The Turgot Collection

Religious Equality

In a memorial to King Louis XVI before his coronation, Turgot continues his argument for religious freedom. He points out that if the government demands that someone profess a religion he does not really believe, this imposes a tremendous burden on his conscience. Suppose that the person believes that his eternal salvation depends on accepting a certain religion. (Turgot notes that most religions do teach exclusivism of this type.) Then, persecution is likely to be ineffective, since whatever penalty the state can impose will be much less significant than the loss of salvation. If it is argued that the king simply acts as the servant of the Church in suppressing heresy, Turgot answers that the Church has no power over temporal matters. Further, the king has no special knowledge of theology that would justify him in claiming to determine the true religion, and Turgot does not hesitate to criticize Louis XIV for persecuting Protestants, even though he was ignorant in theology. Even if persecution were successful, it would induce sin. People who professed a religion they did not really believe would be guilty of perjury.