BOOK 1. committed against the religious ceremonies established for pubCHAP. XII. lic affairs, and in which the whole state is concerned.* The [60] wise Romans were very far from persecuting a man for his creed; they only required that people should not disturb the public order. 2 134. care, and Ob the means he ought to employ. The creeds or opinions of individuals, their sentiments with jects of his respect to the Deity,-in a word, interior religion-should, like piety, be the object of the prince's attention: he should neglect no means of enabling his subjects to discover the truth, and of inspiring them with good sentiments; but he should employ for this purpose only mild and paternal methods.† Here he cannot command (§ 128). It is in external religion and its public exercise that his authority may be employed. His task is to preserve it, and to prevent the disorders and troubles it may occasion. To preserve religion, he ought to maintain it in the purity of its institution, to take care that it be faithfully observed in all its public acts and ceremonies, and punish those who dare to attack it openly. But he can require nothing by force except silence, and ought never to oblige any person to bear a part in external ceremonies :-by constraint, he would only produce disturbances or hypocrisy. 135. Of A diversity of opinions and worship has often produced disorders and fatal dissensions in a state: and for this reason, many will allow but one and the same religion. A prudent and equitable sovereign will, in particular conjunctures, see whether it be proper to tolerate or forbid the exercise of several different kinds of worship. But, in general, we may boldly affirm that the most certoleration. tain and equitable means of preventing the disorders that may (53) be occasioned by difference of religion, is a universal toleration of all religions which contain no tenets that are dangerous either to morality or to the state. Let interested priests declaim! they would not trample under foot the laws of humanity, and those of God himself, to make their doctrine. triumph, if it were not the foundation on which are erected their opulence, luxury, and power. Do but crush the spirit of persecution,-punish severely whoever shall dare to disturb others on account of their creed, and you will see all sects living in peace in their common country, and ambitious of producing good citizens. Holland, and the states of the King of Prussia, furnish a proof of this: Calvinists, Lutherans, Catholics, Pietists, Socinians, Jews, all live there in peace, because they are equally protected by the sovereign; and none are punished, but the disturbers of the tranquillity of others. Qui secus faxit, Deus ipse vindex esto.-De Legib. lib. ii. Quas (religiones) non metu, sed ea conjunctione quæ est homini cum Deo, conservandas puto. Cicero de Le gib. lib. i. What a fine lesson does this pagan philosopher give to Chris tians! (53) See the modern enactments, 4 Bla. Com. 440, 443; Id. 52, 53, in the notes.-C. BOOK I. CHAP. XII. 136. What the prince ought to do If, in spite of the prince's care to preserve the established religion, the entire nation, or the greater part of it, should be disgusted with it, and desire to have it changed, the sovereign cannot do violence to his people, nor constrain them in an affair of this nature. The public religion was established when the for the safety and advantage of the nation: and, besides its nation is reproving inefficacious when it ceases to influence the heart, the solved to sovereign has here no other authority than that which results religion. from the trust reposed in him by the people, and they have only committed to him that of protecting whatever religion [61] they think proper to profess. change its But at the same time it is very just that the prince should ? 137. Difhave the liberty of continuing in the profession of his own ference of religion, without losing his crown. Provided that he protect not deprive religion does the religion of the state, this is all that can be required of a prince of him. In general, a difference of religion can never make his crown. any prince forfeit his claims to the sovereignty, unless a fundamental law ordain it otherwise. The pagan Romans did not cease to obey Constantine when he embraced Christianity; nor did the Christians revolt from Julian after he had quitted it.