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1Jeune encore fous les premiers Empereurs GrecS t quoiqu’il annonçât déjà sa fierté , il ne porta pendant quelques siecles que des coups foibles & peu éclatans ; telles furent les légères entreprises de Symmaque contre l’Empereur Anastase. Mais ayant atteint l’âge où il pouvoit déployer sa férocité , les premiers Empereurs François lui en facilitèrent les moyens. Le pere de Charlemagne avoit vu le Pape à ses pieds , pour le supplier de le défendre contre les Lombards , & d’avance , le Prince avoit reçu le Sacre de sa main , en récorapenfe des services qu’il alloit lui rendre. Ce commerce bizarre ne tarda pas d’avoir les fuites .les plus étranges. Ceux qui d’abord n’avoient fait que joindre une cérémonie pieuse , aux droits politiques d’un Souverain , prétendirent bientôt lui avoir donné ces mêmes droits , bientôt en être les dépositaires , bientôt enfin pouvoir , quand il leur plai— roit , les retirer à ceux à qui ils se persuadoient de les avoir donnés. Aulfi le Fils de ce Charlemagne , dont le Pere avoit vu le Pape à ses pieds , non-seulement fut aux pieds du Pape , mais fut même , au milieu d’une assemblée de ses propres Sujets , déposé par l'Evêque Ebbon. Seconde époque , dans laquelle les égaremens vinrent de la part des Chefs spirituels. Dès que ce torrent eut rompu ses digues , il n’elt Naturel. 19 7
2n’elî point de désordres qu’on n’en vît naître : l’ambition & le despotisme se couvrant alors du voile de la Religion , firent couler plus de lang en dix siecles que les hordes des Barbares n’en avoient répandu depuis la naissance du Chrifiianifine ; & pour frémir d’horreur , il ne faut qu’ouvrir l’histoire des Comnene à Constantinople , des Philippe en Fran- •ce , des Frédéric en Allemagne , des Suinthila en Espagne , des Henris & des Edouard en Angleterre. Cependant le moment arriva où les yeux dévoient commencer à s’ouvrir. Quand les Chefs du Christianisme se furent confondus avec le Temple & le Tabernacle , tandis qu’ils n’en dévoient être que les colonnes ; quand ils voulurent fanêfifier leur ignorance ; quand ils eurent perte l’extravagance jusqu’à lancer des décrets qui défendoient aux Souverains anathématifés de remporter des vi&oires , & jusqu’à interdire aux Anges par les mêmes décrets de recevoir les âmes de ceux qu’ils avoient proferits; quand enfin il s’éleva plusieurs prétendans à la Thiare , qu’on les vit s’anathém3tisser réciproquement & se livrer des batailles sanglantes jusques dans les Temples des Chrétiens ; les Peuples étonnés se demanderont si ces têtes pouvoient encore être sacrées , étant couvertes d’anatbêmes y & ils se permirent de laisser reposer leur enthousiasme pour y substituer la réflexion. ( N 3 } Mais. 1$% Tableau
3Mais dans ce s temps malheureux où le sacré & le profane étoient confondus , où la dispute étoit la seule science du Cbriftianifme public , où les Clercs rie- oient jugés dignes des fonctions de l’Autel , qu’apj fs avoir passé par les frivoles épreuves d’une icholaftique barbare , les réflexions des Peuples pou voient-elles être susceptibles de justesse &: de maturité ? Ces hommes grossiers , voyant les désordres de ceux qui profeffoient les dogmes sacrés , ne se contentèrent pas de douter des Maîtres , ils portèrent l’imprudence jusqu’à suspecter les dogmes mêmes, Sc à force de les considérer dans cet e'prit de défiance , ils crurent y voir des difficultés insolubles. Troisieme époque , dans laquelle les égaremens vinrent de la part des membres. D -lù les différentes Sectes qu’on a vu naître , depuis crois ou quatre siecles , dans le sein du Chriflianifine ; le quelles à leur tour servant de prétexte à fambiti n , en ont été mutuellement les infhumens & les viâi nés. Mais des malheurs d’un autre çenre se sont mê" lés à ces erreurs , d’autant qu’on a vu à la fois , la croyance des choses vraies , & la crédulité criminelle confondue? , & proferites par des sentences barbares , ce qui a enhardi les Ouvriers mauvais , .& fait taire de plus en plus les Ouvriers légitimes. Ainfl ceux des Chefs spirituels qui avoient conservé Naturel. i$<)
