“ What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? ”
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind, and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.]
~ James Madison
Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between the ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together.
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