* rights of the sovereign We have established liberty of conscience for individuals 138. Du(§ 128). However, we have also shown that the sovereign ties and has a right, and is even under an obligation, to protect and support the religion of the state, and not suffer any person reconciled to attempt to corrupt or destroy it, that he may even, ac- with those cording to circumstances, permit only one kind of public of the subworship throughout the whole country. Let us reconcile those different duties and rights, between which it may be thought that there is some contradiction :-let us, if possible, omit no material argument on so important and delicate a subject. If the sovereign will allow the public exercise of only one and the same religion, let him oblige nobody to do any thing contrary to his conscience; let no subject be forced to bear a part in a worship which he disapproves, or to profess a religion which he believes to be false; but let the subject on his part rest content with avoiding the guilt of a shameful hypocrisy; let him, according to the light of his own knowledge, serve God in private and in his own house-persuaded that Providence does not call upon him for public worship, since it has placed him in such circumstances that he cannot perform it without creating disturbances in the state. God would have us obey our sovereign, and avoid every thing that When the chief part of the people in the principality of Neufchatel and Vallangin embraced the reformed religion in the sixteenth century, Joan of Hochberg, their sovereign, continued to live in the Roman Catholic faith, and nevertheless still retained all her rights. ject. BOOK 1. CHAP. XII. may be pernicious to society. These are immutable precepts of the law of nature: the precept that enjoins public worship is conditional, and dependent on the effects which that worship may produce. Interior worship is necessary in its own nature; and we ought to confine ourselves to it, in all cases in which it is most convenient. Public worship is appointed for the edification of men in glorifying God: but it counteracts that end, and ceases to be laudable, on those oc[62]casions when it only produces disturbances, and gives offence. If any one believes it absolutely necessary, let him quit the country where he is not allowed to perform it according to the dictates of his own conscience; let him go and join those who profess the same religion with himself. 139. The sovereign ought to have the in spection of the affairs and autho rity over those who teach it. The prodigious influence of religion on the peace and welfare of society incontrovertibly proves that the conductor of the state ought to have the inspection of what relates to it, and an authority over the ministers who teach it. The end of society and of civil government necessarily requires that of religion, he who exercises the supreme power should be invested with all the rights without which he could not exercise it in a manner the most advantageous to the state. These are the prerogatives of majesty (§ 45), of which no sovereign can divest himself, without the express consent of the nation. The inspection of the affairs of religion, and the authority over its ministers, constitute, therefore, one of the most important of those prerogatives, since, without this power, the sovereign would never be able to prevent the disturbances that religion might occasion in the state, nor to employ that powerful engine in promoting the welfare and safety of the society. It would be certainly very strange that a multitude of men who united themselves in society for their common advantage, that each might, in tranquillity, labour to supply his necessities, promote his own perfection and happiness, and live as becomes a rational being: it would be very strange, I say, that such a society should not have a right to follow their own judgment in an affair of the utmost importance; to determine what they think most suitable with regard to religion; and to take care that nothing dangerous or hurtful be mixed with it. Who shall dare to dispute that an independent nation has, in this respect as in all others, a right to proceed according to the light of conscience? and when once she has made choice of a particular religion and worship, may she not confer on her conductor all the power she possesses of regulating and directing that religion and worship, and enforcing their observance? Let us not be told that the management of sacred things belongs not to a profane hand. Such discourses, when brought to the bar of reason, are found to be only vain declamations. There is nothing on earth more august and sacred than a sovereign; and why should God, who calls him by his providence BOOK I. CHAP. XII. to watch over the safety and happiness of a whole nation, deprive him of the direction of the most powerful spring that actuates mankind? The law of nature secures to him this right, with all others that are essential to good government; and nothing is to be found in Scripture that changes this disposition. Among the Jews, neither the king nor any other person could make any innovation in the law of Moses; but the sovereign attended to its preservation, and could check the high priest when he deviated from his duty. Where is it asserted in the New Testament, that a Christian prince has nothing to do with religious affairs? Submission and obedience to the superior powers are there clearly and expressly enjoined. It were in vain to object to us the example of the [63] apostles, who preached the gospel in opposition to the will of sovereigns-whoever would deviate from the ordinary rules, must have a divine mission, and establish his authority by miracles. No person