"(..) we have had such shoals of
"Eremites and friars,
White, black and grey, with all their trumpery"
who have foisted their "idiot and
embryo" inventions upon us for truth, and who have fomented all the
bad passions of the heart, and let loose all the mischiefs of war, of
fire, and famine, to avenge the slightest difference of opinion on any
one iota of their living creeds, or the slightest disrespect to any
one of these mummeries and idle pageants which they had set up as
sacred idols for the world to wonder at.We do not forget, in making
these remarks, that there was a time when the persons who will be most
annoyed and scandalized at them, would have taken a more effectual
mode of showing their zeal and indignation; when to have expressed a
free opinion on a Monk's cowl or a Cardinal's hat, would have exposed
the writer who had been guilty of this sacrilege, to the pains and
penalties of excommunication; to be burnt at an auto da fe; to
be consigned to the dungeons of the Inquisition, or doomed to the
mines of Spanish America; to have his nose slit, or his ears cut off,
or his hands reduced to a stump. Such were the considerate and humane
proceedings by which the Priests of former times vindicated their own
honour, which they pretended in the name of God. Such was their
humility when they had power."
"The Priest is not a negative
character; he is something positive and disagreeable. He is not, like
the Quaker, distinguished from others merely by singularity of dress
and manner, but he is distinguished from others by pretensions of
superiority over them. His faults arise from his boasted exemption
from the opposite vices; he has one vice running through all others -
hypocrisy. He is proud, with an affectation of humility; bigoted, from
a pretended zeal for truth; greedy, with an ostentation of entire
contempt for the things of this world; professing self-denial, and
always thinking of self-gratification; censorious, and blind to his
own faults; intolerant, unrelenting, impatient of opposition,
insolenent of those below, and cringing to those above him, with
nothing but Christian meekness and brotherly love in his mouth."
"Priests are naturally favourers of
power, inasmuch as they are dependent on it. - Their power over the
mind is hardly sufficient of itself to insure absolute obedience to
their authority, without a reinforcement of power over the body. The
secular arm must come in in aid of the spiritual. (..) Priests anoint
Kings with holy oil, hedge them round with inviolability, spread over
them the mysterious sanctity of religion, and, with very little
ceremony, make over the whole species as slaves to these Gods upon
earth by divine right! This is no losing trade. It aggrandizes those
who are concerned in it, and is death to the rest of the world. It is
a solemn league and convenant fully ratified and strictly carried into
effect, to the very letter, in all countries, Pagan, Mahommedan, and
Christian (..)"
"Their estimation in the world, as
well as their livelihood, depends on their tamely submitting their
understanding to authority at first, and on their not seeing reason to
alter their opinion afterwards. Is it likely that a man will
intrepidly open his eyes to conviction, when see sees poverty and
disgrace staring him in the face as the inevitable consequence? Is it
likely, after the labours of a whole life of servility and cowardice -
after repeating daily what he does not understand, and what those who
require him to repeat it do not believe, or pretend to believe, and
impose upon others only as a ready test of insincerity, and a
compendious shibboleth of want of principle: after doing morning and
evening service to the God of this world - after keeping his lips
sealed against the indiscreet mention of the plainest truths, and
opening them only to mental reservations - after breakfasting, dining,
supping, waking and sleeping, being clothed and fed, upon a collusion,
- after saying a double grace and washing his hands after dinner, and
preparing for a course of smutty jests to make himself good company, -
after nodding to Deans, bowing to Bishops, waiting upon Lords,
following in the Head of Colleges, watching the gracious eyes of those
who have presentations in their gift, and the lank cheek of those who
are their present incumbents, - after finding favour, patronage,
promotion, prizes, praises, promises, smiles, squeezes of the hand,
invitations to tea and cards with the ladies, the epithets "a charming
man," "an agreeable creature," "a most respectable character," the
certainty of reward, and the hopes of glory, always proportioned to
the systematic baseness of his compliance and with the will of his
superiors, and the sacrifice of every particle of independence, or
pretence to manly spirit and honesty of character, - is it likely,
that a man so tutored and trammelled, and inured to be his own dupe,
and the tool of others, will ever, in one instance of thousands,
attempt to burst the cobweb fetters which bind him in the magic circle
of contradictions and enigmas, or risk the independence of his fortune
for the independence of his mind?"