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1Young still under the first Greek Emperors, although it already announced its pride, it bore during some ages only feeble & little striking blows; such were the slight enterprises of Symmachus against the Emperor Anastasius. But having attained the age when it could deploy its ferocity, the first French Emperors facilitated it the means. The father of Charlemagne had seen the Pope at his feet, to supplicate him to defend him against the Lombards, &, beforehand, the Prince had received the Anointing from his hand, in recompense for the services he was going to render him. That bizarre commerce did not delay in having the strangest consequences. Those who at first had done nothing but join a pious ceremony to the political rights of a Sovereign pretended soon to have given him those same rights, soon to be the depositaries of them, soon finally to be able, when it pleased them, to withdraw them from those to whom they persuaded themselves they had given them. Also was the Son of that Charlemagne, whose Father had seen the Pope at his feet, not only at the feet of the Pope, but was even, in the midst of an assembly of his own Subjects, deposed by the Bishop Ebbo. A second epoch, wherein the wanderings came on the part of the spiritual Chiefs. So soon as that torrent had broken its dykes, there is not Naturel. 19 7
2a disorder which was not seen to be born of it: ambition & despotism, covering themselves then with the veil of Religion, made more blood flow in ten ages than the hordes of the Barbarians had spilt since the birth of Christianity; &, to shudder with horror, one need only open the history of the Comneni at Constantinople, of the Philips in France, of the Fredericks in Germany, of the Suinthilas in Spain, of the Henries & the Edwards in England. Nevertheless the moment arrived when the eyes were to begin to open. When the Chiefs of Christianity had confounded themselves with the Temple & the Tabernacle, whereas they were to be only the columns of it; when they would sanctify their ignorance; when they had pushed extravagance so far as to launch decrees which forbade the anathematised Sovereigns to carry off victories, & so far as to interdict the Angels by the same decrees from receiving the souls of those they had proscribed; when finally several pretenders to the Tiara arose, & they were seen to anathem3tise one another reciprocally & to give one another bloody battles even in the Temples of the Christians; the astonished Peoples asked themselves whether those heads could still be sacred, being covered with anathemas; & they permitted themselves to let their enthusiasm rest, to substitute reflection for it. ( N 3 } Mais. 1$% Tableau
3But in those unhappy times when the sacred & the profane were confounded, when dispute was the sole science of public Christianity, when the Clerks were judged worthy of the functions of the Altar only after having passed through the frivolous proofs of a barbarous scholasticism, could the reflections of the Peoples be susceptible of justness & of maturity? Those gross men, seeing the disorders of those who professed the sacred dogmas, did not content themselves with doubting the Masters; they carried imprudence so far as to suspect the dogmas themselves, &, by dint of considering them in that spirit of distrust, they believed they saw in them insoluble difficulties. A third epoch, wherein the wanderings came on the part of the members. Thence the different Sects which have been seen born, these three or four ages, in the bosom of Christianity; which in their turn, serving as pretext to ambition, have been mutually the instruments & the victims of it. But misfortunes of another kind have mingled themselves with those errors, the more so as one has seen at once the belief of true things, & criminal credulity, confounded & proscribed by barbarous sentences, which has emboldened the bad Workmen, & made the legitimate Workmen more & more silent. Thus those of the spiritual Chiefs who had preserved Naturel. i$<)
Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.
PROVENANCE OF THE COPY SCANNED. The volume carries the bookplate of Sidney Edward Bouverie-Pusey, printed above the title page and here trimmed out of the reading text along with the scanner debris around it. It is recorded rather than discarded: it says whose copy of the 1782 Tableau naturel this archive is reading from, which is a fact about the artefact even though it is not a fact about the book.