If ye can be kept disputing and wrangling about church and meeting, ye just answer the purpose of every courtier, who lives the while on the spoils of the taxes, and laughs at your credulity.
In "Rights of Man," Paine warns that public disputes over religious differences serve the interests of corrupt courtiers who profit from division.
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The Aristocracy had hitherto opposed the despotism of the Court, and affected the language of patriotism; but it opposed it as its rival (as the English Barons opposed King John) and it now opposed the nation from the same motives.
A knowledge of the practice was then joined to the theory; and all that was wanting to give it real existence was opportunity.
They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom or their slavery.