IN WHAT CASES TOLERATION MAY BE ADMITTED.
Let me for once suppose that a minister equally noble and discerning,
that a prelate equally wise and humane, or a prince who is sensible
that his interest consists in the increased number of his subjects,
and his glory in their happiness, may deign to cast their eyes on
this random and defective production. In this case his own consummate
knowledge will naturally lead him to ask himself, “What hazard shall
I run by seeing the land beautiful and enriched by a greater number
of industrious laborers, the aids augmented, and the state rendered
more flourishing?”
Germany, by this time, would have been a desert, covered with the
unburied bodies of many different sects, slaughtered by one another,
had not the Peace of Westphalia happily procured a liberty of
conscience.
We have Jews in Bordeaux, in Mentz, and in Alsace; we have Lutherans,
Molinists, and Jansenists amongst us; can we not then admit
Protestants likewise under proper restrictions, nearly like those
under which the Roman Catholics are permitted in England? The greater
the number of different sects, the less danger is to be apprehended
from any one in particular; they become weaker in proportion as
they are more numerous, and are easily kept in subjection by those
just laws which prohibit riotous assemblies, mutual insults, and
seditions, and which the legislative power will always properly
support in their full vigor.
We know that there are several heads of families, who have acquired
great fortunes in foreign countries, who would be glad to return to
their native country. These require only the protection of the law
of nature, to have their marriages remain valid and their children
secured in the enjoyment of their present property, and the right
of succeeding to the inheritance of their fathers, together with
protection for their persons. They ask no public places of worship;
they aim not at the possession of civil employment, nor do they
aspire to dignities either in Church or State; for no Roman Catholics
can enjoy any of these, either in England or in any other Protestant
country.[14] In this case, therefore, there is no occasion for
granting great privileges, or delivering strongholds into the hands
of a faction, but only to suffer a quiet set of people to breathe
their native air; to soften the rigor of some edicts, which in
former times might perhaps have been necessary, but at present are no
longer so. It is not for us to direct the ministry what it has to do;
it is sufficient if we presume to plead the cause of an unfortunate
and distressed people.
Many and easy are the methods to render these people useful to the
state, and to prevent them from ever becoming dangerous; the wisdom
of the legislature supported by the military force, will certainly
find out these methods, which other nations have employed with so
much success.
It is certain that there is still a number of enthusiasts among the
lower kind of Calvinists; but, on the other hand, it is no less
certain that there is still a greater number among the lower kind
of bigoted Roman Catholics. The dregs of the madmen of St. Médard
are passed over unnoticed in the nation, while the greatest pains
are taken to exterminate the Calvinist prophets. The most certain
means to lessen the number of the mad of both sorts, if any still
remain, is to leave them entirely to the care of reason, which will
infallibly enlighten the understanding in the long run, though
she may be slow in her operations. Reason goes mildly to work,
she persuades with humanity, she inspires mutual indulgence and
forbearance, she stifles the voice of discord, establishes the rule
of virtue and sobriety, and disposes those to pay a ready obedience
to the laws who might start from the hand of power when exerted
to enforce them. Besides, are we to hold for nothing that contempt
and ridicule which enthusiasm everywhere meets with in the present
enlightened age from persons of rank and education? This very
contempt is the most powerful barrier that can be opposed to the
extravagancies of all sectaries. Past times are as though they never
had been. We should always direct our views from the point where we
ourselves at present are, and from that to which other nations have
attained.
There has been a time in which it was thought a duty to issue edicts
against all such as taught a doctrine contrary to the categories of
Aristotle, or who opposed the abhorrence of a vacuum, quiddities, or
the whole or the part of a thing. There are above a hundred volumes
in Europe containing the writings of civilians against magic, and
the manner of distinguishing real sorcerers from pretended ones.
The excommunication of grasshoppers and other insects hurtful to
the fruits of the earth was formerly much in use, and is still to
be found in several rituals; that custom is now laid aside, and
Aristotle, with his sorcerers, and the grasshoppers are left to
themselves. Innumerable are the examples of these grave follies,
which formerly were deemed of great importance; others have succeeded
from time to time, but as soon as they have had their effect, and
people begin to grow weary of them, they pass away and are no more
heard of. If any one were, at present, to take it into his head
to turn Eutychian, Nestorian, or Manichæan, what would be the
consequence? We should laugh at him in the same manner as at a person
who should appear dressed after the ancient fashion, with a great
ruff and slashed sleeves.
The first thing that opened the eyes of our nation was when the
Jesuits Letellier and Doucin drew up the bull Unigenitus, and sent
it to the Court of Rome, imagining they lived still in those times
of ignorance in which people adopted, without examination, the most
absurd assertions. They even dared to proscribe a proposition, which
is universally true in all cases and in all times, “that the dread
of an unjust excommunication ought not to hinder any one from doing
his duty.” This was, in fact, proscribing reason, the liberties of
the Gallican church, and the very foundation of all morality; it was
saying to mankind: “God commands you never to do your duty when you
are apprehensive of suffering any injustice.” Never was so gross
an insult offered to common sense, and yet this never occurred to
these correspondents of the Church of Rome. Nay, they even persuaded
that court that this bull was necessary, that the nation desired it.
Accordingly it was signed, sealed, and sent back to France; and every
one knows the consequences; assuredly, had they been foreseen, this
bull would have been mitigated. Very warm disputes ensued upon it;
but, however, by the great prudence and goodness of the king, they
were at length appeased.
It is much the same with regard to most of those points in which the
Protestants and we at present differ; some of them are of little
or no consequence; others again are more serious; but even in
these latter, the rage of disputation is so far subsided that the
Protestants nowadays no longer preach upon controversial points in
any of their churches.
Let us then seize this period of disgust or satiety for such matters,
or, rather, indeed, of the prevalence of reason, as an epoch for
restoring the public tranquillity, of which it seems to be a pleasing
earnest. Controversy, that epidemical malady, is now in its decline,
and requires nothing more than a gentle regimen. In a word, it is
the interest of the state that these wandering sects, who have so
long lived as aliens to their father’s house, on their returning
in a submissive and peaceable manner, should meet with a favorable
reception; humanity seems to demand this, reason advises it, and good
policy can have nothing to apprehend from it.