Diderot’S Treatment of the Christian Religion in the Encyclopédie 9780231880855

Table of contents :
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction and Sources
I. Religion, Theology, and Revelation
II. The Bible
III. God, Providence, Grace, Evil
IV. The Church—Sacraments and Clergy
V. Moral Ideas
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

D I D E R O T ' S T R E A T M E N T OF Γ Η Ε C H R I S T I A N R E L I G I O N IN THE

ENCYCLOPÉDIE

DIDEROT'S TREATMENT

OF

T H E C H R I S T I A N R E L I G I O N IN THE

ENCYCLOPÉDIE

JOSEPH EDMUND

BARKER

Associate Professor of French Sweet Briar College

* KING S CROWN PRESS MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS

1941

·

NEW YORK

Copyright 1941 by JOSEPH EDMUND B A R K E R PRINTED IN T H E UNITED STATES OF A M E R I C A Z2-VT.-4OO

Kings Crown Press is a division of Columbia University Press organized for the purpose of making certain scholarly material available at minimum cost. Toward that end, the publishers have adopted every reasonable economy except such as would interfere with a legible format. The work is presented substantially as submitted by the author, without the usual editorial attention of Columbia University Press.

T o JEANNE

DORSO

BARKER

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor Norman L. Torrey for his kindly counsel and criticism, and to Professors Horatio Smith, Paul Hazard, Jean Albert Bédé, J o h n L. Gerig, and other members of the French Department at Columbia University who have read the text and made helpful suggestions. It is a pleasure also to acknowledge the cooperation of the Faculty Research Committee and the Library of Sweet Briar College which made available a first edition of the Encyclopédie,

and that of the Con-

gressional Library and the libraries of Harvard University, the University of Virginia, Union Theological Seminary, and Columbia University. I wish to thank particularly Miss Helen H. Yerkes, supervisor of the circulation department at the Columbia University Library, for courtesies extended on many occasions, and also Professor Lucy S. Crawford and Mr. John Rossetti of Sweet Briar College for their generous aid in reading the proof.

CONTENTS Page Introduction and Sources I. Religion, Theolog}, and Revelation II. T h e Bible

9 27 42

III. God, Providence, Grace, Evil

58

IV. T h e Church—Sacraments and Clergy

81

V. Moral Ideas

105

Conclusion

125

Bibliography

130

Index

135

INTRODUCTION

T

AND

SOURCES

HE CATHOLIC CLERGY f r o m the b e g i n n i n g recognized the pédie1

Encyclo-

of Diderot a n d d ' A l e m b e r t as a m e n a c e 2 to the C h u r c h . A f t e r

t h e appearance of the first t w o volumes in 1751-2 and the condemnat i o n of the thesis of the A b b é de Prades 3 at the Sorbonne the interven-

t i o n of C h u r c h officials, i n c l u d i n g b o t h Jesuits and Jansenists, was successful

in causing its interdiction in 1752. It was said 4 at the

time

t h a t the intervention of the Jesuits was partly caused by their jealousy a n d by their desire to secure for their o w n dictionary of T r é v o u x the use of the u n p u b l i s h e d material still in the hands of the Encyclopedists. H o w e v e r , thanks to M . de Malesherbes, director of publications, and M a d a m e de P o m p a d o u r , work was resumed the same year and c o n t i n u e d u n t i l the appearance of the seventh v o l u m e in 1757, w h e n a series of incidents—particularly

the

attempted

assassination

D a m i e n s , and the c o n d e m n a t i o n of De

l'Esprit

of

Louis

XV

by

of H e l v é t i u s a year or

more later—strengthened the influence of the C h u r c h on the g o v e r n m e n t a n d b r o u g h t a b o u t a second suspension.

D ' A l e m b e r t deserted, l e a v i n g

the editorship to Diderot alone. In 175g the privilege was revoked by the R o y a l C o u n c i l , and the entire work c o n d e m n e d by the Pope. T h e editi n g and p r i n t i n g was carried on secretly, nevertheless, u n d e r the pro1. Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers par une Société de Gens de Lettres. Mis en ordre par M. Diderot et quant à la partie mathématique par M. d'Alembert, Paris, Briasson, etc., 1751-1780, 35 volumes in-folio. References to the Encyclopédie in this thesis, unless otherwise indicated, are to the first seventeen volumes of text of this edition, which were edited by Diderot. For the sake of convenience reference is often made to the articles collected by Assézat in Oeuvres complètes, G a m i e r Frères, Paris, 1876. 2. A t the end of 1751 and the beginning of 1752 a series of articles in the Mémoires de Trévoux indicated articles in the first volume alleged to be imitated from the Dictionnaire de Trévoux and from other sources. Lanson found these six articles to contain in germ all the later criticism of the Encyclopédie. Cf. Revue d'histoire littéraire, 1902, p. 153. In the Mémoires de Trévoux of March, 1752. pp. 468-9, Berthier, the editor, comments as follows: "En plusieurs endroits la Religion n'a point été respectée: sur quoi nous prions sincèrement tous ceux qui metlent la main à cet ouvrage, d'être infiniment circonspects sur un point de si grande importance. Le premier et le plus gTand de nos soins sera de veiller aussi sur cette partie; d'exercer même une critique grave et soutenue contre tout ce qui donnerait atteinte aux vérités révélées et à la doctrine des moeurs." Cf. also infra, p. 95, η. 66. 3· Cf. infra, pp. 25-6. 4. Cf. Grimm: Correspondance litt., II, sog, 298.

IO

Introduction

and Sources

tection of M. de Malesherbes, until the appearance of the ten final5 volumes of text in 1765. In 1764 Diderot discovered by chance the mutilations inflicted on the articles of the final volumes by Le Breton, his publisher, in order to obviate further persecution, acts of treachery which seemed for a time to Diderot to have ruined the fruit of his labors. It is probable however that the mutilations were less numerous and less serious than Diderot thought,6 and that the articles as we have them furnish a true picture of their author's work, the alterations involving changes of language rather than substance.7 Such examples of mutilation and censoring as I have seen in a microfilm of proof sheets bound in the supplementary volume8 of a privately owned first edition do not modify the conclusions reached in this study. Critics in general have agreed with the Catholic Church that the Encyclopédie as a whole represented an attack upon the traditional teaching of the Church, as well as upon the social inequalities of the existing regime, if not on the regime itself.9 A recent writer, 10 however, found such theological competence in some thirty of Diderot's religious articles in that work that he compared their author to Pascal, Fénelon, and Bossuet. This divergent opinion seemed to me suspect at once in that it took into consideration so small a proportion of the available material, which I found amounted in all to some three hundred articles. Accordingly I decided to examine from a theological viewpoint all of Diderot's articles on Christian moral and doctrinal ideas and to determine their degree of objectivity or the extent to which they constituted propaganda against religion and the Church. This required an investigation of possible sources and the manner of their use, an analysis of the principal articles on the origin of religion, the articles treating Christian theology, revelation, the Bible, God, providence, the problem of evil, the Church 5. Diderot had no part in the four supplementary volumes of text that appeared in 1776-7, but continued the publication of plates until 1772, by which time 11 volumes had appeared. Cf. Le Gras: Diderot et l'Encyclopédie, pp. 163-5. 6. Cf. Bulletin du Bibliophile, 1901, p. 356, article by Maurice Tourneux: " U n Factum inconnu de Diderot." 7. R . Hubert, in Les Sciences sociales dans l'Encyclopédie, p. 12, points out that the articles in the last ten volumes which were mutilated show no essential difference from those in the first seven, which were not mutilated. 8. T h e text of some of these expurgations is soon to appear in published form. 9. Cf. Gustave Lanson's review of Louis Ducros: Les Encyclopédistes in Revue d'histoire littéraire, I X (1902), 154. 10. Cf. R . Salesses: Mercure de France, t. 280 (15 décembre 1937). pp. 498-514. T h e title of the article is "Les Mystères de la jeunesse de Diderot." Cf. also infra, pp. 25-26.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian Religion

11

(particularly its sacraments and organization), and Christian morality, as well as those setting forth Diderot's own system of moral philosophy. All unsigned or starred articles 11 were assumed to be Diderot's unless evidence was found in the prefaces of the early volumes, the published works of the Encyclopedists, or in recent critical treatises on the Encyclopédie, of their having been written by other authors. Occasional reference had to be made to works other than the Encyclopédie in connection with articles not sufficiently extended nor clear in themselves to yield their true meaning. Some of the articles are entirely orthodox, and for a very good reason. Concern for his personal safety and the success of the enterprise imposed upon Diderot a certain endorsement of the Church and its dogmas in articles on orthodox subjects in a work enjoying the royal privilege and subject to a strict censorship. Naigeon remarked 12 in a note to the article Mosaïque et Chrétienne (Phil.): Ces jugements si divers, si opposés qu'il porte des mêmes objets, sont l'effet nécessaire de la tyrannie et des vices du gouvernement sous lequel il vivait. On peut même ajouter que tous ces lieux communs de doctrine exotérique . . . ne sont que trop bien justifiés par l'esprit d'intolérance et de perfection qui animait les prêtres, les magistrats et les ministres. . . When Voltaire 13 reproached d'Alembert in 1757 for the orthodoxy of some of the theological and metaphysical articles, the latter replied to him as follows: Sans doute nous avons de mauvais articles de théologie et de métaphysique; mais, avec des censeurs théologiens et un privilège, je vous défie de les faire meilleurs. Il y a d'autres articles, moins au jour, où tout est réparé. Le temps fera distinguer ce que nous avons pensé d'avec ce que nous avons dit. 14 The censors of the first volume were named by Chancellor d'Aguessau, but Bishop Boyer of the French Academy complained so bitterly that they had been deceived by the editors that he was allowed by Malesherbes in 1752 to name others in their place. He chose three Molinists, the Abbés Tamponnet, Millet, and Cotterel, who read all the articles in the next six volumes. In 1759 the "Parlement" named Jansenists as cenII. Cf. Ene., I, xlvi.

1*. Cf. Oeuv., XVI, 135.

13. Cf. Oeuvres (Moland), X X X I X , 211.

14. Cf. ibid., XXXIX, 235.

12

Introduction

and

Sources

sors, the Abbés Guéret and Tandeau, the curate of Saint-Benoît, and six others, to examine the volumes already published and to read those still to appear. 15 Hence most of the articles were read 16 by either Molinists or Jansenists, that is to say, by adherents of groups equally hostile to the Encyclopédie. Another explanation for the flow of both orthodox and unorthodox articles from Diderot's pen is to be found in the twofold purpose with which he discharged his editorial duties. His first aim 1 7 was to make an inventory of all human knowledge in order that those who were to come afterward might be better informed, more virtuous, and therefore happier. Naturally then space had to be given to the principal moral and religious philosophies, including the Christian. His second aim 18 was to expose certain widespread prejudices, which meant, so far as religion was concerned, the undermining of Christianity and its replacement by a new faith in natural morality which would establish bonds of mutual esteem and tolerance. 19 T h e orthodox articles then were written in fulfillment of the first aim, and the unorthodox in fulfillment of the second, which indeed, from a humanistic point of view, was itself entirely positive in its intentions of good for human society. Certainly Diderot's own point of view during the period of his encyclopedic labors was no longer deistic, as it had been in 1745 when he wrote his paraphrase of Shaftesbury's Inquiry Concerning Virtue and Merit. His change from deism to materialism is foreshadowed in the Pensées philosophiques in 1746; 20 its development is evident in the Lettre sur les aveugles, 1749, 21 and is complete by 1754, date of Interprétation de la nature.22 15. Cf. Belin: Le Mouvement philosophique de 1748 à 1789, pp. 56-9, 129. 16. But cf. infra, p. 127. 17. Cf. art. Encyclopédie, Oeuv., XIV, 415. 18. Cf. ibid., pp. 461-3. 19. Cf. Avertissement du Ville volume, Oeuv., XIII, 174. 20. Cf. Venturi: Jeunesse de Diderot, p. 89—"Dans les 'Pensées philosophiques,' Diderot est déiste si l'on veut et si l'on comprend le contenu personnel qu'il a donné à ce mot [that is, an enthusiasm for the marvels of nature without any apologetical aim]; mais, comme on le voit, il pourrait être classifié athée et matérialiste, car il nous révèle déjà dans cet opuscule un premier effort pour rendre logiquement originales certaines de ses façons de sentir le problème de la religion et de la nature, en nous offrant une première ébauche de sa théorie matérialiste." Cf. infra, p. 62, n. 28, for a passage illustrating this point. ï i . Cf. Gillot: Denis Diderot, pp. 49-50. 22. Cf. Hubert: "La Morale de Diderot" in Revue du dix-huitième siècle, oct-déc. 1914, pp. 337-8. Cf. also Luppol: Diderot, ses idées philosophiques, pp. 124 II., and 153 ff., also Luc: Diderot, pp. 94 ff. Cf. infra, p. 52, n. 42, for two significant passages from Interprétation de la nature.

Diderot's Treatment

of The Christian Religion

13

One of the most absorbing and time-consuming problems encountered in this study was that of ascertaining the extent to which Diderot used source material, or to which the articles can be said to be his own. As long ago as 1912 Gustave Lanson called23 for a careful inventory of the difficulties and objections raised in regard to the history, dogmas, and morality of the Christian religion in the manuscripts and printed works of the early eighteenth century that may have furnished material to writers like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot. So far as the articles which Diderot furnished to the Encyclopédie are concerned, only a beginning has yet been made.24 R. L. Cru indicated25 the sources of certain philosophical articles; Pierre Hermand26 devoted a chapter to the sources of Diderot's moral ideas, including some of his articles in the Encyclopédie·, and Sänger27 made known the sources of a number of Diderot's articles on the Jews and the Old Testament. There are numerous obstacles in the way of any general study of Diderot's sources. His own books, which were bought by Catherine the Great, were not kept by themselves in the imperial library, as were those of Voltaire, but became inextricably mingled with other books. A collection of his manuscripts in private hands in France is still withheld from the scrutiny of Diderot scholars.28 Moreover, as regards the Encyclopédie, we do not yet have the history of erudition, which, as René Hubert wrote in 1933,29 must precede any exhaustive study of the sources of its articles. The publication in the Revue de Synthèse from February through December, 1938, of documents pertaining to the associated printers of the Encyclopédie, including lists of books bought for the use of the editors, is a step in the right direction, but only a step. In the 23. Cf. "Questions diverses sur l'histoire de l'esprit philosophique en France avant 1750," in the Revue d'histoire littéraire, X I X (1912), 316-317. 24. René Hubert found the question of sources too vast to be included in his work: Les Sciences sociales dans l'Encyclopédie, 1923. 25. Cf. Diderot and English Thought, 1913. 26. Les Idées morales de Diderot, 1923. Published after the authoi's death at the instance of Gustave Lanson. 27. Juden und Alten Testament bei Diderot, 1933. So far as the Encyclopédie is concerned Sanger confined his study to the articles included by Assézat in the Oeuvres. 28. Cf. Jean Thomas: L'Humanisme de Diderot, p. 164. Cf. also Gillot: D. Diderot, pp. 319-323 for an inventory of "inédits" at l'Abbaye de Septfontaines in 1913. 29. Cf. "Introduction bibliographique à l'étude des sources de la science ethnographique dans l'Encyclopédie," in Revue d'histoire de la philosophie, I (1933), 160-161.

»4

Introduction

and

Sources

opinion of J e a n T h o m a s 3 0 an inventory at the present time of the sources of Diderot's articles would require an enormous effort out of proportion to the results obtainable. It was Diderot's aim as a good editor to indicate his sources, but, as he himself admits, 3 1 it was an aim only infrequently fulfilled. T h e consultation of Chambers' Cyclopaedia is acknowledged in the Prospectus,32 but is seldom admitted in an article. In Prophétie he chides 3 3 Chambers as though he wished to conceal the fact that part of the article is transcribed from the Cyclopaedia. Dom Calmet's Dictionnaire de la Bible is frequently referred to in the articles on the B i b l e ; a n d there are occasional references to the Dictionnaire de Trévoux. T h e general use of Brucker's Historia Critica Philosophiae for the articles on philosophy, as well as the infrequent use of Dcslandes' Ilistoive trilitjue de lu philosophie, may be inferred from the recommendation given these books in the article Philosophie,34 It is rare however that quotation marks are placed around material taken from these or other sources used, it being customary at the time to employ second-hand quotations, as well as to quote from memory. 3 5 References to primary sources such as the works of Church fathers are not unusual, but they are n o guarantee that Diderot had read the works mentioned. In most cases they are copied from the footnotes or marginal notes of compendiums like Calmet a n d Brucker in order to lend authority to the article. T h e r e are numerous errors in names of authors, works, and places, as well as no little inexactness in the quotations, as was pointed out 3 6 at the time of publication (some of which were corrected in the Errata). In spite of these difficulties, and despite the fact that not more than a small fraction of Diderot's religious and moral articles h a d been treated from this point of view, my search for sources proved very fruitful. Of 30. Cf. op. cit., p. 89. 3 1 . Cf. Encyclopédie, Oeuv., X I V , 481: " L a citation exacte des sources serait d'une grande utilité: il faudrait s'en imposer la loi. Ce serait rendre un service important à ceux qui se destinent à l'étude particulière d'une science ou d'un art que de leur donner la connaissance des bons auteurs, des meilleures éditions, et de l'ordre qu'ils doivent suivre dans leurs lectures. L'Encyclopédie s'en est quelquefois acquittée: elle aurait dû n'y manquer jamais." Naigeon remarks on Diderot's negligcnce in this respect in the article Leibnitxianisme. Cf. Oeuv., XV, 451, n. 1. 32. Cf. Oeuv., X I I I , 132-3. 33. Cf. infra, p. 35. 34. Cf. Oeuv., XVI, 280. 35. Cf. Hubert: loc. cit., p. 353. 36. Cf. Saas: Lettres sur l'Encyclopédie, pour servir de supplément aux sept volumes de ce dictionnaire, Amsterdam, 1764.

Diderot's Treatment of The Christian Religion

15

some three hundred articles I have traced the source of all or a part of the article to Chambers 37 in ninety-five cases. Among the Chambers' articles employed by Diderot I found that more than three quarters had 37. T h e last edition of Chambers prior to Diderot's association with the Encyclopédie in 1746 (Le Breton's contract with the adventurer John Mills, who had planned merely to do a translation of Chambers, was annulled in October, 1745—cf. Le Gras: Diderot et l'Encyclopédie, p. 36) was the fourth, that of 1741-3. There were later editions in 1746 and 1751-2 which he might have used for his later articles, but the possibility is of no importance, since there is no essential difference between the edition of 1741-3 and that of 1751-2 so far as the articles in question are concerned. T h e following articles are drawn partly or wholly from Chambers, Ephraim: Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences, London, Midwinter, 1741-3, 2 v. (Where the Chambers' article corresponds in part or wholly to a Trévoux article the fact is indicated by the word Trévoux in parenthesis. The repetition of the word Trévoux without parenthesis shows that Diderot also used the latter dictionary and that the article will be found again in the Trévoux list on pages 18 and 19. Encyclopédie Adoration (Théol.)

Cyclopaedia Adoration

Anabaptistes Arminianisme Calvinisme Capuchon Cathédrale Certitude—éditorial comment Chaos Concours Consécration (Théol.) Consolation (Morale) Cophte Cordeliers

Anabaptists Arminianism Calvinism Coul or Cowl Cathedral Certitude Chaos Concourse Consecration Consolation Cophti Cordelier

Dieux

God

(Diderot refers to Trévoux produced in his article). Encyclopédie Divination Fordicidies Géhenne Grâce Hiéracites Hiérarchie Hypostase

Comment Partly. (Trévoux). Also Trévoux. Cf. infra, p. 20, n. 46. Expanded. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Expanded. (Trévoux). Beginning. Cf. also infra, p. 95. Adapted. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Cf. also infra, p.

39· Beginning. Starting point. Largely. (Trévoux). Largely. Starting point. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Also Trévoux. Cf. infra, p. 95, n. 64. Largely. (Trévoux).

for the list of heathen gods, which Chambers had re-

Cyclopaedia Divination Fordicidia Gehenna Grace Hieracites Hierarchy Hypostasis

Comment Partly. (Trévoux). Beginning. (Trévoux). Entirely. (Trévoux). Beginning. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Elements. (Trévoux). Entirely. (Trévoux).

(Diderot refers to Trévoux, a possible reason being the desire to impress the reader with his orthodoxy. He copies an insertion that Chambers makes in the Trévoux article.)

Introduction

ι6

and

Sources

in turn been based on the Trévoux dictionary. Sincc the John Mills' translation of Chambers furnished the starting point of the EncycloEncyclopédie

Cyclopaedia

Impanation

Impanation

I m p u t a t i o n (Théol.) Indépendant

Imputation Independents

Infaillible Inspiration

Infallible Inspiration

Invocation Judaïsme Justification Latrie

Invocation Judaism Justification Latria

Lévite

Levile

Luthéranisme

Lutheranism

Luthérien

Lutherans

Martyr Martyrologe Mérite, en T h é o l . Messe

Martyr Martyrology Merit Mass

Miracle

Miracle

Mission, en T h é o l . (second article) Missionnaire Monothélites Mystère

Mission Missionary Monothelites Mystery

Nécessité Onction Opération, en T h é o l . Ordination (Théol.) Origénistes Originel Orthodoxie Palinodie Paradis terrestre Paternité Patripassiens Paulianistes Pauliciens Pélagiens Pénitence Pentateuque

Necessity Unction Operation Ordination Origenists Original Orthodoxy Palinody Paradise Paternity Patripassians Paulianists Paulicians Pelagians Penance Pentateuch

Comment Largely. (Trévoux). Also Trévoux—see list. Largely. (Trévoux). Largely. (Trévoux). Also Trévoux—see list. Beginning. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Also T r é v o u x . Cf. infra, p. 20, η. 45; p. 50, η. j6. Entirely. (Trévoux). First half. Entirely. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Also Trévoux—see list. Entirely, exc. for reference. (Trévoux). Also Trévoux—see list. Largely. (Trcvoux). Also Trévoux—cf. list and infra, p. 91. Wholly, exc. for reference. (Trévoux). Also Trévoux—see list. First half. (Trévoux). Largely. (Trévoux). First half. (Trévoux). Largely. (Trévoux). Cf. also infra, p. 86, n. s i . Partly. (Trévoux). Cf. also infra, p. 37, n. 60. Largely. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). First half. (Trévoux). Entirely. (Trévoux). Cf. infra, p. 34, n. 46. Largely. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Also Calmet—see list. Entirely. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Largely. (Trévoux). Partly. Entirely. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Also Calmet—see list. First half. (Trévoux). Expanded. (Trévoux). Starting point. (Trévoux). Expanded. (Trévoux). Starting point. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Partly. Also Calmet—see list—others, cf. infra, p. so, n. 44.

Diderot's

Treatment of The Christian Religion

17

pédie, as acknowledged in the Prospectus,38 and since Diderot usually followed Chambers' order and division of the material, it is safe to assign Chambers as the direct source, unless there is evidence to the contrary. I have placed articles on both lists when there are indications that both Encyclopédie Personne (Théol.) Préadamite Prédestinatiens Prédétermination Presbytère Presbytériens Propagation de l'Evangile Prophétie Propiciation Protestant Raisonnement Réformation Religion Résurrection Révélation Sabelliens Sacrement Saint Samosatiens Scotistes Semi-Pélagiens Séraphique Stigmates (Théol.) (second aiticle) Suffisante Grâce Théandrique Théa tines Théatins Théogonie Théologie Thomisme Thomistes Transsubstantiation Trinitaires (Hist. ecclés.) Trinité Théol. Trinité Phil. Trithéisme Vulgate

Cyclopaedia Person Preadamite Predestinarían Predetermination Presbytery Presbyterians Society for propagating the gospel Prophecy Propitiation Protestant Reasoning Reformation Religion Resurrection Revelation Sabellians Sacrament Saints Samosateniams Scotists Semi-Pelagians Seraphick Stigmata Sufficient Theandric Theatines Theatins Theogony Theology Thomism Thomists Transsub. Trinitarians Trinity Trinity T r i theism Vulgate

Comment Entirely. Partly. (Trévoux). Largely. (Trévoux). Largely. (Trévoux). Almost entirely. Almost entirely. Starting point. Largely. Cf. infra, p. 35. Entirely. (Trévoux). Expanded. (Trévoux). Starting point. Partly. Partly. Partly. Also Calmet—see list, and infra, p. 20, n. 42. Partly. Also Calmet—see list. Expanded. (Trévoux). Beginning. (Trévoux). Adapted. (Trévoux). Largely. (Trévoux). Expanded. (Trévoux). Expanded. (Trévoux). Entirely. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Cf. also infra, p. 90, n. 44. Partly. (Trévoux). Entirely. (Trévoux). Entirely. (Trévoux). Expanded. (Trévoux). Entirely. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Entirely. (Trévoux). Starting point. (Trévoux). Starting point. (Trévoux). Entirely. (Trévoux). Largely. (Trévoux). Paragraphs 2, 3, 4. T h e 4th only (Trévoux). Cf. also infra, p. 59, n. 8. Entirely. (Trévoux). Partly. (Trévoux). Also Calmet. Cf. infra, p. 20. n. 43.

38. Cf. Oeuv., X I I I , 132-3. Diderot emphasizes however that the work of Chambers served only as a starting point.

Introduction

ι8

and

Sources

dictionaries were used, 39 as in the case of Cordeliers, Dieux, Hypostase, Impanation, Indépendant, Inspiration, Latrie, Lévite, Luthéranisme, and Luthérien. T h e Trévoux dictionary 40 was consulted and used in the 39. Even though there be no element in Diderot's article that did not come via Chambers, except the reference to Trévoux, the title will be found repeated in the Trévoux list in order that it may be set off from the large number of articles in which there is no reference whatever, and therefore no indication at all that Diderot had consulted the Trévoux dictionary. 40. Dictionnaire universel, françois et latin, 6 ν. Paris, 1743. T h e articles are as follows: (See note at end of the list.)

