Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes - HTML preview

Exemptions of the Clergy.

Thirdly, the exemption of these, and of all other Priests, and of all Monkes, and Fryers, from

the Power of the Civill Laws. For by this means, there is a great part of every Common-wealth,

that enjoy the benefit of the Laws, and are protected by the Power of the Civill State, which

neverthelesse pay no part of the Publique expence; nor are lyable to the penalties, as other

Subjects, due to their crimes; and consequently, stand not in fear of any man, but the Pope;

and adhere to him onely, to uphold his universall Monarchy.

The names of Sacerdotes and Sacrifices.

Fourthly, the giving to their Priests (which is no more in the New Testament but Presbyters,

that is, Elders) the name of Sacerdotes, | that is, Sacrificers, which was the title of the Civill Soveraign, and his publique Ministers, amongst the Jews, whilest God was their King. Also, the

making the Lords Supper a Sacrifice, serveth to make the People beleeve the Pope hath the

same power over all Christians, that Moses and Aaron had over the Jews; that is to say, all

Power, both Civill and Ecclesiasticall, as the High Priest then had.

The Sacramentation of Marriage.

Fiftly, the teaching that Matrimony is a Sacrament, giveth to the Clergy the Judging of the

lawfulnesse of Marriages; and thereby, of what Children are Legitimate; and consequently, of

the Right of Succession to hæreditary Kingdomes.

The single life of Priests.

Sixtly, the Deniall of Marriage to Priests, serveth to assure this Power of the Pope over Kings.

For if a King be a Priest, he cannot Marry, and transmit his Kingdome to his Posterity; If he be

not a Priest, then the Pope pretendeth this Authority Ecclesiasticall over him, and over his

people.

Auricular Confession.

Seventhly, from Auricular Confession, they obtain, for the assurance of their Power, better

intelligence of the designs of Princes, and great persons in the Civill State, than these can have

of the designs of the State Ecclesiasticall.

Canonization of Saints, and declaring of Martyrs.

Eighthly, by the Canonization of Saints, and declaring who are Martyrs, they assure their

Power, in that they induce simple men into an obstinacy against the Laws and Commands of

their Civill Soveraigns even to death, if by the Popes excommunication, they be declared

Heretiques or Enemies to the Church; that is, (as they interpret it,) to the Pope.

Transubstantiation, Pennance, Absolution.

Ninthly, they assure the same, by the Power they ascribe to every Priest, of making Christ; and

by the Power of ordaining Pennance; and of Remitting, and Retaining of sins.

Purgatory, Indulgences, Externall works.

Tenthly, by the Doctrine of Purgatory, of Justification by externall works, and of Indulgences,

the Clergy is enriched.

Dæmonology and Exorcism.

Eleventhly, by their Dæmonology, and the use of Exorcisme, and other things appertaining

thereto, they keep (or thinke they keep) the People more in awe of their Power.

School-Divinity.

Lastly, the Metaphysiques, Ethiques, and Politiques of Aristotle, the frivolous Distinctions,

barbarous Terms, and obscure Language of the Schoolmen, taught in the Universities, (which

have been all erected and regulated by the Popes Authority,) serve them to keep these Errors

from being detected, and to make men mistake the Ignis fatuus of Vain Philosophy, for the

Light of the Gospell.

The Authors of spirituall Darknesse, who they be.

To these, if they sufficed not, might be added other of their dark Doctrines, the profit whereof

redoundeth manifestly, to the setting up of an unlawfull Power over the lawfull Soveraigns of

Christian People; or for the sustaining of the same, when it is set up; or to the worldly Riches,

Honour, and Authority of those that sustain it. And therefore by the aforesaid rule, of Cui bono, we may justly pronounce for the Authors of all this Spirituall Darknesse, the Pope, and Roman

Clergy, and all those besides that endeavour to settle in the mindes of men this erroneous

Doctrine, that the Church now on Earth, is that Kingdome of God mentioned in the Old and

New Testament.

