The Law of Nations - Emer de Vattel Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics

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the cause of God.† Cicero, who was as able and as great in state affairs as in philosophy and eloquence, thought like the duke of Sully. In the laws he proposes relating to religion, he says, on the subject of piety and interior religion, “if any one transgresses, God will revenge it”: but he declares the crime capital that should be committed against the religious ceremonies established for public affairs, and in which the whole state is concerned.‡ The wise Romans <60> were very far from persecuting a man for his creed; they only required that people should not disturb the public order.

      The creeds or opinions of individuals, their sentiments with respect to the Deity,—in a word, interior religion—should, like piety, be the object of the prince’s attention: he should neglect no means of enabling his subjects to discover the truth, and of inspiring them with good sentiments; but he should employ for this purpose only mild and paternal methods.* Here he cannot command (§128). It is in external religion and its public exercise that his authority may be employed. His task is to preserve it, and to prevent the disorders and troubles it may occasion. To preserve religion, he ought to maintain it in the purity of its institution, to take care that it be faithfully observed in all its public acts and ceremonies, and punish those who dare to attack it openly. But he can require nothing by force except silence, and ought never to oblige any person to bear a part in external ceremonies:—by constraint, he would only produce disturbances or hypocrisy.

      A diversity of opinions and worship has often produced disorders and fatal dissensions in a state: and for this reason, many will allow but one and the same religion. A prudent and equitable sovereign will, in particular conjunctures, see whether it be proper to tolerate or forbid the exercise of several different kinds of worship.

      But, in general, we may boldly affirm that the most certain and equitable means of preventing the disorders that may be occasioned by difference of religion, is an universal toleration of all religions which contain no tenets that are dangerous either to morality or to the state. Let interested priests declaim!—they would not trample under foot the laws of humanity, and those of God himself, to make their doctrine triumph, if it were not the foundation on which are erected their opulence, luxury, and power. Do but crush the spirit of persecution,—punish severely whoever shall dare to disturb others on account of their creed,—and you will see all sects living in peace in their common country, and ambitious of producing good citizens. Holland and the states of the king of Prussia furnish a proof of this: Calvinists, Lutherans, Catholics, Pietists, Socinians, Jews, all live there in peace, because they are equally protected by the sovereign; and none are punished, but the disturbers of the tranquillity of others.

      If, in spite of the prince’s care to preserve the established religion, the entire nation, or the greater part of it, should be disgusted with it, and desire to have it changed, the sovereign cannot do violence to his people, nor constrain them in an affair of this nature. The public religion was established for the safety <61> and advantage of the nation: and, besides its proving inefficacious when it ceases to influence the heart, the sovereign has here no other authority than that which results from the trust reposed in him by the people,—and they have only committed to him that of protecting whatever religion they think proper to profess.

      But at the same time it is very just that the prince should have the liberty of continuing in the profession of his own religion, without losing his crown. Provided that he protect the religion of the state, this is all that can be required of him. In general, a difference of religion can never make any prince forfeit his claims to the sovereignty, unless a fundamental law ordain it otherwise. The pagan Romans did not cease to obey Constantine,40 when he embraced Christianity; nor did the Christians revolt from Julian,41 after he had quitted it.*

      We have established liberty of conscience for individuals (§128). However, we have also shewn that the sovereign has a right, and is even under an obligation, to protect and support the religion of the state, and not suffer any person to attempt to corrupt or destroy it,—that he may even, according to circumstances, permit only one kind of public worship throughout the whole country. Let us reconcile those different duties and rights, between which it may be thought that there is some contradiction:—let us, if possible, omit no material argument on so important and delicate a subject.

      If the sovereign will allow the public exercise of only one and the same religion, let him oblige no body to do any thing contrary to his conscience; let no subject be forced to bear a part in a worship which he disapproves, or to profess a religion which he believes to be false; but let the subject on his part rest content with avoiding the guilt of a shameful hypocrisy; let him, according to the light of his own knowledge, serve God in private, and in his own house,—persuaded that providence does not call upon him for public worship, since it has placed him in such circumstances, that he cannot perform it without creating disturbances in the state. God would have us obey our sovereign, and avoid every thing that may be pernicious to society. These are immutable precepts of the law of nature: the precept that enjoins public worship is conditional, and dependent on the effects which that worship may produce. Interior worship is necessary in its own nature; and we ought to confine ourselves to it, in all cases in which it is most convenient. Public worship is appointed for the edification of men in glorifying God: but it counteracts that end, and ceases to be laudable, on those occasions when it only produces disturbances, and gives offence. <62> If any one believes it absolutely necessary, let him quit the country where he is not allowed to perform it according to the dictates of his own conscience,—let him go and join those who profess the same religion with himself.

      The prodigious influence of religion on the peace and welfare of society incontrovertibly proves that the conductor of the state ought to have the inspection of what relates to it, and an authority over the ministers who teach it. The end of society and of civil government necessarily requires that he who exercises the supreme power should be invested with all the rights without which he could not exercise it in a manner the most advantageous to the state. These are the prerogatives of majesty (§45), of which no sovereign can divest himself, without the express consent of the nation. The inspection of the affairs of religion, and the authority over its ministers, constitute therefore one of the most important of those prerogatives, since, without this power, the sovereign would never be able to prevent the disturbances that religion might occasion in the state, nor to employ that powerful engine in promoting the welfare and safety of the society. It would be certainly very strange that a multitude of men who united themselves in society for their common advantage, that each might in tranquillity labour to supply his necessities, promote his own perfection and happiness, and live as becomes a rational being,—it would be very strange, I say, that such a society should not have a right to follow their own judgment in an affair of the utmost importance,—to determine what they think most suitable with regard to religion,—and to take care that nothing dangerous or hurtful be mixed with it. Who shall dare to dispute that an independent nation has, in this respect as in all others, a right to proceed according to the light of conscience? and when once she has made choice of a particular religion and worship, may she not confer on her conductor all the power she possesses of regulating and directing

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