One of the most important days in the history of mankind was November 20, 1694, when a puny, sickly, ugly child was born of humble parents who afterwards called himself "Voltaire." This anemic and cynically-faced individual made the time in which he lived momentous. The period might well be called the "Age of Voltaire." In fact Victor Hugo said that to name Voltaire was to characterize the entire eighteenth century. For just as surely as the geological periods in the earth's history have left their stratified imprint on the earth's formation, so the work and influence of Voltaire are unmistakably impressed upon the progress and intellectual development of mankind. And just as the monsters who once roamed the earth are buried in layers beneath the earth's surface and reveal the age in which they lived, so the crumbling of the Roman Catholic Church marks the period of Voltaire.
When Voltaire was born, the condition of the French people was most pitiful. It had been so for many generations, and there appeared little prospect of an amelioration of this tragic condition. Misery, poverty, ignorance, and tyranny held the people in a viselike grip. No ray of light penetrated their dark and gloomy existence. There was no hope however remote to buoy up their depressed and sunken spirits. They seemed doomed to this frightful condition to this perpetual slavery. They despaired of any change for the better and resigned themselves and their lot in life to the divine plan. If "God" so willed it, it should be so. It was easy for priests to tell them that God's ways were beyond their understanding, and that whatever was, was best.
If by any chance there arose a rebellious spirit who dared to raise his head and lift his voice in behalf of his fellow slaves, instruments worthy of the Inquisition were put to effective use. And make no mistake about the effectiveness of those instruments of torture. They nearly always accomplished their purpose. And what was left undone by them was undertaken by religious fanaticism, with all the hatred and vindictiveness that this blind and hateful passion can accomplish. The mass of people lived in serfdom. The country was dominated by priest and king -- a sinister combination of ignorance and tyranny. Superstition intermingled with brutality. It is difficult to conceive of conditions more intolerable.
Even if some form of economic justice, some method of lifting the burden of poverty from the backs of the people had been proposed, there stood on guard against such change (more menacing than any other single condition), the arm of Catholicism known as the Society of Jesus -- the partisans of a creed, says Morley, in whose name more human blood has been violently shed than in any other cause whatever. An economic change without a corresponding advance in their mental condition would in any case have proved futile or of only temporary value.
The people were so subservient to the church that no possible amelioration in their living conditions could have been effected until they had been liberated, in some degree, from the religious thraldom in which they were held. The benefits they would have received from better economic conditions would have been taken from them by the church.
Royalty lived in a wild extravagance of silks and satins; of diamonds and gold and precious jewels; of gilded palaces and magnificent halls, all wrung from the very lifeblood of the people. Sensualism was its consuming activity. And the church, walking arm in arm with royalty, fed contentedly upon the fat of the land. When the state could no longer increase the servitude; when the state could no longer rob the people through pillage and taxation, the priests, sly, unscrupulous and heartless, completed the job.
The people seemed doomed to this existence. No avenue of escape was open. Destitution was written across their horizon. Could anything be worse than to have insane, ignorant, superstitious and brutal men with unlimited power inflict tortures upon innocent and defenseless people under the delusion that they were performing their acts with the approval of God?
Bind the limbs, chain the mentality, and you have the condition of society that is most acceptable to the church. With such a society the church can best ply its trade. Such a condition offers a ready market for its wares with a most fruitful return. The priests thrive on it, and so they are careful to nurture it, to cultivate and develop it. To them it is the ideal condition. Licentious priests revel in the poverty and ignorance of the poor fools over whom they have control.
Magic and superstition were the physicians of that time. It was a sacrilege to resort to medicine; a blasphemy to call the doctor. The church held a monopoly for the cure of disease. Medals, candles, holy oil, and the like were sold to cure anything from a sore throat to granulated eyelids. Amulets and tokens, charms and relics were either sold to protect from harm or to bring good luck. The more serious the ailment, the more sacred should be the article to effect a cure. And so from rheumatism to cholera morbus it was necessary to invoke the efficacy of pieces of the original cross, bones of the saints, and the toenail of Jesus Christ.
