Voltaire to Frederick the Great - 1770 June 8
8 June 1777. 1770.
No. 64
To 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]
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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 <
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.
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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
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
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 )