But the Emperours, and other Christian Soveraigns, under whose Government these Errours,

and the like encroachments of Ecclesiastiques upon their Office, at first crept in, to the

disturbance of their possessions, and of the tranquillity of their Subjects, though they suffered

the same for want of foresight of the Sequel, and of insight into the designs of their Teachers,

may neverthelesse bee esteemed accessaries to their own, and the Publique dammage: For

without their Authority there could at first no seditious Doctrine have been publiquely

preached. I say they might have hindred the same in the beginning: But when the people were

once possessed by those spirituall men, there was no humane remedy to be applyed, that any

man could invent: And for the remedies that God should provide, who never faileth in his good

time to destroy all the Machinations of men against the Truth, wee are to attend his good

pleasure, that suffereth many times the prosperity of his enemies, together with their

ambition, to grow to such a height, as the violence thereof openeth the eyes, which the

warinesse of their predecessours had before sealed up, and makes men by too much grasping

let goe all, as Peters net was broken, by the struggling of too great a multitude of Fishes;

whereas the Impatience of those, that strive to resist such encroachment, before their Subjects

eyes were opened, did but encrease the power they resisted. I doe not therefore blame the

Emperour Frederick for holding the stirrop to our countryman Pope Adrian; for such was the

disposition of his subjects then, as if hee had not done it, hee was not likely to have succeeded

in the Empire: But I blame those, that in the beginning, when their power was entire, by

suffering such Doctrines to be forged in the Universities of their own Dominions, have holden

the Stirrop to all the succeeding Popes, whilest they mounted into the Thrones of all Christian

Soveraigns, to ride, and tire, both them, and their people, at their pleasure.

But as the Inventions of men are woven, so also are they ravelled out; the way is the same,

but the order is inverted: The web begins at the first Elements of Power, which are Wisdom,

Humility, Sincerity, and other vertues of the Apostles, whom the people converted, obeyed, out

of Reverence, not by Obligation: Their Consciences were free, and their Words and Actions

subject to none but the Civill Power. Afterwards the Presbyters (as the Flocks of Christ

encreased) assembling to consider what they should teach, and thereby obliging themselves to

teach nothing against the Decrees of their Assemblies, made it to be thought the people were

thereby obliged to follow their Doctrine, and when they refused, refused to keep them

company, (that was then called Excommunication,) not as being Infidels, but as being

disobedient: And this was the first knot upon their Liberty. And the number of Presbyters

encreasing, the Presbyters of the chief City or Province, got themselves an authority over the

Parochiall Presbyters, and appropriated to themselves the names of Bishops: And this was a

second knot on Christian Liberty. Lastly, the Bishop of Rome, in regard of the Imperiall City,

took upon him an Authority (partly by the wills of the Emperours themselves, and by the title

of Pontifex Maximus, and at last when the Emperours were grown weak, by the priviledges of

St. Peter) over all other Bishops of the Empire: Which was the third and last knot, and the

whole Synthesis and Construction of the Pontificiall Power.

And therefore the Analysis, or Resolution is by the same way; but beginneth with the knot that was last tyed; as wee may see in the dissolution of the præter-politicall Church Government in

England. First, the Power of the Popes was dissolved totally by Queen Elizabeth; and the

Bishops, who before exercised their Functions in Right of the Pope, did afterwards exercise the

same in Right of the Queen and her Successours; though by retaining the phrase of Jure

Divino, they were thought to demand it by immediate Right from God: And so was untyed the

first knot. After this, the Presbyterians lately in England obtained the putting down of

Episcopacy: And so was the second knot dissolved: And almost at the same time, the Power

was taken also from the Presbyterians: And so we are reduced to the Independency of the

Primitive Christians to follow Paul, or Cephas, or Apollos, every man as he liketh best: Which, if

it be without contention, and without measuring the Doctrine of Christ, by our affection to the

Person of his Minister, (the fault which the Apostle reprehended in the Corinthians,) is perhaps

the best: First, because there ought to be no Power over the Consciences of men, but of the

Word it selfe, working Faith in every one, not alwayes according to the purpose of them that

Plant and Water, but of God himself, that giveth the Increase: and secondly, because it is

unreasonable in them, who teach there is such danger in every little Errour, to require of a

man endued with Reason of his own, to follow the Reason of any other man, or of the most

voices of many other men; Which is little better, then to venture his Salvation at crosse and

pile. Nor ought those Teachers to be displeased with this losse of their antient Authority: For

there is none should know better then they, that power is preserved by the same Vertues by

which it is acquired; that is to say, by Wisdome, Humility, Clearnesse of Doctrine, and sincerity

of Conversation; and not by suppression of the Naturall Sciences, and of the Morality of

Naturall Reason; nor by obscure Language; nor by Arrogating to themselves more Knowledge

than they make appear; nor by Pious Frauds; nor by such other faults, as in the Pastors of

Gods Church are not only Faults, but also scandalls, apt to make men stumble one time or

other upon the suppression of their Authority.

