the word +_consubstantial_, after condemning it the day before. + +However, Theonas of Marmarica, and Secundus of Ptolemais continued +obstinately attached to Arius; and, the council, having condemned them +with him, Constantine banished them, and declared by an edict that +whosoever should be convicted of concealing any of the writings of Arius +instead of burning them, should be punished with death. Three months +after, Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theogenes were likewise exiled into +Gaul. It is said that, having gained over the individual who, by the +emperor's order, kept the acts of the council, they had erased their +signatures, and begun to teach in public that the Son must not be +believed to be consubstantial with the Father. + +Happily, to replace their signatures and preserve entire the mysterious +number three hundred and eighteen, the expedient was tried of laying the +book, in which the acts were divided into sessions, on the tomb of +Chrysanthus and Mysonius, who had died while the council was in session; +the night was passed in prayer and the next morning it was found that +these two bishops had signed. + +It was by an expedient nearly similar, that the fathers of the same +council distinguished the authentic from the apocryphal books of +Scripture. Having placed them altogether upon the altar, the apocryphal +books fell to the ground of themselves. + +Two other councils, assembled by the emperor Constantine, in the year +359, the one, of upwards of four hundred bishops, at Rimini, the other, +of more than a hundred and fifty, at Seleucia; after long debates, +rejected the word _consubstantial_, already condemned, as we have before +said, by a Council of Antioch. But these councils are recognized only by +the Socinians. + +The Nicene fathers had been so much occupied with the consubstantiality +of the Son, that they had made no mention of the church in their symbol, +but contented themselves with saying, "We also believe in the Holy +Ghost." This omission was supplied in the second general council, +convoked at Constantinople, in 381, by Theodosius. The Holy Ghost was +there declared to be the Lord and giver of life, proceeding from the +Father, who with the Father and Son is worshipped and glorified, who +spake by the prophets. Afterwards the Latin church would have the Holy +Ghost proceed from the Son also; and the "filioque" was added to the +symbol: first in Spain, in 447; then in France, at the Council of Lyons, +in 1274; and lastly at Rome, notwithstanding the complaints made by the +Greeks against this innovation. + +The divinity of Jesus being once established, it was natural to give to +his mother the title of Mother of God. However, Nestorius, patriarch of +Constantinople, maintained in his sermons that this would be justifying +the folly of the Pagans, who gave mothers to their gods. Theodosius the +younger, to have this great question decided, assembled the third +general council at Ephesus, in the year 431, and in it Mary was +acknowledged to be the mother of God. + +Another heresy of Nestorius, likewise condemned at Ephesus, was that of +admitting two persons in Jesus. Nevertheless, the patriarch Photius +subsequently acknowledged two natures in Jesus. A monk named Eutyches, +who had already exclaimed loudly against Nestorius, affirmed, the better +to contradict them both, that Jesus had also but one nature. But this +time the monk was wrong; although, in 449, his opinion had been +maintained by blows in a numerous council at Ephesus. Eutyches was +nevertheless anathematized, two years afterwards, by the fourth general +council, held under the emperor Marcian at Chalcedon, in which two +natures were assigned to Jesus. + +It was still to be determined, with one person and two natures, how many +wills Jesus was to have. The fifth general council, which in the year +553 quelled, by Justinian's order, the contentions about the doctrine of +three bishops, had no leisure to settle this important point. It was not +until the year 680 that the sixth general council, also convened at +Constantinople by Constantine Pogonatus, informed us that Jesus had +precisely two wills. This council, in condemning the Monothelites, who +admitted only one, made no exception from the anathema in favor of Pope +Honorius I., who, in a letter given by Baronius, had said to the +patriarch of Constantinople: + +"We confess in Jesus Christ one only will. We do not see that either the +councils or the Scriptures authorize us to think otherwise. But whether, +from the works of divinity and of humanity which are in him, we are to +look for two operations, is a point of little importance, and one which +I leave it to the grammarians to decide." + +Thus, in this instance, with God's permission, the account between the +Greek and Latin churches was balanced. As the patriarch Nestorius had +been condemned for acknowledging two persons in Jesus, so Pope Honorius +was now condemned for admitting but one will in Jesus. + +The seventh general