State, without having been once under the shadow of such
an accusation. Besides, neither of these reasons will explain the
ignoring of his writings.

A more credible explanation must be looked for, and it can only be
discovered in the intense _odium theologicum_ which the name of Hume
excited at the moment, and which made it imperative, if the new
_Review_ was to get justice, that it should be severed from all
association with his detested name. Scotland happened to be at that
very hour in an exceptional ferment about his theological heresies,
and one of the strangest of proposals had come before the previous
General Assembly of the Kirk, backed by a number of the most respected
country clergy. It was no other than to summon the great sceptic to
their bar, to visit his _Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals_
with censure, and to pronounce against the author the major ban of
excommunication.

The wise heads who rule the Scotch Church courts of course threw out
this inconvenient proposal by the favourite ecclesiastical device of
passing an abstract resolution expressive of concern at the growing
evils of the day, without committing the Church to any embarrassing
practical action; and Hume himself was, as Wedderburn told them he
likely would be, hardened enough to laugh at the very idea of their
anathema. But the originators of the agitation only returned to the
battle, and prepared for a victory in the next Assembly in May 1756.
Between the two Assemblies Hume wrote his friend Allan Ramsay, the
painter, who was in Rome: "You may tell that reverend gentleman the
Pope that there are men here who rail at him, and yet would be much
greater persecutors had they equal power. The last Assembly sat on me.
They did not propose to burn me, because they cannot, but they
intended to give me over to Satan, which they think they have the
power of doing. My friends, however, prevailed, and my damnation is
postponed for a twelvemonth, but next Assembly will surely be upon
me."[93] And so in truth it was. An overture came up calling for
action regarding "one person calling himself David Hume, Esq., who
hath arrived at such a degree of boldness as publicly to avow himself
the author of books containing the most rude and open attacks upon the
glorious Gospel of Christ," and a motion was made for the appointment
of a committee "to inquire into the writings of this author, to call
him before them, and prepare the matter for the next