Comparison of the Papacy with the Kingdome of Fayries

But after this Doctrine, that the Church now Militant, is the Kingdome of God spoken of in the

Old and New Testament, was received in the World; the ambition, and canvasing for the

Offices that belong thereunto, and especially for that great Office of being | Christs Lieutenant,

and the Pompe of them that obtained therein the principall Publique Charges, became by

degrees so evident, that they lost the inward Reverence due to the Pastorall Function: in so

much as the Wisest men, of them that had any power in the Civill State, needed nothing but

the authority of their Princes, to deny them any further Obedience. For, from the time that the

Bishop of Rome had gotten to be acknowledged for Bishop Universall, by pretence of

Succession to St. Peter, their whole Hierarchy, or Kingdome of Darknesse, may be compared

not unfitly to the Kingdome of Fairies; that is, to the old wives Fables in England, concerning Ghosts and Spirits, and the feats they play in the night. And if a man consider the originall of this great Ecclesiasticall Dominion, he will easily perceive, that the Papacy, is no other, than the Ghost of the deceased Romane Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof: For so did the Papacy start up on a Sudden out of the Ruines of that Heathen Power.

The Language also, which they use, both in the Churches, and in their Publique Acts, being

Latine, which is not commonly used by any Nation now in the world, what is it but the Ghost of the Old Romane Language?

The Fairies in what Nation soever they converse, have but one Universall King, which some

Poets of ours call King Oberon; but the Scripture calls Beelzebub, Prince of Dœmons. The Eoclesiastiques likewise, in whose Dominions soever they be found, acknowledge but one

Universall King, the Pope.

The Ecclesiastiques are Spirituall men, and Ghostly Fathers. The Fairies are Spirits, and Ghosts.

Fairies and Ghosts inhabite Darknesse, Solitudes, and Graves. The Ecclesiastiques walke in Obscurity of Doctrine, in Monasteries, Churches, and Church-yards.

The Ecclesiastiques have their Cathedrall Churches: which, in what Towne soever they be

erected, by vertue of Holy Water, and certain Charmes called Exorcismes, have the power to

make those Townes, Cities, that is to say, Seats of Empire. The Fairies also have their

enchanted Castles, and certain Gigantique Ghosts, that domineer over the Regions round about

them.

The Fairies are not to be seized on; and brought to answer for the hurt they do. So also the Ecclesiastiques vanish away from the Tribunals of Civill Justice.

The Ecclesiastiques take from young men, the use of Reason, by certain Charms compounded

of Metaphysiques, and Miracles, and Traditions, and Abused Scripture, whereby they are good

for nothing else, but to execute what they command them. The Fairies likewise are said to take young Children out of their Cradles, and to change them into Naturall Fools, which Common

people do therefore call Elves, and are apt to mischief.

In what Shop, or Operatory the Fairies make their Enchantment, the old Wives have not

determined. But the Operatories of the Clergy, are well enough known to be the Universities, that received their Discipline from Authority Pontificiall.

When the Fairies are displeased with any body, they are said to send their Elves, to pinch

them. The Ecclesiastiques, when they are displeased with any Civill State, make also their

Elves, that is, Superstitious, Enchanted Subjects, to pinch their Princes, by preaching Sedition;

or one Prince enchanted with promises, to pinch another.

The Fairies marry not; but there be amongst them Incubi, that have copulation with flesh and bloud. The Priests also marry not.

The Ecclesiastiques take the Cream of the Land, by Donations of ignorant men, that stand in

aw of them, and by Tythes: So also it is in the Fable of Fairies, that they enter into the Dairies, and Feast upon the Cream, which they skim from the Milk.

What kind of Money is currant in the Kingdome of Fairies, is not recorded in the Story. But the Ecclesiastiques in their Receipts accept of the same Money that we doe; though when they are to make any Payment, it is in Canonizations, Indulgences, and Masses.

To this, and such like resemblances between the Papacy, and the Kingdome of Fairies, may be added this, that as the Fairies have no existence, but in the Fancies of ignorant people, rising from the Traditions of old Wives, or old Poets: so the Spirituall Power of the Pope (without the bounds of his own Civill Dominion) consisteth onely in the Fear that Seduced people stand in,

of their Excommunications; upon hearing of false Miracles, false Traditions, and false

Interpretations of the Scripture.