can dispute that the sovereign has a right to take care that nothing contrary to the welfare and safety of the state be introduced into religion; and, consequently, he must have a right to examine its doctrines, and to point out what is to be taught, and what is to be suppressed in silence. ought to prevent the The sovereign ought, likewise, to watch attentively, in order 2 140. Ho to prevent the established religion from being employed to sinister purposes, either by making use of its discipline to abuse of the gratify hatred, avarice, or other passions, or presenting its received redoctrines in a light that may prove prejudicial to the state. ligion. Of wild reveries, seraphic devotions, and sublime speculations, what would be the consequences to society, if it entirely consisted of individuals whose intellects were weak, and whose hearts were easily governed?-the consequences would be a renunciation of the world, a general neglect of business and of honest labour. This society of pretended saints would become an easy and certain prey to the first ambitious neighbour; or if suffered to live in peace, it would not survive the first generation; both sexes, consecrating their chastity to God, would refuse to co-operate in the designs of their Creator, and to comply with the requisitions of nature and of the state. Unluckily for the missionaries, it evidently appears, even from Father Charlevoix' History of New France, that their labours were the principal cause of the ruin of the Hurons. That author expressly says, that a great number of those converts would think of nothing but the faith-that they forgot their activity and valour-that divisions arose between them and the rest of the nation, &c. That nation was, therefore, soon destroyed by the Iroquois, whom they had before been accustomed to conquer.* To the prince's inspection of the affairs and concerns of History of New France, books v, vi, vii, authority nisters of religion. BOOK I. religion we have joined an authority over its ministers: withCHAP. XII. out the latter power, the former would be nugatory and inef2141. The fectual; they are both derived from the same principle. It sovereign's is absurd, and contrary to the first foundations of society, over the mi- that any citizens should claim an independence of the sovereign authority, in offices of such importance to the repose, the happiness, and safety of the state. This is establishing two independent powers in the same society-an unfailing source of division, disturbance, and ruin. There is but one supreme power in the state; the functions of the subordinate powers vary according to their different objects :-ecclesiastics, magistrates, and commanders of the troops, are all [64] officers of the republic, each in his own department; and all are equally accountable to the sovereign. 2 142. Nature of this authority. 2143. Rule to be ob A prince cannot, indeed, justly oblige an ecclesiastic to preach a doctrine, or to perform a religious rite, which the latter does not think agreeable to the will of God. But if the minister cannot, in this respect, conform to the will of his sovereign, he ought to resign his station, and consider himself as a man who is not called to fill it-two things being necessary for the discharge of the duty annexed to it, viz. to teach and behave with sincerity, according to the dictates of his own conscience, and to conform to the prince's intentions and the laws of the state. Who can forbear being filled with indignation, at seeing a bishop audaciously resist the orders of the sovereign, and the decrees of the supreme tribunals, solemnly declaring that he thinks himself accountable to God alone for the power with which he is intrusted? On the other hand, if the clergy are rendered contemptible, it will be out of their power to produce the fruits for served with which their ministry was appointed. The rule that should ecclesiastics, be followed with respect to them may be comprised in a few respect to words: let them enjoy a large portion of esteem; but let them have no authority, and still less any claim to independence. In the first place, let the clergy, as well as every other order of men, be, in their functions, as in every thing else, subject to the public power, and accountable to the sovereign for their conduct. Secondly, let the prince take care to render the ministers of religion respectable in the eyes of the people; let him trust them with the degree of authority necessary to enable them to discharge their duty with success; let him, in case of need, support them with the power he possesses. Every man in office ought to be vested. with an authority commensurate to his functions; otherwise he will be unable to discharge them in a proper manner. I see no reason why the clergy should be excepted from this general rule; only the prince should be more particularly watchful that they do not abuse their authority; the affair being altogether the most delicate, and the most fruitful in dangers. If he renders the character of churchmen respecta |