Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

made law by the authority of the Commonwealth and, consequently, a
part of the civil law
Of the same kind it is also when any but the sovereign restraineth
in any man that power which the Commonwealth hath not restrained; as
they do that impropriate the preaching of the gospel to one certain
order of men, where the laws have left it free. If the state give me
leave to preach or teach; that is, if it forbid me not, no man can
forbid me. If I find myself amongst the idolaters of America, shall
I that am a Christian, though not in orders, think it a sin to
preach Jesus Christ, till I have received orders from Rome Or when
I have preached, shall not I answer their doubts and expound the
Scriptures to them; that is, shall I not teach But for this may
some say, as also for administering to them the sacraments, the
necessity shall be esteemed for a sufficient mission; which is true.
But this is true also, that for whatsoever a dispensation is due for
the necessity, for the same there needs no dispensation when there
is no law that forbids it. Therefore to deny these functions to
those to whom the civil sovereign hath not denied them is a taking
away of a lawful liberty, which is contrary to the doctrine of civil
government.
More examples of vain philosophy, brought into religion by the
doctors of School divinity, might be produced; but other men may if
they please observe them of themselves. I shall only add this, that
the writings of School divines are nothing else, for the most part,
but insignificant trains of strange and barbarous words, or words
otherwise used than in the common use of the Latin tongue; such as
would pose Cicero, and Varro, and all the grammarians of ancient Rome.
Which, if any man would see proved, let him (as I have said once
before) see whether he can translate any School divine into any of the
modern tongues, as French, English, or any other copious language: for
that which cannot in most of these be made intelligible is not
intelligible in the Latin. Which insignificancy of language, though
I cannot note it for false philosophy, yet it hath a quality, not only
to hide the truth, but also to make men think they have it, and desist
from further search.
Lastly, for the errors brought in from false or uncertain history,
what is all the legend of fictitious miracles in the lives of the
saints; and all the histories of apparitions and ghosts alleged by the
doctors of the Roman Church, to make good their doctrines of hell
and purgatory, the power of exorcism, and other doctrines which have
no warrant, neither in reason nor Scripture; as also all those
traditions which they call the unwritten word of God; but old wives'
fables Whereof, though they find dispersed somewhat in the writings
of the ancient Fathers, yet those Fathers were men that might too
easily believe false reports. And the producing of their opinions
for testimony of the truth of what they believed hath no other force
with them that, according to the counsel of St. John,* examine spirits
than in all things that concern the power of the Roman Church (the
abuse whereof either they suspected not, or had benefit by it), to
discredit their testimony in respect of too rash belief of reports;
which the most sincere men without great knowledge of natural
causes, such as the Fathers were, are commonly the most subject to:
for naturally, the best men are the least suspicious of fraudulent
purposes. Gregory the Pope and St. Bernard have somewhat of
apparitions of ghosts that said they were in purgatory; and so has our
Bede: but nowhere, I believe, but by report from others. But if
they, or any other, relate any such stories of their own knowledge,