《旧制度与大革命·卷二·第十一章·旧制度下所享有的那种自由及其影响》第5节
I maintain, in opposition to an opinion which is very generally and very firmly established, that the nations which deprive the Roman Catholic clergy of all participation in landed property, and convert their incomes into salaries, do in fact only promote the interests of the Papacy, and those of the temporal Ruler, whilst they renounce an important element of freedom amongst themselves. A man who, as far as the best portion of his nature is concerned, is the subject of a foreign authority, and who in the country where he dwells can have no family, will only be linked to the soil by one durable tie--namely, landed property. Break that bond, and he belongs to no place in particular. In the place where the accident of birth may have cast him, he lives like an alien in the midst of a civil community, scarcely any of whose civil interests can directly affect him. His conscience binds him to the Pope; his maintenance to the Sovereign. His only country is the Church. In every political event he perceives little more than the advantage or the loss of his own profession. Let but the Church be free and prosperous, what matters all the rest? His most natural political state is that of indifference--an excellent member of the Christian commonwealth, but elsewhere a worthless citizen. Such sentiments and such opinions as these in a body of men who are the directors of childhood, and the guardians of morality, cannot fail to enervate the soul of the entire nation in relation to public life. A correct impression of the revolution which may be effected in the human mind by a change wrought in social conditions, may be obtained from a perusal of the Instructions given to the Delegates of the Clergy at the States-General of 1789.
注释摘要
托克维尔在这里提出的是一个极为大胆的论点，其推理逻辑几近于一种政治经济学式的人格分析。他认为，一旦将天主教神职人员的土地财产剥夺，转而由国家发放薪俸，表面上看是削弱了教会这个独立团体的力量，实际上却同时做成了两件事：加强了教皇的权威，也加强了世俗君主的控制。他的论证核心在于一个独特的社会学洞察：独身的神职人员在本国没有家庭这个最基本的社会纽带，他与脚下这片…