Document description

Question

These are 2 documents can you read them give me descriton of each?

Document 4:

Source: Louis-Sebastien Mercier, French playwright, A Scene of Paris, 1781

Religious freedom is entirely possible in Paris; never will you be held accountable for your beliefs. A bishop was once asked: ‘What are you complaining about? Have you ever seen a single act of sacrilege? Has a single philosopher ever disrupted even one catechism class? Have those who preach from the pulpit ever encountered a single heckler? They have always enjoyed the most gratifying right of all – that of never being interrupted or contradicted whatever they say’. And the bishop replied: ‘If only God would permit the occasional sacrilege! At least then people would still be thinking about us, but now they can’t even be bothered to show any disrespect’. The Enlightenment has brought us this desirable calm, and fanaticism has been left to consume itself.

Document 5:

Source: Pierre Charles Baquoy, French engraver, King Fredrick II (the Great) of Prussia visiting Voltaire, image originally created in 1795

Answer 1

Hey Saleh! I think a theme you are seeing throughout both these texts is authority deferring to logic, reason, and philosophy. This makes sense considering both documents were written roughly at the end of the Enlightenment, a period where critical thinking and evidence were seen as key methods for better understanding the world. In the case of Document 4, it is clear the author is saying that for too long religion amassed an enormous following because no one questioned it (or was allowed to). A hierarchy existed between those who preached and those who followed. The Enlightenment, however, freed people from this unbalanced system, giving them the ideas to challenge once-impenetrable institutions like the Church by analyzing and criticizing them. Much of the same can be said of Document 5, an image where we see emerging nations like Prussia, start to embrace the ideology of the Enlightenment in forming the basis of their emerging government.