Rousseau_contrat-social

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them. It was to my mind a fine oath that was taken by the soldiers of Fabius, who swore, not to conquer or die, but to come back victorious -- and kept their oath. Christians would never have taken such an oath; they would have looked on it as tempting God. But I am mistaken in speaking of a Christian republic; the terms are mutually exclusive. Christianity preaches only servitude and dependence. Its spirit is so favourable to tyranny that it always profits by such a régime. True Christians are made to be slaves, and they know it and do not much mind: this short life counts for too little in their eyes. I shall be told that Christian troops are excellent. I deny it. Show me an instance. For my part, I know of no Christian troops. I shall be told of the Crusades. Without disputing the valour of the Crusaders, I answer that, so far from being Christians, they were the priests' soldiery, citizens of the Church. They fought for their spiritual country, which the Church had, somehow or other, made temporal. Well understood, this goes back to paganism: as the Gospel sets up no national religion, a holy war is impossible among Christians. Under the pagan emperors, the Christian soldiers were brave; every Christian writer affirms it, and I believe it: it was a case of honourable emulation of the pagan troops. As soon as the emperors were Christian, this emulation no longer existed, and, when the Cross had driven out the eagle, Roman valour wholly disappeared. But, setting aside political considerations, let us come back to what is right, and settle our principles on this important point. The right which the social compact gives the Sovereign over the subjects does not, we have seen, exceed the limits of public expediency.[46] The subjects then owe the Sovereign an account of their opinions only to such an extent as they matter to the community. Now, it matters very much to the community that each citizen should have a religion. That will make him love his duty; but the dogmas of that religion concern the State and its members only so far as they have reference to morality and to the duties which he who professes them is bound to do to others. Each man may have, over and above, what opinions he pleases, without it being the 110
Sovereign’s business to take cognisance of them; for, as the Sovereign has no authority in the other world, whatever the lot of its subjects may be in the life to come, that is not its business, provided they are good citizens in this life. There is therefore a purely civil profession of faith of which the Sovereign should fix the articles, not exactly as religious dogmas, but as social sentiments without which a man cannot be a good citizen or a faithful subject.[47] While it can compel no one to believe them, it can banish from the State whoever does not believe them -- it can banish him, not for impiety, but as an anti-social being, incapable of truly loving the laws and justice, and of sacrificing, at need, his life to his duty. If any one, after publicly recognising these dogmas, behaves as if he does not believe them, let him be punished by death: he has committed the worst of all crimes, that of lying before the law. The dogmas of civil religion ought to be few, simple, and exactly worded, without explanation or commentary. The existence of a mighty, intelligent and beneficent Divinity, possessed of foresight and providence, the life to come, the happiness of the just, the punishment of the wicked, the sanctity of the social contract and the laws: these are its positive dogmas. Its negative dogmas I confine to one, intolerance, which is a part of the cults we have rejected. Those who distinguish civil from theological intolerance are, to my mind, mistaken. The two forms are inseparable. It is impossible to live at peace with those we regard as damned; to love them would be to hate God who punishes them: we positively must either reclaim or torment them. Wherever theological intolerance is admitted, it must inevitably have some civil effect;[48] and as soon as it has such an effect, the Sovereign is no longer Sovereign even in the temporal sphere: thenceforce priests are the real masters, and kings only their ministers. Now that there is and can be no longer an exclusive national religion, tolerance should be given to all religions that tolerate others, so long as their dogmas contain nothing contrary to the duties of citizenship. 111
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y Jean Jacques Rousseau THE SOCIAL
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THE most ancient of all societies,
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not of will -- at the most, an act
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indemnity is possible. Such a renun
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master, except to obey him as far a
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fundamental problem of which the So
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others, provided the contract is no
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distinguish natural liberty, which
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ulers of men than as masters of a c
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offers no opposition. In such a cas
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the general will; the latter consid
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guide us. Indeed, as soon as a ques
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fight battles at the peril of their
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leads. But I feel my heart protesti
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laws, no matter what the form of it
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into its constitution; it is an ind
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philosophy or the blind spirit of f
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constitution of a State to be at it
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10. THE PEOPLE (continued) A BODY p
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for a man to bear; one which can do
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their influence, the constitution w
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We have seen that the legislative p
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When I say the relation increases,
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assemblies, councils, power and del
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and as the absolute force of the go
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of distribution. Sparta always had
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But, for want of the necessary dist
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Sovereign each in his own departmen
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We found, on general grounds, that
Page 59 and 60: Everything conspires to take away f
Page 61 and 62: Simple government is better in itse
Page 63 and 64: labour, should remain desert and un
Page 65 and 66: clothes; where they clothe themselv
Page 67 and 68: citizens increase and multiply most
Page 69 and 70: SUCH is the natural and inevitable
Page 71 and 72: Macedonian and the Frankish, had si
Page 73 and 74: the body politic and the curb on th
Page 75 and 76: functions of the people, and that i
Page 77 and 78: It has been held that this act of e
Page 79 and 80: egular. It is impossible to set up
Page 81 and 82: BOOK IV 1. THAT THE GENERAL WILL IS
Page 83 and 84: 2. VOTING IT may be seen, from the
Page 85 and 86: still reside in the majority: when
Page 87 and 88: democracy is only an ideal. When ch
Page 89 and 90: divided into fifteen cantons. Subse
Page 91 and 92: included the rich, the last the poo
Page 93 and 94: a matter of policy. Thus, the comit
Page 95 and 96: and passed their plebiscita. The se
Page 97 and 98: 5. THE TRIBUNATE WHEN an exact prop
Page 99 and 100: space of time which circumstances s
Page 101 and 102: Instead, the senate contented itsel
Page 103 and 104: Romans, and still more by the Laced
Page 105 and 106: Finally, when, along with their emp
Page 107 and 108: particular, may also be divided int
Page 109: does his duty, indeed, but does it
Page 113 and 114: same Cato wrote to his son telling
Page 115 and 116: otherwise his laws would not have b
Page 117 and 118: flourished have been too much admir
Page 119 and 120: history then confirms, instead of i
Page 121 and 122: of sacrilege, and not the conquest
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