A mother whose child was dying of a disease, the virulency of which was tearing its little helpless body to pieces, whose tender flesh was being burnt by the heat of a consuming fever, could, on paying an exorbitant price -- and provided her Catholicism was without a blemish -- secure the most precious of all the church's articles, the one most capable of effecting a miraculous cure -- a vial containing the Virgin Mary's milk!
In the year 1585, in the town of Embrun, France, the male generative organ of St. Foutin was greatly revered. A jar was placed beneath his emblem to catch the wine with which it was generally anointed. The wine was left to sour, and then it was known as "Holy Vinegar." The women drank it in order to be blessed with children.
And until suppressed in 1780 the affected parts of the generative organs of both male and female sufferers were treated by purchasing at church fairs representations of the creative organs and having priests pour upon them the oil of Saint Cosmas.
Every fraud was practiced under the guise of religion, and practiced with profit. Every crime that furthered the ends of the church was commended, or at least condoned. Every effort to crush those who protested was applauded. Freedom of discussion was prohibited. Intellectual life was decaying for want of expression and for lack of the sunlight of approval. Superstition was not only rampant; the very atmosphere was so laden with it that the people breathed it into their very being. Truly every man was afraid of his shadow. Every clap of thunder was an ominous warning, and every bolt of lightning, a flash of anger and vengeance.
Saints were multiplied and their bodies were sold in bits; each piece was highly treasured as separately efficacious. Their bones, teeth, eyelashes, and hair were of potent medicinal value. Nothing mattered save the worship of God. It was sinful to help man. If man suffered, it was God's will and nothing should be done about it. The supreme authority on earth was in the Jesuits, the holy men of God, who bartered every principle, sacrificed every right no matter how sacred, and prostituted their religion to hold the reins of power. They controlled the education of the country, and through the confessional every corrupt and licentious member of the government became a cat's-paw in their hands. Picture the very worst conditions conceivable and you will have a glimpse of the true situation as it existed under these heartless and unscrupulous men. With perfect mockery God was worshiped as the giver of all knowledge, but it was death not to remain in ignorance...
iTunesSeal - Kiss From a Rose
SONGFACTSKiss From a Rose
12-30-07 - Chuang Tzu / This Human World
12-17-07 - Hinduism: Philosophy of Idol Worship
12-09-07 - Mysteries of Ground Radio
12-03-07 - Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature
11-25-07 - The Christian Nation Myth
11-18-07 - The Golden Verses of Pythagoras
11-12-07 - The Visible and Invisible Worlds
11-05-07 - On The Nature of Things
10-28-07 - Strings on the Winds
10-21-07 - Heaven & Hell - Chapter 57
10-14-07 - The Most Holy Trinosophia
10-08-07 - Breaking the Authority of the Bastard Curse
09-30-07 - Silent Teachings and Sat-sang
09-24-07 - The Right to Ignore the State
09-16-07 - Edgar Cayce Akashic Records
09-03-07 - Life and Teachings of Hermes Trismegistus
08-26-07 - Science Fiction, Wars & a Meaning to Life
08-19-07 - Plato's Science of Maieutic Psychagogy
08-12-07 - The Lightning and the Sun
08-05-07 - The Uses of Disaster:...
07-30-07 - Those loving bonobos...
07-22-07 - The Days of Noah
07-15-07 - Terror Attacks & Protecting Infrastructure
07-08-07 - Science the Destroyer
07-01-07 - Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion
06-24-07 - Nihilism: The Question of Truth
06-17-07 - Earthly Lesson of Jesus' Crucifixion
06-10-07 - Lyrics: Shrunken Heads
06-03-07 - Eugene Debs 1918 Anti-war speech
05-28-07 - Freedom from Experiences
02-10-07 - Arcana Coelestia n. 9407
02-04-07 - The Crowd, by Gustave le Bon
01-27-07 - War of Assumption
01-21-07 - New Types of Weapons
01-14-07 - Chaos and Terror
01-09-07 - Helen Keller as Mystic