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The Origins Of Thomas Jefferson's Anti-Clericalism, Frederick C. Luebke

Department of History: Faculty Publications

Cannibals - mountebanks - charlatans - pious and whining hypocrites - necromancers - pseudo-Christians - mystery mongers. These are among the epithets which Thomas Jefferson applied to the clergy of the Protestant denominations and of the Roman Catholic Church as well. It was they who "perverted" the principles of Jesus "into an engine for enslaving mankind"; it was the Christian "priesthood" who had turned organized religion into a "mere contrivance to filch wealth and power" for themselves; they were the ones who throughout history had persecuted rational men for refusing to swallow "their impious heresies." This attitude of Jefferson, with …