[2] Frederick used to say that his subjects might think as they pleased so long as they behaved as he ordered.
[3] Though Prussia was primarily Lutheran, Catholics, Mennonites, Jews, and Huguenots early found a home in the kingdom. Frederick used to say that "all religions must be tolerated, for in this country every man must go to heaven in his own way."
[4] After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (p. 301; 1685), over 20,000 French Huguenots—merchants, manufacturers, skilled workmen—found an asylum in Prussia alone. Settling in the Rhine countries, they contributed much to the future development of this region.
[5] "For the first time since Luther, the German people could call a great hero their own, whether they were the subjects of Frederick or not. Joyous pride in this prince, whose achievements in times of peace were no less than those in time of war, brought national consciousness to life again and this national feeling found expression in literature. It was the restoration of confidence in themselves that gave the Germans the courage to break with French rules and French models, and to seek independently after ideals of beauty. And this self-confidence they owed to Frederick the Great." (Priest, G. M., History of German Literature, p. 116.)
[6] Though Joseph II claimed to be a good Catholic, he felt that monasticism had outlived its usefulness as an institution, and that its continuance was inimical to the interests of organized society and the State. This view has since been taken by the rulers of every progressive modern nation.
[7] The Cortes, or National Parliament, met but three times during the century, and when it did meet possessed but few powers and exercised but little influence.
[8] The first Russian university was established at Kiev, in 1588; the second at Dorpat, in 1632; the third at Moscow, in 1755; and the fourth at Kasan, in 1804. The University of Petrograd dates from 1819.
[9] The great difference between a church and true religion must always be kept in mind. Religion is a thing of the spirit, and its principle represents the loftiest thoughts of the race; a church is a human governing institution, and clearly subject to its own ambitions and the human frailties of its age.
[10] That is, 25,000 to 30,000 families. There were also, in even numbers, 83,000 monks in 2500 monasteries (one for every ninety square miles in France), 37,000 nuns in 1500 convents, and 60,000 priests. Of the soil of France, the King and towns owned one fifth, the clergy and the monks one fifth, the nobility one fifth, the bourgeoisie one fifth, and the peasantry one fifth.
[11] In 1788 the 131 bishops and archbishops of France had an average income of 100,000 francs, and 33 abbots and 27 abbesses had incomes ranging from 80,000 to 500,000 francs. The Cardinal de Rohan, Archbishop of Strasbourg, had an income of more than 1,000,000 francs, and the 300 Benedictine monks at Cluny had an income of more than 1,800,000 francs.