Montesquieu: Of Laws in Relation to Religion, Considered in Itself, and Its Doctrine

The Spirit of Laws (1751)Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

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Of Laws in Relation to Religion Considered in Itself, and in its Doctrines1. Of Religion in General.2. A Paradox of M. Bayle's.3. That a moderate Government is most agreeable to the Christian Religion, and a despotic Government to the Mahometan.4. Consequences from the Character of the Christian Religion, and that of the Mahometan.5. That the Catholic Religion is most agreeable to a Monarchy, and the Protestant to a Republic.6. Another of M. Bayle's Paradoxes.7. Of the Laws of Perfection in Religion.8. Of the Connection between the moral Laws and those of Religion.9. Of the Essenes.10. Of the Sect of Stoics.11. Of Contemplation.12. Of Penances.13. Of inexpiable Crimes.14. In what Manner Religion has an Influence on Civil Laws.15. How false Religions are sometimes corrected by the Civil Laws.16. How the Laws of Religion correct the Inconveniences of a political Constitution.17. The same Subject continued.18. How the Laws of Religion have the Effect of Civil Laws.19. That it is not so much the Truth or Falsity of a Doctrine which renders it useful or pernicious to Men in civil Government, as the Use or Abuse of it.20. The same Subject continued.21. Of the Metempsychosis.22. That it is dangerous for Religion to inspire an Aversion for Things in themselves indifferent.23. Of Festivals.24. Of the local Laws of Religion.25. The Inconvenience of transplanting a Religion from one Country to another.26. The same Subject continued. FOOTNOTES
   1. Thoughts on the Comet, Continuation of Thoughts on the Comet, ii.
   2. Description of Ethiopia, by M. Ponce, Physician. Edifying Letters, coll. iv, p. 290.
   3. See Diodorus, i. 18.
   4. Dupin, Ecclesiastical Library of the Sixth Century, v.
   5. Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the Establishment of the East India Company, iii, part I, p. 63.
   6. Prideaux, History of the Jews.
   7. This is the inconvenience of the doctrine of Foe and Laockium.
   8. De Leg., ii. 22.
   9. Sacrum commissum, quod neque expiari potent, impie commissum est; quod expiari potent publici sacerdotes expianto.
   10. See the account of John Duplan Carpin, sent to Tartary by Pope Innocent IV in the year 1246.
   11. Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the Establishment of the East India Company, v, part I, p. 192.
   12. Edifying Letters, coll. xv.
   13. Politics, vii. 17.
   14. Suetonius, Life of Augustus, 31.
   15. Ibid.
   16. Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the Establishment of the East India Company, iv, part I p. 127.
   17. See Prideaux, life of Mahomet, p. 64.
   18. Koran, i, chapter "Of the Cow."
   19. On renouncing the law of retaliation.
   20. De Moribus Germanorum, 21.
   21. Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the Establishment of the East India Company, vii, p. 303. See also Memoirs of the Count de Forbin, and what he says of the people of Macassar.
   22. Plato, Laws, ix.
   23. Tragedy of Oedipus at Colonus.
   24. Plato, Laws, ix.
   25. A Chinese philosopher reasons thus against the doctrine of Foe: "It is said in a book of that sect, that the body is our dwelling-place and the soul the immortal guest which lodges there; but if the bodies of our relatives are only a lodging, it is natural to regard them with the same contempt we should feel for a structure of earth and dirt. Is not this endeavouring to tear from the heart the virtue of love to one's own parents? This leads us even to neglect the care of the body, and to refuse it the compassion and affection so necessary for its preservation; hence the disciples of Foe kill themselves by thousands." -- Work of an ancient Chinese philosopher, in the Collection of Father Du Halde, iii, p. 52.
   26. See Tho. Bartholin, Antiquities of the Danes.
   27. An Account of Japan, in the Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the Establishment of the East India company.
   28. Forbin, Memoirs.
   29. Hyde, Religion of the Persians.
   30. Xenophon, On the Republic of Athens, 3, °8.
   31. Leg. 3. Cod. de feriis. This law was doubtless made only for the Pagans.
   32. The Catholics lie more toward the south, and the Protestants towards the north.
   33. Dampier, Voyages, ii.
   34. See Bernier, Travels, ii, p. 137.
   35. Edifying Letters, coll. xii, p. 95.
   36. Bernier, Travels, ii, p. 137.
   37. Euripides, in Athenæus, ii, p. 40.
   38. Life of Mahomet.
   39. As in China.
   40. Medicina Statica, °3, aphor. 22.
   41. Ibid., aphor. 23.
   42. Travels into Persia, ii.
   43. Bernier, Travels, ii.