Letters concerning the English Nation/Letter V

by Voltaire

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LETTER V.

ON THE

CHURCH
OF
ENGLAND.

England is properly the country of sectarists. Multæ sunt mansiones in domo patris mei (in my father's house are many mansions.) An Englishman, as one to whom liberty is natural, may go to heaven his own way.

Nevertheless, tho' every one is permitted to serve God in whatever mode or fashion he thinks proper, yet their true religion, that in which a man makes his fortune, is the sect of Episcoparians or Churchmen, call'd the Church of England, or simply the Church, by way of eminence. No person can possess an employment either in England or Ireland, unless he be rank'd among the faithful, that is, professes himself a member of the Church of England. This reason (which carries mathematical evidence with it) has converted such numbers of dissenters of all persuasions, that not a twentieth part of the nation is out of the pale of the establish'd church. The English clergy have retain'd a great number of the Romish ceremonies, and especially that of receiving, with a most scrupulous attention, their tithes. They also have the pious ambition to aim at superiority.

Moreover, they inspire very religiously their flock with a holy zeal against Dissenters of all denominations. This zeal was pretty violent under the Tories, in the four last years of queen Anne; but was productive of no greater mischief than the breaking the windows of some meeting-houses, and the demolishing of a few of them. For religious rage ceas'd in England with the civil wars; and was no more under queen Anne, than the hollow noise of a sea whose billows still heav'd, tho' so long after the storm, when the Whigs and Tories laid waste their native country, in the same manner as the Guelphs and Gibelins formerly did theirs. 'Twas absolutely necessary for both parties to call in religion on this occasion; the Tories declar'd for episcopacy, and the Whigs, as some imagin'd, were for abolishing it; however, after these had got the upper hand, they contented themselves with only abridging it.

At the time when the earl of Oxford and the lord Bolingbroke us'd to drink healths to the Tories, the Church of England confider'd those noblemen as the defenders of it's holy privileges. The lower house of Convocation (a kind of house of Commons) compos'd wholly of the clergy, was in some credit at that time; at least the members of it had the liberty to meet, to dispute on ecclesiastical matters, to sentence impious books from time to time to the flames, that is, books written against themselves. The ministry, which is now compos'd of Whigs, does not so much as allow those gentlemen to assemble, so that they are at this time reduc'd (in the obscurity of their respective parishes) to the melancholy occupation of praying for the prosperity of the government, whose tranquillity they would willingly disturb. With regard to the bishops, who are twenty six in all, they still have seats in the house of lords in spite of the Whigs, because the ancient abuse of considering them as Barons subsists to this day. There is a clause however in the oath which the government requires from these gentlemen, that puts their christian patience to a very great trial, viz. that they shall be of the Church of England as by law establish'd. There are few bishops, deans, or other dignitaries, but imagine they are so jure divino; 'tis consequently a great mortification to them to be oblig'd to confess, that they owe their dignity to a pitiful law enafted by a sett of profane laymen. A learned monk (father Courayer) writ a book lately to prove the validity and succession of English ordinations. This book was forbid in France; but do you believe that the English ministry were pleas'd with it? Far from it. Those damn'd Whigs don't value a straw, whether the episcopal succession among them hath been interrupted or not, or whether bishop Parker was consecrated (as 'tis pretended) in a tavern, or a church; for these Whigs are much better pleas'd that the bishops should derive their authority from the parliament, than from the apostles. The lord B—— observ'd, that this notion of divine right would only make so many tyrants in lawn-sleeves, but that the laws made so many citizens.

With regard to the morals of the English clergy, they are more regular than those of France, and for this reason. All the clergy (a very few excepted) are educated in the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, far from the depravity and corruption which reign in the capital. They are not call'd to dignities till very late, at a time of life when men are sensible of no other passion but avarice, that is, when their ambition craves a supply. Employments are here bestow'd both in the church and, the army, as a reward for long services; and we never see youngsters made bishops or colonels immediately upon their laying aside the academical gown; and besides, most of the clergy are married. The stiff and awkward air contracted by them at the university, and the little familiarity the men of this country have with the ladies, commonly oblige a bishop to confine himself to, and rest contented with his own. Clergymen sometimes take a glass at the tavern, custom giving them a sanction on this occasion; and if they fuddle themselves 'tis in a very serious manner, and without giving the least scandal.

That sable mix'd kind of mortal (not to be defin'd) who is neither of the clergy nor of the laity; in a word, the thing call'd Abbé in France, is a species quite unknown in England. All the clergy here are very much upon the reserve, and most of them pedants. When these are told, that in France, young fellows famous for their dissoluteness and rais'd to the highest dignities of the church by female intrigues, address the fair publickly in an amorous way, amuse themselves in writing tender love-songs, entertain their friends very splendidly every night at their own houses, and after the banquet is ended, withdraw to invoke the assistance of the Holy Ghost, and call themselves boldly the successors of the apostles, they bless God for their being Protestants. But, these are blameless Hereticks, who deferve to be blown hence thro' the flames to old Nick, as Rabelais says, and for this reason I don't trouble my self about them.