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In the Middle Ages the theory that human reason was to be placed
above faith found able exponents, and more than once men arose who
questioned some of the fundamental principles of Christianity, or who
went farther still by rejecting entirely the Christian revelation.
But such views were expounded in an age when the outlook of society was
markedly religious, and they exercised no perceptible influence on
contemporary thought. Between the fourteenth century and the
eighteenth, however, a great change had taken place in the world.
Dogmatic theology had lost its hold upon many educated men. The
Renaissance movement ushering in the first beginnings of literary and
historical criticism, the wonderful progress made in the natural
sciences, revolutionising as it did beliefs that had been regarded
hitherto as unquestionable, and the influence of the printing press and
of the universities, would in themselves have created a dangerous
crisis in the history of religious thought, and would have necessitated
a more careful study on the part of the theologians to determine
precisely the limits where dogma ended and opinion began.
But the most important factor in arousing active opposition to or
studied contempt of revealed religion was undoubtedly the religious
revolution of the sixteenth century, and more especially the dangerous
principles formulated by Luther and his companions to justify them in
their resistance to doctrines and practices that had been accepted for
centuries by the whole Christian world. They were driven to reject
the teaching authority of the visible Church, to maintain that Christ
had given to men a body of doctrines that might be interpreted by His
followers in future ages as they pleased, and to assert that
Christians should follow the dictates of individual judgment instead of
yielding a ready obedience to the decrees of Popes and Councils.
These were dangerous principles, the full consequence of which the
early Reformers did not perceive. If it was true, as they asserted,
that Christ had set up no visible authority to safeguard and to expound
His revelation, that for centuries Christianity had been corrupted by
additions that were only the inventions of men, it might well be asked
what guarantee could Luther or Calvin give that their interpretation
of Christ's doctrine was correct or binding upon their followers, and
what authority could they produce to warrant them in placing any
dogmatic restrictions upon the freedom of human thought? The very
principles put forward by the Reformers of the sixteenth century to
justify their rejection of certain doctrines were used by later
generations to prepare the way for still greater inroads upon the
contents of Christianity, and finally to justify an attitude of doubt
concerning the very foundations on which Christianity was based.
Empiricism, Sensualism, Materialism, and Scepticism in
philosophy, undermined dogmatic Christianity, and prepared the way
for the irreligious and indifferentist opinions, that found such
general favour among the educated and higher classes during the
eighteenth century.
The movement, that owed so much of its widespread popularity on the
Continent to the influence of the French rationalistic school, had
its origin in England, where the frequent changes of religion during
the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and
Elizabeth, the quarrels between the Puritans and the High Church
party, and the spread of revolutionary principles during the reign of
Charles I, had contributed not a little to unsettle the religious
convictions of a large section of the community. Many individuals,
influenced by pantheistic teaching, did not believe in the existence of
a personal God distinct from the world; others, while holding fast to
the belief in a personal supreme Being, rejected the Trinity and the
Incarnation, and a still larger section insisted on the subjection of
Christian revelation to the judgment of reason, and as a consequence
on the rejection of everything in Christianity that flavoured of the
supernatural. The works of these men were imported from the
Netherlands into France in spite of all restrictions that could be
imposed by the police authorities, and their views were popularised by
a brilliant band of "litterateurs", until in a short time Deism and
Naturalism became quite fashionable in the higher circles of French
society.
The principal writers of the English school were Lord Herbert of
Cherbury (1581-1648), whose works tended to call in
question the existence of a supernatural religion; John Hobbs
(1588-1679) the apostle of absolute rule, who saw in
religion only a means of keeping the people in subjection; John Locke
(1632-1704), nominally a Christian himself, whose
philosophy of Empiricism and Sensualism barred the way effectively
against belief in a supernatural religion; Charles Blount
(1630-93), who like Flavius Philostratus sought to discredit
Christianity by setting up Apollonius of Tyana as a rival of
Christ; Collins, the patron of free-thinkers
(1676-1729); John Toland (1670-1722), who
although originally a believer in Christian revelation tended more and
more towards Pantheism; and Tyndal (1656- 1733), who
changed from Protestantism to Catholicism and finally from
Christianity to Rationalism. In England Deism and Naturalism
secured a strong foot-hold amongst the better classes, but the deeply
religious temperament of the English people and their strong
conservatism saved the nation from falling under the influence of such
ideas.
