An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (ebook reader with highlighter txt) 📖

places have been made for dissenting teachers, by

means of voluntary subscriptions, of trust rights, and other

evasions of the law, seem very much to have abated the zeal and

activity of those teachers. They have many of them become very

learned, ingenious, and respectable men; but they have in general

ceased to be very popular preachers. The methodists, without half

the learning of the dissenters, are much more in vogue.

 

In the church of Rome the industry and zeal of the inferior

clergy are kept more alive by the powerful motive of

self-interest, than perhaps in any established protestant church.

The parochial clergy derive many of them, a very considerable

part of their subsistence from the voluntary oblations of the

people; a source of revenue, which confession gives them many

opportunities of improving. The mendicant orders derive their

whole subsistence from such oblations. It is with them as with

the hussars and light infantry of some armies; no plunder, no

pay. The parochial clergy are like those teachers whose reward

depends partly upon their salary, and partly upon the fees or

honoraries which they get from their pupils ; and these must

always depend, more or less, upon their industry and reputation.

The mendicant orders are like those teachers whose subsistence

depends altogether upon their industry. They are obliged,

therefore, to use every art which can animate the devotion of the

common people. The establishment of the two great mendicant

orders of St Dominic and St. Francis, it is observed by

Machiavel, revived, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,

the languishing faith and devotion of the catholic church. In

Roman catholic countries, the spirit of devotion is supported

altogether by the monks, and by the poorer parochial clergy. The

great digititartes of the church, with all the accomplishments of

gentlemen and men of the world, and sometimes with those of men

of learning, are careful to maintain the necessary discipline

over their inferiors, but seldom give themselves any trouble

about the instruction of the people.

 

“Most of the arts and professions in a state,” says by far the

most illustrious philosopher and historian of the present age,

“are of such a nature, that, while they promote the interests of

the society, they are also useful or agreeable to some

individuals; and, in that case, the constant rule of the

magistrate, except, perhaps, on the first introduction of any

art, is, to leave the profession to itself, and trust its

encouragement to the individuals who reap the benefit of it. The

artizans, finding their profits to rise by the favour of their

customers, increase, as much as possible, their skill and

industry ; and as matters are not disturbed by any injudicious

tampering, the commodity is always sure to be at all times nearly

proportioned to the demand.

 

” But there are also some callings which, though useful and even

necessary in a state, bring no advantage or pleasure to any

individual; and the supreme power is obliged to alter its conduct

with regard to the retainers of those professions. It must

give them public encouragement in order to their subsistence; and

it must provide against that negligence to which they will

naturally be subject, either by annexing particular ho0nours to

profession, by establishing a long subordination of ranks, and a

strict dependence, or by some other expedient. The persons

employed in the finances, fleets, and magistracy, are instances

of this order of men.

 

“It may naturally be thought, at first sight, that the

ecclesiastics belong to the first class, and that their

encouragement, as well as that of lawyers and physicians, may

safely be entrusted to the liberality of individuals, who are

attached to their doctrines. and who find benefit or consolation

from their spiritual ministry and assistance. Their industry and

vigilance will, no doubt, be whetted by such an additional

motive; and their skill in the profession, as well as their

address in governing the minds of the people, must receive daily

increase, from their increasing practice, study, and attention.

 

” But if we consider the matter more closely, we shall find that

this interested diligence of the clergy is what every wise

legislator will study to prevent ; because, in every religion

except the true. it is highly pernicious, and it has even a

natural tendency to pervert the truth, by infusing into it a

strong mixture of superstition, folly, and delusion. Each

ghostly practitioner, in order to render himself more precious

and sacred in the eyes of his retainers, will inspire them with

the most violent abhorrence of all other sects, and continually

endeavour, by some novelty, to excite the languid devotion of his

audience. No regard will be paid to truth, morals, or decency, in

the doctrines inculcated. Every tenet will be adopted that best

suits the disorderly affections of the human frame. Customers

will be drawn to each conventicle by new industry and address, in

practising on the passions and credulity of the populace. And, in

the end, the civil magistrate will find that he has dearly paid

for his intended frugality, in saving a fixed establishment for

the priests ; and that, in reality, the most decent and

advantageous composition, which he can make with the spiritual

guides, is to bribe their indolence, by assigning stated salaries

to their profession, and rendering it superfluous for them to be

farther active, than merely to prevent their flock from straying

in quest of new pastors. And in this manner ecclesiastical

establishments, though commonly they arose at first from

religious views, prove in the end advantageous to the political

interests of society.”

 

But whatever may have been the good or bad effects of the

independent provision of the clergy, it has, perhaps, been very

seldom bestowed upon them from any view to those effects.

