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THE NATIJUK AN1> CAUSES OF

mental learning, by the decent liberality of their manners,by the social good humour of their conversation, and by theiravowed contempt of those absurd and hypocritical austeritieswhich fanatics inculcate and pretend to practise, in order todraw upon themselves the veneration, and upon the greaterpart of men of rank and fortune, who avow that they do notpractise them, the abhorrence of the common people. Sucha clergy, however, while they pay their court in this man-ner to the higher ranks of life, are very apt to neglect alto-gether the means of maintaining their influence and au-thority with the lower. They are listened to, esteemed andrespected by their superiors ; but before their inferiors theyare frequently incapable of defending, effectually and to theconviction of such hearers, their own sober and moderatedoctrines against the most ignorant enthusiast who choosesto attack them.

The followers of Zuinglius, or more properly those ofCalvin, on the contrary, bestowed upon the people of eachparish, whenever the church became vacant, the right ofelecting their own pastor; and established at the same timethe most perfect equality among the clergy. The former partof this institution, as long as it remained in vigour, seems tohave been productive of nothing but disorder and confusion,and to have tended equally to corrupt the morals both of theclergy and of the people. The latter part seems never to havehad any effects but what were perfectly agreeable.

As long as the people of each parish preserved the rightof electing their own pastors, they acted almost always underthe influence of the clergy, and generally of the most factiousand fanatical of the order. The clergy, in order to preservetheir influence in those popular elections, became, or affectedto become, many of them, fanatics themselves, encouragedfanaticism among the people, and gave the preference almostalways to the most fanatical candidate. So small a matter asthe appointment of a parish priest occasioned almost alwaysa violent contest, not only in one parish, but in all the neigh-bouring parishes, who seldom failed to take part in thequarrel. When the parish happened to be situated in a greatcity, it divided all the inhabitants into two parties; and whenthat city happened either to constitute itself a little republic,or to be the head and capital of a little republic, as is the casewith many of the considerable cities in Switzerland and Hol-land, every paltry dispute of this kind, over and above exas-