By Rev. James A. MacCaffrey.
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, revolutionizing 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 Skepticism in philosophy, undermined
dogmatic Christianity, and prepared the way for the irreligious and
indifferentist opinions, that found such general favor 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 flavored 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 popularized 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- hinkers (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 popularize
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
popularize 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 honor 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 popularizing 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
collaborators 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 favored 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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