council, or the second of Nice, was assembled in +787, by Constantine, son of Leo and Irene, to re-establish the worship +of images. The reader must know that two Councils of Constantinople, the +first in 730, under the emperor Leo, the other twenty-four years after, +under Constantine Copronymus, had thought proper to proscribe images, +conformably to the Mosaic law and to the usage of the early ages of +Christianity. So, also, the Nicene decree, in which it is said that +"whosoever shall not render service and adoration to the images of the +saints as to the Trinity, shall be deemed anathematized," at first +encountered some opposition. The bishops who introduced it, in a Council +of Constantinople, held in 789, were turned out by soldiers. The same +decree was also rejected with scorn by the Council of Frankfort in 794, +and by the Caroline books, published by order of Charlemagne. But the +second Council of Nice was at length confirmed at Constantinople under +the emperor Michael and his mother Theodora, in the year 842, by a +numerous council, which anathematized the enemies of holy images. Be it +here observed, it was by two women, the empresses Irene and Theodora, +that the images were protected. + +We pass on to the eighth general council. Under the emperor Basilius, +Photius, ordained patriarch of Constantinople in place of Ignatius, had +the Latin church condemned for the "filioque" and other practices, by a +council of the year 866: but Ignatius being recalled the following +year, another council removed Photius; and in the year 869 the Latins, +in their turn, condemned the Greek church in what they called the eighth +general council--while those in the East gave this name to another +council, which, ten years after, annulled what the preceding one had +done, and restored Photius. + +These four councils were held at Constantinople; the others, called +_general_ by the Latins, having been composed of the bishops of the West +only, the popes, with the aid of false decretals, gradually arrogated +the right of convoking them. The last of these which assembled at Trent, +from 1545 to 1563, neither served to convert the enemies of papacy nor +to subdue them. Its decrees, in discipline, have been scarcely admitted +into any one Catholic nation: its only effect has been to verify these +words of St. Gregory Nazianzen: "I have not seen one council that has +acted with good faith, or that has not augmented the evils complained of +rather than cured them. Ambition and the love of disputation, beyond the +power of words to express, reign in every assembly of bishops." + +However, the Council of Constance, in 1415, having decided that a +council-general receives its authority immediately from Jesus Christ, +which authority every person, of whatever rank or dignity, is bound to +obey in all that concerns the faith; and the Council of Basel having +afterwards confirmed this decree, which it holds to be an article of +faith which cannot be neglected without renouncing salvation, it is +clear how deeply every one is interested in paying submission to +councils. + + +SECTION II. + +_Notice of the General Councils._ + +Assembly, council of state, parliament, states-general, formerly +signified the same thing. In the primitive ages nothing was written in +Celtic, nor in German, nor in Spanish. The little that was written was +conceived in the Latin tongue by a few clerks, who expressed every +meeting of _lendes_, _herren_, or _ricohombres_, by the word +_concilium_. Hence it is that we find in the sixth, seventh, and eighth +centuries so many councils which were nothing more than councils of +state. + +We shall here speak only of the great councils called _general_, whether +by the Greek or by the Latin church. At Rome they were called _synods_, +as they were in the East in the primitive ages--for the Latins borrowed +names as well as things from the Greeks. + +In 325 there was a great council in the city of Nicaea, convoked by +Constantine. The form of its decision was this: "We believe that Jesus +is of one substance with the Father, God of God, light of light, +begotten, not made. We also believe in the Holy Ghost." + +Nicephorus affirms that two bishops, Chrysanthus and Mysonius, who had +died during the first sittings, rose again to sign the condemnation of +Arius, and incontinently died again, as I have already observed. +Baronius maintains this fact, but Fleury says nothing of it. + +In 359 the emperor Constantius assembled the great councils of Rimini +and of Seleucia, consisting of six hundred bishops, with a prodigious +number of priests. These two councils, corresponding together, undo all +that the Council of Nice did, and proscribe the consubstantiality. But +this was afterwards regarded as a false council. + +In 381 was held, by order of the emperor Theodosius, a great council at +Constantinople, of one hundred and fifty bishops, who anathematize the +Council of Rimini. St. Gregory Nazianzen presides, and the bishop of +Rome sends deputies to it. Now is added to the Nicene symbol: "Jesus +Christ was incarnate, by the Holy Ghost, of the Virgin Mary. He was +crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He was buried, and on the third +day he rose again, according to the Scriptures. He sits at the right +hand of the Father. We also believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and +giver of life, who proceeds from the Father." + +In 431 a great council was convoked at Ephesus, by the emperor +Theodosius II. Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, having violently +persecuted all who were not of his opinion on theological points, +undergoes persecution in his turn, for having maintained that the Holy +Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, was not mother of God; because +said he, Jesus Christ being the word, the Son of God, consubstantial +with His Father, Mary could not, at the same time, be mother of God the +Father and of God the Son. St. Cyril exclaims loudly against him. +Nestorius demands an ecumenical council, and obtains it. Nestorius is +condemned; but Cyril is also displaced by a committee of the council. +The emperor reverses all that has been done in this council, then +permits it to re-assemble. The deputies from Rome arrive very late. The +troubles increasing, the emperor has Nestorius and Cyril arrested. At +last he orders all the bishops to return, each to his church, and after +all no conclusion is reached. Such was the famous Council of Ephesus. + +In 449 another great council, afterward called "the banditti," met at +Ephesus. The number of bishops assembled is a hundred and thirty; and +Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, presided. There are two deputies from +the church of Rome, and several abbots. The question is, whether Jesus +Christ has two natures. The bishops and all the monks of Egypt exclaim +that "all who would divide Jesus Christ ought themselves to be torn in +two." The two natures are anathematized; and there is a fight in full +council, as at the little Council of Cirta in 355, and at the minor +Council of Carthage. + +In 452, the great Council of Chalcedon was convoked by Pulcheria, who +married Marcian on condition that he should be only the highest of her +subjects. St. Leo, bishop of Rome, having great influence, takes +advantage of the troubles which the quarrel about the two natures has +occasioned in the empire, and presides at the council by his legates--of +which we have no former example. But the fathers of the council, +apprehending that the church of the West will, from this precedent, +pretend to the superiority over that of the East, decide by their +twenty-eighth canon, that the see of Constantinople, and that of Rome, +shall enjoy alike the same advantages and the same privileges. This was +the origin of the long enmity which prevailed, and still prevails, +between the two churches. This Council of Chalcedon established the two +natures in one only person. + +Nicephorus relates that, at this same council, the bishops, after a long +dispute on the subject of images, laid each his opinion in writing on +the tomb of St. Euphemia, and passed the night in prayer. The next +morning the orthodox writings were found in the saint's hand, and the +others at her feet. + +In 553, a great council at Constantinople was convoked by Justinian, who +was an amateur theologian, to discuss three small writings, called _the +three chapters_, of which nothing is now known. There were also disputes +on some passages of Origen. + +Vigilius, bishop of Rome, would have gone thither in person; but +Justinian had him put in prison, and the Patriarch of Constantinople +presided. No member of the Latin church attended; for at that time Greek +was no longer understood in the West, which had become entirely +barbarous. + +In 680, another general council at Constantinople was convoked by +Constantine the bearded. This was the first council called by the Latins +_in trullo_, because it was held in an apartment of the imperial palace. +The emperor, himself, presided; on his right hand were the patriarchs of +Constantinople and Antioch; on his left, the deputies from Rome and +Jerusalem. It was there decided that Jesus Christ had two wills; and +Pope Honorius I., was condemned as a Monothelite, i.e., as wishing Jesus +Christ to have but one will. + +In 787, the second Council of Nice was convoked by Irene, in the name of +the emperor Constantine, her son, whom she had deprived of his eyes. Her +husband, Leo, had abolished the worship of images, as contrary to the +simplicity of the primitive ages, and leading to idolatry. Irene +re-established this worship; she herself spoke in the council, which was +the only one held by a woman. Two legates from Pope Adrian V., attended, +but did not speak, for they did not understand Greek: the patriarch did +all. + +Seven years after, the Franks, having heard that a council at +Constantinople had ordained the adoration of images, assemble, by order +of Charles, son of Pepin, afterwards named Charlemagne, a very numerous +council at Frankfort. Here the second Council of Nice is spoken of as +"an impertinent and arrogant synod, held in Greece for the worshipping +of pictures." + +In 842, a great council at Constantinople was convoked by the empress +Theodora. The worship of images was solemnly established. The Greeks +have still a feast in honor of this council, called the _orthodoxia_. +Theodora did not preside. In 861, a great council at Constantinople, +consisting of three hundred and eighteen bishops, was convoked by the +emperor Michael. St. Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople, is deposed, +and Photius elected. + +In 866, another great council was held at Constantinople, in which Pope +Nicholas III. is deposed for contumacy, and excommunicated. In 869 was +another great council at Constantinople, in which Photius, in turn, is +deposed and excommunicated, and St. Ignatius restored. + +In 879, another great council assembled at Constantinople, in which +Photius, already restored, is acknowledged as true patriarch by the +legates of Pope John VIII. Here the great ecumenical council, in which +Photius was deposed, receives the appellation of "_conciliabulum_." Pope +John VIII. declares all those to be Judases who say that the Holy Ghost +proceeds from the Father and the Son. + +In 1122-3, a great council at Rome was held in the church of St. John of +Lateran by Pope Calixtus II. This was the first general council convoked +by the popes. The emperors of the West had now scarcely any authority; +and the emperors of the East pressed by the Mahometans and by the +Crusaders, held none but wretched little councils. + +It is not precisely known what this Lateran was. Some small councils had +before been assembled in the Lateran. Some say that it was a house built +by one Lateran in Nero's time; others, that it was St. John's church +itself, built by Bishop Sylvester. In this council, the bishops +complained heavily of the monks. "They possess," said they, "the +churches, the lands, the castles, the tithes, the offerings of the +living and the dead; they have only to take from us the ring and the +crosier." The monks remained in possession. + +In 1139 was another great Council of Lateran, by Pope Innocent II. It is +said there were present a thousand bishops. A great many, certainly. +Here the ecclesiastical tithes are declared to be of _divine right_, and +all laymen possessing any of them are excommunicated. In 1179 was +another great Council of Lateran, by Pope Alexander III. There were +three hundred bishops and one Greek abbot. The decrees are all on +discipline. The plurality of benefices is forbidden. + +In 1215 was the last general Council of Lateran, by Pope Innocent III., +composed of four hundred and twelve bishops, and eight hundred abbots. +At this time, which is that of the Crusades, the popes have established +a Latin patriarch at Jerusalem, and one at Constantinople. These +patriarchs attend the council. This great council says that, "God having +given the doctrine of salvation to men by Moses, at length caused His +son to be born of a virgin, to show the way more clearly," and that "no +one can be saved out of the Catholic church." + +The _transubstantiation_ was not known until after this council. It +forbade the establishment of new religious orders; but, since that time, +no less than eighty have been instituted. It was in this council that +Raymond, count of Toulouse, was stripped of all his lands. In 1245 a +great council assembled at the imperial city of Lyons. Innocent IV. +brings thither the emperor of Constantinople, John Palaeologus, and makes +him sit beside him. He deposes the emperor Frederick as a _felon_, and +gives the cardinals red hats, as a sign of hostility to Frederick. This +was the source of thirty years of civil war. + +In 1274 another general council was held at Lyons. Five hundred bishops, +seventy great and a thousand lesser abbots. The Greek emperor, Michael +Palaeologus, that he may have the protection of the pope, sends his Greek +patriarch, Theophanes, to unite, in his name, with the Latin church. But +the Greek church disowns these bishops. + +In 1311, Pope Clement V. assembled a general council in the small town +of Vienne, in Dauphiny, in which he abolishes the Order of the Templars. +It is here ordained that the Begares, Beguins, and Beguines shall be +burned. These were a species of heretics, to whom was imputed all that +had formerly been imputed to the primitive Christians. In 1414, the +great Council of Constance was convoked by an emperor who resumes his +rights, viz.: by Sigismund. Here Pope John XXIII., convicted of numerous +crimes, is deposed; and John Huss and Jerome of Prague, convicted of +obstinacy, are burned. In 1431, a great council was held at Basel, where +they in vain depose Pope Eugene IV., who is too clever for the council. + +In 1438, a great council assembled at Ferrara, transferred to Florence, +where the excommunicated pope excommunicates the