Encyclopédie Acceptation Adoration (Hist, mod.) Adoration (Théol.) Anaetis Barbeliots Controverse Cordeliers Dieux Hypostase Impanation

Impassible Indépendant

Inspiration

Latrie

Lévite (Théol.) Lévitique (Théol). Lévitique (Hist, eccl.) Luthéranisme

Comment Adapted. Adapted. Partly. Also Chambers. Cf. infra, p. 20, n. 46. Largely. Also an anecdote from Pliny. Cf. intra, p. 21, n. 50. Entirely. Adapted. Partly. Also Chambers. Cf. infra, p. 95, n. 64. Reference. Diderot refers to Trévoux for the list of heathen gods, which Chambers reproduces in his article. Reference only. Cf. Chambers list. Partly. Also Chambers. T h e text and cross reference is from Chambers (Trévoux), but whereas Chambers states that the Lutherans believe the species of bread and wine to remain with the body of Christ in the eucharist after the consecration, Diderot follows Trévoux more carefully and states correctly that Lutherans believe it is the substance which remains. For the article cf. Ene., V i l i , 583· First third. Diderot uses more of the Trévoux article than does Chambers. Partly. Also Chambers. T h e paragraphing conforms to Chambers rather than Trévoux, but Diderot includes all of a quotation in Trévoux of which Chambers omits three lines. Diderot refers to Trévoux. Partly. Also Chambers. Diderot follows Trévoux rather than Chambers in wording of first two paragraphs, but the cross references and the last paragraph are from Chambers. Cf. infra, p. 20, n. 45; p. 50, n. 36. Largely. Also Chambers. Diderot reproduces the paragraph divisions and cross references of Chambers; his wording is closer to Trévoux than it is to Chambers. Reference only. See Chambers list. Entirely. Adapted. Partly. Also Chambers. Diderot follows Chambers in the order of the material and as to the cross references, but uses the Trévoux wording in certain places. Cf. infra, p. 91. He refers to Trévoux.

Diderot's Treatment of The Christian Religion preparation of twenty-five of the religious articles examined, while for thirty-one of them, mostly articles directly concerning the Bible, recourse was had to Calmet's Bible dictionary.41 Among the articles arEncyclopédie Luthérien Origine Osée Passager Poplicain (Hist, eccl.) Prévision Promission

Comment Reference only. See Chambers list. Altered. Cf. infra, p. s i . Largely. For important addition see infra, p. 21. Altered. Cf. infra, p. 21, n. 52. Largely. For important insertion, see infra, p. 102, n. 108. Expanded. Partly. For important addition see infra, p. 74.

N.B. T h e titles of these articles in Trévoux are the same as in the Encyclopédie. T h e purchase of a 6 volume Trévoux dictionary is recorded in the register of the associated printers for the year 1746. Cf. Revue de Synthèse, April 1938, second part, P· 32 41. T h e following articles are based partly or wholly on Calmet, Augustin: Dictionnaire de la Bible, 4 ν. Paris, 1730: Encyclopédie Adorer (Théol.) Canon, en Théol. Chronique Isaïe (Théol.) Jean (Evangile de saint) lob Josué J u d e (Epître de saint) Judith (livre de) Juges (livre des) Luc (Evangile de saint) Matthieu (Evangile de saint) Onction Paradis Paradis Terrestre Paralypomènes Pentateuque Polygamie Proverbes Purgatoire Résurrection Révélation Ruth (livre de) Satan Stigmates (first article) Symbole Testament Testament des douze patriarches Texte de l'Ecriture Verbe Vulgate

Comment Entirely. Elements. Partly. Partly. Entirely. Entirely. Entirely. Entirely. Entirely. Entirely. Entirely. Entirely. Partly. Also Chambers. Partly. Partly. Also Chambers. Largely. Partly. Also Chambers and Lamv, infra, p. 20, n. 44. Largely. Entirely. Entirely. Partly. Also Chambers. Cf. infra, p. Partly. Also Chambers. Entirely. Largely. Entirely. Cf. infra, p. 90, n. 44. Partly. Also other sources. Cf. infra, Almost entirely. Cf. infra, pp. 45-6. Entirely. Largely. Largely. Partly. Also Chambers. Cf. infra, p.

Abbadie. Cf.

20, n. 42.

p. 81, n. 3, 4.

20, n. 43.

SO

Introduction and Sources

ranged from both Calmet and Chambers three may be taken as indicative of Diderot's method in compiling articles from multiple sources— Résurrection,42 Vulgate,*3 Pentateuque.** But while much of Diderot's borrowed material is transcribed word for word, sometimes with little effort to arrive at a synthesis of ideas, in many cases he made the article his own by the modifications or insertions which he introduced into the text. Occasionally in an article on an orthodox subject the alteration softens the tone of the article and is obviously made with the censors in mind. In Inspiration, for example, he went back to the primary source for the phrasing of his definition of the term, since it was couched in more respectful terms than that of the immediate source, 45 as he did also in Adoration.4e In general, however, 42. Résurrection, Oeuv., X V I I , 22-27, has been wholly attributed to Chambers (C/. Cru: Diderot and English Thought, p. «65), but half of it is from Calmet. T h e article is arranged as follows: paragraphs 1, 4, 12-18 translate the whole of Chambers' article on this subject; paragraphs 3 (condensed), 5 (condensed), 6 - 1 1 are taken from Calmet's article. T h e second paragraph contains a number of phrases from Calmet, but was apparently developed by Diderot himself in order to give further precision to the definition of resurrection in the first paragraph. T h e references to the Bible in the third paragraph, as well as references in the fifth, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh paragraphs, are copied from Calmet. T h e reference to Calmet at the end of the eleventh paragraph should be pp. 370^. (1830 edition) instead of pp. 371 ff. It is interesting to note that the 1771 edition of the T r é v o u x dictionary has adapted the first two paragraphs of Diderot's article, giving a more positive tone to the second. Diderot's sentence: " L a résurrection perpétuelle est celle où l'on passe de la mort à l'immortalité, telle qu'a été la résurrection de Jésus-Christ, et telle que la foi nous fait espérer que sera la nôtre à la fin des siècles," is changed by T r é v o u x to end: "telle que sera la nôtre à la fin des siècles." 43. In Vulgate, Ene., X V I I , 576-7, paragraphs 1-3, 7 are taken from Calmet's article, and paragraphs 4 (last half), 5, 6, 8 - 1 1 are adapted and expanded from Chambers' article. Chambers had made use of T r é v o u x . 44. In Pentateuque, Ene., X I I , 3 1 5 - 3 1 7 , paragraphs 1-3 are compiled from Calmet's article Pentateuque, and paragraph 10 from Calmet's Pentateuque samaritain; paragraphs 6, 7, 8 (expanded), 9, and the first sentence of 10 are from Chambers' Pentateuch; paragraphs 4, 5 are a résumé from Abbadie: Traité de la vérité de la religion chrétienne, t. I, section III, chapters X I I and X I I I , to which Diderot refers correctly; paragraph 1 1 is adapted from B. Lamy: Apparatus biblicus, liber I, caput III, that is, pp. 355-356 of the edition of Venetiis, 1777. Diderot refers to the French version—Introduction à l'Ecriture sainte. 45. Cf. Inspiration, en termes de Théologie, Ene., V I I I . 793. Diderot chooses the Trévoux wording of the definition as " u n e grace céleste qui éclaire l'âme et lui donne des connaissances & des mouvements extraordinaires & surnaturels," rather than that of Chambers—"Inspiration, among divines, implies the conveying of certain extraordinary and supernatural notices, or motions into the soul." Diderot's line, " L e s Prophètes ne parlaient que par l'inspiration divine," follows T r é v o u x rather than Chambers, who altered T r é v o u x to read " T h u s the prophets are said to have spoken bv divine inspiration." But cf. also infra, pp. 49-50. 46. Cf. Adoration (Théol.), Oeuv., X I I I , 221-2. Diderot defines the word as "l'action de rendre à un être les honneurs divins," as in T r é v o u x , a definition which Chambers

Diderot's

Treatment

of The

Christian

Religion

21

Diderot's changes or insertions in source material are either directly or indirectly hostile to o r t h o d o x religion. H i s article on the disciples' hood w o r n by the Cordeliers, w h i c h begins w i t h a summary taken from C h a m b e r s ' article C o u l a n d ends w i t h an outburst against theological subtleties a n d ecclesiastical quarrels, is a classic e x a m p l e . 4 7 C h a m b e r s ' article on the Society

for propagating

the gospel

in foreign

parts is ex-

p a n d e d i n t o an attack on the presumption and intolerance of Christian missionaries. 4 8 H i s addition to the short article on Hosea in the T r é v o u x dictionary emphasizes 4 9 the h u m a n character of even a divinely inspired prophet. T h e T r é v o u x article Anaetis

ends w i t h a statement from Pliny

to the effect that the temple of A n a e t i s in Scythia contained the first gold statue ever made. Diderot took this article a n d added 6 0 to it an anecdote f r o m Pliny w h i c h serves to cast ridicule u p o n credulity a n d superstition. A n omission in Origine61

transforms the article taken from the Jesuit

dictionary into a slur o n the Christian religion, an effect w h i c h is obtained more openly a n d specifically by an addition to the article Passager,52

a n d to

Promission.53

had altered to read "the act of rendering divine honors, or of addressing a being, as supposing it a God." Diderot even enlarges upon Trévoux by pointing out to Protestants that Catholic adoration of the cross is not idolatrous, but is really worship of Jesus Christ the Redeemer. 47. Cf. Capuchon, infra, p. 95. 48. Cf. Propagation de l'Evangile, Oeuv., XVI, 427. 49. Cf. Osée, Oeuv., XVI, 180—"Le prophète, quoiqu'inspiré, a toujours le caractère de l'homme; en parlant par sa bouche, Dieu lui laisse ses préjugés, ses idées, ses passions, ses expressions, son métier, s'il en a un." 50. Cf. Anaetis, Oeuv., X I I I , 292. T h e first two thirds of the article are from Trévoux, and the last third from Pliny. Cf. Plinii Secundi: Naturalis Historia, Berolini, 1866, v. 5, lib. X X X I I I , cap. 4 (section 24). Cf. infra, p. 40. 51. Trévoux, 1743, IV, 1491 has "on rapporte au paganisme l'origine de cette foule de cérémonies dont le culte de l'Eglise Romaine est relevé. Cl. Comme si le peuple de Dieu, dans l'ancienne loi, n'avait pas des cérémonies, d'où celles du Christianisme auraient pu tirer leur origine, plutôt que du Paganisme. Et comme si toute Religion ne demandait pas une profession et un culte extérieur, et par conséquent des cérémonies." Diderot has only the pointed statement, which he would not have dared to put in such a manner in an article on an orthodox subject: "Les pratiques religieuses de nos jours ont presque toutes leur origine dans le paganisme."—Oeuv., XVI, >79·

52. T h e statement in Trévoux that "Le désir de se consacrer à la vie religieuse n'est quelquefois qu'une ferveur passagère," is enlarged by Diderot to read: "C'est une ferveur passagère qui tient quelquefois à l'ennui d'un tempérament qui fait effort pour se développer dans l'un et l'autre sexe, ou qui, s'étant développé, porte à de nouveaux besoins dont on ignore l'objet, ou qu'on ne saurait satisfaire, qui entraîne tant de jeunes et malheureuses victimes de leur inexpérience au fond des cloîtres où elles se croient appelées par la grâce, et où elles ne rencontrent que la douleur et le désespoir." Oeuv., XVI, 206. 53. Cf. infra, p. 74.

22

Introduction

and Sources

Cru states54 that a large number of Diderot's articles on the history of philosophy are but extracts or abstracts from Brucker's Historia Critica Philosophiae. A page by page search confirms this in the case of those philosophical articles which concern religion in particular. 55 The twenty-three pages of Scolastiques,50 for example, are a résumé of some two hundred pages in the third volume of Brucker, who, though a Protestant, treated Catholic doctrines with a fair degree of objectivity. The article Jesus-Christ57 is such a close reproduction of Brucker, including long quotations from the Church fathers, that Naigeon was shocked by the contrast it offered to Diderot's own views and appended a note68 explaining that the latter did not dare, for reasons of prudence, to treat so delicate a subject in anything but orthodox fashion. However it is worthy of note that Diderot introduces a paragraph69 to defend the first Christians for having taken over what was true in Platonism, and to praise the role of reason in theology. In Malabares, also reproduced from Brucker, Diderot inserts strong denunciation of superstition and a justification of disbelief in God. 60 There is an interesting interpolation in Epicuréisme91 to the effect that Epicurus was the only one of the ancient philosophers to accord his moral precepts with the true happiness of man and the appetites and needs of nature. Thus while it is true that Diderot copied or summed up Brucker very closely he did so intelligently, and relieved the material with occasional flashes revealing his own thinking. 62 Diderot considered Bayle's dictionary 63 an admirable effort in its day 54. Cf. op. cit., pp. 270-271. 55. T h e following articles referred to later are derived wholly or in part from Brucker: Historia Critica Philosophiae: Antédiluvienne (Philosophie), (Aristotélisme. Cf. infra, p. 95, η. 66), Eclectisme, Epicuréisme, Hobbisme, Jésus-Christ, Jordanus Brunus (Philosophie de), Juifs, Leibnitzianisme, Locke (Philosophie de), Malabares (Philosophie des), Mosaïque et Chrétienne (Philosophie), Péripatécienne (Philosophie), Pyrrhonienne ou Sceptique (Philosophie), Platonisme, Sarrasins, Scolastiques (Philosophie des), Socratique, Théosophes. 56. Scolastiques (Philosophie des), Oeuv., X V I I , 87-110 comes from Brucker: Historia Critica Philosophiae, III, 709-912. 57. Oeuv., X V , 286-302. Compiled from Brucker, III, 241-708. 58. C f . ibid., pp. 286-7, reprinted from Encyclopédie méthodique, 1792, v. 147, pp. 766-7. 59. Cf. ibid., p. 290, middle paragraph. 60. C f . infra, p. 61, n. 24. 61. Cf. Oeuv., X I V , 522. T h e preceding paragraph is from Brucker: Historia, etc., I, 1315, and the one following from I, 1230. 62. Another e x a m p l e occurs in Platonisme, Oeuv., X V I , 314. Cf. infra, p. 116, n. 83. 63. T h e following articles contain borrowings from Bayle: Dictionnaire historique et critique, Amsterdam, 173o:—Bonne Déesse, Identité, Immatérialisme, Liberté, Manichéisme, Providence, Spinosa, Théisme.

Diderot's Treatment of The Christian Religion

23

to teach tolerance, skepticism as to dogmas, and indifference to religion, but outmoded by the passing of half a century, just as the Encyclopédie would one day be out of date through the progress of the human spirit.®4 Doubtless Diderot would have preferred a Bayle free to attack religion openly rather than by insinuation. But though times had changed somewhat Diderot did not find himself a great deal freer in Catholic France than had Bayle in Protestant Holland, and his attacks upon religion in the Encyclopédie are more often indirect than direct. His borrowing from Bayle is sometimes a transcription of passages,ββ sometimes a restating of Bayle's arguments in such a way as to indicate a certain degree of assimilation and approval on his part. In Providenceββ a large part of pages 444 to 446 is copied from notes S and Τ of Bayle's article on Epicurus, though Bayle's order is not retained. The passages are arranged to set forth Bayle's criticism of ancient philosophers for their illogical belief in providence, given their disbelief in the creation of matter, and his approval of the Epicureans in denying this doctrine. He quotes part of a passage from Malebranche67 used by Bayle as a reply to one of the Epicurean arguments, though he does not give a reference to Malebranche as Bayle does. He follows Bayle in attributing the "impiety" of Epicurus to his erroneous belief in the eternity of matter, but unlike Bayle he does not ascribe this "error" to lack of knowledge of the Bible. He also omits five of the seven objections to providence which Bayle puts into the mouth of Epicurus and omits Bayle's rather bold defense of Epicurus by means of passages taken from the Bible itself. On the whole Diderot's article is not as bold as are Bayle's footnotes, and certainly not as clear and forceful; it appears to have been put together hastily and with but little assimilation of Bayle on Diderot's part. In Liberté he quotes08 Bayle's argument that man's sentiment of freedom in his acts is an illusion, and claims to refute it, but his refutation is intentionally so weak as to give the reader the impression that Bayle's point of view is his own.09 In Manichéisme he summarizes four of Bayle's objections to the theory of the two principles, calls attention to his latent sympathy for a rejuvenated Manicheism, and 64. Cf. Pyrrhonienne, Oeuv., X V I , 489-490, and Encyclopédie, Oeuv., X I V , 445, 498. 65. At least three-quarters of Spinosa is pieced together from Bayle's articles on Spinoza in such a way as to suggest the use of scissors and paste. 66. a . Oeuv., X V I , 444-6. 67. Cf. Malebranche: "Neuvième Méditation chrétienne," t 5. Oeuv., II, 112. 68. Oeuv., X V , 499-500 is taken from Réponse aux quatre questions d'un provincial, Bayle: Oeuv. diverses, III, 785-6. 69. Cf. infra, p. 119.

*4

Introduction

and

Sources

implies, as did Bayle, that if Manicheism fails to solve the problem of evil, so do all theological explanations. 7 0 While it is interesting to identify the distinctively personal elements in Diderot's articles it is not the purpose of this study to concern itself with such elements apart from the articles themselves. Even material that is copied with no modification may throw light upon the subject of Diderot's treatment of Christian moral and religious ideas by indicating to what extent he was willing to present all sides of a question. Chambers, Trévoux, Calmet, Brucker, and Bayle were by no means all the sources employed by Diderot. I have traced many passages to such varied ecclesiastical and philosophical writers as Abbadie, Bingham, Bossuet, Buffier, Condillac, Donne, Fleury, Fontenelle, Bernard Lamy, Jean L e Clerc, Leibnitz, Levesque de Pouilly, Malebranche, Melon, Montesquieu, Pluche, the A b b é de Saint-Pierre, Toussaint, and Turrettini. Whenever it is pertinent to the interpretation of an article I have indicated the use of these sources either in the text or a footnote. One of Diderot's chief editorial problems was that of finding liberal churchmen sufficiently bold to furnish articles on the subject of the Church and religion. T h e Abbé de Prades and the Abbé Yvon aided in the first two volumes but fled after the condemnation of the former's thesis at the Sorbonne in 1752; only one article has been identified as Prades', that on Certitude. T h e A b b é Mallet, w h o wrote a number of articles on theology, as well as on literature and commerce, died in 1755, and was replaced by the A b b é Morellet; 7 1 the Abbé Pestré did not contribute after the third volume, nor Morellet after the seventh. 72 T h e r e were also the Swiss pastor, Polier de Bottens, 73 who contributed occasional articles, and the faithful chevalier de Jaucourt, a Protestant liberal, who aided in this department as in others. But the bulk of the work, irksome to most of the philosophers and filled with deadly peril to churchmen, fell upon the shoulders of Diderot (since d'Alembert had chosen to work in the mathematical section) after the second volume, and even more so after the seventh. T h e enor70. Cf. infra, pp. 75-80. Details regarding the sources of this article in Bayle, Leibnitz, and Levesque de Pouilly are given on p. 75, n. 86. Bayle's ideas provoke a great deal of the discussion throughout the article. 71. C.f. René Hubert: Les Sciences sociales dans l'Encyclopédie, p. 19. 72. Cf. Salesses: "Les Mystères de la jeunesse de Diderot," in the Mercure de France, t. a80 (1937), pp. 5 o 8 · 509. η · 32· 73. A collaboration arranged and participated in by Voltaire. Cf. Naves: Voltaire et l'Encyclopédie, pp. 141 ff.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian Religion

25

mity of such an editorial task for a man whose intellectual activities included art, drama, music, the novel, philosophy, and science, inevitably obliged him to follow the precedent set by other dictionary makers74 and borrow suitable material wherever he could find it. There is no doubt that Diderot was somewhat interested in the philosophy of religion, though too much importance should not be attached to the fact that, as frequently happened in his day, his family intended him to be a priest. 75 Salesses even goes so far as to assert7® that he spent a part of the period between 1732 and 1740 studying theology at the Sorbonne, citing as evidence a passage in Naigeon's Mémoires77 and a statement by Diderot in the Salon de 7767.78 He admits however that both of these statements lack precision and are not conclusive, and supports his assertion largely by an appeal to Diderot's theological articles in the Encyclopédie and to his supposed collaboration in the thesis of the Abbé de Prades. It is true that there is similarity between Diderot and Prades on at least half of the ten propositions in the thesis singled out for condemnation by the Sorbonne, and that contemporaries of the two men accused79 Diderot of aiding in their composition. A great deal of the material in the first two propositions of the thesis80 was undoubtedly copied from the first pages of d'Alembert's Discours préliminaire, but sufficient evidence has not yet been produced to prove that Diderot did more than exercise a strong influence upon Prades' thinking. 81 As to the thirty-three theological articles in the Encyclopédie mentioned by Salesses, more than half are copied either largely or entirely from the sources already in74. For example, see Naves: op. cit., p. 1 5 1 . 75. Cf. André Billy: Diderot—Oeuvres, Introd., p. 9, and the article by the same author, "Diderot et l'Encyclopédie" in Hippocrate, juin 1938, p. 34g. 76. Cf. loc. cit., pp. 498-514. 77. Cf. Mémoires sur la vie et les ouvrages de Diderot in Oeuvres, Brière, 1821, v. 25. pp. 5, 8. 78. Cf. Oeuv., X I , 265-6. 7g. An accusation made more plausible at the time by the fact that the third and last part of the Apologie de l'abbé de Prades, which the priest published in defense of his position, was written by Diderot. It is included by Assézat in the Oeuvres, I, 439-484. 80. T h e subject of the thesis was Jerusalem coelesti, quaestio theologica. 81. Cf. Franco Venturi: Jeunesse de Diderot, traduit de l'italien par Juliette Bertrand, Paris, 1938, pp. 202-204. Cf. also M. Tourneux: " U n Factum inconnu de Diderot," in Bulletin du Bibliophile, 1901, p. 352. Palmer in Catholics and Unbelievers in Eighteenth Century France, pp. 121-122, thinks that the Encyclopedists, particularly Diderot and d'Alembert, aided considerably in forming Prades' ideas as expressed in the thesis.

26

Introduction

and

Sources

dicated, and most of the rest represent partial borrowings. T h e article Juifs upon which Salesses82 places the greatest emphasis had been wholly traced by Sänger 83 to the Historia Critica Philosophiae of Brucker and the Histoire des Juifs of Basnage. 84 Hence these and the other theological articles of Diderot by no means prove that he had studied and digested the science of theology as a formal student at the Sorbonne; they prove merely that Diderot, like many other philosophers of his time, was sufficiently well-read on theological subjects to use works of reference intelligently. 82. H e speaks of "la profonde connaissance du judaïsme que révèle l'article Juifs·, le plus étendu de ceux que Diderot a composés." Cf. loc. cit., p. 511. 83. Cf. Juden und Alten Testament bei Diderot, pp. 115-116. 84. Salesses also asserts that Diderot must have included Hebrew among his studies, basing his assertion on Diderot's recommendation of such study to all theologians in Plan d'une Université, Oeuv., III, 513, and vague statements of Diderot on page 478 of the same work and in the letter to his brother of November 13, 1772 (Babelon: Correspondance inédite, II, 176). Canon Marcel, in Rei>ue d'histoire littéraire, 1927, pp. 3go(f. 401, n. 4, had already pointed out the insufficiency of this evidence. Salesses also cites as evidence certain of the thirty-three articles included in his study, among them Hébraïque (Langue), Ene., VIII, 76-92. Although this is an unsigned article there is much evidence against Diderot's authorship, and I do not believe he wrote it. Certainly its style and the familiarity with Hebrew which it displays do not at all suggest Diderot's authorship. Hubert in Les Sciences sociales dans l'Encyclopédie does not identify Diderot as the author, and notes that it has been attributed without proof to T u r g o t (p. 13) and to Boulanger (p. 61). T h e article is included in the Oeuvres de Boulanger, Paris, 1792-3, and Maurice T o u r n e u x ascribes it to Boulanger in his article on the man in the G rande Encyclopédie. Until definite proof is produced to the contrary Boulanger may be considered its author. Sänger does not mention this article, but concludes from his study of many other articles that there is nothing in any of them to indicate a personal knowledge of Jewish culture on Diderot's part (Cf. op. cit., p. 126).

I RELIGION, THEOLOGY, AND REVELATION

MUCH

STRESS WAS LAID by the encyclopedists upon the role played by credulity and fraud in the origin of religion. W h i l e Diderot by n o means neglected this method of attacking the belief in the divine origin of religion, he placed particular emphasis upon the natural origin 1 of primitive religious phenomena. In Divination2 he quotes the theory of the A b b é Pluche 3 to the effect that idolatry arose through a literal interpretation of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, hieroglyphics whose symbolic meaning had been forgotten. In Polythéisme4 he rejects this theory as untenable in view of the fact that the most celebrated pagan mysteries arose through the deification of men after their death. However, he insists that, contrary to Euhemerus, the worship of natural forces existed before that of heroes, and that the two cults became confused at a later time. Primitive men, says5 he, were so dependent on the soil that they regarded as beneficent or divine whatever aided its productivity. T h e sun came to be considered the eminent deity, and thunder, lightning, storms, and tempests as the signs of his anger. Each celestial body was invested with divinity in proportion to its grandeur and usefulness. Even if the Jews® were preserved by Providence from idolatry u p to the time of the deluge, they came nevertheless to regard the celestial bodies as intelligent beings w h o obeyed the commands of God to advance or retard their courses. T h e deification 7 of men after their death grew out of this primitive idolatry of the stars, through the bestowal upon heroes and public benefactors of the name of the being most revered. T h u s a king was called the sun because of his munificence, and a queen the moon because of her beauty. As time went on the process was reversed and the name of hero given to the planet. In a similar way founders of primitive cults were deified and were confused with the divinities to which they had given vogue, it always having been the custom of men to imagine the gods as similar to themselves. 8 1. Cf. Cérémonies, Oeuv., X I V , 64. 2. Cf. Oeuv., X I V , 291. 3. Cf. Histoire du ciel, I, 431. 4. Cf. Oeuv., X V I , 359-361. O n p. 359 Diderot quotes Histoire du ciel, I, 131-«. 5. Cf. Polythéisme, Oeuv., X V I , 353-4; Dieux, Oeuv., X I V , 282. 6. Cf. also Juifs, Oeuv., X V , 386: "C'est encore un sentiment assez commun chez les Juifs q u e le ciel et les astres sont animés." 7. Cf. Polythéisme, Oeuv., X V I , 358-9. 8. Cf. also Bonne Déesse, Oeuv., X I I I , 487-8.

