Cesar, Clovis and CharlemagneParisian Society of Spiritist Studies, January 24th 1862
Proposed subject Medium Mr. A. Didier
This is not only a material subject but it is also very much a spiritualist one as well. Before going into the main subject there is another one to be discussed first.
What is war? War, we say for starters, is allowed by God since it exists, has existed and will always exist. While educating one’s mind it is a mistake to consider Cesar as a conqueror only; to see Clovis as a Barbarian and Charlemagne a tyrant whose senseless dream was to create a large empire. Ah! God! As people generally say, the conquerors themselves are toys in the hands of God.
They got to these positions out of their geniuses and audacity and saw around them not only armed men but also ideals, progress, civilizations that had to be brought upon other nations. They left like Cesar to take Rome to Lutetia; like Clovis to spread the germs of a monarchic solidarity; like Charlemagne to sow the seeds of Christianity to blind peoples, to nations already corrupted by the first times of the Church.
This is what happened:
Cesar, the most self-centered of these three geniuses, imposed military tactics, discipline and the law, imposing them all to Gaul. Behind his army, there was the immortal idea. The conquered and untamable populations endured the oppression of Rome; they became Roman provinces. Would the proud Marseille have ever existed without Rome? Laudanum and so many other famous towns became huge centers, focuses of light, science, arts and humanity. Cesar is then a great propagator, one of those universal men that use man to civilize man, one of those who sacrifice people to the benefit of ideas.
Clovis’ dream was to establish a monarchy, foundations, and a rule for his people. However, since he was not yet illuminated by the grace of Christianity, he was a barbarian propagator. We must see him in his conversion. Out of his active, febrile and bellicose imagination, he saw a gift from God in his victory against the Visigoth and from there on and certain that he was always with God he was baptized. Baptism then propagates in the Gaul and Christianity expands even further. It is time to repeat with Corneille that Rome was no longer Rome. The barbarians had invaded the Roman world.
After the Romans had shaken all civilizations there is a man whose dream is no longer to spread around the world the mysteries and prestige of the Capitol but the formidable beliefs of Aix-la- Chapelle. That is a godly man or a man that believes to be with God. The barbarians still practice a hateful cult, a rival to Christianity. Charlemagne takes those people over and Wittekind falls after a succession of battles and victories, humbly surrendering and receiving the baptism.
That is, no doubt, a gigantic picture in which so many facts, so many acts of Providence, so many downfalls and victories take place. But what is the conclusion? Isn’t the propagation of the idea, its universalization, not stopping before family breakdowns, people’s sadness and having everywhere the fundamental objective of the implantation of the cross of Christ in all corners of the planet, isn’t that a spiritualist fact?
It is then necessary to see these three men as great propagators that either out of ambition or belief brought light to the Occident when the Orient was about to succumb in a perplexing laziness and inactivity.
Now, Earth is not a planet where progress takes place rapidly and through persuasion and kindness. Do not be surprised by the fact that it is many times necessary to raise the sword instead of the cross.
Lamennais
Q. – You said that wars will always exist. However it seems that moral progress will make it disappear by destroying its causes. – A. It will always exist in the sense that there will always be struggle. But the struggle will change in form. It is true that Spiritism must spread peace and fraternity around the world. But you know well that despite the triumph of good there is always a struggle. Spiritism will evidently increase the understanding of the need for peace but evil is always present. It will still be necessary to fight for good for a long time on Earth. The struggles will become rarer and rarer.
Same subject, medium Mr. Leymar
The influence of geniuses upon the future of the peoples is incontestable. They are instruments in the hands of the Providence to abbreviate the great reforms that without them would only come much later. They are the ones who sow the germs of the new ideas and they often come back some centuries later bearing different names to continue or complement the work that was initiated. Cesar, that great figure of antiquity, represents the genius of war and organized laws. His stretched to the limit passions shook the Roman society profoundly. It changes its face and, in the evolutionary process, everything changes. The peoples feel their former constitution changing. The ruthless strength of his power unites what should not have been separated according to the time of Cesar. Gaul is transformed by Cesar’s triumphant hands and after ten years of war a powerful unity is formed. The decadence of Rome begins at that time, though.
The force that trembled the world was taken to the excesses and made the mistakes of the extreme power.
Anything that grows beyond the limits designed by God must also fall. The great empire was invaded by a cloud of peoples originated from unknown regions up until then.
Together with the weapons, the celebrity of Cesar had taken the new ideas to the North and the peoples precipitated upon him like a torrent.
You then see those barbarian tribes invading the provinces where the Sun was better, the wine sweeter and the women more beautiful. Those tribes crossed the Gaul, the Alps and the Pyrenees establishing colonies everywhere and thus breaking down the body of the so-called Roman Empire.
It was only the genius of Cesar that was required to take his nation to the summit of power. That is the period of renovation when all people mix and fight one another, seeking other formations, other elements. During several centuries there was a lot of hatred, a lot of wars. How many crimes! How much blood!
Barbaret
The barbarian hand of Clovis should set the starting point of a new era for the people. He obeyed the customs and would not back up before anything in order to form a nation. He formed it with the sword and astuteness. He created a new element with the baptism and initiated his soldiers in a new belief. After him there was chaos and despite the idea, despite Christianity, there was still the need for Charles Martel, Pepin and later Charlemagne.
Cheers to this powerful figure, this energetic figure that like a new Cesar knows how to bring together all the peoples that were disperse, knows how to change ideas and organize what was chaos. Charlemagne is greatness in war, law, politics, and in the forthcoming morality, which should combine the people, giving them the intuition of conservation, unity and solidarity. The great principles that were the foundations of France come from him. Our sciences and our laws come from him. He was a reformer, marked by the Providence to become the link between Cesar and the future. He is also called The Great because he employed terrible means of execution in order to shape the union of barbarian peoples who would obey no one but the strong and powerful.
Barbaret
NOTE: Since this name was unknown the spirit was asked to provide some clarification about himself.
I lived in the time of Henry IV. I was simple among all others. Lost in this Paris where someone like me is so easily forgotten, someone who was just concerned with the study, feeding my own thoughts and forming my own ideas. I was poor and the daily labor gave me that ineffable joy called freedom. I used to copy books and created wonderful vignettes, prodigies of patience
and knowledge which were only enough to grant me the daily bread and water. Nevertheless I studied, loved my homeland and sought the true science. I liked history and wanted freedom to my beloved France. I wished I had the realization of every aspiration dreamed in my humility. Since then I am in a better world and God rewarded me for my abnegation giving me this peace of mind where there is no place for the obsessions of the body and I cherish my country, the whole world, our Earth, love and freedom.
I come here many times to see you and to listen to you. I like your works and take part in them with my whole heart. I want to see you happy and satisfied in the future. May you all be happy is what I wish. However you will not be if you do not get rid of the old outfit that since long ago dresses this whole world. I speak of selfishness. Study the past, the history of your country and you will learn more from the suffering of your fellow countrymen than from any other science.
To live is to know, to love and help one another. Go then and do according to your spirit. God sees you and judges you.
Barbaret