It was not therefore a very difficult matter, for Henry 8. by his Exorcisme; nor for Qu. Elizabeth

by hers, to cast them out. But who knows that this Spirit of Rome, now gone out, and walking

by Missions through the dry places of China, Japan, and the Indies, that yeeld him little fruit,

may not return, or rather an Assembly of Spirits worse than he, enter, and inhabite this clean

swept house, and make the End thereof worse than the Beginning? For it is not the Romane

Clergy onely, that pretends the Kingdome of God to be of this World, and thereby to have a

Power therein, distinct from that of the Civil State. And this is all I had a designe to say,

concerning the Doctrine of the POLITIQUES. Which when I have reviewed, I shall willingly

expose it to the censure of my Countrey.

A REVIEW, and CONCLUSION.

FROM the contrariety of some of the Naturall Faculties of the Mind, one to another, as also of

one Passion to another, and from their reference to Conversation, there has been an argument

taken, to inferre an impossibility that any one man should be sufficiently disposed to all sorts

of Civill duty. The Severity of Judgment, they say, makes men Censorious, and unapt to

pardon the Errours and Infirmities of other men: and on the other side, Celerity of Fancy,

makes the thoughts lesse steddy than is necessary, to discern exactly between Right and

Wrong. Again, in all Deliberations, and in all Pleadings, the faculty of solid Reasoning, is

necessary: for without it, the Resolutions of men are rash, and their Sentences unjust: and yet

if there be not powerfull Eloquence, which procureth attention and Consent, the effect of

Reason will be little. But these are contrary Faculties; the former being grounded upon

principles of Truth; the other upon Opinions already received, true, or false; and upon the

Passions and Interests of men, which are different, and mutable.

And amongst the Passions, Courage, (by which I mean the Contempt of Wounds, and violent

Death) enclineth men to private Revenges, and sometimes to endeavour the unsetling of the

Publique Peace: And Timorousnesse, many times disposeth to the desertion of the Publique

Defence. Both these they say cannot stand together in the same person.

And to consider the contrariety of mens Opinions, and Manners in generall, It is they say,

impossible to entertain a constant Civill Amity with all those, with whom the Businesse of the

world constrains us to converse: Which Businesse, consisteth almost in nothing else but a

perpetuall contention for Honor, Riches, and Authority.

To which I answer, that these are indeed great difficulties, but not Impossibilities: For by

Education, and Discipline, they may bee, and are sometimes reconciled. Judgment, and Fancy

may have place in the same man; but by turnes; as the end which he aimeth at requireth. As

the Israelites in Egypt, were sometimes fastened to their labour of making Bricks, and other

times were ranging abroad to gather Straw: So also may the Judgement sometimes be fixed

upon one certain Consideration, and the Fancy at another time wandring about the world. So

also Reason, and Eloquence, (though not perhaps in the Naturall Sciences, yet in the Morall)

may stand very well together. For wheresoever there is place for adorning and preferring of

Errour, there is much more place for adorning and preferring of Truth, if they have it to adorn.

Nor is there any repugnancy between fearing the Laws, and not fearing a publique Enemy; nor

between abstaining from Injury, and pardoning it in others. There is therefore no such

Inconsistence of Humane Nature, with Civill Duties, as some think. I have known cleernesse of

Judgment, and largenesse of Fancy; strength of Reason, and gracefull Elocution; a Courage for

the Warre, and a Fear for the Laws, and all eminently in one man; and that was my most noble

and honored friend Mr. Sidney Godolphin; who hating no man, nor hated of any, was

unfortunately slain in the beginning of the late Civill warre, in the Publique quarrell, by an

undiscerned, and an undiscerning hand.

To the Laws of Nature, declared in the 15. Chapter, I would have this added, That every man is

bound by Nature, as much as in him lieth, to protect in Warre, the Authority, by which he is

himself protected in time of Peace. For he that pretendeth a Right of Nature to preserve his owne body, cannot pretend a Right of Nature to destroy him, by whose strength he is

preserved: It is a manifest contradiction of himselfe. And though this Law may bee drawn by

consequence, from some of those that are there already mentioned; yet the Times require to

have it inculcated, and remembred.

