‘Have you noticed that the eight Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, the Gospels, the whole of primitive Christian literature, contain not one word which sets military virtues among those which lead to the Kingdom of Heaven?’ (Renan, _First Letter to Strauss_.)[124] Let me observe that I am not reproaching the Christian preacher for giving their due to glory and other earthly passions, I am only reproaching him for trying to pretend that he is in harmony with his institution when he does so. We do not ask that the Christian shall not violate the Christian law; we only ask him to know that he is breaking it when he does break it. This seems to me admirably brought out by the remark of Cardinal Lavigerie who was asked: ‘What would you do, Eminence, if someone slapped your right cheek?’ and who replied, ‘I know what I ought to do, but I do not know what I should do.’ _I know what I ought to do_, and therefore what I ought to teach. A man who speaks in that way may give way to every species of violence, and yet maintain Christian morality. Here actions are nothing; the judgment on the actions is everything. Must I repeat that I am not deploring the fact that the cults of honour and courage should be preached to human beings; I am deploring the fact that they are preached _by the ‘clerks’_. Civilization, I repeat, seems to me possible only if humanity consents to a division of functions, if side by side with those who carry out the lay passions and extol the virtues serviceable to them there exists a class of men who depreciate these passions and glorify the advantages which are beyond the material. What I think serious is that this class of men should cease to perform their office, and that those whose duty was to quench human pride should extol the same impulses of soul as the leaders of armies. I shall be told that this preaching is imposed on the ‘clerks’, at least in war-time, by the laymen, by the States, who to-day intend to mobilize all the moral resources of the nation for their ends.[125] But what amazes me is not so much that I see the ‘clerks’ preaching in this manner, as to see them do it with such docility, such absence of disgust, such enthusiasm, such joy.... The truth is that the ‘clerks’ have become as much laymen as the laymen themselves.