iards or their descendants, and by far the greater portion of the more elevated ecclesiastics were persons of high birth or influential connections.
But the rights of primogeniture have been abolished. The laws of the Republic have taken away the power to collect tithes by compulsory processes. And the consequence is, that the church has become unpopular with the upper classes as a means of maintenance, while a comparatively democratic spirit has been infused into its members, who now spring from the humbler ranks. Still, however, the remaining wealth and the forces of clanship have preserved in their body a most powerful influence.
While this change has occurred in the church, the army has become equally unpopular with the upper ranks as a profession, and as its command is consequently intrusted to men who have arisen immediately from the people, or, in other words, as the same classes of society furnish both the church and the army, the church and the army will, in all probability, (while forming aristocracies in themselves,) sustain each other against the aristocracy of landed proprietors, and all who live upon their income without the necessity of labor.
Between these two classes there will be a constant war of opinion, while the only real democracy of the nation is left to reside in individuals, who have neither estates to despoil nor wealth to confiscate. The fellow feeling between the church and the army, arising from the kindred origin of their numbers, is, however, no protection to the riches of the former. The Government, pressed by its wants, is beginning to encroach gradually on its resources, and, within the last two years, has appropriated parts of the real estates of the clergy to replenish an empty treasury. That such is an honest and patriotic devotion of ecclesiastical means, no one can deny, and the doctrine is sustained by legal writers of the highest authority.[1] The church has no need of possessions, except for purposes of beneficence and charity. The vow of its members is for chastity and poverty. It receives, only to become an almoner for more extensive benevolence. And as the State, in the hour of need, must ever be the chief pauper, she has an unquestioned right to call upon the ministers of God, in the spirit of the religion they teach, to open their coffers freely
- ↑ Vide Vattel. Book 1. Chapter 12, §158
"The State," says this high legal authority, "has unquestionably the power to exempt the property of the church from all imposts, when the property is not more than adequate to the support of the ecclesiastics. But the priesthood has no right to this favor except by the authority of the State, which has always the right to revoke it when the public good requires. One of the fundamental and essential laws of society is, that on all occasions of need the goods of all its members ought to contribute proportionally to the wants of the community. Even the prince himself cannot, by his authority, grant an entire exemption to a numerous and wealthy body of persons, without committing an extreme injustice to the rest of his subjects, upon whom the burden would altogether fail by this exemption.
Far from the goods of the church being exempted because they are consecrated to God,—it is for that very reason that they should be the first taken for the welfare of the State. There is nothing more agreeable to the Common Father of men, than to preserve a nation from destruction. As God has no need of property, the consecration of goods to Him, in their devotion to such usages as are pleasant to him. Besides, the property of the church by the confession of the clergy themselves, is chiefly destined for the poor. Now when the State is want, it is, doubtless, the first pauper and the worthiest of succor. We may extend the reasoning to the most ordinary cases, and say that to impose a part of the current expenses on the church property in order to relieve the people to that extent, is really to give those goods to the poor, according to the spirit of their original destination."