28

Chapter

I: Religion,

Theology,

and

Revelation

But it is true that though primitive religion came into being in response to human needs, human credulity and the duplicity of priests furnished the basis of its development. It was not fear alone, nor any single sentiment or passion, but hope and fear, love and hate, all taken together, which contributed to the birth in human minds of the idea that there were superior beings.® Superstitious ceremonies were the expression of sentiments of flattery, admiration, tenderness, fear, and hope, which were not fully understood, in a form which varied according to the designs of the priests, 10 w h o had come into being to administer them and to interpret the will of the gods. 1 1 Founders of states and religions brought in mystery and miracle in order to dominate their followers and bend them to their will. 1 2 W h a t indeed could be more natural than that men w h o believed themselves surrounded by good and evil beings should transform all objects and events into types, warnings, and signs, and should hang upon the words of the priests representing the gods. 1 8 In articles touching on orthodox subjects Diderot often makes an exception of the Christian religion, saying that it had its origin in divine revelation and not in the superstitious practices of paganism, 1 4 and in which, if superstition and fanaticism exist, it is through misunderstanding or abuse of divine revelation and church tradition. 1 5 Founders of states and religions, such as the impostor of Mecca, he says, have always found effective in bending the people to their will the citing of a god w h o has spoken to them in dreams, oracles, or visions, but he quickly disclaims any intention in this statement of confusing Christian w i t h pagan revelations: Je veux seulement insinuer par là q u ' o n ne réussit à échauffer les esprits qu'en faisant parler de Dieu, dont on se dit l'envoyé, soit q u ' i l ait véritablement parlé comme dans le christianisme et le judaïsme, soit que l'imposture le fasse parler comme dans le paganisme et le mahométisme. 1 6 9. Cf. Polythéisme, Oeuv., XVI, 353. 10. Cf. Cérémonies, Oeuv., XIV, 65. 11. Cf. Prêtres, Oeuv., XVI, 406; Théocratie, Oeuv., XVII, 241. Théosophes, Oeuv., XVII, 266. 12. Cf. also Christianisme, Oeuv., XIV, 154; Chaldéens, Oeuv., XIV, 77; Société, Oeuv., XVII, 147. 13. Cf. Divination, Oeuv., XIV, 294; Théocratie, Oeuv., XVII, 241; Théosophes, Oeuv., XVII, 266; Imposture, Oeuv., XV, 189-190. 14. For example, cf. Christianisme, Oeuv., XIV, 155; Agapes, Enc., I, 165; Cérémonies, Oeuv., XIV, 65. 15. Cf. Christianisme, Oeuv., XIV, 153-4. 16. Cf. ibid., p. 155.

Diderot's Treatment of The Christian Religion

*9

In spite of the reservation made with regard to Christianity, however, it is obvious that the "insinuation" is meant to cover it as well as the others, at least to the extent that Christian revelation has been used to impose the will of a minority upon the people and to secure adherence to ideas that would not otherwise have been accepted. The same sort of insinuation is made in Piaches.17 In other articles he is more direct, going so far as to accuse 18 Christian priests of unenlightened centuries of being as cruel, unscrupulous, and meddlesome as barbarian priests, and referring 19 to "the pious frauds which were not unknown to the first centuries of Christianity." What is said about the consolation ceremony substituted by the Manicheans for the orthodox rite of penitence and viaticum is undoubtedly meant to apply to the latter also: On dit que lorsqu'ils étaient consolés, ils seraient morts au milieu des flammes sans se plaindre, et qu'ils auraient donné tout ce qu'ils possédaient pour l'être. Exemple frappant de ce que peuvent l'enthousiasme et la superstition, lorsqu'ils se sont une fois emparés des esprits.20 In Divination he states21 specifically that knowledge of revealed religion did not prevent the Jews and Christians from being contaminated to some extent by the errors of superstition and divination. In Origine,22 where he alters his orthodox source in such a way as to assert dogmatically that almost all of the religious practices of his day have their origin in paganism, he frankly discloses what we know from uncensored works23 to be his firm opinion, namely that the history of Christianity, like that of other revealed religions, is largely a history of human credulity and superstition. Certain articles record Diderot's early enthusiasm24 for natural religion as found in the Essai sur le mérite et la vertu (1745), and De la suffisance de la religion naturelle (1747). 25 Natural religion is defined2® 17. Cf. Oeuv., X V I , 292-3. 18. Cf. Prêtres, Oeuv., X V I , 408-9. Cf. infra, p. 97. 19. Cf. Palinodie, Oeuv., X V I , 190. 20. Cf. Consolation (Hist, ecclés.), Oeuv., X I V , 211-212. 21. Cf. Oeuv., X I V , 295. Cf also Eclectisme, Oeuv., XIV, 310-311. 22. Cf. Oeuv., XVI. 179. 23. For example see his memorandum for Catherine II— M. Tourneux: Diderot et Catherine II, pp. 307-8. 24. Cf. supra, p. 12. 25. In this latter work Diderot gave twenty-seven reasons for the sufficiency of natural religion, one of the most significant of which is that it contains the minimum essentials of all religions. Cf. Oeuv., I, 265, section I X , which is quoted from Pensées philosophiques, Oeuv., I, 155. 26. Cf. Religion (Théol.), Ene., X I V . 78-79. T h e source of this part of the article is

go

Chapter I: Religion,

Theology,

and

Revelation

as the cult of the supreme being w h i c h is counseled by reason alone. It is called morality or ethics, because it directly concerns the duties of men toward each other. T o Diderot even the essential precepts given to N o a h and his descendants 2 7 were but forms of the natural law already in existence. T h e y called for worship of the creator and the reign of justice, and forbade idolatry, homicide, adultery and incest, and theft. A seventh precept is mentioned, the prohibition of meat from animals improperly butchered, but it is given a humanitarian rather than a ceremonial justification. 2 8 B o t h natural and revealed religion, says 29 Diderot, posit a belief in G o d , providence, a future life, and rewards and punishments, to which the latter adds the doctrine of a divine mission attested by miracles and prophecy. B u t he hastens to add a series of arguments against the pretension of deists that natural religion is sufficient. A revelation is particularly necessary because of the weakness of man after the fall and the aberrations of the philosophers, and because of the need of a supernatural rather than a rational guarantee of religious truth. T h e surest way to refute the deists, he says, is to demonstrate the existence and truth of this revelation. It does not follow from these weak arguments that Diderot approved contemporary theologians w h o recognized the existence of natural religion, but maintained that revelation was further necessary to supplement the natural means of k n o w i n g G o d and to attain salvation. W h a t he really meant his reader to infer is rather this—there are two sorts of religion, and if one must choose between them he may safely choose natural religion as adequate to all his needs. Undoubtedly if Diderot had Been free to express his o w n opinion in a theological article he would have developed only the second part of the definition given of natural religion, namely that which characterizes it as a system of morality, for in articles on non-religious subjects he rejected all religious aims and sanctions and held simply to a morality that was natural and uni-

in Chambers, w h o had used T r é v o u x . In Religion naturelle, Ene., X I V , 79, natural religion is said to consist in the accomplishment of the three duties which bind man to divinity, namely, love, thanksgiving, and homage. T h e article is entirely foreign to the mind of Diderot, but I have not been able to discover its source. 27. Cf. Noachtdes, Ene., X I , 28. T h e justification reads: des sentiments d ' h u m a n i t é prophètes." 29. C f . Religion, Ene., X I V ,

164-5. " C e dernier précepte tend à nous inspirer indirectement dans toute notre conduite; et c'est aussi là la loi et les. 79.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian

Religion

31

versal.30 Since as editor of the Encyclopédie he was subject to censorship by Catholics, 31 it behooved him to present with as much restraint as possible the orthodox point of view regarding the importance of revealed religion. W e shall now see with what finesse he fulfilled this task in the articles on theology and revelation. Since philosophy for the Encyclopedists was the sum of human knowledge, largely to be identified with the Encyclopédie itself, it included theology in so far as the latter was a reasonable science. T h i s was the opinion of d'Alembert, who termed theology an offshoot of philosophy, 32 and of Diderot, who included natural theology as one of the three principal parts of philosophy. 33 Diderot sometimes speaks of theological science with charity: Je ne vois aucune science qui demande plus de pénétration, plus de justesse, plus de finesse et plus de subtilité dans l'esprit que la théologie; ses deux branches sont immenses, la scolastique et la morale; elles renferment les questions les plus intéressantes.34 Sometimes, in an article not setting forth the orthodox point of view, he alludes to it with a touch of irony: Nous répondrons à ceux qui auraient voulu qu'on supprimât la théologie: que c'est une science; que cette science est très-étendue et très curieuse; et qu'on aurait pu la rendre plus intéressante que la mythologie, qu'ils auraient regrettée, si nous l'eussions omise.38 In his principal article on the subject 30 he defines theology as the science which teaches men what they should know about God and the 30. Cf. infra, chapter V. 31. Cf. supra, pp. 11-12. 3«. Cf. Le Discours préliminaire, Ene., I, xvii. 33. Cf. Philosophie, Oeuv., X V I , 284. 34. Cf. Bible, Oeuv., X I I I , 435. 35. Cf. Encyclopédie, Oeuv., X I V , 488; cf. also Eclectisme, Oeuv., X I V , 311. It is interesting to note that the irony which is kept out of the orthodox article but which creeps into one not directly concerning religion comes to full expression outside the Encyclopédie, as, for example, in the memorandum for Catherine II: " L a théologie, cette science des chimères, a produit et produira de tout temps le même effet. . . . Un pays est menacé des plus grands désastres où toute la théologie n'est pas réduite à deux pages." Cf. M . T o u r n e u x : Diderot et Catherine II, p. 298. Cf. also the letter to Damilaville, 1766, Oeuv., X I X , 477, and that to Sophie Volland of N'ov. 12. 1768, Lettres A Sophie 1'olland, III, 176. 36. Cf. Théologie, Ene., X V I , 249(1. T h e definitions are expanded from Chambers (Trévoux).

32

Chapter I: Religion, Theology, and Revelation

manner in which he wishes to be served. T h a t part of it in which knowledge of G o d comes through nature and the exercise of the reasoning faculties is natural theology, and that part in which knowledge comes through revelation is supernatural theology. But even the latter, the science to which the term theology is most properly applied, presupposes the use of reason. Hence though he condemns 3 7 the excess of syllogistic arguments and vain subtleties in the earlier form of scholasticism, he recognizes 38 the value of dialectics employed by scholastics since the sixteenth century in the interpretation of essential points in the Scriptures and the writings of C h u r c h fathers, the method followed by the theological faculty of Paris. H e devotes the latter part of the article on theology to a discussion of the certitude of revealed truths and theological conclusions according to theologians. T h e former are considered more certain since they are the product of immediate revelation attested by the Church, the latter coming only from mediate or virtual revelation. But theological conclusions, being related to revelation, are held to be more certain than the conclusions of the natural sciences, which are often based on mere conjectures. Earlier theologians considered theological conclusions more certain than the first principles of geometry and philosophy since the latter are based, not on revelation, but only on reason, which is subject to error. Most moderns, on the contrary, defend first principles as being axiomatic and equally certain, since G o d is no less the author of reason than of revelation, and since it is through reason that men are persuaded of the truth of revelation itself. T h a t the point of view of the moderns with which Diderot concludes the article is his own, namely that theological conclusions are not more certain than the axioms and first principles of reason, may be confirmed by reference to articles on non-theological subjects, such as those on first principles and reason. In the former he defines first principles: Les premiers principes, autrement les premières vérités, sont des propositions si claires, qu'elles ne peuvent être prouvées ni combattues par des propositions qui le soient davantage. 3 9 In the latter, 40 while he admits the role of revelation in determining the mind as to questions which are inscrutable to reason and which fall 37. Cf. Scolastiques, Oeuv., X V I I , 108-9; Ju'fs> Oeuv., X V , 366; Ontologie, Oeuv X V I , 166. 38. Cf. Théologie, Ene., X V I , 250. Cf. also Ontologie, Oeuv, X V I , 166-7. 39. Cf. Principes (Premiers), Oeuv., X V I , 40Q. T h i s definition is taken f r o m Buffier: Cours de Sciences, column 557. 40. Cf. Raison, Oeuv., X V I I , 6.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The

Christian

Religion

33

wholly within the realm of faith, 4 1 he insists that this concession should do no violence to reason itself: T o u t ce qui est du ressort de la révélation doit prévaloir sur nos opinions, sur nos préjugés et sur nos intérêts, et est en droit d'exiger de l'esprit un parfait assentiment. Mais une telle soumission de notre raison à la foi ne renverse pas pour cela les limites de la connaissance humaine, et n'ébranle pas les fondements de la raison; elle nous laisse la liberté d'employer nos facultés à l'usage pour lequel elles ont été données. 4 0 U p o n all questions within its competence reason, not faith, is the final judge. N o proposition 4 2 can be taken as divine revelation if it contradicts what is already k n o w n to us either by intuition or deduction; to argue otherwise w o u l d be to destroy all means of distinguishing between truth and untruth. A l t h o u g h revelation, when it is in accord with reason, can confirm the latter's judgments, it cannot invalidate them; for whenever there is a clear and evident judgment of the reason, no one can oblige us to renounce it and embrace the contrary opinion under the pretext that it is a matter of faith. T h e reason for that is that we are men before being Christians. If the rights of reason with respect to religious matters were not thus recognized, there would be no means of ridiculing the extravagant opinions and ceremonies to be found in most religions, and a vast field would be opened to superstition and fanaticism of the worst types. Happy is the people, says 43 he, whose religion asks it to believe only things which are true, sublime, and holy, and to imitate only that which is virtuous, such as is ours, the philosopher having only to follow his reason in order to arrive at the foot of the altar. T h i s delimitation of the fields of reason and faith furnishes a suitable introduction to an examination of Diderot's articles on Christian revelation, and in particular the role played by prophecy and miracle. T h e Christian religion, he declares in a fulsome passage, 44 is the sole authentic revealed religion, having its guarantee of divinity in the books of the O l d and the N e w Testament, in its sublime morality, and in its mysteries, miracles, and prophecies. In this connection he uses the word 41. C f . also Cas de conscience, Oeuv., XIV', 35. 42. C f . Raison, Oeuv., X V I I , 5. C f . also Adorer, Oeuv., X I I I , 223-4: " L a m a n i è r e d'adorer le vrai D i e u ne d o i t j a m a i s s'écarter d e la raison, p a r c e q u e D i e u est l ' a u t e u r de la raison, et q u ' i l a v o u l u q u ' o n s'en s e r v î t m ê m e d a n s les j u g e m e n t s d e ce q u ' i l c o n v i e n t d e f a i r e o u ne p a s f a i r e à son é g a r d . " 43. C f . Aigle, Oeuv., X I I I , 266. 44. C f . Christianisme, Oeuv., X I V , 143-4.

34

Chapter I: Religion, Theology, and

Revelation

revelation 45 to designate the things which God has manifested to the world by the mouth of his prophets, things beyond the reach of natural reason, such as the nature of God and his mysteries, 48 the dispensation of his grace, and the laws and ceremonies of his worship. T h e Christian revelation is founded upon that of the Jews, particularly upon the Jewish prophecy of the Messiah. But whereas the Hebrews understood the mission of the Messiah to be the liberation of their race and the restoration of its temporal power, the Christian revelation interpreted it symbolically and allegorically as the freeing of the human race from slavery to sin. He was to preach penitence and the remission of sin and to suffer death, in order that those who should believe on him might escape from the bondage of death and sin and obtain eternal life. When the Jews failed to recognize in Jesus Christ the fulfillment of their Messianic prophecies they were excluded from the large share in world redemption which had been prepared for them and suffered total destruction as a nation. Since their fate under these circumstances had been predicted its accomplishment furnishes a solid proof of the truth of religion and revelation. Diderot's recognition of the importance accorded to prophecy in Christian apologetics is shown by the fact that he devoted two articles to prophets and prophecy. In the first47 he defines a prophet, in a general sense, as a person with knowledge that others do not possess, whether that knowledge be divine or human. A prophet may have supernatural knowledge of hidden or lost things, as when Samuel prophesied to Saul that the asses which he was seeking had been found. In the second article, 48 however, he separates from the true prophets those who practise divination of this sort and says that diviners are condemned by the law of Moses. As examples of true prophets he names 49 various prophets of the Old Testament, whose knowledge came from God and who spoke to the Jews and their leaders to reprove their crimes, instruct them concerning the will of God, or foretell coming events. It was Godimparted knowledge 50 that enabled the Hebrew prophets to foretell the 45. Cf. art. Révélation, Ene., X I V , 224-225. T h i s entire passage is expanded from Chambers' article. 46. In the art. Mystère (Théol.), Ene., X , g2ib-g22a, these mysteries are enumerated as the Trinity and incarnation. This article is a translation of Chambers' article, Mystery (Trévoux), including Chambers' cross reference to Additions of Mystery, to which there is no corresponding article in the Encyclopédie. 47. Cf. Prophète, Prophétie, Ene., X I I I , 459fr. 48. Cf. Prophétie, Ene., X I I I , 463fr. 49. Cf. Ene., X I I I , 460. 50. Cf. second article, Ene., X I I I , 463-5.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian Religion

35

coming of the Messiah, the fulfillment of this prophecy becoming one of the strongest proofs of the truth of the Christian religion. Diderot then goes on to cite from Chambers' article on prophecy, from which more than half of his second article is taken, critics who have raised objections to this proof, and whom, unlike Chambers, he claims to refute. He defies Grotius and others who resort to mystical allegories to explain the differences between Old Testament prophecies and their form and application in the New Testament, to prove against the clear testimony of the Bible and of Catholic and Protestant theologians that the Emmanuel prophecy in Isaiah 51 is meant to refer to a son of the prophet and not to Jesus Christ. He argues that the Hebrew "almah" means "virgin" 5 2 and could not apply to Isaiah's wife, who had already had a son, that a second son born later did not bear the name "Emmanuel", that this name itself means "God-with-us" and could not be applied to a child of earthly parentage. T o support their opinions, he says, these critics allege that the apostles had certain rules to distinguish between prophecies to be taken in a literal sense and those to be interpreted allegorically, and that these rules have been lost. He replies that the apostles, being divinely inspired, had no need of rules, but that the rules in question, drawn from writings of Jewish rabbis and doctors, have been discovered by Surrenhusius of Amsterdam, and may be used by anyone who considers them important. Chambers 53 would not have termed them forced and unnatural if he had read them, says Diderot, and he refers the reader to the article Citations.5i Three of the paragraphs taken from Chambers' article Prophecy set forth the point of view of Whiston. Whiston condemns the allegorical method of interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies, and explains the dissimilarity between their literal meaning in the Septuagint and their application by the apostles to Jesus Christ by a supposed corruption of the original Hebrew and Septuagint texts in the second century. T h e apostles must have known and cited an early Septuagint in conformity with the original Hebrew, which, if it could be found, would 51. Isaiah 7:14—"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel." (Biblical quotations in this thesis are taken from the Catholic (Douay) Bible unless otherwise noted.) 52. More accurately, the Hebrew word means "young woman," or "young matron". Cf. Enslin: Christian Beginnings, p. 398. 53. Cf. supra, p. 14. 54. Cf. Citations, Enc., I l l , 483-4. In this article Mallet gives ten rules from Surrenhusius said to have been used by Jewish doctors and by the apostles. Mallet's article is drawn largely from Chambers' article, Quotation.

36

Chapter

I: Religion,

Theology,

and

Revelation

show no difference in interpretation between the Old and New Testaments. In replying Diderot terms this hypothesis a betrayal of religion under the guise of defending it, and points out the absurdity of believing that the Jews could thus have corrupted the text of the Old Testament and deceived all Christendom after the second century. Such differences as there are today are believed to have existed at the time of the apostles, and if they are due to alterations and all the copies were altered, as Whiston maintains, where can one find the original and uncorrupted text? The problem can be met much more practically by admitting that there are two kinds of prophecies, those which literally foretold Jesus Christ and were fulfilled in his person, as those of Jacob, Daniel, the Psalms, and Isaiah, and other prophecies which had a literal application only in the Old Testament, but which were fulfilled in a larger and more perfect sense in Jesus Christ, such as: Hosea 1 1 : 1 , Jeremiah 3 1 : 1 5 , cited in St. Matthew 2:15 and 18; Exodus 12:46, cited in St. John 19:36. Diderot offers no proof of this theory and even concedes that it is difficult to distinguish between these two types of prophecy, though he says there are a sufficient number of prophecies in the first group to guarantee the truth and divinity of the Christian religion. The lack of supporting arguments here, as well as the weakness of the arguments brought against Whiston, give the article such a doubtful tone, however, that taken in connection with Diderot's utterances outside the Encyclopédie55 it could hardly serve to strengthen the reader's faith in prophecies.56 The article does not fail to leave the impression that parts of the Bible must be interpreted figuratively,57 not literally, that the Biblical text has been altered since early times, and that even divinely inspired prophets are, after all, only human individuals/' 8 For Diderot the validity of miracles does not depend upon their having been wrought in fulfillment of prophecy, as it did for Prades.59 For 55. C f . Pensées phil., Ocuv., I, 142, Pensée $ X L I , quoted infra, p. 4 1 , n. 88. 56. Diderot does not make the use of Whiston's arguments which Collins did. T h e latter accused Whiston of completely destroying the authority of d i v i n e inspiration. C f . N o r m a n T o r r e y : foliaire and the English Deists, pp. 49-50. N o r does he stoop to the impertinences of Voltaire regarding prophecies in his article Prophéties in Questions sur l'Encyclopédie. Cf. ibid., p. 52. 57·. In Sens de l'Ecriture, Ene., X V , 29, Diderot speaks of five ways in which the Scripture may be construed—grammatically, literally, allegorically, analogically, and morally. r,8. C f . also Osée, Oeuv., X V I , 180. T h e passage in question is quoted supra, p. 2 1 , il. 49. 59. C f . Recueil de pieces concernant la thèse de l'abbe de Prades, Thèse, p. 16: Apolo-

gir, pp. 'òolF.

Diderot's Treatment of The Christian Religion

37

otherwise, says60 Diderot, the miracles of Moses, which were not foretold, could not be used to confirm his mission. As to the marvels wrought by Moses' adversaries, the magicians of Pharaoh, some theologians hold them to be false miracles, mere tricks of magic to deceive the spectators, but Calmet terms them true miracles operated, not by spirits, but by God, who willed the miracle "on the occasion" of the act of will of the spirits. After citing Calmet and other authorities, Diderot defines a miracle as: . . . un effet extraordinaire et merveilleux, qui est au-dessus des forces de la nature, et que Dieu opère pour manifester sa puissance et sa gloire, ou pour autoriser la mission de quelqu'un qu'il envoye. C'est ainsi que Moïse a prouvé la sienne, et que Jésus-Christ a confirmé la vérité de sa doctrine.60 T o Spinoza, who contested the possibility of any interruption of the forces of nature, the laws of nature being themselves the unchangeable decrees of God, and hence denied all miracles,"1 he replies that God is not limited, as Spinoza supposes, but is free by a particular act of will to produce an effect different from those he produces in the ordinary course of nature. Elsewhere62 in the Encyclopédie he replies to this contention of Spinoza in the words of Bayle, charging that it amounts in effect to arguing that the laws of nature are not due to a free legislator, but to a blind and necessary cause. In Miracle, however, he goes on to say03 piously that what Spinoza calls an interruption or suspension of the laws of nature, is not a mark of caprice on God's part, but rather a mark of his omnipotence. Furthermore the existence of miracles is attested by the Old and New Testaments and by ecclesiastical writers from the time of Jesus Christ to the present. Obviously this appeal to biblical and ecclesiastical authority and his use of Calmet's reply to Spinoza are de60. Cf. Miracle, Enc., X , 561. T h e first two p a r a g r a p h s of the article are from Chambers, who had used T r é v o u x , but this part of the article is summarized from Calmet's Dissertation sur les miracles in Commentaire littéral sur l'Exode et le Lévitique, pp. xiv-xxvii. 6 1 . Cf. also Spinosa. Oeuv., X V I I , 172-3, where Diderot says of Spinoza: " A l'égard des miracles, doni le récit est si fréquent dans les Ecritures, il a trouvé qu'ils n'étaient pas véritables. Les prodiges, selon lui. sont impossibles; ils dérangéraient l'ordre d e la nature, et ce dérangement est contradictoire." 62. Cf. Spinosa, Oeuv., X V I I , 185-6. T h i s is taken from note R of Bayle's article on Spinoza. 63. Cf. Enc., X , 5 6 1 .

38

Chapter

I: Religion,

Theology,

and

Revelation

signed merely to draw a veil over the eyes of the censors, for he himself attacked miracles vigorously in articles on non-religious subjects. 94 T h e latter part of Révélationβδ summarizes the characteristics which revelation must have to be recognized as divine. It must teach nothing as true that reason demonstrates as being false, since G o d is the source of reason as well as of revelation; it must not present as true in one place what it labels as false in another, since G o d can never lie; and it must be clear and precise, capable of clarifying and perfecting knowledge w h i c h has come through natural means. Furthermore a revelation is divine only w h e n its prescriptions are suited to make m a n better, a standard of judgment of which Diderot makes effective use in articles on moral ideas. 80 Prophecies and miracles wrought in confirmation of doctrine are exterior marks of true revelation, but so are the dignified manner of its promulgation and the high character of the h u m a n agent. Elsewhere 0 7 in the Encyclopédie Diderot emphasizes the importance of this last consideration, approving St. Augustine for saying that it is not the number but the merit of authors which is the best guarantee of their doctrine. T h e last paragraph of Révélation, condensed from Calmet's article on the subject, enumerates the different uses of the word in the Scriptures. B u t if a semi-orthodox article like Révélation implies the preeminence of reason in theological matters, articles on philosophical subjects make the claim very definitely. Phenomena, 6 8 whether they concern theology, philosophy, or history, are all equally subject to critical examination. T h e witness of a few well-informed and veracious persons is sufficient to establish a simple truth, but anything of an extraordinary or miraculous nature demands far more careful authentication: 64. Note also that in Additions aux Pensées philosophiques, jf X X I , Oeuv., I, 161, Diderot argues as does Spinoza: "Prouver l'Evangile par un miracle, c'est prouver une absurdité par une chose contre nature." 65. Cf. Enc., X I V , 226. 66. C f . infra, pp. 105-110. 67. Cf. Autorité, Oeuv., X I I I , 400: " L e plus savant et le plus éclairé des hommes ne mérite plus d'être cru dès qu'il est fourbe; non plus q u e l ' h o m m e le plus pieux et le plus saint, dès qu'il parle de ce qu'il ne sait pas; de sorte q u e Saint Augustin avait raison de dire que ce n'était pas le nombre, mais le mérite des auteurs q u i devait emporter la balance." 68. Cf. Fait, Oeuv., X V , 3. Cf. also Apologie de l'abbé de Prades, Oeuv., I, 448: "Les démonstrations évangéliques ne peuvent être examinées avec trop de rigueur; et ce serait un blasphème q u e de les supposer incapables de soutenir la critique des hommes."

