ent Assembly will seize them wherever it finds
them, and, as they are the same in the authorized as in the refractory
church, instead of seeking them with the priest who does not submit, it
will seek them with the one who does. But it will proceed without zeal,
without confidence, often even with distrust, questioning itself whether
these rites, being administered by one who is excommunicated, are not of
doubtful quality. Such a church is not sound, and we have only to
give it a push to knock it down. We will do all we can to discredit
constitutional priests: we will prohibit them from wearing the
ecclesiastical costume, and force them by law to bestow the nuptial
benediction on their apostate brethren; we will employ terror and
imprisonment to constrain them to marry; we will given them no respite
until they return to civil life, some admitting themselves to be
impostors, many by surrendering their priestly credentials, and most
of them by resigning their places.[2132] Deprived of leaders by these
voluntary or forced desertions, the Catholic flock will allow itself
to be easily led out of the fold, while, to remove all temptation to go
back, we will tear the enclosure down. In the communes in which we are
masters we will make the Jacobins of the place demand the abolition
of worship, while, in other communes, we will get rid of this
authoritatively through our missionary representatives. We will close
the churches, demolish the steeples, melt down the bells, send all
sacred vessels to the Mint, smash the images of the saints, desecrate
relics, prohibit religious burials, impose the civil burial, prescribe
rest during the decadi[2133] and labor on Sundays. No exception
whatever. Since all positive religions deal in error, we will outlaw
them all: we will exact from Protestant clergymen a public abjuration;
we will not let the Jews practice their ceremonies; we will have "an
'auto-da-fe,' of all the books and symbols of the faith of Moses."[2134]
But, of all these various juggling machines, the worst is the Catholic,
the most hostile to nature due to the celibacy of its priesthood, the
most opposed to reason in the absurdity of its dogmas, the most opposed
to democracy, since its powers are delegated from above downwards,
the best protected from civil authority because its head is outside
of France.[2135] Accordingly, we must be most furious against it; even
after Thermidor,[2136] we will keep up constant persecution, grea