poisonous food may be more surely stopped we punish those who ask for it
the same as those who provide it, and we prosecute not only the pastors,
but, again, the fanatics of the flock; if these are not the authors of
the ecclesiastical rebellion they are its promoters and accomplices.
Now, thanks to the schism among them, we already know who they are,
and, in each commune, the list is made out. We style as fanatics all who
reject the ministry of the sworn priests, the bourgeois who calls him an
interloper, all the nuns who do not confess to him, all the peasants who
stay away from his mass, all the old women who do not kiss his paten,
and all the relations of an infant who do not wish him to baptize it.
All these people and those who associate with them, whether allied,
close relatives, friends, guests or visitors, of whatever class, either
men or women, are seditious at heart, and, therefore, "suspects." We
deprive them of their electoral rights, we withdraw their pensions, we
impose on them special taxation, we confine them to their dwellings, we
imprison them by thousands, and guillotine them by hundreds; the
rest will gradually become discouraged and abandon an impracticable
cult.[2131]--The lukewarm remain, the sheep-like crowd which holds on
to its rites: the Constituent Assembly will seize them wherever it finds
them, and, as they are the same in the authorized as in the refractory
church, instead of seeking them with the priest who does not submit, it
will seek them with the one who does. But it will proceed without zeal,
without confidence, often even with distrust, questioning itself whether
these rites, being administered by one who is excommunicated, are not of
doubtful quality. Such a church is not sound, and we have only to
give it a push to knock it down. We will do all we can to discredit
constitutional priests: we will prohibit them from wearing the
ecclesiastical costume, and force them by law to bestow the nuptial
benediction on their apostate brethren; we will employ terror and
imprisonment to constrain them to marry; we will given them no respite
until they return to civil life, some admitting themselves to be
impostors, many by surrendering their priestly credentials, and most
of them by resigning their places.[2132] Deprived of leaders by these
voluntary or forced desertions, the Catholic flock will allow itself
to be easily led out of the fold, while, to remove all temptation to go
back, we will tear the enclosure down. In the communes in which we are
masters we will make the Jacobins of the place demand the abolition
of worship, while, in other communes, we will get rid of this
authoritatively through our missionary representatives. We will close
the churches, demolish the steeples, melt down the bells, send all
sacred vessels to the Mint, smash the images of the saints, desecrate
relics, prohibit religious burials, impose the civil burial, prescribe
rest during the décadi[2133] and labor on Sundays. No exception
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