Men as well as the other, tho' in lesser number, occasions the loss of a great deal of time, with many Quarrels and Murders, and makes people brutish and dull as well as Fornication.But we will lay aside those two last Articles, if the Reader pleases, and count them as no∣thing (tho' the prejudice they do, goes farther than can be imagined) for it's clear enough that the others which I have proposed already, occasion above two hundred Millions loss per Annum, throughout the Kingdom of France, and they can be ascrib'd to nothing else but Popery, whereas they may perhaps cavil at the two last, and say that the Protestants are incontinent and likewise drunken as well as the Papists.If it be well adverted to, it will be found that four of the 18 Articles, that I have pro∣pos'd, do alone amount to above 200 Millions of Livres per Annum, viz. those of their Holy∣days, the Estates of the Church that are in Mainmort, Lent and other Fast-days, and the few Taxes that the French Clergy pays in com∣parison of the rest of the people.Popery occasions the same Mischiefs propor∣tionably in all other Popish Countries, and in some more, as Spain and Portugal, which it hath greatly dispeopled, by the Incontinence, and Celibacy of their Clergy, and the Con∣sequences of these Disorders, by the great number of their Ecclesiasticks, the Spirit of Persecution and the Perfidiousness of Popery, in the Expulsion of the Moors and Jews, and by their Inquisition, &c.0
|