James Madison
Quotes from James Madison
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits
it for every noble enterprise."
"And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as
every past one has done, in showing that religion and Govt (sic)
will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments
had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a
spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many
instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political
tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the
liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public
liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries.
A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs
them not."
"Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments,
instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have
had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the
legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been
its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in
the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both,
superstition, bigotry and persecution."
"It was the Universal opinion of the Century preceding the
last, that Civil Government could not stand without the prop of a
religious establishment; and that the Christian religion itself,
would perish if not supported by the legal provision for its
clergy. The experience of Virginia conspiciously corroboates the
disproof of both opinions. The Civil Government, tho' bereft of
everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite
stability and performs its functions with complete success;
whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood,
and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by
the TOTAL SEPARATION OF THE CHURCH FROM THE STATE."
"Who does not see that the same authority which can establish
Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish
with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion
of all other sects?"