council, and declares +it guilty of high treason. Here a feigned union is made with the Greek +church, crushed by the Turkish synods held sword in hand. Pope Julius +II. would have had his Council of Lateran, in 1512, pass for an +ecumenical council. In it that pope solemnly excommunicated Louis XII., +king of France, laid France under an interdict, summoned the whole +parliament of Provence to appear before him, and excommunicated all the +philosophers, because most of them had taken part with Louis XII. Yet +this council was not, like that of Ephesus, called the Council of +Robbers. + +In 1537, the Council of Trent was convoked, first at Mantua, by Paul +III., afterwards at Trent in 1543, and terminated in December, 1561, +under Pius VI. Catholic princes submitted to it on points of doctrine, +and two or three of them in matters of discipline. It is thought that +henceforward there will be no more general councils than there will be +states-general in France or Spain. In the Vatican there is a fine +picture, containing a list of the general councils, in which are +inscribed such only as are approved by the court of Rome. Every one puts +what he chooses in his own archives. + + +SECTION III. + +_Infallibility of Councils._ + +All councils are, doubtless, infallible, being composed of men. It is +not possible that the passions, that intrigues, that the spirit of +contention, that hatred or jealousy, that prejudice or ignorance, should +ever influence these assemblies. But why, it will be said, have so many +councils been opposed to one another? To exercise our faith. They were +all right, each in its time. At this day, the Roman Catholics believe in +such councils only as are approved in the Vatican; the Greek Catholics +believe only in those approved at Constantinople; and the Protestants +make a jest of both the one and the other: so that every one ought to be +content. + +We shall here examine only the great councils: the lesser ones are not +worth the trouble. The first was that of Nice, assembled in the year 325 +of the modern era, after Constantine had written and sent by Osius his +noble letter to the rather turbulent clergy of Alexandria. It was +debated whether Jesus was created or uncreated. This in no way concerned +morality, which is the only thing essential. Whether Jesus was in time +or before time, it is not the less our duty to be honest. After much +altercation, it was at last decided that the Son was as old as the +Father, and _consubstantial_ with the Father. This decision is not very +easy of comprehension, which makes it but the more sublime. Seventeen +bishops protested against the decree; and an old Alexandrian chronicle, +preserved at Oxford, says that two thousand priests likewise protested. +But prelates make not much account of mere priests, who are in general +poor. However, there was nothing said of the Trinity in this first +council. The formula runs thus: "We believe Jesus to be consubstantial +with the Father, God of God, light of light, begotten, not made; we also +believe in the Holy Ghost." It must be acknowledged that the Holy Ghost +was treated very cavalierly. + +We have already said, that in the supplement to the Council of Nice it +is related that the fathers, being much perplexed to find out which were +the authentic and which the apocryphal books of the Old and the New +Testament, laid them all upon an altar, and the books which they were to +reject fell to the ground. What a pity that so fine an ordeal has been +lost! + +After the first Council of Nice, composed of three hundred and seventeen +infallible bishops, another council was held at Rimini; on which +occasion the number of the infallible was four hundred, without +reckoning a strong detachment, at Seleucia, of about two hundred. These +six hundred bishops, after four months of contention, unanimously took +from Jesus his _consubstantiality_. It has since been restored to him, +except by the Socinians: so nothing is amiss. + +One of the great councils was that of Ephesus, in 431. There, as already +stated, Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, a great persecutor of +heretics, was himself condemned as a heretic, for having maintained +that, although Jesus was really God, yet His mother was not absolutely +mother of God, but mother of Jesus. St. Cyril procured the condemnation +of Nestorius; but the partisans of Nestorius also procured the +deposition of St. Cyril, in the same council; which put the Holy Ghost +in considerable perplexity. + +Here, gentle reader, carefully observe, that the Gospel says not one +syllable of the consubstantiality of the Word, nor of Mary's having had +the honor of being mother of God, no more than of the other disputed +points which brought together so many infallible councils. + +Eutyches was a monk, who had cried out sturdily against Nestorius, whose +heresy was nothing less than supposing two persons in Jesus; which is +quite frightful. The monk, the better to contradict his adversary, +affirmed that Jesus had but