Proudhon - A Biography

THE PRISONER
who best typified popular myths and ideals, and that such men
were in reality the led rather than the leaders. ‘It is remarkable
on the other hand,’ he added in a tone of personal sadness, ‘that
the more a man gives proof o f judgment, of perspicacity, o f the
progressive spirit and the faculty o f understanding, the more he
loses his ascendancy over the masses, to whom thought is
repugnant and who go only by instinct.’
A theme that becomes significantly consistent in his corres­
pondence at this period is his growing hostility towards the
Catholic Church, prompted largely by the role of the Papacy as
an enemy o f democracy in Italy, but partly also by the part the
clergy had played in furthering the plans of Louis Bonaparte and
destroying the possibilities of the February revolution. When he
advocated to Marc Dufraisse the freedom o f education, he made
a special exception for the clergy, who he thought should not
be allowed to teach. ‘A t this moment Catholicism should be
pursued to extinction,’ he remarked, ‘which does not prevent
me from writing Tolerance on my banner.’ When Chev£, one of
the staff o f Le Peuple, objected to attacks on the Church, Proudhon
told him that his protests were too late, since Catholicism had
been ‘condemned irrevocably’ by ‘the Revolution, Socialism and
the democratic conscience.’ And, a month later, he expressed to
Darimon a thought which afterwards he expanded to gigantic
dimensions in De la Justice-. ‘Religion is authority; authority is
the church; the church is Catholicism.’
But his correspondence at this period was by no means wholly
that o f a polemicist. Often, as well, we encounter the jesting and
generous companion, the almost passionate friend, the devoted
paterfamilias. There is, for instance, a letter o f September, 1850,
humorously thanking his old friend Dr. Maguet who, with his
neighbour Squire Bessetaux, sent frequent supplies of game and
other rural delicacies into Sainte-Pelagie. ‘For mercy’s sake,’
Proudhon exhorts him, ‘why send us so many good things at
one time? Did you want to regale the whole Piegard family, or
all my companions o f captivity? Sobriety, moderation, temper­
ance, economy, if you please; these are what a prisoner must have.
But whom should I thank for these good and excellent victuals?
For you do so little hunting that I cannot suppose you had such
a bag in one day. A llow me to believe, without wronging our
ancient friendship, that M. Bessetaux and Father Eustache are