The Essays Chapter 56

(1, p. 131v-134v).Michel de MontaigneC156 Des prieresMontaigne - Essais, Éd de Bordeaux, 1.djvuMontaigne - Essais, Éd de Bordeaux, 1.djvu/1131v-134v
Chapitre 56 :
Des Prières

IE propose des fantasies informes et irresolues, comme
font ceux qui publient des questions doubteuses, à debattre aux
escoles : non pour establir la verité, mais pour la chercher. Et les
soubmets au jugement de
ceux à qui il touche de regler, non seulement mes actions et mes
escris, mais encore mes pensées. Esgalement m’en sera acceptable et
utile la condemnation comme l’approbation,

Et pourtant, me remettant tousjours à l’authorité de leur censure,
qui peut tout sur moy, je me mesle ainsin temerairement à toute sorte
de propos, comme icy. Je ne sçay si je me trompe, mais, puis que, par
une faveur particuliere de la bonté divine, certaine façon de priere
nous a esté prescripte et dictée mot à mot par la bouche de Dieu,
il m’a tousjours semblé que nous en devions avoir l’usage plus
ordinaire que nous
n’avons. Et, si j’en estoy creu, à l’entrée et à
l’issue de nos tables, à nostre lever et coucher, et à toutes actions
particulieres ausquelles on a accoustumé de mesler des prieres, je
voudroy que ce fut le patenostre que les Chrestiens y employassent,

L’Église peut estendre et diversifier les prieres selon le besoing de
nostre instruction : car je sçay bien que c’est tousjours mesme
substance et mesme chose. Mais on devoit donner à celle là ce
privilege, que le peuple l’eust continuellement en la bouche : car il
est certain qu’elle dit tout ce qu’il faut, et qu’elle est tres-propre
à toutes occasions.

J’avoy presentement en la pensée d’où nous venoit cett’ erreur de
recourir à Dieu en tous nos desseins et entreprinses,

Il est bien nostre seul et unique protecteur,

mais, encore qu’il daigne nous honorer de cette douce aliance
paternelle, il est pourtant autant juste comme il est bon

et nous favorise selon la raison d’icelle, non selon noz demandes.

Sa justice et sa puissance sont inseparables. Pour neant implorons
nous sa force en une mauvaise cause. Il faut avoir l’ame nette, au
moins en ce moment auquel nous le prions, et deschargée de passions
vitieuses ; autrement nous luy presentons nous mesmes les verges dequoy
nous chastier. Au lieu de rabiller nostre faute, nous la redoublons,
presentans à celuy à qui nous avons à demander pardon, une affection
pleine d’irreverence et de haine. Voylà pourquoy je ne loue pas
volontiers ceux que je voy prier Dieu plus souvent et plus
ordinairement, si les actions voisines de la priere ne me tesmoignent
quelque amendement et reformation,

Nous prions par usage et par coustume, ou, pour mieux dire, nous
lisons ou prononçons nos prieres. Ce n’est en fin que mine.

Ce n’est pas sans grande raison, ce me semble, que l’Église defend
l’usage promiscue, temeraire et indiscret des sainctes et divines
chansons que le Sainct Esprit a dicté en David. Il ne faut mesler
Dieu en nos actions qu’avecque reverence et attention pleine
d’honneur
et de respect. Cette voix est trop divine pour n’avoir autre usage que
d’exercer les poulmons et plaire à nos oreilles : c’est de la
conscience qu’elle doit estre produite, et non pas de la langue. Ce
n’est pas raison qu’on permette qu’un garçon de boutique, parmy ces
vains et frivoles pensemens, s’en entretienne et s’en joue.

