The Jansenists said that the civil magistrate has a power legally superior even to that of the church, the order of a state depending on such subordination; and they farther added, that the administration of the Sacraments is the capital branch of the polity exercised by the civil magistrate.
The answer of the Molinists was, that in spirituals they acknowledged no other superiority than that of the Pope and his bishops; that civil affairs were the parliament’s province, and all it ought to concern itself in; but that the kingdom of heaven had been committed to pastors, and not lawyers.
The subjects, in the mean time, died without the sacraments; the priests indeed were punished, yet the evil remained, and this affair gave the King much uneasiness: the Bourbons indeed have always laid to heart religious disturbances: the court gave itself more concern about these confessional certificates, than ever it had shewn in the most important political transactions. It often became necessary to put a violence on priests, and make use of soldiers to compel them to administer. Never, from the birth of Christ, had such a thing been seen, as having recourse to the bayonet for the administration of the most sacred mystery. It was indeed a horrid scandal; but to see subjects, at the point of death, begging for the communion, and refused, was something still more shocking.
The King, one day, said to me, “These people give me a great deal of uneasiness; if they go on, I shall be obliged to turn all the priests out of their livings, and have their functions performed by Capuchin-friars, who are intirely as I would have them, &c.”[4]
The court’s attention now came to be taken up with an affair of still greater importance than the constitution itself; the election of a King of the Romans. The house of Austria, fond of its greatness, is always providing for the future security of it. As Charles VI. had engaged the Sovereigns of Europe to make themselves the instruments of his ambition, even after his decease; Maria Theresa, in her life-time, took measures for fixing the Imperial throne in her family.
It was on a Prince who might be looked on as a Lorrainer, that she was conferring the title of presumptive heir; for Charles VI. dying without male-issue, the house of Austria had ended in him. The circles of the empire accounted this measure a greater act of despotism than that of the late emperor; as hereby the empire, from an elective constitution, not only became hereditary, but even escheated to a foreign family: loud complaints were made, and that was all. It is now about a century, that the petty princes in Germany have not been able to shew their resentment against the house of Austria, any farther than by complaints and murmurs.
Maria Theresa, knowing how far her forces were superior to any which the Northern Princes could oppose to her designs, communicated her plan to the other courts of Europe, and to France one of the first. The King shewed me the Austrian ambassador’s reasons, digested into writing by M. de Puisieux, after a conference with that minister. The artful turn given to them by ambition, makes them worthy of being preserved.
“The calamities still recent, said that Ambassador, which the vacancy of the Imperial throne, on the demise of Charles VI. brought on Europe, should move Christian Princes to prevent the like. The Emperor now reigning is in full health, and it may be presumed, that God will grant him length of days: but should one of those many accidents to which human nature is liable, disappoint the public hopes, and shorten his valuable life, Christendom would be plunged in the same abysses, as on the decease of the last Emperor. It is therefore the concern of all the European powers to prevent a war, that scourge which throws every thing into confusion, lays waste whole nations, and thins mankind. The calamities caused by the late vacancy of the empire are not likely to be brought to a speedy end, and what will it be should new disturbances be accumulated on the former?
“Too many precautions cannot be taken against evils, which, when once happened, cannot be averted, or the issue of them determined.
“By the election of a King of the Romans, the views of Princes who may have formed designs, are prevented; and the coronation once over, will suppress all cabals and intrigues about being head of the empire. When a sceptre is vacant, a great stir is made after it; but when once possessed, it is no longer thought of.