A Memoir- the Testament

by Jean Meslier

  Previously the Clergy, which was the first Member of the State, was venerated internally and in good reputation externally, because the Ecclesiastical Dignities were given in recognition of science and virtue, which were unearthed in the universities and in solitude, and were to be elevated; a change occurred, once François I had obtained, by the concordat, the Faculty of nominating people to the first Benefices of the Kingdom; plenty of distinction was yet maintained, both to take from Popes any reason for complaint, as because there was then a need for capable men of exemplary lives to stand against the Huguenots, but at present as all these considerations have been dealt with, and as favor is preferred to merit in any ambitious Clergyman, all we now find is a general prostitution of all the Church’s rights to the ambition of the Prince and the violence of the Ministry. This was put on display in the assembly of the Clergy[692] in 1682. With respect to the Regale, where, instead of supporting them against the court’s attacks, as the rightness of the cause and its own self-interest urged it to do, it was cowardly enough, not only to abandon them, but even to pass its Act, which was insulting to the dignity of the leader, and because the court wished to mortify him. What was even more curious and ridiculous at once in the dispute is that in previous years the doctors of the Sorbonne had been exiled, for having maintained: that the Pope was infallible, while here others were punished in the same way for having maintained the opposite; whereby we can see that the King has gained the upper hand spiritually no less than temporally, and that now everything works according to his pleasure, which has become the law of the State.

  But what shows this general corruption most of all is that at present the Clergy holds all the prerogatives of an ecclesiastical character to authorize the violence of the Government[693]. For in this we see the Prelates justifying extortion in the Provinces, sometimes on the pretext of Religion and sometimes on that of some public necessity. The Preachers, both secular and regular, indiscriminately mingled the glory of the King with the word of God in their sermons, and the Professors of law and theology turned all their subtleties to help accredit his usurpations and to harmonize with it all laws, both human and divine, it’s by this sort of prostitution that people introduce themselves at the Court. The lowest, and often the most criminal sort of men are given the greatest distinctions of merit.

  The Nobility, which is the second rank or the second member of the State, likewise held a very important Rank in the State, as much by the prerogatives it enjoyed over its lands, as for the its importance at the court; but today, when the Provincial Government is in the hands of the Intendants, and when the Ministry has wrapped everything up into itself, nothing is more supple or supplicant than it[694], its salvation is only in service. The intendants, these ferrets of the Provinces, managed to dig out all its dens in the Countryside. There are no vexations, no matter how insulting they may be, that they haven’t used to reduce it to the necessity of servitude. It was enough that a Gentleman had wealth to be in good standing with them. One had to raise a Regiment or a Company, each according to his means, to be respected; and woe to those who claimed an exemption to leave in peace; a peasant was supported against his Lord; the latter was condemned to shameful fines and reparation; at every moment his titles and prerogatives were disputed, and if he appealed to the Court for such persecutions, he was only snubbed and sent back home, after useless expense and solicitation, to the original sentence. It was by the prolongation of such violence and vexation that the whole Nobility leaped into war; and, when the burdensome costs of this ruined it, they were sustained by nothing but the charges and pensions.

  It would be futile to mention the oppression of masses here, since everyone knows about this, it’s sufficient to say that the violence of this Kingdom exhausted the masses so much that they barely had anything left to see them through their poverty: but what brought misfortune to the subjects is that which establishes outside the power of the Monarchy; for this is what provided for the expenditure of its armaments, which have never been so numerous on land and sea, and which stimulates their industriousness, by attaching them to commerce and manufacture, which bring to France all the Riches of foreign countries[695]. What is remarkable here is that the Parlement, which once mediated between the King and the people, and which, by a mild temperament between the authority of the former and the obedience of the latter, wisely maintained the privileges and liberties of the Kingdom; this body[696], I say, which, in the preceding centuries won the admiration of the surrounding Nations, by its justice and integrity, now serves only as a mercenary organ for the court, to legalize all its injustices and extortions; but this vile indulgence would also be forgiven in a time when contradiction is so dangerous, if it had preserved its ancient integrity in the administration of justice, but this is no longer apparent; you might say that its tribunal has become the pitfall of natural equity[697], since it allows chicanery and formalities to constantly overturn it, or it might be called a public theater, where intrigue, court favor, and self-seeking put on a show of justice and the rule of law. In short, this body, once so august, is no longer anything but a pale shadow of what it was, and all that remains of its original form is the name, the robes, and the hats.

