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Fifth Letter After having established, as you have seen, the necessity of dealing severely with me, the Author of the Letters proves, as you are going to see, that the procedure followed against Jean Morelli, although exactly in conformity with the Ordinances, and in a case similar to mine, was not an example to follow with regard to me; considering, Wrst, that the Council, being above the Ordinance, is not at all obliged to conform with it; that besides, my crime being more serious than Morelli’s oVense ought to be treated more severely. To these proofs the Author adds that it is not true that they judged me without hearing me, since it was enough to hear the Book itself and since the stigmatization of the Book does not fall in any manner on the Author; since Wnally the works that they reproach the Council for having tolerated are innocent and tolerable in comparison to mine. As to the Wrst Article, perhaps you will have diYculty believing that they dared to set the small Council above the Laws without further ado. I know nothing more certain to convince you of it than to transcribe for you the passage in which this principle is established, and out of fear of changing the meaning of this passage by cutting it, I will transcribe all of it. *“Did the Ordinance want to tie the hands of the civil power and oblige it not to repress any oVense against Religion until after the Consistory took cognizance of it? If that were so, it would result from it that one could write against Religion with impunity, that the Government would be impotent for repressing that license, and for stigmatizing any Book of that sort; for if the Ordinance wants the delinquent to appear Wrst at the Consistory, the Ordinance does not any less prescribe that if he falls into line, he is to be supported without defamation. Thus, whatever his oVense against Religion might have been, the accused will always be able to escape by putting up a show of falling into line; and the one who would have defamed Religion throughout the world ought to be supported without defamation by means of a simulated repentance. Could those who are acquainted with the spirit of severity, to say nothing more, that reigned 200 * Page 4. when the Ordinance was compiled, believe that that was the meaning of Article 88 of the Ordinance? “If the Consistory does not act, will its inaction chain the Council? Or at least will it be reduced to the function of informer to the Consistory? That is not what the Ordinance intended, when, after having treated the establishment of the duty and of the power of the Consistory, it concludes that the civil power remains in its entirety, in such a manner that nothing be derogated from its authority nor from the ordinary course by means of any ecclesiastical remonstrances. Thus this Ordinance does not assume, as it is made to do in the Remonstrances, that in this matter the Ministers of the Gospel are more natural judges than the Councils. Everything that is within the jurisdiction of authority in matters of Religion is within the jurisdiction of the Government. This is the principle of the Protestants, and it is particularly the principle of our Constitution, which in cases of dispute attributes to the Councils the right of deciding about dogma.” You see, Sir, in these Wnal lines the principle upon which what precedes them is founded. Thus to proceed with order in this examination, it is Wtting to begin at the end. Everything that is within the jurisdiction of authority in matters of Religion is within the jurisdiction of the Government. There is an equivocation in this word Government here that it is very important to clarify, and I advise you, if you love the constitution of your fatherland, to be attentive to the distinction that I am going to make; you will soon feel its utility. The word Government does not have the same meaning in every country , because the constitution of States is not the same everywhere. In Monarchies, where the executive power is joined to the exercise of sovereignty, the Government is nothing but the Sovereign itself, acting by means of its Ministers, by means of its Council, or by means of Bodies that depend absolutely on its will. In Republics, above all in Democracies, where the Sovereign never acts immediately by itself, it is something...

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