"What, but the rapacity of the only men who exercised their reason, the priests, secured such vast property to the church, when a man gave his perishable substance to save himself from the dark torments of purgatory"
- Mary Wollstonecraft
About this Quote
This quote by Mary Wollstonecraft is a criticism of the Catholic Church and its priests. She is recommending that the priests used their power and impact to take advantage of individuals's fear of purgatory and convince them to give away their ownerships to the church. Wollstonecraft implies that the priests used their reason to control individuals into distributing their wealth, which enabled the church to collect large amounts of property. She is criticizing the priests for making the most of people's fear and using it to their own advantage. This quote is a reflection of Wollstonecraft's views on the Catholic Church and its practices, which she believed were overbearing and unfair.
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