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian

Religion

39

Il faut en général que les autorités soient en raison inverse de la vraisemblance des faits, c'est-à-dire d'autant plus nombreuses et plus grandes que la vraisemblance est moindre.®9 It is only thus that men can be guarded from victimization by tales of miracles. In his editorial introduction to Prades' article on Certitude,70 Diderot, expanding Chambers' article on the same subject, reproduces algebraic figures, quoted in turn by Chambers from the Philosophical Transactions11 of the Royal Society of London, to show that the certainty of a fact diminishes with the number of successive persons who transmit the account of the original witness. T o the end of Prades' article, which claims to combat the algebraic figures in question and also Diderot's attack on miracles in the Pensées philosophiques,''2 he adds his editorial approval 73 of Prades' defense of religion. But Voltaire 74 was quick to point out the irony inherent in both Prades' article and Diderot's postscript. T h e simulated orthodoxy of the latter may indeed be explained as an attempt on Diderot's part to protect his friend and collaborator 75 already under fire at the Sorbonne, and to avoid if possible the implication of the Encyclopédie in the forthcoming condemnation of Prades. There is no doubt that Diderot's intent in developing the principles of judgment which we have been discussing was to undermine the belief in revelation and miracles. He recognized the difficulty of such a crusade. Once the theologians have incorporated a belief into their system they are slow to abandon it,70 even when it has become a source of harm. 77 A n d if the theologians 78 attempt to clarify religion by applying the discoveries of philosophy and natural science he says the result is detrimental to both religion and science, particularly to the former. 79 T h i s task of clarification should 69. Agnus scythicus, Oeuv., X I I I , 242. Cf. also Probabilité, Ene., X I I I , 394; Imposture, Oeuv., X V , 189. 70. Cf. Oeuv., X I V , 66-70. Cf. also Probabilité, Ene., X I I I , 398-399. 71. Cf. Philosophical Transactions Abridged, III, 662-3, (No. 256). 72. Cf. t X L I , X L V I , Oeuv., I, 142, 146, quoted infra, p. 41, n. 88. 73. Cf. Oeuv., X I V , 70-71. 71. Cf. art. Certain in Dictionnaire philosophique, Oeuv., X V I I I , 121. 75. Cf. supra, p. 25. 76. Cf. Mosaïque et Chrétienne (Philosophie), Oeuv., X V I , 123. 77. Cf. Fordicidies, Oeuv., X V , 22. 78. D. Mornet observes that d u r i n g the eighteenth century half of the naturalists were clergymen, and natural history therefore largely ecclesiastical, a fact which delayed its triumph over theology until the following century. Cf. Les Sciences de la nature en France au XVIII' siècle, p. 71. 79. Cf. also Eclectisme, Oeuv., X I V , 338; Apologie de l'abbé de Prades, Oeuv., I, 457-8.

40

Chapter I: Religion,

Theology,

and

Revelation

rather be left in the hands of the philosophers of the present day. For as philosophy advances 80 and becomes dominant in human thinking, and people begin to shake off the yoke of authority and tradition and to rely u p o n the laws of reason, even the most elementary dogmas commence to lose their force. It is clear then that while Diderot presents both the orthodox and philosophical points of view in his articles on religion, theology, and revelation, the most telling arguments are on the side of the latter. If n a t u r a l religion is praised, it is bccause of its conformity to reason, and the plea is made that revealed religion also should submit its claims, both oral and written, to the test of reason, that is to say, the test of observation and experience. For how can man judge 8 1 of the value of any testimony unless it be examined in the light of experience? Diderot relates two incidents to illustrate the way in which observation and experience rule out superstition. T h e Greeks and Romans had the most devout respect for the silly tricks of divination, he asserts, 82 until they were enlightened by the culture of the sciences, and little by little got rid of such nonsense. C a t o for instance, when consulted as to the omen of the boots eaten by rats, replied that there was nothing surprising in that, but that it would have been an extraordinary marvel if the boots had eaten the rats. R o m a n soldiers once plundered the gold statue of Anaetis 8 3 in Scythia, and carried off the pieces. O n e of the soldiers was later visited by Augustus and asked if it were true that the first man w h o struck the statue lost his eyesight and the use of his limbs, and died on the spot. "If that were true," replied the soldier, "I would not have the pleasure of entertaining Augustus, for I was the one w h o struck the first blow; whatever I possess I owe to the goddess, and it is one of her legs which provided this banquet." Diderot speaks of first principles 84 as having their source either in the consciousness of our own existence or in the rule of common sense. T h e former alone does not furnish sufficient proof to the skeptic that the object of his thought is as real as the thought itself, and may lead him into universal doubt. 8 3 T h e latter, however, is amply sufficient for the pur80. Cf. Encyclopédie, Oeuv., X I V , 424. 81. Cf. Fait, Oeuv., X V , 5. 82. Cf. Divination, Oeuv., X I V , 290. 83. Cf. Anaetis, Oeuv., X I I I , 292. Cf. supra, p. 21. 84. Cf. Principes (Premiers), Oeuv., X V I , 410. These tenns are drawn from Buffier: Cours de Sciences, columns 557 and 564. T h e passage immediately preceding this one on p. 410 is taken from Buffier, op. cit., columns 569-570. 85. Cf. Sentiment intime, Oeuv., X V I I , 127-130. T h i s article is wholly copied from Buffier: Cours de Sciences, columns 577 8, 560-3 (in order named).

Diderot's

Treatment

of The

Christian

Religion

41

pose, since it disposes 86 men to form common judgments as to the reality of the external world. For common sense as conceived by Diderot is not an innate idea but a product of experience and reflexion. It is an acquired sixth sense by which he would test revelation. T h e incontrovertible natural law of which he speaks is a systematic statement 87 of what actually happened in the past, by which we can safely conjecture as to what will happen in the future. T h e Encyclopédie articles taken as a whole leave no doubt as to his belief in the necessity and universal applicability of this empirical test. T h o u g h in the Encyclopédie he usually found it prudent to illustrate its operation by reference to non-Christian religions rather than to Christian revelation, outside the Encyclopédie, where he was free from the limitations of the royal privilege, he did not hesitate to apply it to the Christian religion in such a way as to rule out the miraculous and the supernatural altogether. 88 86. Cf. Sens commun, Ene., X V , 27-28. T h e passage in question is taken from Buffier, op. cit., column 564. T h e rest is transcribed from colnmns 565-7, 583, 578, 582, and 583 (in order named). 87. Cf. Probabilité, Ene., XIII, 295b. 88. Cf. Pensées philosophiques, t X L I , Oeuv., I, 142: " L e temps des révélations, des prodiges, et des missions extraordinaires est passé. Le christianisme n'a plus besoin de cet échafaudage. Un homme qui s'aviseiait de jouer parmi nous le rôle de [onas, de courir les rues en criant: 'Encore trois jours, et Paris ne sera plus: Parisiens, faites péntence, couvrez-vous de sacs et de cendres, ou dans trois jours vous périrez,' serait incontinent saisi, et traîné devant un juge, qui ne manquerait pas de l'envoyer aux Petites-Maisons. . . . " ï l i e peut revenir de l'autre inonde quand il voudra; les hommes sont tels, qu'il fera de grands miracles s'il est bien accueilli dans celui-ci." Cf. also ibid., JtXLVI, Oeuv., I, 146: " Q u ' u n auteur d'une impartialité avouée me raconte qu'un goulFre s'étant ouvert au milieu d'une ville; q u e les dieux consultas sur cet événement ont répondu qu'il se refermera si l'on y jette ce qu'on posiède de plus précieux; qu'un brave chevalier s'y est précipité, et que l'oracle s'esi accompli: je le croirai beaucoup moins que s'il eût dit simplement qu'un g o u f r e s'étant oui ert, 011 employa un temps et des travaux considérables pour le corrbler. Moins un fait a de vraisemblance, plus le témoignage de l'histoire perd de son poids. Je croirais sans peine un seul honnête homme qui m'annoncerait q u e Sa Aajesté vient de remporter une victoire complète sur les alliés; mais tout Paris m'apurerait q u ' u n mort vient de ressusciter à Passy, que je n'en croirais rien. Q u ' u n hisDrien nous en impose, ou que tout un peuple se trompe, ce ne sont pas des proliges." C . also Naigeon's note to Mosaïque et Chrétienne (Philosophie), Oeuv., X V I , 136: " E r un mot. Diderot était athée, et même un athée très-ferme et très-réfléchi. Il éait arrivé à ce résultat d'une bonne méthode d'investigation par toutes les voies qui conduisent le plus directement et le plus sûrement à la vérité, c'est-à-dirc par la néditation, l'expérience, l'observation et le calcul."

II THE

E

BIBLE

ARI.ν IN 1 7 4 6 Diderot h a d d e m a n d e d 1 proofs of the divinity of the Scriptures as a necessary basis for faith, a demonstration

which

could not be entrusted to the C h u r c h , since it must precede any acceptance of the C h u r c h claim to authority a n d infallibility. N o t l o n g after-

ward, that is, between 1 7 4 6 and 1 7 5 1 , he wrote an editorial c o m m e n t on Mallet's article on the B i b l e 2 and defined the elements of biblical study which must precede any adequate comprehension of the Christian religion. T h e argument w o u l d be in two parts, one a critique of the books and authors of the H o l y Scriptures, a n d the other a series of general studies w h i c h w o u l d g i v e a clear understanding of the contents of the books themselves. In the first part one section w o u l d deal w i t h the B i b l e as a whole: ( 1 ) its different titles, n u m b e r of books, and their classification, (2) the divine character of its inspiration and prophecies, 3 (3) its authenticity, 4 (4) its various versions a n d editions, and the merits of the H e b r e w language, 5 (5) the causes of its obscure style and the different interpretations of meaning,® (6) the division of its books into chapters 1. Cf. Pensées phil., Oeuv., I, 154, Pensée t L X . 2. For Diderot's addition (Enc., II, 226-7) to the Mallet article (Enc., II, 222-6) cf. Oeuv., XIII, 431-6. 3. Cf. Oeuv., XIII, 432: "La seconde, de la divinité des Ecritures: on la prouverait contre les païens et les incrédules; de l'inspiration et de la prophétie: on y examinerait en quel sens les auteurs sacrés ont été inspirés; si les termes sont également inspirés comme les choses; si tout ce que ces livres contiennent est de foi, même les faits historiques et les propositions de physique." 4. Cf. ibid., P. 432: " L a troisième serait de l'authenticité des livres sacrés, du moyen de distinguer les livres canoniques d'avec ceux qui ne le sont pas; on y examinerait la fameuse controverse des chrétiens de la communion romaine et de ceux de la communion protestante, savoir si l'Eglise juge l'Ecriture; on expliquerait ce que c'est que les livres deutérocanoniques; dans quel sens et par quelle raison ils sont ou doivent être nommés deutérocanoniques. 5. Cf. ibid., pp. 432-3: " L a quatrième serait des différentes versions de la Bible et des diverses éditions de chaque version; on y parlerait par occasion de l'ancienneté des langues et des caractères; on en rechercherait l'origine; on examinerait quelle a été la première langue du monde; si l'hébraïque mérite cette préférence. S'il n'était pas possible de porter une entière lumière sur ces objets, on déterminerait du moins ce qu'on voit distinctement; on rechercherait jusqu'où l'on peut compter sur la fidélité des copies, des manuscrils, des versions, des éditions, et sur leur intégrité; s'il y en a d'authentiques, outre la Vulgate, ou si elle est la seule qui le soit; on n'oublierait pas les versions en langues vulgaires; on examinerait si la lecture en est permise ou défendue, et ce qu'il faut penser de l'opinion qui condamne les traductions des livres sacrés." 6. Cf. ibid., p. 433: " L a cinquième serait employée à l'examen du style de l'Ecriture, de la source de son obscurité; des différents sens qu'elle souffre, et dans lesquels

Diderot's

Treatment

of The

Christian

Religion

43

and verses, and the use and authority of the commentaries and homilies of the rabbis, the Church fathers, and their successors. T h e second section would contain an essay on each book and author, giving an analysis, a criticism, a history, and details of dates and manner of composition. T h e third section would treat the books cited in the Bible, their contents and authors, the apocryphal books, 7 and the monuments or works which are related to the Scriptures. 8 T h e second part would include studies of sacred geography, the origin and division of the peoples,® sacred chronology and the related chronologies of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon, the origin and propagation of idolatry, 10 natural history relative to the Bible, the systems of weights, measures, and coins, the different idioms of the principal languages in which the sacred books were written, including the poetic and proverbial phrases, figures, allusions, and parables which make up a good part of the obscurity in the prophecies and evangels, and an abridged history of the Hebrew people up to apostolic times. Diderot was undoubtedly familiar with the exegetical work of Spinoza, Simon, and Le Clerc as summarized in the dictionaries and compilations from which the citations in his biblical articles were made. But while Spinoza was one of the first11 to formulate the rules of exegesis and to call for critical study of the language, history, ideas, and style of the Bible, and of the history of the authors, books, and the canon, Diderot's demands are more comprehensive than those of his predecessor, and show a more jealous concern for the facts of history and experience. His article might well have served as the outline for an Encyclopaedia of the Bible to be used by students of religion and philosophy. As a matter of fact he followed this procedure in compiling some of his own biblical and theological articles in the Encyclopédie. Those which concern the place of the Christian revelation in the develelle a été citée par les auteurs ecclésiastiques; de l'usage qu'on doit faire de ces sens, soit pour la controverse, soit pour la chaire ou le mystique: on y discuterait le point de conscience, s'il est permis d'en faire l'application à des objets profanes." 7. Cf. ibid., p. 433: ". . . les livres apocryphes qu'on a voulu faire passer pour canoniques, soit qu'ils subsistent encore, o u qu'ils aient été perdus, soit qu'ils aient été composés par des auteurs chrétiens ou des ennemis de la religion. . ." 8. Cf. ibid., p. 433: ". . . des monuments qui ont rapport à l'Ecriture, comme les ouvrages de Philon, de Josephe, de Mercure Trismégiste, et de plusieurs autres; tels sont aussi les oracles des sibylles, le symbole des apôtres et leurs canons." 9. Diderot remarks that this would furnish a fine commentary on the tenth chapter of Genesis (the chapter which gives the generations of the sons of Noah). 10. Diderot comments: ". . . celui-ci ne serait, ou je me trompe fort, ni le moins curieux, ni le moins philosophique, ni le moins savant." Cf. ibid., p. 434. 11. Cf. Monod: De Pascal à Chateaubriand, pp. 88, 48.

44

Chapter II: The

Bible

opment of religion and the nature of miracles and prophecy were analyzed in the preceding chapter, and our conclusion, namely, that Christian dogmas and Christian evidences are subject to the same rigorous tests of research and experience as all natural and historical phenomena, is in harmony with the general viewpoint of this article, if not with the paragraph 1 2 in praise of theology and theologians which Diderot considered it prudent to insert for the eyes of the censors. T h e article Canon13 treats subjects mentioned under (1) and (3) of the first section of part one of Diderot's outline. T h e canon is defined as an authentic catalogue of the books to be recognized as divine and employed as the rule of faith and conduct. The controversy between Catholics and Protestants is referred to, though not explained in detail, and the terms protocanonical, deuterocanonical, and apocryphal are used. T h e reader is given to infer that the Catholics added to the books recognized by the Jews as divine (the protocanonical books) certain other books (the deuterocanonical) which the Protestants rejected and called apocryphal. Diderot then formulates four questions, less with the idea of finding their solution, as he says, than of indicating the proper method of solving them. Did the Jews have a canon of sacred books? Was it a single canon? How many books were there and what were they? Who was the author of the Jewish canon, and when did he live? T o the first three questions Diderot gives orthodox answers. There was a Jewish canon, a single canon, and it consisted of twenty-two books. Where counts of twenty-four or twenty-seven exist it is because certain books are divided; the former separates Lamentations from Jeremiah, and Ruth from Judges, and the latter, in addition, divides into six rather than three the books of Kings and Parali pomen. T h i s was the canon 14 accepted by the early Church until it was augmented by the Council of Carthage. Later the Council of Trent added still other books and pronounced an anathema against those who should refuse to submit to its decisions. As to the fourth question Diderot approves the opinion that Ezra (or Esdras) was not the author of the 12. Cf. ibid., p. 435. 13. Cf. Oeiw., X I V , 10-21. It contains elements from Calmet's article on the subject. 14. Cf. Oeuv., XIV, 17-18: "Voyons maintenant quels étaient ces vingt-deux, vingtquatre et vingt-sept livres. Saint Jérôme, témoin digne de foi dans cette matière, en fait l'énumération suivante: La Genèse; l'Exode; le I.évitique; les Nombres; le Deutéronome; Josué; les Juges; auquel est joint Ruth; Samuel: ce sont les deux premiers des Rois; les Rois: ce sont les deux derniers livres; Isaïe; Jérémie, avec ses Lamentations; Ezechiel; les douze petits Propfiètes; Job; les Psaumes; les Proverbes; l'Ecclesiaste; le Cantique des Cantiques; Daniel; les Paralipomènes, double; Esdras, double; Esther."

Diderot's

Treatment

of The

Christian

Religion

45

Jewish canon, pointing out that while the affirmative opinion is more general, 1 5 it is not an article of faith. H e admits that the solution of this problem is beset with difficulties, but, as an example to those who have a taste for the critical method, he indicates the road to follow. O n e must ascertain (1) when Ezra lived, (2) under what prince he came back to Jerusalem from Babylon, (3) whether all the books in the canon were written before his time, and (4) whether he is the author of the book which bears his name. T h e article does not end on this critical note however, for Diderot, w h o had avowed earlier in the article his lack of qualifications to pass upon such a matter as the manner of counting the number of books in the Jewish canon, discreetly concludes with a complete submission of his judgment to that of the Church. If our research, says he, results in an opinion contrary to the decrees of the Church, we must admit that it is we w h o are in error and submit without hesitation. T h u s does he make sure that his example of the critical method will pass the hurdle of the censors and will penetrate the minds of the readers of the Encyclopédie. T h e canon of the New Testament is treated by the A b b é Mallet in the article Canoniques (Livres),™ to which Diderot refers as the supplement of Canon. It is entirely orthodox, taking as its authority the Councils of Carthage and T r e n t , which confirmed the books already accepted by the consent of the churches. 17 In Testament,18 which is adapted from D o m Calmet's article on the same subject, Diderot, after citing Saint Paul's use of the word in Hebrews 9:1511., explains its application to the two parts of the biblical canon. " O l d Testament" is used to designate the first covenant that God made with men through the ministry of Moses, and " N e w Testament" denotes the new covenant made through the mediation of Jesus Christ. 15. A c c o r d i n g to the article Canon in the Catholic F.nc., I l l , 268, C a t h o l i c traditionalists placed the formation of the Palestinian canon in the era of Esdras and N e h e m i a h about the m i d d l e of the fifth century before Christ. T h i s however did not prevent the addition of later inspired books to the Esdrine canon. ( U p o n questions of Catholic doctrine reference is frequently m a d e to the Catholic Encyclopedia.) 16. Cf. Ene., II, 619. 17. A t the head of the list are f o u n d the f o u r gospels, the fourteen epistles of St. Paul (except Hebrews), I Peter, a n d I J o h n . D o u b t s existed at first in some of the churches as to Hebrews, II Peter, II and III J o h n , James, J u d e , and the Apocalypse, but these doubts were gradually resolved, a n d the books were declared canonical by the Councils. 18. C f . Ene., X V I , i8gb-i9ob.

46

Chapter

II:

The

Bible

T h e T r e n t list of the c a n o n i c a l books is then transcribed f r o m C a l m e t . 1 9 T h e article c o n c l u d e s w i t h a statement f r o m C a l m e t that all these books h a v e been treated in separate articles, e x c e p t that D i d e r o t limits the separate articles to

those books i n v o l v i n g

p r o b l e m s of

importance.

H e copies C a l m e t ' s r e f e r e n c e to F a b r i c i u s a n d the C a l m e t prefaces, a n d a d d s a r e f e r e n c e to C a l m e t ' s d i c t i o n a r y of the B i b l e . A s a matter of f a c t the Encyclopédie

c o n t a i n s articles o n thirty-eight, o r slightly more

t h a n h a l f , of the c a n o n i c a l books, of w h i c h eighteen are by Diderot. 19. Canonical books listed in Testament: (spellings of Encyclopédie Oeuvres) Ancien Testament La Génese L'F.xode Le Lèv i tique Les nombres Le Deutéronome Josué Les Juges Ruth Les quatre livres des Rois Les deux livres des Paralypomenes Les deux livres d'Esdras Tobie Judith Esther Job Les Pseaumes Les Proverbes Le Cantique des Cantiques L'Ecclésiaste Le livre de la Sagesse L'Eclésisastique Nouveau Les quatre Evangiles, savoir, S. Matthieu S. Marc S. Luc S. Jean Les actes des Apôtres Les épitres de Saint-Paul, savoir Aux Romains I 8c II aux Corinthiens Aux Galates Aux Ephésiens Aux Philippiens Aux Colossiens

rather than

Les grands prophetes, savoir Isaïe Jérémie Baruch Ezéchiel Daniel Les douze petits prophetes, qui sont Osée Joël Amos Abdias Jonas Michée Nahum Habacuc Sophonie Aggée Zacharie Malachie Les deux livres des Macchabées

Testament I & II aux Thessaloniens I & II à Timothée A Tite A Philémon Aux Hébreux Les épitres canoniques au nombre de sept, I de S. Jacques I & II de S. Pierre I, II & I I I de S. Jean I de S. J u d e , apôtre L'Apocalypse de S. Jean

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian Religion

47

Diderot's articles, orthodox compilations 20 for the most part (twelve are from Calmet's dictionary, two from Trévoux), add nothing new to the study of his biblical method. T h e original text of the Bible is the subject of an article 21 taken from Calmet's dictionary. T h e books of the Jewish canon were written in Hebrew, says Diderot; and those added by the Christian Church were largely in Greek, as: Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Tobias, Judith, I and II Machabees, chapters thirteen and fourteen of Daniel, and chapter three from the twenty-fourth up to the ninety-first verse, and the additions to the book of Esther. Tobias, Judith, Ecclesiasticus, and I Machabees are thought to have been originally written in Syriac, or in Hebrew mixed with Chaldean and Syriac, but since the Greek version is the oldest version extant it is taken to be the original. 22 T h e original text of the New Testament books is the Greek. T h e Gospel according to St. Matthew was first written in Hebrew to be sure, but that version was lost. While some believe that the Gospel according to St. Mark and St. Paul's epistle to the Romans were written in Latin, and St. Paul's epistle to the Hebrews in Hebrew, there are satisfactory proofs that all the New Testament books except St. Matthew were written in Greek. T h e official text of the Bible is the Latin text, according to the article Vulgate,23 which is compiled from the cognate articles in Calmet and Chambers. As early as the fourth century there already existed so many 20. T h e sources of Diderot's articles on individual books of the Bible: Ancien Testament Le Lévitique Trévoux Josué Calmet Calmet Les Juges Ruth Calmet Les deux livres des Paralypomenes Calmet Judith Calmet

Job Calmet Les Pseaumes Les Proverbes Calmet Isaïe Calmet Baruch Osée Trévoux Jonas

Nouveau Testament S. Matthieu Calmet S. L u c Calmet S. Jean Calmet Les actes des Apôtres I de S. Jude, apôtre Calmet Texte de l'Ecriture, Ene., X V I , 2i5b-2i6a, largely transcribed from Calmet. ase- According to the Catholic Ene., I l l , 269b, T o b i a s and Judith were originally written in A r a m a i c or Hebrew, Baruch and I Machabees in Hebrew, Wisdom and II Machabees in Greek, the enlargement of Daniel probably in Greek, and the addition to Esther (from ch. X , verse 4 to the end of the book) probably in Hebrew. 23. Cf. Ene.. X V I I , 576a-577a. For its source in Calmet and Chambers, cf. supra, p. so, n. 43.

48

Chapter

II: The

Bible

different Latin versions that St. Jerome revised the old Italic or preferred Latin version and also made a fresh and authentic Latin translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew, and one of the New Testament from the Greek. T h i s text, called the Vulgate and declared authentic or official by the Council of Trent, and still further improved in the edition of Sixtus V (1590) and of Clement V I I I (1592), remains the Bible of the R o m a n Church. Even the original texts may not be entirely free from errors, says 24 Diderot. These are not serious corruptions, such as those cited in the accusation of certain Church fathers that the Jews had altered Old Testament passages too favorable to Jesus Christ, but minor and infrequent mistakes of date or place due to the negligence of copyists, which may be corrccted by a study of the earliest documents. These do not diminish the complete authenticity of the Biblical text. 25 However, the importance which Diderot attaches to the avowed existence of alterations in the Biblical text is shown by his frequent references to the matter. One in the article on prophecy has already been discussed. 20 Another occurs in the article 011 sacred chronology, 27 where he suggests that the purity of the text depends not only on the skill and carefulness of the copyists but also upon their good faith, that is, upon the particular sentiments by which they were actuated. 2 '' Still another is to be found in Petitatenque,20 of which the subject is the authorship and integrity of that section of the Old Testament. In a paragraph from Calmet the authorship of Moses is defended against arguments of Simon and L e Clerc. T h e use of the third person and the mention of the death of Moses, 30 for example, do not disprove the latter's authorship, as these two assert, but indicate only that the text was altered by another hand after his death. From Abbadie's Traité de la 24. Cf. Texte de l'Ecriture, Eue., X V I , 2 i 5 b - 2 i 6 a (largely [rom C a l m é i s article). 2 5 / r h i s is of course entirely orthodox. Cf. also the statement in the Catholic Ene., I I , 543b, art. Bible: " A s a literature o u r sacred books have been transcribed d u r i n g many centuries by all manner of copyists to the ignorance and carelessness of many of whom they still bear witness in the shape of numerous textual errors, which, however, but seldom interfere with the primitive reading of any important dogmatic or moral passage of Holy W r i t . " 26. Cf. supra, pp. 35-6. 27. Cf. Chronologie sacrée, Oeuv., X I V , 172. 28. C f . also infra, pp. 55-6. 29. Ene., X I I , 3 1 5 - 3 1 7 . For sources of this article see supra, p. 20, n. 44. 30. T h e s e arguments had been used by Spinoza in his critique of the Pentateuch, a n d even long before Spinoza by Aben-Ezra, Spanish rabbi of the twelfth century. C f . Monod: De Pascal à Chateaubriand, pp. 28-29.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The

Christian

Religion

49

vérité de la religion chrétienne31 he reproduces the author's reply to Spinoza's assertion that Ezra completely altered the sacred text. In particular Diderot summarizes Abbadie's argument that Ezra could have had no conceivable interest in altering the text, and that if he had done so he would have put it in much better form, the actual text bearing n o evidence at all of the style of Ezra. A passage taken from Chambers' dictionary cites Whiston as believing that the Samaritan Pentateuch has a purer text than the Hebrew, while Simon and others show a preference for the Hebrew Pentateuch. Calmet's article furnished him with a confirmation of the latter point of view. T h e two Pentateuchs are one and the same work. T h e divergences in the two are due to the negligence of copyists or to the efforts of the Samaritans to alter the original text in their own interest. Hence the Hebrew Pentateuch is preferable. T h i s article, compiled··12 in disjointed fashion, is far from clear, but it reveals Diderot's underlying purpose of exposing the conflict of opinion, both within and without the Church, regarding the composition and textual integrity of the Pentateuch, and of conveying the impression that some degree of textual alteration is admitted by all parties. 33 A diversity of opinion is shown 34 to exist regarding the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. T h e idea of inspiration supposes in the writer an impulsion of the Holy Spirit to write what he has learned by revelation or by himself and to determine his choice of subjects. But opinion is greatly divided as to whether the Holy Spirit inspires the writers both as to their subjects and the terms employed. A m o n g those theologians w h o predicate the inspiration of both subject matter and terms are the faculties of theology of Douai and Louvain in their censure of 1588. W h i l e Diderot does not say so this is of course the verbal theory of inspiration widely current in the sixteenth century. Lessius and certain other Jesuits, as well as Simon, hold that the sacred writers were left to themselves in the choice of terms and some of the subject matter, but that their mind and pen were so directed by the Holy Spirit that they could not fall into error. T h i s theory, says Diderot, was the cause of the censure of 1588 already referred to. Holden in his Fidei divinae analysis limits inspiration to points of doctrine and matters essential to 31. Cf. t. I, section III, ch. X I I Χ: X I I I . 32. Cf. supra, p. 20, n . 44. 33. For a f o r c i b l e expression of D i d e r o t ' s o w n o p i n i o n u p o n the c o r r u p t i o n of t h e biblical texts, see Pensée pltil., Oeuv., I, 154. f r o m w h i c h a passage is q u o t e d at t h e e n d of this c h a p t e r , a n d also Oeuv.. I, 145 q u o t e d in part infra, p. 50, n . 38. 34. C f . hìspiration, Ene., V i l i , 793.

