Voltaire to Frederick the Great (1770 June 8) - Leaf 1
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Voltaire to Frederick the Great - 1770 June 8
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1770 June 8
8 June 1777. 1770.
No. 64To Frederick the Great
1. When a Franciscan friar[1] sets ablaze
2. The works of a capuchin monk[2]
3. One is well aware that it is envy
4. The result of a malicious spirit.
5. But when a mighty monarch’s
6. Beautiful writings are associated
7. With the pranks of saint Cucufin[3],
8. It is an enormous thoughtless blunder.
9. The holy father is a poor saint,
10. He is a foolish monk who forgets himself
11. At random he excommunicates;
12. Grasp all, lose all.
13. Your Majesty is well repaid for your devotion to Saint
14. Ignatius[4]; never mind a weakling like me who is only in the service of Saint
15. Francis. The misfortune, Sire, is that nothing is to be gained by
16. punishing brother Ganganelly. Would to God that he had a somewhat
17. suitable estate in your neighborhood, and that you were not
18. far from our Lady of Loretto.
19. It is nice to know how to mock
20. These harlequin creators of papal bulls
21. I like to ridicule them,
22. I would much prefer to divest them.
23. Why do you not deal with the vicar of Simon Barjone[5]
[Page break]
24. while the Empress of Russia is dusting off the
25. vicar of Mahomet? Together you would have purged the
26. earth of two bizarre idiocies. I once had
27. great hope for you, but you have
28. contented yourself with making fun of Rome and of me, of going directly
29. to what is sound, and with being a very shrewd hero.
30. I had in my small library the Essai sur les
31. Préjugés but I had never read it, I <erased>attempted
32. to have a glance at a few pages, and, having noted nothing but verbiage
33. without wit, I left the book where I found it. You have done it too
34. much honor by criticizing it[6], but blessed may you be to have walked
35. on pebbles and to have cut them into diamonds!
36. Bad books sometimes do some good in that they
37. generate useful ones.
38. From the most impure mud
39. Beautiful flowers often spring
40. When the brilliant god of the nine sisters
41. Strikes this mud with his ray of light
42. I entreat you, Sire, to endeavor to have pity on my old
43. prejudices in favor of the Greeks against the Turks. I much prefer
44. Socrates’s family to that of the descendants of Orhan[7], in spite of
45. my profound respect for sovereigns.
[Page break]
46. You well know, Sire, that if you had not been a king
47. I would have wished to live and die close to you.
48. The old sick hermit
V/
49. I see that you do not want the three graces of
50. Mr. Hennin. Those that inspire you when you write
51. are far more models of grace.
[Shelfmark: Rare f F840, V935 d]
[1] Clement XIV was born Giovanni Ganganelli (1705 – 1774) and he was a member of the Franciscan Order. He became a Cardinal in 1759 and, in 1769, he was elected Pope. Clement is remembered as the Pope who issued the brief ‘Dominus ac Redemptor’ that suppressed the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order) on 21 July 1773, in response to the wishes of his French and Spanish allies. However, Catherine II of Russia and Frederick II of Prussia ignored the brief and the order continued to work in their domains. In France, the suppression lasted until 1814.
See: Who's Who in Christianity, Routledge, Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok, Routledge, 2nd edition, 2001. Credo Reference http://search.credoreference.com.libproxy2.usc.edu/content/entry/routwwchr/clement_xiv_1705_1774/0?searchId=2ab8bc25-23b2-11e7-a716-0e58d2201a4d&result=0
[2] The order of Capucin monks, whose name comes from the hood with which they covered their heads, belongs to the Franciscan family. It was founded in Pisa, in 1528, by Matteo da Bascio. The capuchins walked barefoot in sandals in all weather, wore homespun clothing, tok a vow of poverty, and took care of the poor and plague-stricken. They were tireless preachers and missionaries, and exerted considerable influence on the population, during the Catholic reform.
http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/divers/capucin/30656
[3] The suggestive (fictitious) name “Saint Cucufin” refers to Saint Seraphin of Montegranaro who was canonized by Pope Clement XIII on 16 July 1767. In his La canonisation de Saint Cucufin, frère d’Ascoli, par le pape Clément XIII, et son apparition au sieur Aveline, bourgeois de Troyes, mise en lumière par le sieur Aveline lui-même, is a satirical short pamphlet in which Voltaire (Aveline is a pseudonym for Voltaire) pokes fun at the Catholic church’s practices and institutions, and, in this case, its canonization of saints. For more information see Saint Cucufin.
[4] Saint Ignatius of Loyola (23 October 1491 - 31 July 1556) was a Spanish priest and theologian, who founded the religious order named the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He became its first Superior General. The Jesuit order served the Pope as missionaries and, with regard to those missions, they were bound to him by a vow of special obedience. They emerged as an important political force during the time of the Counter Reformation, which was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation, beginning with the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years’ War (1648. Ignatius was canonized in 1622 (March 12) by Pope Gregory XV. (See: Catholic Encyclopedia - < http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07639c.htm >)
[5] Simon Barjone refers to St. Peter whose original name was Simon. He was the son of Jona (in Hebrew: bar-Jona), hence Voltaire’s “Simon Barjone”. Voltaire speaks of him in his Discours aux confédérés catholiques de Kaminiek en Pologne, Par Le Major Kaiserling Au Service Du Roi de Prusse (published by Kramer in 1768). See: OCV, vol. 67.
