[51] The whole substance of the Abbé Boileau’s arguments (so far as it has been possible to make them out) is contained in the three first Chapters of this Work, and in those two which precede this: the Author is now to continue the text part of the Book, without any farther prospect of assistance from the Abbé’s observations and directions; except in the last Chapter, in which they are once more to meet, and to lay again their wise heads together.
[52] “Noli perdere paternam diligentiam quam in ipsâ inquisitione servasti, quando tantorum scelerum confessionem cruisti, non extendente equuleo, non sulcantibus ungulis, non urentibus flammis, sed virgarum verberibus. Qui modus coercionis & à magistris artium liberalium, & ab ipsis parentibus, & sæpè etiam in judiciis solet ab Episcopis adhiberi.”—This Letter of St. Augustin, addressed to a Man invested both with military and civil power, as the Tribune Marcellinus was, in order to exhort him to employ violence and whipping against those who differed from him in their opinions, is an additional proof of a melancholy truth that has often been noticed; which is, that those who exclaim most bitterly against persecution, when exercised against them, and are the most ready to claim toleration in their own favour, are not always the most willing to grant the same favour to others.
[53] Cap. XVI. De mendace, fure, & percussore Monacho.... Si nec sic se emendaverit, flagelletur acerrimè.
[54] “Furti scilicet conscium, si adhuc vocare possumus Monachum, quasi adulterum secundum, flagello subdi & magnâ coërceri afflictione jubemus; dantes illi unam cum fornicante sententiam, quia & ipse furatus est ut luxuriaretur.”
It is a little surprising that repeated adultery is, in the above Rule, expressly placed on a level with simple fornication. Whether the Framer of this Rule has done so purposely, and thought that adultery ought to be treated with indulgence, on account of the uncommon temptation he supposed Men were under to commit it, or has only been very careless in his manner of expressing himself, I shall not attempt to discuss. Yet, lest the Reader should thence be led to entertain too bad an opinion of the tenets and morals of Monks in general, I shall observe, that all are not in the same way of thinking with respect to adultery, as the Framer of the above Rule seems to have been. As a proof of this, the instance, I think, may be produced of that Monk, mentioned in one of the Epigrams of the Poet Rousseau, who was a great enemy to that sin: one day preaching against it, he grew so warm in his arguments, and took so much pains to convince his Congregation of his own abhorrence of it, that at last he broke out into the following solemn declaration: ‘Yea, my Brethren, I had rather, for the good of my soul, to have to do with ten Maidens every month, than in ten years touch one married Woman.’
The following is the Epigram of Rousseau, which is written in Marotic verses; a kind of jocular style among the French, which admits of old words and turns of phrase.
Un Cordelier prêchoit sur l’adultère,
Et s’échauffoit le Moine en son harnois
A démontrer par maint beau commentaire
Que ce péché blessoit toutes les loix.