And because I find by divers English Books lately printed, that the Civill warres have not yet

sufficiently taught men, in what point of time it is, that a Subject becomes obliged to the

Conquerour; nor what is Conquest; nor how it comes about, that it obliges men to obey his

Laws: Therefore for farther satisfaction of men therein, I say, the point of time, wherein a man

becomes subject to a Conquerour, is that point, wherein having liberty to submit to him, he

consenteth, either by expresse words, or by other sufficient sign, to be his Subject. When it is

that a man hath the liberty to submit, I have shewed before in the end of the 21. Chapter;

namely, that for him that hath no obligation to his former Soveraign but that of an ordinary

Subject, it is then, when the means of his life is within the Guards and Garrisons of the Enemy;

for it is then, that he hath no longer Protection from him, but is protected by the adverse party

for his Contribution. Seeing therefore such contribution is every where, as a thing inevitable,

(notwithstanding it be an assistance to the Enemy,) esteemed lawfull; a totall Submission,

which is but an assistance to the Enemy, cannot be esteemed unlawful. Besides, if a man

consider that they who submit, assist the Enemy but with part of their estates, whereas they

that refuse, assist him with the whole, there is no reason to call their Submission, or

Composition an Assistance; but rather a Detriment to the Enemy. But if a man, besides the

obligation of a Subject, hath taken upon him a new obligation of a Souldier, then he hath not

the liberty to submit to a new Power, as long as the old one keeps the field, and giveth him

means of subsistence, either in his Armies, or Garrisons: for in this case, he cannot complain of

want of Protection, and means to live as a Souldier: But when that also failes, a Souldier also

may seek his Protection wheresoever he has most hope to have it; and may lawfully submit

himself to his new Master. And so much for the Time when he may do it lawfully, if hee will. If

therefore he doe it, he is undoubtedly bound to be a true Subject: For a Contract lawfully

made, cannot lawfully be broken.

By this also a man may understand, when it is, that men may be said to be Conquered; and in

what the nature of Conquest, and the Right of a Conquerour consisteth: For this Submission is

it implyeth them all. Conquest, is not the Victory it self; but the Acquisition by Victory, of a

Right, over the persons of men. He therefore that is slain, is Overcome, but not Conquered: He

that is taken, and put into prison, or chaines, is not Conquered, though Overcome; for he is

still an Enemy, and may save himself if hee can: But he that upon promise of Obedience, hath

his Life and Liberty allowed him, is then Conquered, and a Subject; and not before. The

Romanes used to say, that their Generall had Pacified such a Province, that is to say, in English, Conquered it; and that the Countrey was Pacified by Victory, when the people of it had promised Imperata facere, that is, To doe what the Romane People commanded them: this was to be Conquered. But this promise may be either expresse, or tacite: Expresse, by Promise:

Tacite, by other signes. As for example, a man that hath not been called to make such an

expresse Promise, (because he is one whose power perhaps is not considerable;) yet if he live

under their Protection openly, hee is understood to submit himselfe to the Government: But if

he live there secretly, he is lyable to any thing that may bee done to a Spie, and Enemy of the

State. I say not, hee does any Injustice, (for acts of open Hostility bear not that name); but

that he may be justly put to death. Likewise, if a man, when his Country is conquered, be out

of it, he is not Conquered, nor Subject: but if at his return, he submit to the Government, he is

bound to obey it. So that Conquest (to define it) is the Acquiring of the Right of Soveraignty by Victory. Which Right, is acquired, in the peoples Submission, by which they contract with the

Victor, promising Obedience, for Life and Liberty.

In the 29. Chapter I have set down for one of the causes of the Dissolutions of Common-

wealths, their Imperfect Generation, consisting in the want of an Absolute and Arbitrary

Legislative Power; for want whereof, the Civill Soveraign is fain to handle the Sword of Justice

unconstantly, and as if it were too hot for him to hold: One reason whereof (which I have not

there mentioned) is this. That they will all of them justifie the War, by which their Power was

at first gotten, and whereon (as they think) their Right dependeth, and not on the Possession.

As if, for example, the Right of the Kings of England did depend on the goodnesse of the cause

of William the Conquerour, and upon their lineall, and directest Descent from him; by which

means, there would perhaps be no tie of the Subjects obedience to their Soveraign at this day

in all the world: wherein whilest they needlessely think to justifie themselves, they justifie all

the successefull Rebellions that Ambition shall at any time raise against them, and their

Successors. Theref