On m’a dict que ceux mesmes qui ne sont pas des nostres, defendent
pourtant entre eux l’usage du nom de Dieu en leurs propos communs.
Ils ne veulent pas qu’on s’en serve par une maniere d’interjection ou
d’exclamation, ny pour tesmoignage, ny pour comparaison : en quoy je
trouve qu’ils ont raison. Et, en quelque manière que ce soit que
nous
appellons Dieu à nostre commerce et societé, il faut que ce soit
serieusement et religieusement. Il y a, ce me semble, en Xenophon un
tel discours, où il montre que nous devons plus rarement prier Dieu,
d’autant qu’il n’est pas aisé que nous puissions si souvent remettre
nostre ame en cette assiete reglée, reformée et devotieuse, où il
faut qu’elle soit pour ce faire ; autrement nos prieres ne sont pas
seulement vaines et inutiles, mais vitieuses. Pardonne nous, disons
nous, comme nous pardonnons à ceux qui nous ont offencez. Que disons
nous par là, sinon que nous luy offrons nostre ame exempte de
vengeance et de rancune ? Toutesfois nous appellons Dieu et son ayde
au complot de nos fautes,

L’avaricieux le prie pour la conservation vaine et superflue de ses
thresors ; l’ambitieux, pour ses victoires et conduite de sa passion ; le
voleur l’employe à son ayde pour franchir le hazart et les difficultez
qui s’opposent à l’execution de ses meschantes entreprinses, ou le
remercie de l’aisance qu’il a trouvé à desgosiller un passant.

La Royne de Navarre, Marguerite, recite d’un jeune prince, et,
encore qu’elle ne le nomme pas, sa grandeur l’a rendu assez
connoissable, qu’allant à une assignation amoureuse, et coucher avec
la femme d’un Advocat de Paris, son chemin s’adonnant au travers
d’une Église, il ne passoit jamais en ce lieu saint, alant ou
retournant de son entreprinse, qu’il ne fit ses prieres et oraisons. Je vous
laisse à juger, l’ame pleine de ce beau pensement, à quoy il
employoit la faveur divine : toutesfois elle allegue cela pour un
tesmoignage de singuliere devotion. Mais ce n’est pas par cette preuve
seulement qu’on pourroit verifier que les femmes ne sont guieres
propres à traiter les matieres de la Theologie. Une vraye priere et
une religieuse reconciliation de nous à Dieu, elle ne peut
tomber en une ame impure et soubmise lors mesmes à la domination de
Satan. Celuy qui appelle Dieu à son assistance pendant qu’il est
dans le train du vice, il fait comme le coupeur de bourse qui
appelleroit la justice à son ayde, ou comme ceux qui produisent le nom
de Dieu en tesmoignage de mensonge :

Il est peu d’hommes qui ozassent mettre en evidance les requestes secretes qu’ils font à Dieu,

Haud cuivis promptum est murmurque humilesque susurros
Tollere de templis, et aperto vivere voto.

Voylà pourquoy les Pythagoriens vouloyent qu’elles fussent publiques
et ouyes d’un chacun, afin qu’on ne le requit de chose indecente et
injuste, comme celuy là,

clare cum dixit : Apollo,
Labra movet, metuens audiri : pulchra Laverna,
Da mihi fallere, da justum sanctumque videri. Noctem peccatis et fraudibus objice nubem.

Il semble, à la verité, que nous nous servons de nos prieres

comme ceux qui employent les paroles sainctes et divines à des
sorcelleries et effects magiciens ; et que nous facions nostre conte que
ce soit de la contexture, ou son, ou suite des motz, ou de nostre
contenance, que depende leur effect. Car, ayant l’âme pleine de
concupiscence, non touchée de repentance ny d’aucune nouvelle
reconciliation envers Dieu, nous luy alons presenter ces parolles que
la memoire preste à nostre langue, et esperons en tirer une expiation
de nos fautes. Il n’est rien si aisé, si doux et si favorable que la
loy divine : elle nous appelle à soy, ainsi fautiers et detestables
comme nous sommes : elle nous tend les bras et nous reçoit en son giron,
pour vilains, ords et bourbeux que nous soyons et que nous ayons à
estre à l’advenir. Mais encore, en recompense, la faut il regarder de
bon oeuil. Encore faut-il recevoir ce pardon avec action de graces ; et,
au moins pour cet instant que nous nous addressons à elle, avoir l’ame
desplaisante de ses fautes et ennemie des passions qui nous ont poussé
à l’offencer ;

Chapter LVI. Of prayers.