5o

Chapter II: The

Bible

doctrine, the writers having been left to themselves in matters unconnected with religion. 35 Le Clerc goes farther still and confines the role of inspiration to the prophecies; in all other matters and even in the actual writing of the prophecies the sacred writers did not enjoy the aid of the Holy Spirit. 36 The most commonly accepted theory, says Diderot, and his statement is in accord with the facts,37 is that in which the writers are held to be inspired as to the prophecies and to points of history and doctrine relative to religion, but not as to the choice and arrangement of terms. While these differing theories of inspiration are set forth with restraint and discretion, Diderot could not resist the temptation to conclude the article, which is entitled: "Inspiration, in terms of theology" with a paragraph copied from Chambers to the effect that the pagans claimed their priests and sibyls to be divinely inspired, when they rendered their oracles, and that the poets, in order to appear inspired, invoked Apollo and the Muses when they were about to begin some great work. 38 The second part of Diderot's biblical outline 39 called for studies of a social and historical nature which would help in understanding the contents of the sacred books. Various articles suggest the results which he expected from this research, such as the articles on the origin and nature of idolatry and religion discussed in the preceding chapter. 35. This view of Holden and others is of course not tolerated by the Catholic Church. Cf. Catholic Ene., VIII, 470-483. 36. Diderot refers to Sentimens de quelques théologiens de Hollande, letters 11 and 12. Cf. Le Clerc: Sentimens de quelques théologiens de Hollande, Amsterdam, 1685, pp. 232 8c 234. 37. Cf. Catholic Ene., VIII, 48a. This view of inspiration, a reaction to the verbal inspiration theory current in the sixteenth century, gained gTeat headway during the eighteenth century and at the beginning of the nineteenth century was more widely taught than the other. 38. Contrast this slight indiscretion with the tone of a passage of Pensées phil., 8 X L V , Oeuv., I, 145, in which he expressed his own point of view: "Où en serionsnous, s'il fallait reconnaître le doigt de Dieu dans la forme de notre Bible! Combien la version latine n'est-elle pas misérable?. Les prophètes, les apôtres et les évangélistes ont écrit comme ils y entendaient. S'il nous était permis de regarder l'histoire du peuple hébreu comme une simple production de l'esprit humain, Moïse et ses continuateurs ne l'emporteraient pas sur Tite-Live, Salluste, César et Josèphe, tous gens qu'on ne soupçonne pas assurément d'avoir écrit par inspiration." Cf. also La Moisade, Oeuv., IV, 120: " E n parcourant ce livre reçu, dit-on, des mains de Dieu par l'entremise de son serviteur Moïse et de ses autres prophètes, je suis indigné d'y trouver des traits qui blessent la grandeur et la majesté divine, et qui me le dépeignent aussi mauvais qu'il doit être bon. T o u t me révolte, je crois errer dans le champ de l'imposture; tout porte le sceau du fanatisme; tout est marqué au coin de l'impertinence et du ridicule, de la cruauté et de la barbarie." 39. Cf. supra, p. 43.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian Religion

51

There are also significant articles on terrestrial origins, sacred chronology, and the history and development of the Jewish civilization. Chaos*0 affords a most interesting example of his indirect attacks upon orthodoxy. After indicating the wide prevalence among ancient peoples of the idea that the world first existed as a chaos, he cites Cudworth, Grotius, Dickinson, and others as tracing the origin of this idea to Moses, who spoke of the earth as being at first a shapeless mass covered with water. But he points out that while the chaos of the ancients held within it the motion necessary to the formation of the universe, that of Moses was itself created by God and dependent on God for its evolution. Hence it would be absurd to imagine as some do that it was motion itself that transformed the chaos of Moses into the world of today. T o imagine this, or to claim with Whiston that chaos was the atmosphere of a comet out of which came our planet, is to forsake history for dreams, and to substitute improbable opinions for the eternal truths which God attested by the mouth of Moses. Some ancients attributed the origin of the universe to the chance movement of atoms, he says, and some moderns suppose all beings to have evolved from homogeneous matter in motion. But to attribute to the impetuous shock of blind motion the formation of all individual beings and of the perfect harmony of their interdependence, is to deprive God of the great glory of having created the universe, and to accept as the cause of beauty and order something which had no idea of itself or of what it was doing. A philosopher who undertakes to explain the creation and mechanism of things by the laws of motion alone must first demonstrate that existence and movement are not essential to matter; for otherwise, believing without reason that the marvels of the universe have been produced by motion alone, he is liable to fall into atheism. Thus by the expedient of condemning it Diderot brings the theory of the materialists into an article dealing with a biblical doctrine. There is an interesting paragraph in Ethiopiens41 which represents these peoples as believing the animals to have developed from earth fermented by the heat of the sun, and the various species to have undergone an infinite series of diverse transformations before arriving at their present forms. Here, it would seem, is the germ of that theory of transOeuv., X I V , 88-93. Création, Ene., IV,

40.

Chambers' article furnished paragraphs 2, 3, 4. 438-444, acquired from Formey, occupies itself largely with the theories of ancient and modern philosophers regarding the eternity of matter, but ends by affirming the power of God to create the universe out of nothing.

41. Cf. Oeuv., XIV, 531.

52

Chapter II: The

Bible

formism in which he included m a n , 4 2 and which has caused him to be considered one of the founders of experimental materialism. 4 3 T o o much importance should not be placed upon this short passage, which, 42. Cf. Pensées sur l'interprétation de la nature, Oeuv., II, 15-16: "Il semble que la nature se soit plue à varier le même mécanisme d'une infinité de manières différentes. Elle n'abandonne un genre de productions qu'après en avoir multiplié les individus sous toutes les faces possibles. Quand on considère le règne animal, et qu'on s'aperçoit que, parmi les quadrupèdes, il n'y en a pas un qui n'ait les fonctions et les parties, surtout intérieures, entièrement semblables à un autre quadrupède, ne croirait-on pas volontiers qu'il n'y a jamais eu qu'un premier animal, prototype de tous les animaux, dont la nature n'a fait qu'allonger, raccourcir, transformer, multiplier, oblitérer certains organes?. Imaginez les doigts de la main réunis, et la matière des ongles si abondante que, venant à s'étendre et à se gonfler, elle enveloppe et couvre le tout; au lieu de la main d'un homme, vous aurez le pied d'un cheval. Quand on voit les métamorphoses successives de l'enveloppe du prototype, quel qu'il ait été, approcher un règne d'un autre règne par des degrés insensibles, et peupler les confins des deux règnes (s'il est permis de se servir du terme de confins où il n'y a aucune division réelle), et peupler, dis-je, les confins des deux règnes, d'êtres incertains, ambigus, dépouillés en grande partie des formes, des qualités et des fonctions de l'un, et revêtus des formes, des qualités, des fonctions de l'autre, qui ne se sentirait porté à croire qu'il n'y a jamais eu qu'un premier être prototype de tous les êtres?. Mais, que cette conjecture philosophique soit admise avec le docteur Baumann, comme vraie, ou rejetée avec M. de Buffon comme fausse, on ne niera pas qu'il ne faille l'embrasser comme une hypothèse essentielle au progrès de la physique expérimentale, à celui de la philosophie rationnelle, à la découverte et à l'explication des phénomènes qui dépendent de l'organisation." Cf. also ibid, pp. 57-58: "De même que dans les règnes animal et végétal, un individu commence, pour ainsi dire, s'accroît, dure, dépérit et passe; n'en serait-il pas de même des espèces entières? Si la foi ne nous apprenait que les animaux sont sortis des mains du Créateur tels que nous les voyons; et s'il était permis d'avoir la moindre incertitude sur leur commencement et sur leur fin, le philosophe abandonné à ses conjectures ne pourrait-il pas soupçonner que l'animalité avait de toute éternité ses éléments particuliers, épars et confondus dans la masse de la matière; qu'il est arrivé à ses éléments de se réunir, parce qu'il était possible que cela se fît; que l'embryon formé de ces éléments a passé par une infinité d'organisations et de développements; qu'il a eu, par succession, du mouvement, de la sensation, des idées, de la pensée, de la réflexion, de la conscience, des sentiments, des passions, des signes, des gestes, des sons, des sons articulés, une langue, des lois, des sciences, et des arts; qu'il s'est écoulé des millions d'années entre chacun de ces développements; qu'il a peut-être encore d'autres développements à subir et d'autres accroissements à prendre, qui nous sont inconnus; qu'il a eu ou qu'il aura un état stationnaire; qu'il s'éloigne 011 qu'il s'éloignera de cet état par un dépérissement éternel, pendant lequel ses facultés sortiront de lui comme elles y étaient entrées; qu'il disparaîtra pour jamais de la nature, ou plutôt qu'il continuera d'y exister, mais sous une forme, et avec des facultés tout autres que celles qu'on lui remarque dans cet instant de la durée?" Cf. also Rêve de d'Alembert, Oeiw., II, 137-140. 43. Cf. Popular Srience Monthly, LXV (190.'), 323-327. in article by Α. Ο. I evejoy on "Some Eighteenth Centurv Evolutionists." Cf. also I.ovejoy: The Great Chain of Heina, pp. 268, 27 278-9.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The

Christian

Religion

53

as in the case of that in the article on chaos, he puts into the mouth of others, but it may be safely taken as an indication of what he w o u l d have liked to offer 44 in the Encyclopédie as a substitute for biblical cosmology, if it had not been imprudent to do so. In Mosaïque et Chrétienne Philosophie45 Diderot counsels that one read Genesis without seeking in it scientific discoveries which had not then been made, and of which Moses had n o intention of speaking. In the last paragraph of Chaos,*6 however, while he concedes that n o physical system may contradict the primordial truths of the first book of the Bible, he insists that philosophers have the right to speculate on things not clearly explained in that book without being liable to the charge of impiety. T h e r e is nothing in Genesis for example which makes untenable the hypothesis that the earth was once covered by waters other than those of the deluge. O n the contrary Moses, in the first two verses of that book, by his statement that the earth was without form, that darkness was upon the face of the deep, and that the spirit of G o d moved over the waters, seems to assume that G o d had created chaos before separating it into its various parts. From this it follows that the terrestrial mass was formerly covered with waters which were not those of the deluge, 4 7 a supposition with which our physicists are agreed. T h e r e are other hypotheses, he says, which may be readily shown not to contradict revelation and which may therefore be regarded with indulgence. T h e claim of the Cartesians that light comes from the sun may be reconciled with the biblical statement that G o d created light the first day and the sun afterwards by assuming that G o d created first the globules of light which were to be derived from the sun, and then the sun. T h e theory of the Newtonians that light comes direct from the sun may be rendered harmless by a biblical interpretation not disapproved by the Church, namely that the light which G o d created the first day was the angels. Nor is it heterodox, he adds, to translate the Hebrew verb of the 44. Foi a f u l l e r s t a t e m e n t of D i d e r o t ' s m a t e r i a l i s m , see infra, p p . 61-3. 122-3. 45. Oeuv., X V I , 124. 46. Oeuv., X I V , 92-3. 47. T h e r e is a n a r t i c l e ( c o m p i l e d ) o n t h e Déluge (Cf. Ene., I V , 795-803), w h i c h is a t t r i b u t e d to B o u l a n g e r b o t h at t h e e n d of t h e a r t i c l e a n d in t h e Avertissement to t h e f o u r t h v o l u m e ( C f . ibid., p. ii). It w a s r e p r i n t e d in t h e s e v e n t h v o l u m e of t h e Oeuwres de Boulanger, Paris, 1792-3. a n d was r e c o g n i z e d as B o u l a n g e r ' s by N a v e s ( C f . Voltaire et l'Encyclopédie, p. 1 1 1 ) a n d by T o u i n e u x ( C f . a r t i c l e Bonlanger in t h e Grande Encyclopedic).

54

Chapter II: The

Bible

first verse of Genesis as formavit, disposuit, rather than ere avi t,*8 thus assuming the existence of chaos long before the formation of the universe, since chaos is regarded as having been itself created. It does not follow from this change in translation that Moses believed matter essential, for he states repeatedly that G o d made all things out of nothing, 4 9 statements which have all the authority of the inspired Scriptures. Having taken these precautions with respect to the Genesis narrative, concludes Diderot, one may say anything that one wishes about chaos. H e has indeed said a great deal of what he wished to say. H e has introduced the reader to a number of theories opposed to the story of the creation 6 0 under the excuse either of combatting them (by weak arguments) or of reconciling them, at least superficially, with Genesis. If he could have said more it would have been his own opinion as expressed in the Pensées philosophiques,51 namely that the idea of a creation is entirely chimerical. H e found it advisable in the Encyclopédie to avoid a direct attack on the biblical account of the creation of A d a m and Eve, but took pleasure in repeating various fables 5 2 on this subject which he found in his sources. H e copied Brucker's exposition of Hornius' theory to the effect that A d a m and his descendants were philosophers. 5 3 T h e refutation points out the difference between the wisdom of A d a m before his fall and philosophy; the former consisted in knowledge of G o d , of himself, and of the means to his own felicity, while the latter is the product of curiosity, admiration, and the p a i n f u l labor of reflexion and intellectual struggle. In his defense of Prades he claims to deny 5 4 that the intention of Prades' thesis was to apply to A d a m the Lockian theory of the origin of knowledge in experience, r · 5 since G o d is known to have given A d a m complete knowledge by infusion. T h e Lockian 48. T h e Hebrew ivord in the first verse of Genesis implies divine and supernatural activity and should be translated creavit, not formavit. Cf. Poble-Preuss: God the Author of Nature and the Supernatural, pp. 15, 99. 49. Cf. also Néant, Oeuv., X V I , 143. 50. In Plastique he summarizes also Cudworth's hypothesis of "natures plastiques," or instruments which execute the orders of providence, a hypothesis which makes it unnecessary to turn to either extreme, that is, either a personal creation or the play of chance. Cf. Oeuv., X V I , 303-4. 51. Cf. Oeuv., I, 131, quoted infra, p. 63, n. 3a. 52. Cf. Juifs, Oeuv., X V , 392fl. (taken from Basnage: Histoire des Juifs). 53. Cf. Antédiluvienne, Oeuv., X I I I , 298-304. 54. Cf. Apologie de l'abbé de Prades, Oeuv., I, 449-4.50. 55. A large part of this section of Prades' thesis, that concerning his first and second propositions, is copied from the first pages of d'Alembert's Discours préliminaire de l'Encyclopédie.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian

Religion

55

theory, which he says is shared by a great number of modern theologians and philosophers, was posited only of natural man. T h e interest taken by the Encyclopedists, who were in general hostile to the Christian religion, in the system of Old Testament chronology is imputed by Lynn Thorndike to the fact that in their time scientific excavation and archaeology had not yet disclosed the truth about the early history of man. 56 It is nevertheless true that enough work in natural history had already been done by Buffon and others mentioned by Prades in his thesis57 to convince Diderot of the inadequacy of the ecclesiastical interpretation of the age of the world. This conviction, along with his contempt for revelation, explains the skeptical tone that underlies the simulated orthodoxy of the long article on Chronologie sacrée,58 After mentioning various pagan chronologies he rejects them all as either fabulous or derived from the chronology of the Bible, and states that reason and religion oblige one to accept only the latter as trustworthy. But the biblical chronology is not one but three, he adds, varying according to the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Septuagint texts of the Scriptures. Citing Prades 89 to this effect, he takes exception to the latter's conclusion that none of the chronologies is by Moses and that they were all inserted after his time. However plausible may be Prades' explanation, says60 Diderot, it cannot be endorsed since it has been condemned by several bishops and the Faculty of Theology. T h e n he argues that these chronologies are but three versions of an original chronology by Moses himself which has been corrupted by copyists. Before pointing out certain advantages of detail enjoyed by each of the three texts, and the lack of presumption in favor of any one of them to the exclusion of the others, Diderot seizes the opportunity offered to stress the need of biblical exegesis. He ironically praises the Christian whose respect for his sacred books, unlike that of the pusillanimous Jew or Mussulman, does not prevent his use of the canons of criticism in order to determine with all freedom what is truth and what is not. In the concluding paragraph of the article Diderot's skepticism blossoms into a virtual denunciation of all systems of chronology. Let us finish this discussion, says he, by a reflexion which we owe to the honor of 56. Cf. L'Encyclopédie

and the History

of Science, reprinted from Isis, 1924, $ 18, v.

VI (3). P· 37257. 58. 59. 60.

Cf. Thèse, Recueil, 1753, pp. 7-8. Oeuv., X I V , 163-187. Cf. Recueil, Thèse, pp. 10-11; Apologie, Cf. Oeuv., X I V , 171-2.

pp. 46ft.

56

Chapter II: The

Bible

the famous chronologists. Most of the people 61 who reproach them with their inconsistencies do not seem to have realized the impossibility of precision in such matters. When the difficulty of their task is considered, one is surprised, not that there are differences between chronological systems, but that any one has ever been able to invent one. Some of Diderot's articles on the Old Testament, the Jews and Jewish history and theology, as well as his less frequent references to the Jews outside the Encyclopédie, have been analyzed by Hermann Sänger in Juden und Altes Testament bei Diderot.02 Sänger concludes 63 that there is little in any of the articles to indicate any personal knowledge of the Jews on Diderot's part, nor any interest, except a negative one, in their culture or destiny. While his sources64 were well-informed, he seems to have taken pleasure in choosing fables and anecdotes that would make Judaism ridiculous in the eyes of his readers, and thus indirectly reflect discredit upon the Christian religion. In conclusion, Diderot's articles on the Bible follow the plan for exegetical studies which he laid down in the article Bible in the second volume of the Encyclopédie. While he asserted that his only aim was to ascertain and express the truth, it is evident that, for him, truth lay in emphasizing the conflicting views of scholars regarding the interpretation of the sacred book and their admission of inaccuracies and discrepancies in its texts, to such an extent as to weaken its claim to be the authoritative revelation of the Christian religion. T h e fact that the New Testament revelation was regarded as superseding that of the 61. Cf. ibid., pp. 186-7: "S'ils avaient considéré mûrement la multitude prodigieuse de faits à combiner, la variété de génie des peuples chez lesquels ces faits se sont passés, le peu d'exactitude des dates, inévitable dans les temps où le? événements ne se transmettaient que par tradition; la manie de l'ancienneté dont presque toutes les nations ont été infectées, les mensonges des historiens, leurs erreurs involontaires, la ressemblance des noms qui a souvent diminué le nombre des personnages, leur différence qui les a multipliés plus souvent encore, les fables présentées comme des vérités, les vérités métamorphosées en fables, la diversité des langues, celle des mesures du temps, et une infinité d'autres circonstances qui concourent toutes à former des ténèbres; s'ils avaient, dis-je, considéré mûrement ces choses, ils seraient surpris, non qu'il se soit trouvé des différences entre les systèmes chronologiques qu'on a inventés, mais qu'on en ait jamais pu inventer aucun." Cf. also conclusion of Chronique, Oeuv., X I V , 163. 62. Wertheim am Main, 1933. Cf. supra, p. 13, n. 27. 63. Cf. ibid., pp. 126-8. 64. Sänger names as the principal sources: Basnage: Histoire des Juifs. Brucker: Historia Critica Philosophine. Deslandes: Histoire critique de la philosophie. Calmet: Dictionnaire de la Bible. Cf. ibid, p. 118.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The

Christian

Religion

57

O l d in many respects gave him freedom to attack Judaism more openly, particularly in its accounts of terrestrial origins and early history. Since these accounts were acknowledged to be the basis of subsequent Christian revelation, he, like many of the English deists, like Spinoza, Simon, Meslier, and Voltaire, knew that in attacking them he was indirectly attacking the Christian religion itself. It would seem however that Diderot, more than any of his French predecessors or contemporaries, had a prophetic intuition of the negative results that would follow the development of scientific biblical exegesis, 65 a development that was not to reach full fruition until more than a century later, and which was to weaken belief in prophecy, miracles, and biblical cosmogony, and even in the authority of the Church, far more than the bitter attacks and vituperation of hostile philosophers. 65. T h e r e is a s t r i k i n g e x a m p l e of this in Pensées phil., £ L X , Oeuv., I, 154: " V o u s présentez à u n i n c r é d u l e u n v o l u m e d'écrits d o n t vous p r é t e n d e z d é m o n t r e r la d i v i n i t é . Mais avant q u e d ' e n t i e r d a n s l ' e x a m e n d e vos preuves, il ne m a n q u e r a pas d e vous q u e s t i o n n e r sur cette collection. A-t-elle t o u j o u r s été la m ê m e ? v o u s dcm a n d c r a - t - i l . P o u r q u o i est-elle à présent m o i n s a m p l e q u ' e l l e ne l'était il y a q u e l q u e s siècles? D e q u e l d r o i t a-t-on b a n n i tel et tel o u v r a g e , q u ' u n e a u t r e secte r e v è r e , et conservé tel et tel a u t r e q u ' e l l e a rejeté? Sur q u e l f o n d e m e n t avez-vous d o n n é la p r é f é r e n c e à ce m a n u s c r i t ? Q u i v o u s a d i r i g é dans le c h o i x q u e v o u s avez fait e n t r e tant d e copies d i f f é r e n t e s , q u i sont des p r e u v e s é v i d e n t e s q u e ces sacrés a u t e u r s ne v o u s o n t pas été transmis d a n s l e u r p u r e t é o r i g i n e l l e et p r e m i è r e ? M a i s si l ' i g n o r a n c e des copistes, o u la m a l i c e des h é r é t i q u e s les a c o r r o m p u s , c o m m e il f a u t q u e v o u s en conveniez, v o u s v o i l à forcés d e les restituer dans l e u r état n a t u r e l , a v a n t q u e d ' e n p r o u v e r la d i v i n i t é : car ce n'est pas sur u n recueil d'écrits m u t i l é s q u e t o m b e r o n t vos preuves, et q u e j ' é t a b l i r a i m a c r o y a n c e . "

Ill

GOD, PROVIDENCE, GRACE, EVIL

T

HE FUNDAMENTAL DOGMAS c o n c e r n i n g G o d a n d h i s r e l a t i o n t o

the

world are set forth in a series of orthodox articles, most of which occur in later volumes of the Encyclopédie. W h i l e the Jews emphasized 1 the unity of G o d as opposed to the plural gods of paganism, the Christians admit 2 three persons as existing in a single divine essence. T h e monotheistic conception is thus transformed into a fruitful unity in which the divine nature is communicated by the Father to the Son and by the Father and Son to the Holy Spirit. G o d is then three persons or hypostases 3 in one substance, which is spiritual, infinite, eternal, allpowerful, all-seeing, all-knowing, and which created and rules over all things. T h o s e w h o deny the unity of this substance fall into the heresies of Manicheism, tritheism, or polytheism. T h e tritheists 4 admitted three essences corresponding to the three persons, while the Sabellians, called Patripassians in the west, on the contrary reduced 5 the T r i n i t y to the single person of the Father of which the Son and Holy Spirit are only virtues, emanations, or functions. T h e Socinians renewed the Sabellian heresy by recognizing in the Holy Spirit only a virtue of divinity. In reality the Holy Spirit is equal to the Father and to the Son, from both ι. Cf. Juifs, Oeuv., X V , 378. 2. C f . Trinité Théologique, Enc., X V I , 645-647. T h i s article is largely a restatement of Chambers' article. 3. Cf. also Hypostase, Ene., V i l i , 412-413. Diderot translates Chambers, w h o had used T r é v o u x . 4. Cf. Trithéisme, Ene., X V I , 663-4 (entirely from Chambers, w h o had e x p a n d e d Trévoux). 5. Cf. Sabelliens, Ene., X I V , 458-9: Patripassiens, Ene., X I I , 181-2; Paternité, Ene., X I I , 169. A l l three of these articles are expanded from Chambers, w h o had used Trévoux. T h e article Soeinien, Ene., X V , 260 contains nothing but a cross reference to Unitaires, Ene., X V I I , 387-401. T h e latter is signed by Naigeon, and Naves in Voltaire et l'Encyclopédie, p. 112, η. g6, says that Voltaire erred in attributing this article to a certain Bragelogne. Naigeon states that Unitarians or Socinians have been attacked mostly by sectarians w h o have not read nor understood their philosophy. T h e Unitarians, starting with the assumption that the Bible is a book of h u m a n origin to be interpreted by each individual according to the light of his own reason, find in it no justification for a belief in an infallible church, original sin, grace, predestination, the sacraments, eternal punishment, the resurrection of the dead, the T r i n i t y , the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the moral and political authority exercised by ecclesiastics. T h e i r philosophy is characterized by Naigeon as mechanistic a n d materialistic, involving a denial of God's prescience and man's freedom, and apt to lead its followers into deism, skepticism, and even atheism.

