“The Jesuits of whom you have been telling me, according to the worst accounts given of their tricks and subterfuges, evasions and mental reservations, would be well deserving of their title,—they would be really and fitly ‘companions of Jesus,’—if we could suppose Him and his Apostles to have secretly maintained a principle which goes to nullify practically (as soon as their followers should have gained sufficient strength) all their disavowals of political designs,—all their renunciation of temporal power as connected with their religion,—all desire to monopolize, as Christians, civil ascendency. They were accused of forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar,—of speaking against Cæsar, &c. Now, if you suppose that, when Jesus, in answer to such charges, said in a loud voice to the Roman governor, ‘My kingdom is not of this world,’ He had whispered to his disciples, ‘This is only till you have gained sufficient numbers and strength; whenever and wherever you can become the predominant party, then draw the sword which I lately bid you sheathe, and enforce by civil penalties submission to my laws, and exclude by law from political privileges all who will not join your communion:’—if you suppose that while He publicly issued the injunction, ‘Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s,’ He added, as it were aside, to his companions, “Remember, however, that, as Cæsar is an idolater, you must hereafter make him embrace Christianity on pain of ceasing to be Cæsar; you must oblige him and all other governors and public officers, from the highest to the lowest, and all who would lay claim to any of the rights of citizens in any state where you can acquire political ascendency, to profess my religion; and then you must render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s; you must then ‘render unto all their due,’ after having first secured that none but those who agree with you in religion shall have, politically, any due at all; you must ‘submit yourselves to every ordinance of man,’ after having first provided that every ordinance of man shall have submitted to you; you must consider ‘the powers that be’ as ‘ordained of God,’ after having monopolized them all for yourselves, carefully excluding unbelievers:—if, I say, you suppose this to have been the secret meaning, and these the private instructions, of Jesus and his Apostles, while their openly avowed teaching was such as we find recorded, well surely may the most disingenuous of the Jesuits lay claim to their title.”
“Can an unbeliever, then,” said Mr. Sibthorpe,—“can even an atheist, in this country, rise to the highest offices?”
“I hope,” said Sir Andrew, “such instances are rare; I know of none: but if you speak of the possibility, you should remember that in every country, even where the Inquisition exists, an atheist can, by disguising his real opinions, rise to any office, even that of Grand Inquisitor, or of Pope; which, indeed, you were lately telling me is suspected to be no such very rare occurrence.”
“True,” said Mr. Sibthorpe; “there is no law that can prevent hypocrisy; but what I meant is, an open and avowed infidel, or an advocate of extravagant corruptions of religion.”
“If you mean to ask,” said Sir Andrew, “whether I would vote for a man of that description, and whether a majority of electors would in any case be as likely to appoint him as one of opposite character, I answer at once in the negative; but if you are asking whether there is any law to prohibit my voting for such a man,—any legal incapacity on religious grounds,—we have no such law. As far as a man’s religious opinions are concerned, his fitness or unfitness for any civil office is left to be decided by the judgment of the electors. Conviction of any crime, or ascertained deficiency in the requisite knowledge, alone disqualify a man by law for public offices.
“But it is important,” added he, “to keep distinct two questions which, I observe, the modern Europeans, as well as our ancestors, have often confounded,—the question whether a person of such and such a description is or is not fit, or the most fit, to be appointed to such and such an office; and the question, whether the electors to that office shall be left to decide that point according to their judgment, instead of the legislators deciding it for them, and restricting their choice. How much shall be left to the discretion of the electors is one question; what is the wisest and best use they can make of their discretion is another, quite different, though often confounded with it.
“But, among us, it is in a religious, not a civil community—in a church, not in a state—that a man’s religious qualifications or disqualifications are taken notice of in the laws of the community as determining whether he may or may not be one of its officers or one of its members. Our brethren in Europe, you seem to think, would, some of them, take for granted, from our acting on these principles, that we must be very indifferent about religion (though you, I rejoice to find, are ready to bear your testimony to the contrary); but they might as well conclude that we are indifferent about political affairs also, because we attend places of worship in which no political questions are discussed, and are members of Christian churches which do not intermeddle with politics. Indeed, I myself, as well as many others, am a member of an agricultural association also, in which neither political nor religious matters are introduced; and yet I hope many of us are good citizens, good Christians, and good farmers too.
“But since your people hold it to be allowable and right, and a duty, for a civil legislature in a Christian country to take cognizance of matters of religious faith, (which we think should be left between each man’s conscience and the Deity,) you ought, methinks, to see nothing incongruous neither in a religious community taking cognizance of political matters also, and embodying in its creed and formularies decisions, not only of points of faith, but of points of politics. Thus you would have, not only Trinitarian or Arian churches, Calvinistic or Arminian, Episcopalian or Presbyterian churches, &c. but also, according to your phraseology, Tory churches and Whig churches, commercial-restriction churches and free-trade churches, &c. Parents, bringing their child to be baptized, would have to engage that he should be brought up in sound political as well as sound religious views; and to renounce in his name, not only sin, the world, and the devil, but also annual parliaments and vote by ballot, or some other political measure; and would have to be solemnly admonished, not only to bring him at a suitable age to be confirmed by the bishop, but also to have his vote duly registered. And a man would not be admissible at the eucharist unless he first declared his opinion, not only on the question of transubstantiation, but also on the mint regulations, paper currency, or any other such points on which the church or sect he belonged to should determine what was to be accounted orthodox. If you are struck, as you seem to be, with the incongruity and absurdity of such regulations and practices as these, you may form some conception how incongruous it appears in our eyes to mix up together at all the Christian religion and politics. In short,” he added, in conclusion, “do but consider whether, among you, religion is considered as a part of politics, or politics a part of religion. If neither (which is what we hold), then your conduct is palpably inconsistent with your principles. If you hold religion to be a part of politics, what becomes of your Christianity? But if politics is held to be a part of religion, then such politico-religious creeds and formularies as I have just now been supposing, must be, not only reasonable, but even necessary.”
“I admit,” said Mr. Sibthorpe, “the absurdity of attempting by secular penalties to produce conviction of a religious doctrine, and the cruelty, as well as absurdity, of compelling outward profession of conviction. But how do you proceed in regard to the public promulgators of pernicious error? Is not a government bound to protect its subjects, not only from theft and violence, but also from having their minds, especially those of the young, the weak, and the ignorant, corrupted by every one who chooses to go about scattering moral and spiritual poison around him?”
“No one,” answered Sir Andrew Knox, “would be allowed among us, under the plea of conscience, or any other, to incite men to a violation of the laws, to a breach of the peace, or to rebellion against government; else, indeed, men might be found preaching up theft and all sorts of crimes, like those Anabaptist sects that appeared before we left Europe, who inculcated community of goods and of wives, and I know not what abominations besides.