Utopia

And they do this all the more in those nations where the laws called civil and pontifical have greater weight in both courts. Everyone sees that among their customs and institutions, this opinion has prevailed: that men who are prudent in cautions—or rather, in snares—and who are fowlers of unsuspecting citizens, and artisans of formulas (that is, of exceptions), and are most skilled in contractual law, and are the arrangers of lawsuits and of law that is twisted, perverted, and inverted, are considered the experts and high priests of justice and equity. They are considered the only ones worthy to respond on what is fair and good, and even (which is much greater) to decide with authority and power what each person should have and what they should not, and to what extent and for how long, at least in the judgment of that wandering common sense. Indeed, since most men are blinded by the thick scales of ignorance, we believe that each person has a cause that is almost as just as the law demands, or is supported by the law. Yet, if we wanted to measure laws by the standard of truth and the prescription of the Evangelical simplicity, there is no one so stupid who does not understand, no one so mindless who does not confess, if they were...