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Handout #217 |
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Proposal on religion by Napoleon Bonaparte at the time of the negotiations on the Concordat |
| My policy is govern in accordance with the wishes of the majority. That, I believe, is the way of recognizing the will of the people. I finished the Vendee war by making myself a Catholic; I established myself in Egypt by making myself a Moslem, and I won people over in Italy by becoming Ultramontane. If I governed a people of Jews I would rebuild Solomon's temple (16August 1800, to the Council of State). I do not see religion as the mystery of the incarnation but as the mystery of social order: it associates with heaven an idea of equality which prevents the rich being massacred by the poor. Religion is a kind of inoculation or vaccination which, by satisfying our love of the miraculous, guarantees us charlatans and sorcerers: the priests are worth more than all the Kants and the dreamers of Germany. How can one have order in a state without religion? Society cannot exist without inequality of fortunes, and inequality of fortunes cannot subsist without religion. When a man dies of hunger alongside one who has eaten to bursting point, it is impossible for him to accept the difference unless there is an authority which says to him: 'This is how God wills it; there must be poor and rich in the world; but then, duping eternity, the sharing will be different' (1801 A.D.). |