I propose formless and undetermined fancies, like those who publish

doubtful questions, to be after a disputed upon in the schools, not to

establish truth but to seek it; and I submit them to the judgments of

those whose office it is to regulate, not my writings and actions only,

but moreover my very thoughts. Let what I here set down meet with

correction or applause, it shall be of equal welcome and utility to me,

myself beforehand condemning as absurd and impious, if anything shall be

found, through ignorance or inadvertency, couched in this rhapsody,

contrary to the holy resolutions and prescriptions of the Catholic

Apostolic and Roman Church, into which I was born and in which I will

die. And yet, always submitting to the authority of their censure, which

has an absolute power over me, I thus rashly venture at everything, as in

treating upon this present subject.

I know not if or no I am wrong, but since, by a particular favour of the

divine bounty, a certain form of prayer has been prescribed and dictated

to us, word by word, from the mouth of God Himself, I have ever been of

opinion that we ought to have it in more frequent use than we yet have;

and if I were worthy to advise, at the sitting down to and rising from

our tables, at our rising from and going to bed, and in every particular

action wherein prayer is used, I would that Christians always make use of

the Lord's Prayer, if not alone, yet at least always. The Church may

lengthen and diversify prayers, according to the necessity of our

instruction, for I know very well that it is always the same in substance

and the same thing: but yet such a privilege ought to be given to that

prayer, that the people should have it continually in their mouths; for

it is most certain that all necessary petitions are comprehended in it,

and that it is infinitely proper for all occasions. 'Tis the only prayer

I use in all places and conditions, and which I still repeat instead of

changing; whence it also happens that I have no other so entirely by

heart as that.

It just now came into my mind, whence it is we should derive that error

of having recourse to God in all our designs and enterprises, to call Him

to our assistance in all sorts of affairs, and in all places where our

weakness stands in need of support, without considering whether the

occasion be just or otherwise; and to invoke His name and power, in what

state soever we are, or action we are engaged in, howsoever vicious. He

is indeed, our sole and unique protector, and can do all things for us:

but though He is pleased to honour us with this sweet paternal alliance,

He is, notwithstanding, as just as He is good and mighty; and more often

exercises His justice than His power, and favours us according to that,

and not according to our petitions.

Plato in his Laws, makes three sorts of belief injurious to the gods;

"that there are none; that they concern not themselves about our affairs;

that they never refuse anything to our vows, offerings, and sacrifices."

The first of these errors (according to his opinion, never continued

rooted in any man from his infancy to his old age); the other two, he

confesses, men might be obstinate in.

God's justice and His power are inseparable; 'tis in vain we invoke His

power in an unjust cause. We are to have our souls pure and clean, at

that moment at least wherein we pray to Him, and purified from all

vicious passions; otherwise we ourselves present Him the rods wherewith

to chastise us; instead of repairing anything we have done amiss, we

double the wickedness and the offence when we offer to Him, to whom we

are to sue for pardon, an affection full of irreverence and hatred.

Which makes me not very apt to applaud those whom I observe to be so

frequent on their knees, if the actions nearest to the prayer do not give

me some evidence of amendment and reformation:

"Si, nocturnus adulter,

Tempora Santonico velas adoperta cucullo."

And the practice of a man who mixes devotion with an execrable life seems

in some sort more to be condemned than that of a man conformable to his

own propension and dissolute throughout; and for that reason it is that

our Church denies admittance to and communion with men obstinate and

incorrigible in any notorious wickedness. We pray only by custom and for

fashion's sake; or rather, we read or pronounce our prayers aloud, which

is no better than an hypocritical show of devotion; and I am scandalised

to see a man cross himself thrice at the Benedicite, and as often at

Grace (and the more, because it is a sign I have in great veneration and

continual use, even when I yawn), and to dedicate all the other hours of

the day to acts of malice, avarice, and injustice. One hour to God, the

rest to the devil, as if by composition and compensation. 'Tis a wonder

to see actions so various in themselves succeed one another with such an

uniformity of method as not to interfere nor suffer any alteration, even

upon the very confines and passes from the one to the other. What a

prodigious conscience must that be that can be at quiet within itself

whilst it harbours under the same roof, with so agreeing and so calm a

society, both the crime and the judge?

