The Turgot Collection

Religious Liberty
“Le conciliateur’’

Turgot, in his first published writing, makes clear his belief in the complete separation of Church and State. He comments on a dispute that involved Protestants, the French bishops, Jansenists, and the Parlement of Paris. The Jansenists were a party within the French Church who insisted on severe moral requirements as a prerequisite to taking Communion. They had been condemned by Rome in the bull Unigenitus (1713), but they had not been eradicated even in the 1750s. The French bishops wanted to deny them admission to Communion. The Parlement forbade the bishops from doing this. At the same time, the Parlement wanted to impose disabilities on the Protestants, reminiscent of Louis XIV’s Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

Turgot argues that everyone should be free to believe as he wishes. No civil disabilities could rightfully be imposed on the Protestants and Jansenists. On the other hand, the Parlement should leave it up to the Church to determine who has access to Communion. Turgot appeals to the renunciation of force by Jesus and the practice of the pre-Constantinian Church in support of his views. An abundance of competing sects will promote peace, not social unrest, so long as no one uses coercion.