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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Chapter XXV: A new Confutation of that particular Argument of St. Austin, drawn from the Constraint exercis'd by a good Shepherd on his Sheep. - A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, 'Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full'

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Chapter XXV: A new Confutation of that particular Argument of St. Austin, drawn from the Constraint exercis’d by a good Shepherd on his Sheep. - Pierre Bayle, A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, ‘Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full’ [1686]

Edition used:

A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, ‘Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full’, edited, with an Introduction by John Kilcullen and Chandran Kukathas (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


Chapter XXV

A new Confutation of that particular Argument of St. Austin, drawn from the Constraint exercis’d by a good Shepherd on his Sheep.

First Defect of this Comparison, That the Evil from which they wou’d preserve the Heretick by constraining him, enters with him into the Church; whereas the Wolf does not enter the Fold with the Sheep that’s thrust in by main Force.

The Comparison of the good Shepherd, who to save his Sheep from the Jaws of the Wolf, thrusts ’em into the Fold, if need be, by main Force, has appear’d so dazling to the Gentlemen Convertists; that not content to have preach’d it a thousand times over to their People, and publish’d it to the World in imitation of St. Austin, they have taken it for the Fancy, or Design, before the Books which they had dedicated to the King of France on this Subject. For which reason, because I have two Thoughts against the unjustness of this Comparison, over and above what I have already said in my third Part, p. 305. I hope my Readers won’t take it ill, if I edg ’em in here by way of Supplement.

The first of these Thoughts is, That the Shepherd never uses this Constraint, when he sees his Sheep already in the Wolf’s Power: all his En-<725>deavors then amount to driving the Wolf away, and depriving him of his Prey; and he’d think he had committed a gross Fault, if he drove the Wolf towards the Fold, and forc’d him in along with the Sheep that he has fast in his Clutches. Yet this Imprudence wou’d be more excusable than that of Persecutors who extort the signing a Formulary; because a Wolf shut into the Fold may possibly be knock’d on the head there, nor wou’d it be a hard matter to find a sure way to dispatch him: But a Heresy shut into the Church along with a false Convert, is a lurking Distemper which it’s no easy matter to cure. Be that how it will, the Comparison is still defective. The good Shepherd forces his Sheep into the Fold, not when they are seiz’d by the Wolf, but before they are fal’n into his Clutches. The Convertists force Hereticks into the Church when actually of a piece with the Error, and there shut ’em in with the Enemy, who holds ’em, as they pretend, in Thraldom.

A Confutation of those who say, That since a Heretick must be damn’d unless he is constrain’d, it can do no harm to constrain him.

And here I can’t forbear expressing my astonishment at what I have heard some Catholicks say, and even read in Letters written from France, That People shou’d not be troubl’d, to think that the Dragoons made numbers of the Hugonots sign, who were persuaded that what they sign’d was false; because at worst these false Converts cou’d but damn themselves, and they<726> wou’d be damn’d without this: so that since either way they must be damn’d, better chuse that which puts a stop to the Scandal, of having a multiplicity of Sects in the same Country.

I own, this makes me question whether I am in a Christian Country; for what becomes of all the Morality of the Gospel, if we authorize so monstrous a Thought? Are we ignorant, that Holiness requires we shou’d do our utmost to prevent God’s being offended, and his Holy Name dishonor’d; and that Humanity, and much more Christian Charity, forbid us to enhance the Guilt, or enflame the Account of our Neighbor? Yet these two sacred Obligations are destroy’d by the Maxims of these wicked Convertists, who having it in their Power to let the Heretick rest in his first Sin, to wit, his Heresy according to them, force him to add Hypocrisy, and a Sin against Conscience, to his Error: whence it follows, that he offends God in more ways than otherwise he wou’d have done, and treasures up for himself a more insupportable degree of Hell Torments, than simple Heresy cou’d have merited.

According to this fine Maxim of Morality, it might be lawful to tempt Hereticks, by the powerfullest Sollicitations, to get drunk, to cut one another’s Throats, calumniate each other, live promiscuously: Men and Women in all carnal Pollutions, rob, filch, and steal from one another. For if the stopping a visible Schism, be a Good which counterballances those Sins of Hypocrisy, into which Hereticks are thrown; the Good which might accrue to the Church, from this Peoples living the most<727> dissolute Lives, and thereby becoming a Foil to the good Lives of Catholicks, wou’d ballance all the Sins which they might be tempted to commit.

Let’s now proceed to my other Thought.

Second Defect of the foresaid Comparison; That it proves invincibly, either the Pretensions of the Court of Rome over the Temporal Rights of Princes, or that the Church may depose Princes who persecute her.

One’s strangely surpriz’d, and can hardly forbear laughing, when he reads in Bellarmin or Suarez,288 that these Words of Jesus Christ to St. Peter, Pasce oves meas, feed my Sheep, mean, that the Pope may depose Heretick Kings, or absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance.

But it’s most certain, if once the Conduct of Shepherds be made the Rule for Pastors of Souls, and it be proper to argue from one to the other, that nothing can be more convincing, within the Borders of the Church of Rome, than the Reasons of these Jesuits: for in fine, there’s a natural Right in Shepherds, a Right inseparable from their Charge, of defending their Sheep against the Attempts of the Wolf, by every kind of way that they can devise, either by letting loose their Dogs at him, or by setting Traps or Snares to catch him, or by laying poison’d Flesh or other Baits in his way, or by shooting him dead with a long Gun. Seeing then the Roman Catholicks are agreed, that the Pope is the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the Supreme Pastor of<728> Souls; and since they can’t but own, that a Heretical persecuting Prince, who by his Wiles and his Violences draws the Children of his Kingdom after him into Perdition, is a destroying Wolf with regard to the Church; they must, if they reason consequentially, agree with Bellarmin and Suarez, that the Pope ought to make this Prince away, by the shortest way that he can think of, quocunque modo potest,289 either by letting loose the neighboring Princes and Potentates against him, or by stirring up his own Subjects to Rebellion, or by Poison or Assassination.

It’s pleasant enough to see, how Mr. Maimbourg answers this Similitude of the good Shepherd, in Chap. 27. of his History of the Church of Rome. This, says he, is a Sophism not only false and opposite to all the Rules of right reasoning, but impious also and detestable, which leads directly to Parricide, and is a just ground for burning the Books which advance it. He might reasonably have judg’d so, if he were of my Principles; but approving Compulsion, as he did, and supporting it by the Example of the Shepherd, it had bin impossible for him to shew, that the Ultramontans reason’d amiss. He had bin harder set here, than by another Comparison of theirs, taken from the States General of France, to shew, that as the King of France has the whole Monarchical Power vested in him, even when for the Good of his Kingdom he thinks fit to call together the three Estates; so the Pope, who can’t follow a juster Model for governing the Church than that of the Kings of France, is always superior to a Council.290

Poor Maimbourg was at a loss to answer this Difficulty.<729>

But let the Command, Feed my Sheep, be address’d to whom it will, it must be own’d that it confers a right of making away persecuting Princes, if the Conduct of Shepherds be a Rule for Imitation.

[288. ]See Appendixes, “Church and State,” p. 589.

[289. ]“In whatever way he can.”

[290. ]On the Ultramontains and Gallicans see Appendixes, “Church and State,” p. 590. Maimbourg was a Gallican, so held that a Church Council is superior to the pope.