A man whose whole meditation is continually working upon nothing but

impurity which he knows to be so odious to Almighty God, what can he say

when he comes to speak to Him? He draws back, but immediately falls into

a relapse. If the object of divine justice and the presence of his Maker

did, as he pretends, strike and chastise his soul, how short soever the

repentance might be, the very fear of offending the Infinite Majesty

would so often present itself to his imagination that he would soon see

himself master of those vices that are most natural and vehement in him.

But what shall we say of those who settle their whole course of life upon

the profit and emolument of sins, which they know to be mortal? How many

trades and vocations have we admitted and countenanced amongst us, whose

very essence is vicious? And he that, confessing himself to me,

voluntarily told me that he had all his lifetime professed and practised

a religion, in his opinion damnable and contrary to that he had in his

heart, only to preserve his credit and the honour of his employments, how

could his courage suffer so infamous a confession? What can men say to

the divine justice upon this subject?

Their repentance consisting in a visible and manifest reparation, they

lose the colour of alleging it both to God and man. Are they so impudent

as to sue for remission without satisfaction and without penitence?

I look upon these as in the same condition with the first: but the

obstinacy is not there so easy to be overcome. This contrariety and

volubility of opinion so sudden, so violent, that they feign, are a kind

of miracle to me: they present us with the state of an indigestible agony

of mind.

It seemed to me a fantastic imagination in those who, these late years

past, were wont to reproach every man they knew to be of any

extraordinary parts, and made profession of the Catholic religion, that

it was but outwardly; maintaining, moreover, to do him honour forsooth,

that whatever he might pretend to the contrary he could not but in his

heart be of their reformed opinion. An untoward disease, that a man

should be so riveted to his own belief as to fancy that others cannot

believe otherwise than as he does; and yet worse, that they should

entertain so vicious an opinion of such great parts as to think any man

so qualified, should prefer any present advantage of fortune to the

promises of eternal life and the menaces of eternal damnation. They may

believe me: could anything have tempted my youth, the ambition of the

danger and difficulties in the late commotions had not been the least

motives.

It is not without very good reason, in my opinion, that the Church

interdicts the promiscuous, indiscreet, and irreverent use of the holy

and divine Psalms, with which the Holy Ghost inspired King David. We

ought not to mix God in our actions, but with the highest reverence and

caution; that poesy is too holy to be put to no other use than to

exercise the lungs and to delight our ears; it ought to come from the

conscience, and not from the tongue. It is not fit that a prentice in

his shop, amongst his vain and frivolous thoughts, should be permitted to

pass away his time and divert himself with such sacred things. Neither

is it decent to see the Holy Book of the holy mysteries of our belief

tumbled up and down a hall or a kitchen they were formerly mysteries, but

are now become sports and recreations. 'Tis a book too serious and too

venerable to be cursorily or slightly turned over: the reading of the

scripture ought to be a temperate and premeditated act, and to which men

should always add this devout preface, 'sursum corda', preparing even the

body to so humble and composed a gesture and countenance as shall

evidence a particular veneration and attention. Neither is it a book for

everyone to fist, but the study of select men set apart for that purpose,

and whom Almighty God has been pleased to call to that office and sacred

function: the wicked and ignorant grow worse by it. 'Tis, not a story to

tell, but a history to revere, fear, and adore. Are not they then

pleasant men who think they have rendered this fit for the people's

handling by translating it into the vulgar tongue? Does the

understanding of all therein contained only stick at words? Shall I

venture to say further, that by coming so near to understand a little,

they are much wider of the whole scope than before. A pure and simple

ignorance and wholly depending upon the exposition of qualified persons,

was far more learned and salutary than this vain and verbal knowledge,

which has only temerity and presumption.

And I do further believe that the liberty every one has taken to disperse

the sacred writ into so many idioms carries with it a great deal more of

danger than utility. The Jews, Mohammedans, and almost all other

peoples, have reverentially espoused the language wherein their mysteries

were first conceived, and have expressly, and not without colour of

reason, forbidden the alteration of them into any other. Are we assured

that in Biscay and in Brittany there are enough competent judges of this

affair to establish this translation into their own language? The

universal Church has not a more difficult and solemn judgment to make.

In preaching and speaking the interpretation is vague, free, mutable, and

of a piece by itself; so 'tis not the same thing.

