POSTSCRIPT.
While I was employed in writing this treatise, purely with a desire
to make mankind more benevolent and charitable, another author was
using his pen to the very contrary purpose; for every one has his
particular way of thinking. This writer has published a small code
of persecution under the title of “The Harmony of Religion and
Humanity”; but this last word seems to be an error of the press, and
should be read “Inhumanity.”
The author of this holy libel takes St. Augustine for his example
and authority, who, after having preached charity and forbearance,
afterwards taught the doctrine of persecution, because he then had
the upper hand and was naturally of a changeable disposition. He also
quotes M. Bossuet, the bishop of Meaux, who persecuted the famous
Fénelon, archbishop of Cambray, whom he accused of having said in
print that God was well worthy to be loved for His own sake.
I will readily grant that Bossuet was a very eloquent writer, and it
must also be confessed that the bishop of Hippo[70] is frequently
inconsistent, and in general more dry and barren than the rest of the
African writers; and I must take the liberty of addressing them both
in the words of Armande, in Molière’s “Learned Ladies”: “If we should
imitate any person, it certainly should be in the most pleasing part
of their character.” I should say to the bishop of Hippo: “My lord,
as you have had two opinions, your lordship will be kind enough to
suffer me to abide by your first, since I really think it the best.”
To the bishop of Meaux I shall say: “My lord, you are certainly a
very great man, and, in my opinion, have to the full as much learning
as St. Augustine, and are far superior to him in eloquence; but
then, my lord, why did you so distress your brother prelate, who had
as much eloquence as yourself, though in another kind, and whose
disposition was more amiable than yours.”
The author of this “Treatise on Inhumanity”—for so I shall call
it—is neither a Bossuet nor an Augustine, but seems admirably well
qualified for an inquisitor; I wish he were at the head of that noble
tribunal in Goa. Besides, he is a politician, and parades it in his
book with several great maxims of state. “If you have to deal with
any considerable number of heretics,” says he, “it will be necessary
to use gentle methods, and try to bring them over by persuasion; but
if they are only a few in number, then make free use of the gibbet
and the galleys; you will find the advantage of it.” This is the good
prelate’s own advice in the 89th and 90th pages of his work.
Heaven be praised, I am an orthodox Catholic, and therefore am in no
danger of what the Huguenots call martyrdom; but if ever this bishop
should come to be prime minister, as he seems to flatter himself in
his libels, I give him my promise that I will set out for England the
very day his commission is signed.
In the meantime, we ought to be thankful to Providence that those
of his principles are always wretched reasoners. This writer has
not scrupled to quote Bayle among the advocates for non-toleration,
which is being equally sensible and honest; for, because Bayle agrees
that it is necessary to punish incendiaries and rogues, our bishop
directly concludes that we ought to persecute with fire and sword
every honest and peaceable person. See page 98.
Almost the whole of his book is no other than a copy of the apology
for St. Bartholomew’s day. It is the apologist himself or his echo.
But be this matter as it will, it is devoutly to be wished that
neither the master nor the pupil may ever be at the head of an
administration.
But if ever such a thing should come to pass, let me beg leave to
present them beforehand with the following hint in regard to a
passage in the ninety-third page of the bishop’s holy libel:
“Is the welfare of the whole nation to be sacrificed to the ease of
only the twentieth part?”
Let us suppose then for once that there are twenty Roman Catholics
in France to one Huguenot, I am by no means for the Huguenots eating
these twenty Catholics; but, at the same time, is there any reason
why the twenty Catholics should eat the Huguenot? Besides, why should
we hinder this latter from marrying? Are there not many bishops,
abbots and monks that have estates in Dauphiny, Gevaudan, Agde and
Carcassonne? And have not most of these farmers to manage those
estates who do not believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation?
Is it not the interest of these bishops and others that the farmers
should have numerous families? And should one be permitted to have
children that takes the sacrament in both kinds? Surely there is
neither justice nor common honesty in this!
“The revocation of the Edict of Nantes,” says my author, “has not
been productive of so great inconveniences as has been generally
alleged.”
I must own if any have added to the number of bad effects that
act produced, they must have greatly exaggerated; but then it is
the common fault of all historians to exaggerate, as it is of all
controversial writers to disguise the greatest part of those evils
with which they are reproachable. But for once let us pin our
faith neither upon the doctors of the Sorbonne nor the preachers
of Amsterdam. Let us take for judges in this matter those who have
had the best opportunities of being acquainted with what they wrote
about; and in the first place I shall cite the Count d’Avaux,
ambassador from France to the States-General during the years 1685,
1686, 1687, and 1688.