[6] Voltaire refers here to Frederick’s Examen de l’essai sur les préjugés which Frederick wrote in 1770 to refute Holbach’s Essai sur les préjugés which appeared earlier in 1770. For more information on this essay and Frederick’s refutation, see Essai sur les préjugés.
[7] Orhan—also called Orhan Gazi and also spelled Orkhan—(born 1288—died 1360), was the second ruler of the Ottoman dynasty which had been founded by his father, Osman I. Orhan’s reign (1324–60) marked the beginning of Ottoman expansion into the Balkans. (Encyclopædia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/biography/Orhan )
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Voltaire to Frederick the Great - 1770 June 8 - Transcription
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8 juin <1777>. 1770[1].
No. 64au Friedrich der Grosse[2]1. Quand un Cordelier incendie
2. les Ouvrages d’un capucin,
3. on Sent bien que c’est jalousie,
4. un éffet de l’ésprit malin.
5. mais Lors que d’un grand Souverain
6. Les Baux écrits il associe
7. aux Farces de Saint Cucufin,
8. C’est une Enorme Etourderie.
9. Le Saint Père est un pauvre Saint,
10. C’[3]est un Sot moine qui S’oublie,
11. Au hazard il excomunie;
12. qui trop embrasse mal étreint.
13. Voilà Votre majesté bien payée de S'etre vouée à St.
14. Ignace ; passe pour moi chetif qui n'appartiens qu'à St.
15. François. Le malheur, Sire, c'est qu'il n’y a rien à gagner à
16. punis Frere Ganganelly. plut à dieu qu'il eut quelque Bon
17. domaine dans vôtre voisinage, et que vous ne fussiez pas
18. Si loin de notre dame de Lorrette.
19. Il est Beau de Savoir Railler,
20. cet arlequins feseurs de Bulles;
21. J’aime à Les rendre Ridicules,
22. jaimeraîs [sic] mieux Les dépouiller.
23. que ne vous chargez vous du Vicaire de Simon Barjone
[Page break]
24. tandis que l'impératrice de Russie époussete Le
25. Vicaire de Mahomet ? vous auriez à vous deux purgé La
26. terre de deux étranges sottises. J'avais autrefois conçu
27. ces grandes espérances de vous ; mais vous vous êtes
28. contenté de vous moquer de Rome et de moi ; d'aller droît
29. au Solide, et d'être un héros très avisé.
30. J'avais dans ma petite Bibliotèque l'essay Sur les
31. préjugés mais je ne l'avais jamais lu. j'avais <essaié>éssaïé
32. d'en parcourir quelques pages, et n'aïant vu[4] qu'un verbiage
33. sans esprit, j'avais jette là le livre. vous lui faites trop
34. d'honneur de le critiquer. mais béni soyez vous d'avoir marché
35. sur des Cailloux, et d'avoir taillé des diamans. Les
36. mauvais livres ont quelquefois celà de bon, c'est quils[5] en
37. produisent d'utiles.
38. Dela fange la plus grossiere
39. on voit souvent naitre des fleurs,
40. quand le dieu brillant des neuf soeurs
41. La frappe d’un trait de lumiere.
42. Tachez <Sire>je vous prie, Sire, d’avoir pîtie de mes vieux
43. prejugés en faveur des grecs contre les Turcs. J’aime mieux
44. La famille de Socrate que les déscendans d’orcan, malgré
45. mon profond respect pour les souverains.
[Page break]
46. Sire, vous savez bien que si vous n’étiez pas Roy
47. Jaurais voulu vivre et mourir auprès de vous.
48. Le vieux malade Hermite
V/
49. Je vois que vous ne voulez point des trois graces de
50. Monsieur hennin; celles qui vous inspirent quand vous ecrivez
51. sous [sic] beaucoup plus graces.
[Shelfmark: Rare f F840, V935 d[6]]
[1] This manuscript (Hoose) is the second of three manuscripts identified in both EE and OCV (Letter ID: D16397). It is described as a “copy of original document: contemporary transcription.”
In EE’s “Manuscript Instances”, the first manuscript is described as a holograph draft located at
The National Library of Russia / Российская национальная библиотека, Saint Petersburg, Sankt-Peterburg (autonomous city), Russia, Voltaire’s library, MS vol. 6, Folio/Feuillet 70.
The third manuscript is described as “Copy of original document: nineteenth-century”, National Library of France / Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, Ville de Paris (department), Île-de-France, France, MS n.a.fr. 4821, folio/feuillet 241.
For corresponding print instances available in our USC collection, see: Kehl: vol. 65, pp. 405-407; OCV: vol. 120, pp. 238-240.
[2] This note is written in pencil in a different hand.
[3] The majuscule letter “C” is superimposed over “il”
[4] The correction of “essaié” to “éssaïé” as well as the mark over this “vu” suggest that the letter was copied with some speed. The horizontal mark over the “vu” appears to be an accidental stroke and seems to have no meaning. Because of the correction of the word “éssaïé” in the line above, we can also suggest that this letter was copied by sight rather than orally.
[5] The absence of the apostrophe for this word (“quil” for “qu’il”) [line 36] is maintained here. In several lines that follow (on both this page and the next), the lack of spacing between words is not reproduced (in the text above), because such a lack suggests that this spelling is simply due to haste causing the scribe not to raise his pen to separate the words.
[6] This notation appears at the bottom of the 4th page which is blank (except for the University Library’s seal).
![[Shelfmark: Rare f F840, V935 d]](http://scalar.usc.edu/works/voltaire/media/1770%20june%208%20V%20to%20F%20vol-coll874-13-01~4.jpg){kind=link}