  It is all too evident, in light of all these changes, that the natural order has become entirely perverted in the Kingdom, and that France itself became the first victim of the ambition of its Kings, since everything in it is attached to a vain image of glory, which is theirs alone, and that this vain image is something that constantly adds weight to the chains under which it has groaned during these last few reigns. There is also reason to be surprised that the French, who claim to be more refined and enlightened than anyone else, would have indulged in these false aims for so long, and that at present they are convinced, by an experience which admits of no reply, that prosperity abroad will turn into nothing but their own oppression, they don’t largely try to favor this war. For, aside from the fact that the difference between their condition and that of their neighbors should have invited them to this, it is certain that, if they could recover their former freedom, they would live more happily and would be more important at the court. To which one might add that, since the Ministry is less authorized than it was, it would commit far less injustice and violence in matters of State and Religion; but this is preaching to the deaf, they were trained in slavery for a very long time, the pleasure of their King is their highest Law, and it would constitute a sort of sacrilege for them to fail to sacrifice property, life, honor, and conscience to it: such that if it is true, as Livy says, that it’s characteristic of Barbarians to have regard for no law but their masters’ orders, then we may say that at present, no nation as barbaric as the French one. Thus, as France groans beneath its oppressive load, and if it even happened to perish, this wouldn’t be the concern of the Ministry, which only looks after the glory of the King in conquering all the States of Europe, and it’s for his subjects to back up his ambitions, without checking if the Wars he undertakes in this aim are just or unjust. Indeed, pillage, self-destruction, self-sacrifice, there is nothing the French are not capable of, to stand out, satisfied with a condition of misery, as long as they can be instrumental in the misery of their neighbors. The Ottoman Empire always expanded due to similar principles, but with the difference that the Ministry of France[698] has rejected the type of good faith observed there, for it has fashioned itself a new morality and a new jurisprudence, with due exemptions; so that everything presently conspires to injustice, violence, and usurpation.

  It is thanks to all these fine principles that France has attained, during this reign, such a high degree of power, and it’s on the same ones that it will rise further still, if an all-out effort is not made, in this war, to bring it down… It might be said that France has delivered a slow-acting poison, to all its neighboring Princes, which holds them dormant in the face of the danger they’re in... or that, satisfied with the present state of rest, they are expecting a favor of Polyphemus: to be eaten last. H
owever, I fail to see how they can expect such a thing; for the danger may not be as remote as they imagine… But let us assume that France will be obliged, through Treaty, to lend no assistance to the Turk, either directly or indirectly, what confidence can anyone have in this obligation, for one who is in possession, and who even thinks they have a right to have any[699]? It has deceived Spain with promises just like those of the Treaty of Vervin and that of the Pyrenees, and it won’t fail to deal with the Emperor in a similar fashion. France had to convince all the Allies of the iniquity of its guiding principles, each and every one of them had experience countless dire effects, and that, finally, the common danger had united them by an inevitable need for defense; this crown had to attack some with joyful hearts, and threaten others after 40 years of injustice, violence, and usurpation, in order to form such a just and necessary league. And finally, if it were only the justice of avenging all these fires, all this sacrilege, and all these execrable cruelties by which it has laid waste, in its wars, the fine Provinces of Germany, where its armies have reached, it is certain that it would be plenty to bring all of Europe in, by a general interest of saving for Posterity the enormity of the example. What! Shall France have been able to incite the Turk to conquer Hungary and the Empire, then on the misfortune of the success set up its hopes, by the worst infraction that ever was? It could, I say[700], aside from the indignity of the alliance and the insult of the infraction, set everything on fire, cities, churches, towns, palaces, castles, in short, everything that the fury of these arsonists laid eyes on; enveloping men, women, and children in flames, desecrating the sanctuary with endless sacrilege and abominations and boasting, as it were, of the overthrow of all laws, both human and divine? Yes, it could have chosen to commit all these enormities, and in a country where it would find no resistance, without all of Europe uniting to make an example of it? Instead it should have threatened some, attacked others, as if to insult their dullness, and after all this it would be so cowardly, even in the decline of its fortunes, to grant it peace, on its own terms? This will be hard for future generations to believe. But if anyone ought to be touched by a more righteous feeling of vengeance, it’s all the princes of the Empire in general, since they are of the same blood as those great emperors, whose ashes they have seen so shamefully desecrated, along with the tombs in Speyer. There are few who didn’t come from them; thus, it’s credible that such an atrocious, insulting act of desecration would have made the blood boil in their veins, by a natural impression: from which we may presume that they will not lay down their weapons until they have made a public show of vengeance[701], and also satisfied those to whom they owe their birth, their homeland, and the glory of the Empire, which has been so completely prostituted on this occasion, etc.

  Everything I have related here about the tyrannical Government of the Princes and Kings of the Earth, and especially that of our recent French Kings, plainly shows that they are nothing but tyrants, and that they greatly abuse their power and authority, since this power and authority was only given to them to wisely govern the masses in justice and equity, and to keep them in peace. “The People,” as Dumoulin put it so well:

  are not made for the Princes, but the Princes are made for the people, and may properly be called the public’s servants. There were people in the world before there were any Princes. The duty of the Prince is to win repose for the people by his travails, and security by his own risks, and, by his vigilance, his subjects should sleep safely; in short, he is taken away from himself when he is given to the Republic. They should love their subjects like Fathers should love their children; but a tyrant does the opposite, treating his subjects like slaves. A good King makes himself loved; a tyrant makes himself feared, a good King takes personal risks to save his people, but a tyrant sacrifices all his people to his pride, ambition, and vengeance; depriving the poor of all the comforts of life, tearing from their hands the bread they make with so much toil and labor, making them miserable and unhappy in life, groaning in their misery, is very cruel and odious; it’s unworthy of the quality and dignity of Kings and Princes, and such things should bring shame, confusion, and condemnation on their heads. The good King submits to the laws, while the Tyrant wants all things to be permissible. Alexander and Caesar, who were the two greatest Princes and Emperors ever mentioned in History, were only two firebrands, or two torrents to ravage the world in various places, quisque suum populatus iter.

