A sincerely religious sovereign is generally a very dangerous chief for
a State; credulity always indicates a narrow mind; devotion generally
absorbs the attention which the prince ought to give to the ruling of
his people. Docile to the suggestions of his priests, he constantly
becomes the toy of their caprices, the abettor of their quarrels, the
instrument and the accomplice of their follies, to which he attaches the
greatest importance. Among the most fatal gifts which religion has
bestowed upon the world, we must consider above all, these devoted and
zealous monarchs, who, with the idea of working for the salvation of
their subjects, have made it their sacred duty to torment, to persecute,
to destroy those whose conscience made them think otherwise than they
do. A religious bigot at the head of an empire, is one of the greatest
scourges which Heaven in its fury could have sent upon earth. One
fanatical or deceitful priest who has the ear of a credulous and
powerful prince, suffices to put a State into disorder and the universe
into combustion.
In almost all countries, priests and devout persons are charged with
forming the mind and the heart of the young princes destined to govern
the nations. What enlightenment can teachers of this stamp give? Filled
themselves with prejudices, they will hold up to their pupil
superstition as the most important and the most sacred thing, its
chimerical duties as the most holy obligations, intolerance, and the
spirit of persecution, as the true foundations of his future authority;
they will try to make him a chief of party, a turbulent fanatic, and a
tyrant; they will suppress at an early period his reason; they will
premonish him against it; they will prevent truth from reaching him;
they will prejudice him against true talents, and prepossess him in
favor of despicable talents; finally they will make of him an imbecile
devotee, who will have no idea of justice or of injustice, of true glory
or of true greatness, and who will be devoid of the intelligence and
virtue necessary to the government of a great kingdom. Here, in brief,
is the plan of education for a child destined to make, one day, the
happiness or the misery of several millions of men.
CL.--THE SHIELD OF RELIGION IS FOR TYRANNY, A WEAK RAMPART AGAINST THE
DESPAIR OF THE PEOPLE. A DESPOT IS A MADMAN, WHO INJURES HIMSELF AND
SLEEPS UPON THE EDGE OF A PRECIPICE.
Priests in all times have shown themselves supporters of despotism, and
the enemies of public liberty. Their profession requires vile and
submissive slaves, who never have the audacity to reason. In an absolute
government, their great object is to secure control of the mind of a
weak and stupid prince, in order to make themselves masters of the
people. Instead of leading the people to salvation, priests have always
led them to servitude.
For the sake of the supernatural titles which religion has forged for
the most wicked princes, the latter have generally united with the
priests, who, sure of governing by controlling the opinion of the
sovereign himself, have charge of tying the hands of the people and of
keeping them under their yoke. But it is vain that the tyrant, protected
by the shield of religion, flatters himself with being sheltered from
all the blows of fate. Opinion is a weak rampart against the despair of
the people. Besides, the priest is the friend of the tyrant only so long
as he finds his profit by the tyranny; he preaches sedition and
demolishes the idol which he has made, when he considers it no longer in
conformity with the interests of Heaven, which he speaks of as he
pleases, and which never speaks but in behalf of his interests. No doubt
it will be said, that the sovereigns, knowing all the advantages which
religion procures for them, are truly interested in upholding it with
all their strength. If religious opinions are useful to tyrants, it is
evident that they are useless to those who govern according to the laws
of reason and of equity. Is there any advantage in exercising tyranny?
Does not tyranny deprive princes of true power, the love of the people,
in which is safety? Should not every rational prince perceive that the
despot is but an insane man who injures himself? Will not every
enlightened prince beware of his flatterers, whose object is to put him
to sleep at the edge of the precipice to which they lead him?
CLI.--RELIGION FAVORS THE ERRORS OF PRINCES, BY DELIVERING THEM FROM FEAR
AND REMORSE.
If the sacerdotal flatteries succeed in perverting princes and changing
them into tyrants, the latter on their side necessarily corrupt the
great men and the people. Under an unjust master, without goodness,
without virtue, who knows no law but his caprice, a nation must become
necessarily depraved. Will this master wish to have honest, enlightened,
and virtuous men near him? No! he needs flatterers in those who
approach him, imitators, slaves, base and servile minds, who give
themselves up to his taste; his court will spread the contagion of vice
to the inferior classes. By degrees all will be necessarily corrupted,
in a State whose chief is corrupt himself. It was said a long time ago
that the princes seem ordained to do all they do themselves. Religion,
far from being a restraint upon the sovereigns, entitles them, without
fear and without remorse, to the errors which are as fatal to themselves
as to the nations which they govern. Men are never deceived with
impunity. Tell a prince that he is a God, and very soon he will believe
that he owes nothing to anybody. As long as he is feared, he will not
care much for love; he will recognize no rights, no relations with his
subjects, nor obligations in their behalf. Tell this prince that he is
responsible for his actions to God alone, and very soon he will act as
if he was responsible to nobody.