In France the religious wars between the Catholics and Calvinists,
the controversies that were waged by the Jansenists and Gallicans,
the extravagances of the "Convulsionnaires", the flagrant immorality
of the court during the rule of the Duke of Orleans and of Louis
XV, and the enslavement of the Church, leading as it did to a
decline of zeal and learning amongst the higher clergy, tended
inevitably to foster religious indifference amongst the masses. In the
higher circles of society Rationalism was looked upon as a sign of good
breeding, while those who held fast by their dogmatic beliefs were
regarded as vulgar and unprogressive. Leading society ladies such as
Ninon de Lenclos (1615-1706) gathered around them groups of
learned admirers, who under the guise of zeal for the triumph of
literary and artistic ideals sought to popularise everything that was
obscene and irreligious. Amongst some of the principal writers who
contributed largely to the success of the anti-Christian campaign in
France might be mentioned Peter Bayle (1647-1706), whose
"Dictionnaire historique et critique" became the leading source of
information for those who were in search of arguments against
Christianity; John Baptist Rousseau (1671-1741), whose
life was in complete harmony with the filthiness to which he gave
expression in his works; Bernard le Boivier de Fontenelle
(1657- 1757), who though never an open enemy of the
Catholic Church contributed not a little by his works to prepare the
way for the men of the Enclyclopaedia; Montesquieu
(1689-1755), whose satirical books on both Church and
State were read with pleasure not only in France but in nearly every
country of Europe; D'Alembert (1717-83) and Diderot
(1713-84), the two men mainly responsible for the
"Encyclopedie"; Helvetius (1715-1771), and the Baron
d'Holbach, who sought to popularise the irreligious views then
current among the nobility by spreading the rationalist literature
throughout the mass of the poorer classes in Paris.
But the two writers whose works did most to undermine revealed religion
in France were Francois Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire
(1694-1778), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(1712-1778). The former of these was born at Paris,
received his early education from the Jesuits, and was introduced
while still a youth to the salon of Ninon de Lenclos, frequented at
this time by the principal literary opponents of religion and morality.
His earliest excursions into literature marked him out immediately as a
dangerous adversary of the Christian religion. He journeyed in
England where he was in close touch with the Deist school of thought,
in Germany where he was a welcome guest at the court of Frederick
II of Prussia, and settled finally at Ferney in Switzerland
close to the French frontiers. Towards the end of his life
(1778) he returned to Paris where he received a popular ovation.
Poets, philosophers, actresses, and academicians vied with one
another in doing honour to a man who had vowed to crush
"L'Infame", as he termed Christianity, and whose writings had
done so much to accomplish that result in the land of his birth. The
reception given to Voltaire in Paris affords the most striking proof
of the religious and moral corruption of all classes in France at this
period. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born at Geneva and reared as a
Calvinist. Later on he embraced the Catholic religion, from which
he relapsed once more into Calvinism, if indeed in his later years he
was troubled by any dogmatic beliefs. His private life was in perfect
harmony with the moral tone of most of his works. He had neither the
wit nor the literary genius of Voltaire, but in many respects his
works, especially "Le Contrat Social", exercised a greater
influence on the France of his own time and on Europe generally since
that time than any other writings of the eighteenth century. His
greatest works were "La Nouvelle Heloise" (1759), a novel
depicting the most dangerous of human passions; "Emile", a
philosophical romance dealing with educational ideas and tending
directly towards Deism, and "Le Contrat Social", in which he
maintained that all power comes from the people, and may be recalled if
those to whom it has been entrusted abuse it. The "Confessions"
which tell the story of his shameless life were not published until
after his death.
To further their propaganda without at the same time attracting the
notice of the civil authorities the rationalist party had recourse to
various devices. Pamphlets and books were published, professedly
descriptive of manners and customs in foreign countries, but directed
in reality against civil and religious institutions in France.
Typical examples of this class of literature were the "Persian
Letters" of Montesquieu, "A Description of the Island of
Borneo" by Fontanelle, "The Life of Mohammed" by Henri de
Bouillon Villiers, and a "Letter on the English" from the pen of
Voltaire. The greatest and most successful work undertaken by them
for popularising their ideas was undoubtedly the "Encyclopedie".
The professed object of the work was to give in a concise and handy
form the latest and best results of scholarship in every department of
human knowledge, but the real aim of the founders was to spread their
poisonous views amongst the people of France, and to win them from
their allegiance to the Catholic Church. In order to escape
persecution from the government and to conceal their real purposes many
of the articles were written by clerics and laymen whose orthodoxy was
above suspicion, and many of the articles referring to religion from
the pen of the rationalistic collaborateurs were respectful in tone,
though a careful reader could see that they did not represent the real
views of the author. Sometimes references were given to other articles
of a very different kind, where probably opposite views were
established by apparently sound arguments. The originator of the
project was D'Alembert, who was assisted by Diderot, Voltaire,
Montesquieu, Condillac, Buffon, and D'Holbach. The work was
begun in 1750, and in spite of interruptions and temporary
suppressions it was brought to a successful conclusion in 1772.
The reviewers and the learned world hailed it with delight as a
veritable treasure-house of information. New and cheap editions of it
were brought out for the general public, and in a remarkably short time
the influence of the Encyclopaedists had reached the lowest strata of
French society. Many of those in authority in France favoured the
designs of the Encyclopaedists, and threw all kinds of obstacles in
the way of those who sought to uphold the teaching of the Church, but
soon they had reason to regret their approval of a campaign that led
directly to revolution.
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