m charges:

That under pretence of retirement and devotion they lived in idleness
and licentiousness:

That they had made a virtue of alms-giving, to live quietly on the
labors of others:

That they had invented the ceremonies of worship, as a means of
attracting the reverence of the people, while they were playing the
parts of gods, of whom they styled themselves the interpreters and
mediators, to assume all their powers; that, with this design, they had
(according to the degree of ignorance or information of their people)
assumed by turns the character of astrologers, drawers of horoscopes,
fortune-tellers, magicians,* necromancers, quacks, physicians,
courtiers, confessors of princes, always aiming at the great object to
govern for their own advantage:

* What is a magician, in the sense in which people
understand the word? A man who by words and gestures
pretends to act on supernatural beings, and compel them to
descend at his call and obey his orders. Such was the
conduct of the ancient priests, and such is still that of
all priests in idolatrous nations; for which reason we have
given them the denomination of Magicians.

And when a Christian priest pretends to make God descend
from heaven, to fix him to a morsel of leaven, and render,
by means of this talisman, souls pure and in a state of
grace, what is this but a trick of magic? And where is the
difference between a Chaman of Tartary who invokes the
Genii, or an Indian Bramin, who makes Vichenou descend in a
vessel of water to drive away evil spirits? Yes, the
identity of the spirit of priests in every age and country
is fully established! Every where it is the assumption of
an exclusive privilege, the pretended faculty of moving at
will the powers of nature; and this assumption is so direct
a violation of the right of equality, that whenever the
people shall regain their importance, they will forever
abolish this sacrilegious kind of nobility, which has been
the type and parent stock of the other species of nobility.

That sometimes they had exalted the power of kings and consecrated their
persons, to monopolize their favors, or participate their sway:

That sometimes they had preached up the murder of tyrants (reserving it
to themselves to define tyranny), to avenge themselves of their contempt
or their disobedience:

And that they alwa