before the august Senate of Freedom, oh! Veil of Reason!...

"The goddess, after being embraced by the president, was mounted on a
magnificent car, and conducted, amid an immense crowd, to the cathedral of
Notre Dame, to take the place of the Deity. There she was elevated on the
high altar, and received the adoration of all present."(406)

This was followed, not long afterward, by the public burning of the Bible.
On one occasion "the Popular Society of the Museum" entered the hall of
the municipality, exclaiming, "_Vive la Raison!_" and carrying on the top
of a pole the half-burned remains of several books, among others
breviaries, missals, and the Old and New Testaments, which "expiated in a
great fire," said the president, "all the fooleries which they have made
the human race commit."(407)

It was popery that had begun the work which atheism was completing. The
policy of Rome had wrought out those conditions, social, political, and
religious, that were hurrying France on to ruin. Writers, in referring to
the horrors of the Revolution, say that these excesses are to be charged
upon the throne and the church.(408) In strict justice they are to be
charged upon the church. Popery had poisoned the minds of kings against
the Reformation, as an enemy to the crown, an element of discord that
would be fatal to the peace and harmony of the nation. It was the genius
of Rome that by this means inspired the direst cruelty and the most
galling oppression which proceeded from the throne.

The spirit of liberty went with the Bible. Wherever the gospel was
received, the minds of the people were awakened. They began to cast off
the shackles that had held them bond-slaves of ignorance, vice, and
superstition. They began to think and act as men. Monarchs saw it, and
trembled for their despotism.

Rome was not slow to inflame their jealous fears. Said the pope to the
regent of France in 1525: "This mania [Protestantism] will not only
confound and destroy religion, but all principalities, nobility, laws,
orders, and ranks besides."(409) A few years later a papal nuncio warned
the king: "Sire, be not deceived. The Protestants will upset all civil as
well as religious order.... The throne is in as much danger as the
altar.... The introduction of a new religion must necessarily introduce a
new government."(410) And theologians appealed to the prejudices of the
people by declaring that the Protestant doctrine "entices men away to
novelti