A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 09 — Voltaire — John Shaqi
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 09
Voltaire · en
MASTER FILESAC.--It is because that you are not yet in the right way;
but you will be one day. I have always said that you were not far from
the kingdom of heaven; but your time is not yet come.
PAGE.--And the time will never come in which I shall be made to believe
that you have sent Ravaillac to the kingdom of heaven.
MASTER FILESAC.--As soon as you shall be converted, which I hope will be
the case, you will believe as I do; but in the meantime, be assured that
you and the duke of Sully, your master, will be damned to all eternity
with Judas Iscariot and the wicked rich man Dives, while Ravaillac will
repose in the bosom of Abraham.
PAGE.--How, scoundrel!
MASTER FILESAC.--No abuse, my little son. It is forbidden to call our
brother "_raca_," under the penalty of the _gehenna_ or hell fire.
Permit me to instruct without enraging you.
PAGE.--Go on; thou appearest to me so "_raca_," that I will be angry no
more.
MASTER FILESAC.--I therefore say to you, that agreeably to faith you
will be damned, as unhappily our dear Henry IV. is already, as the
Sorbonne always foresaw.
PAGE.--My dear master damned! Listen to the wicked wretch! A cane! a
cane!
MASTER FILESAC.--Be patient, good young man; you promised to listen to
me quietly. Is it not true that the great Henry died without confession?
Is it not true that he died in the commission of mortal sin, being still
amorous of the princess of Condé, and that he had not time to receive
the sacrament of repentance, God having allowed him to be stabbed in the
left ventricle of the heart, in consequence of which he was instantly
suffocated with his own blood? You will absolutely find no good Catholic
who will not say the same as I do.
PAGE.--Hold thy tongue, master madman; if I thought that thy doctors
taught a doctrine so abominable, I would burn them in their lodgings.
MASTER FILESAC.--Once again, be calm; you have promised to be so. His
lordship the marquis of Cochini, who is a good Catholic, will know how
to prevent you from being guilty of the sacrilege of injuring my
colleagues.
PAGE.--But conscientiously, Master Filesac, does thy party really think
in this manner?
MASTER FILESAC.--Be assured of it; it is our catechism.
PAGE.--Listen; for I must confess to thee, that one of thy Sorbonnists
almost seduced me last year. He induced me to hope for a pension or a
benefice. Since the king, he observed, has heard mass in Latin, you who
are only a petty gentleman may also attend it without derogation. God
takes care of His elect, giving them mitres, crosses, and prodigious
sums of money, while you of the reformed doctrine go on foot, and can do
nothing but write. I own I was staggered; but after what thou hast just
said to me, I would rather a thousand times be a Mahometan than of thy
creed.