Diderot's Treatment of The Christian Religion

59

of whom it proceeds,® and not from the Father alone as held by the Greek Church. T h e Son, proceeding from the Father, is spoken of as the word or logos. Philo and the Greeks used 7 these terms of word or logos but in the sense of the divine reason or wisdom which created the world, and not in the sense of St. J o h n as a distinct person equal to and consubstantial with the Father. 8 T h e Paulianists or Samosatians of the third century and the Servetists and more recent Antitrinitarians held 9 the heretical idea that the word descended into the flesh of Jesus Christ at birth in much the same way that it entered into the souls of the apostles. Catholics view 1 0 Jesus Christ as combining two natures, the divine and the human, in a single person, a combination which does not produce a third or composed nature as wrongfully inferred by the Monothelites. These articles are purely informative and present the orthodox point of view in objective fashion, as does, with only slight modification, that on Jesus Christ. 1 1 T h e latter, compiled from Brucker's pages on the philosophy of the early Christian fathers, does not concern itself with the second person of the Trinity at all, except to state 12 that he was not a philosopher but a God. Diderot has made one ironical insertion. After acknowledging that heresies resulted from the influence of Platonic thought upon early Christianity, he remarks 13 that since there is some truth in all systems of philosophy the early Christians could not reject all pagan philosophy just because it was pagan. If a metaphysician by his effort were to arrive at an idea analogous to that of the Trinity, one should not be alarmed but should rather conclude that the mystery of the Trinity is not after all, in spite of the claims of the impious, completely inaccessible to reason. T h e main body of this article and the articles on the Trinity do not reproduce the sentiments 6. Cf. Trinité Théologique, Ene., X V I , 646-7. 7. Cf. Verbe, Ene., X V I I , 52-3. This article is largely taken from Calmet. 8. In Trinité Philosophique, Ene., X V I , 647-8, the idea of the Trinity is traced back to the pagan philosophers. Formey's memoirs are acknowledged as the source of the article in part. As a matter of fact the second, third, and fourth paragraphs are taken from the end of Chambers' Trinity. T h e fourth is also in the Trévoux article. 9. Cf. Paulianistes, Ene., X I I , 200; Samosatiens, Ene., X I V , 602-3; Servetistes, Enc., XV, 120-1. 10. Cf. Théandrique, Ene., X V I , 226, entirely from Chambers, who had used Trévoux. 11. Jésus-Christ, Oeuv., XV, 286-302, compiled from Brucker: Historia Critica Philosophiae, III, 241-708. 12. Cf. ibid., p. 287. 13. Cf. ibid., p. 290.

6o

Chapter

III:

God,

Providence,

Grace,

Evil

of Diderot himself, as Naigeon points out in a note 14 taken by Assézat from the Encyclopédie méthodique. T h e article on Spinoza, largely a rearrangement of that of Bayle, does so only in part. Diderot's preference for the Baconian method of investigation and demonstration caused him to react violently to the rationalistic pantheism of Spinoza. T h e latter, he says,15 rejects the Trinity and ascribes to the divine nature as many persons as there are beings. Such a proposition makes God responsible for good and bad alike, including all the follies, dreams, and iniquities of the human race, and surpasses the ravings of the wildest lunatic ever known. It would interpret the statement that the Germans killed ten thousand Turks as meaning that God in the form of Germans killed God in the form of ten thousand Turks, and imply that God hates himself, asks pardon of himself and refuses the request, persecutes himself, kills himself, eats himself, calumniates himself, and sends himself to the scaffold. T o call attention to such absurdities is to refute them. But Diderot's reaction to this and to the further proposition that matter and movement are distinct, the universe having been formed by the introduction of movement, leads him to affirm1® the necessity of an intelligent and all-powerful first cause as the creator of movement and the universe. In a burst of orthodoxy he adds that this cause must have acted with design since it would be absurd to deny that the eye was made for seeing and the ear for hearing. 17 Upon the basis of the articles thus far examined we might agree with Sainte-Beuve and Bersot, 18 and others since Bersot, that Diderot did not deny God. We might indeed go much further and conclude that Diderot believed in a personal God. But that the truth lies elsewhere is indicated even in the Encyclopédie, where it was very dangerous to attack such fundamental doctrines as those concerning the Trinity. These indications are to be found in articles on non-religious or semi-religious subjects. In Théosophes19 Jesus is classed with the unbalanced fanatics 14. C f . ibid., p p . 286-7. 15. C f . Spinosa, Oeiiv., X V I I , 176-9. 16. C f . ibid., p. 204. 17. C f . also Manichéisme, Oeitv., X V I . 84: " N o n s e u l e m e n t les lois d u s e n t i m e n t se j o i g n e n t à t o u t l ' u n i v e i s p o u r d é p o s e r en f a \ e u r d ' u n e c a u s e i n t e l l i g e n t e ; j e dis p l u s , elles a n n o n c e n t u n l é g i s l a t e u r b i e n f a i s a n t . " T h i s section is c o p i e d f r o m L e v e s q u e d e P o u i l l y : Théorie des sentimens agréables, p p . 94-103. 18. C f . S a i n t e - B e u v e : Causerie du lundi, 20 j a n v i e r 1851. G a r n i e r , III, 293; Bersot: Etudes sur le XVHIe siècle, Paris, 1855 (earlier e d i t i o n in 1851), I I , 181. 19. Oeuv., X V I I , 266: " C e sont les t e m p s d ' i g n o r a n c e et d e g r a n d e s c a l a m i t é s q u i les [fanatics] f o n t n a î t r e : a l o r s les h o m m e s q u i se c r o i e n t p o u r s u i v i s p a r la D i v i n i t é se r a s s e m b l e n t a u t o u r d e ces espèces d'insensés q u i d i s p o s e n t d ' e u x . Ils o r d o n n e n t des sacrifices, et ils sont faits: des prières, et l'on p r i e : des j e û n e s , et l ' o n j e û n e ; d e s

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian

Religion

61

born in a time of ignorance and calamity, and in Suicide,20 where Dr. Donne's arguments in defense of suicide are reported, he is referred to as a martyr 21 whose death was voluntary. In Juifs, where Jesus is spoken of as "that obscure and fanatical Jew," 2 2 there is a passage23 deploring the universal tendency to give God a corporal form as a want of respect for divinity. T h e absurd things that are said about the divine being, comments 24 Diderot in another article, encourage atheism, since, rather than believe in God as he is described, some people will deny the existence of God altogether, and they will be speaking the truth. 25 There is nothing to be gained by imagining God as a final cause, since the universe can be explained in terms of movement, matter, and space.2® T h e world is the result of chance, and not of any design; its atoms have been in motion since all eternity. While this passage interpreting Epicurus is based on Brucker 27 we can be sure that it represents the meurtres, et l'on égorge; des chants d'allégresse et de joie, et l'on se couronne de fleurs et l'on danse et l'on chante: des temples, et l'on en élève: les entreprises les plus désespérées, et elles réussissent: ils meurent, et ils sont adorés. Il faut ranger dans cette classe Pindare, Eschyle, Moïse, Jésus-Christ, Mahomet, Shakspeare, Roger Bacon et Paracelse." 20. Oetw., X V I I , 235. T h i s passage is taken from Donne: Biathanatos, part 3, section 5. 3 9· s i . T h e article Messie, Enc., X , 401-407 is unsigned, but was contributed by Polier de Bottens at the instance of Voltaire. Cf. R . Naves: Voltaire et l'Encyclopédie, pp. 32. >43-5· 22. Oeuv., „W, 367. Cf. also Lettres à Sophie VoUand, I I I , 176. 23. Cf. ibid.. p. 381. Cf. also Iinmatérialisme, Oeuv., X V , 169, 173 ff. 24. Cf. Malabares, Oeuv., X V I , 42. T h e comment is from Diderot's own pen: " I I n'est pas étonnant qu'il y ait des athées partout où il y a des superstitieux; c'est un raisonnement qu'on fera partout où l'on racontera de la Divinité des choses absurdes. Au lieu de dire: Dieu n'est pas tel qu'on me le peint, on dira: Il n'y a point de Dieu, et l'on dira la vérité." Note also the inference in Manichéisme, infra, p. 76. 25. Outside the Encyclopédie he speaks more freely and precisclv. C.f. Pensées philosophiques, Oeuv., I, 129-130: "Sur le portrait qu'on me fait de l'Etre suprême, sur son penchant à la colère, sur la rigueur de ses vengeances, sur certaines comparaisons qui nous expriment en nombre le rapport de ceux qu'il laisse périr à ceux à qui il daigne tendre la main, l'âme la plus droite serait tentée de souhaiter qu'il n'existât pas. L'on serait assez tranquille en ce monde, si l'on était assez bien assuré que l'on n'a rien à craindre dans l'autre: la pensée qu'il n'y a point de Dieu n'a jamais effrayé personne, mais bien celle qu'il y en a un tel que celui qu'on me peint." (5 I X ) "Oui, je le soutiens, la superstition est plus injurieuse à Dieu que l'athéisme, l'aimerais mieux, dit Plutarque, qu'on pensât qu'il n'y eut jamais de Plutarque au monde, que de croire que Plutarque est injuste, colère, inconstant, jaloux, vindicatif, et tel qu'il serait bien fâché d'être." (Jf X I I ) Cf. also Addition aux Pensées phil., S X X X V I I I , X X X I X , X L , Oeuv., I, 164: Ï I . X I . Oeuv., I, 167: La Moïsade, Oeuv., IV, 120, quoted supra, p. -,o. 11. 38. 26. Cf. Epicuréisme, Oeuv.. X I V . 514. Cf. also supra, pp. 5 1 - 3 , and infra, pp. 122-3. 27. Cf. Historia Critica Philosophiae, II, 1272.

62

Chapter

III: God, Providence,

Grace,

Evil

thought of Diderot as well as Epicurus since it corresponds to numerous expressions of Diderot's materialistic philosophy outside the Encyclopédie. T h e denial of God as first cause is indeed emphatic in works free from the restraint of the royal privilege. Matter and movement exist from all eternity, and the universe is a result of the chance play of atoms, which Diderot likens 28 to throws of dice. Given an infinite number of throws, any combination is possible including that which represents the actual arrangement of the universe. T h e world 29 is nothing but a mass of molecules loaded in an infinite number of ways. There is a law of necessity which operates without design, without effort, without intelligence, and without progress in all the works of nature. T h e very idea 30 of God is incomprehensible and hence as provocative of discord and strife as if it had been proposed by a misanthrope to bring misfortune upon mankind. It obscures any metaphysical question to which it is applied by adding an explanation which must itself be explained, 31 28. Cf. Pensées phil., Ocuv., I, 135-6: "J'ouvre les cahiers d ' u n professeur célèbre, et je lis: 'Athées, je vous accorde que le mouvement est essentiel à la matière; qu'en concluez-vous? . . . q u e le monde résulte du jet fortuit des atomes? J'aimerais autant q u e vous me dissiez q u e Ylliade d'Homère, ou la Henriade de Voltaire est un résultat de jets fortuits de caractères.' Je me garderai bien de faire ce raisonnement il un athée: cette comparaison lui donnerait beau jeu. Selon les lois de l'analyse des sorts, me dirait-il, j e ne dois point être surpris qu'une chose arrive lorsqu'elle est possible, et que la difficulté de l'événement est compensée par la quantité des jets. Il y a tel nombre de coups dans lesquels je gagerais, avec avantage, d'amener cent mille six à la fois avec cent mille dés. Quelle que fût la somme finie des caractères avec laquelle on me proposerait d'engendrer fortuitement Ylliade, il y a telle somme finie de jets qui me rendrait la proposition avantageuse: mon avantage serait même infini si la quantité de jets accordée était infinie. Vous voulez bien convenir avec moi, continuerait-il, que la matière existe de toute éternité, et que le mouvement lui est essentiel. Pour répondre à cette faveur, j e vais supposer avec vous q u e le monde n'a point de bornes; q u e la multitude des atomes était infinie, et que cet ordre qui vous étonne ne se dément nulle part: or, de ces aveux réciproques, il ne s'ensuit autre chose, sinon q u e la possibilité d'engendrer fortuitement l'univers est très-petite, mais que la quantité des jets est infinie, c'est-à-dire q u e la difficulté de l'événement est plus que suffisamment compensée par la multitude des jets. Donc, si quelque chose doit répugner à la raison, c'est la supposition que, la matière s'étant mue de toute éternité, et qu'y ayant peut-être dans la somme infinie des combinaisons possibles un nombre infini d'arrangements admirables, il ne se soit rencontré aucun de ces arrangements admirables dans la multitude infinie de ceux qu'elle a pris successivement. Donc, l'esprit doit être plus étonné de la durée hypothétique du chaos que de la naissance réelle de l'univers." «9. Cf. Salon de ιη6η, Oeuv., X I , 103. Cf. also Apologie de l'abbé de Prades, Oeuv., I, 458; Pensées philosophiques, $ X V , Oeuv., I, 131. 30. Cf. Entretien avec la Maréchale de · · · . Oeuv., II, 513. Cf. also Addition aux Pensées phil., Oeuv., I, 170; Correspondance inédite, I, 278. 31. Cf. Lettre sur les aveugles, Oeuv., I, 308; De la suffisance de la religion naturelle, Oeuv., I, 270. Cf. also Eléments de physiologie, Oeuv., IX, 438.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian

Religion

63

and which does not fit the facts of existence. For if the marvels of the physical order imply an intelligent creator, says32 Diderot, the confusion in the moral order destroys that implication, and indicates that God is either helpless or malevolent. For men to overlook prevalent evil and disorder in the universe and to infer God solely from the order that exists reminds 33 Diderot that worms and ants might equally well infer from the convenience of their underground habitation in a pile of refuse that it had been arranged expressly for them by the superior intelligence of the gardener. When all his works are taken into consideration, it is quite clear then that Diderot not only finds nothing useful in the idea of God, but that he regards it as positively harmful, indeed so obscure and controversial a conception that it should be gotten rid 34 of altogether. Providence is defined35 in the Encyclopédie as "the care which divinity takes of its works, as much in preserving them as in directing their 32. Cf. Pensées phil., Oeuv., I, 131-2: "Je vous dis qu'il n'y a point de Dieu; que la création est une chimère; q u e l'éternité du monde n'est pas plus incommode que l'éternité d'un esprit; que, parce q u e j e ne conçois pas comment le mouvement a pu engendrer cet univers, q u ' i l a si bien la vertu de conserver, il est ridicule de lever cette difficulté par l'existence supposée d'un être que j e ne conçois pas davantage; que, si les merveilles q u i brillent dans l'ordre physique décèlent q u e l q u e intelligence, les désordres qui régnent dans l'ordre moral anéantissent toute Providence. Je vous dis que, si tout est l'ouvrage d'un Dieu, tout doit être le mieux qu'il est possible: car, si tout n'est pas le m i e u x qu'il est possible: c'est en Dieu impuissance ou mauvaise volonté." 33. Cf. letter of June 11, 174g to Voltaire in Oeuvres, X I X , 421, in reply to the latter's criticism of the Lettre sur les aveugles. 34. C f . M. T o u r n e u x : Diderot et Catherine II, pp. 303-4: "Je ne dirai rien de Dieu par respect pour Votre Majesté. Elle aime à se persuader qu'elle a dans le ciel un modèle q u i a les yeux ouverts sur sa conduite et qui, la voyant marcher avec tant de bonté, tant de noblesse, tant de grandeur et d'humanité, lui sourit et se complaît dans un spectacle q u e la terre ne lui offre pas souvent. Je respecte cette belle chimère que Socrate, Phocion, T i t u s , T r a j a n et Marc-Aurèie ont eue comme elle. Mais, malgré les épreuves auxquelles j'ai mis son indulgence, j'y compte encore, et j'oserai l'entretenir des dangers de la morale religieuse. D u moment où l'on reconnaît un Dieu, on admet un être qui s'irrite et qui s'apaise. D u moins, ces idées sont essentiellement liées dans l'esprit, je ne dis pas d u peuple, mais des déistes les plus éclairés. Reléguer, comme Epicure l'a fait, les dieux dans les interstices des mondes, et les endormir là dans une profonde nonchalance, c'est une façon honnête de s'en défaire." Cf. also Entretien avec la Maréchale de * * * , Oeuv., II, 514; Grimm: Correspondance littéraire, V , 135-6. Cf. also Naigeon's comment in note to Mosaïque et Chrétienne (Phil.), Oeuv., X V I , 136. Cf. supra, p. 41, n. 88. R . L. C r u in Diderot and English Thought, pp. 112-114, cites a conversation which Sir Samuel Romilly had with Diderot in Paris in 1781 (Cf. Romilly: Memoirs (1840). I, 63-64, 179) in the course of which Diderot freely asserted his total disbelief in God. 35. Cf. Providence, Oeuv., X V I , 442.

64

Chapter

III: God, Providence,

Grace,

Evil

operations." T h a t the ancient philosophers with their vague ideas about spirit admitted a general if not a specific providence might astonish us, says Diderot, if it were not for the fact that the conception of a providence is so natural to the human mind and so deeply imprinted in all hearts. T h e Epicureans however, he says, quoting Bayle, 36 denied providence and were more consistent than those who accepted the idea, for their denial followed naturally their disbelief in the creation of matter. Not at all loath to follow Bayle's lead in justifying the Epicureans he adds that if matter is eternal so is motion, and what need then has the universe of direction? An Epicurean might indeed ask what right God had to modify the state in which matter had existed from eternity? A philosopher (Bayle specifies a Platonist) would reply that God exercises his power over matter by virtue of his goodness and his wish to bring matter to a more perfect state. T h e Epicurean 37 might then ask why the natural and eternal state of a thing should need improving, and why, given the qualities and susceptibilities of matter, God should have undertaken any improvement without knowledge of the results38 to be expected? In response to this Diderot quotes part of a passage39 from Malebranche, which he found in Bayle's Remark T , explaining that God could not know the qualities of matter if he had not given it being, since all his knowledge must come from within himself. But Diderot does not follow Bayle's example in quoting the conclusion of Malebranche, namely, that philosophers must therefore recognize that God did create matter, unless they wish to render him ignorant and powerless. He also omits Bayle's praise of the Bible (in Bayle's text) as the infallible guide which makes the objections of Epicurus disappear like smoke, and Bayle's insinuations (in Remark S) regarding the ambiguity of the same book. While this part of the article seems inconclusive, 40 one thing in it is clear, namely that Diderot could find no adequate reply to Bayle's arguments. Following a rather confused résumé of the views on providence of other ancient philosophers, most of whom are mentioned in Bayle's notes, a résumé which is clearly intended to bear out the earlier state36. T h i s passage on pp. 444-446 is largely copied f r o m Remarks S and Τ of Bayle's article 011 Epicurus, though Bayle's order is not followed. 37. Bayle puts seven objections to providence in the mouth of Epicurus of which Diderot chooses two—the first and fourth. Bayle's objections are found in Remark S. 38. Diderot does not repeat Bayle's reference in this connection to the appearance on the earth of moral and physical evil, which had existed onlv in germ in the primitive state of matter. 39. Cf. "Neuvième Méditation chrétienne," paragraph 5 5. 40. Cf. supra, p. 23.

Diderot's Treatment

of The Christian Religion

65

ment that belief in a general providence is to be found among all peoples, the article ends with a long and extremely orthodox conclusion. Providence is likened 4 1 to the care of a father for his children, to the concern of a worker for his work. T h e deist is called upon to choose between the good and wise God of the Christians and the proud, indifferent god of Epicurus or of certain deists. If man did not recognize the workings of providence in the spectacle of the vast universe he would do so upon looking within himself and listening to the inner voice that seeks to instruct him concerning the parallel between the organization of his own body and that of the universe. T h e r e are certain bodily movements like the circulation of blood which he cannot interrupt, others like respiration which he can stop for a moment by an act of will. Similarly in the universe, of which man is the image, there are certain processes governed by immutable law with which God never interferes, and others like the movements of the sun and moon which he can suspend as he did in the case of Joshua. If a man can move or not move his arm at will, can reward or punish his children according to his wisdom, cannot G o d do as much? A watchmaker can advance or retard the hands of the watch he has made without disturbing its mechanism. So G o d can dispose events on individual planets without altering the uniform and perpetual movement of the universe. T h e love between sexes, the love of fathers for their children, and general human sympathy are three means more powerful than reason by which the divine wisdom is able to lead men to its own ends without in any way limiting their freedom. T h e difficulties raised against a belief in the doctrine of providence may all be easily disposed of. T h e existence of many useless and even harmful things signaled by the Epicureans and by Lucretius may be explained by the operation of general laws which are good in themselves and to which it would not be fitting for God to make continual exceptions. If men were familiar with these laws seeming disorder would appear as order. Did not those who first revolted against the new theory of planetary movement and the discovery of the circulation of the blood finish by accepting these things as natural and inevitable? Uses are found for things which seem to be only a source of danger; excellent remedies are made from some poisons, and even monstrosities may serve to increase respect for the goodness in perfect beings. It is not chance therefore which determines exceptions to the general rule of 41. Cf. Providence, Oeuv., X V I , 450«.

66

Chapter III: God, Providence,

Grace,

Evil

order. T h e term chance 4 2 is only a fiction to explain effects of which the cause is not known. N o t h i n g happens by chance in relation to God who knows all causes and their effects. H e has fixed the universe not only in its general movements but in its most particular details, even to the number of leaves on a tree and the number of grains of sand on the shore. M u c h more then is he concerned with all that has to do with man, the highest of his creatures. B u t in directing h u m a n affairs he always acts in such a way as to fully conserve man's liberty. If it seems difficult for us to reconcile God's providential action with man's liberty we should remember that our intelligence is limited. T o ask how G o d can k n o w and care for so many things at one and the same time is to forget that his knowledge and power of action are infinite. Even man is aware of more than one sensation at a time and can store in his memory a vast quantity of words and ideas. T h e mind of God embraces all things great and small; nothing is low or despicable in his sight. It is true that Jews, Christians, and especially pagans, have found the suffering of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked incompatible with the government of a wise and just God, but there are several solutions to this problem. N o t all w h o appear righteous are really so at heart; even the most pious are not free from all blemish. Nor are all things evil which are so regarded; obscurity and poverty are often more conducive to happiness than prominence and riches. Contentment of spirit makes the righteous forget their troubles, and calamities serve as a test whose issue is sweet. W h a t e v e r apparent injustice this life contains will be compensated for in the next life. Furthermore the wicked sometimes appear happy without really being so, since they are at the mercy of their passions and are prey to remorse; their prosperity ordinarily turns into bitterness. Some pay the penalty of their crimes in this life, and those w h o escape will be judged and punished hereafter. 4 3 In the meantime G o d may bear with sinners and even cause them to prosper in order to turn them to him or to reward whatever h u m a n virtue they may possess. N o t h i n g could be more orthodox than this homiletical peroration. O n e might think that it set forth Diderot's own enthusiasm for the doctrine of providence if it were not for the criticism at the beginning of the article of ancient philosophers for their illogical belief in provi42. Cf. also Fortuit, Oem·., X V , 24. 43. In Christianisme he affirms [he moral value of the dogma of a "Providence . . . the strongest brake that can b e given to m e n . " Oeuv., X I V , 144. C f . infra, pp. »05-6.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian Religion

67

dence, and the stress laid upon the objections to it raised by an Epicurean. It is clear that Diderot's unacknowledged quotation from Malebranche constitutes no effective reply since it merely insists upon the necessity of believing that G o d created and orders matter, in order that the divine being (Diderot does not quote this part) may be preserved from the charge of ignorance and impotency. W e have already seen 44 in the article on Epicureanism that Diderot himself rejected the idea of G o d as a final cause and explained the universe entirely in terms of the eternity of matter and motion. T h e opposition between the doctrine of man's freewill and that of providence had a peculiar fascination for Diderot, and claimed his attention in a number of articles. T h e necessary relationship between the operations of G o d and his knowledge of their consequences, says 45 he, seems to strike a mortal blow at man's liberty. W e can form an idea of God's foreknowledge by examining that which man possesses in lesser degree. If astronomers foresee an eclipse they can do so only because the celestial bodies move according to an unvarying law. So G o d , the author of all things, w h o knows perfectly the law of celestial movements, foresees eclipses and all events that depend upon a necessary and invariable order. B u t it is impossible to conceive of even G o d as foreseeing the action of causes that are free. If he foresees their action they are no longer free. If they are really free he cannot foresee their action, since it would be beneath his dignity to foresee things which he had created in such a way as not to be foreseen. If Diderot had followed his source at this point, as well as his personal views, he would have concluded that man is not free. 46 But this would of course have been highly imprudent in an article on an orthodox subject. Accordingly he ends the article with an appeal to faith. T h a t is to say, he reaffirms arbitrarily both principles as being equally authentic in the testimony of the prophets and the Scriptures. It is true that men are free and also that the infinite G o d foresees their free actions. T h e major part of the article, however, remains entirely negative. 44. C f . supra, p p . 61-2. 45. C f . Prescience, Enc., X I I I , 310. T h i s passage is c o p i e d f r o m Traité sur la liberté, p p . 100-103 t h e e d i t i o n b o u n d w i t h Examen de la religion, 1745. I. O . W a d e t h i n k s that t h e Traite sur la liberté was first p u b l i s h e d in t h e Nouvelles libertés de penser, in 1743 ( C f . The Clandestine Organization and Diffusion of Philosophie Ideas in France from iyoo to 1750, p . 21). J. C a r r e a t t r i b u t e s it to F o n t e n c l l e (Cf. La Philosophie de Fontenclle, p p . 32, 333d.) u p o n e v i d e n c e f o u n d in N'aigeon (Cf. Encyclopédie méthodique, L , 474) a n d t h e c o r r e s p o n d e n c e of t h e A b b é T r u b l e t . 46. The Traité sur la liberté d e m o n s t r a t e s that t h e soul is d e p e n d e n t u p o n c e r e b r a l sensations a n d is t h e r e f o r e not free. C f . infra, p p . 118-119.

68

Chapter

III:

God, Providence,

Grace,

Evil

In Liberté he outlines47 the orthodox argument employed with regard to prescience and freedom. Foreknowledge has no effect upon the certainty of an event; its relation to the future is comparable to the relation of knowledge to the present or of memory to the past. The certainty of the event is the same regardless of the existence of these various forms of knowledge. While this is intelligible, says Diderot, the difficulty remains of explaining how God can foresee future events unless they are part of a chain of necessary causes. The usual explanation, namely that if one who knows a man's character can predict his conduct in certain circumstances much more can the infinite God foresee undetermined events, seems to Diderot more an admission of man's lack of freedom than a solution of the problem. 48 Man's freewill is likewise menaced by a second principle involved in God's care of his creatures, that of predetermination or physical premotion. Diderot's definition of this principle is copied from Chambers who in turn had taken it from Trévoux: Les scholastiques appellent pré détermination physique ou prémotion le concours de Dieu qui fait agir les hommes, et qui les fait déterminer dans toutes leurs actions bonnes ou mauvaises, mais ils observent que Dieu n'a point de part au péchc, parce qu'il ne prête son concours qu'à ce qu'il y a de physique dans l'action. . . ,49 Theologians are divided on the relationship of prescience to predetermination, says50 Diderot, some [Molinists] holding that God foresaw51 the free acts of men before determining them, others [Thomists] maintaining the contrary. It is the latter or Thomist interpretation which appears to destroy man's freedom in that it subordinates all second causes to the first cause.52 T h e basic idea of their system is that God as first cause must influence 53 all the actions of his creatures by his premotion, which is termed physical predetermination in the natural order and efficacious grace in the supernatural order. They claim to safeguard freedom by insisting that God wills that his creatures in acting shall act freely. The Thomist position is further characterized 47. 48. 49. 50.

Cf. Oeiw., X V , 497-8. For f u r t h e r analysis of the article Liberie see infra, p p . i i 8 l f . Predetermination, Enc., X I I I , 279. T h e source is C h a m b e r s ( T r é v o u x ) . Cf. Futurition, Oeuv., X V , 32.

51. Cf. also Molinisme, Enc., X , 630, points 11 and 12. C f . infra, 52. Cf. Prédétermination, Ene., X I I I , 279. 53. Cf. Thomistes, Ene., X V I , 294-5.

pp. 72-3.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The

Christian

Religion

69

in Prémotion physique,5* as an insistence upon the necessity of particular premotion or immediate concurrence, that is, the concurrence of God in each individual act. Diderot condenses 53 (without acknowledgment) Condillac's résumé of a book written in defense of physical premotion and repeats some of Condillac's pertinent criticisms. T h e article concludes with the assertion that the defenders of physical premotion have never been able to convince5® their critics that a man whose every act must be predetermined can be free, nor that their system does not make G o d the author of sin, since man sins only because there is lacking a sufficient degree of premotion to give his act the perfection it should have. T h i s latter charge, which contradicts the definition 5 7 given in the article on predetermination, is repeated in Concours58 in the name of Bayle. If G o d is the immediate author of every human activity then man is a purely passive subject, a mere automaton who cannot be held to account for his actions. T h i s latter article makes clearer the distinction between various terms employed in the discussion of these questions, but asserts that all the explanations offered are obscure in meaning and involve the insoluble problem as to how mind can influence matter. W h i l e two examples of God's immediate concurrence are given, namely in the activity of the angels who killed the first-born in Egypt and in the revelation of the law to Moses with its accompanying thunder and lightning, the article ends with the open avowal that immediate concurrence and physical premotion are equally untenable hypotheses. T h e skepticism which underlies the presentation of these controversial questions is more than confirmed in other articles. In Malebranchisme59 Diderot approves Malebranche's condemnation of the doctrine of physical premotion, and agrees that the kind of G o d it assumes would be 54. C f . Oeuv., X V I , 392. 55. T h e passage f r o m t h e b o t t o m of p. 393 to the m i d d l e of p. 396 is a d a p t e d f r o m C o n d i l l a c : Traité des systèmes, 1749. C f . C o n d i l l a c : Oeiw., Paris, 1798, II, 193-208. 56. A c c o r d i n g to t h e T h o i i i i s i s G o d ' s p r e d e t e r m i n a t i o n s in time, as praemotiones physicae, p h y s i c a l l y p r e d e t e r m i n e t h e c r e a t e d will freely to p e r f o r m the action w i l l e d , or, in t h e case of sin, t h e a c t i o n p e r m i t t e d , by G o d . C f . Pohle-l'reus.s: Gn03. T h e greater part of this paragraph is copied rather freely from Buffier: Cours de Sciences, column 689. 104. Cf. Oeuv., X V , 507-8.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian

Religion

121

ities that of indifference of equilibrium, one will have a definition of liberty as it exists in mortal life and as deemed necessary by the Church for man to merit and demerit in a state of fallen nature. After quoting and condemning the third proposition of Jansen, he correctly represents the Catholic Church as insisting upon defining freedom as free from moral as well as physical necessity, that is to say, a liberty of indifference or equilibrium, but not of perfect equilibrium, the latter being contrary to experience and therefore ridiculous. This orthodox conclusion is the companion piece of a passage105 earlier in the article, in which he comments on the difficulty of reconciling freewill with divine prescience.106 It is to the effect that there are excellent arguments against a belief in freewill just as there are against the existence of God, but that since he believes in providence and creation in spite of the "extreme difficulties" in the way of such a belief, so he believes himself to be "free" in spite of the "weighty objections" that will always be brought against the hapless doctrine of freewill. This is the article that convinced Rosenkranz107 that Diderot really believed the will to be free. On the contrary his defense of freewill is intentionally weak when he opposes Spinoza, Bayle, and the author of Traité sur la liberté, and his Leibnitzian arguments against the Catholic doctrine of the liberty of indifference are so much stronger and more numerous than the arguments for it as to efface the latter altogether. His orthodox conclusion is quite inconsistent with his most telling arguments, and, along with his protestation of belief in providence, creation, and freewill, is nothing but an appeal to the censors to pass the article. No, it is the argument of Spinoza (the ensemble of whose ideas he vigorously denounced in his article108 on the man himself) that represents Diderot's own opinion on freewill, and this is confirmed by his philosophical articles, and by his other works and correspondence. Even in Liberté we find him developing with considerable relish the supposed consequences of Spinoza's doctrine. Take away freedom, he says,109 and you upset the entire order of human nature. If men are not free in what they do of good or evil, the good is no longer good, nor evil evil. If an inevitable necessity makes us will what we will, the will itself is no more responsible than a machine; terms like vice, virtue, modesty, remorse lose their meaning, and it becomes ridiculous to talk of recompense, un105. Cf. ibid., p. 498. 106. Cf. supra, p. 68. 107. Cf. Diderot's Leben

108. Cf. supra, p. 60.

und Werke,

II, 382-3.

109. Cf. Oeuv., X V . 501. Cf. also Laideur,

Oeuv., XV, 410.

122

Chapter V: Moral Ideas

just to impose punishment. Diderot's seemingly indignant comment that a doctrine which destroys freewill is not worthy of examination and should be condemned by magistrates does not obscure the fact that under the pretense of refuting the doctrine he has given it so forceful a presentation that it really amounts to a defense. A similar statement of the dire consequences necessarily following the destruction of freewill occurs in Droit naturel,110 where also it terminates with a prudent counsel of orthodoxy, stressing the necessity of thoroughly establishing the reality of freewill. In Volonté111 however Diderot states his belief in determinism very frankly, without any pretense of an orthodox epilogue. Men, he says, are all equally moved by the impression of an object which draws or repulses them. If they suddenly wish the contrary of what they wished before, it is because an atom has fallen on the arm of the balance to make it lean in the opposite direction. Nor do they do what they wish when the two arms are equally weighted. He concludes: Si l'on pèse bien ces considérations, on sentira combien il est difficile de se faire une notion quelconque de la liberté, sur-tout dans un enchaînement de causes et des effets, tels que celui dont nous faisons partie. 1 1 2 Elsewhere in the Encyclopédie also he makes it very clear that the chain of cause and effect operates in every phase of human life, 1 1 3 extending through both the physical and moral order. 1 1 4 T h e most striking exposition of Diderot's determinism is to be found in a letter to Landois of J u n e 29, 1756, where he unburdened his soul without fear of Church or state. T h e word liberty is empty of meaning, he writes, 1 1 5 for there are not and cannot be any free beings; men are the product of the general order, of organization, education, and the chain of events. One can no more conceive of a being acting without exterior cause than of a balance dipping without the action of a weight; those who argue that men are free confuse willing with being free. If there is no such thing as freedom there is no action which merits praise or blame, there is neither vice nor virtue, nothing to be recompensed or 1 1 0 . Cf. Oetw., XIV, 297. For question of authorship see supra, p. 1 1 1 , n. 47. 1 1 1 . Cf. Encyclopédie, X V I I , 454. 112. Cf. ibid. 1 1 3 . Cf. Fortuit, Oeuv., X V , 24. 114. Cf. Indépendance, Oeuv., X V , 197-8. 1 1 5 . Cf. Oeuv., X I X , 435-6. Cf. similar passage in a letter supposedly written to N'aigeon, Babelon: Correspondance inédite, I, 310-311.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian

Religion

123

punished. Properly speaking there is only one kind of cause, the physical, and one kind of necessity, which is the same for all beings. T h i s letter and many passages from Diderot's uncensored works establish his determinism beyond the shadow of a doubt. His denial of moral freedom is a necessary corollary of his physiological theory that sensation and reflection are functions of the brain, that is, of matter with a high degree of sensibility. Man differs from the animals only in degree, and his volitions form a chain each link of which is dependent on those which precede; from this chain there is no escape. 116 In conclusion it must be pointed out that Diderot's moral philosophy is not invalidated by his determinism. T h e point to emphasize is not the existence of a contradiction between the two, which may be more apparent than real, due to use of the same words in different senses, but the fact that he succeeds in being both a determinist and a moralist. In Jacques le fataliste the hero expresses 117 the same determinism as that of the letter to Landois, but Diderot comments that though one might therefore imagine that Jacques neither rejoiced nor grieved over anything, in reality he behaved just as any one else. Jacques substituted for the terms vice and virtue, which are associated with freedom of the will, those of evil-doing and well-doing, or else he used the old terms in this new sense. So after rejecting the old terms in the letter to Landois, Diderot uses 118 the new ones, remarking that though man is not free, evildoing must be eradicated. For the man whose actions are determined is no less a being capable of modification through the effect of example, discourses, education, pleasure, suffering, grandeur, and misery. He makes it clear in developing Spinoza's system in the article Liberté119 that if one no longer speaks of recompense and punishment, there is still the necessity of encouraging well-doing and discouraging evil-doing. Laws, good example, and exhortation become even more useful than before, since they have a necessary effect. Hence the system which seemed so dangerous is not so at all; it changes nothing in the good order of society. T h e things which corrupt men are still to be suppressed, and the things which make them better are still to be multiplied and strength116. Cf. Ré ve de d'Alembert, Oeuv., II, 114-117, 138-140, 175-6; Réfutation de l'ouxrrage d'Ilelvétius, Oeuv., II, 373; Dieu et l'homme, Oeuv., IV, 93; Jacques le fataliste, Oeuv., VI, 180, 264-5; and especially Eléments de physiologie, Oeuv., I X ,

272-3. 35'· 374-5· 117. Cf. Oeuv., VI, 180-1. Cf. also Réfutation 118. Cf. Oeuv., X I X , 436. 119. Cf. Oeuv., X V , 482-3.

de l'ouvrage d'Helvétius,

Oeuv., II, 373.

124

Chapter

V: Moral

Ideas

e n e d . 1 2 0 I n Malfaisant

h e c o n t i n u e s to use the old terms of p u n i s h m e n t

a n d recompense, i n s i s t i n g 1 2 1 that t h o u g h m e n are n o t f r e e they are n o less subject to the m o d i f y i n g i n f l u e n c e of g o o d e x a m p l e s , homilies, p u n ishment, r e c o m p e n s e , b l a m e a n d praise. C l e a r l y then f o r D i d e r o t h a b i t s d e t e r m i n e s the f u t u r e of a m a n ; evil o f t e n comes f r o m b a d e d u c a t i o n , the f o r m a t i o n of b a d habits, a n d evil a s s o c i a t i o n s , 1 2 3 a n d m a n ' s success in the c o o p e r a t i v e search f o r h a p p i n e s s in a d e t e r m i n i s t i c w o r l d still dep e n d s u p o n the i n t e l l i g e n c e a n d insight w i t h w h i c h h e relates himself to his physical a n d m o r a l e n v i r o n m e n t . 1 2 4 120. Naigeon uses this same passage in his article Fatalisme in the second volume of his Diet, de la philosophie ancienne et moderne (1791). that is to say, volume 147 of the Encyclopédie méthodique. Cf. Diderot: Oeuvres, note following article Epicuréisme, on p. 529 of volume X I V . These ideas had been expressed already in Traité sur la liberté, pp. 125-6. i s t . Cf. Ueuv., X V I , 57. Cf. also Modification, Oeuv., X V I , 120. 122. Cf. Eléments de physiologie, Oeuv., I X , 376. 123. Cf. Passions, Oeuv., X V I , 213. Cf. also letter to Sophie VoUand, Nov. 6, 1760, Oeuv., X I X , 7; letter to Landois, J u n e 29, 1756, Oeuv., X I X , 435. 124. Cf. Fragment inédit, quoted by Hermand in La Morale de Diderot, pp. 189-190; "L'homme naît avec un germe de vertu, quoiqu'il ne naisse pas vertueux. Il ne parvient à cet état sublime qu'après s'être étudié lui-même, qu'après avoir connu ses devoirs, qu'après avoir contracté l'habitude de les remplir. La science qui conduit à cet [sic] haut degré de perfection s'appelle morale." Cf. Entretien avec la Maréchale de *··, Oeuv., II, 510: " N e pensez-vous pas . . . qu'on peut avoir reçu une excellente éducation, qui fortifie le penchant naturel à la bienfaisance?"

CONCLUSION

T

HE ANALYSIS OF DIDEROT'S ARTICLES o n t h e C h r i s t i a n r e l i g i o n a n d

the Church proves the Church to have been right in regarding the

Encyclopédie

as an enemy. T h e articles may be divided into four groups:

those which are wholly or almost wholly orthodox, being based largely on orthodox sources, roughly a third; those which are partly orthodox and partly skeptical, whose sources are mixed and, in the case of orthodox ones, often altered or interpreted to mean what their authors did not intend them to mean, about a quarter of the entire number; those rarer ones which, whatever their source, show direct hostility; and those, again roughly a quarter, which, though philosophical sources are often utilized, present Diderot's own constructive views on natural morality. Obviously the lines between these groups, particularly the first three, cannot be rigidly drawn, as some of the most orthodox articles have a touch of sarcasm, and some of the most hostile a sop of orthodoxy thrown in for the censors. In the first category fall a number of articles dealing with the Bible, the Trinity, grace, the sacraments, and the history of the Church. T h e introductory article on the Bible summarizes biblical exegesis as already partly worked out by R i c h a r d Simon and suggests the line of development which was actually followed in the following century, namely the use by biblical scholars of the same rigorous methods of research as were already being partially applied by Voltaire in the field of historical criticism. T h e fact that Diderot expected such exegesis ultimately to have a negative effect upon Christian dogmas does not detract from the article's general character of objectivity. It is not a compilation like so many of Diderot's articles, but is a finished product of his own reading and thinking, being brief, clear, and precise. T h e article on the canon is noteworthy for its illustration of the way in which the critical method should attack the problem of the authorship of the Jewish canon. Testament, Texte

de l'Ecriture,

and Vulgate,

and the articles on the individ-

ual books of the Bible, being taken almost entirely from D o m Calmet's dictionary, adhere closely to the teaching of the Church. T h a t on the Pentateuch, pieced together partly from Calmet and partly from Chambers' dictionary and other sources, is largely orthodox, though the stress laid on the conflict of opinions regarding the composition and textual integrity of the Pentateuch does not seem wholly innocent on Diderot's part. Here, as in the article on the inspiration of the Bible, where a diver-

126

Conclusion

sity of opinions is also reported, the accepted orthodox view is defended without adverse comment. Théologie and Révélation assert the superiority of revealed truth to all other truths, and though they end by praise of reason as the ultimate criterion, they are largely orthodox. T h e articles on the T r i n i t y , including heretical divergences, though often directly based on Chambers, usually have their ultimate source in the Jesuit dictionary of T r é v o u x , and are purely informative. Even the one drawn from Brucker's history of philosophy, that on Jesus Christ, is objective enough save for the ironical comment inserted by Diderot himself. T h e articles on Catholic and Protestant history and the doctrine of grace, have the same sources as those on the T r i n i t y , and are Catholic in viewpoint. T h i s is doubly true of the articles on the sacraments, except that on transsubstantiation which carries permissible speculation rather far from orthodox channels. In preparing the articles of the first g r o u p Diderot acted in his professional capacity as editor, fulfilling, so far as the Christian religion is concerned, the first aim announced in the article on the Encyclopédie, that of an inventory of human knowledge, with due respect for national prejudices. It was Diderot's intention to further his second or propagandist aim, that of exposing outworn and ridiculous opinions, by a series of cross references to articles on non-religious subjects which were to be objective in some cases, satirical in others, and which were to effect a change in human thinking. A s an example of the satirical cross reference he cites that to Capuchon at the end of Cordelier. T h e former article is designed to arouse the reader's suspicion that the pompous eulogy in the latter is to be discounted as merely ironical. H e goes on to say however that he rarely uses such cross references, and that he would much prefer to avoid such roundabout methods and to speak his mind directly if that were possible. B u t as N a i g e o n pointed out, 1 it would have been too dangerous for the author to express his real sentiments in an article on a sacred subject. Undoubtedly such a direct attack w o u l d have resulted in the complete suppression of the Encyclopédie, the imprisonment of the editors and printers, and the failure of the entire enterprise. T h o u g h Diderot seldom uses the satirical cross reference 2 in a reli1. Cf. note in Diderot: Oeuvres, X V , 286-7, a n d X V I , 134ft. 2. T h e r e are of course innumerable instances of the objective type, but very few of the distinctly satirical. In Providence there is a cross reference to Manichéisme, one in Christianisme to Tolérance, an article by Romilli fils which denounces intolerance and praises Bayle's treatment of the subject, one in Grace to Prémotion though physique. T h e r e is n o cross reference to Divination in Prophète, Prophétie, the reverse is true.

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian

Religion

127

gious article, he achieves much the same result, either by a combination of praise and attack in the same article, or by placing the attack in an unrelated article. T h e latter make up the third group of articles, and the former, in which a thrust home is often gotten past the censors by a feint of orthodoxy, make up the second group. As a matter of fact the censors, even though they were named for the most part by enemies8 of the Encyclopédie, turned out to be remarkably obtuse in their perception of seditious material. In a letter 4 to Voltaire of February 19, 1758 Diderot boasted of exploiting their "imbecility". In their defense it may be noted in passing that de Jaucourt is said5 by Diderot to have read Naigeon's article on the Unitarians without realizing the boldness of its statements. In the second group there is wide variety of subject and method. In Christianisme, for example, which opens with lavish praise of Christian morality, the divinely inspired Bible, miracles, and providence, he attacks intolerance and religious strife while seeming to justify them. He excepts the celibacy of Christian priests from his general condemnation of celibacy, a condemnation which in Célibat, though it begins there also with a similar exception, is finally extended specifically to the Catholic clergy. In Miracle Spinoza's attack on miracles is met by an appeal to biblical and ecclesiastical authority which is smug and insincere. Prophétie asserts the importance of prophecy as a proof of the truth of the Christian religion, but by its citation of Whiston's objections and its weak reply to them, leaves doubt in the reader's mind as to whether prophecies should be interpreted literally or figuratively, and doubt as to the integrity of the biblical text itself. In Providence a long and fervent exposition of the dogma of providence is at least partly offset by the weak reply to the negative arguments of Bayle. T h e articles on prescience and premotion are largely negative in effect, the source of most of Prescience being the deterministic essay Traité sur la Liberté. Strong deterministic arguments are marshaled against the doctrine of freewill, and, as in the case of prescience, are again met with the weakest sort of argument as if to impress the reader with the fact that there was nothing valid to be said in its defense. Manichéisme succeeds in conveying Bayle's sympathy for this system of doctrine, and his objections to the theory of the two principles aie made to appear as objections to all attempts at a religious explanation of the origin of evil. Accepted beliefs 3. Ci. supra, pp. 11-12. 4. Cf. Oeuv., X I X , 451. 5. Ci. Réau: Correspondance de Falconet Falconet to Catherine on May 8, 1769.

avec Catherine

II, p. 75, letter from

128

Conclusion

concerning the creation and sacred chronology are shown to be in need of revision in the light of philosophical and scientific advance. T h e articles of the third group are definitely anti-Christian. Sometimes the hostility is embodied in a passage added to material from an orthodox or semi-orthodox source, as when predestination and eternal damnation are pictured as doctrines so terrible that a Christian parent might well rejoice at the death of his newly born child. Jesus is even spoken of as a madman and fanatic who brought about his own death, and the idea of God held to be vague and harmful. In articles whose titles indicate no close relationship to Christian doctrines all religion is represented as originating naturally in response to human needs, and developing through the prevalence of human credulity and the duplicity of priests. Such rigorous tests of reason and experience are prescribed for the examination of religious phenomena as would rule out the miraculous and supernatural altogether. Religion in general, and by inference the Christian religion, is shown to be not only unnecessary to insure the moral life, but as actually harmful to the only morality which is natural and universal. Casuists, Cordeliers, Jesuits, the monastic life, fanaticism, and intolerance are scored in bold and caustic terms that sometimes approach in degree of violence his anti-Christian utterances outside the Encyclopédie. T h e more numerous articles of the fourth group develop the principles of the humanistic morality with which Diderot would replace the morality of the Christian religion, namely man's desire for happiness and the community of human needs and interests. Well-doing is substituted for virtue, or virtue is used only in the sense of that which has been proved good by social experience. T h e rewards of well-doing are not dependent on a future life, but are manifest in the approval of one's conscience and the esteem of fellow men. At the same time the articles show it is true that the artist in Diderot is strong enough to insure his admiration for passion, energy, and action under any aspect that furnishes inspiration for the heroic in life, art, and literature. As a scientific philosopher he rejects freedom of the will as an illusion in a mechanistic world where every thought and action is part of an inevitable chain of cause and effect, but as a moralist and humanist he sets a limit to the scope of this scientific dogma by insisting that the absence of freedom changes nothing in the good order of society. Corruption must still be suppressed, and well-doing multiplied and strengthened, since man remains a creature who can be modified by the influence of law, example, and exhortation, and who can indeed enjoy a certain freedom of life

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian

Religion

129

through the use of intelligence and foresight in his response to environment. There is no evidence in the articles studied of a change of opinion on Diderot's part during the period of their composition. T h e doctrinal articles on the Bible, the sacraments, and the Trinity, which were of necessity orthodox, and the hostile articles, among which are Capuchon, Caucase, Jésuite, Passager, and Promission, are well distributed through the earlier and later volumes, though it is true that the tone becomes bolder in the volumes published after the expulsion of the Jesuits. The alternation of Diderot's roles of champion and critic of Christianity is adequately explained by his determination to pursue the two aims of making an inventory of knowledge and of changing human ways of thinking, and by the necessity of coping with intolerant priests and magistrates. If he had not treated orthodox dogmas more or less objectively in articles on sacred subjects, he would have had no opportunity of attacking them in articles on semi-religious or purely philosophical subjects. T h e vindication of his method for the times in which he lived is to be found in the fact that, in spite of the interruptions caused by the obstructionism of his clerical enemies, the articles passed the censors and appeared in about the same form that his pen had given them. While the orthodox articles make up approximately a third of the entire number, the rest, or two thirds, are partly skeptical and ironical, openly hostile, or devoted to an exposition of the moral philosophy which he considered superior to that of Christianity. When examined in the light of his other works and correspondence, a majority of the articles which touch on the Christian religion offer convincing proof that his principal aim in writing them was that of changing by education and propaganda the common way of thinking about religion and the Church.

BIBLIOGRAPHY I : G E N E R A L WORKS MOST FREQUENTLY CONSULTED* Belin, J.-P.: Le Mouvement philosophique de i-^S à Paris, Belin Frcres, 1913. Bersot: Etudes sur le XVlIle siècle. Paris, 1855. 2 v. Bible (Douay). Translated from the Latin V'ulgate. Baltimore, New York, John Murphy Co., 1899. Billy, André: Diderot—Oeuvres. Paris, Pléiade, 1935. in Hippocrate, juin 1938. Billy, André: "Diderot et l'Encyclopédie," Brémond, Henri: Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France depuis la fin des guerres de religion jusqu'à nos jours. Paris, Bloud et Gay, 1916-33, 11 \ with a 12th v. in 1936. Busnelli, Manlio: Diderot et l'Italie. Paris, Champion, 1925. Busson, Henri: La Pensée religieuse de Charron à Pascal. Paris, Vrin, 1933. Carré, J . : La Philosophie de Fontenelle. Paris, Alean, 1932. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York. Universal knowledge foundation, 1913-1922, 17 v. Cazes, André: Grimm et les Encyclopédistes. Paris, Presses universitaires, 1933. Chinard, Gilbert: Diderot—Supplément au voyage de Bougainville. Paris, Droz, 1935. Collignon, Α.: Diderot. Paris, 1935. Cru, R . L.: Diderot as a Disciple of English Thought. New York, Columbia University Press. 1 9 1 3 . Diderot, Denis: Oeuvres complètes. Paris, Garnier, 1875-77, 2 0 ν · Diderot, Denis: Oeuvres. Paris, Brière, 1821-1830, 26 v. Diderot, Denis: Le Neveu de Rameau. Paris, Quantin, 1883. Diderot, Denis: Correspondance inédite. André Babelon, Paris, Librairie Gallimard, 1 9 3 1 , 2 v. Diderot, Denis: Lettres à Sophie VoUand. André Babelon, Paris, Librairie Gallimard, 1930. 3 v · Ducros, Louis: Les Encyclopédistes. Paris, Champion. 1900. Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, Briasson, etc., 1751-80, 35 v. Encyclopédie méthodique. Paris, Panckoucke, 1782-1832, 194 v. L'Encyclopédie et les Encyclopédistes, Catalogue de l'exposition organisée par le Centre International de Synthèse, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1932. Enslin, M. S.: Christian Beginnings. New York, Harper, 1938. Feret, l'abbé: La Faculté de Paris et ses docteurs les plus célèbres. Paris, Picard et fils, 1909, 9 v. Gillot, Hubert: Denis Diderot. Paris, G. Courville, 1937. Giraud, V.: Le Christianisme de Chateaubriand. Paris, Hachette, 1925-1928, 2 v. G l i m m , F. M.: Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique de Orimtn et de Diderot (1753-1790). Paris, Garnier, 1877-82, 16 v. Hastings, James: Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. New York, Scribners, 1928, 12 v. Havens, G. R.: Diderot and the Composition of Rousseau's First Discourse, reprinted from The Romanic Revint·, Dec., 1939. Hazard, Paul: La Crise de la conscience

européenne

(i68o-iji° 8 · 120-1, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129 Catholic Encyclopedia, 45, 47, 48, 50, 107 Caucase, 75, 129 Caveyrac, 103 Cazes: Grimm et les Encyclopédistes, 97 Celibacy, 92-6, 108, 127 Célibat, 92-4, 127 Censors, censorship, 10, 11-12, 3 1 , 38, 41, 44. 45· 53- 6°. 6 * . 6 7 · 99- , 0 ° . '°9· 119, 121, 125, 126, 129 Cérémonies, 27, 28, 81, 116 Certitude, 15, 24, 39, 119 Chaldéens, 28 Chambers: Cyclopaedia, 14, 15-17, 18, 19, so, 2 i . 24, 3». 34. 35. 37- 39. 47. 49· 50, 5 1 , 58, 59, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 81, 82. 83, 84, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 92. 95, 98, 100, 107, 125, 126 Chaos, 15, 51, 53-4 Charité, 111 Chauraeix, 103 Chinard: Diderot—Supplément ait voyage de Bougainville, 114 Christianisme, 28, 33, 66, 92, 94, 98-101, 105, 106-7, ls, 127 Christian morality, Diderot's views 011, 10-11, 12, 96, 105-110, 1 1 1 , 127-9 Christian religion, Diderot's views on, 10-11, 12, 21, 28ff., 33, 40, 56-7, 98-9, 103-4, l o 5"6. 108-110, 127, 128, 129 Christian theology, j u d g m e n t s of Diderot on theology a n d theologians, 10-11, 12, 21, 25-6, 31-3, 39-40, 43-4, 59, 70-1, 74, 81, 95, 1 1 1 , 126 See also Faith, Reason. Chronique, 19, 56 Chronologie sacrée, 48, 55-6, 128 Chrysostom, Saint, 102 C h u r c h fathers, 14, 22, 32, 43, 48, 83, 89, go, 108 Cicero, 117 Citations, 35 Collins, Anthony, 36 Concours, 15, 69 Condillac: Traité

des systèmes, 6g

Confession, 87 Confirmation, see Sacraments. Congruisme, Mallet, 73 Congruistes, Mallet, 73 Congruists, 72, 73 Consécration (Théol.), 15, 88 Conséquence, 113 Conséquent, 114 Conservation, Formey, 70 Consolation (Hist, ecclés.), 29, 88 Consolation (Morale), 15 Constance, Council of, 85 Consubstantiation, 83 Controverse, 18 Cophte, 15 Cordeliers, 21, 95, 126, 128 Cordeliers, 15, 18, 95, 126, 128 Corinthians, epistle to the, 46, 83 Corneille, 1 1 7 Correspondance inédite, 26, 62, 109, 122 Cotereaux, 102 Creation, final causes, 51-4, 60, 61-3, 67, 68, 77-80, 1 1 1 , 1 2 1 , 128 Création, Formey, 51 Crédulité, 96 Credulity, 27-9, 90, 128 Croisades, 100 Cross references in t h e Encyclopédie, system of, 126 C r u : Diderot and English Thought, 13, 20, 22, 63, 101 C u d w o r t h , 51, 54 Damnation, 70-1 Daniel, book of, 36, 46, 47 Deism, see N a t u r a l religion. Déluge, Boulanger, 53 Descartes, 76, 84 Deslandes: Histoire critique de la philosophie, 14. 56 Determinism, 12, 62, 77-8, 79, 80, 118124, 127, 128 Dickinson, 51 Dieu et l'homme, 1 1 1 , 123 Dieux, 15. 18, 27 Discours préliminaire, d'Alembert, 25, 3 ' · 54 Divination, 28-9, 34, 40 Divination, 15, 27, 28, 40, 126 Dominicans, 72 D o n n e : Biathanatos, 61 Droit naturel, 1 1 1 - 1 2 , 122 Ducros: Les Encyclopédistes, 94. 103 Dumarsais, 116

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian

Ecclesiasticus, book of, 46, 47 Eclectisme, 22, 29, 3 1 , 39. 1 1 3 Edict of Nantes, 102 Edward VI, 102 Elements de physiologie, 62, 123, 124 Eleuthéromanes, Les, 98 Elizabeth, Queen, 102 Emmanuel, 35 Encyclopédie, article, 12, 14, 23, 3 1 , 40, 112, 114, 126 L'Encyclopédie et les Encyclopédistes, 95 Encyclopédie méthodique, 22, 60, 124 Enslin: Christian Beginnings, 35 Entretien avec la Maréchale de · · ·, 62, 63, 1 0 1 , 103, 109, 114, 124 Entretien d'un père avec ses enfants, 1 1 5 Entretien entre d'Alembert et Diderot, 120 Entretien sur le Fils naturel, 1 1 5 Ephesians, epistle to the, 46, 89 Epicuréisme, 22, 61, 124 Epicurus, Epicureanism, 22, 23, 61-2, 63, 64, 65, 67, 1 1 1 Essai sur la peinture, 103 Essai sur le mérite et la vertu, 101 Essai sur les études en Russie, 91 Essai sur les règnes de Claude et de Néron, 1 1 5 Essene, 118 Ethiopiens, 51 Eucharist, see Sacraments. Evil, problem of, 60, 64, 65-6, 6g, 7off., 75-80, 1 1 3 , 127 Examen de la religion, 67 Exodus, book of, 36, 44, 46 Experience, test of, 40-1, 43, 44, 54, 60, n o , 128, 212 Extrême Onction, Mallet, 88 Extreme unction, see Sacraments. Ezra or Esdras, 44-5, 49 Fabricius, 46 Fait, 38, 40 Faith, role of religious, 31-4, 86, 106, 126, 128 Falconet, 1 1 3 , 114, 127 Fanaticism, fanatics, 28, 33, 90, 100-104, 109, 128 Fatalism, fatalists, 1 1 8 Fénelon, 10, 1 1 1 Fin, 110 Fleur)·: Histoire ecclésiastique, 81, 90, 100

Religion

Institution au droit

137

ecclésiastique,

94 Flood, terrestrial, 53 Fondation, 108 Fontenelle, 67, 69, 116. 118-19 Fordicidies, 15, 39 Foreknowledge of God, see Prescience of God. Formey, 5 1 , 59, 70 Fortuit, 66, 122 Fragment inédit, 124 Fragments, 1 1 3 Francis, Saint, and Franciscans, 90, 95 Freedom of the will, 23, 58, 66, 67-70, 71-80, 118-124, 128 Future life, 30, 76, 110, 113-14, 128 Futurition, 68, 70 Gauchat, 103 Géhenne, 15 Genesis, book of, 43, 44, 46, 53(1. Génie, 116 Gillot, Hubert: Denis Diderot, 12 God: Belief in, 27ft., 30, 60-3, 103, 121, 128 Nature of, 3 1 , 32, 34. 38, 58ft.. 78, 79. 120 Worship of, 27fr., 32, 58fr., 90 See also Creation, Evil, Grace, Miracles, Predetermination, Prescience, Providence, Revelation, Trinity. Grâce, 15, 71-4. 125. 126 Grace, divine, 68, 71-5, 81, 82, 96, 125, 126 Greek Church, 59 Grimm: Correspondance littéraire, 9, 63 Grotius, 35, 51 Hastings: Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 107 Havens: Diderot and the Composition of Rousseau's First Discourse, 1 1 5 Hébraïque (Langue), Boulanger, 26 Hébraïsant, 102 Hebrews, book of, 45. 46. 47 Helvétius, 9. 106 Hématites, 102 Hermand, Pierre: I.es Idées Morales de Diderot, 13 Hiéracites, 15, 107 Hiérarchie, 15, 88 Hobbes, 114, 118 Hobbisme, 22, 1 1 5 Holden: Fidei divinae analysis, 49

138

Index

Holy Spirit, 58«. Homer, 62, 77, 1 1 7 Horace, 1 1 7 Hornius, 54 Hosea, book of, 19, 21, 36, 46, 47 Hubert: "Introduction bibliographique à l'étude des sources ethnographiques dans l'Encyclopédie," 13, 14 " L a Morale de Diderot," 12 Rousseau et l'Encyclopédie, 111 Les Sciences sociales dans l'Encyclopédie, 10, 13, 24, 1 1 0 Humanité, 112 Hussites, 107 Hypostase, 15, ι8, 58 Identité, 22 Idolatry, 27R., 43, 90 Immatérialisme, 22, 61 Immortalité, 114 Impanation, 16, 18, 83 Impassible, 18, 101 Imposture, 28, 39 Imputation, 16, 70, 71 Inconstance, 109 Indépendance, 122 Indépendant, 16, 18 Infaillibilité, 95 Infaillible, 16, 95 Infallibility, dogma of, 42, 95, 100-1, 103 Infidélité, 115 Inspiration, 16, 18, 20, 49-50 Intention, 82, 96 Intolerance, 100-4, '28 Intolérance, 102, 108 Intolérant, 102 Introduction aux grands principes, 80, 98, 109, 1 1 3 , 117 Invocation, 16, 90 Irréligieux, 110 Isaiah, book of, 19, 35, 44, 46, 47 Isaie, 19, 46, 47 Jacob, 36 Jacques le fataliste, 109, 123 Jansen, 73, 74, 121 Jansenism, Jansenists, 9, 1 1 , 12, 73-4, 75, 97 Jansénisme, 73-4 Jaquelot, 77 Jaucourt, Chevalier de, 24, 102, 127 Jean (Evangile de saint), 19, 46, 47 Jeremiah, book of, 36. 44, 46 Jerome, Saint, 44, 48

Jésuite, 97, 103. 128, 129 Jesuits, 9, 1 1 , 49, 97-8, 103, 128, 129 Jesus Christ, 35-6, 58fr., 71, 72, 74, 8iff., 90, 91, 103, 108, 126, 128 Jésus-Christ, 22, 59-60, 126 Job, 19, 46, 47 John, book of, 19, 36, 46, 47, 83. 87 Jonas, 41, 46, 47 Jordanus Brunus (Phil, de), 22 Joshua, 65, 74 Josué, 19, 46, 47 Jouissance, 108 Judaism, religion of the Jews, 13, 26, 27, 30, 34-7, 42ff., 5iff., 56-7, 58, 125 Judaïsme, 16 Jude (Epitre de saint), 19, 46, 47 Judges, book of, 19, 44, 46, 47 Judith, book of, 19, 46, 47 Judith, 19, 46, 47 Juges, 19, 46, 47 Juifs, 22, 26, 27, 32, 54, 58, 61, 1 1 3 Justification, 16, 71 Kings, book of, 44, 46 Laideur, 121 Lamentations, book of, 44, 46 Lamy: Apparatus biblicus (Introduction à l'Ecriture Sainte), 20, 24 Landois, 122, 123, 124 Lanson, articles in Revue des Cours ei des Conférences, and Revue d'histoire littéraire, 9, io, 13, 100, 1 1 2 Latrie, 16, 18, 90 Le Breton and associated printers, 10, 13 L.e Clerc, Jean, 24, 43, 48, 50, 77 Législateur, 98, 109, 1 1 6 Le Gras: Diderot et l'Encyclopédie, 10, 95 Leibnitz, 75, 77-8, 79, 80, 120, 121 Leibnitiianisme, 14, 22, 120 Lessius, 49 Lettre sur les aveugles, 12, 62 Lettres à Sophie Volland, 3 1 , 61, 98 I.evesque de Pouilly: Théorie des sentimens agréables, 24, 60, 75, 79, 110, 1 1 3 , 116 Lévite, 16, 18 Lévitique (Hist, ecclés.), 18 Lévitique (Théol.), 18, 46, 47 Liberté, 23, 68, 78, 118-122, 123-4 Liberté naturelle, 108 "Liberty of indifference," 78, 120-1 Licence, 1 1 0

Diderot's

Treatment of The Christian

Liturgies, Polier de Bottens, 87 Locke, 54, 118 Locke (Philosophie de), 22 Loi naturelle, 1 1 3 Lord's Supper, 81 See also Eucharist. Louis le Débonnaire, 89 Louis XV, 9, 97, 103 Lovejoy: The Great Chain of Being, 52 "Some Eighteenth Century Evolutionists," 52 Loyola, 97 Luc (Evangile de saint), 19, 46, 47 Lucretius, 65 Luke, book of, 19, 45, 46, 47, 83 Luther, Lutheranism, 73, 83, 87, 91-2 Luthéranisme, 16, 18, 73, 83, 91 Luthérien, 16, 19, 73 Luxe, Saint-Lambert, 107 Luxury ("luxe"), 106-7 Maceration, 108, 1 1 1 Macération, 108 Machabees, book of, 46, 47 Magistrat, ito Maignan, Father, 85, 86 Malabares, 22, 61, 100 Malebranche, 23, 64, 67, 6g, 70, 78, 79 Malebranchisme, 69 Malesherbes, M. de, 9 Malfaisant, 124 Mallet, the Abbé, 24, 35, 42, 45, 73, 82. 88 Manicheism, Manicheists, 23-4, 75-80, 102, 127 Manichéisme, 22, 23-4, 60, 75-80, 115. 126, 127 Manières, 105 Marcel, article in Revue d'histoire littéraire, 26 Marcionites, 76 Mariage, 89 Mark, book of St., 45, 46, 47, 83 Marriage, 89, 93-4, 105, 107, 108-9 See also Sacraments: Matrimony. Martyr, 16, 90 Martyrologe, 16, 90 Martyrs, 90, 99-100, 101, 102 Mary, Queen, 90, 102 Materialism, 12, 51-3, 61-3, 118-19, 1214. 128 Matrimony, see Sacraments. Matthew, book of St., 19, 36, 45, 46, 47, 83, 87

Religion

»39

Matthieu (Evangile de saint), 19, 46, 47 Melon: Essai politique sur le commerce, 94 Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, Morin, 92 Mémoires de Trévoux (Journal de Trévoux), 9, 97 Mérite, en Théologie, 16 Meslier, Jean, 57 Messe, 16, 86 Messie, Polier de Bottens, 61 Metaphysical speculation, futility of, 70, 7 1 · 74 See also Theology. Meyer: "Diderot moraliste," 1 1 5 Mills, John, 15, 16 Milton, 1 1 7 Miracle, 16, 37, 127 Miracles and the supernatural, 27-9, 3641, 86, 92, 127, 128 Mission, en Théologie, 16, 98 Missionnaire, 16, 98 Missions, 98-101 Modification, 124 Mohammed, Mohammedanism, 28, 108 Moine, 94 Moïsade, La, 50 Molina, 72 MoUnisnie, 68, 72 Molinists, ι · , 12, 68, 72-3 Monasticism, 88, 94-6, 128 Monod: De Pascal à Chateaubriand, 43, 48 Monothélites, 16 Montesquieu: Esprit des lois, 92-4, 99· 100, 105, 106, 107 l.ettres persanes, 108 Morellet, the Abbé, 24 Morley: Diderot and the Encyclopaedists, 119 Mornet: Les Sciences de la nature en France au XVIIle siècle, 39 Mosaïque et Chrétienne (Philosophie), 1 1 , 22, 39, 41, 53, 63 Moses, 34. 37, 48, 51, 53, 54, 55, 69 Musset, Alfred de, 109 Mutilation of the Encyclopédie, 10 Mystère, 16, 34 Naigeon, 1 1 , 25, 41, 58, 60, 63, 67, 122, 124, 126, 127 Natural morality, 1 1 , 12, 29-30, 105, 110124, 125, 128-9 Natural religion, 12, 29-31, 40, 65

140

Index

Naves: Voltaire et l'Encyclopédie, 24, 58, 61, 87, 90, 97, 116 Néant, 54 Nécessité, 16, 73 Newtonians, 53 Nicole, 84 Noachides, 30 Nouvelles libertés de penser, 67, 116 Onction, 16, ig, 88 Opération, en Théologie, 16 Oracles, 28, 50 Orders, see Sacraments. Ordination (Théol.), 16, 88 Origen, Origenists, 79, 102 Origénistes, 16 Origin of religion, 27 29, 128 Original sin, 70-1, 75 Origine, 19, s i , 29 Originel, 16, 70 Orthodoxie, 16 Osée, 19, s i , 46, 47 Pacification, 102-3 Pagans, paganism, 27-9, 55, 58, 99, 100-1 Pain béni, 89, 107 Palinodie, 16, 29 Palmer: Catholics and Unbelievers in Eighteenth Century France, 25 Pantheism, 60 Paradis, 19 Paradis terrestre, i6, 19. 70 Paralipoménes, 19, 44, 46, 47 Particulier, 111 Pascal, 10, 96 Passager, 19, s i , 96, 129 Passions, rehabilitation of, 115-118, 128 Passions, 1 1 3 , 116, 124 Paternité, 16, 58 Patriotism, 1 1 2 Patripassiens, 16, 58 Paul, Saint, 45, 46, 47, 93. 108, 1 1 3 Paulianistes, 16, 59 Fauliciens, 16 Péché (Théol.), 70 Pélagiens, 16, 72 Penance, see Sacraments. Penitence, 29, 34, 87-8 Pénitence, 16, 87 Pensées philosophiques, 12, 29, 36, 39, 41, 48, 49, 50, 54, 57, 61, 62, 63, 116, 117 Pensées sur l'interprétation de la naiure, t ï . 52 Pentateuque, 16, 19, 20, 48-9

Péripatccienne (Philosophie), 22 Peripatetics, 84, 85, 86 Persécuter, 99, 102 Persecution, ggff. Persécution, 102 Personne (Théol.), 17 Pestré, the Abbé, 24 Philosophe, 116 Philosophical Transactions Abridged, 39 Philosophie, 14, 31 Philosophy, role of philosophy and philosophers, 3 1 , 33, 39-40. 53, 54. 81, 95. 100-1, 103, 105, 1 1 3 , 116 Piaches, 29 Plaisir, 110, 1 1 3 Plan d'une Université, 26, 98 Plastique, 54 Platonism, 22, 59, 64 Platonisme, 22, 1 1 6 Plinii Secundi: Naturalis Historia, 21 Pluche: Histoire du ciel, 27 Pohle-Preuss: God: His Knowabilily, Essence and Attributes, 69 God, the Author of Nature and the Supernatural, 54 Grace: Actual and Habitual, 69 The Sacraments, v. I, 82 The Sacraments, v. II, 85. 86 The Sacraments, v. IV, 89 Polier de Bottens, 24, 61, 87 Polygamie, 19 Polythéisme, 27, 28 Pompadour, Madame de, 9 Pontificat, 89 Pope, Alexander, 80 Poplicain (Hist, ecclés.), 19, 102 Prades, the Abbé de, 9, 24, 25, 36, 39, 54- 55 Prayer, 87, 88, 90, 102 Préadamite, 17 Prédestinatiens, 17 Predetermination, 66, 67-70, 71ft., 127, 128 Prédétermination, 17, 68 Prémotion physique, 69, 126, 127 Presbytère, 17 Presbytériens, 17 Prescience of God, 58, 65. 67-8, 72-3, 121, 127 Prescience, 67-8, 127 Présence réelle, 83 Prêtres, 28, 29, 97 Prévision, 19

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian Religion

Priests, pagan, 28-g Primitivism versus civilized society, 11415 Principes (Premiers), 32, 40 Probabilité, 39, 41 Probité, 105 Promission, 19, 21, 74, 129 Propagation de l'Evangile, 17, ai, 100 Prophecy, 33-6, 4«, 50, 92, 127 Prophète, Prophétie, 34, 126 Prophétie, 14, 17, 34-6, 127 Propiciation, 17, 87 Prospectus de l'Encyclopédie, 14, 17 Protestant, 17, 91 Protestants, 22, 35, 42, 44, 70, 71, 73, 81. 82, 83, 84. 87, 88, 89, 90, 91 -2, 93, 9S. 102, 103, 118, 126 Proverbes, 19, 46, 47 Providence, 23, 30, 63-7, 99, 105, 127 Providence, 22, 23, 63-7, 126, 127 Psalms, book of, 36, 44, 46, 47 Pseaumes, Les, 46, 47 l'ufTcndorf: Le Droit de la tintine et des gens, 112 Purgatoire, 19 Puritains, 102 Pyrrhonienne (Philosophie), 22, 23 Racine: Andromaque, Britannicus, Iphigénie, Phèdre, Athalie, 1 1 7 Raison, 32-3 Raisonnement, 17 Rameau, 117 Real presence, 83-6, g2 See also Eucharist. Reason, role of reason in religious thinking, 3>-4· 38-41, 59- 86, 106, 126, 128 Réau: Correspondance de Falconet avec Catherine II, 127 Réflexions d'un Franciscain, 95 Reformation, 17, 91 Reformers, 87, 88, gì See also Protestants. Réfutation de l'ouvrage d'Helvétius, 98, 106, 1 1 3 , 115, 123 Religion, 30-1 Réprobation, 73 Résurrection, 17, 19, 20 Rêve de d'Alembert, 123 Revelation, 28-g, 30-1, 33-4, 38. 105, 126 Révélation, 17, ig, 34, 38, 126 Revue de Synthèse, 13, ig Rohault, 86 Romans, hook of, 45, 46, 47. 1 1 3

Romilli, 126 Romillv: Memoirs, 63 R o s e n k r a n z : Diderot's Leben Werke, 121 Rousseau, 13, 1 1 1 , 114. 1 1 5 Royal Academy of Sciences, 84 Royal Society of London, 39 Ruinart, Father, 90 Ruth, book of, 19, 44, 46, 47 Ruth, 19, 46, 47

141

und

Saas, Jean: Lettres sur l'Encyclopédie, 14 Sabelliens, 17, 58 Sacraments: 8i-g, 103, 125, 126, 129 Baptism, 81-2 Confirmation, 81-2 Eucharist, 29, 8iff., 88, 107, 12G Extreme unction, 81-2, 88 Matrimony, 81-2. 89 Orders, 81-2, 88-9 Penance, 81-2. 87, 98, 109 Sacrement, 17, 81-2 Sacre méritoires, 83 Saint, 17. 90 Saint Bartholomew's Day, 102 Sainte-Beuve: Causerie du lundi, 60 Saint-Evremond, 100 Saint-Lambert, 107, 116 Saint-Pierre, the Abbé de: Abrégé du projet de paix perpétuelle, 93-4 Saints, 90-1 Salesses, article in Mercure de France, 10. 24, 25-6 Salon de ij6), 103 Salon de 1J65, 117 Salon de ij6y, 25, 62, 107, 116, 117, 118 Salvation, 7iff., 82, 87 Samosatiens, 17, 59 Samuel, 34 Sänger, Hermann: Juden und Alten Testament bei Diderot, 13, 26, 56 Sarrasins, 22, 108 Satan, 19 Satisfaction, 71, 87 Saul, 34 Scholasticism. 22, 32, 88 Scolastici un (Philosophie des), 22, 32 Scotism, Scotists. 82, 87, g5 Seo tistes, 17 Scotus, Duns, 93-6 Scythes, 1 1 5 Semi-Pelagians, 72, 74 Semi-Pélagiens, 17, 72 Sens commun, 41

142

Index

Sens de l'Ecriture, 36 Sentiment intime, 40 Septuagint, 35, 55 Séraphique, 17, 90 Servetistes, 59 Shaftesbury, 12, 101, 1 1 0 Simon, Richard, 43, 48, 49, 57, 125 Slavery·, 108 Société, 28, 105, 108, 1 1 1 , 112, 113, 1 1 5 Socinians, 58, 71, 79 Socinien, 58 Socrates, 63, 1 1 3 Socratique, 22, 1 1 3 Sources, Diderot's use of, 10-11. 13-26, 125, 126, 127, 128 Spinosa, 22, 23, 37, 60, 121 Spinoza, 22, 23, 37-8, 43, 49, 57, 60, 79, 118, 121-2, 123 Stigmates, 17, 19, 90 Stoics, 116, 118 Suffisance de la religion naturelle, 29, 62, 79 Suffisante Grâce, 17, 72, 73 Suicide, 61 Superstition, 27-9, 33, 98, 99, 101, 108 Supplément au voyage de Bougainville, 98, 109, 113, 114, 1 1 6 Surrenhusius, 35 Symbole, 19, 81 Tasso, 117 Temple de bonheur, Le, 1 1 5 Tertullian, 102 Testament, 19, 45-6, 125 Testament des douze patriarches, ig Texte de l'Ecriture, 19, 48, 125 Théandrique, 17, 59 Théatines, 17 Theatins, 17 Théisme, 22 Théocratie, 28 Théogonie, 17 Théologie, 17, 31-2, 126 Theology, see Christian theolog) . Théosophes, 22, 28, 60, 101 Thomas, Jean: L'Humanisme de Diderot, 13, 1 1 6 Thomas, Saint, 85, 95, 1 1 1 Thomisme, 17, 72 Thomistes, 17, 68, 72 Thomists, 68, 72, 74, 82, 87 Thorndike: L'Encyclopédie and the History of Science, 55, 81

Tobias, book of, 46, 47 Tolérance, Romilli, 126 T o r rey: Voltaire and the English Deists, 36 Tourneux, article in Bulletin du Bibliophile, 10, 25 article Boulanger in Grande Encyclopédie, 26 Diderot et Catherine II, 29, 3 1 , 1 63. 75· 8 9· 9 8 · 1 0 3- >°7> >09· '5 Traité sur la liberté, 67, 118, 121, 124, 127 Transformism, 51-3 Transsubstantiation, 83ft. See also Sacraments: Eucharist. Transsubstantiation, 17, 83-6 Trent, Council of, 44, 45, 46, 48, 84, 85. 87, 89 Trévoux, Dictionnaire de, 9, 15, 16, 17, 18-19. 2°. 2». 24. S ' . 34. 37. 47· 58. 59, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 82, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 92, 95, 96, 98, 102, 107, 126 Trévoux, Journet de, see Mémoires de Trévoux. Trinitaires, (Hist ecclés.), 17 Trinité Philosophique, (Formey), 17, 59 Trinité Théologique, 17, 58. 59 Trinity, 58ÎÎ., 125, 126. 129 Trithéisme, 17, 58 Trublet, the Abbé, 67 Turretinus: Cogitationes et Dissertationes theolngicae, 118 Unitaires,

Naigeon, 58, 127

Varignon, 84-5, 86 Venturi: Jeunesse de Diderot, 12, 25, 116 1er be, 19. 59 Viaticum, 29, 88 Viatique, 88 Vigouroux: Les Livres saints et la tique rationaliste, 105 Virgil, 1 1 7 Virgin Mary, 84 Voeux, 94 Volland, Sophie, 3 1 , 61, 98, 103, 109, 124 Volonté, 122 Volonté en Dieu, 74 Voltaire, 1 1 , 13, 36, 39, 57, 62, 63. 90, 97, 125, 127 Vulgate. 17, ig. 20, 47-8, 125

107,

cri-

117,

87,

Diderot's

Treatment

of The Christian

Wade: The Clandestine Organization and Diffusion of Philosophic Ideas in France from ijoo to 1J50, 67 Whiston, 35-6, 49, 51, 127 Wisdom, book of, 46, 47

Religion

143

Yvon. the Abbé, 24 Zedier: Grosses Vollständiges Lexicon, 96 Zwinglians, 83, 84

Universal