One of our Greek historians age justly censures the he lived in, because

the secrets of the Christian religion were dispersed into the hands of

every mechanic, to expound and argue upon, according to his own fancy,

and that we ought to be much ashamed, we who by God's especial favour

enjoy the pure mysteries of piety, to suffer them to be profaned by the

ignorant rabble; considering that the Gentiles expressly forbad Socrates,

Plato, and the other sages to inquire into or so much as mention the

things committed to the priests of Delphi; and he says, moreover, that

the factions of princes upon theological subjects are armed not with zeal

but fury; that zeal springs from the divine wisdom and justice, and

governs itself with prudence and moderation, but degenerates into hatred

and envy, producing tares and nettles instead of corn and wine when

conducted by human passions. And it was truly said by another, who,

advising the Emperor Theodosius, told him that disputes did not so much

rock the schisms of the Church asleep, as it roused and animated

heresies; that, therefore, all contentions and dialectic disputations

were to be avoided, and men absolutely to acquiesce in the prescriptions

and formulas of faith established by the ancients. And the Emperor

Andronicus having overheard some great men at high words in his palace

with Lapodius about a point of ours of great importance, gave them so

severe a check as to threaten to cause them to be thrown into the river

if they did not desist. The very women and children nowadays take upon

them to lecture the oldest and most experienced men about the

ecclesiastical laws; whereas the first of those of Plato forbids them to

inquire so much as into the civil laws, which were to stand instead of

divine ordinances; and, allowing the old men to confer amongst themselves

or with the magistrate about those things, he adds, provided it be not in

the presence of young or profane persons.

A bishop has left in writing that at the other end of the world there is

an isle, by the ancients called Dioscorides, abundantly fertile in all

sorts of trees and fruits, and of an exceedingly healthful air; the

inhabitants of which are Christians, having churches and altars, only

adorned with crosses without any other images, great observers of fasts

and feasts, exact payers of their tithes to the priests, and so chaste,

that none of them is permitted to have to do with more than one woman in

his life as to the rest, so content with their condition, that environed

with the sea they know nothing of navigation, and so simple that they

understand not one syllable of the religion they profess and wherein they

are so devout: a thing incredible to such as do not know that the Pagans,

who are so zealous idolaters, know nothing more of their gods than their

bare names and their statues. The ancient beginning of 'Menalippus', a

tragedy of Euripides, ran thus:

"O Jupiter! for that name alone

Of what thou art to me is known."

I have also known in my time some men's writings found fault with for

being purely human and philosophical, without any mixture of theology;

and yet, with some show of reason, it might, on the contrary, be said

that the divine doctrine, as queen and regent of the rest, better keeps

her state apart, that she ought to be sovereign throughout, not

subsidiary and suffragan, and that, peradventure, grammatical,

rhetorical, logical examples may elsewhere be more suitably chosen, as

also the material for the stage, games, and public entertainments, than

from so sacred a matter; that divine reasons are considered with greater

veneration and attention by themselves, and in their own proper style,

than when mixed with and adapted to human discourse; that it is a fault

much more often observed that the divines write too humanly, than that

the humanists write not theologically enough. Philosophy, says St.

Chrysostom, has long been banished the holy schools, as an handmaid

altogether useless and thought unworthy to look, so much as in passing

by the door, into the sanctuary of the holy treasures of the celestial

doctrine; that the human way of speaking is of a much lower form and

ought not to adopt for herself the dignity and majesty of divine

eloquence. Let who will 'verbis indisciplinatis' talk of fortune,

destiny, accident, good and evil hap, and other suchlike phrases,

according to his own humour; I for my part propose fancies merely human

and merely my own, and that simply as human fancies, and separately

considered, not as determined by any decree from heaven, incapable of

doubt or dispute; matter of opinion, not matter of faith; things which I

discourse of according to my own notions, not as I believe, according to

God; after a laical, not clerical, and yet always after a very religious

manner, as children prepare their exercises, not to instruct but to be

instructed.

And might it not be said, that an edict enjoining all people but such as

are public professors of divinity, to be very reserved in writing of

religion, would carry with it a very good colour of utility and justice - and to me, amongst the rest peradventure, to hold my prating? I have

been told that even those who are not of our Church nevertheless amongst

themselves expressly forbid the name of God to be used in common

discourse, nor so much even by way of interjection, exclamation,

assertion of a truth, or comparison; and I think them in the right: upon

what occasion soever we call upon God to accompany and assist us, it

ought always to be done with the greatest reverence and devotion.

