The New Gospel

The long period of the dark ages under which Europe has lain is due, I believe, in a very considerable degree, to the celibacy enjoined by religious orders on their votaries.  Whenever a man or woman was possessed of a gentle nature that fitted him or her to deeds of charity, to meditation, to literature, or to art, the social condition of the time was such that they had no refuge elsewhere than in the bosom of the Church.  But the Church chose to preach and exact celibacy.  The consequence was that these gentle natures had no continuance and thus, by a policy so singularly unwise and suicidal that I am hardly about to speak of it without impatience, the Church brutalized the breed of our forefathers.  She acts precisely as if she had aimed at selecting the rudest portion of the community to be, alone, the parents of future generations.

The policy of the religious world in Europe was exerted in another direction, with hardly less cruel effect on the nature of future generations, by means of persecutions which brought thousands of the foremost thinkers and men of political aptitudes to the scaffold, or imprisoned them during a large part of their manhood, or drove them as emigrants into other lands.  In every one of these cases the check upon their leaving issue was very considerable.  Hence the Church, having first captured all the gentle natures and condemned them to celibacy, made another sweep of huge nets, this time fishing in stirring waters, to catch those who were the most fearless, truth-seeking, and intelligent, in their modes of thought, and therefore most suitable parents of a high civilization, and put a strong check, if not a direct stop, to their progeny.