  “God,” says an Author, “uses wicked Princes as executioners and satellites, to punish the Provinces and Kingdoms under their rule. But, after employing them as a rod of His wrath, He casts them into the fire, as it says in the life of St. Antoninus, on the 2nd of May. Antoninus the Debonair, Emperor, said he would rather save the life of one of his subjects than kill thousands of his Enemies. King Louis XIV didn’t share this sentiment, for he would certainly prefer to sacrifice a thousand of his subjects than forgive a single one of his Enemies.

  “The good of the State,” says Cardinal Richelieu, “is the goal that God Himself has set before all Kings by placing the crown on their head; nothing that should be more important for them; this is the center toward which all their actions must gravitate.” Emperor Trajan, upon handing the sword to the Provost of the Empire, said these beautiful and memorable words, worthy of the greatness and generosity of a great Prince: “While I act in justice, use this sword to uphold my authority, and if I become a tyrant, draw it against me.” As Mentor said to Telemachus:

  How inhuman it is to rip from the hands of the masses, with intentions of pomp and ambition, the sweet fruits of the earth, which they only get from the bounty of nature and the sweat of their brow. Nature alone would take from her fertile womb all that could be needed by an infinite number of men who were moderate and laborious, but the pride and idleness of certain men brings so many others into a dreadful state of misery and poverty. The Princes, greedy and improvident, who place levies on those among their subjects who are the most vigilant and industrious with their property, expecting easier payment from them, at the same time they impose lesser charges on those who are poorer due to laziness. Overturn the disorder that crushes the good ones, rewarding vice, and introduces fatal negligence into the Kingdom, which has taken over the whole State. Put taxes, fines and if necessary, other severe penalties on those who neglect their fields, just as soldiers would be punished for abandoning their posts in war. Grant favors and exemptions to the Families that increase their numbers; proportionately increase the cultivation of their lands; then, the occupation of the farmer will no longer be despised, as no longer being crushed under so many ills; the plow will be venerated again, as wielded by the triumphant hands of the country’s enemies; it will be no less beautiful to cultivate his ancestors’ inheritance during a happy time of peace, than to have generously defended it during the troubles of war; the whole countryside will bloom again, Ceres will be crowned with golden ears of wheat, Bacchus, trampling the grapes, will cause rivers of wines sweeter than nectar to flow from the mountains; the hollow valleys will echo with the songs of the Shepherds, who, all along the clear streams, will sing of their troubles and pleasures with their flutes, while their gamboling flocks will graze, among the flowers, without fear of any wolf. Would you not be all to happy, O Idomenea, to be the cause of so much good, and to make so many peoples live peaceably within the shadow of your name? Is this glory not more attractive than to ravage the earth, spreading everywhere else, and nearly as much at home too, in the very midst of victories, as with defeated Foreigners, carnage, confusion, horror, languor, dismay, cruel hunger, and despair? O how happy is the King, the loved of the Gods, and with a heart large enough to strive to become the delight of a whole people and to make a charming display of his reign for all ages to come? The whole Earth, far from having to defend itself with arms from his power, will come to his feet to beg him to reign over them. But the masses, you might object, living in abundance in this way, will turn their forces against me and rebel! Don’t worry about
that, it's a pretext that’s always used to flatter prodigal Princes who want to crush the masses through taxation... What a detestable idea, to think that one could only find safety through oppression, refusing to educate the people, not leading them to virtue, never winning their love, terrorizing them into desperation, driving them to frightful necessity, or being unable ever to breathe freely, or shaking off the yoke of your tyranny! What kind of rule is that? Is it the path leading to glory? Remember that the countries where the rule of the Sovereign is most absolute are those where the Sovereigns are less powerful; they take, they ruin everything, they alone possess the entire State, but soon the State languishes, the countryside becomes wasteland, the cities dwindle every day, commerce dries up, the King can’t be a King alone, and he is only one because of his peoples, he destroys himself gradually when he destroys the People, from whom his wealth and power are derived; his absolute power makes as many slaves as he has for subjects, people pretend to worship him, trembling at his least glances; but wait for the least revolution, and his monstrous power, pushed to violent excesses, will not last; it has no hold on the heart of the masses; it has wearied and irritated all the parts of the State, it constrained all the members of this body to sigh with an equal ardor for a change, at the first strike, this idol falls and is trampled underfoot[702]...The King, who in his vain prosperity could find none who dared tell him the truth, in his misfortune will find none who deigns to excuse him or defend him against his enemies.