The Sacred and the Profane in Prayer — The Essays of Montaigne

Montaigne ventures on prayer under Church authority, submitting his thoughts to Catholic censure yet arguing Christians should use the Lord's Prayer far more often. God prescribed it word by word; it holds every necessary petition, and Montaigne repeats it alone in all places instead of changing forms. The Church may lengthen prayers, he grants, but the people's mouths should keep returning to that one.

He condemns calling God into unjust designs as if prayer were jargon that works by sound. Plato lists three injurious beliefs about the gods; justice and power are inseparable, so vain prayer offends both. The soul must be pure when we speak to Him, yet men invoke Him in vices, thieves at the door, and covetous prayers for riches. A cut-purse calling a magistrate and a liar swearing by God show the same absurd alliance.

He scorns those who cross themselves at Benedicite then spend the day in malice, giving one hour to God and the rest to the devil. Trades whose essence is vicious and a man who professed a damnable religion only to keep his post show prayer divorced from conscience. The Church rightly limits promiscuous Psalm use; scripture should not fill kitchens and halls. Vernacular translation spreads mysteries to mechanics; women and children now lecture elders on church law while Xenophon warned rare prayer needs calm souls. Emperor Andronicus threatened to drown courtiers who quarreled over theology, yet disputes still multiply. Marguerite's prince kneels in church on the way to an assignation, proving devotion can decorate vice rather than reform it.

Few dare publish their prayers; Horace's Laverna prayer asks to look just while cheating, and Oedipus was severely punished when his wicked prayer was granted. We seem to use prayer like sorcery, hoping remission from words while the soul stays concupiscent. Montaigne ends that neither gods nor good men accept gifts from the wicked unless repentance is real at the instant we address them, and that we should pray for prudence, not for every private wish. Even outsiders forbid God's name in common discourse, Montaigne says, and he thinks them right: every invocation should carry reverence, not habit.