Western Civilization - History Of European Society

The Culture of Old Regime Europe383

causing “irreparable damage to morality and religion.”
Pope Clement XIII condemned it for “false, pernicious,
and scandalous doctrines and propositions, inducing
unbelief and scorn for religion.” None of these threats,
including excommunication for mere possession of it,
stopped the publication (see document 20.2).

The Enlightenment beyond France

French leadership may have been unquestioned, but the
Enlightenment was a widespread experience. The Ger-
man Enlightenment (the Aufklärung) drew on the excel-
lence of German education, from compulsory education
laws to superior universities. Rulers even encouraged the
process in some regions. Frederick the Great of Prussia

considered himself a philosophe and corresponded with

Voltaire. He wrote dozens of books and composed

more than one hundred symphonies, sonatas, and con-

certos. And he typically bought five copies of each book

by the philosophes, to have one at each of his palaces.

Frederick kept Prussian intellectuals on a short leash,

however, and once said that the way to punish a region

was to have it governed by philosophers. But he allowed

sufficient tolerance that letters flourished, as they had

begun to do under his grandfather (Frederick I), whose

Berlin had boasted the first subscription library (1702),

one of the first newspapers (the Vossische Zeitung,1704),

and an Academy of Sciences (1711). Habsburg Austria,

in contrast, was largely closed to the Enlightenment by

strict censorship, intolerance of minorities, and the

DOCUMENT 20.2

Excerpts from the Encyclopédie

Each of the subjects in bold type are entries in the Encyclopédie,
from which brief excerpts are taken.

Censors of Books:Name given to men of learning who are
in charge of the examination of books to be printed....
These censors have been created in various states in order
to examine literary works and pass judgment on books
which are to be printed, so that nothing would become
public that could seduce minds with false doctrines or cor-
rupt morals with dangerous maxims.

Intolerance:The word intolerance is generally understood
to designate the savage passion that prompts us to hate
and persecute those who are in error.... Ecclesiastic in-
tolerance consists in considering as false all religions other
than one’s own. Teaching, persuasion, and prayer—these
are the only legitimate means of spreading the faith.
Whatever means provoke hate, indignation, and scorn are
blasphemous.... Whatever means would tend to incite
men to rebellion, bring the nations under arms, and
drench the earth with blood are blasphemous.

Natural Law:The term is taken to designate certain prin-
ciples which nature alone inspires and which all animals as
well as men have in common. On this law are based the
union of male and female, the begetting of children as
well as their education, love of liberty, self-preservation,
concern for self-defense....

We understand by natural law certain laws of justice

and equity which only natural reason has established

among men, or better, God has engraved in our hearts.

The fundamental principles of law and all justice are: to

live honestly, not to give offense to anyone, and to render

unto each whatever is his.... Since this natural law is

based on such fundamental principles, it is perpetual and

unchangeable: no agreement can debase it, no law can al-

ter it or exempt anyone from the obligation it imposes.

Negroes:For the last few centuries the Europeans have

carried on a trade in Negroes whom they obtain from

Guinea and other coasts of Africa and whom they use to

maintain the colonies established in various parts of Amer-

ica and in the West Indies. To justify this loathsome com-

merce, which is contrary to natural law, it is argued that

ordinarily these slaves find the salvation of their souls in

the loss of their liberty, and that the Christian teaching

they receive, together with their indispensable role in the

cultivation of sugar cane, tobacco, indigo, etc., softens the

apparent inhumanity of a commerce where men buy and

sell their fellow men as they would animals used in the

cultivation of the land.

Diderot, Denis, D’Alembert, Jean le Rond, et al. The Encyclopédie;

Selections,trans. Nelly S. Hoyt and Thomas Cassirer. Indianapolis:

Bobbs-Merrill, 1965. Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall.