On the Spanish Inquisition--Imperium Press (Studies in Reaction) by Joseph de Maistre

Author:Joseph de Maistre
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Imperium Press
Published: 2022-08-29T09:35:06+00:00

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1 That is, the place for burning criminals.

The Fourth Letter

Monsieur Le Comte,

In the natural sciences, there is always question of mean quantities. Thus, we speak of the mean distance, the mean movement, the mean duration, &c. It would be well if this same notion were applied also to politics, and that men would feel, and be convinced, that the best institutions are not those which present the greatest degree of possible happiness at such or such a given period, but those which ensure the greatest sum or measure of possible happiness to the greatest number of possible generations! This—and I think the point quite evident—is mean happiness.

Upon this principle, I should be curious, and should like to know what the bitterest enemy of the Inquisition would reply to the Spaniard, who, passing over what I have just said—should undertake to defend it, in terms like the following.

“Sir,” he says to the supposed accuser, “you are Myops—you are short-sighted, and see but a single object. Our legislators looked down from an eminence and saw the great whole. At the opening of the sixteenth century they beheld Europe, as it were, in flames. In order to secure themselves from the general conflagration, they employed the Inquisition—which is the political instrument they made use of, both to preserve the unity of faith, and to prevent the wars of religion. You have done nothing like this. But now trace and remark the result. I appeal but to experience: for, experience is the best criterion to direct men’s judgment.

“Behold, then, the thirty years’ war, enkindled by the doctrines of Luther. Look at the unheard-of excesses of the Anabaptists—the civil wars of France, of England, and of Holland. Consider the massacres of the St. Bartholomew; of Merindal; and the Cevennes—the murder of Queen Mary Stuart—that of Henry the Third; of Henry the Fourth; of Charles the First; of the Prince of Orange, &c. A ship might float in the ocean of blood which your innovators have shed. The Inquisition would have punished only these disturbers of the public peace and order. It ill becomes you, ignorant and presumptuous as you are—you who had foreseen nothing, and have deluged Europe in blood—it ill becomes you to blame our monarchs, who had foreseen everything, and secured their kingdom from devastation. Don’t tell me that the Inquisition has produced such and such abuses, at such and such a time. This is not the question. The question is, to know whether, during the last three centuries, there has been, by virtue of the Inquisition, a greater enjoyment of peace and happiness in Spain, than in the other nations of Europe? To sacrifice present generations to the problematic happiness of future generations—this may be the calculation of a philosopher, but it is not that of an enlightened legislator.

“But, if this observation do not suffice to convince you, I will, then, appeal to what we have witnessed during the late conflicts with the gigantic power of France, wielded by the greatest of all modern conquerors and heroes.

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