Royal Censorship Project
According to the Collins English Dictionary, the Enlightenment was “an 18thcentury philosophical movement stressing the importance of reason and the critical
reappraisal of existing ideas and social institutions.”
Such free-thinking attitudes, were not welcomed by the two leading
institutions of Ancien Regime France, the monarchy and the Catholic church. Almost
immediately the great thinkers of the French Enlightenment (called philosophes) ran
into serious trouble with the monarchy. Because the dominant classes of the Ancien
Regime (the monarchy, the clergy, and the nobility) all felt threatened by the core
ideas of the enlightenment and by the specific reforms advocated by particular
Enlightenment thinkers.
Your Task
You and your colleagues have been appointed by his Royal Highness, the King of
France, to serve as Royal Censors. Chief among your duties is suppression of
treasonous writings. All written work must be approved by you before it can be
printed.
The Royal Edict on Treasonous Writings and Idea:
"No publishers or others may print or reprint, anywhere in the kingdom, any books without
having obtained permission in advance by letters sealed with the Great Seal. Before any
book or pamphlet can be given the permission and privilege du roi. The Royal censor must
certify that the book contains nothing contrary to religion, does not assail the royal
authority, or disturb the order and tranquility of the realm.”
If a book or pamphlet that violates these standards is published surreptitiously, the
books shall be burned by the public executioner, and the printer and writer will be
arrested. Sentences shall vary from the pillory to flogging to nine years in the galleys.
Source: http://www.visitvoltaire.com/voltaire_bio.htm
Of late, numerous volumes needing scrutiny have come before the Royal censors. In
the days that you and your fellow Royal Censors will convene to judge whether the
following works violate the Royal Edict:
1. Diderot “Natural Law as Defined by the Encyclopedia” page 35
2. Voltaire’s Treatise on Toleration 38
3. Hourwitz “Vindication of the Jews” 48
4. Condorcet “Reflections on Negro Slavery” 55
5. “Petition of Women of the Third Estate?” 60
6. Abee Sieyes, “What is the Third Estate?” 63
Each of the above pamphlets will be assigned to a sub-committee of approximately 3
Royal Censors.
The sub-committees will perform the following task:
Deliver a 5 minute oral summary of the pamphlet for the other censors.
The oral report should contain the following four elements:
1. A very brief introduction that explains what is known about the author or authors.
2. A summary of the main ideas of the pamphlet in question.
3. An explanation of which core Ancien Regime ideas (see below) are being violated in
the pamphlet. Be sure to provide quotations from the pamphlet to support your
claims
4. An explanation of which core Enlightenment Ideals (see below) are embodied in the
pamphlet. Be sure to provide quotations from the pamphlet to support your claims.
Core Ideals of the Ancien Regime
1. Divine Right Monarchy:
This is the doctrine that the king is God’s representative on earth. Louis XIV supposedly
summed up this notion thus: “I am the state.” The king and his ministers have the power of
life and death over his subjects and do not need to ask permission from the people to rule.
2. Deference (yielding)to Social Betters:
This is the idea that some classes of people such as the nobility and the clergy are innately
superior to other classes of people including peasant farmers, tradesmen, and slaves (who
mostly worked on plantations in France’s overseas colonies).
3. Primacy of the Catholic Church
This is the idea that there can be only one official religion of the state. While other religions
may (or may not) be tolerated, believers in minority religions are at best an irritant and at
worst a threat to the state. The fate of Jews and Protestants does and should rest in the
hands of the Catholic majority.
4. Privileges of the First Two Estates
The first two estates (the clergy and nobility) shall not be subject to the same taxes and
rules that apply to the 3rd estate (the commoners). Moreover they shall enjoy special
privileges in the law.
5. The Limits of Personal Liberties:
Individuals have no right to exercise individual or political freedoms, particularly when
those freedoms clash with tradition, custom or the authority of the monarchy.
Six Core Enlightenment Ideals
1. Human Autonomy-- Enlightenment means that humans develop through the use of
their reason. Individuals can seek knowledge and use their own reason rather than be told
how to think by the church or the state. The notion of human autonomy changes the
traditional relationship between individual freedom and the state. If individuals should be
free to use their own reason and to think what they want, the government necessarily has
limits on its power.
2. The Importance of Reason and Logic Freedom means being able to think rationally
for yourself. Humanity must abandon a life of unreason, of relying on superstition, faith,
tradition and blind obedience. Instead, we must order our lives according to reason. Reason
will lead us to the truth. We find truth through science rather than tradition or faith.
Through scientific inquiry we can solve all the mysteries of the universe and reveal the
solutions to all the problems people face.
3. Enlightenment is Universal
All human beings possess the ability to be enlightened. In
other words, humans are equal by nature. All humans are part of a “universal community”
who share a single universal human nature. Differences among people are less important
than their fundamental sameness.
4. Progress
Humanity is progressing from immaturity, superstition, and slavery to
maturity, reason, and freedom. Human history is therefore the story of progress in the
human condition. Change is both necessary and inevitable.
5. Secularism
Religion and politics should be separated. There should be no official
religion. Further, one’s method of worship should be a private matter.
6. Popular Government People are capable of ruling themselves. The aristocracy is not the
only class that deserves to rule. The middle class, or bourgeoisie, who are the dynamic
producers in French society, should also play a part in politics. Ultimately, government
derives its powers from the people.
Source: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jo52/POS254/Enlideals.html