A MARTYR'S CROWN 71
of the most radical reformers. Seiler reported many conversations
on this subject with Weitling and testified that although the latter
regarded the religion of revelation preached by church and priests
as the basis of all superstition, he revered Jesus of Nazareth as a
genuine reformer.
To Weitling, German philosophy seemed utterly futile: "the
quintessence of German nonsense... presented in learned fig
ures of speech, and artificially fashioned out of a metaphysical
hocus pocus." Its highly abstract terminology left him completely
befuddled. Although he read Feuerbach with understanding and
appreciation, his short excursion into Hegel, under the tutelage
of Bakunin, ended after their first session in "fog" and disgust.
Weitling feared lest these "foxes and asses of German philosophy"
should lay obscene hands on communism and confuse the common
people; and he insisted that communism must derive its power not
from "artificial, school-perfect, flowing words," but from "the
noble sentiments of the heart."
Perhaps that was Weitling's main reason for wanting to utilize
"religious feeling" as a motivation for communism. He certainly
did not want to make religion the enemy of his movement. He
went so far as to suggest that a religious person in a communist
society could preserve his ritual and his faith and might even go
to church and to Mass, after working hours, provided that he did
not try to force his views on others of a different persuasion. He
would tolerate bishops, priests, and Jesuits, provided they per
formed useful work in addition to their religious duties and
preached for the common good, not for self-aggrandizement; and
like Milton, he did not fear the outcome when truth and error
entered the lists in a fair encounter.
There is ample evidence to show that Weitling was being car
ried away by his dreams of an earthly kingdom of a thousand
years of peace, to be ushered in by a new Saviour. Such a Mes
sianic hope had been part of the old Jewish tradition, and it in
trigued many of the early Christians, such as the Waldensians,
the Lollards in England, and certain groups in the Hussite move-
barré
(Barré)
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