There is, as I remember, a passage in Xenophon where he tells us that we

ought so much the more seldom to call upon God, by how much it is hard to

compose our souls to such a degree of calmness, patience, and devotion as

it ought to be in at such a time; otherwise our prayers are not only vain

and fruitless, but vicious: "forgive us," we say, "our trespasses, as we

forgive them that trespass against us"; what do we mean by this petition

but that we present to God a soul free from all rancour and revenge? And

yet we make nothing of invoking God's assistance in our vices, and

inviting Him into our unjust designs:

"Quae, nisi seductis, nequeas committere divis"

the covetous man prays for the conservation of his vain and superfluous

riches; the ambitious for victory and the good conduct of his fortune;

the thief calls Him to his assistance, to deliver him from the dangers

and difficulties that obstruct his wicked designs, or returns Him thanks

for the facility he has met with in cutting a man's throat; at the door

of the house men are going to storm or break into by force of a petard,

they fall to prayers for success, their intentions and hopes of cruelty,

avarice, and lust.

"Hoc igitur, quo to Jovis aurem impellere tentas,

Dic agedum Staio: 'proh Jupiter! O bone, clamet,

Jupiter!' At sese non clamet Jupiter ipse."

Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, tells of a young

prince, who, though she does not name him, is easily enough by his great

qualities to be known, who going upon an amorous assignation to lie with

an advocate's wife of Paris, his way thither being through a church, he

never passed that holy place going to or returning from his pious

exercise, but he always kneeled down to pray. Wherein he would employ

the divine favour, his soul being full of such virtuous meditations,

I leave others to judge, which, nevertheless, she instances for a

testimony of singular devotion. But this is not the only proof we have

that women are not very fit to treat of theological affairs.

A true prayer and religious reconciling of ourselves to Almighty God

cannot enter into an impure soul, subject at the very time to the

dominion of Satan. He who calls God to his assistance whilst in a course

of vice, does as if a cut-purse should call a magistrate to help him, or

like those who introduce the name of God to the attestation of a lie.

"Tacito mala vota susurro

Concipimus."

There are few men who durst publish to the world the prayers they make to

Almighty God:

"Haud cuivis promptum est, murmurque, humilesque susurros

Tollere de templis, et aperto vivere voto"

and this is the reason why the Pythagoreans would have them always public

and heard by every one, to the end they might not prefer indecent or

unjust petitions as this man:

"Clare quum dixit, Apollo!

Labra movet, metuens audiri: Pulcra Laverna,

Da mihi fallere, da justum sanctumque videri;

Noctem peccatis, et fraudibus objice nubem."

The gods severely punished the wicked prayers of OEdipus in granting

them: he had prayed that his children might amongst themselves determine

the succession to his throne by arms, and was so miserable as to see

himself taken at his word. We are not to pray that all things may go as

we would have them, but as most concurrent with prudence.

We seem, in truth, to make use of our prayers as of a kind of jargon, and

as those do who employ holy words about sorceries and magical operations;

and as if we reckoned the benefit we are to reap from them as depending

upon the contexture, sound, and jingle of words, or upon the grave

composing of the countenance. For having the soul contaminated with

concupiscence, not touched with repentance, or comforted by any late

reconciliation with God, we go to present Him such words as the memory

suggests to the tongue, and hope from thence to obtain the remission of

our sins. There is nothing so easy, so sweet, and so favourable, as the

divine law: it calls and invites us to her, guilty and abominable as we

are; extends her arms and receives us into her bosom, foul and polluted

as we at present are, and are for the future to be. But then, in return,

we are to look upon her with a respectful eye; we are to receive this

pardon with all gratitude and submission, and for that instant at least,

wherein we address ourselves to her, to have the soul sensible of the

ills we have committed, and at enmity with those passions that seduced us

to offend her; neither the gods nor good men (says Plato) will accept the

present of a wicked man:

"Immunis aram si terigit manus,

Non sumptuosa blandior hostia

Mollivit aversos Penates

Farre pio et saliente mica."