one nature. One Flavian, bishop of +Constantinople, maintained against him, that there must absolutely be +two natures in Jesus. Thereupon, a numerous council was held at Ephesus +in 449, and the argument made use of was the cudgel, as in the lesser +council of Cirta, in 355, and in a certain conference held at Carthage. +Flavian's nature was well thrashed, and two natures were assigned to +Jesus. At the Council of Chalcedon, in 451, Jesus was again reduced to +one nature. + +I pass by councils held on less weighty questions, and come to the sixth +general Council of Constantinople, assembled to ascertain precisely +whether Jesus--who, after having for a long period had but one nature, +was then possessed of two--had also two wills. It is obvious how +important this knowledge is to doing the will of God. + +This council was convoked by Constantine the Bearded, as all the others +had been by the preceding emperors. The legates from the bishop of Rome +were on the left hand, and the patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch +on the right. The train-bearers at Rome may, for aught I know, assert +that the left hand is the place of honor. However, the result was that +Jesus obtained two wills. + +The Mosaic law forbade images. Painters and sculptors had never made +their fortunes among the Jews. We do not find that Jesus ever had any +pictures, excepting perhaps that of Mary, painted by Luke. It is, +however, certain that Jesus Christ nowhere recommends the worship of +images. Nevertheless the primitive Christians began to worship them +about the end of the fourth century, when they had become familiar with +the fine arts. In the eighth century this abuse had arrived at such a +pitch that Constantine Copronymus assembled, at Constantinople, a +council of three hundred and twenty bishops, who anathematized +image-worship, and declared it to be idolatry. + +The empress Irene, the same who afterwards had her son's eyes torn out, +convoked the second Council of Nice in 787, when the adoration of images +was re-established. But in 794 Charlemagne had another council held at +Frankfort, which declared the second of Nice idolatrous. Pope Adrian IV. +sent two legates to it, but he did not convoke it. + +The first great council convoked by a pope was the first of Lateran, in +1139; there were about a thousand bishops assembled; but scarcely +anything was done, except that all those were anathematized who said +that the Church was too rich. In 1179, another great council of Lateran +was held by Alexander III., in which the cardinals, for the first time, +took precedence of the bishops. The discussions were confined to matters +of discipline. In another great council of Lateran, in 1215, Pope +Innocent III. stripped the count of Toulouse of all his possessions, by +virtue of his excommunication. It was then that the first mention was +made of _transubstantiation_. + +In 1245, was held a general council at Lyons, then an imperial city, in +which Pope Innocent IV. excommunicated the emperor Frederick II., and +consequently deposed him, and forbade him the use of fire and water. On +this occasion, a red hat was given to the cardinals, to remind them that +they must imbrue their hands in the blood of the emperor's partisans. +This council was the cause of the destruction of the house of Suabia, +and of thirty years of anarchy in Italy and Germany. + +In a general council held at Vienne, in Dauphiny, in 1311, the Order of +the Templars was abolished: its principal members having been condemned +to the most horrible deaths, on charges most imperfectly established. +The great Council of Constance, in 1414, contented itself with +dismissing Pope John XXIII., convicted of a thousand crimes, but had +John Huss and Jerome of Prague burned for being obstinate; obstinacy +being a much more grievous crime than either murder, rape, simony, or +sodomy. In 1430 was held the great council of Basel, not recognized at +Rome because it deposed Pope Eugenius IV., who would not be deposed. The +Romans reckon among the general councils the fifth Council of Lateran, +convoked against Louis XII., king of France, by Pope Julius II.; but +that warlike pope dying, the council had no result. + +Lastly, we have the great Council of Trent, which is not received in +France in matters of discipline; but its doctrine is indisputable, +since, as Fra Paolo Sarpi tells us, the Holy Ghost arrived at Trent from +Rome every week in the courier's bag. But Fra Paolo Sarpi was a little +tainted with heresy. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 3 +(of 10), by Francois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY *** + +***** This file should be named 35623.txt or 35623.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/6/2/35623/ + +Produced by Andrea Ball, Christine Bell & Marc D'Hooghe +at http://www.freeliterature.org (From images generously +made available by the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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