Times of violent religious controversy have generally been times

of equally violent political faction. Upon such occasions, each

political party has either found it, or imagined it, for his

interest, to league itself with some one or other of the

contending religious sects. But this could be done only by

adopting, or, at least, by favouring the tenets of that

particular sect. The sect which had the good fortune to be

leagued with the conquering party necessarily shared in the

victory of its ally, by whose favour and protection it was soon

enabled, in some degree, to silence and subdue all its

adversaries. Those adversaries had generally leagued

themselves with the enemies of the conquering party, and were,

therefore the enemies of that party. The clergy of this

particular sect having thus become complete masters of the field,

and their influence and authority with the great body of the

people being in its highest vigour, they were powerful enough to

overawe the chiefs and leaders of their own party, and to oblige

the civil magistrate to respect their opinions and inclinations.

Their first demand was generally that he should silence and

subdue all their adversaries; and their second, that he should

bestow an independent provision on themselves. As they had

generally contributed a good deal to the victory, it seemed not

unreasonable that they should have some share in the spoil.

They were weary, besides, of humouring the people, and of

depending upon their caprice for a subsistence. In making this

demand, therefore, they consulted their own ease and comfort,

without troubling themselves about the effect which it might

have, in future times, upon the influence and authority of their

order. The civil magistrate, who could comply with their

demand only by giving them something which he would have chosen

much rather to take, or to keep to himself, was seldom very

forward to grant it. Necessity, however, always forced him

to submit at last, though frequently not till after many delays,

evasions, and affected excuses.

 

But if politics had never called in the aid of religion, had the

conquering party never adopted the tenets of one sect more than

those of another, when it had gained the victory, it would

probably have dealt equally and impartially with all the

different sects, and have allowed every man to choose his own

priest, and his own religion, as he thought proper. There would,

and, in this case, no doubt, have been, a great multitude of

religious sects. Almost every different congregation might

probably have had a little sect by itself, or have entertained

some peculiar tenets of its own. Each teacher, would, no doubt,

have felt himself under the necessity of making the utmost

exertion, and of using every art, both to preserve and to

increase the number of his disciples. But as every other teacher

would have felt himself under the same necessity, the success of

no one teacher, or sect of teachers, could have been very great.

The interested and active zeal of religious teachers can be

dangerous and troublesome only where there is either but one sect

tolerated in the society, or where the whole of a large society

is divided into two or three great sects; the teachers of each

acting by concert, and under a regular discipline and

subordination. But that zeal must be altogether innocent,

where the society is divided into two or three hundred, or,

perhaps, into as many thousand small sects, of which no one could

be considerable enough to disturb the public tranquillity.

The teachers of each sect, seeing themselves surrounded on all

sides with more adversaries than friends, would be obliged to

learn that candour and moderation which are so seldom to be found

among the teachers of those great sects, whose tenets, being

supported by the civil magistrate, are held in veneration by

almost all the inhabitants of extensive kingdoms and empires, and

who, therefore, see nothing round them but followers, disciples,

and humble admirers. The teachers of each little sect, finding

themselves almost alone, would be obliged to respect those of

almost every other sect; and the concessions which they would

mutually find in both convenient and agreeable to make one to

another, might in time, probably reduce the doctrine of the

greater part of them to that pure and rational religion, free

from every mixture of absurdity, imposture, or fanaticism, such

as wise men have, in all ages of the world, wished to see

established ; but such as positive law has, perhaps, never yet

established, and probably never will establish in any country ;

because, with regard to religion, positive law always has been,

and probably always will be, more or less influenced by popular

superstition and enthusiasm. This plan of ecclesiastical

government, or, more properly, of no ecclesiastical government,

was what the sect called Independents (a sect, no doubt, of very

wild enthusiasts), proposed to establish in England towards the

end of the civil war. If it had been established, though of a

very unphilosophical origin, it would probably, by this time,

have been productive of the most philosophical good temper and

moderation with regard to every sort of religious principle. It

has been established in Pennsylvania, where, though the quakers

happen to be the most numerous, the law, in reality, favours no

one sect more than another ; and it is there said to have been

productive of this philosophical good temper and moderation,

 

But though this equality of treatment should not be productive of

this good temper and moderation in all, or even in the greater

part of the religious sects of a particular country; yet,

provided those sects were sufficiently numerous, and each of them

consequently too small to disturb the public tranquillity, the

excessive zeal of each for its particular tenets could not well

be productive of any very hurtful effects, but, on the contrary,

of several good ones; and if the government was perfectly

decided, both to let them all alone, and to oblige them all to

let alone one another, there is little danger that they would not

of their own accord, subdivide themselves