In the hundred and eighty-first page of the fifth volume of his
works he says that one man only offered to discover upwards of
twenty millions of livres that the persecuted Huguenots had found
means to send out of France. Louis XIV., in answer to this, writes
to M. d’Avaux: “The accounts which I daily receive of the prodigious
numbers of those who are converted convince me that in a short time
the most obstinate will follow the example of the others.”
This letter of the king’s plainly shows that he was firmly persuaded
of the greatness of his power. He was accustomed to hear said to him
every morning: “Sire, you are the greatest monarch upon earth; you
have but to declare your opinion and the whole world will be proud
to follow it.” Pelisson, who had accumulated a prodigious fortune
in the place of head clerk of the treasury, who had been three
years confined in the Bastille as an accomplice with Fouquet, who,
changing his religion, was from a Calvinist made a Roman, a deacon
and a beneficed priest, who composed hymns for the mass and verses to
Chloe, and who had got the post of comptroller and converter in chief
of the heretics; this very Pelisson, I say, used to produce every
morning a long list of pretended abjurations purchased at the rate
of seven or eight crowns apiece, and made his prince believe that he
could, whenever he pleased, convert the whole Mahometan empire at the
same price. In short, every one was in league to impose upon him;
how then was it possible for him to avoid being deceived?
This very M. d’Avaux also acquaints the court that one Vincent kept
upwards of five hundred workmen employed in the neighborhood of
Angoulême, and that it would be of great prejudice to the nation
should they quit the kingdom. Vol. v., page 194.
The count likewise mentions two regiments at that time actually being
raised by French refugee officers for the service of the prince of
Orange; he observes that the entire crews of three French ships of
war had deserted and entered into the same service, and that besides
the two regiments above mentioned, the prince was forming a company
of cadet refugees, who were to be commanded by two refugee captains.
Page 240. The same ambassador in another letter to M. de Seignelay,
dated the 9th of May, 1686, says that he can no longer conceal the
uneasiness it gives him to see the manufactures of France transported
into Holland, where they will be established, never more to return.
Add to these incontestable evidences the testimonies of the several
intendants of the kingdom in 1698, and then let any one judge whether
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes has not done more harm than
good, notwithstanding the opinion of the worthy author of the
“Harmony of Religion and Inhumanity.”
A Marshal of France well known for his superior abilities some years
ago made use of the following expression: “I know not whether the
practice of dragooning may ever have been necessary, but I am sure it
is very necessary to lay it aside.”
And here I must confess that I was apprehensive. I had gone rather
too far in publishing the letter from a priest to Father Letellier,
in which the use of gunpowder is so humanely proposed. I said to
myself, people will not believe me; they will certainly think this
letter is a forged piece; but luckily my scruples were entirely eased
when in perusing the “Harmony of Religion and Inhumanity,” I came to
the following Christian and charitable passage:
“The entire extirpation of the Protestants in France would not weaken
that kingdom more than a plentiful bleeding would a patient of a
sound constitution.” Page 149.
Here this pious minister of Christ, who, but a few pages before,
says that the Protestants make about a twentieth part of the nation,
is for shedding the blood of that twentieth part, and advises the
operation with as much unconcern as he would the taking away two or
three ounces from the arm of a plethoric person! Heaven preserve us
and him from the other three-twentieths!
Now, if this worthy prelate is for destroying the twentieth part
of the nation at one stroke, might not Father Letellier’s friend
and correspondent as well have proposed the blowing up, stabbing or
poisoning the one-third? Hence then it appears very probable that
such a letter was really written to Letellier.
Our pious author concludes upon the whole that persecution is an
excellent thing; “for,” says he, “we do not find it absolutely
condemned by our Saviour.” Neither has our Saviour expressly
condemned those who may set fire to the four corners of Paris; but is
that a reason for canonizing all incendiaries?
In this manner, while the gentle voice of Nature is everywhere
pleading the cause of charity and benevolence, Enthusiasm, her avowed
enemy, is continually howling against it; and while Peace opens her
calm bosom to all mankind, Persecution is busied in forging weapons
for their destruction. Let it be your care, then, O ye princely
arbiters, who have restored peace to the world, to pass sentence
between the spirit of mutual love and harmony and that of discord and
bloodshed.