Page:New Christianity.pdf/27

 the sciences whose progress contributed to the increase of the well-being of the poorest classes. Since that time they are become heretical, because they have cultivated only theology, and suffered themselves to be surpassed by the laity in the cultivation of the fine arts, the sciences, and industry.

The accusation of heresy which I ring against the pope and the cardinals, on account of the bad use which they make of their intelligence, and the bad education which they give to their teachers, is, therefore, well-founded.

I accuse the pope of being a heretic under this third head; I accuse him of pursuing a system of government more opposed to the moral and physical welfare of the indigent class of his temporal subjects, than that pursued by any lay prince towards his indigent subjects.

Let us survey the whole of Europe, and we shall acknowledge that the population of the ecclesiastical states is that in which the administration of the public interests is the most defective and the most anti-Christian.

Considerable tracts of land, which form part of the domain of St. Peter, and which formerly yielded abundant produce, are now converted into pestilential marshes, by the negligence of the papal government.

A great part of the territory, which has not been swamped by the waters, remains uncultivated; a thing which cannot be attributed to the ingratitude of the soil, but to the slender encouragement which the agriculturist receives in the ecclesiastical states. Husbandry, conferring no dignity, nor profit sufficiently stimulating, is little prosecuted; men who have the requisite skill and capital do not attach themselves to it. The pope reserves to himself the monopoly, not only of all the important products of cultivation, but also of all the necessaries of life, and grants the exercise of this monopoly to such of his cardinals as acquire his favor.