Some ob

fervations

Le Blanc's

Boubier, in

which he

is Voltaire's account of the Abbé.

How true and juft it is, we fhall fee in a few obfervations on what this reverend man fays of our religion and clergy.

The fubftance of what this French monk on the Abbé reports, vol. II. from p. 64 to p. 75, in his fifty-eighth letter to the President Bouhier, (9) is this: letter to the 1. That Cranmer, and the other doctors, Prefident who introduced the reformation into England, were downright enthufiafts, and compaffed their defigns by being feconded by thofe, who were animated by a spirit of irreligion, and mation of by a greedy defire of feizing the poffeffions England, of the monks. It was the defire of a change the English eftablished the reformation. The new doctors clergy.

mifrepre

fents and

blackens the refor

and abufes

Of Monf.

of the

feduced

(9) Reader-Boubier, prefident of the French acadeBoubier, my, (to whom Le Blanc infcribes his 58th letter) died prefident in 1746. He was a scholar. L'Abbé de Olivet, French aca- (from whom he had the late fine edition of Cicero in fedemy. ven volumes 4to) fpeaks of him in the following manner; Je me fuis prêté à ce nouveau travail, & d'autant plus volontiers, que M. le Préfident Boubier a bien voulu le partager avec moi.-On fera, fans doute, charmé de voir Cicéron entre les mains d'un traducteur auffi digne de lui, que Cicéron lui-même étoit digne d'avoir traducteur un favant du premier ordre. Tufc. tome 1. p. 13.And again ;-Feu M. Le Préfident Bouhier, le varron de notre fiecle, & l'homme le plus capable de bien rendre les vraies beautez d'un original Grec ou Latin, avoit tellement retouché fes deux Tufculanes, qu'on aura peine à les reconnoître dans cette nouvelle édition. Tufc. tome 2. p. 1.

feduced the people, and the people having miftaken darknets for light, quitted the road of truth, to walk in the ways of error.

2. As to morals, that this boafted reformation produced no change in that refpect; for the people are not purer than they were in former times, and the ecclefiaftics are despised and hated for the badnefs of their lives. The bishops facrifice every thing to their ambition; and the clergy of the fecond rank have no respect for their office. They spend the whole day in public places in finoaking and drinking, and are remarkable for drunkennefs, fo dishonourable to ecclefiaftics. Their

This is Oliver's account of Bouhier; and I have heard fome gentlemen who knew him fay, that he was a very fine genius; but, they added, a popish bigot to the last degree, and therefore, Le Blanc chofe him as the fittest perfon of his acquaintance, to write an epiftle to, that abufed the reformation, and the English divines. Great is the prejudice of education! When fo bright a mind as Boubier's cannot fee the deformity of Popery, and the beauty of the reformation; but, on the contrary, with pleasure reads the defpicable defamation in Le Blanc's letter.

N. B. The two Tufculans, fo finely tranflated by Bouhier, are the 3d, De ægritudine lenienda: and the 5th, Virtutem ad beatè vivendum feipfa effe contentam. De la vertu Qu'elle fuffit pour vivre heureux. See likewife, M. Boubier's curious and useful remarks on the three books, DeNatura Deorum; the five Tufculans; Scipio's dream; and on the Catilinaires, or three orations against Catiline. Thefe remarks are the third volume.

I 4

talk

talk is the most diffolute, and the vice that degrades thefe profeffors, fets a bad example to fober people, and makes them the jeft of libertines.

3. The only remarkable change produced by the reformation was the marriage of priests; and, exclufive of this being against the decifions of the catholic church, it is contrary to found policy and experience. The marriage of priests diminishes the respect we should have for them. The mifconduct of a woman makes the clergyman fall into contempt. The lewdness of the daughter makes the priest, her father, the object of the most indecent jefts; and for the most part, the daughters of the clergy turn whores after the death of their father; who, while living, pent more of his income in maintaining himself and children in pleasure and luxury, than in works of charity. He lived profufely, and dies poor.

Belide, if the English clergy were the greatest and most excellent men, yet a great man in the eyes of the world, lofes of the refpect which is due to him, in proportion as he has any thing in common with the reft of mankind. A Madam Newton, and a Madam Fontenelle, would injure the illuftrious men whose name they bore. Nor is this all. Thofe who by their difpofition cannot fix that fecret inclination,

3

inclination, which induces us to love, on one perfon, are more humane and charitable than others. The unmarried ecclefiaftics are more animated with that charitable spirit their function requires, as they have no worldly affections to divert it. People very rarely (as Lord Bacon fays) employ themselves in watering plants, when they want water themfelves.--In short, the English divines are the worst of men, and there is hardly any religion in England.Thus does this French Abbé revile the English reformation and divines. He mifreprefents the whole nation, and with a falfhood and outrage peculiar to popery and mass-priests, that is, to devils and the moft execrable religion, fcreams against the pure religion of the gospel, and dishonestly blackens fome of the fineft characters that ever adorned human nature. So very virulent is this reverend French papist against the clergy of England, that he is even pofitive there is not a divine in the nation knows how to behave like a gentleman.

In answer to the first article of impeachment, I obferve, that it is fo far from being true, that Cranmer, and the other English divines, our reformers, were enthufiafts, and compaffed their defigns by the affiftance of those who were animated by a fpirit of irreligion, and by a greedy defire of feizing the poffeffion of

the

the monks, (as this mass-prieft afferts); that it is most certain, on the contrary, Cranmer, and the other reformers, were wife and upright chriftians, who, from a good underftanding of religion, oppofed the falle pretenfions of the church of Rome. They faw that popery was contrary to the true genius of christianity; its spirit infolent and cruel; and its worship, not only a jumble of the most ridiculous fopperies and extravagancies, borrowed from heathen cuftoms and fuperftitions; but the impureft that ever appeared in the world that the defigns of popish Rome were contrary to all the principles of humanity; its doctrines abominable and finful; and its offices curfed and diabolical: it was evident, I fay, to the conception of these great men, (I mean Cranmer, and the other English reformers) that the Romish church was treacherous and inhuman, blood-thirsty and antichriftian; that her devotions were horrible and impious; her minifters false prophets and liars, covered and decked with the livery of Christ, but in every thing acting contrary to the falvation wrought by Jefus; and therefore thefe wife and excellent reformers renounced popery, and bravely declared for that religion, which promotes the good of all mankind, and infpires men to worship the Father only in spirit and in truth. They threw off the cloak and garments of antichrift: they glorioufly fepa

rated